NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday spoke to legendary sprinter Milkha Singh, who has been ailing, to enquire about his health.

Fondly called “flying Sikh”, Singh, who recently contracted COVID-19 infection, was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the hospital due to dipping levels of oxygen. The 91-year-old is in a stable condition.

BENGALURU: After rounds of consultation with department officials and stakeholders, Minister of Primary and Secondary Education, Suresh Kumar S on Friday announced that state board exams for second PUC students will be cancelled this year. Whereas, the class 10 SSLC examinations will be held in the third week of July. 

The minister said that three rounds of consultations were held with department officials before the decision was arrived at, and holding of the examination for SSLC students may change as per the situation. However a 20-day time frame will be given to them between the announcement of the schedule and holding of exams.

Should the SSLC exam be held as announced, grades for the students will be out by the first week of August. The examination will be in a Multiple Choice Question (MCQ) model, and just two papers will be held for students — a combination of core subjects (Maths, Science and Social Science) and a paper for languages.  Each paper will be for 40 marks. 

As many as  8.75 lakh students will be attending the SSLC examination this year, and in case students test positive due to the conducting of the exams, the state will take care of their medical expenses, as per the minister and principal secretary.

Meanwhile, the gradation system for second PUC students will be announced by the end of June, and those students unhappy with the system, can opt to write their board exam when it is conducted for private students and repeaters when the pandemic tapers off, as per Kumar.

The minister assured that no student will be failed in the SSLC and PUC exams.

Pramesh Jain

The Sheshadripuram police have booked case against two unknown persons who hacked into ATM monitor opened the devise and took walked away with Rs 8.6 lakh cash on Saturday morning.

The incident occurred at ICICI bank ATM situated at Hotel Shelton,Risaldar street, Sheshadripuram,on Saturday morning .

Based on a complaint filed by Nanjireddy,Legal advisor of the company,the police registered FIR against the accused charging them under theft, and also under section 66 (fraudulent activities through computer ) and section 43 (damaging the computer or computer network) of IT act.

According to the police the duo had reportedly used a technology to open the ATM devise and take away the cash from the chest. 

Their act has been captured in the CCTV footage which has been handed over to the police for further investigations.

The police are now verifying the CCTV from in and around the area to identify the accused and a case has been registered in Sheshadripuram police station and investigation is on to nab the culprits.

Pramesh Jain

Since its inception in January this year, the Cyber Cell of the city police blocked 1,312 transactions and recovered Rs 48 crore.

Bengaluru Police Commissioner,Kamal Pant, addressing media persons said, that the cyber cell team,which operates from the command centre,headed by DCP,Isha Pant,attended to 3,175 complaints from eight Divisions and managed to resolve 1,312 cases by blocking the transactions.

This team works at the city police command centre round the clock in shifts and attending calls and trying to resolve the issues related to online frauds within one hour,which is considered the ‘golden hour’, said Mr.Pant.

The city police commissioner,Kamal Pant, stated that victims of cybercrime can save money by dialling 100 or 112.

However,not all complaints are taken up with such alacrity.Last Thursday,a conman posing as an executive of a mobile service provider conned a subscriber,Azamathullah,by convincing him to download an app to update his mobile service.

As soon as he downloaded the app and paid Rs 10 as a recharge fee,Rs 35,500 was debited from his account .

Even though Azamathullah immediately informed the police control room on 112,provided details and even later filed a formal complaint with the cyber crime police station,the police are yet to act on this case .

Senior police officials say that the cell needs to be expanded given the volume of cyber crime being reported every day.

Pramesh Jain

Continuing investigations into the rape and torture of Bangladesh woman case the Ramamurthynagar police on Wednesday arrested the prime accused in the case after opening fire at him.

The accused has been identified as Sobuj,30, running a prostitition racket and was on the run since the incident along with others.

Senior officer,told media persons,The police team who were tracking down his movement got a tip off that he was hiding in a colony near Ramapura lake where the rag pickers were staying.

A team of police led by PSI,Shivaraj and Head Constable,Devendra Nayak rushed to the spot and nabbed him.

While being escorted to the station,the accused requested the police to allow him to relieve and on that protection he attacked Head constable Nayak with a knife and tried to flee .

Shivraj chased him but he was also attacked following which he opened fire in the air to warn him and asked him to surrender but as he didn’t heed and tried again attacking the PSI and later the PSI in self defense shot him at his leg.The injured Sobuj along with the injured policemen were taken to hospital and are undergoing treatment.

Sobuj is the prime accused in the case and having a financial row with the victim,a senior police officer said.The accused is also responsible for recording the video and circulating it among his friends group,the officer added.

Sobuj is the 10th accused arrested so far while three of them have been shot by the police .

Earlier the special team of police arrested a couple Sania and Afsal and their associate Daalim who were hiding in the neighbouring state of Tamilnadu.

The accused are part of the prostitution racket run by Sobuj and assisted him in the torture and recording the video.

Days after the brutal gang rape of a Bangladeshi woman in Bengaluru,police have unravelled a human trafficking racket that had been operating, where women from the neighbouring country were allegedly being smuggled into India.

The Bengaluru Police, while probing the horrific gang rape case,has shared details of the racket being operated with Bangladeshi Police,sources told media persons on Thursday.

The police have allegedly identified Rafiq,one of the five accused in the gang rape,as the operator of the human trafficking racket.

Sources even said,Rafiq would smuggle women from Bangladesh to Bengaluru,by getting them fake Aadhaar Cards,and involving them in prostitution along with other illegal activities.

In a joint investigation by the Bangladesh and Bengaluru police exposing the human trafficking racket,four persons have been arrested in Bangladesh.

As per sources,the Bangladesh Police has arrested Rafiq and is trying to ascertain how many persons had been trafficked to India.

The four persons arrested, apart from Rafiq,have been identified as Ashraful Islam alias Bass Rafee, Shaheeda Begum alias Madame Shaheeda,Ismail and Rehman Sheikh.

Sources even said that Rafiq was the kingpin of human trafficking in Bangladesh and has been trafficking girls to India for the last 10 years.

Bangalore gang rape accused,Riday is said to be Rafiq’s right hand in the business.

Sources report that Rafiq and his associates used to lure Bangladeshi girls by assuring them good jobs, following which they would be coerced into taking drugs and then obscene videos of them would be recorded.

Significantly, both Rafiq and Riday are said to have trafficked more than 50 women to India. The Bengaluru and Bangladeshi police are investigating the matter further.

Victim brought to Bengaluru to record statement

The 22-year-old rape survivor was brought to Baiyyapanahalli Police station to record her statement on Friday. 

She reached Bengaluru from Kerala and was subsequently taken to the Bowring hospital for a medical check-up.

She was produced in the court and her statement  has been recorded under section 164. 

On Thursday, Bengaluru Police Commissioner Kamal Pant had informed that a case of rape was registered against six individuals, including two women at the Ramamurthynagar Police Station.

This followed after a preliminary investigation and examination of the contents of the video that had gone viral on social media.

Pant further revealed that all culprits are from the same group from Bangladesh.The police further added that the victim, who is also a Bangladeshi national was brought to India for trafficking. 

Bengaluru gangrape case

In a brutal incident,the young woman was tortured and raped by five men and one woman in the city’s Ramamurthynagar.

One of the accused had allegedly shot the video of their act and uploaded it on social media handles which in return prompted the Assam Police to publish their pictures online.

The Assam Police also assured that anyone providing information regarding the individuals will be rewarded.Hours later, the Bengaluru Police arrested all the accused. 

We suspect that there are many people in the racket and efforts are on to track them down,the police said adding that the accused have been taken into custody for questioning.

Finally Chief Minister of Karnataka,BS Yediyurappa,Home and law Minister of Karnataka,Basavaraj Bommai,has appreciated,Karnataka,DG&IGP,Praveen Sood, Commissioner of police,Kamal Pant,Addl CP East,S Murugan,DCP East,Dr.SD Sharanappa, ACPs,as,Ningappa B Sakkri,Manoj,PI,Melvin Joseph,PSI,Shivaraj,Arvind,crime staff as, Devendra Nayak and other crime staff has been appreciated for their excellent and timely investigation in cracking the case and nabbing all the accused involved in the brutal gang rape and a special reward will be given to the team for the meticulous investigation and exemplary work done by them he added.

Pramesh Jain

Enrolled as foreign students.But engaged in crime !Stealing vehicles,Doing drugs.All the way from Nigeria.And far away Libya! Now languish in prison,With expired visa! Kudos to our team For tracking and cracking the case! – CK Baba DCP Northeast.

The Yelahanka police on Wednesday arrested  two Foreign Nationals who have robbed two brand new cars from the KIA showroom after threatening the security guard with a chopper in the wee hours of February 24th this year.

The accused has been identified as,Saifi Edden Guma Taher Be Hmaid,27,from Libya and his associate John Nero,25 from Kenya.

Senior officer told media persons,Based on the complaint,CK Baba,DCP,Northeast formed a special team headed by R Jayaram,ACP, under the leadership of police inspector KP Sathyanarayana and his team swung into action and based on CCTV footage and with the help of GPS fixed in the SUVs the team zeroed in on the suspects.

During investigation the accused confessed the crime and it was revealed that the duo are addicted to drugs and in order to arrange money for their vices they started stealing the brand new vehicles from the showroom and sell it to their customers who are also foreigners living in other states.

The duo has come to the city on Student Visa in 2017 and enrolled in Annamalai University as distance learning course in Master in Political science and BE electrical engineering.

With their arrest the police cracked seven vehicle theft cases and recovered three SUVs and two bikes worth Rs.65 lakh from them.

The duo have been booked under Foreigners Act for staying illegally in India and we have taken both the accused into custody to ascertain their network and further investigation is on.

Finally Bengaluru Police Commissioner,Kamal Pant has appreciated Addl CP East,S Murugan DCP Northeast,CK Baba,ACP,Yelahanka Sub-Division,R Jayaram,PI,KP Sathyanarayana and his crime staff has been appreciated for the exemplary and commendable job done by them tracking and cracking the SUV theft case and a suitable reward will be given to the team he added.

Pramesh Jain

A 60-year-old Senior Medical practitioner who was in depression ended his life by jumping from the 15th floor of an under construction residential apartment complex in Viveknagar on Tuesday.

The deceased has been identified as Dr. Vivek Madhusudan Vaidya, a resident of Koramangala.

According to the police,incident occurred at around 10.30 am,when Vaidya had come to the apartment by walk,entered the premises in the pretext of checking flat for purchase .

He asked the supervisor to show the flat and Kamalesh, in-charge of the apartment took him to the 15th floor and showed a flat.

While negotiating the price Vaidya asked Kamalesh that he wanted to take few photographs.

As Kamalesh moved away Vaidya came out and jumped from the building and later succumbed. He shocked about the incident and alerted other staff who were working and the security guards.

Senior officer said,Preliminary probe by the police team revealed that the deceased had a family problems and was under depression and this could be the reason behind the extreme step .

It is learnt that Dr Vivek had divorced his wife on account of family dispute.It is said that during the lockdown period,he went into depression.

He visited the said apartment complex on Tuesday afternoon in the guise of a customer interested in acquiring one of the flats there.

After going through some areas of the building, he suddenly jumped from the 15th floor.The police said that so far they could not find any specific reason for the suicide and that they will continue with the investigation.

The Viveknagar police shifted the body to Bowring hospital for the postmortem and based on a complaint by Kamalesh a case of unnatural death has been registered and further investigation is on he added.

Pramesh Jain

The central prison of Parappana Agarahara on Tuesday vaccinated as many as 2731 inmates who are above 18 year of age.

The prison department had also vaccinated 553 inmates who are 45years and above last month.However the rest of the inmates among the total 4678 inmates are waiting for their turn to get the jab.

Alok Mohan,Director General of Police Prisons and Correctional services who are supervising the vaccination drive,told reporters, that 32 out of 49 prisons across the state do not have a single positive case.

The remaining 17 prisons have few cases,he said, adding that the central prison of Parappana agrahara central prison has 13 positive cases and have been admitted to the prison ward of Epidemic disease hospital in Indiranagar .

He reiterated that the 32 prisons have zero covid cases because of the high standard of hygiene and sanitization maintained with strict guidelines in the premises.

It is mandatory for new admission to get covid RT-PCR test report.Even then the inmates are subjected to tests and will be housed  in a quarantine cell for 15 days,Mr.Alok Mohan said, adding that the inmate will again be tested after 15 days and if it is negative he would be allowed to the normal cell.

The prison officials and staff have been strictly directed to use masks,sanitization and face shields while on duty and provided additional supply of soaps and sanitizers and masks to the inmates .

The prison department also since March  released as many as 1013 inmates and prisoners on parole and bail following  the Supreme Court directions.

Another main reason for containing injection spread is that the prison department stopped physical production and arranging the trial on video conferencing.This not only helps to control the spread of infection but also saves government resources on police escort and vehicles to ferry inmates to courts and back .

Since covid the prison department suspended family meetings and started a new VC facility for the inmates to talk to their families since January this year.As many as 7,000 inmates have availed the facility since then and chatted with the family members on video chats and zoom calls .

BENGALURU: A total of 1,250 black fungus (Mucormycosis) cases have been reported in Karnataka so far, informed the state health department.

Bengaluru Urban Khurda district accounted for the most number of infections with 521 cases. While 508 people are still under treatment in the state capital, 10 people have recovered and 3 patients have died so far.

Meanwhile, Karnataka Health Minister K Sudhakar on Sunday said that Union Minister DV Sadananda Gowda held talks with more than eight companies for black fungus medicine.

“About 80,000 vials are in the market. The state has received 8-10 thousand vials so far. There were 1,250 cases of black fungus in the state. 30-35 deaths took place due to the infection. The medicines are being distributed to black fungus infected persons who were admitted to either a government hospital or a private hospital,” the Karnataka Health Minister said.