Dozens of children were rescuedtoday from a life of bonded laboraer a daytime raid on two illegalsweatshops.

State police raided two factoriesand found 31 children crammedinto tiny rooms making bags andcalendars for market.

None of the children had ever beenpaid and some had been held there,working and sleeping in the same

cramped space, for at least a year.BachpanBachaoAndolan (BBA) a

child rights NGO, the state policeAnti-Human Trafficking Unit andthe Labor Department all coordi-nated their efforts to gather intelli-gence and carry out the operation.

e children, most of whom weretrafficked from their home states,were rescued from two factories inCottonpet by five teams comprisingpolice personnel, Labor Department

officials and members of the BBA.e children, mostly between the

ages of twelve to sixteen, were em-ployed as bag and calendar makers.eir work included cutting, stitch-ing and assembling cloth bags.

e makeshi factories operatedfrom small rooms near the JollyMahal area of Cottonpet. One of therooms where the sewing machineswere kept was also used as a kitchen.

At least nine children were set to

work in each of these tiny rooms.e Child Labor (Prohibition and

Regulation) Act of 1986 declares theemployment of children below theage of 14 to be illegal.

It also outlines specific conditionunder which persons below the ageof eighteen may be employed. Ac-cording to these conditions childrenshould not be employed in condi-tions which do not fulfill fire safetystandards

The Daily

VOL 13 ISSUE 4 ursday, December 5 , 2013

Observer

Sweatshop raid rescues 31 children

Bhaskar Dutta

Children, some of them held captive for a year, rescued from two sweat-shops in a cross-agency raid that led to the arrest of one alleged gangmaster

EXCLUSIVE

ree agencies teamed up to co-ordinate a raid on a bondedlabour sweatshop where theybelieved over 30 youngsterswere held against their will mak-ing bags and calendars for mar-ket.Daily Observer reporterBhaskar Dutta joined today’soperation, which was the culmi-nation of months of intelligencegathering against gangmastersforcing children to work for nopay.

One of the city’s

most notorious

rowdy gangs

rounded up

Gangster bludg-

eoned to death by

rivals in the mid-

dle of the road

Man-eater tiger

nabbed after

killing four

villagers

Page: 7Page: 5Page: 4

e Daily Observer ursday, December 5, 2013 2

‘Unity’ is more important than money: S. Patel

Security guard run down by BMTC bus

A security guard died aer aBMTC bus ran over him onTuesday evening in a city ward.

S. J. Nagaraju, a resident of K.R.Pete Taluk, Mandya was trying tocross the road when he was run

over by the bus.e incident tookplace in front of Beggar’s ColonyGate, Sumanhalli cross in MagadiRoad.

e accident occurred at 5:30 inthe evening following which hewas admitted at the Victoria Hos-pital at 9:27 pm. Dr. Shrikanth de-clared him dead the next day at2:30am.

e bus was heading from Kot-tigepalya towards SumanahalliCross when it hit Nagaraju. Hefell on the road with the front-lewheel of the bus running over hislegs fracturing the bone of his leleg completely.

is led to multiple fracturesand excessive bleeding. He suc-cumbed to his injuries aer ninehours at the Victoria HospitalEmergency Ward.

e bus has been identified as401 M- KA 57 F 582 of the Ken-

geri Depot, driven by DayanandaIshwarappa Gowda. It has beendetained at the KamakshipalyaPolice Station.

According to the police, Na-garaju was taken in an ambulance

to Victoria Hospital with the helpof the bystanders and the driver.

e post mortem report states,Nagaraju was brought to the hos-pital with severe head and leg in-juries.

e forensic report stated thatthe victim died of “shock andhemorrhage.”

H. Chandrasekhar, AssistantSub-Inspector (Traffic), Kamak-shipalya Police Station added thatthe case was filed on the same dayas the accident and the drivercharged under Section 279 and337 of Indian Penal Code (IPC).Aer the death of the victim thepolice filed a case under Section279 and 304 A of IPC that is ofrash and negligent driving.

Gangadhar, Nagaraju’s brothersaid, “e police have taken upthe case, they have asked me tocome to the police station on Sat-urday, aer which I will know thedetails of the case.”

H. Chandrashekar said, “We ar-rested the driver but he got out onbail yesterday. We have seized hisdriving license.”

Aurosmita Acharya &

Mayuri J Ravi

S.J. Nagaraju, the security guard who was killed by a BMTC bus

e BMTC bus that ran overand killed S.J. Nagaraju

Terming the cost of constructingthe Sardar Vallabhbhai Patelstatue as ‘unimportant’, the en-ergy minister of Gujarat said theidol stands for “India’s unity”.

Sourabhbhai Patel, Energy Minis-ter of Gujarat, refused to disclosethe total expenditure on the statue,named Statue of Unity, saying thatvalue is more important than

money. “We are not funding thestatue ourselves, it is being fundedby different companies,” saidSourabhbhai Patel

Prakash, the PRO of KarnatakaBJP said, “e cost of the project ismore than Rs 2600 crores.”

He refused to reveal the name ofthe companies who are funding theproject.

Sanjay Joshi, a manager of theStatue of Unity project, also refused

to reveal the names of companiesfrom where the funds are comingfrom saying that “it is not possibleto get information like that over thephone.”

e minister defended spendingcrores on a statue by saying thatmoney does not matter but valueand culture does and that unity ismore important than money.Sourabhbhai patel said, "We havehired the best builders to build theworld class statue of Sardar Vallab-hbhai Patel."

e statue is planned to be built atSadhu Bet near Sardar SarovarDam of Narmada River. Construc-tion of Narmada Dam had trig-gered protests owing todisplacement of hundreds of localinhabitants of the area, but the en-ergy minister guaranteed that thisproject has caused no rehabilitationas the land has gone through all theclearance procedure. Patel said, "Noforceful acquisition of land has hap-pened in t he process of acquiring

land.”He said:" ere will be events and

competitions on Sardar patel's139th birth anniversary, December15th 2013, in which more than 1.5lakh people will participate. erewill be more than 1000 marathonson one particular day in Indiawhich will be a new GuinnessWorld Record and the whole coun-try will participate.”

He added, "Today cost for the

construction is not as important aspeople's participation in the proj-ect. ere are many people who arewilling to donate for the purpose."

e iron which will be used formaking of the statue will comefrom used agricultural tools pro-vided by farmers as tokens allacross India. e minister said thatmore than 700 tons of iron will berequired for the construction of thestatue.

Ishan Bhattacharya, Neha

Singh & Nibedita Mohanta

All the delegates at the press conference on ‘Statue of Unity’

e energy minister of Gujarat, Sourabhbhai Patel speaking to thepress

e Daily Observer ursday, December 5, 2013 3

French rape accused must wait for Session Court ruling

e French embassy clerk accusedof raping his daughter has beentold he must wait for a ruling onhis plea to have all chargesdropped.

Pascal Mazurier was at SessionsCourt again today to insist thatthere was not enough evidenceagainst him to convict him of rap-ing his four-year-old daughter.

But lost paperwork delayed theproceedings and the hearing wasagain re-scheduled for Monday.

An angry Mazurier said: “ecase was earlier presided by a judgewho got transferred and so my casetoo got transferred.

“e judge was going to write theorder but because of the change inthe handwriting she postponed thehearing to Monday as Saturday andSunday is off.”

I am mad and p****d but I am notgoing to jump off a building. I haveto be patient, there is no otherchoice.”

His estranged wife Suja Jones isalso anxiously awaiting an out-come. Speaking exclusively to theObserver, she said: “It’s ridiculousthat he's seeking a discharge. Itdoesn't make sense.”

She added: “My daughter is muchbetter now, we're moving on. It’sfunny how the media took up suchan active stance when this case sur-faced. He just talks to people when

he wants something published.“Nobody from the media talks to

me anymore. It’s just his versionwhich is out.”

Mazurier, who is not eligible fordiplomatic immunity, was arrestedon June 19, 2012, on the basis of hiswife’s complaint to the police thathe had raped his four-year-olddaughter.

He was granted bail on October17, 2012 by the Karnataka HighCourt.

Aer initially denying thecharges, he later filed a case withthe police seeking justice for hisdaughter when medical records es-tablished that the girl was sexuallyabused.

He said that he was being framedby his wife and laid the blame onone of her friends. Investigation forthat case is still pending as it de-pends on the verdict of this case.

According to Khushi of EnfoldIndia, who helped Jones with thefiling of the case, “e child, at nopoint, mentioned anybody elseapart from her father in so manydays.

“She did not understand what washappening to her but she repeatedlycomplained that her father physi-cally hurt her. e medical reportsprove that she was sexually abusedbut fail to link it with Mr.Mazurierowing to the lapse in time betweenthe act and the complaint.”

Doctors and counselors at EnfoldIndia had helped in ascertainingthat the girl was raped aer whichthe case was filed by Jones.

She added that Mazurier does notpay anything for the maintenanceof his wife and three children.Commenting on this, hesaid, “If he is so con-cerned about hischildren, as he hasclaimed to themedia, then whydoesn’t he pay forthe maintenance ofhis children?

“We have informationthat he is not em-ployed witht h e

French government anymore. Withno source of income, how is he af-fording such expensive lawyers?”

A spokesperson for the FrenchEmbassy said, “Mazurier has beensuspended indefinitely and whetherhe will be employed with theFrench government again dependson the verdict of this case. He is alsonot allowed to leave India until theverdict is out.”

However, Kumar Jagirdar,Founder, Children’s Rights Initia-tive for Shared Parenting said, “Pas-cal Mazurier is innocent as theDNA reports are not conclusive. He

is seeking for a complete dis-missal of the case and he

wants the actual culprit tobe caught.”

Puroshottam, a lawyerfrom the prosecutor’s

side, said, “ere is no waythat Mazurier will be let off. He

will be tried because all theevidences are against

him.”

Anannya Sarkar &

Shweta Nair

Pascal Mazurier being taken to the court in 2012. Photo Courtesy: KPN News

Nobody from the media talks to me any-

more. It’s just his version which is out.”

-Suja Jones, Pascal’s wife.

“

e judge was going to write the order but be-

cause of the change in the handwriting she

postponed the hearing to Monday as Saturday

and Sunday is off.” - Pascal Mazurier.

“

e Daily Observer ursday, December 5, 2013 4

Killing tigers is the last resort Apurva venkat & Sneha Mejari

Sweatshop raid rescues 31 children

Officers of Bandipur Forest Department have nabbedthe man eating tiger on ursday aer he made fourpeople his kill in last one week.

Additional PCC Ajay Mishra of Bandipur Departmentsaid “ere was only one tiger which was creating prob-lem and it has being tranquilized and captured by usnow. Killing is not the option it’s the last resort.”

On Decenber 3, Basapppa, the victim was attacked by aman eating tiger at around 5pm when he was inside theforest to graze his cattle in Hediyala range.

is was fouth attack in a week which claimed the lifeof villagers near Bandipur forest aer which RamanathRai, the forest minister, issued a shoot-at-sight order inlegislative council yesterday.

Maneka Gandhi said: “It is completely illegal. ere are10,000 ways of capturing tigers. ere is no need to killtigers especially when they are on the verge of extinc-tion.”

Commenting on people who were attacked she said:“Many people just go into the forest. ey cut wood, taketheir goats for grazing. ere is a lot of vested interest inthis. ey sell skin of animals etc. is should not bedone.”

Gandhi who is the chairperson of People for Animals,

India's largest animal welfare organization, added:“Instead of killing the tigers, they should sedate themand breed them. is will help increase the population ofthe tigers as well.”

Sudhir Shivraman, a renowned wildlife photographer,who photographed the tiger four years ago, said “My firstreaction as a wildlife lover is that this should not happen.ere are a lot of parameters to the human- animal fight.Only when tranquilization and other techniques fail arewhen killing a tiger can be justified.”

Lack of understanding of animal behavior is the mainreason for tiger-attacks. Tiger attacks when a person enters his circle of fear.

Many experts agree that safetyof the villagers is also equally im-portant. Nonprofit organizationshave come up with a modelwhich has been successful inpast.

Sullimada Muthanna, a coffeeplanter, Bandipur forest, foundpaw marks of a tiger near thefence of her coffee estate, said“We contacted the forest staff ofNagarahole. e Bandipur TigerReserve, Director KumarPushkak along with his forestrangers took control of the situa-tion and tranquillized the tigressto transport her to Mysore zoo.”

“Everybody wants to save tigers

on Facebook, but people are unaware of the ground real-ity. e measure we are taking to save tiger may doubletheir population, but we don’t think where we will keepthese tigers. We also have to think about increase in for-est area. ”An adult male tiger marks his territory which isat least 60 sq km.” said Sudhir Shivraman.

Bandu Mankar, a driver for the jeep which takes touristto the tiger reserve said; “tigers inside jungles are not athreat at all. It’s only when they don’t get their kill in theforest that they move out. e tigers that enter in villageare harmful, but the poor animal is just hungry. Killingthem is wrong. ey should be held and moved away.”

Sudhir Shivraman belives this is Bhalla-the man-eating tiger in Bandipur

e children mainly hail from the Motihari district of Biharand the neighbouring state of Uttar Pradesh.

Speaking exclusively to the Observer, Mohammed(name changed), 13, said, "We were promised one thou-sand rupees per month. I was never given any money."

Raju, 15, said, "I came here while traveling. I am nowmake calendars here which are later sold in the market. Ihave never received any payments."

According to their accounts the children start work inthe morning and carry on until well in to the evening.

e Anti-Human Trafficking Unit arrested a 30-year-old called Z. Ahmed who was the manager of operationsin one of the rooms.

Ahmed also hails from the Motihari District of Bihar. Acase has been filed against him in the Cottonpet PoliceStation.

Speaking to the Observer, Ahmed said, "What is theissue about? I know these children. ey come from myhome state."

According to rescue team, this case is being treatedunder the category of trafficking.

Most of the children do not know how they came toBangalore. According to them the operations are ownedby two individual called Junaid and Mullah.Both of themlive near the Vinayaka Cinema on the Mysore Road.

Commenting on the episode, DSP Kohlapure of theAnti-Human Trafficking Unit said, "e problem of childlabor goes hand in hand with trafficking. ere is a deepnexus that must be traced and stopped by the police. "

Vani Kantli of the BBA said, "Our fact finding operations located this bonded labor ring a littlewhile back. It has taken a lot of effort and coordination torescue these children."

Z. Ahmed who was charged aer the raid

cont from page 1 >>

It is completely illegal.ere are 10,000 ways ofcapturing tigers. ere isno need to kill tigers espe-cially when they are on theverge of extinction.

“

e Weekly Observer ursday, December 5, 2013 5

Murder mystery of underworldrowdy solved by Crime BranchWith the arrest of the 13th accused the Central CrimeBranch (CCB) has concluded a year-long investigation intoa well known criminal’s murder case.

e CCB arrested all the 13 accused which include Velu, 30,Ramesh, 25, Ranjith, 28, Chandar, Charles, Karthik, 28, Shan-mugam, 30, Saravana, 35, Armugam, 29, Girisha, 23, Sriram,22, Prasannakumar, 21and Chethan, 21.

Shivkumar alias Rudra, 32, was murdered on December 9,2012, at Devarachikkanahalli Road, by his neighbor, Velu, 30.

Pratap Singh roat, a CCB Officer said, “Rudra was in-volved in few murder cases committed in 2005, one of whichincludes Velu’s brother Market Vedi.

Rudra and Velu have been neighbors for many years andhad differences for petty issues. Aer Rudra murdered Velu’sbrother for one such reason, Velu planned to avenge thedeath.”

He added, “Velu told the CCB team that he had been plan-ning Rudra’s murder for months. He tracked Rudra’s move-ment in the city along with a gang of 12 rowdies. Velu evenrented a flat close to Rudra’s at Beguru.

Rudra was having an illicit affair with a married woman,Amala. He lived with her in Spoorthi Apartment at Beguru.Rudra was into extortion and would leave his house everydayalong with his driver, Pagalavan, in a car. Pagalavan had beenworking for Rudra for past six years.

Velu rented three vehicles, an auto rickshaw, a MUV and a

goods tempo and followed Rudra around the city. Velu andhis gang would spend evenings at a play ground near Rudra’shouse to trail his activities. Moreover, they befriended theschool children there, to avoid suspicion.

Velu even stored weapons like machetes, swords and cricketbats in order to murder Rudra.

On December 9, 2012, Velu waited inside a MUV near theplay ground along with Chandra, one among accused. Otherssat inside the goods tempo and auto rickshaw on the opposite

road.”Pratap said, “e reason behind choosing the spot outside

the play ground for the murder is because the road has abump which slows down any vehicle passing by. e motivewas such to drag Rudra outside his car and kill him to deathright there.”

He added, “Around 1p.m, Rudra’s car reached the spot.Amala and her son were seated at the back. As soon as the carhit the bump on the road, the gang of 13 rowdies rushed tosabotage the vehicle.

Amala, her son and Pagalavan, managed to run out of thecar safely but Rudra was beaten to death with machetes,swords and cricket bats. e gang escaped soon aer the in-cident.

Pagalavan, lodged a complaint at Electronic City Police Sta-tion and a case of murder was registered.

Ten days aer the incident, my team and I tracked down the13 accused in Tamil Nadu. ey were brought to Bangaloreand were put behind the bars. But we could not initiate courtproceeding before investigating the mechanism of the mur-der. So, my team was on the job for a year ever since to unfoldthe crime.”

A post-mortem report was prepared at Victoria Hospital.Prof.C.N.Sumangala, Forensic Medical Assistant of VictoriaHospital said, “e death of Rudra was due to shock andhemorrhage as a result of multiple chop injuries sustained.Rudra had an injury of 34cm depth with brain matter partiallydrained outside and a 4cm cut on his right ear. ere werealso deep injuries in the chest and the le hand was choppedinto pieces.”

Pratap said, “Charge is framed last week and the proceed-ings will begin later this week.”

Prutha Bhosle

e moment the rowdies attackedour car, I didn’t know what to do.e only thing that came to mymind was to get out and run as fastas I could, which I did.”

- Pagalavan, Rudra’s driver whofiled a complaint at Electronic CityPolice Station (One of the primewitnesses to the crime)

“

e eye-witnesses to the crime, who played a key role in helping the Central Crime Branch crack the case

e Daily Observer ursday, December 5, 2013 6Celebrating the United Nations' 16 day campaign from November 25 to December 10 whichaims to fight violence against women, e Daily Observer brings you the stories of the sur-vivors and healers associated with this gender-based struggle that is still rampant.

Aer getting bailed out of jailfor killing his lover, a man aban-doned his wife and one-year-olddaughter to marry a secondwoman.

Anjappa, 30, worked as a con-struction laborer when he gotmarried to Redemma in August2010.

Redemma, 27, has been living inAsha Kirana, a short stay homefor women at Old Airport Roadfor two months now with herone-year-old daughter Jhanaviaer she stealthily escaped.

“He had killed a woman beforehe married me. He had an affairwith her but later refused tomarry her, stating that she wasnot a good woman and thenkilled her,” she said.

Redemma got to know about itonly aer their marriage. edead woman’s parents filed a caseagainst him but he went abscond-ing. “e police could not findhim for a long time.” He was fi-nally caught and jailed in Febru-ary last year where he spent threemonths, aer which he got bailwith the help of a lawyer.

“He told me that he had notkilled her, the woman died her-self. He claimed that he was inno-cent and was being targeted. Ipaid the lawyer’s fee,” said Re-demma who worked as an atten-dant in a private hospital then.

Soon aer Anjappa’s wedding,his mother had to undergo anoperation. “I looked aer herfor three months, took careof her like my own mother.I was with her everyminute. ere was noone else. I even paid forthe operation,” Re-demma said. She got toknow during thistime that the policeare looking for herhusband.

She had spent so much of herincome and savings to bail herhusband out and on her mother-in-law’s operation that “at thetime of my delivery, I was penni-less.”

Her mother-in-law sent her toher father when she got to knowthat Redemma was pregnant.“ey told me that they wouldcome to take me aer the babywas born.”

Aer giving birth to Jhanavi, shekept waiting for them but theynever came to take her. “When Iconfronted them, I got to knowthat my husband had married an-other woman,” she said tearyeyed.

Initially, Anjappa’s mother pre-tended to be angry about whather son had done. “She took mefrom my father’s to the big roomin Whitefield where we lived.”

It was aer a month that shetook to beating her. “She startedpestering me to give my child toher youngest son and asked me togo to work and earn money.”

Redemma had requested hermother-in-law to stay at homeand take care of the baby while

she went to workbut the oldwoman wasa d a m a n ton giving

the babyaway. “She

used

to hit me whenever she felt like.”Her husband came once to her

aer getting married the secondtime. “When I questioned him, hehit me brutally and threatenedthat he would take Jhanavi away.I have not seen him since.”

She has no clue as to where thefather of her child is. “All I knowis that he is not in Bangalore.”

Redemma has not filed a policecomplaint against Anjappa. “Myhusband is a rowdy. He has con-tacts with all the big men. ereis no point in going to the police.He will get bail in no time.”

She fears that if she complains,“he will get me and Jhanavikilled.”

Redemma’s mother had diedwhen she was a child. Her fatherhas always been indifferent. “Itold him that I was in big troubleand asked him to take me away.But he never bothered. He used tokeep me as a domestic help whenI was with him. I have not seenhim since Jhanavi was born.”

Her mother-in-law had hit herhard the day she fled. “She wasdetermined to take Jhanavi awayfrom me. We had a huge fight.She threw the baby and hit meblack and blue.”

Redemma’s neighbor rescuedher. “She knew about Asha Ki-rana. She told me to run away andI did. No one knows that I amhere. I escaped secretly.”

Later when she tried to enquireif they were trying to find her, shelearnt from her neighbor that An-jappa’s mother has spread all overthat “I have run away with someother man.”

“I treated his mother as myown, gave them all the money Ihad, and they did this to me.

ey never gave me or mydaughter a single penny,” said

the woman who is cluelessabout her future.

Sneha Bengani

Redemma, with her one-year-old baby daughter Jhanavi

Beaten, betrayed and abandoned

ree held overmurder of womane alleged murderers of thepregnant woman who was re-cently killed in Kumabalgoduhave been caught.

On November 16, Muni-venkatamma, 32, resident ofDoddaguallarahatti, Kengeri, wasallegedly murdered by the sons ofher live-in partner, Solapuri, 50.She was seven months pregnant.

A First Information Report waslodged by Munivenkatappa, thevictim’s father, in KumbalgoduPolice Station on November 17.Police arrested Manjunath, 24,Shivraj, 19, and Hanumanha, 20,who were the prime suspects inthe murder, on November 18,2013.

“We arrested the three peopleon the very next day aer we re-ceived the complaint. At the timeof interrogation, they confessed ofhaving slit her throat and killingher,” said, Police Sub-InspectorBhaskar, Kumbalgodu Police Sta-tion.

ey have been charged underthe sections 302 (murder) and201 of the Indian Penal Code.

He added, “Manjunatha is Sola-puri’s son. Shivraj is a friend ofManjunatha while Hanumnathais the brother of Manjunatha.Shivraj had agreed to help Man-junatha aer he paid him twothousand rupees. All of themwere angry with Muni-venkatamma for having an illicitrelationship with their father.”

Solapuri’s first wife had died acouple of years back. He livedwith Munivenkatamma in arented house in Kengeri.

“Manjunatha could not come to

terms with the fact that Muni-venkatamma was pregnant withhis father’s child. He is marriedhimself and has been trying tohave a baby. e fact that his fa-ther was going to have a son withhis live-in partner before he couldget his wife pregnant really an-gered him. at is the primaryreason why he murdered her,”said Mr. Bhaskar.

On November 16, 2013, Muni-venkatamma was alone in herhouse. Solapuri had just le aervisiting her. “She had gone to theneighbour’s house aer Solapurihad le.

Manjunatha, Shivraj and Hanu-mantha came into the house andstarted fighting with her. Shivrajand Hanumantha attacked herand Manjunatha slit her throatwith a knife,” added Mr. Bhaskar.

e post mortem was con-ducted in Rajarajeshwari Hospi-tal. e forensic report is stillawaited.

Munivenkatappa said, “Nowthat the three murderers havebeen caught I can be a little happy.She was my only daughter. Shewas pregnant. e police co-op-erated a lot with us. ey arrestedthe three the very next day. I wentto the police station to see them,the police had beaten them alot.at is the only consolation Ihave.”

e three men have been pro-duced before the Chief JudicialMagistrate. ey have been keptin judicial custody. e chargesheet is yet to be filed followingwhich they will be produced incourt.

Sneha Ghosh

She was my only daughter. She was pregnant. epolice co-operated a lot with us. ey arrestedthe three the very next day. at is the only con-solation I have.”

- Munivenkatappa, Munivenkatamma’s father

“

e Daily Observer ursday, December 5, 2013 7

NEWS BRIEFFour charged afterlarge cannabis find

A 23-year-old student was caughtwith a large amount of marijuanaat his home last month.

Varun Ravi, a student of AcharyaInstitute of Technology wascaught with 3.7 kilograms of mar-ijuana on the November 28th. Hewas caught by the YashwantpuraPolice Station on a tip-off. Accord-ing to constable, V. Dada Peer, hewas supplying drugs to his class-mates and his neighbours. reeother people, including twowomen were also caught withRavi.

Inspector at Yashwantpura Po-lice Station said, “He is now underjudicial custody and a chargesheetwill be filed at the earliest.”

According to Dada Peer, this wasthe second drugs bust in the lastmonth. e first bust was of agroup of women, using and buy-ing marijuana. He added that thepolice are now looking into otherstudents from the same college toapprehend people who trade anduse marijuana.

CREDAI opposesReal Estate Bill

Almost 1000 developers acrossIndia are opposing the Real EstateRegulatory Reform Bill, which isbeing discussed in parliament.e head of the Confederation ofReal Estate Developers Assoocia-tion of India claims that 46clauses of the bill would affecttheir business.

"How can they expect us to takenames of buyers and developers?Why only real estate is being tar-geted?" said Suresh, Secretary,CREDAI. He said existing rules inthe Consumer Protection Actmust be "enforced”.

"Roti, kapda, makaan are crucialfor life. If you impose this onmakaan, do it with roti and kapdatoo," he added.

Notorious gangster nabbed by police

A hope for engineering studentsousands of engineers graduat-ing from Visvesvaraya Technolog-ical University (VTU) arecurrently unemployed as theirskill set are not in sync with re-quirements of the industries.

A VTU graduate in computer sci-ence, Nikhil said: “ e competitionis really high, and jobs are less. So

you have to be smart enough to geta job of your desire. Syllabus atVTU is just a basic introduction toall the concepts, however, whateveryou are trained in the companyhelps you in your daily work.”

Another VTU graduate, Manishsaid: “VTU’s syllabus is not enoughto get a job. ere are lots of tech-nical programming languages thathave been taught in an autonomous

college and thus, most of the VTUstudents are facing problems. In au-tonomous college, the students arenot being recognized, even whenthey have good percentage.”

VTU in an initiative signed aMemorandum of Understandingwith 30 Canadian Institutions forvarious courses including recruit-ment of engineering students whoare jobless. As of now 16,000 grad-uates have registered from variousinstitutions across the state. eregistered students and the facultywill be involved in 240 hours oftraining starting from December10.

In a press conference held onWednesday in the VTU campus,Bangalore Dr. Chandrashekhar, Di-rector of Mission VTU said, “is

is an initiative for engineering stu-dents who have graduated but arestill without a job and for those whowill soon be graduating. ere are70,000 engineers who are unem-ployed because their engineeringskills are not in sync with the re-quirements of industries, accordingto the statistics of 2012-13.”

Dr. Milind Pimparkar, Director,CANEUS International said, “It isour first experiment in India and itis amazing.” e faculties there toowere excited about the develop-ment and said that it was their priv-ilege that they were getting such anopportunity.

Shobha, VTU student said: “eindustries prefer those with morepractical knowledge. I think thisinitiative is going to help us.”

Sushmita Sen & Suchitra

Sharma

One of Bangalore’s most notori-ous gangsters, wanted in morethan 20 serious cases, has beencaught by police.

Ravi Kumar, known as Cycle Ravi,was arrested by the city crimebranch on November 25th.

Kumar, 37, of Byatarayanapuraand his four associates were caughtfor killing his main rival and aleader of another gang, Pavan.

Manjunath, alias Gejje Manju, 27,Manju, 24, Rahil Ahmed, 21, andRajesh.P, 24, allegedly killed theirrival Pavan and his associates.

Ravi Kumar and Manjunath wereinterrogated for two hours. eywere also taken to the crime sceneas part of the investigation.

CCB sleuths have recovered a bikeand lethal weapons like two ma-chetes, two knives and an iron rodwhich were allegedly used to com-mit the crime.

A case has been registered in Giri-nagar Police station.

Kumar, the main accused hasbeen registered in a total of 23 casesacross four police stations in thecity.

e cases involve kidnapping,murder, abduction, robbery anddacoit. Ravi has also been active ingang wars, according to detectives.

His associates have been involved

in a total of nine other cases similarin nature registered in various po-lice stations across Bangalore.

A source at the crime branch said:“Ravi was absconding for a fewmonths now but we finally foundhim. He has two wives, one in Ban-galore and one in Tamil Nadu. Wenabbed him from Tamil Nadu. We

don’t know exactly why he kepthimself away from Bangalore.”

He also said: “Gang activity isquite active in Bangalore and be-cause of restrictions like HumanRights we are unable to bring itdown.e police become inactivebecause of such factors and thiscauses restrictions in our activities.”

e DCP said: “e investigationwill take a while as there are a lot ofcases on him.”

e five convicts are in judicialcustody and a charge sheet will befiled within 60 days, e investiga-tions are going on.

Ravi Kumar (second from right) and his four associates

Shweta Nair

VTU signing the MoU with the Canadian institutions

Gang activity is quite ac-tive in Bangalore and be-cause of restrictions likeHuman Rights we are un-able to bring it down

- A source from CrimeBranch

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e Daily Observer ursday, December 5 , 2013 8

Observer Team: Editor - Tulana Nayak, Chief Sub Editor - Suchitra Sharma, News Editors - Sneha Ghosh, Tanisha Das, Sureshkumar, Prutha Bhosale, Shivpriya Jodha , Raju PeethalaSub Editors - Sneha Mejari, Apurva Venkat, Sushmita Sen, Sneha Bengani Picture Editors/ Design - Soumya Basu, Sreelakshmy Sivaram, Proof Readers - RahulSadhu. Social and emergency:Vaishnavi Desai, Saikat Ghosh. Email- editor@iijnm.org An IIJNM Publication (For Private Circulation)

EventsMUSIC

ART

FOOD

Cadence -2013, Around theWorld in 80 minutes

Award winning Harmony ChildrenChoir present a musical extrava-ganza to enthrall the audience.When: December 15, 2013Where: Jyoti Nivas Auditorium

Photograph PhotoshopContest 2014

A photography contest featuringwildlife, nature and culture pre-sented. When: Jan 31-Feb 2, 2014Where: Karnataka ChitrakalaParishat

Christmas Special BrunchSpecial brunch at Opus with popsensation Vivian all the way fromColumbia.When: December 15, 2013Where: Palace Orchads, Banga-lore

‘In Korea they treated me like God,but in India I am an ordinary man’On November 16, Government of India declared that Dr. Rao along with Sachin Tendulkar will be honored with the BharatRatna.

Awarded with the highest honor that can beawarded to an Indian civilian, Dr. Rao is thethird scientist in the country’shistory aer Dr. Kalam and Sir C.V.Raman to re-ceive it.

“I was attending a conference in Trivandrumwhen a fellow colleague informed me. Five min-utes later it was the Indian Prime Minister on thetelephone confirming the news.”

His journey with science began at the age ofseventeen when he read Linus Pauling’s ‘Natureof the Chemical Bond’. He has worked exten-sively with transition metal oxides, hybrid materials, nanomaterials and fi-nally graphene.

“I was the first one to begin researching ingraphene mimics. Now of course a lot of otherpeople in the world are working on it. In the lasttwo years I have been focusing primarily on artificial photosynthesis. I am try-ing to produce hydrogen and oxygen separatelyusing water as it happens in plants.”

At 79, Dr. Rao is the National Research Profes-sor, Founder and Honorary President of Jawa-harlal Nehru Centre for Advanced ScientificResearch, Director at International Centre forMaterial Science and the Chairperson of the Sci-entific Advisory Council to the Indian PrimeMinister. His day begins at 4:30 A.M. and heworks for six-and-a-half days a week.

“I do spend a lot of my time advising the PrimeMinister on what India should be doing, dis-cussing new proposals, projects, funding andsuggesting new ideas for improving science.Apart from that I work on my research.”

Dr. Rao has 60 Honorary Doctorates fromaround the globe and has authored 1500 re-search papers and 20 books, edited 28others. He has been presented with thePadma Shri and Padma Vibhushan,Hughes Medal, Indian ScienceAward, Medal by the Royal

Society and his‘h-index’ is a

whopping

108. “I enjoy what I do, particularly with young stu-

dents who are completing their Ph.D. It has beena wonderful, wonderful journey.”

Of all the roles he plays, he feels researchingand teaching are what fulfills him the most. “Iam a scientist-teacher. One does not exist with-out the other. e rest are other shades of myprofessional life. I would not have been able todevelop science without the help of my youngstudents.”

Convincing the government to bolster the de-velopment of science in India is no small feat.“Other countries are expanding pretty fast.China has improved vastly, a little country likeSouth Korea has grown so magnificently. equestion is not whether we are doing good, it is,are we doing good enough. e government hasdone a few things, however a lot more effort isrequired.”

He seems disappointed with Indian media. “In-dian media has done nothing to promote sci-ence. It has been ignored. e news is all aboutcricketers, actors or dirty politics. What I amworking on right now with a student is actuallybig news abroad, but unfortunately, not here. Weare trying to split water just like plants do underthe sun. Indian journalists should try to find outinteresting news, cover recent events regardingscience like foreign media.”

Despite being acknowledgedworldwide forhis intellect,his owncountry hasfailed to

appreciate his work.“When I went to Korea, theytreated me like god. I do not want to be god. But,yes, I do feel that my work is valued much moreinternationally than in India. In London, all theEuropean scientists will be celebrating my 80thbirthday in a special meeting. We recently hadRabindranath Tagore’s 100th anniversary ofbeing awarded the Nobel Prize this year. Imaginethis country, the only Nobel Laureate in Poetryand we did not celebrate it. What kind of coun-try is this?”

Looking back at his journey he reflects, “WhenI came back to India aer my post doctorate inBerkeley, I was a member of the staff in the In-dian Institute of Science. Back then India was avery poor country but I managed to do some re-search with a few students. Over the decades,there has been a lot of improvement but it hasbeen a very long journey and equally difficult. Inthe last 20-25 years I have had good equipmentsto work with and have done whatever I could,using the best of my ability.”

Dr, Rao’s comments about political leaderslanded him in a controversy recently. “I got upsetwhen someone said that I have been very angryand had an outburst but that isn’t true. I didn’teven use the word ‘idiot’, I said ‘idiotic’. at ishow I talk but someone twisted my words. If thisis the kind of media in our country then what doI do? Some of these people have no class. I havenever lied in my life.”

While the entire nation is keenly waiting forthe day he gets awarded with the Nobel Prize, heseems unperturbed. “I do not want to lose mysleep thinking of such issues. Recently the NobelCommittee in Chemistry had organized a sym-posium where I was one of the speakers. Amongothers present, four were Nobel Laureates, butsome of them spoke very badly. ey kept asking

me the similar question. I told them you knowbetter.”

Sneha Ghosh