VOL. 13 ISSUE 28 Thursday, April 03, 2014

PAGE 2 PAGE 3

Bloody scrawl accuses copsThe brother of the realtor who hanged himself after he poisoned his wife and children says he has not been given any information by police.

Kaushik Sharma injected poison into his wife and two children before hanging himself in the family home on March 28.

He wrote a four-page suicide note and also used his own blood to daub a written message on the wall of his apartment blaming senior cops and politicians for his actions.

It also emerged that the dead realtor’s niece, Sumegha, was the last person to speak to him alive. She reportedly found her dead uncle and his family the next morning.

Ramakrishna Reddy, elder brother of Kaushik Sharma said: “The cops haven’t told me anything about the investigation. I don’t even have a copy of the suicide note. Sumegha and I are heading to the commissioner’s office for getting to know more on the case. I don’t know why my brother did this.

“Sumegha has been crying since two days and hasn’t even eaten anything. Please try to respect my baby’s privacy as she is not in a condition to speak to anyone.”

Reddy is a real estate broker based in K.R Puram and hasn’t spoken to Kaushik for the past eight years. Kaushik had a twin brother, Santosh who died last year, in Andhra Pradesh. Sumegha, San-

tosh’s daughter, has been living above Reddy’s apartment in K.R Puram since her father’s death. Reddy said, “Kaushik has been paying Sumegha an amount of Rs.15,000 – 20,000 per month for her expenses. ”

Kaushik left a suicide note accus-ing and naming officials of Andhra Pradesh police, Central Crime Station (CCS).

Kaushik’s brother allegedly handled the black money of politicians, ac-cording to police sources. He was a real estate investor. The brother died last year and it’s believed the politi-cians lost all their money. The poli-ticians suspected Kaushik had their money.

The note says that members of CCS Hyderabad and some politicians came to Kaushik’s house and took him away to Hyderabad.

They questioned, tortured and threatened him for the money, ac-cording to the note. They asked him to get them money and dropped him back to his house on March 28. This pushed Kaushik to take the extreme step.

Kaushik wrote a message on the wall in his own blood, “Held Suresh AP police Reddy + CCS Hyd + rob our

money + site + gold.”Three kilograms of gold was found inside

Kaushik’s apartment. He owned two more prop-erties in Vakeel Garden City.

A case has been registered on Kaushik under section 302 for murdering his wife and children. There is another complaint registered for abet-ment of suicide on some “unnamed person”.

The case has now been transferred to CID for further investigation.

Despite repeated attempts, the commissioner of police was unavailable for comment.

The suicide note has now been sent to a forensic laboratory in Madiwala for further examination.

ApurvA venkAt & ShwetA nAir

three quarters of crimes against children go unsolvedInformation obtained from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) shows that only a quarter of recorded crimes against children are successfully resolved by the Children’s Court of Karnataka.

According to the latest reports of the NCRB, there is a 50 per cent increase in recorded cases of crimes against children each year. Only half of these reach the stage where a trial is held at court.

The records show that in 2013, 1508 cases of crimes against children were registered. Out of this number, the alleged offenders in only 414 cases underwent trial last year.

In a bid to tackle this issue, in 2012, the central government sanctioned a sum of Rs. 1 crore in or-der to set up the Children’s Court. The Court was set up in accordance to the guidelines specified by the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 (POCSO).

Despite repeated attempts, the Woman and Child Welfare Department declined to provide details regarding the usage of this fund.

The POCSO Act, 2012 states that, “The State government shall in consultation with the Chief Justice of the High Court, by notification in the Official Gazette, designate for each district a court of session to be a Special Court to try the offences under the Act.”

The Children’s Court which operates in the premises of the District Civil Court remains closed during office hours on week days.

Commenting on this, Sanjay, Officer-in- Charge, District Civil Court, said that the court remains closed because of “lack of cases in hand.”

A report prepared by the Asian Center for Hu-man Rights, which carried out an assessment of the manner in which the Children’s Court was functioning, stated that, “Juvenile justice re-mained deplorable. Juveniles were kept in the Observation Home for periods of time ranging from seven months to a year without being charge

sheeted.”The report added that “over seventy per cent of

the children in the observation home in Madiwala had long crossed the remand limit of six months (in accordance to the Juvenile Justice Act).”

Speaking about the matter, Sheila Devraj, Head of Child Line, a nationally-reputed child rights organization, said that Child and Juvenile Justice Courts lack judges and Special Public Prosecu-tors.

She added that, in addition to this, the judges need to be sensitive towards the children under trial.

“Cases under Narcotics, Drugs and Psychotro-pic Substances Act, 1985 are being tried in the same court, which violates the POCSO Act 2012”, she said.

According to her, Child Line has filed a number of petitions in order to get such cases registered at special courts under the POCSO Act but their efforts have been in vain.

(Continued on Page 4)

Suicide message written on the wall in blood : “Held Suresh AP police Reddy + CCS Hyd + rob our money + site + gold”

AuroSmitA AchAryA

Tanuja was rescued in 2006 but her case is still in court, eight years on

Sumegha, niece of Kaushik Shar-ma, in conversation with police.

Ananth kumar is a conspirator, says pramod muthalik

Student interns to campaign with congress party

The Weekly

Observer 2Thursday, April 3, 2014

Ending speculation concerning his role in the upcoming general elections, the city president of the Janata Dal ( Secular) (JDS) has con-firmed that senior politican C.K. Jaffer Sharief will be carrying out campaign programs in support of his party.

Sharief, who held the position of Union Rail-way Minister in the early nineties, is one of the senior most leaders of the Indian National Con-gress (INC) and has been representing the party for more than four decades.

According to recent reports, Sharief was un-happy when Congress party leaders refused to provide him with a ticket for the Bangalore Cen-tral constituency.

Subsequently, he reacted positively when he was asked whether he would consider joining the JD (S) in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections.

Following this, several reports have stated that the JD(S) has been deciding its election strategy and candidate lists in Bangalore with Sharief in mind.

Commenting on how Sharief ’s disagreement with the Congress would affect the Party’s elec-toral fortunes in the state, Roshan Baig, vice-president, Karnataka Pradesh Congress Com-mittee (KPCC) and a member of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly, said, “ This will not have any impact on our performance. I am crystal clear about that.

“We are all disturbed that a senior politician of his calibre has chosen to do what he is doing. He went to Mecca and prayed for the success of the JD(S). This has not gone down well with the Muslim community, the senior government leadership, NGO’s and sections of civil society. Had he prayed for the welfare of Muslims in the state, it would have been better,” he added.

Recently, Sharief undertook a pilgrimage to Mecca, the center of the Islamic religious world, after which, according to reports, he would “act

according to the wishes of God.”

Speaking exclusively to the ‘ Weekly Observer’ about the issue, K.J. George, Home Minister, Karnataka, and a member of the All India Con-gress Committee (AICC), stated that as Sharief had not yet made any public announcements regarding his resignation from the Congress he would not be able to comment any further upon the matter.

“He has not yet appeared on television or made any other public statements where he has said

that he is going to resign from the Congress and start working for the JD(S). Till such time he is a member of the Congress and we will continue to treat him as such,” he said.

However, upon being contacted, Ratan Singh, City President, JD (S), confirmed that Sharief was campaigning for his party and had been of-fered tickets for three constituencies within the state by the senior leadership of the JD (S).

“He is going to campaign for the JD(S). This will definitely have an impact with regard to the mi-nority community in the state as he has worked extensively for their benefit. He has given thou-sands of jobs and other opportunities. The JD(S) will benefit from this,”he said.

“Before his trip to Mecca, the Party leadership had given him candidate forms for three constit-uencies- Bangalore North, Central and Mysore. Our leader, Deve Gowda, is waiting for his reply with regard to his acceptance of these positions,” he added.

At present, due to the undecided nature of his recent political affiliations, Sharief has been the subject of much political speculation and con-troversy.

According to reports, Congress leaders have alleged that the entire episode is nothing more than ‘match-fixing’ on the part of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and the JD(S)- leading to an inevitable loss of Congress votes in the state.

Despite repeated attempts, Sharief was unavail-able for comment.

“He went to Mecca and prayed for the success of JD(S)”Bhaskar dutta

Pramod Muthalik has named BJP leader Ananth Kumar as the conspirator re-sponsible for his ousting from the party.

Muthalik, former Ram Sene chief, said that the BJP’s South Bangalore candidate Kumar played a key role in sidelining him from the party and that he was behind the ousting of Yeddyurappa too.

“He wants to create a name for himself. That is why he is targeting prominent ‘Hindutva’ leaders from the state. Not just me, he was also phenomenal in ousting Yeddyurappa,” he said.

“He doesn’t play politics in front of you, all his games are played behind your back, it is his conspiracy,” he added.

He said that he will be fighting Ananth Kumar as an independent and that Kumar will lose this time.

Following his removal he has announced that he will test electoral waters as an independent candidate from two Lok Sabha constituencies, Dharwad and South Bangalore.

Muthalik was inducted into the BJP on March 23 but after media outrage over the infamous Mangalore pub attack by Ram Sene members, senior leaders from the BJP refused to accept his membership and he was ousted that same day.

Muthalik has expressed his support for banning cow slaughter and believes west-ern culture is destroying India.

“Cow is like mother to us, she gives us milk and food, we are an agricultural na-tion, we will not tolerate this (slaughter) and it must be banned,” said Muthalik.

Adding that western culture is corrupt-ing youngsters in the country, he said, “We have our own culture. Western culture has spread only to destroy ours. Our young men and women are getting misled.”

Expressing surprise over the turn of the events leading to his removal, Muthalik said, “Everybody knew everything, I talked to RSS and VHP leaders, and they knew I am supporting Narendara Modi for Prime Minister.”

He said that parties across the state

including JD(S), Congress and BJP have nothing new to offer. “Everybody knows these parties, but they also know who Pra-mod Muthalik is. I am fighting for 40 years for ‘Hindutva’ and people respect leaders like us and want us to come to power. I am very positive about my prospects in Dharwad.”

Highlighting the challenges confronting an independent candidate, he said, “BJP has money, they have a system in place by which they reach people, but I have nothing except my party workers. We are people with ideologies but how can I spread this to people if I don’t have the money to campaign?”

saikat ghosh

C.K. Jaffer Sharief (left) and K.J. George, State Home Minister

Muthalik blames Ananth Kumar for his exit from BJP

Pramod Muthalik , who criticized Ananth Kumar for his exit

“No one in the Congress has a corrupt mind like Modi”

“Modi has a corrupt mind,” said Professor and writer U.R. Ananthamurthy in a press conference he had organized along with veteran Kannada actor Girish Karnad, Prof. Siddaramaiah and few oth-ers, to propagate against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its prime-ministerial candidate.

He added: “He has a cyber army which propagates untrue facts among people. People like Jaswant Singh are gentlemen in the BJP. Jaswant Singh once said that he is ashamed of what happened in Gujarat. I am not saying that Congress is not cor-rupt. But no one in the Con-gress has a corrupt mind like Modi. I am against develop-ment, I am for sarvodya (prog-ress for all) and I don’t believe in Gujarat’s development. If he becomes Prime Minister, it will be a big threat to the diverse Indian culture.”

Prof. Siddaramaiah said: “If Modi becomes Prime Minister,

it’s not only bad for India, it is bad for the entire world. He is a fascist; U.S should not give visa to him. Between 2002 and 2013 Gujarat’s total debt has increased from Rs. 42, 780 crore to Rs. 1, 76,490 crore. The students’ dropout percent-age has risen to 57.9 percent and particularly the dropout ratio among scheduled caste students is 56 percent.”

Another activist, Siddappa said: “States like Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra are truly developed but not Gujarat. I am not favoring Congress. In fact none of us except Mukaya Manthri Chandru are members of Congress. I won’t ask the people of Tamil Nadu or Bihar to vote for Congress.”

Writer and President of Women Writers Association Vasundhara Bupathi said: “Modi’s body language itself tells that he is anti-women. If he cannot look after his wife, how can he look after the na-tion?”

suresh kumar

U.K.Ananthamurthy with Girish Karnad

Cartoonist Balraj K N illustrates the serious war of words between politicians ahead of the polls.

The Weekly

Observer 3 Thursday, April 03, 2014

One hundred students from across the city have signed up for a political internship program started by a senior professor at a reputed man-agement college in the city.

The effort is to provide insight and perspective to bright young minds inter-ested in the field of politics.

Professor Rajeev Gowda teaches economics and social sciences at the Indian Institute

of Management, Bangalore (IIM-B). He started this initia-tive to increase political aware-ness among young people last year when he launched the Po-litical Action Internship dur-ing the state assembly elections.

He has also served as a na-tional spokesperson for the Con-gress in the past and is currently a Media Panelist for the All India Congress Committee (AICC).

The response he received then was decent, with around 40 students signing up for the program. This year, however,

the number has gone up to 100.“I am very happy to see

that young minds from the city have understood the im-portance of their involvement in politics and have taken it upon themselves, with help from us, to learn the tricks of the trade,” said Prof Gowda.

He added that approxi-mately 40 students have al-ready joined the program, while the remaining lot will join by the end of this week, once their examinations are over.

Speaking about the pro-gram itself, Gowda said that the students will attend talks by prominent personalities and will learn everything about the election process; formulating campaign strategy, campaign-ing, and exit poll analysis.

He added that since cam-paigning cannot be done with multiple parties at once, he has chosen to campaign with the Congress Party.

Varun, a member of Prof. Gowda’s NGO, Resurgence In-dia, said: “The program has al-ready started and the students are all looking very excited to be a part of this. We are expect-ing more to join by the end of this week, by which time their

examinations will be over.”Talking about the impor-

tance of youth involvement in politics, Gowda said: “It is essential that students of this generation get involved in politics and governance. They are our future after all. If stu-dents from all over the coun-try take matters into their own hands and delve into politics, our country will become a bet-ter place in the years to come.”

Shilpa, one of the students who have been selected for this program, joined it after completing her 12th grade. She is 17 and has already been accepted by Kings College, London for a course in poli-tics and philosophy and has enrolled herself for this pro-gram to gain some experience.

She said: “This has been a great experience so far. I have learnt a lot of new things about the electoral process and the structure of our democracy. I have, to an extent, also rid myself of the fear I had about talking to strangers. They have made us go for door-to-door campaigns for Nanadan Nilekani and this has helped me gain a lot of confidence.”

Mariam Daniels, a 67-year-

old enrollee in this program, said: “I have always been in-terested in getting to know the electoral process better and this program has finally provided me an opportunity to do so. People of my age, se-nior citizens that is, are usually cynical about the whole thing and have therefore decided for themselves that it is pointless to vote. I want to go and tell them that it is extremely important for them to vote and that they should take some initiative if they wish to see a difference.”

Shruti Kedia, a working member of Resurgence In-dia and a program organizer with Political Action Intern-ship, said: “We are teaching all the students the concept of research. We make them go through data and analyze it in order to understand the funda-mentals of the electoral process and its outcome. This, we be-lieve, is essential because most people here don’t even know what a Member of Parliament is and what his/her duties are.”

Students from across city to monitor Congress in its bid for power in statePranay Lakshminarasimhan

Rizwan Arshad, Congress candidate from Bangalore Central with interns after a discussion

Leaflet of Political Action Internship 2014

Malaria toll halved in six years

Karnataka state is on the verge of eradicating vector-borne diseases, according to an of-ficial from the Department of Health and Family Welfare.

Dr. H.C. Ramesh, the proj-ect director for Karnataka Health and Family Welfare Services, said: “Vector-borne diseases are not amongst the health concerns in Karnataka. Vector-borne diseases like ma-laria and dengue are complete-ly under control in the state.”

“Filaria,Parasitic disease, caused by round worms, is among the highest of vector-borne diseases in Karnataka and we will eradicate that dis-ease within 2-3 years,” he added.

Speaking on districts which are highly vulner-able to vector borne diseases, Ramesh, said: “Bellary and Shimoga are highly vulnerable

and we are conducting aware-ness camps to curb the disease at the earliest. Mangalore and Udupi have the highest num-ber of malarial cases in the state due to huge construction of buildings and industries.”

“We organized special vaccination service camps throughout the state and that is how we managed to reduce the rate of some of the vec-tor-borne diseases like ma-laria and dengue,” he added.

When asked about the preparations for “World Health day”, he said: “We are conducting a state level work-shop at Bangalore Medical College and there is a severe necessity to spread awareness in rural Karnataka regarding the vector-borne diseases.”

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), every year, more than a billion people are infected and more than a million people die from

vector-borne diseases which in-clude malaria, dengue, schisto-somiasis, leishmaniasis, chagas disease, yellow fever, lymphat-ic filariasis and onchocerciasis.

One sixth of the illness and disability suffered world-wide is due to vector-borne diseases, with more than half the world’s population cur-rently estimated to be at risk of these diseases. In India there were a total of 6989 ma-larial deaths from 2006-2011.

Every year April 7 is ob-served as “World health day” and the theme for this year is “vector-borne diseases”. Kani-ka, an assistant in the commu-nications department at WHO India, said “We are organiz-ing several awareness camps throughout India to curb vec-tor-borne diseases. In India, the number is on a decreasing plot when it comes to vector-borne diseases, which is a good sign.”

raju PeethaLa

French diplomat still using his office despite rape claim suspension, says wife

Pascal Mazurier held a meet-ing at the French consulate in Bangalore despite being sus-pended over claims he raped his own daughter, according to his wife.

Mazurier’s estranged wife Suja Jones is demanding an-swers after her husband – ac-cused of raping their three-and-half-year-old daughter

– held a meeting there with the family car insurance firm.

Mazurier, according to the prosecution team, is breaking Indian law if he is still employed by the French government and only suspended in name.

The French Consulate had earlier confirmed Ma-zurier was suspended until his case was heard. But his wife, Suja Jones, maintains that he continues to draw a

salary from the consulate. Doubts about the suspen-

sion emerged when Suja Jones was contacted by the fam-ily’s car insurance company.

Jones said, “My husband asked them to come and meet him at the consulate during working hours. If he is still sus-pended, then how could he ask them to meet him at work?”

A spokeswoman for the French Consulate said that Mazurier was still suspended and did not come to the office.

Puroshottam, a lawyer from the prosecution team, said “If Mazurier is still working with the consulate then it is against the law as the French govern-ment cannot employ him until he is cleared of his charges.”

However, Mazurier on being asked about meeting people about his car insur-ance, said, “I am a French citizen. I can go the consul-ate whenever necessary.”

He was unable to provide any conclusive answers about why he would call people to meet him at the consulate if he was visiting the place in the ca-pacity of being a French citizen.

anannya sarkar

File picture of Mazurier when he was arrested in June 2012. Courtesy: KPN news agency

3 injured in gas cylinder explosionThree people were injured when a gas cylinder exploded last night in a warehouse in Whitefield.

Ravi, Fire Station Officer, Mahadevapura said: “The ware-house was used for refilling small gas cylinders. There were more than 50 cylinders inside it. The cylinders exploded around 10.45 pm due to a gas leakage. Three people working in the

warehouse were injured in the blast and were immediately taken to Victoria Hospital.”

Three fire engines were sent to the location to douse the flames and it took more than an hour to bring the fire under control.

A staff member at the burns ward in Victoria Hospital said: “The three people were shifted to Vydehi Hospital this morn-ing for further treatment. The three of them have serious in-

juries but one of them is criti-cal with 62 per cent burns.”

Mahadevapura Fire Sta-tion has filed a complaint at Whitefield Police Station.

Ravi said: “The owner named Rajesh resides in Ra-jasthan. He is on his way to Bangalore and his phone is not reachable. Whether the ware-house was authorized or not would be known only after the owner reaches Bangalore.”

mayuri j. raVi

The Weekly

Observer 4 Thursday, April 03, 2014

EVENTS

Observer Team: Editor– Anand Jain, Tanisha Das Chief Sub Editor-Chitharth Mathivanan, Prutha Bhosle News Editors - Gaurav Kumar, Pranay Lakshminarsimhan, Raju Peethala, Nikita Narvekar, Apurva Venkat, Sub Editors– Neha Singh, Anagha Sawant, Karishma Ravindran, Ishan Bhattacharya, Shweta Nair, Sushmita Sen and Sneha Mejari Picture Editor & Design Desk – Saikat Ghosh, Soumya Basu, Mayuri J. Ravi Reporters–Bhaskar Dutta, Anannya Sarkar, Rahul Sadhu, Suresh Kumar Email- editor@iijnm.org An IIJNM Publication (For Private Circulation)

THEATRE

Gandhi vs. GoswamiA political thriller comedy, Gandhi vs. Goswami takes a look at the nation`s biggest bat-tle between Prime time’s biggest name going against the coun-try’s biggest political dynasty.Venue: ADA Rangamandira, JC Road When: April 6, Sunday, 7:00 PM Onwards

Exhibition of PaintingBangalore - Swinging in

the 70sThe Indian Institute of Car-toonist presents an exhibition of Paul Fernandes cartoons that pay tribute to Bangalore in the 1970s.Where: Indian Institute of Car-toonists, MG Road When: Upto April 8

ART

Music

Yanni LiveYanni, who claims to be mak-ing musical history as this century`s most original and successful composer and musi-cian, performs in India for the second time in almost two de-cades. Wow.Where: White Orchid, HebbalWhen: Apr 18, Friday, 8:00 PM

Romeo and Juliet - No Strings Attached No Strings Attached is a com-edy built on the premise that we are all bound by strings that hold us back and set us free.Where: Jagriti Theatre, White-field When: April 20, Sunday

Scrap dealer cleans up in two-wheeler sales from city copsA scrap metal company which buys abandoned and recovered vehicles from city police stations has hiked its profits by 45 crore in just four years.

The slow-turning wheels of justice in the city are a godsend to MSTC Ltd, which buys the vehicles – mainly two-wheelers – at a knockdown price.

Thefts in Bangalore have proven to be a loss not just for the owners, but for the government too.

With police investigations taking as long as 20 years to complete, areas around sta-tions have become metal graveyards for rusty, dusty two-wheelers and cars.

Sometimes they are dumped in spare land next to the police station but they are also left abandoned on footpaths out-side.

Upparpet police recovered a stolen two wheeler from Dodballapur recently. The original complaint of theft was filed in 1997. The owner has changed his address and police are unable to trace him.

Outside the same police station, some 80 vehicles have been left to gather dust.

Siddha Raju, a constable at Upparpet station, said that these vehicles lie on the same spot for three months to four years. The Upparpet Police Station stopped auctioning one year back. Recently, they sold 20 two-wheelers to MSTC Limited, a scrap dealing company.

S.R. Bhuwalka, M.D. of Success Global Private Limited, a company that deals in scrap, said that a used two-wheeler will earn a maximum of Rs. 5000.

The same second-hand vehicles are worth Rs. 20000 on average in trad-ing services like OLX and Quikr. This means, the government suffers a loss of over Rs.15000 for every two wheeler. Po-lice say the reason is the delay in obtain-ing court orders.

“The value of these vehicles depreciates massively and it’s a loss for the govern-ment, but we can’t help it,” he said.

At Cottonpet Police Station, there are 65 vehicles stored on the footpaths out-side. The number of vehicles has been increasing every year since 1998.

There are other reasons for vehicles landing up at stations, Siddha Raju ex-

plains. If an owner is insured, he would claim his loss from the insurer, but the insurer never claims the vehicle. So the police are forced to store it. Also, if the thief has altered the vehicle number, it is difficult to track its original number.

“A stolen two-wheeler we found recent-ly had a number that matched that of a car. So, clearly one of the numbers had been faked. It’s hard to know which,” he added. In such cases, the Karnataka Po-lice Act 1998 states that the police must file an FIR.

In all of these circumstances, the police wait for courts to close the case and de-clare that the vehicle is “fit for auction.” Auctions take six months to commence, after permission from courts has been granted. “I don’t understand why it takes so long. We just need to notify people – that does not take so long. This does not happen everywhere,” Murthy, a constable at Cottonpet Police station said.

“Regional Transport Offices perform checks and determine the minimum value of each vehicle before auction, and auctions are fixed. But by that time, which can be years, vehicle value depre-

ciates.”

In some cases, vehicles become unfit to use. And therefore, cannot be auctioned. “In these cases, we trade it to the scrap dealer, MSTC. They extract all the metal they like, and dispose what is not need-ed,” Siddha Raju said. “This amounts for losses, but we are helpless.”

MSTC has seen an increase in profits. In 2009, profit stood at 85 crore. After rising constantly for five years, it stood at Rs. 130 crore in 2013.

The income from sales in 2013 was 6111 crore.

Nemichand, who found his lost car, said: “I can wait if my vehicle has not been recovered. But if it does not reach me even after being found, it would make me furious.”

To solve the issue of changed number plates and complainants changing ad-dress, the government is planning to re-lease the status of all vehicle FIRs online, at www.vahan.nic.in. The website is a good way for owners to track their as-set, but it is far from being developed, as of now.

Dozens of dusty two-wheelers opposite Upparpet Police Staion. Sales are delayed by red tape

AnAnd jAin

Only a quarter of our city children get justice at court

Lakshapathy, a child activist said: “The court remain closed on most of the days due to lack

of cases, while I personally know at least 50 of the cases for which I stand as a witness have

not even been charge sheeted. In 2008 our organization rescued 12 children from a brick kiln in Chickballapur. It was only in last October that the case had its first hearing.”

According to him, by the time the cases appear in courts, ac-tivists such as him were unable to figure out the location of the victims.

“As the children grow up they are reluctant to attend court proceedings. It also happens that many times the case is dis-missed and the accused gets sufficient time to manipulate all the evidence and influence the decision of the court”, he added.

Emphasizing on the manner in which the judicial system

suffers from innumerable de-lays (especially with regard to

crimes against children), Devraj described a rescue carried out by Child Line in 2010.

Sheena (name changed), who originally hails from Mumbai, was sent to Bangalore to work by her mother.

Her employer beat her and locked her up in a dog’s cage. During this time, she tried to kill herself three times.

Her case has not yet been charge sheeted.

Children Court in Bangalore operates within the premises of the city civil court complex.

Lakshapthy, a child activist

continued from page 1

Year No. of Vehicles added

19982001200420062007200820092010201120122013

ToTal

+2+1+2+1+2+4+3+7+26+7+10

65

Source: Cottonpet Police Station