B T Salian bags Paniyadi award for Tulu novel

Mangaluru, Jun 12: A huge crowd gathered for the grand opening of the newly built 175-metre-long two-lane bridge across Phalguni River on National Highway 169 near Gurupura on the outskirts of the city today.

Even as the photos of the bridge inauguration ceremony went viral on social media, netizens took the elected representatives and the district administration to task for flouting safety norms at a time when the coronavirus cases are continuing to mount in coastal Karnataka.

The bridge was completed in a record time of 15 months. Dakshina Kannada MP and State BJP President Nalin Kumar Kateel and district in-charge Minister Kota Srinivas Poojari inaugurated the bridge in the presence of Mangaluru City North MLA Y. Bharath Shetty and others.

The bridge has come as a breather to thousands of travellers between Mangaluru-Moodbidri-Karkala on the busy NH. The age-old steel bridge had become dilapidated and was a cause for concern for road users. The highway is also under the process of getting widened to four lanes.

The bridge was constructed at an estimated cost of Rs 30 crore by contractor Sudhakar Shetty of Mugrodi Construction. Work started in February last and the contractor had time till February next.

While the two-lane carriageway is 16 metres wide, the bridge has 2.5-metre-wide pedestrian paths on both the sides. New approach roads of 500 metres each were also part of the project.

Udupi, July 20: A youth, who was under depression after his business came to a halt due to lockdown, has killed self in Kundapura taluk of Udupi district. 

The deceased has been identified as Nitish Shetty (31), son of Prabhakar Shetty, a resident of Giliyaru in Kota area of Kundapura. 

Shetty was running a secondhand car business in Bengaluru. The business had completely stopped due to covid-19 lockdown. 

After returning to his hometown, he could not find any other job. Hence he was under depression. Hence on July 18 he handed himself to death in his house, police said. 

A case has been registered at jurisdictional Kota police station.

Bengaluru, Mar 16: A 23-year-old mobile app developer was arrested on Saturday for allegedly forging the signature of Infosys Foundation chairperson Sudha Murty to rope in Telugu actor Vijay Devarakonda as an app’s ambassador.

The arrest of Laveti Sai Krishna alias Krishna ML, a resident of Hyderabad, comes a year after the case was registered. Jayanagar police registered a case against Krishna on February 26, 2019 based on a complaint filed by Lt Col (retd) M Ramesh, representative of Infosys Foundation. The complaint was filed after the forged letter didn’t reach Devarakonda and came back to Infosys Foundation instead.

App developer is a B.Pharma holder

“We conducted an investigation and traced the app designer. We caught him and based on information provided by him, we learnt that Krishna was the brain behind the forged signature,” a senior police officer said.

Krishna confessed that he developed a mobile app — ‘Offer nearby’ — and planned to launch it in a big way. He wanted Telugu actor Vijay Devarakonda to be the app’s brand ambassador and tried contacting him. Krishna, however, was unable to meet Vijay.

Krishna then thought he could easily reach the actor if he sent a recommendation letter in the name of Sudha Murty.

“He forged the letterhead of Infosys Foundation and Sudha Murty’s signature. We are verifying his antecedents to know if he committed any other offence earlier,” said Rohini Sepat-Katoch, DCP (south). Rohini said Krishna is a B.Pharma holder and worked with an advertisement firm. Later, he planned to develop an app that provides details of offers for retail customers. He floated Laveti Technologies, and with help from a friend, developed ‘Offer nearby’.

As per the complaint, Krishna created a fake letterhead in the name of Sudha Murty and wrote to Devarakonda, asking him to become the brand ambassador/ partner for his mobile app. Krishna sent it through SpeedPost mentioning the sender’s address as Infosys Foundation. Krishna’s game was up when the letter, which wasn’t delivered to Devarakonda, came back to Infosys Foundation.