Astrologer hailing from Mangalore held for polygamy

[email protected] (CD Network)
February 9, 2011

astrolo

Mangalore, February 9: Belief in superstition cost several women dearly when they befriended a pavement astrologer with a flair for marriage and race horses. The police arrested Nityananda Shatri (40) after Vijaya Saraswati, a devotee from the city lost Rs. 20 lakh in cash and 50 grams of gold by falling for the charms of the fake astrologer in Bangalore. The police were aghast when they realised that they had just stumbled upon the tip of the iceberg and much more lay hidden below the surface.

Shatri fooled five women into marriage by giving them imitation jewellery and posing as an astrologer. He also extracted money from others for expensive puja ceremonies to solve their problems. Shatri, an electrician from Mangalore went to Bangalore in 1998 in search of a job. After several failed attempts to make an honest living; he befriended Rangaraj, a pavement astrologer and decided to take up astrology. After learning the trade he extracted vast amounts of money from unsuspecting victims to conduct pujas, but instead he used it to bet on race horses.


Shatri targeted women, and to impress them he gifted dresses and imitation jewellery. Though he was already married to Komala of Kasaragodu in 2001, he made no attempt to hide his intentions of marrying his devotees.

In 2001, Shatri married Jayalakshmi in Ullal who was already married to another man. However, in 2003 she dumped him and was reunited with her first husband. In 2006, he married Pavithra in Mysore by posing as an astrologer, but she realised his real intentions and returned to her hometown after dumping him, following which in 2007 he married Vasanthi in Mangalore.


At Gangammanagudi, Shatri conned Vijaya Saraswati into giving him Rs. 20 lakh and 50 grams of gold in 2009. He took the money and went to Mangalore where he met Shakeela and using the same ruse, married her.

In his confession, Shatri said he has cheated more than a hundred people across the state and has houses in Bangalore and Mangalore.

Police investigating the case are confused about where to begin. When they visited the homes of his many wives, they told the police that they were unaware of his polygamous lifestyle. Police continue to get complaints on a daily basis against Shatri, and though at present they have 26 complaints lodged, they expect it to cross 100 once the report is published.

Investigating Officer BG Ratnakar, PI of Chamarajpet said, "We have been investigating for the last one month and are still getting interesting facts each day. He cheated over 100 people of over Rs. 50 lakh. He doesn't have money now because he lost all the money on race horses and other games."


In Chamrajpet, Nityanand duped Madhusudan of Rs. 3.45 lakh, in Mysore he duped Jagadish Rs. 1.10 lakh and Paduvarahalli Shivanna Rs. 9 lakh, in Basaveshwaranagar duped Rs. 2.5 lakh. He took gold ornaments in the name of religious ceremonies amounting to over Rs. 4 lakh.


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News Network
January 4,2020

Mangalore, Jan 4: Writer-Researcher Dr Indira Heggade has been elected as the president of Mangaluru Taluk Sahitya Sammelan, which will be held on January 29 at St Agnes College in the City.

Dr Indira Heggade has brought out three stories, four novels and one poetry. She co-wrote 'Guttininda Sainika Jagattige' with SR Heggade.

Also, she translated 'Bantaru Vandu Samajo Samskrutika Adhyana' into English.

She is the recipient of various award given by literary and cultural organisations of Karnataka, including Janapada Academy Award, and Rani Abbakka Award.

Indira Heggade, along with receiving several awards in foreign nations, honoured with Sahitya Academy Award, Kamana Rangaswamy Dattinidhi Awards.

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News Network
March 25,2020

Bengaluru, Mar 25: The COVID-19 count in Karnataka went up by 10 on Wednesday, reaching 51. The 10 new positives included two girls aged seven and nine who contracted the infection from their father.

The 34-year-old man had returned from Amsterdam on March 19 and tested positive as the 17th confirmed case in Karnataka.

Though his family were kept in isolation and under quarantine in their house, the children developed a cold. They were confirmed for COVID-19 infection while their mother is still negative.

The government remained tightlipped over whether or not a 70-year-old woman from Gouribidanuru who was put under house quarantine and died on Wednesday morning, tested positive for COVID-19. Government officials would neither confirm nor deny anything on the results of tests on the woman.

This evening’s bulletin issued by the Karnataka health department continued to indicate the strong correlation of coronavirus infection and foreign travel.

Among the positive cases identified today were

A 63-year-old Bengaluru man and his 59-year-old wife, with a history of travel to Brazil and Argentina.
Two 26-year-old men with a history of travel to Spain and arrived back in Bengaluru via Dubai.
Two others, a 63-year-old woman and her 69-year-old husband, had a history of travel to Athens and London.
A 34-year-old man, a resident of Udupi, who returned from Dubai
A 37-year old woman, a resident of Chitradurga, with a history of travel to Guyana and arrived back in Bengaluru via Delhi
Speaking to the media, medical education minister K Sudhakar said health officials were apprehensive the positives may go up tonight.

Of the corona positive cases detected in Karnataka so far, three have been discharged after quarantine, and 47 patients are in isolation at designated hospitals in a stable condition. There has been one fatality.

As per a recommendation by the high-level health committee, the government has decided to convert the Bowring Hospital into a coronavirus treatment hospital facility along with the Rajiv Gandhi Hospital for Chest Diseases and Victoria Hospital. 

“The number of positive cases are growing at an alarming rate and the government needs more treatment facilities. The government is for burning of COVID-19 death cases. However, due to some religious practices, it has been decided they would be buried in 8 ft deep pits,'' Dr Sudhakar said.

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News Network
March 5,2020

Bengaluru, Mar 5: The Karnataka government has constituted a competent authority for I Monetary Advisory (IMA) cases under the KPIDFE (Karnataka Protection of Interest of Depositors in Financial Establishments) Act, 2004, which is required to call claims from erstwhile depositors of the IMA group of entities under the provisions of the Act, said Harsh Gupta, Special Officer and Competent Authority for IMA cases.

In order to ensure transparency and to avoid harassment to the claimants, an online application software has been developed for accepting claims from the depositors, Gupta stated.

"The claim application can be filed from any of Banglore-1, Karnataka-1 and Seva-Sindhu Kendras of the state government in person or through online. The required documents can be submitted using e-attestation along with claims or at a later date, but prior to the claim settlement. The details of authorities for e-attestation will be informed later," the official stated.

The claimants will have to provide Aadhaar authentication based identification or identification by the designated officer based on alternate documents; current mobile number and address among others.

The details of the draft claim filing process has been put for public feedback on website 'imaclaims.karnataka.gov.in'. The depositors can give their feedback on the website, WhatsApp number or email, Gupta stated.

Based on feedback received from the depositors, the claim process and the claim application software will be finalised, the official said and further informed that the start date for acceptance of claims will be informed through wide publicity at a later date.

"There will be a total time period of 30 days for submission of the claims from the start date of acceptance of claims," Gupta said.

An SIT was investigating the multi-crore IMA Jewels case, where the firm had allegedly cheated a large number of investors after promising them impressive returns on their deposits. The SIT has already arrested several government officials and questioned others including politicians in the matter.

The prime accused and Managing Director of IMA Mohammed Mansoor Khan, who had fled the country after several complaints were registered against him in connection with the scam, has also been arrested.

The state government had constituted an SIT to probe the scam when it first came to light in June earlier this year when more than 4,000 investors trooped outside the showroom after an audio clip purportedly recorded by Khan went viral.

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