Police are investigating the death of a 12-year-old girl who collapsed at the home of a woman who had allegedly em-ployed her illegally.

Kavi, from Gulbarga, had spent 11 months in the woman’s home as payment in kind after the homeowner paid her sister’s medical expenses, according to the NGO involved.

The schoolgirl died of cardiac arrest at a city hospital yester-day.

According to Childline, a hel-pline for children in distress, Kavi (name changed) used to work as domestic help for the past 11 months. On January 27, the NGO received a tip off about the girl.

Gunasheela, from Childline, said that the girl belongs to Gul-barga district and she used to work as a domestic help at an employer’s house at Halasuru. The employer, Indira, works as a receptionist at Kidwai Memo-rial Institute of Oncology.

“They knew it was illegal yet they employed the girl. I filed

a complaint with Halasuru Po-lice Station on January 28 and the First Information Report has been registered. The hos-pital registration book showed the girl’s age as 12 years,” she added.

According to Childline, there were blood clots on her ears and neck when they visited her at the hospital. She was first ad-mitted at Chinmaya Mission Hospital and was then shifted to Family Hospital at Mathikere where she was declared dead by doctors on January 29.

Deepak, Indira’s husband, the second accused in the FIR, said: “She never used her at her place as a domestic help. It is a false allegation on us. She only used to visit our house at times but never stayed here permanently. We want to get out of this mess. We are very stressed out right now.”

Nandappa, Kavi’s brother, said that she suffered from epilepsy before working as domestic help at Indira’s place.

“We treat Indira as our own family member. In the past they have helped us financially

as well. We trust Indira, hence I left my sister at her place and she has been living at her place since past three years” he add-ed.

According to the victim’s brother and the doctor from Family Hospital, the girl was

16-year-old but the medical re-ports from Chin-

maya Hospital c l a i m e d that the

girl was 12-year-old. Dr. Paramesh, surgeon at Fam-

ily Hospital said, “Kavi passed away at 12:45 am on January 29 due to cardiac arrest and she was also suffering from a bleeding disorder. Due to this, she developed clots in her brain and was comatose. We will be receiving her post mortem in a few days.”

Gunasheela said that they en-tered Indira’s house at Jogupalya near Halasuru with police offi-cers . Indira accepted that the girl used to work as domestic help at her place and told the NGO that they treated Kavi as their own child.

Indira told the NGO and cops that the girl suffered from epi-lepsy and was admitted to the hospital after she collapsed on January 24 while drying clothes on the terrace.

Edward Thomas, member of Karnataka State Commission for Protection of Child Rights

( K S C P C R ) said, “We have been g e t t i n g c o m -

plaints from people. It is the duty of the parents to take care of the child. We had asked the police to investigate the case. We will form a committee and then investigate the case.” He said that it was difficult to un-derstand why they left the child at the employers place.

M.H Naagthe, police inspec-tor, Halasuru Police Station said, “We will investigate the case. The girl’s parents seem to have willingly left the child at the employers place. The girl’s mother works as a coolie and she does not have a father.

The girl’s family told us that Indira bore the expenses dur-ing Kavi’s sister’s tumor surgery and hence they left Kavi at the employer’s place so that she takes care of her.”

The police added, “We have registered a case under the sec-tions, Juvenile Justice Act, 2000 and Child Labor Act, 1986”

Indira declined to comment when contacted by the Weekl.y Observer.

Kavi was rushed to Family Hospital on Monday but died yesterday after a cardiac arrest. Police officers with Indira’s mother at the house where Kavi worked as a maid

VOL. 13 ISSUE 24 Thursday, January 30, 2014

KARISHMA RAVINDRAN

They knew it was illegal yet

they employed the girl.

- Gunasheela, Childline

‘ Indira, who is at the centre of a police probeemployed Kavi at her Ban-galore home. She declined to comment on the girl’s sudden death.

Cops probe death of 12-year-old

Alcohol worth Rs20 lakh spirited away, three ar-

rested

Young girls from Rajast-han risk their safety during

wedding displays.

PAGE 2 PAGE 4

The Weekly

Observer 2Thursday, January 30, 2014

Police probe fierce gang attack on mechanic

Four men allegedly tried to murder a man near Lourdes School on January 21.

Puneet, 25, in his First Infor-mation Report stated, “At 1 in the afternoon when I was going for some work, my bike stopped near Lourdes School and was not starting after repeated at-tempts.

I took my vehicle to the near-by shop to get it repaired when four men named Kitta, Sanjay, Naga and Ajith alias Arjun, whom I know, came to me and held me. One of them shouted

‘he is the one’ and all of them began to attack me.”

The report stated that he was beaten up and they stabbed him with a knife on the right side of his head, right side of his stomach and left leg and ran away. His friends Janardhan and Karthik also ran away from the spot but after sometime they came back and took him to Victoria Hospital.

He requested the police to take immediate action against the four men. Manjunath, In-spector, Halasuru Gate Police Station, said, “Investigation is still going on. We have traced one of the accused, we are try-ing to nab him.”

Siddappa, Puneet’s father said: “I do not why they attacked my son and he is not telling me anything.”

Puneet was shifted to Bowring Hospital on January 28.

The case has been registered at Halasuru Gate Police Station and is under investigation. The four accused have been booked under Section 307, 34 of the In-dian Penal Code.

Mayuri J. ravi

Alcohol worth 20 lakh stolen

alcohol worth rs 20 lakhs was stolen from united Spirits Limited in Kumbalgodu. Last week, Kumbalgodu po-lice station seized a few bottles of alcohol and arrested three people who were involved in the case.

Deepak R., Sub Inspector, Kumbalgodu police station, said: “Five months back, there was a case reported to us. Al-cohol that was sent for trans-portation from the factory was stolen in a lorry. We were doing investigation for the past five months and finally caught the accused last week.”

He added, “Three people were caught last week and are presently in Central Jail. They had 18 similar cases registered against them. It seems like a big network, they take alcohol in trucks for transportation some-where on the outskirts of the

city, stop the vehicle and take away the alcohol, they consume some and sell the rest.”

The three accused Roope-sha, Srinivasa and Harisha are booked under the sections 405 and 406 of the Indian Pe-nal Code. The laws pertain to criminal breach of trust. If they are found guilty under these sections, the accused will be punished with imprisonment of minimum three years with or without a fine.

Deepak said, “While we re-covered the lorry in which the alcohol was stolen we could not recover much of the alcohol bottles. We just recovered a few Old Tavern Whiskey bottles from Hassan.”

When United Spirits was asked about the incident they said that they would not wish to reveal anything on the issue. The issue is under the excise de-partment.

Puneet, the victim who was attacked by four men

Farmers rally for overdue land payments from railway board

Farmers took to the streets of Bangalore to protest against the government for not giving them proper compensation for their lands.

Lands located in places like Tumkur, Sheray and Madhu-kara were taken from farmers for laying down railway tracks. The farmers claim that in ac-cordance with the deal they had with the government they were suppose to receive compensa-tion of Rs 20 lakh to 1crore 40 lakh.

They added that as of now

they have received 50 per cent of what had been promised in lieu of their land.

The farmers staged a rally from the Majestic Railway Sta-tion to Freedom Park.

Byya Reddy G.C, Vice Presi-dent, Karnataka Prantha Raitha Sangha (KPRS), said: “Our lands were taken for laying down tracks but the govern-ment failed to pro-vide agreed compen-sation.

“We took out this rally to demand the compensation we were supposed to get.”

Shankar, a farmer from Tumkur, said: “Mr.Raja, who was the former collector of our district, told the railways to give us Rs 1.2 crore per acre as compensation for our lands.

But for some reason it was refused. Now

they are offering us only a sum of rupees 5 to 6 lakhs per acre which we refused.”

Ravish, a farmer from Oora-karaye said: “Over 20 acres have been acquired from our village. The compensation they are giv-ing us is much lower than the market price, so we refused to accept.”

Harish, a farmer from Anna-

halli said: “Railways acquired about 380 acres in the districts of Tumkur and Raichur for lay-ing railway track and building a junction. This started in the year 2007 when they served us a notice to acquire land from us.

“They agreed to give market price for our lands, but now they are refusing.”

chitharth & SureSh

Farmers stage a rally at Freedom Park today

apurva venKatThe accused: Harisha, Roopesha, Srinivasa

Shankar, farmer

The Weekly

Observer 3Thursday, 30 January, 2014

‘Understaffed’ fire dept reveals 66cr property lost

In the past two years property worth more than Rs 66 crore was lost due to fire break outs in Bangalore.

More than 20 people were killed and 112 oth-ers were critically in-jured by fire in the two years, according to the city’s Chief Fire Officer.

In 2013 and 2012 prop-erty amounting to Rs 10, 7852,350 crore and Rs 55, 40,52,232 crore was lost due to fire, CFOO , West Zone, said.

In the past four years the CFOO received 6993 fire calls and 1118 rescue calls out of which 1545 fire calls and 284 rescue calls came in the year 2013.

One worker died at a construction site in Ka-manhalli on January 7 this year after the roof of the building collapsed, the CFOO West said.

In another incident that took place in March 25, 2013, five workers of

a company named SR Citing Systems, locat-ed on Magadi Road, died because of a fire which was triggered by a short circuit.

Guru Prasanna, a fire official in CFOO West, said: “Fire calls are the calls we receive when people inform us about a fire break out. “Rescue calls most of the time are very urgent as these calls mean that peo-ple are trapped under building debris.

“Recently in Banga-lore there have been many cases of build-ings collapses.”

He said: “The maxi-mum number of fire calls in the past four years came in 2012. We attended 2000 fire calls and 246 rescue calls in 2012.”

Guru said: “The main cause of fire in Banga-lore is short-circuits. Cylinder blasts are an-other common cause of fire in the city.

“We have also got cases

where fire has been will-ingly ignited.”

Abhishek Dutta, store manager of Van Heu-sen, Meenakshi Mall, said: “Open wire boxes and sprouting wires are a very common scene in Bangalore.

“There are lots of kids in my neighborhood in Arekare. Their parents often feel scared when

they play on the streets as the place is filled with open wire boxes.”

K.L .Markande yulu Chief Fire Officer, West Bangalore said that Ban-galore fire department is ‘highly understaffed’ and that they are fac-ing problems because of that.

He blamed the growing population of the city for

the fire accidents.

Warehouse at Peenya gutted by fire in September 2013.

Bangalore Fire Department is ‘highly understaffed’ and is

facing prob-lems because of that.

- K.L.Markandeyulu,Chief Fire Officer, West Bangalore

‘

Woman allegedly murdered for gold

ISHANBHATTACHARYA

A 63-year-old wom-an was found dead in her home on Tuesday night.

Kodamma, a resi-dent of Mahadevapu-ra, was found dead and her jewellery missing. The police were informed about the incident at 11 pm by her son Srinivas.

Police suspect that the woman was murdered for her

jewellery. J. Gautham, Police Inspector,

Mahadevapura Police Station said, “Kodamma’s son lived on the first floor while she lived on the ground floor. He said that he had seen his mother last on Monday night at around 8:30 pm. When he did not hear from his mother the entire day on Tuesday, he went to her floor at 7:30 pm and opened the door with a duplicate key. On en-tering the house, he found his mother lying dead.”

He added, “Her jewellery was missing and there were stran-

gulation marks on her neck.”The inspector added, “Her

two gold chains, four golden bangles and a pair of golden earrings were missing. The to-tal theft of gold amounted to 90 grams.”

A general store owner near the house said, “Kodamma did not talk much to people but she used to go for morning and evening walks daily.”

There are two police officials posted at the house. Ravindra, a constable said, “Since the lady was recently murdered we are guarding it.”House of Kodamma, victim.

SNEHA MEJARI

‘We attended 2000 fire calls and 246 rescue calls in 2012.

- Guru Prasanna, fire official

The Weekly

Observer 4Thursday, 30 January, 2014

MUSIC

THEATRE

ART

Events

Love, Sex and Section 377 is a sat-ire on the Supreme Court’s judgement that criminalized sexual intercourse of same sex cou-ples.Date: 2 FebruaryTime: 6 p.m.Venue: Alliance Francaise, Vasanth-nagar

Bengaluru Tree Festival exhibits a variety of trees to signify their exis-tence.Date: Sat, 8 FebTime: 7.30 a.m. onwardsVenue: Government Museum and Ven-katappa Art gallery

Violin and Piano show by Martina Lohmann from Bra-zil Date: Feb, 7 Time: 6:45 p.m.Venue: Alliance de Francaise

Schoolgirl showgirls risk safety at wedding shows

Observer Team: Editor–Mayuri J. Ravi Chief Sub Editor-Ishan Bhattacharya Sub Editors– Anagha Sawant, Anand Jain, Neha Singh News Editors - Nikita Narvekar, Annanya Sarkar Picture Editor & Design Desk – Karishma Ravindran Reporters– Sneha Mejari, Chitharth Mathivanan, Bhaskar Dutta Proof Reader– Anannya Sarkar Email- editor@iijnm.org An IIJNM Publication (For Private Circulation)

Over 25 school buses were penalized by the Regional Transport Of-fice for improper main-tenance, over a period of five months, after a crackdown on the safe-ty of these vehicles.

The total amount of money collected as fine by the RTO from these buses during the five-month period, from Au-gust 2013 to December 2013, amounted to Rs

48, 653. The 27 school buses

were penalized for not maintaining the vehicles according to the stan-dards set by the Motor Vehicle Act, 1988.

Speaking to The Week-ly Observer, about a recently seized school bus which was being used despite a shattered emergency exit window in Rajajinagar, CT Mur-thy, Regional Transport Officer, said: “We have issued a notice to the

school regard-ing this and have can-celled its fitness cer-tificate. The school bus has to be produced before us within 20 days to get a fresh fit-ness cer-

tificate for the vehicle.”He added: “The inci-

dent took place 11 days ago. It takes two or three days to repair the shat-tered window. But the school bus is not in a working condition yet. It is getting repaired in a garage. After it is re-paired and the mainte-nance of the bus is ex-amined, we will issue a fitness certificate.”

In the past six months, the maintenance of around 351 buses from schools and colleges have been examined.

Out of these 351 buses, 53 buses in the month of August, 46 buses in September and 252 buses in December were checked.

Commenting on this, Murthy said: “We exam-ine the school buses in our area after every one or two months and book them under the Motor

Vehicle Act, 1988, if not maintained properly. The educational insti-tution buses include private buses used for school purposes, which are also checked at regu-lar intervals by the same parameters.”

Safety comes first, says CT Murthy. He said, “It is not just the responsi-bility of the authority. Public should be aware of road safety.”

The RTO officer added: “We have two responsi-bilities, one to educate people about road safety, and second to inspect the maintenance of the vehicles. In order to solve the problem, we had conducted an interactive workshop for school bus drivers and assistants during the checking pe-riod. We told them how to maintain the vehicle and what to do during an emergency.”

State clampdown on school busesANAGHA SAWANT

Decorated head-to-toe with grand make-up and heavy cloth-ing, class 5 girls are brought to the city from Rajasthan to per-form risky shows at wedding re-ceptions.The show involves having the 12-year-old girls spin huge cycle tires on one leg, dance on blunt swords and balance chunks of mud pots, among other things. They are called here by a folk art group called Marwar Swar Sangam.

Deepika, a 12-year-old girl who was part of the crew said: “When-ever there is a program, I miss school. I do about 15 programs in a month.”

That means, Deepika misses at least half of her school hours due to these programs, including trav-el hours.

The owner of Marwar Swar

Sangam, Suresh Pareek said: “We charge Rs.61, 000 for a live pro-gram, which includes orchestra, sound system, three singers and four dancers.”

When asked about the age of these dancers, three of whom are girls, Suresh said: “They are about 16 to 18, sorry, 18 to 20 years old.”

A cameraman in their team said: “There is nothing wrong about these girls being so young. They are getting a chance, and that’s a big thing.”

These shows violate the Indian Child Labor (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986, which states that children below 14 years

of age cannot work in ‘hazardous’ conditions.

The Act also states that if children below 14 years of age are em-ployed, they “shall not be permitted or re-quired to work between 7pm and 8am

Since most of these acts are performed dur-ing wedding receptions, they start only after 8 p.m. and continue until

11pm.A show which was held in Bas-

veshwarnagar on January 20, started at 8.30pm. and went on till 11pm.

Dr. Sachin Sinha, from Narain Sewa Sansthan, an NGO that works for the development of children, said: “A lot of things are involved here. All of this comes under event management. As of now, we have no parameters to measure these acts. We cannot take action just because one or two people are saying it is wrong. He added: “This entire issue falls under entertainment. Whether on TV, on stage, or anywhere else, it is only seen as entertainment.”

‘I miss school whenever there is a program. I do about 15 programs a month.

ANAND JAIN

Suresh Pareek, with his employee.