KOLKATA: Kolkata Police has registered a case of unnatural death over the demise of renowned Bollywood singer Krishnakumar Kunnath popularly known as KK, a senior officer said on Wednesday.

“We have started an investigation into singer KK’s death and a case of unnatural death has been registered with the New Market Police Station. We are talking to the hotel authorities and scrutinising CCTV footage to understand what had happened before he was taken to the hospital,” the police officer said, adding that two persons have been questioned in connection with the case.

An initial probe has revealed that the 53-year-old singer, who was on a two-day tour to Kolkata to perform at two college programmes, was “almost mobbed” by fan followers at the hotel where he had returned after performing at Nazrul Mancha auditorium in the southern part of the city, he said.

“The singer had allowed a couple of fan followers to take snaps with him, but then he refused to carry on with the selfie session. He left the lobby and then went upstairs where he had reportedly stumbled and fallen on the floor. People who were with him informed the hotel authorities,” the officer said.

KK was then rushed to a private hospital in the southern part of the city where he was declared “brought dead” by doctors, he said, adding that probably because of the fall, the singer had two injuries — one on the left side of his forehead and another on his lips.

“He was brought to the hospital around 10 pm.

It’s unfortunate that we could not treat him,” a senior official of the hospital said.

Doctors at the hospital said they suspected “cardiac arrest” to be the cause of the death.

A post-mortem examination will be conducted during the day to ascertain the exact cause of his death, he added.

“The autopsy report will throw light on the exact cause of death. We are waiting for it,” the police officer said.

Meanwhile, the singer’s wife reached the city and went to the hospital where his body has been kept.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday condoled KK’s death.

“The sudden and untimely demise of the Bollywood playback singer KK shocks and saddens us. My colleagues have been working from last night to ensure that all requisite support is given for necessary formalities, his rites and to his family now. My deep condolences,” she tweeted.

Banerjee, while speaking at a programme in Bankura, said she has cut short her tour and will try to reach Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport in Kolkata and pay her last respects to the mortal remains of KK.

She said the state police will give gun salute to the deceased singer.

“KK was a youth icon. We have lost a great singer. I have spoken to his wife who has arrived in Kolkata. Depending on the weather condition, I will try to reach NSCBI Airport to pay last respect to the singer. The state police will give gun salute to him,” she said.

The singer had performed at Nazrul Mancha on Monday evening also in a concert organised by Vivekananda College.

He was scheduled to return to New Delhi on Wednesday.

Initial hits such as ‘Pyaar Ke Pal’ and ‘Yaaron’ made KK popular among the youths of the country.

Condoling his death, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said KK will always be remembered through his songs.

“Saddened by the untimely demise of noted singer Krishnakumar Kunnath popularly known as KK. His songs reflected a wide range of emotions as struck a chord with people of all age groups. We will always remember him through his songs. Condolences to his family and fans. Om Shanti,” Modi tweeted.

His wife and sons will reach Kolkata on Wednesday morning.

KK, who was on a two-day tour to Kolkata, also performed at Nazrul Manch on Monday evening in a concert organised by Vivekananda College.

He was supposed to return to New Delhi on Wednesday.

“I have so many personal memories with him. We started our careers together. He was such a nice and non-controversial person. Life has become so unpredictable and uncertain after the pandemic,” singer-turned-politician Babul Supriyo told reporters after reaching the hospital.

“KK has a big contribution to the advent of rock music in India,” said Supriyo, a TMC MLA.

A police team was posted outside the hospital to manage KK’s fans who started gathering after hearing the news of his death.

Shibasis Banerjee, a student of Gurudas College who attended Tuesday’s concert, said the singer was full of energy during the show.

“He posed with us for selfies and also gave us autographs when we requested,” he said.

“He performed one song after another on the stage. A huge number of people gathered to see him. It is unbelievable that he is no more. I met him at such a show during the initial days of my college, when I told him that today, he instantly recognised me,” Shibasis said.

Initial hits such as ‘Pyaar Ke Pal’ and ‘Yaaron’ made KK popular among the youths of the country.

As a playback singer, he has recorded Bollywood numbers such as ‘Ankhon Mein Teri’ (Om Shanti Om), ‘Zara Sa’ (Jannat), ‘Khuda Jaane’ (Bachna Ae Hasino) and ‘Tadap Tadap’ (Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam).

A versatile singer, KK has also recorded songs in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi and Bengali, among other languages.

MUMBAI: Maintaining that Shiv Sena never betrayed anyone, party leader Sanjay Raut on Sunday said that since the BJP did not honour its commitment made to the Sena, Maharashtra got a “good government” in the form of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA).

Addressing party workers in Kolhapur district of western Maharashtra, Raut also said that the BJP can never return to power in the state.

“Shiv Sena has never betrayed anyone. But since BJP did not honour the commitment made to our party, the state could get a good government in the form of MVA. Now, BJP will never come back to power in Maharashtra,” he said.

The Shiv Sena and BJP, which shared power in the state during 2014-19, had snapped ties after the 2019 Assembly poll results following differences over sharing the chief minister’s post.

The Sena then joined hands with the NCP and Congress, an unlikely alliance of parties with divergent views, to form the MVA government.

CHENNAI: A couple in Tamil Nadu has got a ‘no religion, no caste’ certificate for their three-and-a-half-year-old daughter, Vilma. Naresh Karthik and his wife Gayatri approached several schools for their daughter to get admitted to Kindergarten and to put the religion and caste column blank.

Naresh, who is the founder of Seedreaps Educational and Charitable Trust, told media persons that he and his wife Gayatri do not want to confine their child under any religion or caste. He said, “for our daughter, god means love and love means equality. Educational institutions should teach love and equality to students.”

He said that when he approached several schools to admit his daughter, the application form did not have a ‘no religion, no caste’ column.

Naresh said, “The schools we approached said that the religion and caste column is a must and that they cannot accept the application without these columns filled.”

The young couple was however not aware that there was a government order of 1973 that states that religion and caste are not mandatory during admission of their children in schools.

The Tamil Nadu state education department had in two separate orders of 1973 and 2000 directed the Director of School Education to allow people to mention, ‘no religion, no caste’ or to leave the religion and caste columns blank, provided the parents don’t want the religion and caste to be mentioned in the Secondary school leaving certificate and the transfer certificate.

Naresh approached Coimbatore District Collector, G.S. Sameeran who directed him to Tahsildar of Coimbatore North. He asked him to file an affidavit in stamp paper stating that he was aware that applying for a ‘no religion, no caste’ certificate would make her ineligible for any government reservation or privileges based on caste and religion.

He said that after he obtained an attestation from the notary and submitted the affidavit to the Coimbatore North Tahsildar, he got a ‘no religion, no caste’ certificate for his daughter.

The certificate, according to Naresh read — “Baby Vilma does not belong to any caste or religion”.

He said that parents are not aware that a ‘no religion, no caste’ certificate can be obtained and expects that more parents would come forward to get such a certificate and that he strongly believes that God is love.

CHENNAI:  How good is his tactical nous? Is he fully fit? Can he bowl four overs regularly? Will this be the platform for his India comeback? Such were the questions around Gujarat Titans captain Hardik Pandya at the start of the IPL season. The concerns over his fitness only grew as he missed a game after the Titans’ first four matches due to stiffness, with Rashid Khan stepping in for him.

On Sunday, as the extravaganza of Ranveer Singh followed by an electric performance of AR Rahman ensured an entertaining closing ceremony, it did not take long for cricket to take centre stage. Both teams got what they wanted at the toss and right from ball one, Mohammed Shami kept the Royals opening duo in check. 

Yashasvi Jaiswal (22 off 16) went rogue, trying to buy some time for Jos Buttler to settle in, and so did Sanju Samson. While the most anticipated battle of the match, the experienced Rajasthan duo versus Rashid Khan provided for some enthralling contest, after eight overs (59/1) both teams hadn’t seized the initiative. But something was brewing.

Hardik — who had bowled bits and pieces throughout the season — brought himself on to tackle his counterpart Samson, who’s been playing a brand of cricket very few Indian batters have dared. But the Titans’ skipper had stuck to his strengths, angling one into Samson, who miscued it and took the long walk back after an 11-ball 14.

His tight over against Devdutt Padikkal meant that the southpaw tried to take out Rashid and perished. Rajasthan were 79/3 after 12, with Buttler batting at 39 off 35. But all signs up until then indicated that it was going to be Hardik’s day. A tentative poke from the Englishman outside off-stump that moved a tiny bit away meant that the contest was all but over for Rajasthan.

Hardik would dismiss Shimron Hetmyer too, finishing with 3/17 in his four overs. Rajasthan scrapped their way to 130/9, but it was all-out domination from Gujarat and their skipper Hardik on the day that mattered the most.

In reply, Rajasthan started off well with the ball, getting rid off Matthew Wade and Wriddhiman Saha. Hardik built a partnership with Shubman Gill before getting out for 34. However, David Miller took Titans across the line. 

Brief scores: RR 130/9 in 20 ovs (Buttler 39; Hardik 3/17) lost to GT 133/3 in 18.1 ovs (Gill 45 n.o, Pandya 34, Miller 32 n.o).

863 runs Jos Buttler

27 wickets Yuzvendra Chahal

5 This is fifth IPL title for Hardik Pandya after winning four with MI.

160 Titans’ David Miller averaged 160 while scoring 320 runs at a strike rate of 152.4 in run chases this season.

CHANDIGARH: Daring the ruling BJP in Haryana to fight the next Assembly election in the state with Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar as its chief ministerial candidate, Aam Aadmi supremo Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday alleged that the state government is riddled with corruption.         

With local body elections scheduled next month, politics in Delhi’s neighbouring state has heated up. Addressing a party rally in Kurukshethra,  Kejriwal appealed the people to vote for AAP in the civic polls. The Delhi CM, who hails from Haryana, also tried to play up his “homely feeling” for the state. “I feel good when people call me ‘Haryana ka lal’. Haryana is my Janam Bhoomi.”

Questioning the Khattar government’s record on providing jobs, Kejriwal claimed his government in Delhi gave jobs to 12 lakh people and has a plan to give 20 lakh more jobs in the next five years. The Delhi CM also attacked the BJP government in the state over the alleged leakage of question papers for recruitment tests.

Seeking people’s support for the 2024 Haryana Assembly polls, Kejriwal claimed his party ended corruption in Delhi and Punjab and cited the example of sacking Punjab health minister Vijay Singla from the state cabinet for allegedly indulging in corrupt practices. “We ended corruption in Delhi and Punjab and will end it in Haryana as well,” said Kejriwal.

Meanwhile, at a rally in Sirsa, Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar said his government will not tolerate corruption at any cost. Khattar also raised the slogan ‘Bhrashtachar ka Kaal, Manohar Lal (The slayer of corruption, Manohar Lal)’.

“Corruption had been going on since long. No one dared to stop this but since we came to power no one involved in corrupt practices is being spared,” the CM said.He further claimed his government has made improvements in the field of education.

NEW DELHI: The Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday released its first list of 16 candidates for the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections, with Union ministers Nirmala Sitharaman and Piyush Goyal being the most prominent faces to be fielded. 

Interestingly, the names of BJP lone Muslim face and Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, and party general secretary Dushyanat Gautam, who was a member of the Upper House from Haryana, were missing in the first list of candidates. Vinay Sahasrabuddhe was another prominent name that did not figure in the list released on Sunday.

Of the 16 candidates announced, six are from Uttar Pradesh — Laxaminkant Vajpayee, Radhamohan Aggarwal, Surendra Singh Nagar, Baburam Nishad, Darshana Singh and Sangita Yadav. Aggarwal had left his Gorakhpur Urban constituency for Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to contest in the recent assembly polls.

The party has fielded former MLA Krishna Lal Panwar from Haryana and Kavita Patidar from MP. Actor-turned-politician Jaggesh is the second person nominated by the party from Karnataka.  Apart from Goyal, Anil Deshmukha Bonde will be the second nominee from Maharashtra while Ghanshayam Tewari has been field from Rajasthan. Interestingly, Tiwari is a vocal critic of former Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, who has an uneasy equation with the BJP’s central leadership.

Kalpana Saini has been given the ticket from Uttarakhand and Satish Chandra Dubey and Shambhu Sharan Patel from Bihar. Sources said the second list of candidatures will also be announced on Monday.
The BJP has tried to maintain social balance with members from all castes, including OBC, SC and ST, being given tickets in the first list.

Shambhu Patel, who is the nominee from Bihar, belongs to extremely backward caste Dhanuk while another nominee from the state, Satish Chandra Dubey, is a Brahmin. The last date for filing of nominations is May 31. The last date for withdrawal of candidature is June 3.

UP has the biggest tally
UP sends 31 members to Rajya Sabha. Among the 11 retiring MPs from the state, five are from the BJP, three from the SP, two from the BSP and one from the Congress.

POKHARA: Nepali rescuers pulled 14 bodies on Monday from the mangled wreckage of a passenger plane strewn across a mountainside that went missing in the Himalayas with 22 people on board. 

Helicopters operated by the military and private firms scoured the remote mountainous area all day Sunday, aided by teams on foot, but called off the search when night fell, as bad weather hampered the recovery operation at around 3,800-4,000 metres (12,500-13,000 feet) above sea level.

After the search resumed on Monday, the army shared on social media a photo of aircraft parts and other debris littering a sheer mountainside including a wing with the registration number 9N-AET clearly visible.

Four Indians were on board as well as two Germans, with the remainder Nepalis. There was no word on the cause of the crash. 

The Civil Aviation Authority confirmed that the plane “met an accident” at 14,500 feet (4,420 metres) in the Sanosware area of Thasang rural municipality in Mustang district.

“Fourteen bodies have been recovered so far, search continues for the remaining. The weather is very bad but we were able to take a team to the crash site. No other flight has been possible,” authority spokesman Deo Chandra Lal Karn told AFP.

Pokhara Airport spokesman Dev Raj Subedi told AFP the rescuers had followed GPS, mobile and satellite signals to narrow down the location. 

Pradeep Gauchan, a local official, said that the wreckage was at a height of around 3,800-4,000 metres (12,500-13,000 feet) above sea level.

“It is very difficult to reach there by foot. One team has been dropped close to the area by a helicopter but it is cloudy right now so flights have not been possible,” Gauchan told AFP earlier in the day.

“Helicopters are on standby waiting for the clouds to clear,” he said.

According to the Aviation Safety Network website, the aircraft was made by Canada’s de Havilland and made its first flight more than 40 years ago in 1979.

Past crashes

Tara Air is a subsidiary of Yeti Airlines, a privately owned domestic carrier that services many remote destinations across Nepal. 

It suffered its last fatal accident in 2016 on the same route when a plane with 23 on board crashed into a mountainside in Myagdi district. 

Nepal’s air industry has boomed in recent years, carrying goods and people between hard-to-reach areas as well as foreign trekkers and climbers. 

But it has long been plagued by poor safety due to insufficient training and maintenance. 

The European Union has banned all Nepali airlines from its airspace over safety concerns. 

The Himalayan country also has some of the world’s most remote and tricky runways, flanked by snow-capped peaks with approaches that pose a challenge even for accomplished pilots. 

The weather can also change quickly in the mountains, creating treacherous flying conditions.

In March 2018, a US-Bangla Airlines plane crash-landed near Kathmandu’s notoriously difficult international airport, skidded into a football field and burst into flames.

Fifty-one people died and 20 miraculously escaped the burning wreckage but sustained serious injuries.

That accident was Nepal’s deadliest since 1992, when all 167 people aboard a Pakistan International Airlines plane died when it crashed on approach to Kathmandu airport.

Just two months earlier a Thai Airways aircraft had crashed near the same airport, killing 113 people.

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COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s state-owned insurance firm may incur losses in excess of LKR 1 billion due to the violent clashes between anti- and pro-government protesters in the country earlier this month, New York-based ratings agency Fitch has said.

The clashes killed at least 10 people, injured over 200 others, and the properties of 78 government parliamentarians faced arson.

State-owned National Insurance Trust Fund Board (NITFB), which provides strike, riot, civil commotion and terrorism cover (SRCCT) to the island nation will bear the brunt of the losses due to the violent clashes, while primary insurers would experience little impact, Fitch said in a statement on Friday.

“We believe gross losses from the riots are likely to exceed LKR1 billion,” the EconomyNext news website quoted Fitch as saying. However, NITFB’s losses will be limited to LKR1 billion, as the insurer can recover the additional losses under its excess loss reinsurance cover of up to a maximum of LKR10 billion.

“NITFB’s net loss will be limited to this amount due to the protection provided by its excess loss reinsurance cover. We expect it to have sufficient liquid assets to meet its claim obligations,” it said.

Primary insurers have net retention of LKR 2.5 million for motor claims under the SRCCT cover with aggregate losses of over LKR 10 million rupees passed onto the NITFB. Non-motor claims are fully passed on to NITFB, subject to any excess borne by the policyholder, it added.

NITFB’s reinsurance cover for SRCCT, which is placed with international reinsurers, is effective from February 2022 to July 2023.

During the violence, irate mobs destroyed several tents and other structures erected at Galle Face and also attacked some of the demonstrators. The violence saw arson attacks on the homes of several politicians, including the ancestral home of the Rajapaksas in Hambantota.

Sri Lanka has been witnessing large-scale protests against the government’s handling of the debt-ridden economy, the worst-ever economic crisis in the country’s history. The country of 22 million is grappling with unprecedented economic turmoil since its independence from Britain in 1948.

The crisis is caused in part by a lack of foreign currency, which has meant that the country cannot afford to pay for imports of staple foods and fuel, leading to acute shortages and very high prices.