Around 50 percent voting in Karnataka bypolls

August 21, 2013

Bangalore, Aug 21: Around 50 percent of over 3.6 million voters cast their ballots Wednesday in the bypolls for two Lok Sabha seats from Karnataka, an official said.

"Preliminary reports reaching us soon after booths closed at 5 p.m. show that about 50 percent voting took place," an election commission spokesperson told reporters here.

Voting took place for Bangalore Rural and Mandya Lok Sabha seats. Mandya is about 80 km from Bangalore.

Bangalore Rural has over two million voters, around 900,000 of them women. Mandya has more than 1.6 million voters, nearly half of them women.

Voting booths opened at 8 a.m. but in many places voting began late due to technical glitches in the electronic voting machines, the spokesperson said.

The election result would be out Aug 24.

The Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S), which held both the seats, and the ruling Congress are locked in a straight battle as the Bharatiya Janata Party withdrew from the contest in support of the former.

There are 18 independents also in the fray, 11 in Bangalore Rural and seven in Mandya. The Bangalore Rural seat was held by JD-S state president and former chief minister H. D. Kumaraswamy while Mandya was represented by N. Cheluvarayaswamy.

Both quit Lok Sabha on getting elected to Karnataka assembly in the May 5 elections, necessitating the bypolls.

Kumaraswamy, son of JD-S president and former prime minister H.D. Deve Gowda, has fielded his wife Anita Kumaraswamy in Bangalore Rural.

The Congress candidate is D.K. Suresh, brother of party legislator and former minister D.K. Sureshkumar.

In Mandya, the Congress nominee is popular Kannada actor Ramya and her JD-S opponent is former legislator C.S. Puttaraju.

Though the winners will have about nine months term in the Lok Sabha as general elections are due in April-May, the Congress and the JD-S turned the bypoll battle into a matter of prestige.

The Congress, which returned to power in the state on its own after nine years in the May assembly elections, wanted to maintain the winning tempo and defeat the JD-S in its stronghold.

The JD-S, particularly the Gowda family, campaigned vigorously to retain the seats as a loss would be demoralising for the party ahead of the general elections.

In the last Lok Sabha elections in 2009, the JD-S won just three out of the 28 seats.

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‘Profit’ trap: Mangaluru trader duped of ₹33.1 lakh in online App scam

News Network

December 7,2025

Mangaluru, Dec 7: A 34-year-old fruit and vegetable trader in Mangaluru has reportedly lost ₹33.1 lakh after falling victim to an online investment scam run through a fake mobile app.

Police said the scam began in September, when the victim received a link on Facebook. Clicking it connected him to a WhatsApp number, where an unidentified person introduced a high-return investment scheme and instructed him to download an app.

To build trust, the fraudster asked him to invest ₹30,000 on September 24. The trader soon received ₹34,000 as “profit,” convincing him the scheme was genuine. Over the next two months, he transferred money in multiple instalments via Google Pay and IMPS to different scanner codes and bank accounts shared by the scammers. Between September 24 and December 3, he ended up sending a total of ₹33.1 lakh.

When he later requested a refund of his investment and promised returns, the scammers demanded additional payments, claiming he needed to pay a “service tax” first. Even after he paid a small amount, no money was returned, and the scammers continued pressuring him for more.

A case has been registered at the CEN Crime Police Station.

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Mangaluru NRI returning from Saudi Arabia arrested over Instagram post

News Network

December 15,2025

Mangaluru police have arrested a 27-year-old NRI on his return from Saudi Arabia in connection with an Instagram post allegedly containing derogatory and provocative remarks about the Hindu religion, officials said on Monday.

The accused, Abdul Khader Nehad, a resident of Ulaibettu in Mangaluru, was working in Saudi Arabia when the post was uploaded, police said.

A suo motu case was registered at the Bajpe police station on October 11 after an allegedly offensive post circulated from the Instagram account ‘team_sdpi_2025’. Police said the content was flagged for being provocative and derogatory in nature.

During the investigation, technical analysis traced the Instagram post to Nehad, who was residing abroad at the time, a senior police officer said. Based on these findings, a Look Out Circular (LOC) was issued against him.

On December 14, Nehad arrived from Saudi Arabia at Calicut International Airport in Kerala, where he was taken into custody on arrival. Police said further investigation is underway.

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