K'taka govt scraps 50% admission criteria for higher educational institutions to grant minority tag
Bengaluru: In a major decision, the Karnataka government on Friday scrapped the criteria of a minimum number of students required from a minority community to grant the religious minority tag to higher education institutions.
Under the existing rules, institutions offering higher and technical education must admit 50 percent students from the minority religion to qualify for the religious minority institution tag. For example, a Christian minority higher education institution had to have 50 percent Christian students. This requirement has posed challenges, especially for institutions run by smaller communities such as Christians, Jains, Sikhs, and Parsis, which have a limited population base in the state.
The relaxation of the rule would increase the number of non-minority students in the institutions run by minorities.
Briefing on the decisions made at the Cabinet meeting, Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister H.K. Patil stated that the decision was in line with Article 30 and the recommendations of the National Minority Commission. The tag would be granted to PU colleges, as well as undergraduate and postgraduate institutions.
Meanwhile, Minority Welfare Minister B.Z. Zameer Ahmed Khan, a prominent Muslim leader from Congress, had earlier expressed surprise at the new rules that apply to institutions run by all minority groups, including Muslims. Muslim-run institutions are reportedly not in favour of the relaxation, as they have sufficient students from their community to meet the requirements. There are concerns that such a relaxation could lead to non-minority students outnumbering the minority students in these institutions.
However, government officials have maintained that the rules cannot be amended selectively to exempt Muslim institutions while relaxing norms for others.
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Mule bank accounts frozen in crackdown on cyber fraudsters in Karnataka, 68 held
Bengaluru (PTI): The Karnataka State Cyber Command has arrested 68 people as part of a statewide drive against mule bank accounts and “mule herders” involved in cyber fraud, officials said on Friday.
The special operations, which have been continuing since last week across Karnataka, targeted networks engaged in aggregating and selling mule bank accounts used for cyber crimes.
The arrests were made between December 2025 and February 2026, police said in an updated report.
“The Karnataka Cyber Command has conducted statewide special operations against Mule accounts and mule herders across Karnataka. The special drive has continued since last week and this is an updated report,” the department said in a statement.
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Police said the investigation identified a network of “mule herders” — individuals who aggregate and misuse mule bank accounts — who were retailing and selling such accounts to cyber criminals.
A total of 68 key accused and suspects have been arrested during the period.
According to the statement, mule herders had collected personal information and documents from unsuspecting laypersons and opened multiple bank accounts in the names of their relatives.
“These accounts were operated in a business-like manner,” it added.
As part of the crackdown, police registered 60 cases and identified 869 mule accounts across the state. As many as 8,788 complaints were registered on the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal (NCRP) against the identified mule accounts.
The total money involved in all NCRP-linked crimes stood at Rs 85.05 crore, of which Rs 13.43 crore has been put on hold, the Cyber Command said.
During the drive, police obtained 32 search warrants and conducted 35 searches. In the searches, 35 ATM cards, 37 passbooks, 80 mobile phones, 28 cheque books and 22 SIM cards were seized, along with other incriminating materials, officials said. Pronab Mohanty, the Director General of Police (Karnataka State Cyber Command) supervised the special drive, police added.
