Latest news with #Karnataka
Khaleej Times
4 minutes ago
- Sport
- Khaleej Times
Bengaluru stampede: Karnataka govt blames Virat Kohli's RCB for excessive turnout
The Karnataka government submitted a status report on the Chinnaswamy stadium stampede in Bengaluru that claimed 11 lives and left over 50 people injured to the High Court on Thursday. In its report to the High Court regarding the stampede, it has pointed to serious lapses and mismanagement from the franchise Royal Challengers Bengaluru. According to the state government, no formal permission was taken, with the event organiser (DNA), merely informing the police about the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) victory parade on June 3 without seeking formal approval as mandated by the 2009 city order. Consequently, the police denied permission. Despite police denial, RCB proceeded to publicly promote the event. On June 4, they shared open invitations on social media, including a video appeal by Virat Kohli, encouraging fans to attend the free-entry celebration. The report said, "On 04.06.2025, the RCB, unilaterally and without consultation/ permission from the Bangalore City Police, posted a photo at 7:01 am on the official RCB handle on social media (Instagram, Facebook, "X") informing that there is free entry for people and inviting the public to participate in the Victory Parade, which would commence at Vidhana Soudha and conclude at Chinnaswamy Stadium." "A second post on Social Media was made by RCB at 8am reiterating this information. Subsequently, on 04.06.2025, at 8:55am, the RCB shared a video clip of Virat Kohli, on RCB's official handle @rcbtweets on X, in which he stated that the team intended to celebrate this victory with the people of Bengaluru city and RCB fans on 04.06.2025 in Bengaluru. Thereafter, RCB made one more post at 3:14pm on 04.06.2024, announcing a Victory Parade to be held from Vidhana Soudha to Chinnaswamy Stadium from 5pm to 6pm, stating that this victory parade would be followed by celebrations at Chinnaswamy Stadium," the report stated. "This post mentioned, for the first and only time, that free passes (limited entry) were available on and until this point, there had been no information regarding the disbursement of passes, implying that the event was open to all based on RCB's prior posts. The posts on RCB's official social media handles garnered immense engagement online ( with the first post receiving approximately 16 lakh views, the second post receiving approximately 4. 26 lakh views, the third post receiving approximately 7. 6 lakh views, and the fourth post receiving approximately 17 lakh views). Copies of these posts/announcements made by RCB on Social Medial are produced herewith as Document No. 4 series (pg 56-61). This led to a public gathering of immense proportions, exceeding 3,00,000, individuals," it further added. The massive turnout far exceeded expectations and crowd management capabilities. Due to overcrowding at the event organisers at 3:14pm on the day of the event, organisers abruptly announced that entry to the stadium would require passes, contradicting earlier messages and triggering confusion and panic. The state government said that the RCB, DNA, and KSCA failed to coordinate effectively. Mismanagement at the entry gates and delayed openings led to a stampede, resulting in injuries to seven police personnel. To prevent further unrest, the police permitted a restricted version of the event to proceed under controlled conditions. The aftermath includes both magisterial and judicial probes, registration of FIRs, disciplinary action against police officers, suspension of the Chief Minister's political secretary, transfer of the state intelligence chief, and announcement of compensation for victims. On June 4, eleven people died and more than 30 were injured in a stampede outside Bengaluru's M Chinnaswamy stadium as a huge crowd of nearly 3 lakh people had gathered to witness the victory celebration of Royal Challengers Bengaluru for winning the Indian Premier League (IPL). Following the incident, the Karnataka government suspended top police officials at the Cubbon Park Police Station on June 5 and formed a one-man commission under a retired High Court Judge to probe the incident. After announcing ex-gratia worth Rs 10 lakh each for the next of kin of the deceased, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah ordered an increase in the compensation amount for the families of those who died in the Chinnaswamy Stadium stampede in Bengaluru to Rs 25 lakh each.
The Independent
2 hours ago
- The Independent
‘I did not bring my daughters to die': Russian mother defends decision to live in cave in India
In the monsoon-drenched forests of a coastal town in southern India known for its lush hills and spiritual retreats, a Russian woman was found living in a cave with her two small daughters, living off the grid without electricity or modern amenities. Police officers patrolling the slippery trails of Ramteertha Hills in India's Karnataka state stumbled upon an unusual sight earlier this month when they saw a cave curtained with a cloth and a little blonde girl running out barefoot from a hole in the mountain. The woman, identified as Nina Kutina, 40, had made a home deep in the woods with her daughters, aged five and six, police said. The family had no valid visas and was undocumented in the country. Police officer Sridhar SR confirmed the family had been residing in the cave for over a week. Authorities are now arranging for Kutina's repatriation to Russia, as she had overstayed her visa. She and her daughters have been transferred to a detention facility for foreign nationals living in India illegally. Kutina has defended her decision to live in the wild with her daughters and said they were healthy and happy in the forest, as they are now held in a detention centre near state capital Bengaluru, awaiting deportation. Kutina's case has since snowballed into a tale of adventure, parental rights, bureaucracy, and international legal hurdles. A forest dwelling discovered by chance Authorities had ramped up forest patrols in the Gokarna forest bordering tourist hotspot Goa due to landslide risks in the area and on one such patrol when they found the dwelling on 9 July. The cave in which Kutina was found lay within the jungle and was her home for over a week. Kutina was reluctant to leave the cave as officers tried to warn her about the dangers of living in the wild. Sridhar SR says, 'It is nothing but her love for adventure that brought her here''. He says Kutina told the police that she had worked as a tutor of Russia n language in Goa and spent time in the cave meditating by candlelight, feeding her children, painting, singing, and reading books. Kutina has defended her decision to live in a forest. 'We were not dying, and I did not bring my children, my daughters, to die in jungle. They did not feel bad, they were very happy, they swam in waterfall, they lived, had very good place for sleeping, a lot of lessons with art making, we made from clay, we painted, we ate good, I was cooking with gas, very good and tasty food,' she told ANI news agency. Kutina says they were not living far from civilisation. She chose that location because it is very close to a village from where she bought supplies. 'It's very big and beautiful cave, and not small, and it's like it has window to look to ocean.' Who is Nina Kutina? Russian by birth, Kutina has told Indian news agencies that she has not lived in Russia for 15 years. She has travelled extensively – Costa Rica, Bali, Thailand, Malaysia, Ukraine, Nepal – and says she gave birth to four children, including a son who died in a road accident in Goa last year. Her other son, aged 11, lives in Russia. The two girls with her in the forest were reportedly fathered by Dror Goldstein, an Israeli businessman currently residing in India. He told NDTV that Kutina had left Goa with the children without informing him, prompting him to file a missing persons complaint. Goldstein is now pushing for joint custody and opposes the government's plan to deport the children to Russia. Police say Kutina sent a long and emotional text message to her friends after she was found in the cave. In the message, she condemned the authorities for forcibly removing her and her family from a peaceful, natural life into what she describes as a prison-like shelter. 'And we were placed in a prison without sky, without grass, without a waterfall, with an icy hard floor on which we now sleep for 'protection from rain and snakes',' she wrote. "Not once in our entire life there did a snake ever harm us. Not a single animal attacked us. For many years, the only thing we feared was people." She also expressed her anger with humans, saying they are the 'only creatures who act abnormally'. "I'm hurt by the world of humans – where people with no proper education are given positions that give them power over the lives of others – whole families, even,' she added. "They carry out these horrifying vigilante 'justices,' based purely on their fears – on childish fairytales – not on real experience, not on knowledge, but on rumours, on cowardice." Their life in the cave The three were found with only their belongings, including plastic mats, a few clothes, some grocery items, and packets of instant noodles. There was no electricity or running water, but Kutina says they were content. Days were spent swimming in a nearby waterfall, cooking simple meals, and making art from clay and natural materials. The entrance to their cave had been curtained off with colourful saris. Videos shot by police show the children smiling and dressed in bright Indian clothes, seemingly at ease. Kutina told reporters that they had access to groceries from a nearby village and that she made sure her daughters were well-fed and engaged. Kutina's forest stay, she says, was not driven by spirituality but by their love for nature. A Hindu idol of Panduranga Vittala, an avatar of the god Krishna, was found in her cave. 'It is not about spiritually... it's not about it, we just like natural because it gives us health....' The children have not attended school so far, according to a The Times of India report. Kutina, who claims to be a trained teacher in art and Russian literature, said she plans to formally homeschool her children with proper documentation. 'I earn money through all these activities. And if I don't have any work, if I can't find anyone who needs what I can offer, then my brother, my father, or even my son helps me. So we always have enough money for what we need,' she said. Her legal status The puzzle of when and how Kutina entered – or re-entered – India remains unsolved. Police found an old passport showing she arrived in India on a business visa in October 2016, valid till April 2017. She overstayed and was eventually issued an exit permit by Goa's Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO) in 2018. She then travelled to Nepal on 19 April 2018 and some other places before she returned after three months. Reports suggest she's been in India since at least 2020, though no clear immigration record exists to verify this. She said "travelled to at least 20 countries" and she has travelled to around "four of them since leaving India in 2018". Kutina says the visa lapse was unintentional – a result of grief over her son's death. 'We don't have a valid visa. Our visa finished. I was so sad, I could not think about visa,' she said.
ABC News
3 hours ago
- ABC News
Indian police find Russian mum and her daughters living in an isolated cave after 'overstaying visa'
Police in the southern Indian state of Karnataka state say they have found a Russian woman and her two young daughters living in isolation in a remote forest cave. The woman, identified as 40-year-old Nina Kutina and her daughters aged six and four, were found by police during a routine patrol to Ramatirtha Hill, a popular tourist site on the coast of Karnataka, on July 9. Police officer Sridhar SR said the family had been living in the cave for more than a week. Police said they were taking steps to repatriate Ms Kutina to Russia for overstaying her visa. She and her children have been moved to a nearby detention facility for foreigners living illegally in India. Police said in a statement that Ms Kutina spent her time in the cave meditating by candlelight, and that she told investigating officers she was "interested in staying in the forest and worshipping God." On Tuesday, she told news agency Press Trust of India that she spent her days in the cave by painting, singing, reading books and living peacefully with her children. "[It was shown on TV] about we were not having a good life before and they saved us from it," Ms Kutina said, according to an AFP report. "It is [a] big, big lie because I have a lot of video material, photo material and people who know us. Ms Kutina also rejected claims that she had overstayed her visa period in India, and said the detention facility she was taken to with her children was "very not good place". "Police say they found my old passport and I was in India already before," she told the Press Trust of India. "We had already left India and had come back with a new visa. So, mistaken information came … so much fantasy about us. So, we were not for all these years in India, we had already [flown] to four countries more." "This month is the last month of my visa. "They bring us to very not good place. [There are] no people. We cannot be alone and here [is] very dirty. Not enough of food, we cannot go outside ... A lot of our things [were] taken from us. They took the ashes of my son who died nine months ago and our medicines and everything." Mr Sridhar said Ms Kutina told police that she had worked as a tutor of Russian language in Goa, a coastal tourist state in southern India. "It is nothing but her love for adventure that brought her here," said Mr Sridhar. He said police found pictures of Hindu deities on the inside walls of the cave where Ms Kutina had been living. In a photograph provided by the police, she is seen in front of makeshift curtains made of red saris that covered the entrance to the cave. The Russian Embassy in New Delhi didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. The police statement said Ms Kutina sent a message to her friends after she was found. "Our peaceful life in the cave has ended — our cave home destroyed," she wrote in the message, according to the statement. The Associated Press contacted Ms Kutina over the phone but she declined to comment. AP/AFP
Yahoo
9 hours ago
- Yahoo
Woman Living in Cave with 2 Daughters Wanted to 'Stay in Nature.' After Being Found by Police, She's Being Deported
NEED TO KNOW A 40-year-old Russian woman and her two young daughters were found living in a cave in southwestern India on July 9 A lover of nature, the longtime traveler said she was staying in the forest to worship God and meditate The woman, whose visa expired in 2017, and her children will be deported to Russia, officials saidA Russian woman was found living in a cave with her two young daughters in the forest-dense hills of southwestern India, authorities said. Police inspector Sridhar S.R. and officers were patrolling the Ramateertha hills in Gokarna, a town in Karnataka State, on the evening of Wednesday, July 9, when they came across 40-year-old Nina Kutina and her two daughters, ages 4 and 6, the office of local police superintendent M Narayana said in a statement shared on X. The Russian national told police that she was 'interested in staying in the forest and worshiping God,' according to the translated statement, 'and had come here with her children from Goa [a state in western India] and stayed in the cave on the hill and worshiped God and meditated.' #ಗೋಕರ್ಣ ರಾಮತೀರ್ಥ ಗುಡ್ಡದ ಮೇಲೆ ಕಾಡಿನಲ್ಲಿರುವ ಅಪಾಯಕಾರಿ ಗುಹೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ಉಳಿದುಕೊಂಡಿದ್ದ ರಷ್ಯಾ ಮೂಲದ ವಿದೇಶಿ ಮಹಿಳೆ ಹಾಗೂ ಅವರ ಇಬ್ಬರು ಚಿಕ್ಕ ಹೆಣ್ಣು ಮಕ್ಕಳ ರಕ್ಷಣೆ : ಸುರಕ್ಷಿತ ಸ್ಥಳಕ್ಕೆ ಸ್ಥಳಾಂತರ. @CMofKarnataka @DrGParameshwara @DgpKarnataka @MankalSVaidya @kageri250 @dcuttarakannada @Rangepol_WR… — SP Karwar (@spkarwar) July 12, 2025 When their patrol began, local officials were monitoring for tourists in the landslide-prone area, which is also dangerous because of the poisonous snakes that live there. After police made Kutina aware of the peril of remaining there, she and her daughters were taken to a retreat center in a neighboring village by female police officers, at her request, officials said. But when the woman didn't provide official documentation for her family, she was questioned and said her passport could still be in the cave. When officials returned to her forest dwelling, they found Kutina's passport and visa, which had expired in 2017. Local officials and the Russian Embassy in New Delhi did not immediately respond to PEOPLE's requests for comment. Eventually, Kutina and her children were brought to a women's shelter, where she emailed her relatives in Russian, The New York Times reported. 'Our peaceful life in the cave has ended — our cave home destroyed,' she wrote, according to a translation given to the outlet by police. 'From years living under the open sky in harmony with nature, we know: no snake or animal ever harmed us.' After days of investigative work, police learned more about Kutina's journey. In 2016, Kutina traveled to Goa on a six-month business visa, but stayed longer than allowed. After Indian officials permitted her to leave in April 2018, the woman traveled to Nepal before returning to India in 2020, the Times reported. Kutina's oldest son died at the age of 21 after a bike accident in 2024, and the location of her 11-year-old son is unknown, authorities told the paper. Kutina's 6-year-old daughter was born in Ukraine, while her youngest was born in India, according to the Times. Kutina, who previously used the cave as a retreat, had lived there with her daughters for a week before they were discovered, according to the Times. In an interview with South Asian news agency ANI, Kutina explained her reasoning for living in the forest with her girls. 'We have big experience to stay in nature, in jungle. We were not dying. I did not bring my daughters to die in jungle,' Kutina told ANI, recounting making art and using clay with her daughters, and cooking 'tasty food." She added, "They did not feel bad. They were very happy.' Never miss a story — sign up for to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. Though Kutina told police she wanted to stay in India, the woman and her daughters will be sent to Russia, according to the police statement. 'She does not want to leave as she loves the nature, but we have to follow procedure,' Narayana told CNN. He added, 'Going [into] caves is a dangerous thing, and with two children, and to live there for a week or more is astonishing.' Read the original article on People
Yahoo
10 hours ago
- Yahoo
Mystery surrounds Russian mum and children found in Indian cave
Police in India are trying to piece together the story of a Russian woman who was found living in a cave in the southern state of Karnataka with her two young daughters. Nina Kutina was rescued on 9 July by policemen who were on a routine patrol near Ramteertha hills in the Gokarna forest, which borders the tourist paradise of Goa. Authorities say the 40-year-old and her daughters - six and five years old - do not have valid documents to stay in India. They have been lodged in a detention centre for foreigners near Bengaluru, the state capital, and will be deported soon. Kutina has defended her lifestyle in two video interviews to Indian news agency ANI, saying she and her children were happy living in the cave and that "nature gives good health". But even a week after they were found, there is very little clarity on how the woman and her children came to be in a forest infested with snakes and wild animals; how long they had been living there and who they really are. Police stumble on the cave dwelling "The area is popular with tourists, especially foreigners. But it has a lot of snakes and it's prone to landslides, especially during the rainy season. To ensure the safety of tourists, we started patrolling the forests last year," M Narayana, superintendent of police for Uttara Kannada district, told the BBC. A second policeman who cannot be named and was part of the patrol party that stumbled on the cave dwelling said they walked down a steep hill to investigate when they saw bright clothes that had been hung outdoors to dry. When they got closer to the cave - the entrance to which had been curtained off with brightly coloured saris - "a little blonde girl came running out". When the shocked policemen followed her inside, they found Nina Kutina and the other child. Their possessions were meagre - plastic mats, clothes, packets of instant noodles and some other grocery items - and the cave was leaking. Videos shot by the police at the cave dwelling which the BBC has seen, show the children dressed in colourful Indian clothes, smiling into the camera. "The woman and her children appeared quite comfortable in the place," Mr Narayana said. "It took us some time to convince her that it was dangerous to live there," he added. Police said when they told her that the cave was unsafe because of the presence of snakes and wild animals in the forest, she told them: "Animals and snakes are our friends. Humans are dangerous." Kutina and her daughters were taken to a hospital for a check-up after their rescue and were certified to be medically fit. Who is Nina Kutina? An official in India's Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO) has told the BBC that she's Russian and that she will be repatriated once the formalities are completed. He says they have reached out to the Russian consulate in Chennai - the BBC has also written to the Russian embassy in Delhi but they are yet to respond. In video interviews with India's ANI and PTI news agencies, Kutina said she was born in Russia but hadn't lived there for 15 years and travelled to "a lot of countries, Costa Rica, Malaysia, Bali, Thailand, Nepal, Ukraine". In her interviews with both agencies, Kutina said she had four children between the ages of 20 and 5 years. She talked about the eldest - "my big son" - who died in a road accident in Goa last year. Officials say her second son is 11-years-old and is in Russia - and that they have shared the information with the consulate. On Tuesday night, the FRRO said they had tracked down the father of the girls - Dror Goldstein - and that he was an Israeli businessman. They said he was in India at the moment and that they met him and were trying to persuade him to pay for Kutina and her daughters' repatriation. On Wednesday, Goldstein told India's NDTV channel that Kutina had left Goa without informing him and that he had lodged a missing complaint with the police there. He said he wanted joint custody of his daughters and would do everything to prevent the government from sending them to Russia. When did she come to Gokarna? There is no clarity on how and when Kutina and her daughters reached the forest in Karnataka. Police said she told them that they had been living in the cave for a week. They added that she had bought some vegetables and groceries, including a popular brand of instant noodles, from a local store, a week ago. They said she told them that she arrived in Karnataka from Goa where she also claimed to have lived in a cave. She also said that one of her daughters was born in a Goa cave. In her interview to PTI on Wednesday, she complained about the detention centre where she's been lodged with her daughters saying "it is like jail". "We lived in a very good place. But now we cannot be alone. We cannot go outside. Here it's very dirty, and there's not enough food," she added. It's not clear when and how Kutina came to India. Police say she told them she had lost her passport, but they were able to find an older expired passport among her belongings which showed that she had come to India on a business visa which was valid from 18 October 2016 to 17 April 2017. But she overstayed, was caught a year later, and the Goa office of the FRRO issued her "an exit permit" to leave India. According to immigration stamps in her passport, she entered Nepal on 19 April 2018 and exited three months later. It's not clear where she went after that, but Kutina told ANI that overall she had "travelled to at least 20 countries" - at least "four of them since leaving India in 2018". It's also not clear when she returned to India next, although some reports say she's been back since February 2020. She told PTI that she returned because "we really love India". Kutina admitted that her visa expired a few months back. "We don't have our visa, valid visa, our visa finished," she said, adding that the lapse happened because she was grieving for her dead son and couldn't think of anything else. Why was Kutina living in a cave? After an idol of Panduranga Vittala, a form of Hindu god Krishna, was found in her cave dwelling, it was reported that she had gone there to do meditation and for spiritual reasons. But in her interview to ANI, she rejected the narrative. "It is not about spiritually. We just like nature because it gives us health... it's very big health, it's not like you live in a home." She added she had "big experience to stay in natural, in jungle" and insisted that her daughters were happy and healthy there. The cave she had chosen was "very big and beautiful" and it was "very close to a village" so she could buy food and other necessities. "We were not dying, and I did not bring my children, my daughters, to die in jungle. They were very happy, they swam in the waterfall, they had a very good place for sleeping, a lot of lessons in art making, we made from clay, we painted, we ate good, I was cooking very good and tasty food," she told ANI. Kutina also rejected suggestions that living in the forest exposed her children to danger. "For all the time we lived there, yes we saw a few snakes," she said, but added that it was similar to people reporting finding snakes in their homes, kitchens or toilets.
