'Maastigudi' director, producer, four others charged over actors' drowning

[email protected] (CD Network)
April 28, 2017

Bengaluru, Apr 28: Nearly six months after two stunt actors drowned in the Thippagondanahalli reservoir during the shooting of Kannada film ‘Maastigudi,’ police have formally charged the producer, director, stunt director and three others.

mastigudiThe jurisdictional Taver¬e¬k¬e¬re police filed a 400-page charge sheet before the Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC) court in Magadi, about 50 kilometres west of Bengaluru, earlier this week. The film is scheduled for release on Friday. Criminal negligence was found on the part of the film’s producer Sundar P Gowdru, director Nagshekar, stunt director Ravi Verma, assistant director Siddarth, unit manager Bharath and the pilot of the helicopter Prakash Biradar. The charge sheet has fixed culpability on each accused according to the roles and responsibilities assigned to them.

The charge sheet lists 78 witnesses, including several BWSSB officials who stated that the film’s crew violated the conditional permission given for the shoot, local residents who came to watch the shoot and rescue workers who fished out the bodies after a 48-hour search. The charge sheet states that the deceased actors — Anil Kumar (37) and Raghavendra Uday (31) — were bare-chested and didn’t wear any life jackets, while the lead actor, Duniya Vijay, had worn one, which saved him from drowning. Shortly before the shoot, the deceased actors had given interviews to news channels and expressed fears about their lack of expertise in swimming.

Kumar and Uday — known for portraying negative roles on-screen — had jumped off the helicopter along with Vijay from a height of about 60 feet on November 7, 2016. Moments later, the two actors began to drown in the 40-foot-deep lake but Vijay managed to swim to safety. A?motorboat kept on standby to deal with any emergency could not start because of a technical snag and failed to rescue the actors.

Vijay has been made a witness. The complainant in the case is the Assistant Executive Engineer of the TG Halli reservoir. The accused were booked under IPC 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) which attracts imprisonment up to 10 years. The accused were arrested but released on bail later. The investigating officer is Anil Kumar, police inspector from the district crime branch.

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News Network
June 4,2020

Mumbai, Jun 4: Casting director Krish Kapur, who had worked on films like Mahesh Bhatt's Jalebi and Kriti Kharbanda-starrer Veere Ki Wedding, passed away at the age of 28 due to brain hemorrhage, his family said.

There was speculation that Kapur died in a road accident but his maternal uncle, Sunil Bhalla, dismissed the reports, saying that the casting director fainted at his home in suburban Mira Road here and suffered brain hemorrhage.

According to Bhalla, Kapur breathed his last on May 31.

"He had no medical history. He was healthy and doing absolutely fine. On May 31, he just collapsed and started to bleed. He died of brain hemorrhage," Bhalla said on Wednesday.

Kapur is survived by his mother, wife and seven-year-old child.

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News Network
June 22,2020

New Delhi, Jun 22: Amidst a strain in the ties between India and Nepal, actor Manisha Koirala, a Nepali national, on Monday urged people of both the countries to be not "aggressive and disrespectful" towards each other.

Koirala, a leading Bollywood actor of her times, took to Twitter to request people to let the respective government resolve the issues and stay "civil."

"A heartfelt request please let's not be aggressive and disrespectful..we are in this situation together..our respective Gov's will resolve the issue. In the meantime we can be civil ..I remain hopeful," she tweeted.

Earlier last week, Nepal 's Upper House of Parliament endorsed a proposal to discuss the Constitution amendment bill to update the country's map that incorporates parts of Indian territory.

Nepal's House of Representatives had on June 10 endorsed a proposal seeking consideration of a constitution amendment bill for change of country's map after a lengthy discussion. Nepal has made offers to India to hold "diplomatic talks to resolve the territorial issue" between the two countries.

New Delhi has said that the updated map is "not based on historical facts and evidence" and termed the claims by Nepal as artificial enlargement.

External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Anurag Srivastava also said that the move is violative of the current understanding to hold talks on outstanding boundary issues.

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News Network
July 14,2020

Los Angeles, Jul 14: US officials on Monday found the body of "Glee" actress Naya Rivera in the Californian lake where she drowned last week during a boat trip with her four-year-old son.

Rivera's body was retrieved and an initial examination found no evidence of foul play or suicide, Ventura County Sheriff Bill Ayub told a press conference.

"We are confident the body we found is that of Naya Rivera," said Ayub, pointing to the location, appearance, clothing and condition of the body.

Her body was being taken to a medical examiner's office for a full autopsy and confirmation of her identity from dental records, though no other missing persons have been reported at Lake Piru, he added.

Rivera, 33, is believed to have accidentally drowned after renting the boat with her young son at the camping and recreational hotspot around an hour's drive northwest of Los Angeles.

She vanished on Wednesday afternoon, and a massive search involving divers, patrol boats and helicopters was launched after her sleeping son was spotted drifting alone in a boat on the lake.

The son later told investigators that Rivera had helped him into the boat before "he looked back and saw her disappear under the surface of the water," said the sheriff.

Ayub pointed to the lake's strong currents as a possible cause of a fatal accident.

"The idea perhaps being that the boat started drifting -- it was unanchored -- and that she mustered enough energy to get her son back onto the boat, but not enough to save herself," he said.

The lake has been closed to the public since Wednesday, with around 100 personnel, including the US Coast Guard and rescuers from neighboring counties, joining the search.

Search teams used footage from video messaging calls Rivera made from the boat before her disappearance, as well as interviews with her son, to scour portions of the lake bed for her remains over six days, with no success.

"We believe she was concealed within some of the shrubbery on the floor bed of the lake" before eventually floating to the surface due to natural decomposition, said Ayyub.

With less than one foot (30 centimeters) of visibility underwater in daylight, the recovery operation was a "complex search effort" even with use of sonar equipment, he said.

Rivera was best known for her role as high school cheerleader Santana Lopez in "Glee."

She starred for six seasons in the wildly popular musical television series set in a US high school that ended in 2015.

The "Glee" cast has been struck by tragedy before.

Actor Mark Salling took his own life in 2018, weeks before being sentenced for possession of child pornography.

Canadian castmate Cory Monteith died in July 2013 of an overdose of drugs and alcohol.

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