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Mangaluru: A 21-year-old woman was allegedly electrocuted in a village in Belthangady taluka in Dakshina Kannada district, police said on Friday. 

The deceased has been identified as Pratiksha Shetty, they said, adding that the incident happened in Shibaje village within the Dharmasthala police limits on Thursday evening.

According to police, the woman had stepped out of her house to collect a parcel when she was electrocuted. An insulator of an electricity wire had broken and fallen into the water-filled trench, resulting in Pratiksha’s electrocution. 

She was heading towards the main road, just 100 meters from her home, to collect an online parcel she had ordered. The trench, which becomes waterlogged during the monsoon, lay in her path. 

She was electrocuted on the spot. Her father, Ganesh Shetty, also received a shock while attempting to rescue her.

Pratiksha was a resident of Bargula hamlet in Shibaje village, a police official said. The body was handed over to the family after the post-mortem, the official added.

This is the second incident of electrocution this week. Earlier, two autorickshaw drivers had come into contact with a live cable in Pandeshwar in Mangaluru city on Tuesday and died, police said.

Bengaluru: Karnataka BJP on Thursday held "Cycle Jatha" here, as part of its state-wide protest against the Congress government's decision to hike petrol and diesel prices.

BJP workers and leaders led by its state President B Y Vijayendra sought to mark their protest by riding bicycles from the party's state office 'Jagannath Bhavan' to 'Vidhana Soudha'.

However, the police stopped the protesters mid-way, detained Vijayendra and others and whisked them away in a bus.

Former Deputy Chief Minister C N Ashwathnarayan and MLC C T Ravi were among the leaders who participated in the protest shouting slogans against the state government, which last week hiked sales tax on fuel making petrol and diesel costlier by Rs 3 and Rs 3.5 per litre, respectively.

Speaking to reporters, Vijayendra said BJP is holding protests across the state in all the district and talk centres by blocking roads, against the government's decision to increase the prices, and urged the Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to roll it back.

"In Bengaluru by organising Cycle Jatha, the party has tried to warn the state government, but this adamant government is not even thinking about rolling back price hike. The Chief Minister is citing higher prices in neighboring states, but our state is in distress, farmers are in distress due to drought, in such a situation the decision to put more burden on the common man is an unpardonable sin," he said.

"I urge the Chief Minister to rollback the hike immediately and no decision should be taken that causes burden to farmers and common man," Vijayendra said, noting that Ministers have also said that bus fare will also be hiked, and water tariffs increased in Bengaluru in the future.

"This government has become a curse to the people of the state," he added.

Reacting to Home Minister G Parameshwara's reported indirect caution to the BJP that the police may resort to caning to disperse anyone who tries to cause inconvenience to the public in the name of protests, the state BJP chief called it "height of foolishness."

"BJP and its workers will not fear for lathis and will raise their voice for the sake of people and farmers of the state. The Home Minister is speaking out of arrogance of power, we will not fear such things, our fight will continue until the government withdraws its decision," he said.

Similar protests have been reported from Belagavi, Mysuru, Mandya, Shivamogga, Hubballi and Haveri among other places. Belagavi MP Jagadish Shettar and Haveri MP Basavaraj Bommai, both former Chief Ministers, too participated in protests in Belagavi and Davangere, respectively.

Bengaluru: Kannada actor Darshan Thoogudeepa, who has been arrested in the Renukaswamy murder case, has confessed to have given Rs 30 lakh to another accused Pradosh for the disposal of the body and to ensure that "his name does not come out anywhere," police have claimed.

The amount has been recovered from Pradosh's residence, police sources said.

"Darshan, who is accused number 2 (A2) in the case, has in his voluntary statement to police said that he had given Rs 30 lakh to Pradosh (A14) to dispose of the body, and for the expenditure that would cost...for persons to carry out this task, and to ensure that his name doesn't come out anywhere," a police official said.

A total 17 people, including Darshan and his “friend” Pavithra Gowda, are accused in the murder case.

According to police sources, Renukaswamy, a fan of the actor, had sent obscene messages to Gowda, which enraged Darshan, allegedly leading to his murder. His body was found near a storm-water drain next to an apartment in Sumanahalli here on June 9.

"From the spot of the crime, things such as lathi and wooden logs used for the alleged assault have been recovered along with water bottle, blood stains and material evidence, and DVR containing the CCTV footage," the official said, adding, "blood stains were also found on the vehicle allegedly used for disposing of the body." 

According to the autopsy report, Renukaswamy's death was caused due to shock and haemorrhage as a result of multiple blunt injuries he sustained. "Viscera samples have been sent to the Forensic Science Laboratory for further analysis," he said.

According to sources, one of the accused, Raghavendra, who is part of Darshan’s fan club in Chitradurga, had brought Renukaswamy to a shed in R R Nagar here, on the pretext that Darshan wanted to meet him. It was in this shed that he was allegedly tortured and killed.

The investigation team is believed to have gathered enough evidence, including CCTV footage, which could establish that Darshan was present during the alleged assault on Renukaswamy, leading to his death, sources said.