Begged for help but Smriti did not stop: Daughter of doctor killed in pile-up

Bengaluru, Mar 13: Senior IPS officer KSR Charan Reddy, who was the Additional Director General of Police in Criminal Investigation Department, Karnataka passed away in Bengaluru on Friday after prolonged illness. 

He was reportedly battling cancer for at least three years now and had suffered multiple recurs after treatment. 

"Shri Charan Reddy, IPS, ADGP, Karnataka State, passed away this morning, after a prolonged illness. He was one of our finest officers. Always stood tall and held his head high!! May his soul rest in peace," Retired IPS officer and former Director General of Police (Fire Services) MN Reddi tweeted. 

IPS officer Charan Reddy was heading the Special Investigation Team of the Lokayukta when he arrested Vijayanagara MLA Anand Singh in 2015 for illegally transporting iron ore out of Ballari. The illegal mining scam had rocked the former BJP government in 2011.

Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa condoled his death and said that he was an honest officer in the state. "Charan Reddy was a dedicated and honest officer. I pray that his soul rests in peace. I pray that god gives his family the strength to go through such a turbulent time after his departure," BS Yediyurappa tweeted. 

A 1993-batch IPS officer, Charan Reddy KSR is originally from Chittoor and has served under various departments of the state's police force. He was serving as the Inspector General of Police in Belagavi division in 2013, when he was transferred to Bengaluru as the IGP (Training). In 2014, he was posted as the IGP of the SIT probing the illegal mining scam in which former Tourism Minister Gali Janardhana Reddy is also allegedly involved.

He was transferred out of the SIT in Lokayukta in 2016 and posted as Additional Commissioner of Police (law and order) in Bengaluru. He served as the ADGP of Crime in Mangaluru in 2018 and was later appointed as the Additional Director General of Police (training) the same year. In 2019, he was transferred and appointed as the ADGP of CID.

Chikkamagaluru, May 9: A young Hindu activist allegedly killed his brother at Beeranahalli in Tarikere taluk of Chikkamagaluru district in Karnataka over a board game dispute.

The accused has been identified as 26-year-old Kiran and the victim is his 29-year-old brother Arun, said police.

According to police, the duo were playing a board game on Thursday and they had placed a bet of Rs 500. 

After Arun won the game, he asked for the money and Kiran refused to yield, which lead to an argument. 

In a fit of rage, an intoxicated Kiran hit his brother and when the latter fell unconscious and dragged him on to the road.

Arun was immediately rushed to McGann Hospital in Shivamogga. However, he died on Thursday night, said police.

A case was registered at the Lakkavalli Police Station.

The euphoria over the claim that around 3,000 tonnes of gold reserves, worth Rs 12 trillion, have been discovered in Uttar Pradesh’s Sonbhadra district could not last even 24 hours, with the Geological Survey of India (GSI) clarifying on Saturday there had been no such discovery.

The GSI, headquartered in Kolkata, rebutted the claims of the Uttar Pradesh Directorate of Geology and Mining (UPDGM), and said “miscommunication” must have led to the wrong reporting of facts.

M Sridhar, director general of the GSI, said nobody in the agency gave any such data. He said 52,806 tonnes of gold ore was found in Sonbhadra district during the exploration work in 1998-2000. From this reserve, only 160 kg of gold can be extracted.

“There must have been some miscommunication of facts because of which the gold ore deposits have been overestimated. We have written a letter to Uttar Pradesh (UPDGM), stating the facts. The GSI has not estimated such kind of vast resource of gold deposits in Sonbhadra,” Sridhar said.

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The UPDGM had said on Friday that gold deposits were found in Son Pahadi and Hardi areas of the district. Sridhar said while gold ore was found in the area during the GSI’s exploration work in 1998-2000, it had told the state government about the discovery in November last year.

Under the new regulation, which came into effect from 2015, the GSI has to inform the state government when ore deposits are discovered. Earlier, no such action was mandatory. In its report, the GSI estimated that only 3.03 gm of gold can be extracted from a tonne of ore. It also clarified that even the extraction amount was tentative and could not be established for certain.

Moreover, Sridhar said the deposits were spread across only 0.5 sq km in forest land, which made the mining of ore economically unviable. “When there are several mines nearby, we can club it into a block and then it makes sense to mine the ore. But in this case, the deposits are too small to make it viable for any company to mine it,” he said. The GSI usually prioritises its exploration work based on the needs of the Centre. While strategic minerals like tin, cobalt, lithium, beryllium, germanium, gallium, indium, tantalum, niobium, selenium, and bismuth are atop the list in GSI exploration, gold is another commodity on its priority list.

According to the World Gold Council, India has reserves of 630 tonnes of gold.