1. Farewell to Arjuna: Hundreds of people bid adieu to Karnataka’s beloved tusker
Hundreds of people bid adieu to Arjuna, the 64-year-old tusker, who was laid to rest at the Forest Department plantation at Dabbalikatte in Yeslur range in Sakaleshpur on Tuesday, December 5. Arjuna died in a fight with a wild tusker during an elephant capture operation in the Yeslur Range of the forest on Monday afternoon.
Many people from nearby villages and towns gathered to pay their homage to the tusker. Arjuna’s mahout, Vinod, was inconsolable and could be seen trying to wake the tusker up, unwilling to believe that Arjuna was no more. The last rites were conducted with traditional rituals and a gun salute.
Meanwhile, statements of mahouts and eyewitnesses — claiming bullet injury and wrong darting of another tamed elephant —have raised several doubts over the turn of events that led to the elephant’s unfortunate death. Chief Conservator of Forests (Hassan Circle) R. Ravishankar clarified that no bullet injury was found during the post-mortem. However, he said he would probe into the whole episode and submit a report to the department.
2. Karnataka HC stops video conference facility after miscreants play obscene videos during live court proceedings
The High Court of Karnataka has suspended the facilities of hearing through video-conference (VC) and online streaming of court proceedings for cyber security reasons after unknown miscreants logged into its Zoom meeting platform and played pornographic video contents on December 4 afternoon during the proceedings in about six court halls.
The miscreants again attempted to play the obscene videos by logging into the VC platform on December 5 morning, due to which the court’s administration decided to shut down the VC and live streaming system for the time being. According to sources, one of the servers though which the miscreants logged into the court’s VC system was located abroad.
3. Vijayapura | Seven labourers dead after accident at maize factory
Seven labourers died and a few others were injured in an accident at a maize factory in Vijayapura on December 4. On Monday night, as many as 13 workers got stuck under a huge heap of maize that fell on them while working in the godown of Rajguru Foods in the industrial area outside the city. Most of the workers hail from Bihar, the police said.
The FIR said a maize corn cleaning machine was malfunctioning but the owner and supervisor continued to use it, instead of sending it for repairs. The godown has 16 silos erected on metal frames. Each silo contained over 1.5 tonnes of maize, and two of them developed cracks toppling the maize on the workers, trapping them for hours.
4. Right-wing activist Chaitra K, associate granted conditional bail in BJP ticket fraud case
Right-wing activist Chaitra K, prime accused in a case of allegedly cheating a businessman of ₹5 crore after promising him a BJP ticket to contest the Assembly elections, was granted bail along with her associate Srikanth on December 5, 2023.
Chaitra, along with her associates, had filed a bail application at the court of Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate. The duo have furnished two sureties along with ₹2 lakh bond each and agreed to the condition that they will not influence the witnesses in the case in any manner.
