Here are the big stories from Karnataka today

Karnataka Today newsletter: Infosys co-founder Kris Gopalakrishnan among 18 booked under SC/ST Atrocities Act, and more

The Sadashivanagar police have registered a case against Infosys co-founder Senapathy Kris Gopalakrishnan and 17 members of Indian Institute of Science under the SC/ST Act based on a private complaint filed by a faculty member accusing them of dismissing him from service through a fake honey trap case and subjecting him to casteist abuse.

The complainant, Professor D. Sanna Durgappa, formerly with Centre for Sustainable Technologies, had approached the 71st city civil and session court, which directed the jurisdictional police to register a case and investigate the matter. The complainant, who belongs to the Bovi community (scheduled caste), alleged that he was subjected to casteist abuse and threats.

Around 26 lakh primary and high school students of government, aided and private schools across Karnataka are being deprived of midday meals, scholarships and other schemes due to failure of Aadhaar authentication with the Student Achievement Tracking System (SATS). Of a total 1.04 crore students from classes 1 to 10, only 78 lakh students have successfully completed the Aadhaar authentication.

The Department of School Education and Literacy (DSEL) has expressed its displeasure over the delay in completing the Aadhaar authentication despite the process being underway for the last two years. The Commissioner of Public Instruction has decided to take disciplinary action against the officials responsible for this delay. Seven days have been given to complete the Aadhaar authentication process.

The rate of conviction in cases of atrocities committed on people belonging to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, which was about 10% in 2020, has fallen to 7 % now. After chairing a meeting of the State-level vigilance and monitoring committee for the welfare of SC/STs, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said that he had directed officials to increase the conviction rate to 10%.

He directed the authorities to make effort to get the stay given by courts in atrocities cases vacated, besides proceeding with investigation in 665 pending cases. During the meeting, the CM also asked prosecutors to effectively argue the cases of atrocities and also ensure that bail is denied to perpetrators of atrocities, and chargesheet is filed on time.

Mysuru Lok Sabha MP Yaduveer Krishnadatta Chamaraja Wadiyar has claimed that there will be no burden on the exchequer if the Karnataka government provides Transfer of Developmental Rights (TDR) to the erstwhile royal family of Mysuru for acquisition of Bengaluru Palace land for widening the nearby roads.