Veteran Yakshagana artiste Bottikere Purushotham Poonja passes away
Mangaluru (PTI): Veteran Yakshagana artiste Bottikere Purushotham Poonja, who worked as 'Bhagavath' for 45 years in several Melas, died late Saturday night, family sources said.
Poonja was 68. He is survived by his wife and two sons.
Poonja, who had been ailing for some time, was undergoing treatment at a hospital.
He had served the first Mela of Kateel as chief Bhagavath. Poonja worked as chief Bhagavath for 45 years in Uppala Mela, Geetambika Mela of Mumbai, Puttur Mela, Karnataka Mela and served in Kateel Mela for the past 30 years.
Poonja has written 32 'prasangas' in Kannada and Tulu languages. His prasangas Ma Nishada, Ubhayakula Billoja, Nalinakshi Nandini, Megha Mayuri and Swarnanupura, are very popular in the Yakshagana field.
He has received several honours including Muddana award, Yaksha Manasa award of Mumbai, Academy book literature award, Asranna award and Karnoor award.
Poonja had converted his home into Gurukula and used to teach hundreds of students about Bhagavathike and Yakshagana literature.
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Punjab Police arrests 'serial killer' who murdered 11 men in 18 months
Rupnagar (Punjab), Dec 25: Police in Punjab's Rupnagar have arrested a man for allegedly killing 11 persons in the past 18 months, officials said on Tuesday.
The accused, identified as Ram Saroop alias Sodhi of village Chaura in Hoshiarpur district, was arrested on Monday in another case and during interrogation it came to light that he was a "serial killer", they said.
Police said his victims were men whom he used to offer lift in his car, and then rob them and kill them if they resisted.
Senior Superintendent of Police, Rupnagar, Gulneet Singh Khurana said that instructions were issued to police officers to solve the cases of heinous crimes in the district.
Khurana said a police team was formed to nab culprits involved in murder cases.
Referring to a murder case in Kiratpur Sahib, he divulged that a man aged about 37 years, who used to serve tea and water at Toll Plaza Modra, was murdered on August 18.
The investigations in this case led to the arrest of Ram Saroop and later his involvement in other cases got revealed during interrogation, police said.
Police said his victims were men whom he used to offer lift in his car. He used to later rob them and kill them if they resisted.
During the interrogation, the accused admitted that apart from this case, he had committed 10 other murders, the officials said.
The accused has also admitted to have committed killings in Fatehgarh Sahib and Hoshiarpur districts, they said.
He used to strangle his victims while in some cases he used objects like bricks to commit the crime, police said.
