Archives for August 2021

MANGALURU:  The gun culture seems to be taking root in Daksina Kannada. A spurt in the number of applicants for firearm licences and their misuse in the district over the last two years has been a cause of concern and made the authorities rethink the procedure of sanctioning the licences.

Though the authorities have been cancelling or rejecting the licences, there seems to be no end to the misuse of licensed weapons with five such cases being reported in the Mangaluru city police limits between January and August this year. Five legal firearms, which were issued for agriculture purposes, were misused for hunting and dacoity. The police have also seized three illegal unlicensed weapons.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Law and Order), Mangaluru city, Hariram Shankar, said that the department has made sanctioning of licences strict. “There is an unnecessary proliferation of weapons, which is not a healthy trend. This year, we have issued only five licences out of 23 applications, all for self-protection. In the city limits, we have 2,061 gun licences, including those issued for agriculture purposes. We have been cautious and not recommended issuing of new licences.

When there no threat perception, why issue weapons? People who had two weapons were made to either sell or surrender one firearm. For people above 60 years old, we insist on the fitness certificate to keep the weapons,” he said. 

The strict measures have led to a decline in applications for new licences as compared to last year. The top choice of people for agricultural purposes is single and double-barrel guns, while for self-protection, it is the revolver. The police said people are now shifting to pistols for self-protection.

As per data with the forest department, the number of applicants for new licences has increased from just five in 2018 to 33 in 2021 in the district. Till July this year, 15 applications were received which are forwarded to the deputy commissioner who is the final authority to approve them. In 2019, 23 applications were received.

Dr Dinesh Kumar, Deputy Conservator of forests, Mangaluru division, said that an increase in applications is an alarming trend and could lead to offences like poaching and smuggling. Last week, Mangaluru city police arrested 12 people on charges of hunting a wild boar misusing guns issued for crop protection in Moodbidri.

Pramesh Jain

The East Division police of Halasuru police arrested three imposters who abducted bullion trader from Delhi posing as policemen and threatened them to foist false case and demanded a ransom of Rs.10 Lakhs.

The accused has been identified as,Nazeem Pasha,Santosh and Asghar.

Senior officer told media persons,as on 7th August a complaint was registered in Halasuru police station in which a complainant stated as on 6th August at around 10 pm five unknown person came and abducted bullion trader from Delhi and his associate from a hotel in Dickenson road in a XUV car.

Acting on a complaint DCP,East,Dr SD Sharanappa,led a special team under ACP,Kumar D,Inspector,Manjunath M and his team swung into action and visited the spot to collect information and analyse CCTV footage from the vicinity.

After verifying the CCTV footage and based on technical inputs In a swift action the Halasuru police traced the accused in a hotel where they abducted the businessman and his associates and arrested a gang of three who posing as policemen abducted a bullion trader from Delhi and his business partner,a chartered Accountant, for a ransom of Rs.10 lakh.

The accused Nazeem Pasha,is a habitual offender arrested by Pulakeshinagar police for house break theft along with his two associates Santosh and Asghar,cab drivers by profession, ganged up and hatched a plan to abduct Aravind Mehta and Diwakar Reddy to extort money.

During investigation it was found that Mehta,a licensed bullion trader from Delhi having a cheating case pending against him,had come to expand his business in Bengaluru and to get investors.

He approached Diwakar,a city based Chartered accountant and the duo were having a meeting at hotel Royal Orchid on Dickenson road everyday.

Nazeem who got to know about Mehta business ventures,checked his background on social media and hatched a plan to extort money from them.

As per the plan he along with four of his associates approached the duo posing as policemen while they were having a meeting at  Orchid and took them in his SUV on Friday on the pretext of inquiry.

Meanwhile Sandeep Paramesharan,a friend of Diwakar who accompanied him to the hotel noticed this and the next day noticed Diwakar did not return and filed a complaint with the police the next day.

The police swung into action and gathered CCTV footage and CDRs for analysis and managed to track down the accused to a hotel in Koramangala where Mehta and Diwakar were detained.The accused threatened the duo to book cases if they did not pay Rs 10 lakh .

While the police arrested the trio and rescued Mehta and Diwakar,two of the accused managed to escape a massive hunt is on to nab the absconding accused a special team is in action he added.

Finally Bengaluru Police Commissioner,Kamal Pant has appreciated Addl CP,East,S Murugan, DCP East,Dr SD Sharanappa,ACP,Ulsoor Sub-Division,Kumar D,PI,Manjunath M,PSI,Suresh  G,and crime staff as,Santhosh Rathod,Srinivas, Karthik,Shetappa Talakeri,and Nagaraj Rathod,has successfully nabbed the three persons and rescued the bullion trader and his associate safely by their good piece of investigation and for the commendable job done by them a suitable reward will be given to the team he added.

Pramesh Jain

The Special Inquiry Squad wing of Central Crime Branch (CCB) police on Tuesday arrested a gang of five who were allegedly attempting to smuggle sperm whale ambergris worth Rs. 80 Crore.

The five accused has been identified as,Majeeb Pasha,48, Mohammed Munna, 45, Gulab Chand, 40, and Santosh, 31, all residents of Bengaluru. The fifth gang member, Jagannathachar, 52, is a resident of Raichur.

Ambergris,produced in the digestive system of sperm whales and often called floating gold,is extremely rare,commanding exorbitant rates as it is used in the fragrance industry.

Commissioner of police Kamal Pant addressing media in the presence of Joint CP Crime, Sandeep Patil,said the CCB special inquiry Squad team on Sunday,received credible information that the accused who had smuggled Ambergris worth crores,were trying to sell it in RMK Enterprise in Bagalagunte police station limits.

Following this information, a team led by DCP Crime-1 KP Ravikumar, ACP, Hanumantharaya and team swung into action and conducted a raid and after conducting a search the team found huge quantity of Ambergris as floating gold or  whale vomit in their possession.

The team nabbed the five member gang and seized 80 kg of ambergris from the accused.

A detailed investigation by the team it has revealed that they procured the ambergris from their sources in Mangaluru and were trying to sell it to their customers in the city but landed in CCB police net.

Along with the ambergris,the CCB team also seized two antique items from the gang a steam fan with the label of East India Company dating back to 1818 and two red mercury copper cups also from the East India Company.

Senior police officials have raised concerns over the smuggling of ambergris.In June this year,KG Halli police had arrested four people for selling 6.7 kg of ambergris, valued at Rs. 8 crore.

Ambergris is used in high end perfumes.It is brownish in colour,and has a solid and waxy substance.All the five accused has been arrested and booked under wildlife Act.As sperm whales come under Schedule 2 of the Wildlife Protection Act, it is illegal to possess or trade in any of its by-products in the country, said the CCB and further investigation is on.

Finally Bengaluru Police Commissioner Kamal Pant has appreciated Joint CP Crime, Sandeep Patil DCP Crime-1 KP Ravikumar ACP, Hanumantharaya,PI, Shivaprasad,and crime staff as,Ananth Krishna,Nagaraj,Srinivas and vinod has been appreciated for the exemplary and good piece of investigation in cracking a unique case by nabbing five member gang and recovering around 80 Crore Worth Ambergris marine.

Unique catch by CCB..80 Kgs of Ambergris (also called Floating Gold) seized worth Rs 80 cr!! is product of Sperm Whales..was intended to be smuggled out of Ind..is in high demand in Intl market..5 arrested Sandeep Patil Joint commissioner of police,Crime said in his tweet.

#Ambergris smugglers netted by the CCB!The special inquiry wing of the @CCBBangalore has arrested 5 persons and seized 80 Kgs of Ambergris (floating gold/whale vomit) worth around Rs.80 Crore in the international market.Ambergris is a solid waxy substance originating in the intestine of the sperm whale and is highly-priced as a fixative.A reward of Rs.1 lakh has been announced to the team for their remarkable efforts Kamal Pant commissioner of police says by tweeting.

Pramesh Jain

Senior officer with Bidadi police inspector and staff rushed to spot and after taking stock of the situation he said that the negligence of the film crew led to the mishap and detained the stunt master Vinod charging him and the film crew under death due to  negligence.

The film crew did not take permission from the authorities concerned for the shooting.The deceased has been identified as Vivek and the film ‘Love You Rachchu’ with leading roles by Ajay Rao and Rachita Ram. 

The stunt was being shot near a private resort and Vivek along with the stunt crew were part of the fight scene. 

They used a metal rope and cranes to shoot the fight sequences and Vivek came in contact with high tension wire and was electrocuted on the spot.

Other crew who noticed the incident started screaming and rushed to his help but it was too late by then.The Bidadi police rushed to the spot and sealed the area for further investigations.

The police summoned VInod and the director of the movie for questioning.Ajay Rao was said to be present at the shoot but 200 meters away from the spot where the fight was being shot. 

He heard the screaming and rushed to see what happened and came to know that Vivek died on the spot.   

Two others part of the shooting sustained injuries in the mishap and were taken to private hospital for treatment .

Many crew in the unit escaped soon after the incident.The police are on their lookout to question them.

SP, Ramanagara,Girish S,told media persons, we have taken director Shankar,stunt choreographer Vinod, crane driver Muniraju and farm owner Puttaraju into custody.Incidentally,Vinod is the president of Karnataka Fighters and Fight Masters Association.The film team hadn’t taken permission for shooting at the location,said S Girish,SP, Ramanagara. 

It may be recalled that in November 2016,two stuntmen,Anil and Raghav Uday drowned after they jumped from a helicopter into the lake during shooting the climax scene of Kannada film Masti Gudi.However, Duniya Vijay,lead actor of the movie, miraculously survived after rescue team members helped him.

Pramesh Jain

Chief Minister,Basavaraj Bommai does away as banned presentation of garlands, bouquets,shawls and fruits at any government programme.However,organisers of such programmes have been permitted to present Kannada books to guests.

The Chief Minister,who participated in a meeting of senior police officials in Bengaluru on August 10,refused to accept a bouquet.

This is unnecessary expenditure.There is no need to give bouquet,garlands and shawls in the name of protocol.Henceforth,the tradition should be stopped,he said.

As per the instructions by the Chief Minister,   P.Ravikumar,Chief Secrertary to Government immediately passed the order.The order says that from now on,Kannada books may be given instead of bouquets.

Subsequently,the Chief Secretary issued a circular directing not to give garland,shawls, flower bouquets,fruit baskets and memorabilia at meetings and events by the state government and the government-run-institutions.

All department heads and government undertakings have been asked to comply with the directions, it said.

It is important to bring financial stability during these Covid times.Before next March 31,all unnecessary expenditure must be cut down by at least 5% in departments.It would be great if it can be cut down further.

This, without affecting the necessary programmes,he said in one of his first decisions as the chief minister.

Recently, the newly sworn-in Energy and Kannada & Culture Minister V Sunil Kumar had appealed to those coming to greet him not to give garlands and gifts and asked for Kannada books instead, which he would donate to a library in his Karkala constituency.

Pramesh Jain

The West Division police of city market police on Monday arrested two notorious drug peddlers hailing from Rajasthan and recovered brown sugar and MDMA worth Rs 2 Crore from their possession.

The accused has been identified as,Pappuram,20,resident of Attibele,and native of Jalore district in Rajasthan,and his associate, Chunni lal, resident of Attibele and native of Banswara in Rajasthan.

Addl CP,West,Soumendhu Mukherjee,told media persons,our City market police inspector Kumaraswamy BG,received a credible information that two persons are indulged in selling brown sugar near godown street and are waiting for their clients to deliver the drugs substances.

Based on a tip off,in the evening Inspector BG Kumaraswamy and his special team rushed to godown street in city market and surrounded the area and kept a close watch on their movements and after getting confirmation the team caught Pappuram Ravi Purohith,20 and his associate Chunnilal,20,red handed and recovered 21 grams of brown sugar and 59 grams of MDMA and cash Rs.15,000 from them.

During investigation it was found that the duo was waiting for the clients to deliver the drugs when the police caught them.

The team seized the drugs substances and arrested both the accused under NDPS Act and team grilled the duo who revealed that they have stored the drugs in their house.

Based on their information,the police raided Pappuram’s rented house in Attibele and recovered a huge cache of drugs from his car  including 800 grams of MDMA,600 grams of brown sugar,1 kg,Mixing powder, 1.7 Kgs of Marijuana,two hookahs,six mobile phones and a weighing machine.

A detailed investigation by the team the accused said they are sourcing the drugs from their native place Rajasthan and selling it to their old clients and their main targets were engineering students in outskirts of Bengaluru.

The city market police had obtained the information about the accused 10 months ago and were working on the information to catch them red handed and on 8th August they succeeded in arresting the duo and recovered huge quantity of Synthetic Drugs and other materials worth of Rs.2 Crore from their possession.

A case has been registered in City Market police station under NDPS Act and further investigation is on.

Finally Bengaluru Police Commissioner,Kamal Pant,has appreciated Addl CP,West,Soumendhu Mukherjee,DCP West,Dr Sanjeev M Patil,ACP,P Ravikumar,PI,BG Kumaraswamy,PSI,as,Rama Nayak,ASIs,as,Nagappa,Srinivas,and other crime staff as,Vijaykumar MS,N Shekhar,Vijaykumar VJ and kumar has been appreciated for the exemplary and good piece of investigation done in the case and nabbed the duo notorious drug peddlers and seized huge quantity of drugs from them.

It is a big cache as these accused used to supply drugs to college students across city and to make ease money is now cooling their heels in jail and for the excellent work done by the team a suitable reward will be given to the team he added.

Pramesh Jain

The Enforcement Directorate officials attached cash Rs.1.44 Crore lying in the 14 bank accounts under Provision of Money Laundering Act in a cyber crime case against Nimmi Enterprises and others including 25-year-old Srikrishna,a hacker arrested by CCB in last November.

The accused, identified as SriKrishna alias Sriki is known to hack online poker games to win money and bitcoins online and use it to purchase drugs from the darknet.

The CCB arrested Srikrishna on multiple criminal charges,including hacking into private and government websites and  besides peddling drugs through dark net .

He is also the prime accused in stealing Rs.11crore from the state government’s e-procurement portal in August 2019.

Enforcement Directorate initiated money laundering investigation on the basis of
FIR filed by Cyber Crime Police Station,CID, Bengaluru based on complaint regarding hacking and subsequent siphoning off of money deposit funds of the bidders to the tune of Rs.11.55 Crore from the bank account of E-procurement cell, Centre for E-Governance,Government of Karnataka.

During the money laundering investigation,it is revealed that Srikrishna hacked the Portal of Centre for E-Governance,Government of Karnataka and funds to the tune of Rs.10.5 Crore and Rs.1.05 Crore were diverted to bank accounts of NGO,identified as Uday Grama Vikash Sanstha,Nagpur and Proprietorship, Nimmi Enterprises,Bulandshahr,Uttar Pradesh respectively.

Further investigations revealed that Uday Grama Vikash Sanstha,Nagpur received funds into the bank accounts of various vendors and traders in the guise of business transactions without actual purchase or sale of goods by their NGO.

Similarly,Nimmi Enterprises,Bulandshahar,Uttar Pradesh layered the received funds into the bank accounts of various vendors and persons in the guise of business transactions and personal loans to show the source of the money received from the accused .

The accused SriKrishna a resident of Jayanagar. After pursuing PU in Bengaluru,completed his graduation in  BSc in Computer Science from a university in Amsterdam. 

With proficiency in hacking, he started hacking government websites and websites of business houses and extorted money on the pretext of releasing the hacked data.  

Apart from this he along with his associates  procured hydro ganja through the dark web and paid the supplier with bitcoins.

Pramesh Jain

Officials of KIADB,(Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board) along with three impersonators are in the dock for trying to encash a compassion of Rs 3.25 crore belonging to a 65-year-old woman by forging her identity .

In her complaint Ms.Sharma said that she had 38 guntas of land in Naganahalli in Devanahalli at Survey number 43/1 which has been taken over by KIADB for a government project.

The Board announced compensation of Rs 3.5 crore following which Ms.Sharma along with her daughter Sunitha Sharma and grand daughter Preethi applied to claim the compensation along with the relevant documents.

The trio on July 31 went to KIADB office situated in Khanija Bhavan to get the progress of the claim.To their shock the officials inform them that they have issued the compensation cheque already and showed the signature made at the official document which was made while claiming the cheque.

Shocked by this Ms.Sharma got the details of the cheque and found that someone had opened an account in Union bank of India Anekal branch in her name and deposited the cheque to withdraw the amount.

Suspecting a deep rooted conspiracy,Ms.Sharma filed a complaint seeking a detailed inquiry into the incident and to stop the seizure of the bank account till the investigation is completed .

The High grounds police have registered a case of cheating and impersonation against the officials including a woman officer based on the complaint by Sushila Sharma on Monday.

Pramesh Jain

The North Division police of Jalahalli police on Sunday cracked the case of attack on D.Shashi Kumar,General secretary,Associated Managements of Primary and Secondary Schools,outside his house in Mutyala Nagar on the night of July 29,and arrested five persons responsible for the attack .

The accused has been identified as,Abhishek, Karthik@Patel,Bharath,Pawan

Senior officer told media persons,A group of four armed men attacked Shashi Kumar while he was getting down from the car.

In a bid to escape got into the car and took out the licensed pistol and opened fire in the air following which the accused escaped .

Soon after the incident,the police with the help of CCTV footage and call record details track down the accused and arrested them.

During Investigations the accused revealed that the attack was plotted by member of a parents association who engaged a group of habitual offenders to eliminate 51-year old Shashi Kumar to take over his position.

The prime accused is acquainted with the assailants who are habitual offenders given contract to eliminate Shashi Kumar and also rented out a house six months ago for the accused to stay close to Shashi Kumar and to watch him movements to plan and attack him.

While the police arrested five of the accused,the prime accused along with others are absconding and efforts are on to track them down, Dharmendra Kumar Meena,DCP,North division, said.

The police have recovered a pistol along with rounds of ammunition,lethal weapons,pepper spray,two bikes and two mobile phones from the accused.

A detailed investigation revealed that the assailants having murder cases pending against them at various police stations were arrested and remanded to parappana agarahara prison.

After coming out on bail few months ago before they were approached by the prime accused and gave contract to eliminate Shashi Kumar,he added.