How a cricket tournament sponsored by BJP leader ended up in murder of an engineer and a PUC student

News Network
February 20, 2023

Bengaluru, Feb 20: The brutal murder of two young men at Doddabelavangala village on the outskirts of Bengaluru has shone light on sports tournaments sponsored by politicians. 

Bharath Kumar (23), an engineering graduate working for a private firm, and Prateek N (17), a PUC student, were fatally stabbed by a five-member gang during violence that erupted after a fight over car parking around 3.10 pm on February 17. 

Vinay, 27, the son of a former president of Hulikunte gram panchayat, his younger brother Anil, and three others had tried to drive into the Karnataka Public School playground where the cricket tournament was being played. Organisers and participants asked them not to park there. 

An argument ensued, and the crowd at the ground smashed the car and forced the group to leave. 

The brothers and their three friends, Trimurthy, Kori and Deepu, later got into a fight with local residents — Channappa, Kitty, Chikka Ramaiah and Nagaraju — who gave them an earful for causing disturbance. The group attacked them with pepper spray. They also pulled out cricket bats, wickets, hockey sticks, daggers and rods, and went on a  rampage. 

They attacked Kumar and Prateek, assuming that they were also part of the crowd as they wore T-shirts provided by the tournament organisers. Prateek was stabbed with a dagger that remained stuck in his private parts while Kumar was knifed in the lower abdomen. 

Superintendent of Police Mallikarjun Baldandi, Bengaluru Rural, said that the murders were "spontaneous" but they were investigating whether or not the victims were part of the crowd that had smashed the car. 

On Sunday, police shot Vinay and Trimurthy in the right leg after they allegedly tried to attack constables Qarar Hussain and Sunil Basagi with a knife and stones. Anil, Kori and Deepu remain at large. 

The tournament was sponsored by Dheeraj, a local BJP leader who aspires to contest the Assembly election from Doddaballapur. 

Following the murders, police have banned all sports tournaments sponsored by politicians until the elections get over. 

Vinay and Anil's mother Parvathamma was the president of Hulikunte gram panchayat. She was an independent but received support from the Congress party. 

Doddaballapur's Congress MLA, T Venkataramanaiah, said that the tournament's organisers hadn't taken permission from the school principal or the police. 

"They submitted a written request to the police, who acknowledged the letter but didn't give permission," he said.

"Had the organisers taken police permission, the cops would have provided security at the school ground and averted the fight over parking. These unfortunate murders over parking wouldn't have occurred." 

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News Network
September 17,2024

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New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday halted unauthorised bulldozer action against private property, anywhere in the country, till October 1, dismissing concerns by the government that demolitions sanctioned after following due process could be impacted. 

The "heavens won't fall if we ask you to hold your hands till the next hearing", a bench of Justice BR Gavai and KV Viswanathan declared.

An irate top court - which has already come down hard, twice this month, on 'bulldozer justice' meted out by various state governments - also warned the government against "grandstanding" and "glorification" of this practice. "No demolition, till next, date, without permission of this court," the government was told, and warned the Election Commission may also be put on notice.

The court's reference to the poll panel is significant given elections are due in Jammu and Kashmir (the first Assembly election in a decade) and Haryana, where the Bharatiya Janata Party is looking to return to power. Elections are also due this year in BJP-ruled Maharashtra and Jharkhand.

The court, however, also clarified its order is not applicable to removal of encroachments in public spaces such as roads, railway tracks, water bodies, etc.

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News Network
September 24,2024

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The Israeli regime’s warplanes have conducted extensive airstrikes against towns and villages across Lebanon, killing at least 492 people.

Lebanon’s health ministry announced the death toll on Monday, saying the victims included 35 children and 58 women.

The ministry said at least 1,645 others had also been wounded in the attacks that targeted the areas earlier in the day.

Lebanon’s health minister Firass Abiad said that the health ministry is working to ensure those injured in Israeli strikes are getting the health care they need.

The health minister said he had asked hospitals to stop taking regular, light cases to make space for the wounded from the south.

“We working on directives for the first-aid centres to be turned into places that can receive the wounded. The displaced people who have cancer, kidney failure and other chronic diseases, we have the plan to continue their treatment in different medical centers,” he said.

The country’s media outlets said the aircraft had bombed all the towns and villages lying on the southern border as well as their surroundings.

Israeli warplanes also reportedly targeted eastern Lebanese areas, including the Bekaa Valley and Baalbek.

Lebanese sources said the airstrikes had targeted a total of more than 40 areas in Lebanon during the attacks.

The Sheikh of the Druze community reached out to the Deputy Head of the Supreme Islamic Shia Council and expressed solidarity and reaffirmed support for the people of southern Lebanon, the southern suburbs, and the Bekaa during this critical period for the country.

The Commissioner of Marjayoun-Hassbaya in the Muslim Scouts, Sheikh Hussein Al-Nader, was killed in an Israeli airstrike that targeted his home in the town of Dibbine, Marjayoun district, South Lebanon.

Three people were injured in an Israeli airstrike targeting the Deir El-Zahrani highway, in South Lebanon.

A family of four was killed in Hermel, Bekaa, due to the recent Israeli airstrikes.

Israeli media outlets, meanwhile, alleged that the attacks had hit locations lying as far as 125 kilometers (77 miles) inside the Lebanese territory.

Israeli military spokesman Danieh Hagari said the regime "will engage in [more] extensive and precise strikes” against Lebanon, adding that the attacks would "go on for the near future.”

The regime has markedly intensified its attacks against the country since October 7, when it launched a genocidal war on the Gaza Strip.

Lebanon’s Hezbollah resistance movement has responded with numerous strikes against the occupied Palestinian territories as a means of both retaliating against the regime and displaying support for the war-hit Gazans.

On Sunday, the group staged its farthest-reaching strikes against the territories since October, firing scores of rockets against the Ramat David Airbase, 20 kilometers (12 miles) southeast of the city of Haifa, and the Rafael weapons manufacturing facility in the Zevulun area north of the city.

It described the strike against the facility as its “initial response” to the regime’s detonation of thousands of booby-trapped pagers and walkie-talkie radios that killed at least 39 people and wounded 3,000 others across Lebanon over Tuesday and Wednesday.

Also on Sunday, Hezbollah’s Deputy Secretary General Sheikh Naim Qassem said the movement was in a "new phase" in its battle against the regime.

"Threats will not stop us... We are ready to face all military possibilities,” he noted.

Qassem made the remarks while attending the funeral of Ibrahim Aqil, one of the group’s senior commanders.

Aqil had been martyred alongside 37 others, including three children and seven women, during an Israeli attack on a residential building in a southern suburb of Lebanon’s capital Beirut on Friday.

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