Karnataka HC orders status quo at base of Nandi Hills
Bengaluru, Jan 11: The High Court of Karnataka on Wednesday ordered status quo on the unveiling of Adiyogi statue and the opening of Isha Yoga Centre at the foothill of the Nandi Hills near here.
Issuing notices to the State, the yoga centre, and 14 other respondents, the court issued the interim order of stay.
The statue was scheduled to be inaugurated by Sadguru's Isha Foundation on January 15.
The public interest litigation (PIL) alleged that a commercial enterprise was being set up in an ecologically fragile environment and that the government has illegally allotted land for the purpose.
The PIL was filed by Kyathappa S and a few other villagers from Chikkaballapura.
The Union Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Ecology, Karnataka government, Principal Chief Conservator of Forest, and Isha Yoga Centre, Coimbatore, are among the 16 respondents.
The PIL alleges that the grievance is that the authorities allowed in blatant violation destroying the environment eco system, watershed, core command area of Nandi Hills, NDB Foothills in Chikkaballapura Hobli to establish a private foundation at the base of the famous Nandi Hills at the instance of spiritual guru of the yoga centre to establish commercial activities in the core area of greenery hillock viz. Panchagiri Nandi Range.
The PIL says the authorities allowed for destructing, defacing the eco system, environment and natural rainwater streams, water bodies, water feeder streams in the foothill of Nandi Hills and Narasimha Devaru Range (Betta) in existence for several centuries in violation of environmental laws, which having direct impact on the living, livelihood, cattle, sheep, wild animals, in the region of Nandi Hills.
The PIL claims that the rivers north Pinakini and south Pinakini originate in Nandi Hills, which would be affected.
It says the yoga centre brought a metal idol of Lord Shiva and assembled to deface the land for the idol installation overnight.
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Deaf and mute woman breaks 16-year silence, exposes serial sexual abuse, blackmail in Mumbai
Mumbai (PTI): A deaf and mute woman's complaint about a sexual assault that took place 16 years ago in Mumbai has unmasked a serial predator, revealing a disturbing pattern of abuse and blackmail he perpetrated on several women from the community.
The accused was arrested on December 13 after the survivor broke her silence recently following the suicide attempt by one of the women he allegedly sexually harassed.
Disturbed by the suicide attempt, she confided in her friends during a video call about the assault that occurred in 2009.
According to the police, the survivor, a resident of the western suburbs, communicated in sign language during a video call with her friends and colleagues, who were part of a WhatsApp group, that the accused had drugged and raped her when she was a minor.
She also took her husband into confidence, and with support from Thane Deaf Association president Vaibhav Ghaisis, activist Mohammed Farhan Khan, sign language interpreter Madhu Keni, and a retired officer from the Ali Yavar Jung National Institute of Speech and Hearing Disabilities Divyangjan, the survivor approached the police.
The survivor, her husband and a few of her friends went to the Kurar police station, where her statement was recorded in camera, with Keni as interpreter, and the accused, Mahesh Pawar, was arrested a few hours later from Virar, a suburb in Palghar district.
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Recalling the trauma she endured 16 years ago, the survivor said that a female friend had invited her to explore the city in July 2009 and took her to Pawar's home in Vakola, Santacruz, an official said.
The accused allegedly offered her samosas and some beverage to celebrate the female friend's birthday. The survivor said she was forced to have the drink, which Pawar had allegedly spiked, and after a while, her friend left her alone with him.
The accused allegedly overpowered and raped her, and later blackmailed her with the recorded video of the assault.
The trauma of assault stayed with her over the years, and the attempted suicide of another woman from the community, allegedly assaulted by Pawar, propelled her to come forward.
A probe has revealed that the accused had similarly drugged and assaulted speech and hearing impaired women and threatened them into silence by blackmailing them with obscene videos, a senior police officer said.
The accused allegedly shot obscene videos of several women, using which he blackmailed them and extorted money, gold and mobile phones, he said.
He allegedly forced women into participating in nude video calls with him and recorded these to threaten them, the official said.
"As per initial investigation so far, we have evidence of his abuse of seven women, but the number can increase to more than 24," the official told PTI.
While Pawar has been remanded in judicial custody, no other woman has come forward with a complaint against him as yet, he said.
Talking to PTI, Keni said all women who have survived abuse and harassment by Pawar want to lodge a complaint against him.
She claimed that the accused had extorted money from one of the women he abused, but did not return the sum even when she needed it for a medical emergency.
