Pramesh Jain

The city civil and session court on Monday rejected bail for Dr.Pushpitha who along with her associate was arrested for vaccinating Covisheild to people for Rs 500 at a house on May 20.

Senior officer told media persons, The prosecution objected to the bail stating that Dr.Pushpitha has endangered the lives of many by stealing vaccination from the serverving people .

Investigations by the police so far found that Dr.Pushpitha,who worked as doctor at primary health centre at Manjunath Nagar, used to give half dose vaccination to the people at the PHC and save the rest of the vaccines for herself to sell in black.

Elaborating further the officer said,she has  vaccinated 20 people from a single vial against the prescribed 10 persons. 

The rest of the vials she would carry to the house of her friend Premalatha in a thermal box after work to vaccinate people for Rs 500 per shot .

The accused has not only cheated gullible people but also police officials and Corona Front line workers who had vaccinated at the PHC where she was working.

Since these people have already completed their two doses and registered.Many police officials and Corona Warriors are in dilemma about getting their vaccination again.

We have brought it to the notice of the Health department and are aware of this scam,but nothing has been done so far.

We have requested the court to consider this very seriously since it is not just a corruption but also a very dangerous criminal act,committed by a responsible medical officer.

It may be recalled that PI,Lohith Gowda and PSI, Chandrashekhar,attached to Anapoorneshwari Nagar station turned themselves as decoy to get a Vaccine shot and raided the house of Premalatha,34,at ITI layout Mallathahalli and caught Dr.Pushpitha MJ,red handed while vaccinating people at the house on May 20.

The police have seized over 20 vials of vaccination kept in a thermal box,used and unused syringes and cash Rs 12,000 collected from the people who got vaccinated.

The accused would collect the phone numbers and aadhar card details of the people so that they can be called back for the second dose,said a senior officer.

Meanwhile The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike,Chief Commissioner,Gaurav Gupta has terminated the services of Dr.MJ.Pushpita,who was arrested for allegedly stealing Covishield vaccine from Manjunath Nagar Primary Health Centre,where she was deputed.

She stored the vials in her friend Prema’s house, where she also administered the vaccine to citizens for Rs.500 per shot.

Dr. Pushpita had been recruited on contract basis under the Union government’s National Health Mission Scheme.

Another doctor by name Dr.Ajaykumar Yadav,was also terminated from service working in Maruti Hospital in Bagalur,was allegedly trying to sell Remdesivir,which is used in the treatment of COVID-19, in the black market the police seized several vials from him.

BENGALURU: After 56 days, the daily Covid caseload fell below the 10,000 mark in Karnataka. The last time the State witnessed such a figure was on April 13 when 8,778 new cases were reported. On June 8, the cases dipped to 9,808. The positivity rate remained the same as the day before at 8.80 per cent and the total cases rose to 27,17,289.

Though the daily deaths were reduced to 179, this is the same as the highest daily deaths reported in the first wave on September 18, 2020. However, this is still quite a reduction from June 7 when 340 deaths were reported. The mortality rate increased from 1.17 percent to 1.18 percent.In good news, 23,449 discharges took the total recoveries to 24,60,165 and the recovery rate increased from 89.99 percent to 90.53 percent.The daily cases reported from Bengaluru have been falling consistently, although there was an increase observed from Monday when 1,992 cases were recorded to Tuesday when 2,028 cases were reported.

As per the Health Ministry, the five most affected states by total cases are Maharashtra (5,842,000), Karnataka (2,707,481), Kerala (2,642,395), Tamil Nadu (2,256,681), and Andhra Pradesh (1,763,211), as of June 7.As per COVID19india.org, the top most affected districts in terms of active cases are Bengaluru Urban, Mysuru, Hassan, Tumakuru and Belagavi. In Bengaluru Urban, 44 deaths took the city’s toll to 15,118. There were 7,664 discharges which took total recoveries to 10,70,062

“In all, 4,130 out of every lakh people in Karnataka have tested positive. For every 100 confirmed cases, eight are currently infected. For every 100 confirmed cases, 91 have recovered. For every 100 confirmed cases, one has unfortunately passed away. In the last one week, 10.4 per cent of samples came back positive. For every lakh people in Karnataka, 46,707 samples were tested,” the website stated.

KALABURAGI: The police on Wednesday took into custody a private ambulance driver in connection with raping a Covid-infected woman.

The woman woke up and raised an alarm when Pinto was removing her urine pipe. Her screams woke up other patients in the ward who tried to catch him, but he had escaped. 

The Bramhapur police, however, managed to catch hold of Pinto and have registered an attempt to rape case against him. Further investigations are on.

Pramesh Jain

Two persons suspected to be robbers were severely injured after they lost control over the scooter they were riding to escape after robbing a phone and collided with a goods vehicle at TVS circle in Peenya on Saturday night .

The injured have been identified as Naveen A, (24),his associate Narasima Murthy T,(23),both hailing from Kunigal in Tumakuru.The police recovered two mobile phones and a dagger from them.

Senior officer told,the incident occurred at around 8.30 pm.The duo had come on a scooter from their hometown to rob mobile phones and return home after robbing the phones but collided with goods vehicle and nabbed by public.

The accused were speeding and lost control and collided with the goods vehicle head on.

The goods vehicle driver Prakash got down to help the duo and found a dagger lying near them,Meanwhile,a few residents who were chasing the accused reached the spot and cornered them.

Prakash alerted the police control room about the incident and Hoysala patrolling staff rushed to the spot and shifted them to a private hospital.

Naveen who was riding the scooter was severely injured and his condition is said to be critical.

Peenya traffic police have registered a case of accident and alerted Law and order police to further investigate the case as they are involved in robbery cases.

The duo suffered serious injuries and were under treatment.Prima Facie one knife and two mobile phone recovered and the police are awaiting their recovery to question them to ascertain their criminal background he added.

Pramesh Jain

Three main accused in the murder of NRI entrepreneur Bhaskar Shetty in 2016, including his wife and son, were on Tuesday sentenced to life by a court in Udupi.

The Udupi district and sessions court Judge J N Subrahmanya awarded life imprisonment to Shetty’s wife Rajeshwari Shetty,Son Navneet Shetty and astrologer Niranjan Bhat.

Shetty (52), a NRI entrepreneur from Indrali in Udupi district was killed in 2016,his body cut into pieces and burnt on a platform meant for holding sacrificial fires with the help of the astrologer.

The court acquitted another accused Raghavendra Bhat, who was accused of destroying evidence.

Niranjan Bhat’s father, Srinivas Bhat, who was also charged with the same offence, had died during the pendency of the hearing. Special public prosecutor Shantaram Shetty had argued the case on behalf of the prosecution.

The prime accused Rajeshwari Shetty is currently out on bail and son Navneet Shetty and Niranjan Bhat are lodged in the Bengaluru prison. The murder took place on July 28, 2016 at Shettys house in Indrali.

His body was later burnt in the ‘homa kunta’ at Niranjan Bhats house at Nandalike in the district. On July 31, Bhaskar Shetty’s mother filed a missing person complaint with the Manipal police.

Police investigation ascertained that Shetty had been murdered and that his body had been burnt in the sacrificial fire at Bhats residence. Rajeshwari and Navneet were arrested on July 7 and Niranjan Bhat, the next day.

Rajeshwari Shetty and Raghavendra were on bail, while Navaneeth Shetty and Bhat were lodged in the Bengaluru Central Prison.

Shrinivas Bhat died during the pendency of the trial. Special Public Prosecutor Shantharam Shetty represented the prosecution.

On Tuesday, Rajeshwari and Raghavendra were present in person, Navaneeth Shetty and Niranjan Bhat were produced virtually from Bengaluru Central Prison through video conference.

The Judge on Tuesday said Rajeshwari will be lodged in Bengalaru Central Prison where  Navaneeth an Niranjan are already lodged.

As Rajeshwari has expressed before the court that she faces threat to her life, the Judge directed the police and the local jail authorities to provide suitable protection to her during her transit and stay.

The case was investigated by CID and Charge Sheeted u/s,302,201,204,120 (B) r/w 34 against the Honorable Udupi District and Session Court at IPC 1.

Special PP Sri.Shantharama Shetti,Senior Advocate represented State during trial as Special Public Prosecutor in this case.

In spite of battery of advocates of the accused Sri.Shantharama Shetti efforts yielded in results and this case ended in conviction.

This case was entrusted to CID DSP ST. Chandrashekara who was deputed as IO,and a team was constituted for investigation under the supervision of Superior officers,Sri.Kishore Chandra,the then DGP,CID,Sri.Pratap Reddy the then ADGP,Smt.Sonia Narang,the then DIGP,Sri . Rajappa and lada Martin the then Superintendent of Police.

There were no eye witnesses in this case.The CID team collected Circumstantial and scientific evidences which ultimately led to the conviction says a release.

Pramesh Jain

The Jayanagar police have registered an impersonation and cheating against a person who is claiming to be PA to Bengaluru south MP, Tejasvi Surya and cheating people by offering to sell Remdesivir injections .

Mr.Prakash in a complaint,said that the accused  identified himself as Shivalingaiah and contacted Manjula,whose relative was admitted in the hospital for the Covid treatment.The accused offered to sell five vials of Remdesivir for Rs 10,000.

When the matter was brought to the notice of the MP office,Mr.Prakash called Shivalingaiah to confirm his claim before approaching the police.

The accused is not only impersonating to defame the MP but also cheating people,Mr.Prakash said in his complaint .

Based on a complaint filed by Bhanu Prakash, from MPs office,on Friday the police are now on the lookout for the accused .

We are trying to track him down through the mobile phone he was using and we will nab the impersonator soon who is cheating people said a senior officer.

Pramesh Jain

The Narcotics Control Bureau officials on Thursday busted an international drug racket and arrested two persons from Kerala who were smuggling Hashish oil to Doha by international  courier concealed in backpacks.

The accused has been identified as,R Khan and his associate S Hussain hailing from Kerala.

Acting on a specific intelligence,a team led by NCB Bengaluru Zonal Unit intercepted and seized 13 backpack bags with 1.2 kgs of hashish oil which were mixed in a total consignment of 70 such bags.

Following the leads the officials arrested R Khan and his associate S Hussain were apprehended at Bengaluru on Sunday and recovered 2.6 kg of Hashish from them.

Preliminary investigation revealed that the syndicate is based in Kasargod (Kerala) and is involved in trafficking of Hashish from India to Qatar,Amit Ghawate,Zonal Director,NCB, Bengaluru,said.

This seizure is in continuation to the seizures of substantial quantities of Hashish already seized by NCB, Bengaluru in the year 2019 and 2020. 

The present seizure is an indication that this syndicate which was lying low for over a year due to restrictions in flight movement,have again commenced their operations.

Travel restrictions in Qatar has created a dip in supply of drugs in Qatar and the Kasargod based syndicate is trying to traffic drugs using alternate modus operandi including concealing in couriers and parcels.

This syndicate also caters to supply of Hashish and other drugs to Maldives and Srilanka,This Hashish was concealed in 195 small bags and travel pouches and was meant to be trafficked to Doha (Qatar) by courier.The accused have been booked under NDPS Act he added.

Finally NCB acknowledges the dedicated efforts of Sh.Amit Ghawate IRS (Zonal Director, NCB
Bengaluru) ,Sh Venugopal Kurup,AD and other officers associated to the case at NCB,

ByShaik Zakeer Hussain

Former Karnataka Minority Welfare Haj & Wakf minister and ex-BJP leader Prof Mumtaz Ali Khan passed away at his residence in Bengaluru in the early hours on Monday due to illnesses associated with old age. He was 94 years of age.

Khan, a sociology professor, who had taught at the University of Agricultural Sciences here, had contested the assembly election on a BJP ticket, from Bengaluru’s Jayamahal constituency in 2004. Though he lost the election, he was made the Minister for Minority Affairs, Haj, and Wakf by chief minister B S Yeddyurappa.

After Yeddyurappa quit BJP to form his short-lived Karnataka Janata Party (KJP), Khan joined the new front, only to quit it and join back the saffron party.

In 2013, when BJP announced the then Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi as its Prime Ministerial candidate, Mumtaz Ali Khan joined the Congress party saying he was saddened by his party’s decision.

A self-avowed RSS admirer, Khan was the author of the book ‘Naa Kanda RSS’ (RSS which I have seen) in which he praised the leaders of the extremist outfit as nation builders and blamed the Congress party for allegedly misguiding Muslims towards it.

Under his tenure as the minority affairs minister, the government launched several schemes to provide financial assistance to minority students pursuing UPSC exams and provided overseas scholarships.

Khan and his family were running a free-school for the last three decades from his pension money and personal sources in memory of his late son.

Prof. Mumtaz Ali Khan is survived by his wife, one son, one daughter.