Karnataka HC asks Ola’s Bhavish Aggarwal, others to cooperate in engineer’s suicide probe
Bengaluru (PTI): The Karnataka High Court has directed Bhavish Aggarwal, CEO & MD of Ola Electric Technologies Private Limited, and Subrat Kumar Das—Head of Homologation Engineering —to actively cooperate in an ongoing criminal investigation into the suicide of engineer K Aravind, an employee of the company.
Justice Mohammad Nawaz on Wednesday also extended the interim protection granted to them, directing police not to harass the petitioners in the guise of investigation, till November 17. The court was hearing the petition filed by the petitioners challenging the FIR registered against them.
The case stems from an FIR filed by Aravind’s brother Ashwin Kannan with the Subramanyapura police, alleging abetment to suicide under Section 108 of the BNS Act.
The deceased had allegedly left behind a death note alleging workplace harassment and denial of his salary dues and other perks by the petitioners.
During the hearing, the petitioners contested the authenticity of the note, arguing it might have been drafted by the complainant rather than the deceased. They also claimed the circulation of images and interviews relating to Aravind’s death had damaged the firm’s reputation, impacted its share price and triggered employee departures.
In contrast, counsel for the complainant characterized Ola Electric as being akin to the “East India Company”, accusing the firm’s officials of attempting to shift blame.
The court was told that while the police have issued notices for investigation, the petitioners have replied only with letters rather than appearing for interrogation. The court asked the petitioners to cooperate with the investigation.
The court further stated any final report filed against the petitioners can be challenged in due course.
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Screenwriter Salim Khan on ventilator support and stable, say doctors
Mumbai (PTI): Veteran screenwriter Salim Khan suffered a brain haemorrhage which has been tackled, is on ventilator support as a safeguard and stable, doctors treating him said on Wednesday, a day after he was admitted to the Lilavati Hospital here.
The 90-year-old, one half of the celebrated Salim-Javed duo which scripted films such as "Sholay", "Deewar" and "Don" with Javed Akhtar, is in the ICU and recovery might take some time given his age.
"His blood pressure was high for which we treated him and we had to put him on a ventilator because we wanted to do certain investigations. Now the ventilator was put as a safeguard so that his situation doesn't get worse. So it is not that he is critical," Dr Jalil Parkar told reporters.
"We did the investigations that were required and today we have done a small procedure on him, I will not go into the details. The procedure done is called DSA (digital subtraction angiography). The procedure has been accomplished, he is fine and stable and shifted back to ICU. By tomorrow, we hope to get him off the ventilator. All in all, he is doing quite well," he added.
Asked whether he suffered a brain haemorrhage, the doctor said, "Unko thoda haemorrhage hua tha, which we’ve tackled. No surgery is required.
As concern over Khan's health mounted, his children, including superstar Salman Khan and Arbaaz Khan, daughter Alvira, and sons-in-law Atul Agnihotri and Aayush Sharma, have been seen outside the hospital along with other well-wishers. His long-time partner Akhtar was also seen coming out of the hospital.
Khan, a household name in the 70s and 80s, turned 90 on November 24 last year. It was the day Dharmendra, the star of many of his films, including "Sholay", "Seeta aur Geeta" and "Yaadon Ki Baraat", passed away.
Hailing from an affluent family in Indore, Khan arrived in Mumbai in his 20s with dreams of stardom. He was good looking and confident he would make a mark in the industry as an actor. But that did not happen. And then, after struggling for close to a decade and getting confined to small roles in films, he changed lanes.
He worked as an assistant to Abrar Alvi and soon met Akhtar to form one of Hindi cinema's most formidable writing partnerships. They worked together on two dozen movies with most of them achieving blockbuster status.
Other than "Sholay", "Deewar" and "Don", Khan and Akhtar also penned "Trishul", "Zanjeer", "Seeta Aur Geeta", "Haathi Mere Saathi", "Yaadon Ki Baarat" and "Mr India".
