Singapore: An Indian businessman flew all the way to Singapore and lined up for 13 hours overnight outside an Apple store to buy the latest iPhone as a wedding gift for his daughter.

Amin Ahmed Dholiya, 43, was the first in the queue outside the Apple store on Orchard Road, where he arrived around 7 pm on Thursday to get his hands on the iPhone 8 Plus which hit the shelves yesterday, reported The Straits Times today.

“I will buy two (phones), one for my other daughter (as well). This is my first-time queueing overnight for something. I am feeling good now but it will be hard to stand all night,” he was quoted as saying on Thursday.

When the store opened at 8 am yesterday, there were some 200 people, including many foreigners, in the queue.

Dholiya returned home last night, according to the Singapore daily.

The new iPhone 8 and the iPhone 8 Plus were the first major products launched at the store since it opened in May.

Foreigners “have a bigger reason to queue up and buy” at the Apple store here because the new devices have not yet been launched in their countries, and many of them may have to buy the phones without contract even when the phones are launched back home,” said Kiranjeet Kaur, a senior research manager for client devices at market research firm IDC Asia-Pacific.

Apple had on September 12 unveiled the iPhone 8 and the iPhone 8 Plus.

Singapore consumers will generally prefer to get the iPhone 8 or 8 Plus at a subsidised price with a telco contract, said Kaur.

Many customers from the three Singapore telcos avoided queuing for too long as they could book time slots to collect their new iPhones elsewhere.

(Agencies)

Jaipur: After three days of investigation, Rajasthan Police on Saturday arrested self-styled godman Kaushalendra Prapannacharya ‘Falahari’ Maharaj in Alwar for the alleged rape of a 21-year-old woman.

“We have arrested the Baba under Section 376 (rape) and section 506 (criminal intimidation),” Rahul Prakash, Superintendent of Police Alwar, told IANS on phone.

He said that Falahari Baba would be taken to a government hospital for a medical check and later if he is found fit and healthy he would be presented before a magistrate.

The young woman from Chhattisgarh alleged she had been raped by the 70-year-old godman at his ashram in Alwar in Rajasthan on August 7.

Her family has been the Baba’s follower for over 15 years and claimed to have given large donations to the godman.

Facing sexual assault accusations, the Baba got himself admitted in the Intensive Care Unit of a private hospital in Alwar on Wednesday under police security.

On Friday, doctors at the hospital found him fit and he was shifted to a private ward

The Baba has followers both in India and abroad.

“We have already recorded the statement of the young woman and have taken her to the ashram to identify the room where the crime occurred, and the Baba’s disciple who dropped her at the Alwar railway station thereafter on September 21,” a police official said.

Police has sealed the godman’s room, in front of which he would sit on a throne and deliver his sermon to followers.

A First Information Report was filed by the woman at Bilaspur in Chhattisgarh, which was transferred to Alwar’s Aravali Vihar police station.

The case comes in the wake of the conviction of Sirsa-based Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh by a Panchkula Special Court on August 25 for the rape of two of his female devotees.

(IANS)

Bangalore: Daughters day is round the corner. To celebrate this
remarkable day, Motherhood Hospitals is organising a Walkathon “Come together to stand
together” on 24 th September 2017, Sunday at 7 am. The walkathon will cover a distance of
3 kms starting from Cubbon Park covering Vidhana Soudha, KR Circle and ends at Cubbon
Park again.

Motherhood Hospitals will raise fund through this walkathon and donate it to Swanthana
Charitable Trust which is home for mentally challenged girls and girls with multiple
disabilities, hence the hospital would charge Rs. 250 for the registration.

According to a survey, the child birth ratio is 945 girls per 1000 boys which shows the
alarming girl fetal deaths and discrimination in the country. To address this issue, Hon’ble
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, started a campaign on “Beti Bachao, Beti Padao” which has
already started creating awareness about the gender inequality and fetal deaths in many
parts of the country. To add to this Motherhood Hospitals has taken the initiative of
organising the walkathon to educate Bangaloreans on the importance of saving the girl child
and educating her.

“Come together to stand together” walkathon is open to public and people can register to
the walkathon through book my show or walking into any of the Motherhood Hospitals 4
units in Indiranagar, Sahakar Nagar, HRBR Layout, Sarjapur road.

About Motherhood Hospitals:

Motherhood is a comprehensive women & child care hospital, committed to providing a
gamut of services to women and new-born in Bangalore. Our multidisciplinary team
provides comprehensive & personalized care that includes obstetrics, gynecology,
neonatology, pediatrics, fetal medicine, radiology and specialty clinics. We also offer other
services like prenatal & postnatal counseling, individual physical fitness sessions to facilitate
natural birthing, painless delivery to ease the birthing process and an expert dietitian to
advice on a healthy diet.

Jaipur: A 70-year-old self-styled godman was today booked for allegedly sexually exploiting a 21-year-old woman hailing from Bilaspur in Chhattisgarh, police said.

The woman had lodged a complaint against Kaushlendra Prapanacharya Phalahari Maharaj in Bilaspur and alleged that he sexually exploited her at his ashram located in Alwar on August 7.

“Bilaspur police have sent the complaint here. We have registered a case of sexual exploitation and initiated investigation,” SHO Aravali police station, Hemraj Meena, said. He said that they visited the ashram of the accused from where it was found that he was undergoing treatment at a private hospital in Alwar.

He will be interrogated after permission from doctors, Meena said. According to the police, the accused godman had been visiting the woman’s residence for quite a long time. According to preliminary investigation, the woman had got an internship after completing her law studies. She visited the godman’s ashram on August 7 to donate some money following which he allegedly sexually exploited her.

The godman apparently has a sprawling ashram and several domestic and international devotees revere him, police said.

(Agencies)

Bengaluru: The Special Investigation Team which was set up to investigate on the murder case of senior journalist Gauri Lankesh now has a facial profile of her attacker.

The SIT, which went through hundreds of digital video recorders (DVRs), developed an image based on the footage from one of the CCTV cameras on the path from her office to a residence. It also scrutinised CCTV camera footage from her house, which the assailant visited twice before the murder on September 5.

A senior police officer from the SIT told “The video frames clearly show the assailant was on a Bajaj Pulsar, wearing a formal shirt and trousera (not black jacket as reported earlier), a white helmet without a visor, a wristband, a watch and office tag around his neck. The officer said the assailant is lean built and aged between 34 to 38 years. The rough facial profile has given the SIT enough leads, it is said.

Gauri Lankesh was murdered on September 5 outside her residence. Journalists across the nation condemned the killing, and remembered a fearless scribe who was often critical of the right-wing.

(Agencies)

Bengaluru: Income Tax Department sleuths on Thursday searched the business and residential premises of Cafe Coffee Day retail chain founder-owner V.G. Siddhartha, son-in-law of former Karnataka Chief Minister S.M. Krishna, in Bengaluru and other places in the state for alleged tax evasion, said a senior official.

“Directorate Revenue (Intelligence) officials are conducting simultaneous search and seizure operation to ascertain undisclosed income and tax evasion, if any, under section 132 of the Income Tax Act 1961 in the offices and residence of a businessman who owns Coffee Day retail outlets across the country,” the tax official told IANS here.

The raids, which began at 8 a.m., were underway at the corporate office of Amalgamated Bean Coffee (ABC) Trading Company, which runs the coffee chain, in central Bengaluru, its branches at Chikkamagaluru, Mudigere and Sakelespur in the state and its owner’s house in the city’s upscale suburb.

Clarifying that the raids had nothing to do with the political links of the owner’s relative, the official said the businessman happens to be the son-in-law of a prominent politician in the state.

“The raid on the businessman is for evidence on information gathered during the course of investigation and is independent of his relationship with a politician,” added the official on the condition of anonymity.

Siddhartha is the elder son-in-law of Krishna, a former External Affairs Minister of the country from 2009-12. He was the Chief Minister from 1999 to 2004. He was also Maharashtra Governor from 2004 to 2008.

The 85-year-old veteran politician joined the BJP on March 22 in New Delhi after resigning from the Congress on January 29 this year, severing his four-decade-old association with the grand old party.

(IANS)

Sindhudurg: The Maharashtra Congress received a strong jolt when senior leader and former Chief Minister Narayan Rane and his son Nilesh, an ex-MP, quit the party here on Thursday.

“I have sent my resignation letter to Congress President Sonia Gandhi. I was promised the post of CM four times, but it was not honoured by the party,” Rane told a jam-packed media conference here in the afternoon. He also quit as Member of Legislative Council.

He claimed he was “used and exploited” by the Congress for the past 12 years to secure the support of his loyalist legislators and party activists.

Amidst speculation that he is likely to join the Bharatiya Janata Party, Rane said he would go on a tour of Maharashtra before announcing the next course of action and criticized state Congress President Ashok Chavan.

“I shall prove my strength to Ashok Chavan. Many more Congress leaders shall follow suit. My son Nilesh and I have now become ‘Congress-mukt’ and have nothing to do with the party,” declared Rane.

Rane was the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance Chief Minister for a year (in 1999) when it ruled the state between 1995 and 1999.

In recent months, Rane has met BJP President Amit Shah and even Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on a couple of occasions in Mumbai and Ahmedabad, sparking off rumours of his imminent exit from the Congress.

Though the BJP fuelled the speculation by announcing it would welcome Rane with open arms, Rane had dismissed them as mere rumours.

(IANS)