VC fund CEO dies after smartphone explodes while charging
In another tragic incident caused by smartphones, Cradle Fund CEO Nazrin Hassan died after one of his phones exploded while charging. Cradle Fund is owned by the Malaysian Ministry of Finance. Hassan was using BlackBerry and Huawei smartphones. Both the smartphones were kept on charging in Hassan’s bedroom. The explosion led to a fire on the mattress in the room and the impact was so devastating that it was difficult to identify as to which of the two smartphones actually exploded due to overheating.
The family's version
Incidentally, according to Hassan’s brother-in-law the death was apparently not caused by the fire. The relative said on social media that when one of the smartphones exploded, the broken parts of it hit Hassan on the back of the head which likely caused “blunt trauma”. After this, the explosion led to a fire in the bedroom, but by then Hassan is said to have been already dead.
“He had two phones, one Blackberry and a Huawei. We don't know which one exploded. Who would have thought such an innocuous routine procedure is the reason three young kids will grow up without their father by their side,” Hsssan's brother-in-law told The Malaysian Insight.
The official version
However, according to officials the cause of the death is different. The police is claiming that the death was caused due to the smoke inhalation from the explosion and not the shrapnels from the smartphone.
Meanwhile, according to an official statement issued by Cradle Fund, “The post mortem report concluded the cause of death as being complication of blast injuries attributable to an exploding hand phone that was being charged next to him."
Who was Nazrin Hassan?
Nazrin was educated in the United Kingdom with a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B Hons) from the University of Buckingham in 1994. He was also an Executive Committee member of the United Kingdom Executive Council for Malaysian Students (UKEC).
Between 1997 to 2000, Nazrin was an Executive in Corporate Finance in Commerce International Merchant Bankers Berhad (CIMB) before pursuing his new venture in running his own start-up, Zarnet, in 2001.
He was the former Council Member of Technopreneurs Association of Malaysia(TeAM), an organisation that represents all technology entrepreneurs in Malaysia where he lobbied tirelessly for a development fund to narrow the funding gap in the early stage. This eventually led to the successful introduction of the Cradle Investment Programme (CIP) in June 2003 with a fund allocation of RM100 million from the Malaysian Government, as part of the economic stimulus package.
CIP was initially managed by Malaysia Venture Capital Management Berhad (MAVCAP) and Nazrin became the programme’s Head of Structuring in July 2003. In 2004, he was appointed as the programme’s Acting Head as well as its Strategy and Policy Advisor. He left the programme in 2005 to focus on his own technology start-up and continued to be an active member of TeAM.
Nazrin returned to Cradle in October 2007, after being appointed as its Chief Executive Officer by the Ministry of Finance, after it was spun out from under MAVCAP into Cradle.
courtesy : gadgetsnow.com
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K’taka bypolls: Cong accepts Minority dept chief’s resignation amid claims of ‘internal conspiracy’
Bengaluru (PTI): Karnataka Congress president D K Shivakumar on Sunday accepted the resignation of party Minority Department chairman K Abdul Jabbar and dissolved the committees constituted under him.
Jabbar announced his resignation on Saturday, a day after a group of Muslim leaders accused members of their own party of “conspiring” to defeat the official candidate in Davanagere South.
In his letter to the party, Jabbar said minority voters and office-bearers are the backbone of the Congress and deserve better.
Later, speaking to reporters, he expressed shock at the party office being used by some minority community leaders as a platform to attack senior leaders from the same community.
Jabbar, an MLC, was an aspirant for the Congress ticket from the Davanagere South Assembly segment.
“K Abdul Jabbar has tendered his resignation from the post of chairman, KPCC Minority Department. The resignation has been accepted, and he stands relieved of the post with immediate effect. Further, the KPCC Minority Department committee stands dissolved with immediate effect,” Shivakumar said in a statement.
A rift surfaced within the Karnataka Congress on Friday, a day after bypolls to two Assembly constituencies, as a group of Muslim leaders alleged an “internal conspiracy” by some senior party leaders to defeat the official candidate in Davanagere South, where the minority community has a significant presence.
They said the party had named Samarth Mallikarjun as the candidate after considering all factors and taking Muslim leaders into confidence. Despite this, a campaign—allegedly involving some within the party—projected the Congress as having “betrayed” minorities by denying them the ticket.
Chief Whip in the Legislative Council Saleem Ahmed, MLAs Rizwan Arshad and Yasir Ahmed Khan Pathan, MLC Bilkis Bano and other leaders addressed a joint press conference on Friday, alleging an “internal conspiracy”.
Though the leaders did not name anyone, party sources said their remarks were directed at State Housing Minister B Z Zameer Ahmed Khan, Jabbar, and MLC and Political Secretary to the Chief Minister Naseer Ahmed.
Khan, who had openly demanded the Davanagere South ticket for a Muslim candidate, initially stayed away from campaigning in the constituency, citing commitments related to the Kerala polls. However, he later addressed a press meet with Samarth’s father and Minister S S Mallikarjun at the request of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.
Jabbar, too, had not actively participated in campaigning, despite hailing from Davanagere.
Meanwhile, MLA Arshad said on Sunday that the party leadership was aware of those who allegedly tried to divide Congress votes and help the BJP. “But, thankfully, none of this has had any impact, and the Congress candidate will win,” he said.
He also alleged that Muslims lost the Davanagere South ticket because some senior minority leaders demanded it exclusively for Jabbar, rather than for any other eligible candidate from the community, despite Jabbar not being acceptable to all.
“Some leaders in the Congress think they are the only voice of the minority community and that there is no one else,” said Arshad, who represents the Shivajinagar constituency in Bengaluru.
Bypolls for Davanagere South and Bagalkot were held on Thursday. The elections were necessitated following the deaths of sitting MLAs Shamanur Shivashankarappa and H Y Meti, respectively. Samarth is the grandson of Shivashankarappa.
Muslim disgruntlement appears to be a concern for the Congress in Davanagere South. With 14 of the 25 candidates in the fray belonging to the community, the party fears a split in votes that could benefit the BJP.
Given its significant presence in the constituency, the Muslim community had strongly demanded the Congress ticket. Some party factions had opposed giving it to the Shamanur family.
Although the Congress persuaded rebel candidate Sadiq Pailwan to withdraw, he remained in the fray as the move came after the deadline for withdrawal of nominations.
