'Save Sabarimala' Rath Yatra flagged off by Yeddyurappa

Kalaburagi, May 16: Former Karnataka Minister Dr Sharanprakash Patil, who was booked for violating COVID-19 imposed lockdown guidelines said on Friday that it was "politically motivated".

"It's politically motivated, the officer who filed the case was forced by MLA or some other people. As elected representatives, we're going in the constituencies, listening to people as they're apprehensive about the return of migrants. We had not conducted any meeting. Wherever we have gone we have followed social distancing," Patil said.

Patil said, "When I had gone there people came to discuss about a local problem and I was talking to an official concerned. In the meantime, some officer gave a complaint that we have violated the lockdown or something."

"They are trying to curb the voice of opposition because there are a lot of lacunae. We hear complaints about quarantine centres that there is no proper facility for food, or stay, or bathrooms," the Congress leader said.

The FIR was registered on Thursday against 23 persons, including the former MLA and 21 local Congress leaders, under Section 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by a public servant) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

Congress leader Patil and his followers had conducted a meeting at a convention hall in Sulpeth town on May 13, following which sectoral magistrate Muneer Ahmed lodged a complaint.

Bengaluru, Apr 21: Karnataka cabinet on Monday decided to continue the COVID-19 lockdown measures currently in force in the state till May 3 without any relaxation, Law and Parliamentary Affairs minister J C Madhuswamy said.

However, leaving a window open, it authorised chief minister B S Yediyurappa and the COVID-19 Task Force to meet in three or four days to review and take further decision about any relaxation, he told reporters.

"Today cabinet has decided it (the norms) will be extended up to May 3... there will be no relaxation and the situation that that exists as of today will continue," he said.

Pending the cabinet decision, chief secretary T M Vijay Bhaskar had on Sunday issued fresh orders directing the continuation of the stringent lockdown measures issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs till the midnight of April 21.

Meanwhile, five new coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Karnataka, taking the total number of infections in the state to 395, the Health department said on Monday.

"Five new positive cases have been reported from last evening to this noon... Till date 395 COVID-19 positive cases have been confirmed. This includes 16 deaths and 111 discharges," the department said in its mid-day situation update.

All the five fresh cases are from Kalaburagi and contacts of patients who have already tested positive.

Four of them are men of age 17, 13, 50 and 19, and one woman aged 30.

Bengaluru, Jun 11: A love triangle took a violent turn when a final-year engineering student was assaulted by both her current and former lovers. She's now battling for her life in the ICU, police said. 

For the 22-year-old woman, who lives in Sidedahalli, it was a case of fast-changing relationships. She broke up with a fellow student Babith, 21, a few months ago after having dated him for four years. Four months ago, she started seeing another collegemate named Rahul, 22, and everything seemed fine. 

On June 7, she went to Rahul's house, ostensibly for his birthday party, after informing her parents. Babith got wind of it and barged into Rahul's house. The trio got into an argument, and Rahul abused and assaulted her. 

The woman decided to leave him, and went with Babith to his house in Chikkabanavara, North Bengaluru. But things didn't end there. Babith picked an argument with her. Things became so bad that he attacked her with a helmet. 

He then panicked and called her parents, asking them to take her home. When her parents arrived, they found only Babith, his mother and sister in the house. Babith's family directed them to a bedroom where she was lying motionless, with her face being badly wounded. 

When her parents demanded to know what had happened, nobody responded. They took her to a hospital where her condition remains serious. A while later, Babith came to the hospital and gave her parents the key of her scooter. He told them what had happened and allegedly warned them against filing a police complaint. 

Her mother, however, filed a complaint with the jurisdictional Soladevanahalli police. According to her, Babith had fought with her daughter at their house for not taking his phone calls six months ago. 

Shashikumar N, Deputy Commissioner of Police (North), said both the men had been arrested and that further investigations are underway.