‘Religious radicalization’, extremism to dominate top cops meet

Koppal, Aug 3: The activists of Popular Front of India (PFI) have won the heart of the people by performing the last rites of a local leader of Bharatiya Janata Party in Koppla district of Karnataka. 

Somashekhara Gowda, a senior BJP leader in Koppal’s Gangavathi died of covid-19. His family members were reportedly quarantined. His own party activists also were not ready to participate in the last rite due to the fear of coronavirus infection.

Following requests, a team of PFI comprised of district secretary Fayaz, and members Yaseen, Abdul Aalam, Shamid Razi and Husain Azarauddin performed the last rites as per Veerashaiva Lingayat traditions. 

Speaking to media persons PFI district president Zaheer Abbas lamented that people still have plenty of misconceptions about covid-19. “Due to the misconceptions, performing the last rites of those who die of covid-19 has become a challenge,” he said.

He said that PFI activists followed all the health guidelines and took necessary precautions while performing the last rites. “Under the guidance of district health officials and with the consent of the family members of the deceased, the last rites were performed as per Veerashaiva Lingayat traditions,” he said.

Karwar, Aug 6: In a shocking incident, a 40-day-old girl child was murdered by her own parents in Sirsi town in Karnataka’s Uttara Kannada district.

The accused are Priyanka (21) and her husband Chandrashekhar Bhat (42), residents of Ramanakoppa in Sahasrahalli in Yellapur.

According to police, the couple did not want a girl child and hence threw it into a well. The couple was arrested by the police the very next day.

The incident came to light after the child’s maternal uncle, Abhishek Jagadeesh Singh Choudhari, a resident of Rajeev Nagar in Sirsi, lodge a complaint with Yellapur police station. 

He had claimed that his sister Priyanka’s baby had been kidnapped and subsequently killed. 

Priyanka had claimed that she woke up around 2.30am on August 2 to find that her baby, Tanushri, was not in her cradle. Her husband’s family subsequently started searching for the baby, which they found dead inside a well. 

Choudhari suspected that Tanushri had been kidnapped, and had been killed by her abductors to erase any evidence of their crime.

Uttara Kannada superintendent of police Shivaprakash Devaraju constituted a team to crack the crime, and the cops, who subjected the parents to an interrogation, found that they were the culprits.