Parmesh S Jain

In a major development to the drug peddling case involving two constables attached to Chief Minister Residence security,City police commissioner,Kamal Pant on Wednesday suspended RT Nagar Inspector and his junior for failing to probe the case in detail.

With this a total four police personnel have been suspended in this case including head constable Shivakumar and Constable,Santosh attached to Koramangala station who were caught red handed by the hoysala patrolling police red handed along with two peddlers .  

The RT Nagar Inspector,AShwath Gowda and PSI Veerabhadra who investigated the case has tried to safeguard the accused police personnel which led to their suspension.

Mr. Pant also issued show cause notice to DCP southeast Srinath Mahadev Joshi and DCP VVIP Security,Manjunath Babu,In charge of the CMs security .

Notice was served to Mr.Joshi seeking explanation on what procedure was followed while deploying the two accused policemen for CM security job .

While is there any negligence on part of the security arrangements from Mr.Babu.

The incident has embarrassed the Home department as even the Home Minister Araga Jnanendra on Wednesday reacted strongly stating that the department will not tolerate such incidents and action would be taken against the persons involved .

The department is also contemplating dismissing the accused personnel involved in the criminal activities who are blot to the entire force, he told the media.

He also said that the personnel who exposed the corrupt policemen and busted the racket would be suitable rewarded.

It may be recalled that the alert Hoysala patrolling police caught Shivakumar and Santosh along with peddlers identified as Akhilraj and Amjad khan on 80feet road near CM residence and recovered 400 grams of Marijuana from them. 

Probe revealed that the duo used to source the drugs from the peddlers regularly and even through online sometimes to peddler it to their customers.

Parmesh S Jain

A decision on relaxing Covid restrictions would be taken after discussing the issue at a meeting with the experts,Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said speaking to media persons on Wednesday.

The number of hospitalisation cases is less in the current wave of Covid.So there is an opinion that it would be better to carry on daily life by following the Covid guidelines.The experts are examining it.

They are set to present a comprehensive picture at the meeting to be held on Friday.A suitable decision would be taken after getting clarity about the issue, Bommai said.

Meeting with DCs:

Referring to the Video conference he had with DCs of various districts to review the progress of vaccination drive,Bommai said, instructions have been issued to intensify the vaccination drive in districts which are lagging behind.

Apart from ramping up vaccination of both doses and covering the 15-18 age group,special emphasis is being given for vaccinating Corona warriors.

As 94% of the infected are in home isolation, Health department should maintain constant contact with them and distribute medical kits and conduct Triaging, Bommai said.

Health department officials have been instructed to restart the ‘Vadyara Nade Halligala Kade’ programme for doctors to go on door to door service in rural areas and also administer Booster doses, Bommai said.

Though the number of cases is on the rise,those getting admitted to hospitals is low.So officials have been instructed to strengthen the OPDs. 

Covid expected to peak in February :

Experts who have studied the trend in various states have estimated that the Covid wave in the state could peak by January end of February first week.

The Chief Secretary has already ordered booking of cases and legal action against those who violate Covid rules.There will be no bias against any person or organisation,Bommai made it clear.

Replying to a question about possible cabinet expansion,Bommai refused to discuss it in public.

CM recovers from Covid

Bommai who was in home quarantine for the past 11-12 days said, “the quarantine period is over. Covid test result has come negative. So I am back on my work from today he added.

Parmesh S Jain

Mantra4Change and Suriya Foundation in association with the BBMP have donated a Mobile Testing Unit (MTU) to BBMP south zone and the same (MTU) was launched by BBMP Chief Commissioner Sri Gaurav Gupta today.The Mobile Testing Unit is sponsored by Zerodha.

This mobile testing unit will be connected to the South zone war room along with mobile triage unit.

This unit will be deployed at the 44 wards of the zone 24X7- according to the calls recieved at the war room.If this gets success in south zone, then other 7 zones also will get one each mobile testing unit.

This Mobile testing unit will have a driver and a paramedic who will conduct Rapid antigen test and if covid positive the subject will recieve a call from BBMP and depending on the seriousness of the case, required treatment will be given post triage.

Consummables in the form of N95 masks,PPE Kits,Testing kits,thermal scanners and sanitizers are donated to 6 covid care centres in the south zone. Particulars are below:

1. N95 maksks – 1,000
2. PPE Kits – 300
3. Testing Kits – 500
4. Thermal Scanners – 15
5. Sanitizers – 220 Litres

Zonal Commissioner (South) Tulasi Maddineni, BBMP Special Commissioner (Health) Dr Trilok Chandra and other officials were present on the occasion.

Parmesh S Jain

Ahead of IPL matches match fixing incident surfaced with Jayanagar police on Friday registered an FIR against a bookie who contacted a IPL player offering Rs 40 lakh deal for match fixing for the upcoming matches .

B Lokesh in his complaint said that the accused Anand through his social account Instagram, approached Satish Rajgopal, a TNPL player and played IPL matches earlier for Mumbai, Punjab and Kolkata.

Anand offered Rs 40 lakh stating that two players have already in his list and accepted the offer .
Satish rejected the offer and complained to anti Corruption unit of BCCI .

The instagram account was traced to be operational from bengaluru and hence approached Jayanagar police by the south zone unit of BCCI .

The police have initiated investigations and trying to track down Anand.It may be recalled that the CCB had busted similar racket and arrested bookies who are running the betting racket for KPL and other league matches .

Based on the complaint filed by B Lokesh, representing BCCI anti corruption unit,the Jayanagar police registered a case against a suspected bookie,identified as Bunny Anand, charging him under various section of Karnataka Police act and also under criminal conspiracy and cheating under IPC, on Friday said senior officer.

Bengaluru: Karnataka on Wednesday reported 40,499 new cases of COVID-19, and 21 fatalities, taking the tally to 33,29,199 and the death toll to 38,486.

The state, which has been witnessing a steady surge in cases since the last week of December, had recorded 41,457 fresh infections on Tuesday.

Of the new cases on Wednesday, 24,135 were from Bengaluru Urban that saw 18,081 people being discharged and five virus-related deaths.

The total number of active cases across the state is now 2,67,650.

There were 23,209 discharges, taking the total number of recoveries to 30,23,034, a health department bulletin said.

While the positivity rate for the day stood at 18.80 per cent, the case fatality rate (CFR) was 0.05 per cent.

Of the 21 deaths, five are from Bengaluru Urban, four from Mysuru, three in Dakshina Kannada, and one each from Bagalkote, Belagavi, Chikkaballapura, Gadag, Hassan, Raichur, Shivamogga, Tumakuru and Vijayapura.

Apart from Bengaluru Urban, Tumakuru recorded the second highest with 1,804 new cases, Hassan 1,785, Mysuru 1,341, and Mandya 1,340, followed by others.

Bengaluru Urban district now has a total of 14,82,484 cases, followed by Mysuru 1,91,803 and Tumakuru 1,31,569.

According to the bulletin, Bengaluru Urban tops the list among discharges with 12,81,636, followed by Mysuru 1,80,264 and Tumakuru 1,20,917.

Parmesh S Jain

The State has decided to meaningfully celebrate the 125th birth anniversary of great patriot Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose who sacrificed his life in the fight for freedom of the country. 

Netaji’s life is an inspiration for the youth,Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said.

Bommai who chaired a virtual meeting with senior officials on preparations for Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose jayanthi(January 23)  said, it has been decided to celebrate the 125th birth anniversary of Netaji Bose at Jakkur Flying School premises.

About 100 NCC cadets and Commanders would participate in it. It has been decided to invite Union minister Rajiv Chandrashekar for the programme.

It was also decided to celebrate Bose’s 125th Jayanthi throughout the year in all schools and colleges with meaningful and inspiring programmes, Bommai said.

Chief Secretary Ravikumar, Chief of Karnataka Goa NCC Directorate Air Commander BS Kanwar and others participated in the meeting. 

Parmesh S Jain

The RT Nagar police busted a drug racket and arrested four including two policemen who were peddling drugs apart from their security duty around Chief MInister’s residence on 80 feet road on Thursday.

The accused has been identified as,Santhosh Nowkar,33,Shivakumar,34,head constable and Constable attached to Koramangala station,Akhil Raj,28,Amjad Khan,38.

Senior officer told reporters,information was received by the control room about the presence of suspicious auto on 80 ft road in RT Nagar police station limits on Thursday night.

Based on information received Hoysala patrolling vehicle staff as,Kumar and Shivappa,immediately reached the spot,detained 4 persons along with auto and brought them to RT Nagar police station all the four accused were caught red handed by alert Hoysala patrolling staff .

During the search,around 400 grams of Ganja was recovered from them and during investigation the four confessed the crime and it was found 4 among two were policemen a head constable and Constable attached to Koramangala police station deputed at CMs security at his residence.

He even said that the two constables were part of a drug racket and had been selling marijuana in the capital city.The policemen used Dunzo, a parcel service, to procure the drugs.

They used to find a location near the chief minister’s house to conduct sales so nobody would suspect them,said a senior police officer.

The illegal business came to light when the two men got into a heated argument with a supplier, said police.As the fight got louder,other policemen came to the location.Upon search and found drugs in their possession.

The drug dealers working with the constables were identified as Amjad Khan and Akhil Raj. They have been taken into custody,” said police.

An FIR has been registered under the NDPS act against these 4 and 3 persons( including 2 policemen) were arrested. Further investigation is underway, a senior police officer said .

Initial probe revealed that the accused were sourcing the drugs from the peddlers and selling it to their customers.Their mobile phones have been seized for further investigations,the police added. 

This is the Third such incident where policemen were caught involved in criminal activities.

Parmesh S Jain

The Sampigehalli police have registered a case of cheating against a city based job consultancy firm for cheating job aspirants with jobs in IBM Company.

The cheating came to light when the victims walked into the IBM company premises situated in Manyata Tech park with job offer letter to meet the HR on Wednesday.

Upon inquiry it was revealed that the accused identified as Sanjeev G,Deepak Singh and others running consultancy firm under the banner east recruit India private limited offered jobs in IBM company and issued letter misusing Logo and company name.

The accused even collected Rs 75,000 from job aspirant Arpitha GP, Rs 15,000 from Shwetha KS and Rs 25,000 from B .Rani while issuing job letter in December and asked them to report to duty on January 13 and meet HR Manager MR Harish.

However there was no manager in IBM by name Harish and the accused have not only cheated the job aspirants but also spoiling the name of the company,Abhijit Roy,HR Manager of the company,said in his complaint.

Based on the details of contact number and bank account details provided by Mr.Roy,the Sampigehalli police are trying to track down the accused said a senior officer.

Parmesh S Jain

Gang of four armed men robbed the house of a doctor situated in Vijayapura in the outskirts of the city,threatened the family members at gunpoint and made away with gold and cash on Tuesday night .

Vijayapura SP,along with other officers rushed to the spot and after inspecting the spot and collecting information from the doctor and their family members said,four armed men robbed doctor and his family at his house at gun point yesterday.

The accused rang the bell at around 8.40 pm while Dr.Rajkumar was at his clinic.Thinking that he had returned from work,Ms.Sheela Rajkumar opened the door only to confront a gang of four .

The accused barged into the house,threatened Sheela and her mother and two children at gunpoint and forcibly took 200 grams of gold valuables and cash Rs 5,000 from them. 

The accused locked them in a pooja room and escaped .

The incident came to light when Dr Rajkumar returned home.The Vijayapura police rushed to the spot and conducted a detailed probe. 

We have formed special teams the teams are collecting the CCTV footage from in and around the area to identify the accused .   

The incident had shocked the residents as the accused targeted the house which is situated on the busy road.

A case has been registered in jurisdiction police station and further investigation is on.

Karnataka CM Basavaraj Bommai

Bengaluru: Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Wednesday said his government will re-examine the COVID-19 curbs that are in place, and will take a decision regarding relaxation, including the weekend curfew on January 21.

The Chief Minister, who had tested positive for COVID on January 10, today resumed his day-to-day work from office, after recovery.

“On Friday, I will hold a meeting with experts, and will re-examine the curbs that have been enforced,” he said.

Speaking to reporters here, he said, “The COVID numbers are increasing, but it has not put a load on hospitals with very less admissions, attention should be given to OPD (Outpatient Department), with all this, let’s see what experts have to say.”

Asked whether the weekend curfew will be withdrawn, the CM maintained that all those things will be decided after consulting the experts and going through their report.

He said based on the trends in different countries and states, experts have estimated that the cases may peak in the state by January end and February first week.

To a question, why discussion on relaxing curbs when the cases are expected to peak, he said, “the general feeling that it (infection) is like a flu, and not much hospitalization is taking place, so day-to-day activities can be allowed by following COVID rules. Experts are examining it, they will place things before us on Friday. Following which we will make a decision.”

With surge in cases, the Karnataka government had last week decided to extend the existing COVID curbs such as night curfew and the weekend curfew till the end of January.

Bommai, who was infected by COVID and was in home quarantine, from where he was virtually performing official duties and held meetings, today said he has recovered.

“….my quarantine is over and the test has also been done, it has come negative. So from today I have decided to take part in day-to-day work from the office,” he said.

Noting that he had held a virtual meeting with Deputy Commissioners of various districts on Tuesday, the Chief Minister said clear instructions have been given to district administrations to increase vaccination where the coverage is low, whether it is first or second dose, or precaution dose.

“Directions have been given to administer precaution dose among health and frontline workers at a fast pace,” he said.

With 94 per cent of cases in home isolation now, the health department has been asked to monitor it, by maintaining constant contact with those infected, doing triaging and providing them with medical kits, Bommai said.

In rural areas, it has been decided to restart the ‘Vaidyara Nade Hallliyakade’ programme to make doctors and ANMs visit homes.

To a query on COVID rules violation by ruling BJP leaders, he said orders have been issued to take necessary legal action against violators, irrespective of who they are or their party affiliation.

“I have already given clear orders, yesterday the Chief Secretary has issued written orders. If anyone violated COVID rules or curbs, action should be taken against them in accordance with law and cases should be registered. There is no question of differentiating based on which organisation or party one belongs to,” he said.

Bommai did not wish to make any public comments to a question on the much awaited expansion or reshuffle of his cabinet.

According to BJP sources it is likely, only after assembly elections in five states.