Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai is the fourth minister who tested positive in the last week.

BENGALURU: One minister from BS Yediyurappa’s cabinet tested COVID-19 positive. This time Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai tested positive on Wednesday. Ahead of assembly sessions next week, he is the fourth minister who tested positive in the last week.

In his tweet, Bommai said one of the employees tested positive on Tuesday. “I too got tested and found out to be positive. I have no symptoms. I will be under home Quarantine” he tweeted. On Monday urban development minister tested positive, on the next day, Food and civil Minister tested positive. Animal husbandry minister Prabhu Chavan tested positive last wee

Legislators sessions will begin in Karnataka from September 21 to Sep 30. Due to the ongoing pandemic, they have made it mandatory to get a negative test certificate to attend assembly sessions to all the legislators, officials, and media persons.

In the last couple of months, including CM Yediyurappa, health minister B Sriramulu, Kannada and culture minister CT Ravi, forest minister Anand Singh, cooperative minister ST Somashekar, agriculture minister BC Patil, rural development and panchayath Raj KS Eshwarappa, women and child minister Shashi Kala Jolie were also tested positive. Later they recovered and are back to the field. It can also be noted that the leader of Opposition Siddaramiah and KPCC President D K Shivakumar were also tested positive, both recovered.

This apart deputy CM Dr. Ashwathnarayan, medical education minister Dr. Sudhakar were under isolation after they came in touch with COVID positive people a few weeks back. 

BENGALURU: The Central Crime Branch (CCB) police probing the Sandalwood drug racket case has raided the house of absconding accused Aditya Alva located in Hebbal.

Alva is the son of former Karnataka Minister late Jeevaraj Alva and brother-in-law of Bollywood actor Vivek Oberoi. An accused in the case registered in Cottonpet police station, Alva has been absconding for more 10 days now and police are on the lookout for him. 

As part of the investigation, the CCB police obtained a search warrant and raided Alva’s home named “House of Life”, located in Mariyannanapalya near Hebbal. The place is also used as an event venue.

Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Sandeep Patil said search warrant was obtained from the court and the house was being searched.

Police said that none of the family members were present when the house was raided but they came after knowing about the police raid.

The police have suspected that Alva, who organized parties, allegedly supplied drugs to those parties. Further investigations are on.

Cases have been registered against 15 people so far in this connection and nine arrested, police sources said.

Those arrested in the case, include film actresses Ragini Dwivedi, Sanjjanaa Galrani, party organiser Viren Khanna, realtor Rahul and an RTO clerk B K Ravishankar.

The CCB took up the matter after the Narcotics Control Bureau arrested three people including a woman with a huge cache of synthetic drugs, who were allegedly supplying them to the Kannada film actors and actresses.

But the next day, two men came in an ambulance, saying my sister-in-law was Covid-positive and she had to be shifted to Prashanth Hospital.

BENGALURU: A 28-year-old resident of Bommanahalli, Sangeetha (name changed), who had allegedly given her samples to a door-to-door testing team from the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagar Palike, has gone missing for the last four days after she was picked up by an ambulance, stating that she was Covid-positive. Sangeetha’s brother-in-law Vikas said that on September 3 afternoon, four people in PPE came to their house saying they were conducting Covid testing. “They took samples of our family members and also the neighbourhood.

But the next day, two men came in an ambulance, saying my sister-in-law was Covid-positive and she had to be shifted to Prashanth Hospital. They didn’t allow her to take her phone, saying it was not allowed inside the hospital. They asked me and my brother-in-law to come to the hospital later,” he said. But when they went to the hospital, they were told that there was no patient named Sangeetha.

“We called the BBMP helpline, who told us that no door-to-door testing was commissioned by the Palike in our area, and that there was no positive patient named Sangeetha.  It has been four days and my sister-in-law is still missing” Vikas said.  

Sangeetha’s husband filed a complaint at the Bommanhalli police station. “The woman hasn’t been found and we are still investigating,” a police officer said. A BBMP official from Bommanahalli zone said, “The ambulance is not from BBMP nor was any test conducted from our end.

We don’t do swab testing or shift a patient in an ambulance without sending an SMS to the patient, giving details of the ambulance driver, phone number etc. More so if a woman is involved. All our ambulances are fitted with GPS and we track them end to end. The moment a patient is picked up, the ambulance staff click a picture and send it to the control room. We are also following up with the police and so far, we know that it was a private ambulance.”