Togadia staged ‘missing’ drama, faked illness, told lies: Gujarat police

Naturals Ice Cream founder Raghunandan Kamath passed away following a brief illness. Born to a mango vendor in a village in Mangaluru, Kamath went on to establish Naturals, an ice cream parlour estimated to be worth Rs 400 crore today. 

"Our thoughts on the sad demise of our patron and founder of Naturals Ice Cream, Late Raghunandan Kamath. Indeed a very sad and unfortunate day for us," the company said.

Mr Kamath grew up helping his father in selling mangoes in a village Karnataka's Mangaluru. This was when he learned the art of picking the ripe fruit, plucking it, sorting it, and preserving it.

As the legend goes, a young 14-year-old Kamath boarded a train from Mangaluru and came to Mumbai (then Bombay). 

After working at his brother’s restaurant, Kamath had an idea — if ice creams have fruit flavours, why can’t they have real fruits. He decided to fill this void in the market. But unsure of whether customers would come, he began his business with serving pav-bhaji as the main dish and the ice cream as an add on.

His first ice cream parlour was launched in 1984 in Juhu, with the initial menu featuring around 12 flavours, each being a testament to the knowledge he acquired during the time he assisted his father in Mangaluru.

The demand kept growing and he opened five more outlets in 1994. Currently, it has over 165 outlets across 15 cities.
 
His story was captured expansively in ‘Intelligent Fanatics of India’, a book co-authored by Mumbai-based journalist Pooja Bhula.

Inspired by his mother's techniques, Kamath also developed innovative machines to streamline production and ensure consistency, notes the company website.

New Delhi: Acting on a one-month-old notice it sent to the BJP on complaints over Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s provocative and communal remarks, the Election Commission of India on Wednesday directed the saffron party’s star campaigners not to make speeches along 'religious/communal lines' and desist from statements that may 'divide the society'.

Separately, it also asked the Congress' star campaigners not to give 'false impression' of abolishing or selling the Constitution, make speeches that create 'mutual hatred or cause tension' between religious or linguistic communities or 'potentially divisive statements' regarding the socio-economic composition of the armed forces.

The EC’s letters to BJP president JP Nadda and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge conveying its directions came 27 days after it issued separate notices to them on complaints against Modi, Kharge and Rahul Gandhi. Though the complaints were annexed in the notice that were sent to party chiefs and not the alleged violators, the names of violators were not mentioned.

It also comes ten days before the seven-phased elections are ending on June 1 though the notices were issued a day before the second phase of polls on April 25. While Nadda had responded to the letter on May 13 after seeking two extensions, Kharge submitted his arguments on May 6 after seeking one extension. They were initially given time till April 29.

In its letter to Nadda, the EC said he has not denied the utterances mentioned in the Congress complaint though it 'stoutly defended' the campaign methods and remarks while invoking a 'unilateral drawing of inferences and interpretations' of star campaigners of opponents. It said its star campaigners continued with objectionable utterances even after the April 25 notice.

The latest communication came against the backdrop of complaints by Congress and other parties which referred to Modi’s speech in Banswara as “communal” where he spoke about Congress seeking to redistribute people’s wealth to “infiltrators”, in a veiled reference to Muslims, and that women’s ‘mangalsutras’ will be snatched.

Emphasising that Nadda’s defence was 'not tenable', the EC said, 'directs you as party president to also convey to all star campaigners to not make speeches and statements, which may divide the society. Directs BJP and its star campaigners to refrain from any campaigning methods/utterances along religious/communal lines'.

In its letter to Kharge, the EC said Kharge too has justified Congress star campaigners’ contentious remarks while claiming that the complaint had 'wilfully extracted only specific portions, devoid of context, to mislead the Commission'. Kharge also claimed that the BJP leaders were making 'motivated statements' invoking religious sentiments to attract voters.

The EC, which had taken cognisance of complaints against Kharge and Rahul, said the assertion of Congress’ star campaigners about the BJP attempting to change the Constitution was allegedly instilling fear in the minds of voters about an uncertain future and an attempt to spread anarchy in the country and could be considered as “corrupt practice” under election laws.

While insisting that it cannot accept the Congress arguments and find it untenable, the EC directed Kharge to convey to all star campaigners that they do not make statements which give a 'false impression such as the Constitution of India may be abolished or sold'.

Amid the Congress making a campaign point on the controversial Agniveer scheme, it also directed him to convey to star campaigners that they should not indulge in political propaganda involving the military and not make 'potentially divisive statements' regarding socio-economic composition of defence forces.

Both the party presidents to ensure that star campaigners refrain from making any statement that may “aggravate existing differences or create mutual hatred or cause tension between different castes and communities, religious or linguistic”.

The EC also referred to controversial statements after the April 25 notice by star campaigners from both sides in its letters, referring to complaints and counter complaints.

Mangaluru, May 23: BJP leader and Belthangady MLA Harish Poonja who appeared before the police station for an enquiry last night in connection with a case a case of threatening police, was released on station bail.

According to the police, the MLA was served notices in connection with a case registered for staging a protest without seeking permission and for allegedly declaring that he was ready to hold the collar of the police for the sake of 'karyakartas'.

On completion of the enquiry, he was released on station bail. He was booked under Sections 143, 147, 341, 504, 506 and 149 of IPC.

Drama at residence 

There was high drama at the home of Belthangady MLA Harish Poonja when police reached on Wednesday, requesting the former to come to the police station for an inquiry, but with the MLA staying put at his residence without yielding to police request, and with members of the BJP legal cell at his house mulling options to avoid his imminent arrest, the situation was fluid with a large number of party workers gathering near the MLA’s residence.

Belthangady police had booked MLA Poonja after he attempted to pressurise the station officer to release a BJP worker, who was arrested in an illegal quarrying case and stocking of explosives at the site, at Moodala in Melanthabettu village of Belthangady last week.