Hafiz, Sheikh and Peer confessed to have kept Karthik at a house in Venkatagiri Kota in Andhra Pradesh.

A couple moving about in Mulabagilu, holding hands and visiting coffee shops and parks on Sunday did not attract any passersby. But they actually helped rescue a man held hostage by three people, hours after he was abducted.

The couple were actually cops in disguise — Shivajinagar police sub-inspector Sheela Gowda and her colleague Shamiulla. The two were supported by Ansar Beig and a team of police personnel in plainclothes, tracking the three kidnappers and keeping vigil over their colleagues.

Karthik, an employee of a Queen’s Road-located multi-level marketing company, Direct Selling Tours and Travels, was taken hostage on Sunday morning from near his office by the three who were angry over the firm not returning the Rs 2.5 lakh they had invested in it.

But the trio had failed to understand that returns were guaranteed only if they recruited more people into the direct marketing chain, the police said.  The three kidnappers —  Hafiz, Mohammed Sheikh and Ghous Peer — called the company’s owner, Vivan, to demand the money as ransom, failing which Karthik would be killed.

Vivan alerted the police, and Sheela and her team swung into action. They asked Vivan to inform the kidnappers that he would return the money. When Vivan called the kidnappers, they asked him to come to Mulabagilu in the evening.

Sheela and Shamiulla, and their team followed Vivan to Mulabagilu, about 100 km from airport.   Once there, the kidnappers asked Vivan to reach Chittoor, as they suspected that he had come with cops. Sheela told him to convince the kidnappers that the money would be given to them in Mulabagilu as it was 7 pm and the trio agreed.

Vivan informed Sheela that the kidnappers had relatives in Mulabagilu, as they had mentioned in the forms while investing money. That was when Sheela and Shamiulla started moving about posing as ‘lovers’ and the team spotted the trio.

It was the kidnappers who made a call to Vivan asking him to come to a restaurant, even as they were followed by Beig and the other cops. “My colleague and I went around restaurants and fields even as our team in a private car watched the kidnappers move around on two KTM bikes. We were in plainclothes, and even held hands and walked … so no one got any suspicion,” said Sheela.

Vivan was asked to remain out of sight as Sheela and her ‘boyfriend’ made their way to the restaurant. They spotted the kidnappers outside the restaurant. The trio never suspected anything as the couple moved in with their colleagues close behind, and nabbed them.

Hafiz, Sheikh and Peer confessed to have kept Karthik at a house in Venkatagiri Kota in Andhra Pradesh. Karthik was rescued the same night. Accused were taken in judicial custody on Monday.

PTI

B The central crime branch police arrested four persons allegedly for illegal trafficking of girls. As many as 35 girls of Nepalese origin were rescued during the operation.

The arrested have been identified as Kishan Gale (29), Lakshman Gale (29), Rakesh Sharma (38) and Thag Bahadur Thapa (32), while the kingpins behind the racket – Venkatesh Rao and Navraj – are yet to be arrested.

Police officials claimed that the accused were illegally trafficking the girls to foreign countries after promising them of good jobs abroad. They were being kept illegally in Sudha Lodge at Cotton Pete from where they were rescued. 

Two laptops, one printer, 6 mobile phones, 6 fake seals, two passports and other materials were also recovered, informed the police sources. It is suspected that more people are involved in this racket and a probe has begun.

It is gathered that the police are making arrangements to send the rescued girls to their native.

PTI

Recent numbers from the City Crime Records Bureau show that 76 cases of sex work were registered this year, whereas 139 and 153 cases were registered in 2017 and 2016, respectively, making it the lowest in two years. While there is no blanket ban on prostitution, owning a brothel, soliciting in a public place or using the money earned by a prostitute is illegal.

BS Mohan Kumar, assistant commissioner of police (ACP), Central Crime Branch (Women and Narcotics), said number of police-registered cases has reduced either because workers are more aware of the legality or safety issues related to their work or clients have other choices. “It has become difficult to book cases against clients or women because there is no evidence against them,” he said.

Nisha Gulur, the treasurer of Karnataka Sex Workers’ Union and member of National Network of Sex Workers, believes cases are just not being registered at the station. “Authorities compare prostitution to trafficking, which is wrong,” he said. In response, additional commissioner of police (East) Seemant Kumar explained: “If the work involves just a sex worker and customer, then it is between them. But if there is a pimp involved,  we cannot register a case against her or the customer. We try to find out who the pimp is.” This is difficult, he said, since messages through WhatsApp are encrypted and police need a tip-off to take action.

Mukta is a sex worker from Dharwad, North Karnataka, who currently earns `10,000 a month. She said that Section 377 being repealed has also led to more acceptance towards sex work. She added police officials harass her. “They ask for bribes ranging from `1,500 and `2,000 or sexual favours.” Additional commissioner of police (West) BK Singh said: “There are three types of sex works – street-based, bar girls and internet-based. Street-based workers are the most vulnerable and face harassment from everyone, including the police. If we receive information about police harassment, we will take action,” he said. Seemant Kumar said police harassment has reduced as the personnel work with NGOs to ensure more acceptance towards them.

Meera (name changed), a sex worker said police now focussing on brothels and pimps.

News Agencies

 The Interpol on Thursday issued a red corner notice (RCN) against fugitive Indian diamentaire Mehul Choksi after a request from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

Choksi, the chairman of the Gitanjali Group who has taken refuge in Antigua, was one of the prime accused in the Rs 13,500-crore Punjab National Bank fraud case along with his nephew Nirav Modi.

According to officials, with the RCN issued against Choksi, he could be arrested by any of the 192 member countries of the Interpol, after which extradition or deportation proceedings could begin.

In February, a Blue Corner notice was issued against Nirav Modi and Choksi in connection with the PNB fraud case.

In July, the Interpol had issued an RCN against Nirav Modi on the basis of money laundering charges levelled by the Enforcement Directorate.

The ED in October had attached both their assets in India and abroad worth Rs 218 crore.

Both left India in the first week of January, weeks before the scam was reported to the CBI.

Choksi was last traced to Antigua, where he has been granted citizenship.

The Antiguan government is believed to have cleared his application for citizenship in November 2017, for which he may have paid around Rs 1.3 crore. 

He had taken the oath of allegiance as a citizen of Antigua on January 15. Days later, on January 29, the CBI filed a case and started investigating Choksi and Nirav Modi.

IANS

The Supreme Court stated on Tuesday that if a “common thread” were found between the murders of Gauri Lankesh, Govind Pansare, MM Kalaburgi, and Narendra Dabolkhar, then the CBI alone investigate the cases involving the four social activists, according to reports.

The apex court bench, comprising of Justices U U Lalit and Navin Sinha, has reportedly given the CBI until the first week of January to provide an explanation as to why it would not be able to investigate all the four cases if a common link appeared.

After studying the reports submitted by the Karnataka State police, the court determined that there appeared to be a common thread between the murder of Gauri Lankesh and rationalist MM Kalaburgi, according to the Economic Times. The police have also reportedly told the apex court that they would file a charge sheet in the Kalburgi murder within the next three months.

On November 26, the Supreme Court had called out the Karnataka government for its inaction in the investigation and indicated that the case may be transferred to the Bombay High Court, reports say.

MM Kalaburgi, a scholar and rationalist, was killed in 2015 in Dharwad. Social activist and reformer Govind Pansare was murdered the same year as well. Narendra Dabolkhar was killed on August 20, 2013. Gauri Lankesh, an activist and journalist, was killed on September 5, 2017 outside her residence in Bengaluru.

Earlier, the Special Investigations Team (SIT) probing the murder of Gauri stated that four leaders of a pro-Hindutva outfit were the prime suspects of having plotted to kill her and other rationalists. As per a media source, six of the accused in the case executed the plot to murder Gauri.

TNM

The incident came to light after the minor girl’s mother filed a police complaint.

In a horrifying case of child sexual abuse in Bengaluru, a man has been accused of sexually assaulting his minor daughter for two years. The incident came to light after the minor girl’s mother filed a complaint with the police a fortnight ago.

According to the police, Amir*, a 45-year-old old auto driver, allegedly raped his daughter for two years and threatened to kill her if she spoke about it to anyone. “The abuse began two years ago when the survivor was only 14 years old. Amir is an auto driver and his wife Shifa* is a domestic worker. Sometime in 2016, after the girl reached puberty, the abuse began,” the Banashankari Police said.

The complaint filed by Shifa said that Amir raped her daughter Ayesha* in 2016 one day after she returned from school, the police said. When Ayesha questioned her father and told him that she would inform her mother, Amir allegedly threatened to kill her. According to the police, the father raped the child claiming that he was teaching her how to prepare for her married life.

“When the survivor’s mother went to work, Amir would sexually abuse the girl. However, about 17 days ago, the girl finally told her mother about the sexual abuse and they decided to take him to task,” the police said.

Shifa allegedly told Amir that she would be late from work. Meanwhile Ayesha returned home after school. “The accused once again tried to sexually abuse his daughter and her mother walked into the house at that very moment and caught him in the act. She then took Ayesha and went straight to the RT Nagar Police,” a senior police official said.

An FIR has been registered at the Banashankari Police Station under sections 376 (rape), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 511 (punishment for attempting to commit offenses punishable with life imprisonment). Amir has also been booked under relevant sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses Act.

“When the girl and her mother went to the police, Amir knew he would be put behind bars so he has absconded. The Banashankari Police are tracking him down,” the senior police official added.

TNM

A day after the video of a Zomato delivery personnel eating from food packetsmeant to be delivered, went viral, a woman who ordered a vegetarian dish on food delivery app Swiggy was served chicken in her dish.

The order was placed from the restaurant Django Kitchen in Indiranagar by Arundhati Ramanathan, who posted a tweet regarding the incident on Tuesday. Her tweet read, “Hey @swiggy_in I ordered a mushroom stroganoff from Django Kitchen and you serve me chicken, which I unsuspectingly ate! I want a b***** refund. Can’t believe you guys can still mix up vegetarian and non vegetarian food.”V

Arundathi also posted a screenshot of the order, which was a ‘Low Keto Carb Mushroom Stroganoff,’ ordered from Django Kitchen. SwiggyCares, the official Swiggy customer support Twitter handle, apologised in reply to her tweet. When contacted, Arundathi did not wish to further comment on the incident.

A written response by Swiggy regarding the incident stated that the start-up was ‘extremely disappointed’ with the incident. The response stated that on receipt of the complaint, the team concerned had been informed to investigate it. “This might have happened either because of a mistake from the restaurant or a mistake by the delivery executive. The restaurant might have, by mistake, given out a wrong item. Or, the delivery executive could have delivered someone else’s order to this customer,” stated the response.

With regard to the specific incident, the response added that once Swiggy had the confirmation about who the guilty party is, it will take action against the party as per the company’s policies.On Monday, the video of a delivery personnel from Zomato eating from the food he was supposed to deliver, went viral, following which Zomato representatives issued an apology and sacked the person responsible. The incident was later confirmed to have occurred in Madurai.

 A 38-year-old Indian man has been charged with conspiring to smuggle six of his countrymen into the US on commercial airline flights, authorities said.

Bhavin Patel was arrested at the Newark Liberty International Airport last week and was charged on Monday with one count of conspiracy and six counts of smuggling foreign nationals into the US for private financial gain, the US Attorney’s Office for New Jersey said in a statement. 

The conspiracy count carries a maximum 10-year jail term while the smuggling counts each carry a five-year maximum term. Patel is due in federal court in Newark on December 18, NJ.com reported on Tuesday.

According to court papers, Patel was the ringleader of a group that smuggled at least six Indian citizens into the US by paying an unspecified undercover law enforcement agent hundreds of thousands of dollars over a two-year period beginning in 2013.

He first arranged for his clients to travel from India to Thailand, where they boarded flights bound for New Jersey, officials said. 

The six people illegally entered the US in pairs on December 13, 2013; April 10, 2014; and October 2, 2014, according to authorities.

Charging documents didn’t specify how much money Patel made from the operation.

IANS

 

California-headquartered global cybersecurity company Symantec said it has identified the group behind a recent series of cyber attacks designed to gather intelligence from Pakistan, Turkey, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Jordan and some regions in Europe and North America.

The group, dubbed Seedworm or MuddyWater, is likely operating out of Middle East, and probably backed by a nation-state for targeted cyber espionage purposes, according to a Symantec investigation. 

Seedworm has been operating since at least 2017, with its most recent activity observed in December 2018, Symantec’s DeepSight Managed Adversary and Threat Intelligence (MATI) team said in a blog post on Tuesday.

The researchers found a GitHub repository used by the group to store their scripts, as well as several post-compromise tools the group uses to exploit victims once they have established a foothold in their network.

“In September 2018, we found evidence of Seedworm and the espionage group APT28 (aka Swallowtail, Fancy Bear), on a computer within the Brazil-based embassy of an oil-producing nation,” said the Symantec researchers. 

Access to the victim’s email, social media, and chat accounts is one of the group’s likely goals, according to the researchers. 

“Since its existence first came to light, we’ve seen Seedworm modify the way it operates. Since early 2017, they have continually updated their Powermud backdoor and other tools to avoid detection and to thwart security researchers analysing the tools,” the blog post said. 

“They’ve also used GitHub to store malware and a handful of publicly available tools, which they then customise to carry out their work,” it added. 

The researchers analysed data on 131 victims that were compromised by Seedworm’s Powermud backdoor from late September to mid-November 2018.

The telecommunications and IT services sectors were their main targets, the next most common group of victims was in the oil and gas sector, followed by universities and embassies, the findings showed.