Ready for any investigation; let the truth prevail: Mohan Alva

Bengaluru, Apr 21: Bengaluru Police and administration has issued prohibitory orders in the city, with exemptions to essential and emergency services, to enforce the COVID-19 lockdown.

"In exercise of the powers conferred under Section 144 (1) Code of Criminal Procedure, I, Bhaskar Rao, IPS, Commissioner of Police and Additional District Magistrate, Bengaluru city hereby issue a prohibitory order within the limits of Bengaluru city commissioner on midnight of April 20, 2020, to midnight May 3, 2020," the order issued on Monday said.

Section 144 of the CrPC pertains to the power conferred to a District Magistrate, a sub-divisional Magistrate or any other Executive Magistrate to issue orders in urgent cases of a nuisance of apprehended danger.

"As per the guidelines of the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India on the measures for containment of COVID-19 epidemic, it is imperative to take stringent measures in the jurisdiction of Commissioner of Bengaluru city to prevent the spread of the disease," the order said.

As per the order, the offices of the Government of India, its autonomous and subordinate offices and public corporations shall remain closed with the exception of defence, central armed police force, treasury, public utilities, disaster management, power generation, and post office, etc.

Offices to the state government, their autonomous bodies, corporation, etc shall also remain closed except police, home guard, civil defence, fire and emergency services, electricity, water, sanitation and Mandis operated by Agriculture Produce Market Committee, etc, it added.

It said that municipal bodies, with staff required for essential services, will also remain functional during this period. Other essential and emergency services, like hospitals, shops, etc have also been exempted from the prohibitory orders.

Bengaluru, Jan 19: The long-awaited discussions on cabinet expansion finally took place between BJP national president Amit Shah and the state party unit on Saturday, but they produced no result.

Latest indications are that new members will be appointed only after CM BS Yediyurappa returns from Davos, Switzerland, on January 25.

The party held a close-door party meeting at a top hotel in Hubballi. The subject of expanding the cabinet, which currently has 16 vacancies, featured in the talks.

Earlier, Yediyurappa reportedly had a one-on-one with Shah during their 45-minute flight from Bengaluru to Hubballi. He is said to have insisted on accommodating all 11 newly MLAs in the cabinet. These legislators were earlier a part of Congress and JD(S); they contested the December byelections on BJP tickets and won.

This apart, BJP sources said, Yediyurappa and Shah had a brief chat at a private event at Palace Grounds . Separately, Shah, who is the Union home minister, held meetings with Jagadish Shettar, Laxman Savadi and Prahlad Joshi, seeking their views on cabinet expansion.

Shah also wanted to get an idea of what people think about the Yediyurappa government’s performance.

Newly elected MLAs Ramesh Jarkiholi, BC Patil and Srimanth Patil greeted Shah. “We only met him to wish him; we didn’t discuss the cabinet issue. That’s something state BJP members will do,” said Hirekerur legislator BC Patil.

Saturday’s deliberations fail to break the stalemate over the cabinet appointments. There are clear differences in the camp about whether all Congress-JD(S) defectors should be made cabinet members, according to a senior minister attended one such meeting.

Shah reportedly wants only seven to eight newly elected MLAs to be made ministers; the rest of the spots should go to BJP loyalists. Yediyurappa disagrees with this position as he had promised all 13 turncoats places in the cabinet. Two lost in the bypolls.

Shah has now asked Yediyurappa to visit Delhi after returning from Davos to finalise the composition of the cabinet, according to the sources.

Yediyurappa will leave for Davos early on Sunday, while Shah will fly directly to Delhi from Hubballi.

Mangaluru, Feb 18: Notorious serial killer 'Cyanide' Mohan has been sentenced to life imprisonment by a court here for the murder of a 23-year old woman from Kasaragod district of Kerala in 2006.

That was the 19th of the 20 murder cases slapped against him.

Sixth additional district and sessions court judge Sayeedunnisa  said the life sentence will commence after he serves the sentence of imprisonment in the other cases.

Cyanide Mohan had 20 murder cases registered against him. He is accused of killed several women using cyanide after befriending and raping them.

He has been awarded the death sentence in five cases and life imprisonment in three. Two of the death penalties were later commuted to life imprisonment.

According to the charge sheet in the latest case, Mohan met the woman while she was going to work at a unit of CAMPCO here. After befriending and offering to marry her, on January 3 in 2006, he took her to Mysuru and stayed in a lodge near the bus stand.

Like in all other cases, the next morning, Mohan asked the woman to remove her ornaments. The two went to the KSRTC bus stand where he asked her to consume a pill convincing her that it was a contraceptive. However, it was laced with cyanide.

The woman, who consumed the pill in the washroom, collapsed and was declared brought dead at a hospital.

As in previous cases, Mohan went back to the lodge and left the place along with her ornaments.

He was arrested later from Bantwal in 2009, after which he admitted to killing 20 women.

The judge directed the District Legal Service Authority to take steps to award compensation to the woman's mother under the Karnataka victim compensation scheme.