Secure Nithyananda, Centre tells Karnataka

News Network
December 29, 2019

Bengaluru, Dec 28: The Centre has asked the Karnataka Government to secure with the help of the CBI or the Interpol the absconding godman Nithyananda involved in sexual scandals and facing complaints from parents of young girls in his ashrams.

The Godman recently fled the country following these complaints and has released a video claiming that he has bought an island near Ecuador and established a nation which he has named Kailasam.

Jhansi Rani from Tiruchi  and mother of a 24-year-old girl who died under mysterious circumstances in Nithyananda’s ashram in Bidadi in Karnataka in 2014 has received a copy of the Union Ministry’s letter to the Yediyurappa Government.

Disclosing the copy of the letter to local television channels, Jhansi Rani said her daughter died in the ashram in 2014 and the godman’s men told her that she died after a heart attack. She said that she got a re-postmortem examination done  and it showed her daughter had marks of injuries on her.

Jhansi Rani said that her daughter during a visit before her death gave her a pen drive which contained the sexual exploits of Nithyananda. Jhansi Rani alleged that she was threatened by his followers. But she represented to the Karnataka police and also impleaded herself in a spate of petitions filed in the Karnataka High Court, seeking a CBI enquiry.

She said she recently wrote to the Union Home Ministry to press the demand. The Ministry, which wrote to the State Government on her representation, has also sought status of cases pending against the godman in the high court.

Similar complaints have been made by parents of two sisters from after Gujarat who joined the godman’s ashram in Bidadi. .

The Ahmedabad Police on Saturday filed a status report in the Gujarat High Court on its investigation into the whereabouts of the godman following a habeas corpus petition filed by a former Bengaluru resident Janardhan Sharma who alleged his two daughters aged 22 and 18 were being held against their will in the Bidadi ashram.  The police failed to produce the girls in court.

Sharma said he and his wife Uma Maheshwari were not allowed to meet their daughters when they visited the godman’s ashram in Hirapur in Gujarat.

Sharma said their daughter joined the ashram in Bidadi and they were later brought to another ashram in Hirapur on the outskirts of Ahmedabad. He said her eldest daughter had accompanied Nithyananda in his visits abroad.

The Gujarat police talked to the girls. They said they had become sanyasins and they were not being held against their will. His younger daughter, however told police the Gujarat police that she had been brought up in the ashram for the past six years and she was now a major as she is 19.

When videos went viral that NIthyananda had bought an island near Trinadad and Tobago in the West Indies after denied asylum by Ecuador, the Indian Foreign Ministry clarified that his passport had expired and he had not renewed it. It did not explain how he managed to flee the country then. Reports said he fled the country via Nepal.

According to the website of Nithyananda, he has founded  a nation calling it Sri Kailasa in the island. It says Sri Kailasa is a “nation without borders created by dispossessed Hindus from around the world who lost the right to practice Hinduism authentically in their own countries”.

Nithyananda, a native of Tamil Nadu, fled the State after a video surfaced showing him in a compromising position with actress Ranjitha.

Comments

AJITH KUMAR
 - 
Monday, 30 Dec 2019

Bring him back to India ,punish him severly , disturbing the life of girls and parents. what kind of saadu he is.

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News Network
January 25,2020

Mangaluru, Jan 25: Orange vendor Harekala Hajabba, popularly known as 'Akshara Santha' (the saint of alphabets), who went on to build a school at Newpadpu village on the city’s outskirts in 1999 is among this year’s Padma Shri awardees.

When Hajabba received the call on being nominated for the award, he was standing in a queue to buy rations.

As he is not fluent in Hindi, Hajabba handed over the phone to an auto driver, who conveyed the news that the Padma Shri award will be conferred on him.

The unlettered achiever set up a primary school from his meagre savings of Rs 150 per day,  selling oranges in Mangaluru. 

“The first time I felt bad for being an illiterate was when a foreigner enquired about the price of oranges in English. I did not know what he meant. So, I decided to start a school in my village,” Hajabba had said during a felicitation programme.

When Hajabba decided to start a school, he did not get any support. He started the school with 28 children.

The school today has been upgraded to a composite high school and is catering to the educational needs of hundreds of children in and around Newpadpu.

He ran from pillar to post in the Zilla Panchayat to make his dream come true. All cash awards he had received went into building the school. The United Christians Association, moved by the sight of his dilapidated house, built a 760-square-foot house costing Rs 15 lakh for him. 

Hajabba’s life was prescribed for the syllabus of three universities - Davangere, Kuvempu and Mangalore. His success story is also included in a Tulu textbook.

He won the Karnataka Rajyotsava award in 2013, Real Heroes award from TV channel CNN-IBN.

Hajabba, when contacted, said he could not believe his ears when told about the award.

New dreams

The frail vendor, in his 60s, humbly declared that he could achieve all this because of the support of all. Hajabba now dreams of upgrading the school into a full-fledged PU college.

Comments

Meethal Kasaragod
 - 
Sunday, 26 Jan 2020

A big Salute to him!

Great effort,

fairman
 - 
Sunday, 26 Jan 2020

Where there is will, there is way

May God help him.

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News Network
May 23,2020

Bengaluru, May 23: It was a stampede-like situation near Palace Grounds in Bengaluru on Saturday afternoon. The incident took place after hundreds of migrants gathered and jostled to gain entry. The situation raises concerns as no social distancing norms were followed.

According to Chetan Singh Rathore, DCP Central, the reason behind the stampede-like situation was an en masse message. "What we heard was that an en masse message has been conveyed to the people of Manipur and Odisha that they would be able to go home on trains on Saturday. The message did not consider the capacity of the train which is only 1500 seating capacity for Manipur train and 1500 for Odisha train," he told media.

Singh further added, "But the people gathered were around 3000 in number for the Manipur train and 5000 for the Odisha train. Passengers with tickets and requisites were allowed to travel while others were asked to return home and wait for their turn to travel back home."

The state of Karnataka has eased lockdown restrictions across, allowing state transport services to run. Lately, the government has been running special Shramik trains from Karnataka to ferry migrant workers back to their hometowns.

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News Network
January 10,2020

Bengaluru, Jan 10: Education technology company Byju’s is learnt to have raised $200 million in a funding round from Tiger Global Management, which has valued the Bengaluru-based start-up at around $8 billion, making it the third-largest unicorn (start-up valued over $1 billion) in the country.

With this, the Byju Raveendran-founded company has seen over 50 per cent jump in its valuation in just around nine months. In March 2019, Byju’s was valued $5.4 billion, when it raised around $31 million from General Atlantic, and Chinese investment giant Tencent.

At the current valuation, Byju’s has now replaced home-grown cab-hailing major Ola as the third-largest unicorn, next only to Paytm and OYO, which are valued around $16 billion and $10 billion, respectively.

Byju’s confirmed the transaction through a press statement, though the company declined to share any specific details of the deal. Tiger Global could not be immediately reached for its comments.

“We are happy to partner with a strong investor like Tiger Global Management. They share our sense of purpose and this partnership will advance our long-term vision of creating an impact by changing the way students learn,” said Raveendran. “This partnership is both a validation of the impact created by us so far and a vote of confidence for our long-term vision.”

This is Tiger Global’s first investment in the edutech space in India after Vendantu, an online tutoring platform, where it, along with WestBridge Capital, led a $42-million round in August.

An early backer of India’s internet growth story, the New York-headquartered Tiger Global has been a prolific investor in the Indian start-up space. Its portfolio in the country ranges from consumer focused e-commerce companies that are vital for the growth of the sector, such as Flipkart, Delhivery, Grofers, Quikr and PolicyBazaar, to mention a few.

After tasting success with Flipkart, one of its earliest investments, where it had pumped in around $1 billion, the PE major is now doubling down its focus on the Indian start-up space, under its new investment head Scott Shleifer.

Shleifer, who set up international private equity practice for Tiger Global, is said to be as aggressive deal maker like his predecessor Lee Fixel, who left the investment firm in March. Since then, Tiger has also invested in a host of technology-focused companies in diverse sectors including Ninjacart, CRED, NoBroker and Facilio to mention a few.

“Byju’s has emerged as the leader in the Indian education-tech sector. They are pioneering technology shaping the future of learning for millions of school students in India,” Shleifer was quoted in the press statement issued by the edutech firm.

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