Muthalik, 24 others acquitted in 2009 Mangaluru pub attack case for want of evidence

coastaldigest.com news network
March 12, 2018

Mangaluru, Mar 12: In what can be termed as a setback for the victims of 2009 Mangaluru pub attack, which had tarnished the image of the coastal city internally, a local court has acquitted 25 of the 30 accused in the case due to lack of evidence.

The activists of Sri Ram Sena celebrated victory on Monday in the city after the Third JMFC Court Judge Manjunath pronounced the much awaited verdict. “I am happy. The truth has prevailed,” responded Pramod Muthalik, the chief of Sri Ram Sena, who was also acquitted from the case.

Around 30 accused had faced trail in the case. While two of the remaining five accused are dead, trial is pending against the other three who have left the country. Advocates Asha Nayak and Vinod had argued on their behalf. 27 persons had testified as witnesses in the case.

On 24 January 2009, around three dozens of miscreants, said to be activists of Sri Ram Sena barged into the pub ‘Amnesia – The Lounge’ in the heart of the city and beat up a group of young women and men, claiming the women were violating traditional Indian values.

Two of the women were hospitalised. The video of the incident has become one of the most watched clips on YouTube, though how the TV crew happened to be ready at the 'unannounced' attack is not known.

Comments

samir
 - 
Tuesday, 13 Mar 2018

Andhi nagri kana raja ... Respect to the judge ! 7 topo kee salami diya jaye 

rashiq
 - 
Monday, 12 Mar 2018

Dear Suresh

 

Its not only deaf & dumb, its also Blind.

Suresh Kalladka
 - 
Monday, 12 Mar 2018

Judiciary acting like deaf and dumb..! How they want proof?

Mohan
 - 
Monday, 12 Mar 2018

Court giving permission indirectly to do such goondaism more

Hari
 - 
Monday, 12 Mar 2018

Strange.. Total injustice

Kumar
 - 
Monday, 12 Mar 2018

This verdict made more shame to us than the incident..

Sonakshi
 - 
Monday, 12 Mar 2018

What the F… Never expected this. Judge saab plz save the respect of judiciary.

Ganesh
 - 
Monday, 12 Mar 2018

WTF.. Many images and videos are there.. still want evidences..!

Canute D’Souza
 - 
Monday, 12 Mar 2018

What a judgement!! That means the incident never took place, according to the judge!!

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News Network
July 23,2020

Bengaluru, Jul 23: Karnataka on Thursday recorded a biggest single-day surge of over 5,000 cases and 97 related fatalities, taking the total number of people who tested positive for the virus to 80,863, the health department said. 

The day also saw a record 2,071 patients getting discharged after recovery.

Out of 5,030 fresh cases reported, a whopping 2,207 cases were from Bengaluru urban alone.

As of July 23 evening, cumulatively 80,863 Covid-19 positive cases have been confirmed in the state, which includes 1,616 deaths and 29,310 discharges, the health department said in its bulletin.

It said, out of 49,931 active cases, 49,291 patients are in isolation at designated hospitals and are stable, while 640 are in ICU. Out of the 97 deaths reported on Thursday 48 are from Bengaluru urban, followed by Mysuru 8, Dakshina Kannada 7 and others.

Most of the dead are either with a history of Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI) or Influenza-like illness (ILI).

Among the districts where the new cases were reported, Bengaluru urban accounts for 2,207, followed by Raichur 258, Kalaburagi 229, Dakshina Kannada 218, and others.

Bengaluru urban district tops the list of positive cases, with a total of 39,200 infections, followed by Dakshina Kannada 4,209 and Kalaburagi 3,370. 

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News Network
March 4,2020

Bengaluru, Mar 4: The Karnataka High Court has issued a notice to the state government in connection with the denial of retirement benefits to a retired deputy commissioner of commercial taxes who had fought against the illegal iron ore lobby.

Justice G Narendra also directed the state to respond to the notice before March 9, stating the reasons for withholding the officer’s retirement benefits.

Advocate Ramananda, appearing for the retired officer Josephat Andrews, explained that the single-judge bench also warned the government of stringent action.

Petitioner Josephat Andrews said his retirement benefits amounting to Rs 25.88 lakh were being withheld since 2014.

In 2009, Andrews detected a huge scam involving Vijaya Leasing, a company associated with former minister Gali Janardhan Reddy. Immediately he wrote to his higher officials explaining to them how the department was owed Rs 1,400 crore in taxes by the company. Immediately after that, Andrews was transferred to Bengaluru.

The media exposed the scam in 2012. Thereafter, to harass the officer, Andrews was served notice for allegedly not conducting an inspection of M/s Vijaya Leasing, which was controlled by the family of then tourism minister Gali Janardhana Reddy, on July 11, 2012.  He was discharged by a full departmental enquiry.

The petitioner was issued a second show cause notice on Jan 29, 2014 on the same charges. Before his retirement, he was docked two increments, denied promotional benefits and his pension was reduced without following due process.

He was served yet another notice with charges that he did not inspect goods vehicles, and an order was passed on April 30, 2019 reducing his pension by 5 per cent, an unprecedented punitive action.

This order was quashed by the Karnataka Administrative Tribunal (KAT), which also ordered payment of retirement benefits to Andrews within five months. However, the benefits were not released to him.  

“Rule 214 of the Karnataka Civil Services Rules (KCSR) make it clear that no enquiry can be held four years after an officer’s retirement.  Belying all statutory rules and precedents of the Supreme Court, Josephat Andrews’ retirement benefits were withheld for five years. Andrews therefore approached the High Court,” advocate Ramananda explained.

Josephat Andrews recalled to Deccan Chronicle that although mining activity was in full swing in 2008, the commercial tax department maintained that it had nothing to do with mining. “I travelled to Gujarat, Maharashtra and Bellary to investigate. I found tax evasion of thousands of crores. When I visited M/s the Vijaya Leasing facility – it was operating from an old oil mill premises–within 20 minutes I got calls from Ali, a person claiming to be the personal assistant of Gali Janardhan Reddy. He told me to get out of the premises as it belonged to his boss. Then calls came from minister Sreeramulu and MLA Nagendra. 

Within minutes 200-300 rowdies gathered around the building and my superior asked me to come back. Instead of filing a police complaint and forming a special team to deal with the situation, the department transferred me to Bengaluru,” he explained.

Talking about the High Court directive, Josephat Andrews said, “I have suffered a lot. Instead of getting a reward for increasing revenues by Rs 2,000 crore, I was punished.”

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News Network
July 27,2020

Bengaluru, Jul 27: The Karnataka government on Sunday directed the Director General of Police Praveen Sood to submit a detailed report on the internal security following the United Nations' observation that international terror outfit IS was active in the state.

The UN report stated that Al-Qaeda in the Indian subcontinent, which reportedly has between 150 and 200 members from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Myanmar, was reportedly planning attacks in the region.

It also warned that there were 'significant numbers' of ISIS operatives in Karnataka and Kerala. Reacting to the UN report, Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai said the state government has taken a serious note of the report on the activities of IS in the state.

The state government is in touch with the Centre and the neighbouring states to keep a close watch on the activities of suspicious people and their supporters.

"In this context, it has been decided to strengthen the internal security of the state. The Director General of Police has been asked to submit a detailed report," Bommai said in a release.

The state is also keeping a strict vigil on all those entering Bengaluru from other states, the Minister said. He recalled that the state police had arrested several members of Al-Hind organisation in January last and Jamaat- ul-Mujahideen from Bangladesh in 2018 and 2019. He added that the National Investigation Agency is investigating the case of JMB.

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