30 die as bus to Shirdi falls into rivulet

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Hyderabad/Aurangabad:
A pilgrimage turned into a tragedy for devotees headed to the holy town of Shirdi from Hyderabad when the bus they were in rolled into a deep, dry rivulet early Saturday, killing 30 people and injuring 17 others.
    The accident occurred near Jalkot on Solapur-Omerga NH in Osmanabad district, about 350 km from Aurangabad at around 2.30am. Most of the pilgrims travelling in the semisleeper Volvo bus were residents of Andhra Pradesh. Nine TCS techies among 30 killed in bus accident
Hyderabad/Visakhapatnam:
Big dreams and promising IT careers of nine trainees of Tata Consultancy Services’ Hyderabad campus were cruelly cut short on Saturday when the bus they were aboard en route to Shirdi plunged off a bridge.
    The nine techies were among the 30 people who were killed when the semi-sleeper Volvo bus run by Vijaywada-based tour operator, Sree Kaleshwari Travels, plunged into a rivulet, near Jalkot on Solapur-Omerga national highway in Osmanabad district in Maharashtra early Saturday.
    There were 13 TCS employees in the bus. While the condition of one TCS employee is learnt to be critical, three were understood to be out of danger. All of them were recruited by TCS last year from the Maharaja Vijayaram Gajapathi Raj College of Engineering at Vizianagaram in coastal Andhra. They had joined the company only in March this year, TCS sources confirmed.
    “They were all part of the company’s initial learning programme and were based out of the HiTech city campus,” a company official confirmed. TCS has a total of 20,000 headcount in Hyderabad.
    Expressing deep condolences, TCS Hyderabad’s regional head and vice-president V Rajanna termed the incident as shocking and said the company was providing all the necessary support to families of the victims.
    While the bus operator in Hyderabad pleaded innocence, district officials at Osmanabad blamed rash driving for the mishap. “The accident was caused due to negligent and rash driving. The passengers had warned him against driving fast but the driver ignored them,’’ said Ravindrasinh Pardeshi, the additional superintendent of police, Osmanabad. The district administration dispatched 22 bodies to Osmania General Hospital from Jalkot primary healthcare centre after the postmortem was completed.
    A police team from Naldurg was patrolling the area when they spotted the crashed bus. “They had to virtually cut the wreckage with whatever tools they could get at that time to rescue the passengers,” Pardeshi said.

Woman hacked in BTM Layout Bangalore: Culprit Caught

Spurned, he wanted to avenge her
Ranjit, Bhuvanesh Were Nabbed In Hosur | They’d Fled To Kerala After Crime
TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Bangalore: Police on Friday arrested Ranjit Krishne Gowda, 25, who allegedly hacked his former girlfriend, S Divya, 24, to death on Monday last in BTM Layout II Stage. He and his accomplice, Bhuvanesh Kutty, 25, were nabbed in Hosur, Tamil Nadu.
Kutty and Ranjit had accosted Divya when she was returning from work. While Kutty remained in the rider’s seat, Ranjit had attacked Divya. The duo had then sped from the spot.
Ranjit allegedly confessed to his crime and told Mico Layout police that it was Divya who had first approached him with a marriage proposal. “I was one year senior to her in college. She first proposed to me about five years ago. My parents, too, had agreed to our marriage. But she changed after she met a man who earned more than me. Divya started avoiding me and I decided to teach her a lesson,” Ranjit told Mico Layout police. Meanwhile, Divya’s family had chosen S Pradeep, a private company employee and her sister’s brother-in-law, as the groom. On learning about it, Ranjit called Pradeep on May 19 and threatened him to keep away from Divya, police said. DCP (Southeast) PS Harsha said three teams had been set up to arrest Ranjit and Kutty. One special team traced Ranjit and Kutty to Kozikhode. “We left immediately to Kerala. But somehow, Ranjit sensed our arrival and fled from there,” Harsha said. However, the team alerted their Bangalore counterparts that the suspects were heading towards Hosur in Tamil Nadu. “They were travelling in a Kerala state transport bus. We caught hold of them in Hosur on Friday morning. On questioning, Ranjit confessed to the crime and we immediately arrested them,” Harsha added. Ranjit and Kutty were remanded to police custody. I have killed her, Ranjit told brother Soon after committing the crime, Ranjit called his brother, Vijay Kumar, and informed him that he had killed Divya. “What have you done?” was Vijay’s immediate response, the police sources said. “Vijay told Ranjit that he had ruined everyone by killing Divya. He asked Ranjit to return home immediately so that he can discuss the matter with their father,” the sources revealed.
Kutty and Ranjit abandoned the bike near Hulimavu entrance on Bannerghatta Road and fled to Kozhikhode in Kerala, about 340 km from the city. “They stayed in Kutty’s relatives’ house. But the relatives asked them to leave once they found out what the duo was running away from,” the sources said.
Kutty and Ranjit then boarded a bus to Hosur in Tamil Nadu, but police were hot on their heels. “We traced them to the bus stand and arrested them,” Mico Layout police said.

Crime returns to Bangalore: Woman hacked in BTM Layout

TIMES NEWS NETWORK 

Bangalore:
A young woman was hacked to death on Monday evening by two bike-borne assailants in full public view on 7^th Cross, BTM Layout.
    Divya S, 23, an employee of a private company, was heading to her NS Palya home at 6.45pm when the two men blocked her. They slashed her repeatedly on the neck and face with a machete before speeding away on their twowheeler, which bore no registration number. It was all over in 40 seconds, eyewitnesses told TOI.
    While some shocked passersby ran away, others tried to stop the assailants. The rush-hour traffic was blocked for nearly 30 minutes, and police had a tough time clearing vehicles and shifting Divya to Sagar Hospital on Bannerghatta Road.
    Divya succumbed to her injuries at 9pm. Her family members said she breathed her last even before she was taken to the operation theatre.
    Deputy commissioner of police, southeast, PS Harsha told TOI: “We have definite clues about the assailants and will arrest them shortly.”
    The incident took place a stone’s throw away from the IPS officers’ colony, where senior officers, including DG&IGP-in-charge A R Infant and former city police commissioner Shankar Bidari, reside.
    Divya worked as administrative head with a private footwear-manufacturing company in Koramangala. She is survived by her parents and three sisters. Hailing from Kundapur, the family shifted to Bangalore around five years ago.
    Last month, a friend of Divya is reported to have proposed to her, but she said “no” as she had already chosen her life partner, a friend of hers said. Divya’s colleagues said she moved around with the man, making him think she was in love with him. He hacked her without any mercy: eyewitness 
Bangalore: The brutal killing of Divya S, a private firm employee, on a busy street in BTM Layout sent shockwaves through the area.
    Eyewitnesses said they froze as the gory scene unfolded before them. Narayana Gowda, accountant with a private firm, was sipping tea, and close to him, two men were sitting on a grey Yamaha motorbike.
    “The place is full of eateries and it is common to see men sitting on bikes,” he said. Narayana, a resident of Kadirenahalli, said: “I saw this girl walking towards the circle. Suddenly, the man on the pillion pulled out a machete and ambushed her. He swung the machete towards her head and her skull cracked open. Blood pumped out like a fountain. I could not believe what I saw,” he said.
    The rider started the bike and they sped away towards Ragi Gudda, leaving the machete behind. “Though some of us tried to stop them, they vanished in no time. The bike had no registration number and the rider was wearing a full-face helmet,” another eyewitness told TOI. The news spread quickly, and Divya’s friends and colleagues gathered near Sagar Hospital. The main suspect appears to be a friend who had proposed to her, and who she had turned down.
    “We know the name of the man, but we’re not revealing it for investigation purposes,” a senior police officer said.

Divya S

Divya’s father Shyam (R) and a relative are inconsolable after her death

CRIME SITE: The spot where S Divya was murdered at BTM Layout, on Monday; (left) The sword used to kill the girl

Sreerag Love Killed Him

Gayathri wracked by guilt over her deadly stratagem
Her rejection is being cited as the reason for Sreerag ending his life
Sharath Sarma Kalagaru bmfeedback@indiatimes.com


    Be happy and be cherished for what you are. Let others be jealous of how happy you are but never let a gaze fall on you...” techie Sreerag wrote to his unseen girlfriend before committing suicide. But his last wish has turned into an antithesis for 23-year-old Gayathri.
    Instead of being happy, this telemarketing employee is now reeling under guilt. Instead of making others feel jealous, she is being sneered at for the prank that went wrong. Instead of not letting a gaze fall on her, she has become the cynosure of all eyes. While Gayathri has been weeping inconsolably for the last five days, the police point towards her and say, “We would not have been investigating this case had both Sreerag and Gayathri been straight and frank with each other.” She is now in depression.
    Sreerag, a native of Kozhikode in Kerala, committed suicide inside his car in Mahadevapura after his marriage proposal was turned down by Gayathri, whom he became close with on a social networking site in January. Gayathri had introduced herself as Jennifer and mailed him a friend’s photograph, claiming it was her. After looking at the photograph, Sreerag was head over heels in love. But he got dejected when Gayathri told him that she was engaged to a London resident and took the extreme step.
    “I was a bit scared when I received his e-mail, but I never thought he would end his life. I thought he was threatening, like boys usually do in such situations. When I heard of his death on television, I started trembling out of fear. I didn’t know how I became close to him, I was very happy that he was in love with me.
    But with his death, I am only filled with guilt,” a police officer quoted Gayathri as saying.
    Gayathri reportedly told the police, “I was hardly noticed by guys. When Sreerag came in, I became close to him on the phone and through chat. When he insisted on seeing me, I sent him the photo of a good-looking girl as I did not want him to be disappointed. I feared losing him. I was very happy that someone was in love with me. But when his interest became intense, I did not have the courage to go before him. I cooked up a story that I was getting married to another guy. I wanted him to move on, but did not expect him to end his life.”