Cab driver dies by suicide after setting himself on fire in Bengaluru
Bengaluru, Jan 24 (PTI): A 39-year-old cab driver died by suicide after setting himself on fire with kerosene outside his estranged wife's house here over family feud, police said on Friday.
The deceased has been identified as Manjunath, who hailed from Tumakuru, they said.
The incident occurred on Thursday night in an area that comes under Jnanabharathi police station limits, they added.
Preliminary inquiry has revealed that there were disputes between Manjunath and his wife Nayana Raj, who is a makeup artist. Due to feud, they were living separately since 2023. Nayana had filed a case in the court, a senior police officer said.
However, Manjunath was not in favour of divorce and used to come regularly to her apartment and plead that he would live with her peacefully without causing trouble. During his visits, he tried to convince her to not divorce him, he said.
On Thursday morning, Manjunath went to his wife's house but she refused to open the door. Enraged with it, he returned to her house at 11 pm and allegedly set himself on fire with Kerosene and died in front of her apartment, said S Girish, Deputy Commissioner of Police (West Bengaluru).
According to police, Manjunath had fallen in love with Nayana. Going against the wish of family, he married her at Dharmasthala in 2016. Since then they were living in Vimaleshwara Kripa, Jnanabharathi NGEF Layout.
They have a nine-year-old son studying in Class 4.
A case has been registered under section 194 (Police to enquire and report on suicide, etc) of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, police said.
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K'taka bypolls: Voting underway in Bagalkot, Davanagere South assembly segments
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Bengaluru (PTI): Voting was underway for bypolls to two Assembly segments, Bagalkot and Davanagere South in Karnataka on Thursday.
The polls were necessitated by the deaths of senior Congress MLAs H Y Meti and Shamanur Shivashankarappa. Counting of votes will be taken up on May 4.
Although the outcome of these by-elections is unlikely to have an immediate impact on state politics, the contest is seen as a matter of prestige for both the ruling Congress and the opposition BJP.
While the Congress faces the challenge of retaining both seats, the BJP is aiming to wrest them and deliver a setback to the ruling party.
Over 2.59 lakh eligible voters are expected to cast their votes in 319 polling stations in Bagalkot, where nine candidates are in the fray.
In Davanagere South, over 2.31 lakh voters are expected to exercise their franchsie across 284 polling stations, with 25 candidates contesting.
Elaborate security arrangements have been made for the smooth conduct of bypolls, officials said.
The BJP has fielded former MLA and 2023 defeated candidate Veerabhadrayya Charantimath from Bagalkot, and a fresh face, Srinivas T Dasakariyappa, from Davanagere South.
The Congress has given tickets to family members of the late legislators in both constituencies. Umesh Meti is the son of H Y Meti, while Samarth Mallikarjun is the grandson of Shamanur Shivashankarappa.
Samarth's father, S S Mallikarjun, is a minister in the Siddaramaiah-led Cabinet and in charge of Davanagere district, while his mother, Prabha Mallikarjun, is a Member of Parliament from the region.
The BJP is looking to make gains in the bypolls and energise its cadre ahead of the 2028 Assembly elections. For the Congress, retaining both seats is crucial, as a loss could be seen as a negative verdict on the performance of the Siddaramaiah-led dispensation.
In the 2023 Assembly elections, H Y Meti defeated Charantimath by a margin of 5,878 votes in Bagalkot, while Shivashankarappa defeated BJP's B G Ajay Kumar by 27,888 votes in Davanagere South.
