Madikeri, June 13: A 50 year-old mentally unstable man in this city was beaten to death, allegedly by policemen, for violating lockdown norms last week, following which eight of them have been suspended, a senior police officer said on Sunday.

The policemen were booked on a complaint by the man's brother Robin D'Souza, based on which a case was registered against them, Inspector General of Police, Karnataka Southern Range, Praveen Madhukar Pawar, told reporters here.

He said the Deputy Superintendent of Police of Virajpet had furnished a report against eight policemen, based on which they have been suspended.

"An inquiry is being conducted by the Sub-Divisional Magistrate. As per the National Human Rights Commission guidelines, we are handing over the case to the CID," Pawar added.

Family members said that Roy D'Souza, who was mentally unstable, was living with his mother, while his brother Robin was in Bengaluru.

Roy ran away from his house late at night on June 8. The policemen found him wandering about, questioned him for violating the lockdown norms and thrashed him, they said.

Early on June 9, his mother was summoned to the police station, where she found Roy lying unconscious, the family said.

He was rushed to a local private hospital and from there to the district hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries.

Learning about it, Robin rushed to Madikeri and lodged a complaint with the Superintendent of Police, Kshama Mishra, they said.

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Bengaluru, Jan 6: Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah launched a health insurance scheme for the employees of Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) called 'KSRTC Arogya' on Monday.

Speaking at the launch event, the CM said the doctors should not be dismissive of patients visiting hospitals under the scheme and treat everyone equally.

Karnataka's Minister for Transport and Muzrai, Ramalinga Reddy, who was also present, said around 34,000 employees of KSRTC and their dependents (approximately 1.5 lakh people) will be eligible for this scheme.

According to him, this scheme was the fulfilment of a demand raised by labour unions for many years.

"The scheme will also be implemented in organisations such as BMTC (Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation), NWKRTC (North Western Karnataka Road Transport Corporation), and KKRTC (Kalyana Karnataka Road Transport Corporation) within the next three months," added Reddy.

Chairman of KSRTC and MLA of Gubbi Constituency, S R Srinivasa handed over a cheque of Rs 20 crore to the KSRTC Trust, to form a corpus fund for the implementation of the scheme. He also released the internal periodic magazine, 'Saarige Sampada' and the KSRTC Arogya Manual.

Under 'KSRTC Arogya' all 34,000 employees of the corporation are eligible even for eye and dental treatments, said a KSRTC press note.

To begin with, KSRTC has signed MOUs with 275 hospitals and four diagnostics centres for IP/OPD cashless treatments. Under the scheme, Rs 650 per month will be deducted from the salaries of the officers and staff of the corporation, added the note.

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