Mohammed Shafi Armar from Bhatkal killed in US airstrike in Syria

Bengaluru/Ballari, Jan 7: Former minister BZ Zameer Ahmed Khan of the Congress set a one-week deadline for the BJP government on Monday to arrest Ballari City BJP legislator G Somashekhara Reddy for his recent speech warning Muslims of dire consequences if they continue to protest against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.

Police have already booked Reddy, younger brother of tainted mining baron G Janardhan Reddy, under section 153-A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion) of the Indian Penal Code.

However, Khan took the fight to Reddy a step further. “If the government fails to arrest Reddy by January 13, I will stage a dharna outside his house in Ballari, come what may. Let them do whatever they want,” Khan told reporters in Bengaluru.

In his speech at a pro-CAA rally organized by BJP workers and ABVP activists in Ballari, the BJP legislator had said, “We [Hindus] are 83% and they [Muslims] are 17% and if we take law into hands, you know what will happen.”

Khan said on Monday, “I challenge Reddy, the coward, to unsheathe his sword and cut me down first. It is absolutely shameful for a legislator to speak such things against a particular community. Why is Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who often says Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, silent?”

On his part, Reddy on Monday said he stood by what he said. “What I meant was you Muslims should not get swayed by CAA protests and damage public property. We [Hindus] are sons of the same mother and live peacefully. However, they [Muslims] should not test our [Hindu] patience. I stick by my words 100%,” he said.

A delegation of the Ballari district Congress unit also submitted an appeal to the deputy commissioner, inspector general of police and superintendent of police on Monday to arrest Reddy for his provocative speech.

Bengaluru, Jun 16: Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) chief DK Shivakumar's daughter Aishwarya and Cafe Coffe Day founder late VG Siddhartha's son, Amarthya Hegde got engaged at SM Krishna Residence, Sadashivanagar in Bengaluru on Monday.
Only family members were present in the event. Amarthya Hegde is also the grandson of former Union Minister SM Krishna.
Last year in July, the body of Cafe Coffee Day (CCD) founder Siddhartha was unearthed on the banks of Netravati river.

Bengaluru, June 24: City-based I Monetary Advisory (IMA), which duped thousands of families, mostly Muslims, in the name of halal investment, has become a bitter reality of "we were robbed by our own people". All the accused except its CEO Mohammad Mansoor Khan have been released on bail in this ponzi scam worth thousands of crores of rupees.

The scam has not only been investigated by SIT and CBI, but it has reverberated many times in the Assembly, corridors of power, and in the courts.

Around 80,000 investors are in trouble after the Monetary Advisory (IMA) scam came to light. Many investors have left this world, many families have split, many marriages have broken down and many have become unemployed, homeless, helpless and hapless. One of the senior IAS office, who had faced arrest in the scam, reportedly killed himself just a day ago.

It has been more than a year since this multi-billion scam came to light. But the affected families still do not see any ray of hope. The government, led by senior IAS officer Harsh Gupta, has set up a special competent authority to address investor grievances in the matter.

According to information provided by Harsh Gupta, investors have to be paid Rs 2,900 crore. But the value of the company's assets seized so far could be around Rs 450 crore. The process of auctioning the assets has not started yet. The authority has developed an online portal for submission of claim forms from investors. But the process of taking applications has not started yet. Syed Gulab, a social worker overseeing the case, says that after all the claim forms have been submitted, we will get a clear picture about the exact number of investors and the total amount of arrears. But this process may take a few more months to complete.

Senior journalist Maqbool Ahmed Siraj says that IMA has systematically deceived people in the name of halal investment through capital scheme. In 2006, Muhammad Mansoor Khan, a one-time small businessman, set up a company. He began to attract large number of investors by creating the greed for more profit among middle class and poor people.

By 2015, the company had received money from more than 12,000 investors and continued to pay monthly profits. By the time the company closed in 2019, 80,000 people had invested their hard-earned money here. In Bengaluru, the company expanded its reach by investing in two major gold showrooms, hospitals, schools, several medical stores, a publishing center, a supermarket, and real estate firm.

Mr Siraj says that Mansoor Khan and his team not only lured the poor and middle class to pursue their own interests but also created a favourable atmosphere for their so called business by winning the hearts of politicians, government officials, clerics, religious institutions and media.

Unsuspecting people invested their money in a bid to make more profit in less time. When the company stopped making profits and Mansoor Khan suddenly fled on June 9, 2019, the investors woke up the to the reality.

Apart from residents of Bengaluru and other parts of Karnataka, people from Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra other states also have invested their money.