The rape case against Nithyananda was filed in 2010 based on a complaint by his former driver Lenin. He is believed to have left the country and established his ashram in a location he calls Kailasa
Press Trust of India
Bengaluru – Karnataka – India, 19 August 2022. A sessions court in Ramanagara – adjoining Bengalur – on Thursday issued a non-bailable warrant (NBW) against controversial godman Nithyananda.
The III additional district and sessions court issued the NBW in a case of rape in 2010.
An open-ended warrant was also issued by the court against him earlier, but the police were unable to secure him or find his whereabouts.
The trial in the case has already commenced and three witnesses have been examined, but in the absence of the accused Nithyananda, the trial stalled over the last three years.
Nithyananda has failed to respond to all the summons issued against him since 2019. The NBW issued today is returnable by 23 September.
The rape case against Nithyananda was filed in 2010 based on a complaint by his former driver Lenin. Nithyananda was arrested and later released on bail. In 2020, the bail was cancelled again following a petition by Lenin, claiming that Nithyananda has escaped from the country.
Nithyananda is believed to have left the country and established his ashram in a location he calls Kailasa. There is a lot of speculation as to where this place is.
The rape case is pending in the Ramanagara Sessions Court and the godman has failed to make an appearance since 2019. After multiple summons went unanswered, the NBW was issued.
The hijab row that has snowballed in Karnataka is rooted in the communally fraught coastal belt, where radical organisations vie for supremacy.
Anusha Ravi Sood
Bengaluru – Karnataka – India, 11 February 2022. Abdul Shukur took a sip of water and bit into a chikki (peanut bar) at 6:30pm Tuesday. It was his first meal after a day-long fast and he had come to offer prayers at the Jamia Masjid in Udupi, Karnataka.
Shukur’s daughter, Muskaan Zainab, studies at the city’s Government Pre-University (PU) College and is one of several students who have petitioned the Karnataka High Court for the right to wear the hijab (headscarf) on campus.
“Our entire family fasted today since our petition was being heard in court. I will fast tomorrow too,” 46-year old Shukur, who runs a small business in Malpe, said.
The hijab row has been making headlines since January, but Shukur claimed the issue was triggered in October when viral photos showed Muslim girls at a protest organised by the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP, the RSS-affiliated students’ body).
The images in question were posted on the Facebook page of the Udupi ABVP on 30 October last year.
They showed Muslim girls holding the ABVP flag as part of a protest demanding a probe into the alleged rape of a Manipal student. In the communally sensitive coastal belt of Karnataka, the pictures ignited a controversy.
“I was taken aback to see my daughter there. Because she isn’t a member of ABVP,” Shukur said. Furthermore, Muskaan was not wearing her usual headscarf in the photo.
“I asked her why she wasn’t wearing a headscarf in the photo, and that is when she told me that the college doesn’t allow hijabs in classrooms,” he said. This came as a shock to Shukur, who decided to confront the college principal.
He was not the only one taking notice.
According to an intel report submitted by the Udupi police to the state government, the Campus Front of India (CFI), which is the students’ wing of the Islamist outfit Popular Front of India (PFI), had approached parents with the offer to help take on the college management.
A source from the CFI who did not wish to be named told ThePrint that the ABVP protest incident had outraged the organisation.
It therefore started encouraging Muslim women to refuse to join ABVP events and to fight for their right to wear hijabs in the classroom. The women’s parents also took these demands to the college.
“When I asked the principal why students were being sent to protest without consent and were not allowed to wear headscarves, he said it was a small issue,” Shukur said.
Rudre Gowda, principal of the college, rejected this allegation. “For years, students have been wearing hijabs to campus, but have been removing them during classes.
These girls too were adhering to this, but since December, they started demanding that hijab should be allowed during classes too,” Gowda told ThePrint.
The matter quickly led to a standoff between the families of six Muslim students and the college management. The CFI also alleged that the college had, as retaliation, made details of the girls and their families public.
While there were attempts to negotiate an understanding between the students and the college authorities in Udupi, the row escalated rapidly – partly due to political organisations jumping on to the bandwagon and partly due to the wildfire effect of social media.
In January, the students petitioned the Karnataka High Court, by which time the issue was making headlines and had snowballed into communally charged conflicts in several Karnataka colleges.
Before the hijab issue reached the headlines, there were weeks of efforts to forge an understanding between the families and the college.
A senior leader of the Udupi District Muslim Okkoota – an umbrella organisation of mosques, jamaats, and Islamic organisations in Udupi – told ThePrint on the condition of anonymity that the body had tried its best to convince the families that it was acceptable to remove the hijab in class.
“We advised the girls to not make a big issue out of not wearing hijab inside classrooms. We even took them and their parents to religious clerics and explained that it was okay to remove hijabs in the classroom,” he said.
However, the students were “adamant”, he said, because they had received backing from the CFI, the campus affiliate of the PFI, an Islamist outfit that was set up in Kerala in 2006 and which the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) wants banned because of its allegedly radical tendencies.
“The CFI saw [the hijab conflict] as an opportunity to strengthen its support base,” the Muslim Okkoota leader said.
In coastal Karnataka, he explained, the two main students’ bodies are the ABVP and CFI, while the Congress’s campus body, the National Students Union of India (NSUI), does not have a presence in local colleges.
When ThePrint spoke to CFI members in Udupi, they claimed that the organisation got involved only after students of the PU College approached them on 27 December, after their memorandums to the district commissioner and education department officials did not yield results.
The students in question also told ThePrint that they were not members of the CFI. However, at least three parents are members of the PFI’s political wing, the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI).
By the end of December, though, nobody was in the mood for a compromise, according to the Muslim Okkoota leader.
He said that the Muslim women’s protest, and the social media traction it got, riled the College Development Committee (CDC), which is empowered by the government to take administrative decisions for public educational institutions.
“In December and January, the students’ protests started getting attention on social media and the press. They were shown standing outside the classroom and making notes since they were not allowed inside.
This hurt the egos of the committee members,” he claimed, adding that the senior-most members of this body were members of the BJP and RSS. None of the 21 members in the CDC are from the Muslim community.
The matter had now become a “prestige issue” with the BJP and other Hindutva organisations on one side, and the PFI and its affiliates on the other, the Muslim Okkoota leader said. BJP vs. PFI
What both Hindutva and Muslim organisations can agree on is that as videos from Udupi went viral, they sparked protests in other districts too. Throughout January and February, Karnataka saw several face-offs in colleges between some students in hijabs and others wielding saffron scarves. Each side holds the other responsible.
BJP leaders maintain that without “instigation” from the PFI, the protests wouldn’t have reached such a magnitude.
“Within two days of the girls’ protest in January outside their classrooms, thousands of social media posts were released. How is that possible without a pre-planned, strategised effort?” V. Sunil Kumar, Minister for Energy and Kannada & Culture, told ThePrint.
“When [Muslim students] started escalating the matter, naturally, students from the Hindu community retaliated — a matter of action and reaction,” Kumar, who is also the MLA from Karkala in Udupi district, added.
Other BJP ministers in the Basavaraj Bommai cabinet have also made similar allegations against the PFI.
“Students are being instigated to protest for hijab. The role of the PFI and its student wing CFI will be probed thoroughly,” B.C. Nagesh, Karnataka Minister of Primary & Secondary Education, told reporters Tuesday.
The PFI has denied such allegations and has attempted to distance itself from the row.
“As an organisation, we are working for upliftment of marginalised communities. We are in no way involved in this row.
Our student wing (CFI) is only trying to provide moral support to aggrieved students. Communal flareups only benefit the BJP,” Anis Ahmed, national general secretary of the PFI, told ThePrint.
The CFI has acknowledged that it was helping the Muslim women’s agitation in Udupi’s PU College, but denied having any political motives.
“We are a student organisation. We do not have any links with political parties.
We are leading the students who are fighting for their rights. Muslim students have been harassed at that institute for years now. This is not a retort that erupted overnight,” Masood Manna, a committee member of CFI Udupi, told ThePrint.
The high court asked students and the public at large to maintain peace and harmony
Bengaluru – Karnataka – India, 08 February 2022. All schools and colleges in Karnataka will be shut for the next three days amid the row over wearing hijab by students. Chief Minister Basavaraj S Bommai tweeted he has ordered all high schools and colleges to remain shut “to maintain peace and harmony”.
The Karnataka High Court is hearing petitions filed by five women from a government college in Udupi, questioning hijab restrictions, reports NDTV.
The high court, which heard the matter today, will continue the hearing tomorrow. The court also asked students and the public at large to maintain peace.
“This court has full faith in the wisdom and virtue of public at large and it hopes that the same would be put to practice,” Justice Dixit Krishna Shripad said.
Just before the court proceedings ended today, the Chief Minister tweeted, “I appeal to all the students, teachers and management of schools and colleges as well as people of Karnataka to maintain peace and harmony.
The Karnataka High Court is hearing petitions filed by five women from a government college in Udupi. All concerned are requested to cooperate.”
The hijab protests began last month at the Government Girls PU College in Udupi when six students alleged that they had been barred from classes for insisting on wearing the headscarf.
Right-wing groups in Udupi and Chikkamagaluru objected to Muslim girls wearing the hijab to class.
On Friday and Saturday last, a group of students marched to their college wearing saffron scarves.
The ‘hijab’ (headscarf) row in Karnataka intensified on Monday with some students seeking to defy the government order mandating uniform style of clothes as Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai issued an appeal to maintain peace while opposition Congress decried attempts to “poison young minds.”
The government, however, made it clear entry into classrooms with Hijab will not be allowed.
The protests escalated today after groups of protesters threw stones at each other and students at a college put up a saffron flag.
At a college in Mandya, a Muslim girl stood her ground as a large number of saffron scarf-wearing boys heckled her and shouted slogans of “Jai Shri Ram”. She shouted back at them: “Allah hu Akbar!”
College rules allow students to wear the hijab in class but not during lessons, according to officials.
Karnataka Home Minister Araga Jnanendra, however, has said children should “neither wear the hijab nor saffron scarves” in school.
Amid a spiralling controversy over hijabs or headscarves worn by Muslim women in schools and colleges in Karnataka, including a march of Hindu students wearing saffron scarves and shouting slogans, prompted the state government on Saturday to ban clothes “which disturb equality, integrity and public order, according tondtv.com.
“Invoking 133 (2) of the Karnataka Education Act-1983, which says a uniform style of clothes has to be worn compulsorily.
The private school administration can choose a uniform of their choice,” the government order said, adding that students have to follow a dress code chosen by authorities.
“In the event of the administrative committee not selecting a uniform, clothes which disturb equality, integrity and public law and order should not be worn,” the order added.
“The education department has noticed that in some education institutions, the boys and girls have started behaving according to their religion, which hurts the equality and unity,” it added.
Karnataka has seen an escalating row over religious attires since last month with right-wing groups in Udupi and Chikkamagaluru objecting to Muslim girls attending classes wearing hijabs.
The controversy quickly spread to other parts of the state with groups of Hindu students showing up to class in saffron scarves.
On Saturday, videos from Kundapur in the Udupi district showed boys and girls wearing scarves over their college uniforms and raising slogans of “Jai Shri Ram (praise Lord Ram)”.
Karnataka CM says law to release temples from government control will be introduced before budget session. Also promises special team to ‘enforce’ anti-conversion law once it’s cleared.
Anusha Ravi Sood
Bengaluru – Karnataka – India, 29 December 2021. Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai has announced plans to give the state’s temples autonomy from government control, a 2018 poll promise of the BJP, and a pet project of the Sangh Parivar.
A law to release temples from the administrative control of the government will be introduced before the budget session, he said Wednesday. The next session of the Karnataka legislature is expected to be held in February.
“My government will do it. Other than regulation, there shall be no restriction on administration or control of Hindu temples. There will be full freedom and autonomy,” Bommai said during his speech at the state executive meeting.
What is the Karnataka Protection of Right to Freedom of Religion Bill? Which other States have a similar legislation?
Anuradha Raman
Bengaluru – Karnataka – India, 23 December 2021. Amid vociferous opposition, the Karnataka Protection of Right to Freedom of Religion Bill, 2021, was introduced by Home Minister Araga Jnanendra on Tuesday during the winter session of the Assembly in Belagavi.
The Bill envisages stringent provisions for forced or induced conversions. The Basavaraj Bommai led government wants to prohibit conversion by “misrepresentation, force, allurement, fraudulent means, or marriage.”
Protesters say anti-conversion Bill criminalises faith
Staff Reporter
Bengaluru, 23 December 2021. ‘Bill undermines agency of individuals to make choices of who their partners can be’
A day after the State Government tabled the anti-conversion Bill (Karnataka Protection of Right to Freedom of Religion Bill, 2021) in the Legislative Assembly, a coalition of over 40 organisations of minorities, youths, Dalits, women, and human rights organisations held a protest in Bengaluru, demanding its immediate withdrawal.
Peter Machado, Archbishop, Archdiocese of Bangalore, said the community was sad that the Government did not heed to their appeals and went ahead with the Bill.
According to sources, the new law will have provisions to punish accused involved in forceful conversions up to 10 years. The new law will also make declaration before a magistrate ahead of religious conversions mandatory.
Bengaluru – Karnataka – India, 10 December 2021. The Karnataka government is all set to bring in stringent anti-conversion laws in the state in the winter session of Legislative Assembly which is scheduled to begin on 13 December in bordering district of Belagavi.
According to sources, the new law will have provisions to punish accused involved in forceful conversions up to 10 years. The new law will also make declaration before a magistrate ahead of religious conversions mandatory. The law will also give scope for authorities to conduct police inquiry if needed.
Minister for Panchayat Raj and Rural Development K S Eshwarappa on Friday lashed out at Congress President D K Shivakumar saying no matter what the opposition party leaders do or whatever extent they go, the ruling BJP would definitely bring anti-conversion laws in the state.
Sedition FIR was filed against Shaheen Urdu Primary School in 2020 for a play allegedly critical of CAA and NRC.
Police has now admitted violation of Juvenile Justice Act rules during probe in the case.
Anusha Ravi Sood
Bengaluru – Karnataka – India, 4 September 2021. After being pulled up by the Karnataka High Court on 16 August, the Karnataka Police Friday admitted it had violated rules of the Juvenile Justice Act in a sedition case against a school in Bidar.
More than 18 months after photos of uniformed policemen interrogating students inside the Shaheen Education Society over an Anti-Citizen Amendment Act (CAA) play emerged, Bidar superintendent of police, Nagesh D.L., filed an affidavit before the High Court that disciplinary action has been recommended against officials who were involved.
“I felt that the then Investigating Officer (Dy SP Bidar ) ought to have ensured strict compliance of sub-rule (5) of Rule 86 of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Model Rules 2016 while interacting with the children during the course of investigation.
I further state that the Investigating Officer was in mufti (plain clothes, not in uniform). However, the photographs show that his subordinates, who are seen in the photographs, were in uniform,” the SP stated in his affidavit.
The affidavit added: “I state that when I orally enquired, It was informed that they have not interacted with any of the children and they have entered the hall only for the purpose of assisting the Investigation Officer.
I state that it is the responsibility of the IO to ensure that there is strict compliance of sub-rule (5) of Rule 86 of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Model Rules 2016 and in view of the same and keeping in mind the order dated 16-08-2021 passed by this Hon’ble Court in the above proceedings, I have sent a report dated 31-08-2021 to the Director General and Inspector General of Police, Bengaluru, to take appropriate disciplinary action against the concerned persons.”
In his 12-page submission, a copy of which is with ThePrint, Nagesh D.L. said he was filing a compliance affidavit following the High Court’s directions on 16 August to the state police.
The High Court had on that day observed that “Prima facie, this is a serious case of violation of rights of the children under the provision of Sub Rule 5 of Rule 86 of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Model Rules, 2016.
We direct the State Government to respond by filing an affidavit of a senior police officer stating on record what action has been initiated against the police officials who interrogated school children while wearing uniform and carrying weapons.”
“The police had vehemently denied violating due procedure so far. In the previous submissions, the investigating officer had insisted that his team had not erred. The fact that they are now admitting that they have violated rules of Juvenile Justice Act and have recommended disciplinary action is a step in the right direction.
This will set a precedent and the police will never repeat such violation,” said Nayana Jhawar, an advocate and Congress leader. It was based on her petition that the court had sought a response from the state police on the incident.
In a writ petition filed on 7 February, 2020, Jhawar’s legal team had stated that about 85 children were subjected to police interrogations on 28 January, 3 February and 4 February, 2020, creating a hostile environment and causing mental and psychological distress to the minors.
The petition said that the police had interrogated the children at least on five different occasions.
While the government’s advocates claimed in court Friday that recommendation for a departmental inquiry and disciplinary action had been made to the DG and IGP, advocates for the petitioner also sought the government’s direction to the police that there will not be a repeat of such violations of child rights in the future.
The High Court, while acknowledging that the compliance report has remained silent on the directions to police, has kept the petition pending in order to monitor the implementation and progress of the recommendations to hold a departmental inquiry and disciplinary action. The matter has now been posted for hearing on 21 October 2020.
Three people were killed in police firing and scores of others wounded, including at least 50 policemen in the violence and arson
Bengaluru – Karnataka – India, 12 August 2020. Areas under Pulakeshinagar assembly constituency here resembled a war zone on Wednesday, hours after after an unruly mob went on a rampage torching vehicles, irked over a ‘communally sensitive’ social media post allegedly by put up by a relative of a Congress MLA.
Charred vehicles, shards of glass from broken windows, stones and bricks lie strewn over the deserted roads of the violence-affected localities.
Earlier, three people were killed in police firing and scores of others wounded, including at least 50 policemen in the violence and arson that erupted in the city on Tuesday night and continued till the wee hours of Wednesday.
Property of Congress legislator Akhanda Srinivasa Murthy and his family members were targeted after a ‘communally sensitive’ social media post uploaded online by one of his relatives enraged a section of people.
“We were not at home when all this happened,” Jayanthi, the MLA’s sister said weeping inconsolably. “The only solace is that my brother and his family are safe,” she said.
The violent crowd set on fire police vehicles and barged into D J Halli police station on the intervening night of Tuesday and Wednesday and damaged the property. Police have arrested about 110 people on charges of rioting.
A student activist and college student, Amulya Leona had raised pro Pakistan slogans during the protest meeting against CAA, NRC and NPR organised by Hindu Muslim Sikh Isaai Federation on 20 February.
Bengaluru – Karnataka – India, 11 June 2020. A court has rejected the bail plea of Amulya Leona, who raised ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ slogans at an anti-CAA rally at Freedom park in Bengaluru in February.
Rejecting the bail plea of 19-year-old Amulya Leona on Wednesday, the 60th additional city civil and sessions judge Vidyadhar Shirahatti observed that the probe has not been completed and the investigation officer has not yet filed the charge sheet.
“If the petitioner is released on bail, she may abscond or she may be involved in a similar offence, which affects the peace at large,” the judge said adding the bail petition of the petitioner is liable to be rejected.
A student activist and college student, Amulya Leona had raised pro Pakistan slogans during the protest meeting against CAA, NRC and NPR organised by Hindu Muslim Sikh Isaai Federation on February 20.
All India Majilis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) president and its Lok Sabha member from Hyderabad, Asauddin Owaisi, who was present on the occasion, tried to stop the gritty Amulya from repeating the pro-Pakistan slogan.
The dramatic incident, which embarrassed Owaisi and the rally organisers, occurred when Amulya was called on the dais to address the gathering in protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) under the banner of “Save Our Constitution”.
Amulya was then detained by the Karnataka Police, which arrested and produced her before a local magistrate court here after which she was sent to 14-day judicial custody on sedition charges under Section 125A of the IPC.
Earlier, opposing the bail petition, the prosecution argued that by raising the pro-Pakistan slogan several times the woman has attempted to create animosity between different communities and has affected the unity and integrity of the nation.
Bengaluru – Karnataka – India, 21 May 2020. Till the first week of April, Tablighi Jamaat attendees made up a major chunk of the COVID-19 positive cases in Karnataka. However, from 12 April onwards, the trend changed and those returning from Maharashtra have been contributing to the spike in numbers.
While 118 Tablighi Jamaat attendees and their primary contacts have tested positive so far, over 500 of the 1,040 persons who tested positive from 01 May are those who returned from Maharashtra. The first case of a person who returned from Maharashtra testing positive was on 12 April in Vijayapura. The 60-year-old woman spread the infection to 29 others.
Mandya, which is witnessing an influx of Mumbai returnees, recorded the first such positive case on 27 April. Then on, the number of positive cases in the district has increased to 201, with Mumbai returnees making up 90% of this number.
On Thursday, the number of active cases in Mandya was 176, which is higher than that in Bengaluru (122). While inter-State travellers contributing to the spike was expected, the State health authorities are now worried about the increasing number of Maharashtra returnees testing positive.
Districts such as Haveri, Yadgir, Koppal and Raichur, which had not reported any cases till April-end, are now doing so with migrants returning from Maharashtra testing positive. On Thursday, 96 of the total 143 positive cases were linked to travel from Maharashtra.
Terming the contribution of Maharashtra returnees to the spike in numbers a “worrisome” trend, C N Manjunath, director of Sri Jayadeva Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences, said, “Maharashtra returnees’ contributing in such big numbers was not expected.
All our early interventions have now been washed away because of the influx of people from Maharashtra.” Dr Manjunath is the nodal officer for lab testing in the State’s COVID-19 task force.
143 new cases
On Thursday, 143 new cases were reported in the State, and 121 of them were inter-State travellers. As many as 43 of the 143 patients were minors.
While 96 were travellers from Maharashtra, six were from Tamil Nadu, three from Jharkhand, five from Telangana, two from Rajasthan, one each from Chhattisgarh and Kerala, and seven from the United Arab Emirates.
With this, the total number of positive cases in the State is 1,605. This includes 41 COVID-19 deaths, one non-COVID-91 death, and 571 people discharged.
Mandya reported the highest number of cases on Thursday. As many as 29 of the 33 new cases there had a travel history to Maharashtra. Udupi followed with 28 cases. However, two of these had been quarantined at Sirsi in Uttara Kannada and have been shifted to a COVID-19 hospital in Karwar.
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