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The mother of Atul Subhash, the Bengaluru engineer who died by suicide on December 9, has approached the Supreme Court seeking custody of her four-year-old grandson. Subhash left behind video and written notes alleging harassment and false accusations from his wife and in-laws.  

Anju Modi has filed a habeas corpus petition to secure the custody of her grandson whose whereabouts are unknown. The petition claims that neither Subhash’s estranged wife Nikita Singhania, nor her family members – currently in custody – have disclosed the child’s whereabouts. 

Nikita reportedly told the police that the boy was enrolled in a Faridabad boarding school and in the custody of her uncle, Sushil Singhania. However, Sushil has denied any knowledge of the child’s location.

A bench comprising Justice BV Nagarathna and Justice N Kotiswar Singh has issued notices to the governments of Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, and Karnataka to provide clarity on the situation. The next hearing is scheduled for January 7.

The case has seen multiple arrests in connection with Subhash’s suicide. Nikita Singhania, along with her mother Nisha Singhania and brother Anurag Singhania, was arrested on December 16. Karnataka Police, citing evidence from the suicide note and video left by Subhash, charged the three with abetment of suicide. They are currently in judicial custody.

According to the petition, Anju Modi contends that the Singhania family has obstructed efforts to locate the child. Subhash’s father, Pawan Kumar, has also publicly demanded custody of the child.

The Singhania family, however, is fighting back. In the Allahabad High Court, senior counsel Manish Tiwary argued for anticipatory bail for Nikita’s uncle, Sushil Singhania. The appeal cited his advanced age (69) and chronic health conditions, suggesting that accusations of abetment were exaggerated and constituted harassment at most. Justice Ashutosh Srivastava granted Sushil pre-arrest bail with strict conditions, including a personal bond of Rs 50,000, mandatory availability for police interrogation, and surrender of his passport.

Subhash’s family has alleged that Nikita and her family harassed him with false legal cases and demands for money. Subhash’s father, Pawan Kumar, and brother, Bikas Kumar, have vowed not to immerse Subhash’s ashes until justice is served. 

“The others behind this incident should also be arrested. We will not get justice till all false cases registered against us are withdrawn. We will not immerse the ashes of my brother till we get justice. Our fight will continue,” Bikas Kumar said.

The family also expressed concerns about the child’s safety.

“I am equally concerned about my nephew (son of Subhash). His safety is a matter of serious concern for us. We have not seen him in recent photographs. I want to know his whereabouts through the media. We want his custody as early as possible,” he added.

Google has laid off 10 per cent of its managerial staff as part of a long-running campaign to increase efficiency by double that number. Multiple news reports said CEO Sundar Pichai, in an all-hands meeting Wednesday, indicated the cuts will come at the manager, director, and vice president roles.

A Google spokesperson told the Business Insider that some employees whose positions had been cut would be “transitioned to individual contributor roles”, while some others were “role eliminations”.

This news follows rapid developments in the AI, or Artificial Intelligence, world and at high-flying rivals like OpenAI, which has released products that industry experts have said can threaten Google Search, its online search business that accounted for over 57 per cent of its revenue last year.

READ | Google Unveils Latest AI Model, Gemini 2.0

Google responded by introducing generative AI features in its products and the launch this month of Gemini 2.0, its most advanced AI model to date. Mr Pichai said the new model would herald “a new agentic era” with AI models designed to understand and make decisions about the world.

The release sent shares in Google soaring by more than four per cent on Wall Street, a day after the stock already gained 3.5 percent after the release of a breakthrough quantum chip.

The layoffs are also the fourth this year alone, including eliminating “a few hundred” positions from its global advertisements team in January and a 100 more jobs across its cloud unit in June.

Alphabet Inc.-owned Google launched its efficiency drive in September 2022.

By January of the next year, the company had eliminated over 12,000 roles, or 6.4 per cent of its global workforce. In an open letter to employees then, Mr Pichai took “full responsibility for the decisions that led us here”, but said the company had to fuel preceding periods of dramatic growth”.

The eliminations, he said then, followed a “rigorous” and company-wide efficiency audit that included reviewing product areas, functions, levels, and regions across Alphabet.

He also admitted the company could have handled the layoffs better.

READ | “If We Didn’t Act…”: Sundar Pichai On Why Google Fired 12,000

“This is difficult for any company to go through. At Google, we really haven’t had a moment quite like that in 25 years… (but) it became clear that if we didn’t act, it would have become worse…”

Meanwhile, in the same meeting, Mr Pichai also spoke about a transformation of the corporate culture and the need to redefine its “Googleyness” – an amorphic term that has meant many things over the years, but is commonly understood as expressing what Google looks for in potential hires.

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