CITY BangaloreMirror | TUESDAY, APRIL 7, 2015www.bangaloremirror.com/bangalore 4

LIFESTYLE DISCOURSE ON OUR ANIMALCITIZENS AND THEIR HUMAN COMPANIONS

You can write to Sindhoor Pangal at bmfeedback@gmail.com

BYSINDHOORPANGAL

The writer is a Canine Family Coach & Behaviouristand the founder of a canine therapy and training centre

PET PUJA

D ogs are intensely aware of our hands. We did a studyin Norway, where we measured the impact ourhands have on a dog’s heart rate. The finding wasremarkable. It showed very clearly that our hands

played a significant role on a dog’s heart rate, indicating theiracute sensitivity to our hands.

Due to their close attention on our hands, they can beused effectively to communicate subtle messages to dogs likeasking a dog to stop doing something or letting a dog knowthat everything is okay. An astute observer of dog body lan-guage, equipped with the knowledge of ‘calming signals’ willfind it very handy to just show the palm to a dog in a reas-suring way whenever the dog gets a bit anxious. GoogleCalming Signals to learn more about understanding dogcommunication.

While the dog’s sensitivity to our hands, make them effec-tive communication tools, laying a hand on a dog also ele-vates a dog’s heart rate. When a dog is emotionally arouseddue to anxiety or excitement, laying a hand on a dog canhave some undesirable consequences. Since our hands ondogs increase their heart rate, an already excited dog cansuddenly startle or get further agitated. We often tend tothink that when dogs are anxious we need to pet them tocalm them. On the contrary, we need to keep our hands off,so that we do not further elevate their heart rate.

If the dog sought contact, we can give a little contact.Vocally soothing a dog down with long drawn out soft slowwords helps a little. The most effective way to calm a dogdown is to get a dog to sniff. I learned recently that the res-piratory system is the easiest one to take control of when aperson or animal is charged up. People are often taughtbreathing exercises as a way to take control and tide pastpanic. Similarly, getting a dog to sniff has calming effects.Dogs can be made to sniff by simple things like treat search.Scatter pieces of your dog’s absolute favourite treat in thelawn, on mosaic floor or hide treats around the house. Allowyour dog to sniff out the treats. By the end of the session hisheart rate reduces and he is much more receptive to reason.Until then, hands off the dog please!

This does not mean one does not pet a dog. Pet a dogwhen the dog comes and seeks petting and is relaxed. A fewscratches behind the ear, under the chin, on the shoulder oron the belly are endearing interactions that dogs adore. Theydon’t particularly appreciate being touch on the head or onthe neck. They tolerate it. But they have their favourites andit’s always fun to pet a dog in a polite way. Keep petting ses-sions calm, happy and short.

Hands can be actively used for calming too. Long softstrokes on the dog can release Oxytocin in the dog, creatinga sense of wellbeing. However, our hands do increase a dog’sheart rate, so how do we calm the dog down? The first trickis to time it right. Soft massages like these should be admin-istered to a dog when the dog is awake, but calm and relaxed.Then softly put your hand on the dog and let it lay there tillthe dogs breathing is slow. Then start the long, soft and slowstrokes on the dog. Keep that up for a few minutes and thentake hands off again. Your hands are special to your dog. Usethem sensibly and sensitively.

WHAT YOUR HANDSMEAN TO DOGS

Catch DJ Abi and groove to the beats at Loft 38,Indiranagar at 8 pmWHAT’S TRENDING

Tuesdays with the bardPainting exhibition

Film screeningFar out laughs

A LAWYER and engineerby profession, VenkatPurushotham’s poetry isinfluenced by Edgar AllenPoe, Rudyard Kipling, WaltWhitman, Jim Morrisonand William Wordsworth.His first book of poetrySaints , S inners andDraconian Knights is a trib-

ute to the working class andunsung heroes of modernsociety. Spend an eveningwith him and his verses.

FOR three decades Spectrum Arts Circlehas been promoting art in Kolkata. Theywill be showcasing the work of 12 artistsas part of the exhibition The Colours ofBengal in association with CKP.

STARRING Carey Mulligan andBill Nighy, Skylight tells the storyof two lovers who try to reigniteold passions but are faced with adangerous battle of opposing ide-ologies and mutual desires. Theproduction by the NationalTheatre in the UK will be screenedin Bengaluru for the first time.

IF you live in and around Whitefieldand are in a mood for a laugh, head toThe Fat Chef. Some of the best comicsfrom around the city including RupenPaul and Kjeld Sresht will be there toentertain you and tickle your funnybone.

WHERE: Nrityagram,HessaraghattaWHEN: April 7CONTACT: collective.sandbox@gmail.com

Nrityagram will beorganising a danceand theatre summer

camp starting from today.The one week long resi-dential camp is meant forchildren between the agegroup of 9 to 12.

Summer camp

WHERE: Karnataka ChitrakalaParishath, Kumara Krupa RoadWHEN: April 7, 10 amCONTACT: 2226 1816

WHERE: UrbanSolace, UlsoorWHEN: April 7, 8 pmCALL: 9945022177

UNWIND

WHERE: The Fat Chef, WhitefieldWHEN: April 7, 8:30 pmCONTACT: 4099 2982

WHERE: PVR, Phoenix MarketCity, Whitefield WHEN: April 7, 4 pmTICKTES: Box office

Soon, ahospital4kms fromthe int’l airport

Those travelling from theairport and living near-by now don’t have totravel long distances in

case of a health emergency.A Bengaluru-based prop-

erty builder and a UAE-basedmedical group, owned by BRShetty, in a joint venturehave decided to come up

with a hospital just four kil-ometers away from the air-port. The Ozone group hassigned a memorandum ofunderstanding with BR Lifeto launch a 250-bed hospitalin Ozone Urbana townshiplocated on NH7 adjacent tot h e K e m p e g o w d aInternational Airport (KIA).The work is likely to com-mence within six months.

Right now, the nearestmulti-speciality is a 90-bed

hospital in Hebbal, 20 kmfrom the airport.

Sudhakar Jayaram, countryhead and CEO, BR Life said,“The hospital will have speci-alities across streams and willinclude neurology, renal sci-ence, gastroenterology,orthopaedics and cardiolo-gy.”

The total investment thatwill be made by both thegroups is Rs 150 crore and theproject will aid not only

those living in the neigh-bourhood of Ozone Urbanabut also the people of neigh-bouring areas including thosecoming from the airport whorequire emergency services.

Out of the planned 250beds, about 80 beds will bereserved for critical care. Thehospital is aiming at a staff ofabout 800 (including doctors,nurses and administrators)that will be recruited mostlyfrom Bengaluru.

Vandana.Kamath@timesgroup.com

TWEETS @VandanaKamath16

More thanoneFIR for sameincident notpermissible:HC

Adozen officials of Berger Paints IndiaLimited, most of them fromKolkata, got a major relief from theHigh Court of Karnataka. Police had

filed three FIRs in the case of a fire in thebuilding that also housed a Berger Paintswarehouse. The HC quashed two FIRs(888/2013 and 889/2013) against the 12persons saying as a FIR had been registeredbefore these two, filing further FIRs wasimpermissible.

The Madiwala police had filed the FIRsbased on a complaint by the owner of thebuilding situated in Bengaluru south. Thecase was filed against the managing direc-tor and a few senior vice presidents amongothers. The company had a stock and dis-tribution centre in Hongasandra VillagePost, Bengaluru South Taluk. The placewas leased from one C Ananda Reddy.Another company, NF Apparels PrivateLimited, also had its garment factory inthe building.

A fire broke out in the building onNovember 8, 2012. One Yatheesh noticedthe smoke and informed the fire brigadeand the police. The police filed a case. Thiswas registered as FIR 898/20012 and charg-es of negligence under IPC were made. Achargesheet was filed in the case and cog-nisance was taken. Subsequently, the NFApparels Private Limited filed a privatecomplaint which was directed to theMadiwala police who filed the case FIR888/2013. In this, the charges were madeunder Explosives Substances Act andPetroleum Act apart from IPC. The land-lord approached the court with a privatecomplaint after which another FIR wasfiled by the police in the incident. This wasFIR 889/13. The two subsequent FIRs waschallenged by Berger Paints and its offic-ers.

The HC quashed the two subsequentFIRs saying, “The proposition of law, mak-ing registration of fresh FIRs impermissibleand as violative of Article 21 of theConstitution has be reiterated andaffirmed by the Apex court.” The HC citedfour different cases.

The HC said that if the trial court findsmore investigation in the incident isrequired it can direct the investigationofficer. But it would be considered as partof the first FIR itself.

S Shyam Prasadshyam.prasad1@timesgroup.com

TWEETS @ShyamSPrasad

BDA mutual funds scamis tip of the iceberg: CCBHC rejects bail to BDA cashier involved in scam. CCB finds more skeletons in BDA cupboards

The City Crime Branch(CCB) investigation intoBangalore DevelopmentAuthority (BDA) ‘mutualfunds’ scam is throwing up

skeletons from the developmentagency’s cupboards by the dozen.The government itself revealedthis to the High Court when oneof the accused approached thecourt for bail. The enormity of thescam, which had gone on for overa decade without being detected,is being unravelled. The govern-ment is now investigating what itsscale was between 2002 and 2014.

C Vasanth Kumar, one of thethree accused in the mutual fundsscam, has been denied bail by theHigh Court. In its judgement overhis anticipatory bail plea onMarch 30, the court said that theallegations were serious and hugepublic money was involved andtherefore bail cannot be granted.

The anticipatory bail of CVasanth Kumar, 56, was heard byJustice AV Chandrashekara. He isaccused number three in the casefiled last year by Seshadripurampolice. The various charges underdifferent sections of the IndianPenal Code include ‘criminalbreach of trust by public servant’,‘use of forged documents’, and‘cheating and dishonestly induc-ing delivery of property’. The casehas subsequently been transferredto the City Crime Branch (CCB).Kumar’s bail plea in the Sessionscourt had been dismissed earlier.The case was filed against Kumar,Sandeep Dash and Seshappa. Thelast two were finance members ofBDA.

Kumar joined BDA as seconddivision assistant in 1996. Thenhe was posted to the cash section.Over several years, the three BDAofficials were found to have trans-ferred BDA funds and investedthem in mutual funds in theirown names.

Kumar’s advocate argued beforethe court that he was virtually fol-lowing the directions given by

Dash and Seshappa and he wasonly a subordinate who had to fol-low the directions by his superi-ors. The HC was told that Dashand Seshappa used to give himdirections from time to time toinvest money in mutual funds andthen credit that on the date ofmaturity. He did this from June2005 to June 2008. He was notdirectly responsible for the invest-ment or the loss caused due tomarket crash. He was only a clerkand had given the same reasoning

to the BDA in writing when thecase was registered on November28, 2014.

The government advocateopposed the bail plea and told thecourt that the accountant generalhad found in July 2014 that aboutRs 3 crore transferred to BangaloreMetro Rail Corporation Ltd by theBDA was unauthorised. The gov-ernment advocate went on to list17 major and glaring discrepan-cies that were unearthed duringthe investigations. The accounts

of BDA showed large-scale misuseof several crore funds. The courtwas told that to unearth manythings, Kumar was absolutelyrequired for custodial interroga-tion. The court in its order, reject-ing Kumar’s bail plea, said thatgrave irregularities and illegalitieshave been done while dealingwith public money and withoutcustodial interrogation it “wouldbe very difficult to unearth manythings in a case like this”.

The court said, “Since there is aallegation of misuse of publicmoney on a large scale purport-edly using dubious means, it neednot be reiterated that CCB wouldconduct a thorough investigationwithout undue delay.”

S Shyam Prasadshyam.prasad1@timesgroup.com

TWEETS @ShyamSPrasad

DISCREPANCIES GALOREInvestigation into the BDA mutual funds scam has so far found 17discrepancies. The government advocate told HC that it was just the tip ofthe iceberg, and an auditor has been appointed to conduct a special auditof BDA accounts from 2002 to 2014.■ BDA money transferred to mutual funds on oral instructions to the bank■ BDA records, however, show MFs as bank deposits■ Temporary accounts used for MF transactions■ Misuse of authority by deciding Rs 100 cr investment in MFs■ MF transaction with chief accountant’s knowledge■ Rs 33.53 cr loss in which Vasant Kumar’s address and email ID was used■ MFs transacted through agents■ MF investments recycled many times■ MF documents signed by C Vasanth Kumar■ Suspicious recording in BDA accounts about temporary accounts■ Confusion created by investing MF and its returns in other MFs■ MF investment does not disclose names■ Temporary account opened in name of FM-BDA and not BDA■ Other temporary accounts need detailed investigation

Officials lined their pockets by diverting funds to MFs

ARs100-crorefraud,allegedlyperpetrat-edovernineyearstill2008,hascometolightattheBanga-

loreDevelopmentAuthority(BDA)now.Officials,holdingtoppositionsthen,allegedlymastermindedtocauselossestoBDAexchequertothetuneofRs100crore.Despitean-nualgovernmentauditsof itsaccounts, theallegedlarge-scalerip-offwhichtookplacefrom1999to2008wentun-detectedtill July2014. ItwasonlyafterCAG--andthattoowhile itwasconductingato-tallyunrelatedauditofBanga-loreMetroRailCorporationLimited(BMRCL)accounts --chanceduponsomethingfishythatthedotsconnectedleadingtothemassivefraud.

Aninternal inquiryhasre-vealedthattwoof its formerFinancialMembers,alongwithacashier,allegedlyin-vestedaroundRs500crore inmutual fundsintheirnamesandmisledtheBDAintobe-lievingthemoneyhadbeenkept inafixeddeposit inna-tionalisedbanks.OnFriday,BDAregisteredanFIRagainstthethreeofficialsandaskedtheBengalurupolicetoprobetheroleofbankstoo.BDAhassentareporttothestategov-ernmentseekingathoroughprobeintothematterbyaspe-cialisedagencyliketheCID.

TheFIRnamesSandeepDash,afinancialmemberofBDAbetweenMay1997and

Accounts&AuditServices(IA&AS)officer,whoservedassecretarytotwoKarnatakagovernors,RameshwarTha-kurandHansrajBharadwaj.

MNSheshappa,whosuc-

cededDashasfinancialmem-berofBDAfromMay2005toJune2008, is thesecondac-cused.CashierCVasanthKu-marhasbeennamedasthethirdaccused.TheFIRhas

beenregisteredbyBDA’scur-rentFinancialMember,KNGangadhar.

AsperBDA’scomplainttothepolice, theyreceivedalet-ter fromtheCAGonJuly11,2014statingithadconductedanauditofBMRCL’saccountsandfoundatransferofRs3crorefromBDA’saccounttoBMRCL’saccountinthefi-nancialyear2007-2008thoughtherewasnoreasonforsuchatransaction.AspertheFIR,BDAofficialssub-sequentlygot intouchwiththeBMRCLandfoundoutthatSandeepDash,afinance

May2005,asthekingpin.BothDashandhiswifeareciv-il servants.WhileDashisanIndianCivilAccountsService(ICAS)officer,hiswife,Shara-daSubramaniamisanIndian

The con was pulled off for nine years by hoodwinking the BDA into believing itsmoney was safely invested in bank FDs. It came to light now, six years hence

FIR filed against top babusfor `̀100-cr fraud in BDA

The civil servant couple haveboth moved back to Delhi, af-ter their stint in the state.Sandeep Dash remained un-available for comment. BMthen contacted his wife Shara-da Subramaniam (IA&AS).When we told her that we needDash's take on the FIR, shesaid, “I will inform him aboutyour query; let him take a call.If he chooses to react, he willcall you.”

‘NO COMMENTS’When told the contents of

the police complaint lodgedagainst him by the BDA, M NSheshappa, who was BDA’s fi-nancial member between2005 to 2008, said, ''Verygood. I do not know about thecase. Where is it registered? Icannot comment on what youare talking.’’

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BM story on Nov 30, 2014, on howofficials allegedly masterminded ascam to cause Rs 100 crore loss toBangalore Development Authority

Product: MirrorBangaloreBS PubDate: 07-04-2015 Zone: BangaloreBS Edition: 1 Page: MRBGP4 User: lreddy1506 Time: 04-06-2015 20:15 Color: CMYK