KS Bhagawan's book on Lord Ram kicks up row; Right-wing outfits protest
Bengaluru, Dec 28: Right-wing organisations Friday staged a demonstration against academician and author K S Bhagawan, accusing him of depicting Lord Ram in poor light in his book and making derogatory references.
The Kannada book "Rama Mandira Yeke Beda" (Why Ram temple is not required) claims Ram was not a God and he suffered from weaknesses just as any other human being.
Bhagawan, who had courted controversy by making certain references to the Bhagavad Gita that are termed as "offensive" by right-wing outfits, has made unflattering observations about Ram's character in his book.
The author, however, defended his work, saying it was based on Valmiki's Ramayana.
Pro-Hindu activists staged a demonstration in front of his house Friday and courted arrest.
BJP's Karnataka unit also targeted Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy over his "silence" on the issue and demanded that Bhagawan be arrested immediately.
"Will @hd_kumaraswamy govt that arrested Journalist Santosh Thammaiah for speaking against fanatic Tippu also dare to arrest K S Bhagawan for abusing Lord Ram & his cheap statements on Hinduism. Why govt is protecting this offender by providing security instead of arresting?" the party tweeted.
State senior BJP leader and MLA S Suresh Kumar said in a Facebook post that the state government had two choices "either it should jail Bhagawan or send him to mental hospital".
Meanwhile, Kannada news channel journalist Ajith Hanumakkanavar received death threat from the operators of a Facebook page "Mangalore Muslims" for allegedly hurting their religious sentiments while debating on the book written by Bhagawan Thursday.
The admin of the Facebook page threatened the journalist to seek apology within two days in a live programme or else he would be killed.
As the book snowballed into a big controversy, police strengthened security around Bhagawan's house and asked him to avoid going to any place alone.
Speaking to PTI, Hanumakkanavar said he had decided to lodge a police complaint and seek protection.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
3 officials of private banks arrested in Gujarat in Rs 2,500 crore cyber fraud; 20 held so far
Rajkot (PTI): Three officials of leading private banks were arrested for their alleged involvement in a Rs 2,500-crore cyber fraud racket in Gujarat's Rajkot district, bringing the number of those held so far in the case to 20, police said on Monday.
Those arrested were identified as Maulik Kamani, a personal manager at Yes Bank in Padadhari; Kalpesh Dangariya, a manager at Axis Bank in Jamnagar; and Anurag Baldha, a personal banker with HDFC Bank, Rajkot (Rural) Superintendent of Police Vijay Gurjar said.
Dangariya and Baldha were previously employed with Yes Bank, he added.
Kamani allegedly assisted the earlier arrested accused in opening and managing suspicious accounts. He also helped bypass banking alerts triggered by high-value transactions by submitting additional documentation to keep accounts active, the SP said.
Kamani was allegedly involved in cash withdrawals that were later routed through hawala channels (illegal money transfer system), supported by digital evidence recovered from his mobile device, he added.
Dangariya is accused of facilitating the opening of fraudulent accounts using fake or misrepresented identities, police said.
He also assisted in structuring documentation, including Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC)-related papers, to prevent transactions from being flagged as suspicious, they said.
On the other hand, Baldha opened new accounts after verification and certification processes as part of the racket, Gurjar informed.
All the three accused are in police custody, while others are in jail under judicial remand, SP said.
So far, police have identified 85 bank accounts linked to the racket with 535 complaints filed on the cyber crime portal.
The total transaction linked to the cyber fraud exceeds Rs 2,500 crore, police said.
The earlier fraud amount was pegged by police at Rs 1,500 crore.
