Bengaluru: 2 airport officers held for smuggling

March 13, 2017

Bengaluru, Mar 13: Two immigration officers of Kempegowda International Airport were arrested on Sunday for allegedly aiding smuggling of gold bars and ornaments. Directorate of Revenue Intelligence sleuths caught one of them receiving 3kg gold from a Malaysian passenger in an airport toilet.

smugglingPraveen Kumar and PD Katkar, sub-inspectors with the Bureau of Immigration, were to allegedly hand over the consignment to rackete ers outside the airport. "Acting on a tipoff that KIA insiders were part of a smuggling racket, we stationed our men at key points," a DRI investigating officer said about the operation.

Around 9.10 am on Sunday , a couple -Arjunanan Velu and Shanti Narayanan -ar rived at KIA by a Malaysian Airline flight (MH-104) with 3kg gold worth Rs 90 lakh. Velu, a Malaysian national, went to the toilet near the passenger immigration counter; his wife, an Indian passport holder, waited outside.

"Around 9.30am, a man met Velu in a toilet. Velu han ded him a pouch with 2kg gold bars and the rest in ornaments. Our sleuths nabbed the duo in the restroom," the officer added.

The man who accepted the smuggled goods was identified as immigration officer Katkar. During questioning, the officer allegedly said he was acting on colleague Praveen Kumar's instructions.The officers, who face no stringent frisking because they enjoy a degree of immunity, had planned to slip the goods out and hand them over to a smuggling gang outside the premises. Smugglers had allegedly promised the immigration officers huge sums of money for the job. The passengers were arrested and then remanded in judicial custody.

The couple claimed they were under pressure to act as conduits and said it was their first attempt.The role of immigration officers in the racket seems to be deeprooted. "We suspect a nexus between Indian smugglers and the apprehended immigration officials," a senior DRI officer said.

A probe is under way on the possible involvement of other Bengaluru airport officials in the racket.

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Agencies
April 14,2020

New Delhi, Apr 14: A 35-year-old man has been booked by the police for refusing to eat food at a quarantine centre on the ground that it had been cooked by a Dalit.

Reports said Siraj Ahmad, a native of Bhujouli Khurd village under Khadda police station in Kushinagar district, had returned from Delhi on March 29, and was staying at the quarantine centre at the village primary school along with other four people.

On Friday, village head, Lilawati Devi, in absence of the cook, prepared food in the quarantine centre for all the five people but Siraj refused to eat it.

Police, after conducting investigation, registered a FIR against him under the SC/ST Act on Monday.

The village head had lodged a written complaint with the police on Friday and also informed sub-divisional magistrate Desh Deepak Singh and block development officer Ramakant.

SHO Khadda police station, R.K. Yadav said that a case against Siraj was registered under the SC/ST Act.

Meanwhile, on Saturday evening, Vijay Dubey, the local BJP MLA, went to the house of village head and asked her to serve him food cooked by her.

"Untouchability is a social evil that cannot be tolerated at any cost," he said.

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News Network
March 28,2020

Hyderabad, Mar 28: Seven labourers from Karnataka were killed and four injured when the van in which they were travelling was hit by a truck near Pedda Golconda on the outskirts of the city late on Friday night, police said.

The deceased included two children. Of the 31 workers in the van, five died on the spot and two while undergoing treatment at a hospital, Assistant Commissioner of Traffic Vishwa Prasad said.
Four others were hospitalised and the condition of one of them is critical, he said, adding the other workers in the van escaped with minor injuries.

The workers were on their way back to their home town Raichur in Karnataka as the road project they were working in at Suryapet here was stalled due to the lockdown, Prasad said.

He said initital investigations revealed that the mango laden truck, which was on its way to Gujarat, was overspeeding.

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Agencies
July 25,2020

Tikamgarh, Jul 25: Promise of providing housing to the poor has been made by both Centre as well as State governments but a Dalit family in Tikamgarh district of Madhya Pradesh is forced to live in a toilet for the last several years.

However, the administration denied that the family is living in the toilet.

Maganlal Ahirwar, his wife and four children live in Keshavgarh Gram Panchayat of Mohangarh area of Tikamgarh district. All of them have been living in the toilet for four years. Ahirwar's wife Phula Devi said she told the authorities several times that her family didn't get house under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, but no one listened. The couple even got their daughter married in the same toilet.

They even got an electricity connection and gas connection under the Ujjwala scheme.

Mohangarh tehsildar Dr. Abhijeet Singh told media persons, "I got to know about the case and have asked for the report. Maganlal Ahirwar came to the office two-three days ago and denied that he was living in the toilet with his family. He has an ancestral house in the village."

He might have lived in a toilet earlier but currently he is not living there, Dr. Singh added.

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