Pramesh Jain

In a joint operation,officials with the Benglauru Unit and Hyderabad Sub Zone of the Narcotics Control Bureau busted another inter-State alprazolam manufacturing racket,and arrested five people on Saturday.

The accused were producing the short-acting tranquiliser at a clandestine laboratory in Hyderabad,the second to be uncovered in two months.Around 3.25 kg of Alprazolam was recovered from the accused.

After receiving a tip-off,a team led by Zonal Director Amit Ghawate,we intercepted two cars near Medak on the Hyderabad national highway and apprehended four people identified as Y. Sudhakar, A.Naresh,KP. Kumar,A.Srikanth.A total of 3.25 kg of alprazolam and Rs.12,75,000 in cash was recovered from them,which is proceeds of drugs,said the NCB.

The probe revealed that Sudhakar was the supplier and manufacturer,while A Naresh was the receiver.They were apprehended during an exchange of alprazolam and cash.

Following a spot interrogation,the NCB team located a clandestine laboratory that was operating in a residential area,in the house of Y. Sudhakar at Balanagar,Hyderabad.

In this lab, raw Alprazolam at various stages of manufacturing was found along with apparatus like flasks and reactors,” Mr. Ghawate said.

Some quantity of alprazolam and a large quantity of raw material was seized from this clandestine lab as well.

The team also uncovered another manufacturing facility in an adjoining flat and a makeshift storage room just below the overhead water tank.

According to the NCB, the accused had purchased a new reactor and drier to expand their alprazolam manufacturing operations.

In a follow up operation,the fifth accused,R Pamarthi,who was operating the laboratory,was also apprehended.

He had procured a licence to manufacture genuine medical formulation in the name of M/s Kartikeya Life Sciences,but misused the facility for clandestine manufacturing of alprazolam, said the NCB.

This syndicate has been operating for more than five years.Further investigation is in progress.

Alprazolam is a psychotropic substance belonging to the benzodiazepines class,which are anti-depressants.

According to the officials, its illegal manufacture and sale is a cause of concern for law enforcement agencies.

In June this year,the bureau had busted an illegal drug manufacturing facility in Bidar.The accused were allegedly smuggling alprazolam produced in the Karnataka facility to Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, where it is widely used as a cutting agent for toddy

Pramesh Jain

A 16-year-old boy was killed and two others injured when a pole they were erecting to hoist the tricolor touched the live wire at the government school premises in Karikere village in Tumakuru on Sunday.

The deceased has been identified as Chandan, 16.He along with the two others Shashank,16  and Pawan,22 were rushed to a private hospital where Chandan succumbed.

Two two injured were being treated at the hospital and said to be out of danger.

Officials of the education department and the police visited the hospital and took stock of the situation.

The Kora Police have taken up a case and are investigating .

Senior officer said,The Kora police booked the teachers of Karikere higher primary school charging them under death due to negligence after 16-year-old Chandan died of electrocution ahead of flag hoisting program on Sunday.

Chandan resident of the same village and 16-year  old student of the school (studied upto 5th in the school) had gone to the school to participate in the flag hoisting along with his two friends .

The teachers asked Chandan and his two friends to help put up pole to hoist flag for which they readily agreed .

The trio failed to notice a high tension electric wire and pulled the pole up which accidentally touched the live wire.

Within fraction of the second the trio screamed aloud and fell on the ground the teachers busy in preparation for the flag hoisting,rushed to their help and shifted to private hospital where doctors declared Chandan as brought dead.

The other two identified as Shashank and Pawan were being treated and said to be out of danger .  Luckily there were no school children allowed in the program due to lock down guidelines.

As the news of death spreads villagers gathered in front of the school and at the hospital to vent their ire of the teachers accusing them of their negligence lead to the tragedy.

Senior police officers along with gram panchayat officials from the education department rushed to the school to take stock of the situation.

The village panchayat officials and the education department officials assured the villagers to take necessary action and also assured suitable compensation and also take care of the medical expenses of the injured .

The Kora police have summoned the teachers to the station for questioning and further investigation is on.

Pramesh Jain

A group of men broke into the residential premises of Bommanahalli MLA Satish Reddy and set two cars on fire in the wee hours of Thursday, around 1.25 am.

CCTV footage shows a group of men carrying cans jumping over the gate into the premises. They poured petrol on the vehicles,and set them on fire,before fleeing the spot.

As soon as the incident was reported senior officer as,DCP,Southeast, Srinath Mahadev Joshi, ACP,Karibasavanagowda with dog squad and finger print experts rushed to the spot.

The police have yet to identify the arsonists.The case is being investigated,said Deputy Commissioner of Police (South East) Srinath Mahadev Joshi.

Home Minister of Karnataka,Araga Jnanendra with Senior Police officers,as Commissioner of police Kamal Pant,Addl CP East,S Murugan, arrived at the spot soon after the alarm was raised.We are collaborating CCTV footage from  in and around the area to identify the accused.

Home Minister Araga Jnanendra, after visiting Mr.Reddy at his residence,said strict action would be taken against the arsonists,and announced that five special teams had been set up by commissioner of police, Kamal Pant,under the leadership of Addl CP East,S Murugan.

We have the best police teams on the job and I am confident that the case will be cracked soon, Mr.Jnanendra said the police had detained a few suspects for questioning and taken two into custody he added.

Commissioner of police, Kamal Pant after taking stock of the situation said,Two cars parked in the residential premises of Bommanahalli MLA satish Reddy has been set on fire in the the wee hours of Thursday.

The CCTV footage shows a group of men carrying cans jumped the gate of the house poured petrol and set fire before fleeing the spot.

The Incident occurred at around 1 am .Senior officials visited the spot and conduct investigation.

We are probing the case into three angles Political rivalry,Shiva statue installation at begur lake Hindu organisation supported by satish reddy and third is personal reasons.

Meanwhile cops found another CCTV footage where accused had purchased petrol from a near by petrol bunk.

The accused gained entey by jumping the compound from backside while security deployed at front gate.

The accused used trees and bushes to avoid getting recorded in CCTV two more luxury cars remain untouched by accused since there were CCTV cameras focussing the cars.

We have obtained some clues about accused moving on bikes and efforts are on to identify them he added.

The activists had allegedly unveiled the statue of Shiva against the Karnataka High Court order on Wednesday.

It is suspected by the police that the incident might have taken place in this backdrop.Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) is constructing an island with a Shiva statue in the Begur lake.

The High Court has issued a stay on the construction in August 2019 after a petition against it was filed. The affidavit was filed by Leo Saldhana,Coordinator for Environment Support Group (ESG).

The matter of unveiling the statue has been brought to the notice of the court and the court has sought action taken report by the Bengaluru Police Commissioner,Kamal Pant by August 17.

The whole issue has taken a communal turn and Hindutva forces are alleging that the opposition is coming from Christian missionaries.

The police are treading cautiously with the issue and beefed up security near the residence of Satish Reddy and Shiva statue in Begur lake.

The Bommanahalli police have taken two suspects into custody and are investigating them in a undisclosed location to ascertain the reason behind setting two cars on fire who is the mastermind behind this act.A case has been registered in Bommanahalli police station and further investigation is on.

Pramesh Jain

In a joint operation Officials of forest Mobile squad along with the city police on Sunday raided the house of a software engineer in JP Nagar and recovered a huge collection of ornamental articles made of wildlife and marine.

Based on a tip off from a team of WCCB officials, a team led by Gangadhar GA,Deputy Conservator of Forest,(forest mobile squad,Bengaluru) raided the house of Pawan Kumar, 34, situated in KSRTC layout in JP Nagar and seized the articles.

The accused has been identified as,Pawan Kumar is a software engineer working for a reputed IT,(IBM)company in the city.

During the raid we have seized ornamental articles in the form of trophies includes,deer skin, deer horns,tiger nails,necklaces,rosaries,walking sticks,bangles,rings,bracelets,eads,coombs, carrom strikers,beads and dice made out of elephant tusks,various types of conches, porcupine quills,walking stick made of camel bone,tortoise shells,kangaroo pelt,corals,sea horse and shark teeths found during the raid.

During investigation Pawan Kumar told the officials that it is his hobby to collect the rare artifacts and had purchased many of them online shopping and some from other countries .

He also claimed that some of the artifacts and trophies he got were from his grandfather Chikkaraja,who worked with the Mysore Royal family,while others he purchased during his visit to UK,US and Australia.

Even though the accused claimed that he had bills for the purchase bills,the officials said that he had not declared and hence culpable under wildlife act.

The accused has been booked under various sections of the wildlife act and remanded to judicial custody .

The raid was carried out based on the inputs provided by WCCB officials who carried out similar operations in Kerala earlier.

The accused had formed a whatsapp group from the other accused who had similar wildlife article collections and are communicating for trade and purchase said senior official.

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.