Satish Acharya accuses Mumbai police of forcing him to remove Pawar cartoon

[email protected] (CD Network)
October 8, 2011

Mangalore, October 8: A Kundapur based cartoonist has claimed that he was forced to remove a cartoon satirising Nationalist Congress Party Chief Sharad Pawar from his blog by the Cyber Cell of Mumbai police.

Satish Acharya's controversial cartoon had first appeared in Mid Day tabloid on September 5, in the wake of asset declaration of Union ministers.

In his typical way, Mr Acharya had satirised the Maharashtra politician's declaration of wealth at just Rs 12 crore, by depicting him as a pole dancer, teasing the audience with a red dress that reveals Rs 12 crore written over his calf.

Pawar, who heads the Nationalist Congress Party, is believed to be far wealthier than his mandatory official declaration suggests. He is also a cricket administrator. Pawar and his family have been linked to major scandals, including those relating to Adarsh Housing Society, Lavasa, and 2G spectrum allocation.

satish

The controversial cartoon

Although, no objections were raised when the cartoon was published in the daily tabloid, Mr Acharya, said that he received a call from a senior police inspector, after he posted the cartoon on his blog.

Acharya said that Inspector Mukund Pawar of Cyber Cell of Mumbai police called from his cell phone on September 21, initially wanted him to visit the crime branch office in Mumbai for “violating cyber law”.

"He said that a person by the name of Abdul Rehman Anjaria, chairman of the advisory council of Delhi's Jama Masjid had sought for removal of the cartoon from his blog”, Acharya said adding that same Anjaria had registered his comment on the blog by asking him to apologise and have the cartoon removed.

“The inspector talked about Section 69 of the IT Act. Since I wasn't aware of the details of the act, I consulted my journalist-friends. They suggested I remove the cartoon as the police could ask me to visit their office in Mumbai every now and then”, he said.

However, he said that he wanted to republish the same cartoon once he got more information about the IT Act. “Once the police had the cartoon taken off, they were satisfied. Meanwhile I shared this bitter experience with my friends on Facebook and Twitter. I was overwhelmed with the response I received there”, he said.

On the other hand, Inspector Pawar has denied that he or his officers called Acharya for removing the 'obscene' cartoon.

The development comes in the sideline of the arrest of Harish Yadav by Madhya Pradesh police for featuring a cartoon lampooning Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, which had recently appeared in a leading Indore based eveninger.

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News Network
June 5,2020

Bengaluru, Jun 5: A COVID-19 patient, who was admitted to Victoria hospital, has recovered from the disease after he was administered convalescent plasma therapy.

He is the second patient in the state who has recovered from COVID-19 after the therapy.

"I am happy to inform the second plasma therapy patient has recovered and shifted out of ICU. This middle-aged patient was admitted in Victoria hospital ICU with severe COVID-19 illness and was also diabetic with poor sugar control," Dr Vishal Rao, HCG Hospital Bengaluru said.

"The patient received convalescent plasma on May 27, since then there was steady improvement in patient's condition and was taken off high flow nasal oxygen on June 2, 2020, and is at present on a minimal oxygen, shifted toward yesterday. With the rapid recovery we hope to discharge the patient soon," he said.

Speaking further, Rao said: "This is a significant improvement and reassuring. We hope to see him recover completely and will closely monitor the condition going forward to send the patient from ward to home."

In Karnataka, 4,320 coronavirus cases have been reported including 1,610 cured/discharged/migrated and 57 deaths, according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. 

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News Network
January 2,2020

Bengaluru, Jan 2: Accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of "neglecting" Karnataka ahead of his visit on Thursday, the state Congress questioned why he did not give adequate relief and pay a visit to the state, when most of its parts were affected by severe floods last year.

Modi will begin his two-day visit to the state on Thursday afternoon.

The Congress' Karnataka unit in a series of tweets also questioned the Prime Minister about not conferring the "Bharat Ratna" on Shivakumara Swamiji of Siddaganga Math, who passed away last year at the age of 111 years.

"Why you did not visit the state, when it was affected by floods? Despite the damage of over Rs 1 lakh crore why you did not declare it as a national disaster? Why you did not give interim relief? When the state government has given a report that the damage caused was to the tune of Rs 35,300 crore why did you sit quiet by giving just Rs 1,200 crore," the state Congress tweeted.

As many as 103 taluks in 22 districts of Karnataka were affected due to unprecedented floods in August, in which over 80 people were killed.

Around seven lakh people were shifted to safe areas during the deluge and thousands of houses were damaged.

In October, various parts of the state faced a deluge for the second time in two months, killing over 13 people and damaging thousands of houses.

Asking as to why the Centre was not giving the state's share of GST amount adequately, the Congress questioned as to why dues under MNREGA programme were not paid so far, and why Karnataka was being neglected while allocating grants.

Questioning Modi as to why he did not visit Tumakuru when Shivakumara Swamiji of Siddaganga Math passed away, the principal opposition party in the state Assembly, also sought to know why the seer was not conferred with the Bharat Ratna yet.

It also pointed out that former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had written a letter in this regard in January 2018.

The Congress has also hit out at the BJP-led Central government over imposition of Hindi language by neglecting regional languages and mother tongue.

The Prime Minister will kickstart his visit to the state by paying tributes to the late pontiff's 'Gadduge' (final resting place) at the Math premises near Tumakuru.

Later, he will attend an event organised to give away Krishi Karman awards and to distribute fishing equipment at the government college ground in Tumakuru, before leaving for Bengaluru where he will be attending a DRDO event.

On Friday he will be inaugurating 107th Indian Science Congress here.

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coastaldigest.com news network
June 10,2020

Udupli, Jun 10: A promising Kabaddi player and young businessman allegedly committed suicide inside his father’s boat today at Malpe fishing port as he had suffered heavy loss in business due to covid lockdown. 

The deceased has been identified as Bhagyaraj (27), a resident of Pavanjigudde in Badanidiyoor, Bailakere. He was working as writer for two boats owned by his father. He was a well-known Kabaddi player in Udupi district. 

It is said that he had raised a huge loan to build a house and also acquired a fishing boat. However, he suffered heavy losses in business due to lockdown. Fish famine added to his woes. 

Upset by these developments, Bhagyaraj hanged himself inside his boat that was anchored at the port. A case was registered at Malpe police station. Investigations are on.

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