Finalise Karnataka poll candidates by November end: Siddaramaiah to Congress top brass

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: Police detained over 10 people, including state BJP chief B Y Vijayendra and leader of the opposition in the assembly, R Ashoka, for attempting to lay siege to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah's official residence on Kumar Krupa Road in central Bengaluru on Wednesday.

Led by Vijayendra and Ashoka, over 10 people attempted to stage a protest in front of the Guest House, just beside the CM's official residence, against the alleged multi-crore scam at the Karnataka Maharshi Valmiki Scheduled Tribes Development Corporation (KMVSTDC) and recent developments in the state, such as the fuel price hike.

Even as the protestors gathered to denounce the Congress government and the CM, as a precautionary measure, security forces deputed at the K K Guest House (near CM’s house) swooped down on the agitators, detained them and shifted them to a bus stationed at the location.

BJP leaders Araga Jnanendra, MLAs Suresh Kumar and Aravind Bellad and MLC CT Ravi were among the protesters detained by the police.

The alleged multi-crore scam in the KMVSTDC came to light after Chandrashekhar, the accounts superintendent of the corporation, died by suicide on May 26 at his residence in Shivamogga.

The Karnataka governmentt transferred the case to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the scam.

The SIT has arrested 11 people in connection with the case and the inister for Tribal Welfare, B Nagendra resigned from the Cabinet after the scam came to light.

Mangaluru: Two auto-rickshaw drivers were electrocuted to death after coming into contact with a live wire near Rosario church on Wednesday night.

The autorickshaw drivers who were electrocuted were identified as Raju (50) of Pallyahobli in Hassan and Devraj (46) from Ramakunja near Kadaba.

Due to heavy rains, the electric wire from an electric pole got snapped and fell on the ground.

Raju, who stepped out of his room, got electrocuted. Hearing Raju's shouts for help, Devraj rushed to his rescue. He was also electrocuted and both died on the spot, Mangaluru Commissioner of Police Anupam Agrawal said.

Police initially suspected that the deaths due to electrocution took place in wee hours on Thursday. But on checking CCTV footage, police realised that the autorickshaw drivers had been electrocuted around 9 pm.

Based on the complaint filed by Raju's brother a case was registered under sections 304A.