Here are the big stories from Karnataka today

Karnataka Today newsletter: Panic grips parents as 48 schools get bomb threat in Bengaluru, and more

Panic gripped parents following an email threat received by as many as 48 schools in and around Bengaluru on Friday, December 1. The school administrations tipped off the police before sending alerts to parents about the emergency situation, requesting them to take their children home.

Police, along with the bomb disposal squad, rushed to the schools and conducted search operations. The threat email warns of explosive devices on school grounds. While Bengaluru Police Commissioner B. Dayananda has said that the mails seem to be a hoax — the second such incident targetting schools in recent times — a special cybercrime team is trying to track down the culprits using records of the masked IP address.

Chikkamagaluru Superintendent of Police Vikram Amathe suspended five policemen, including a sub-inspector, of Chikkamagaluru Town station on the charge of assaulting an advocate. A night patrol team stopped advocate Preetham on Market Road for riding a bike without wearing a helmet on November 30. When the advocate questioned them for taking away his bike keys, the policemen took him inside the station and assaulted him till he fell unconscious. Preetham was later admitted to a hospital.

The Karnataka High Court suo motu has taken cognisance of the incident. A division bench comprising Chief Justice Prasanna B. Varale and Justice Krishna S. Dixit passed the order and sought status of the action taken. Observing that it is not a good development, the bench wondered what the plight of a common man would be if advocates could face such police brutality.

Due to paucity of funds and drought in Karnataka, the Kannada Sahitya Parishath has decided to postpone the 87th Akhila Bharata Kannada Sahitya Sammelana, which was scheduled to be held in Mandya, for an indefinite period. The Kannada Sahitya Parishath had sought ₹25 crore from the government for the festival.

“The government has not said anything about postponing the literature festival. I have taken this decision in the interest of the people of the State. The literature festival will be held after the drought situation improves,” said Mahesh Joshi, president of the Parishath, which has been organising the sammelana every year, usually in January.

A Ph.D student in chemical science was found dead on the Indian Institute of Science (IISc.) campus in Bengaluru under mysterious circumstances on December 1.