Gauri killing: No headway after questioning over 100 people; SIT now grills Kunigal Giri

News Network
September 15, 2017

Bengaluru, Sept 15: Further intensifying the probe into the murder of journalist-activist Gauri Lankesh, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) has commenced interrogation of rowdy sheeter Kunigal Giri and six of his associates, currently in judicial custody, to see if they have information on key arms smugglers in the city.

More than 100 persons from across the State have been questioned by the police but there has been no breakthrough.

The probe team is aggressively working on identifying all individuals in the city and state who are in possession with country-made pistols chambered with a 7.65 mm bore.

The team has listed out people who are involved in illegal arms trade and will question them to ascertain how many such pistols have been sold and are in use illegally in the city and its outskirts.

Kunigal Giri (35), a native of Kunigal, has several aliases such as Girish, Modur Giri, Ashwath and Prashanth Raja. He is involved in nearly 70 cases in Bengaluru, including 30 cases of dacoities and robberies, and in most of his heists, he brandished pistols and threatened his victims.

He is also involved in numerous such cases in Mangaluru, Belagavi, Hassan, Tumakuru, Ballari and Bengaluru Rural. The CCB police had earlier arrested Giri in 2008 after booking him in 40 cases of dacoities and robberies.

A police team has also gone to Vijayapura jail to question an illegal arms dealer who had reportedly sold over two dozen pistols in Bengaluru after procuring it from his source in Bihar.

The police, over a period of time, had recovered 15 pistols out of the 26 accounted for according to the dealer’s claims, but the police could not trace 11 pistols.

One of the traced pistols was used in APMC president Kadabagere Srinivas’ shooting a few months ago in Yelahanka, the police said. The police said Gauri’s assailants could have procured the pistol from these rowdies.

A majority of rowdies, including those in the underworld, use 7.65 mm pistols in the state as ammunition is available easily in the market. Police records state that history-sheeters like Ravi Pujari, Hebbet Manja and their associates have been using these pistols for a long time. Central Crime Branch police have seized 10 such guns from Hebbet Manja and his associates.

Progress so far

SIT has learnt there are no professional shooters lodged in any of the jails in the state.

Data of around 10 lakh phone lines that were active, hours before Gauri’s murder, have been collected by SIT from mobile towers of Basavanagudi and Rajarajeshwari Nagar.

SIT has learnt calls were even made to Maharashtra, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.

Around 32 local residents have spoken over phone to people out of the state.

Of these, two were professors and the rest were all private company employees.

The SIT team also visited lodges in the city to collect names of the visitors who booked rooms before September 5 and vacated them on that day.

A mobile phone was recovered from near Gauri’s house which has been handed over to the FSL who are yet to examine it.

Scotland Yard officials join probe

Meanwhile, two senior officials from Scotland Yard have come to help the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing Gauri Lankesh’s murder on Wednesday.

The two, said to be experts in technical investigation, have been apprised of all information, developments and investigation progress till date, regarding the case.

The CID had sought the help of Scotland Yard in Prof Kalburgi’s murder case as well, and presume they would be of help in this case too, a senior police officer said.

Comments

Danish
 - 
Friday, 15 Sep 2017

First and foremost failure is not given police protection to Gauri Lankesh. Now police searching in dark and heading nowhere. they dont know which way they have to go to solve the issue.. Total failure siddu

Hari
 - 
Friday, 15 Sep 2017

Instead of blaming siddaramaiah govt, check what nda did. They are the rrot reason for killing and still keeping silence

Mohan
 - 
Friday, 15 Sep 2017

Its a big shame to siddu govt

Kumar
 - 
Friday, 15 Sep 2017

We have hope only in scotland yard

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coastaldigest.com web desk
May 19,2020

Mangaluru, May 19: Officials at the Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre (KSNDMC) said that Dakshina Kannada, Udupi and Uttara Kannada along with Kodagu, Chikkamagaluru have been alerted about possible heavy rains.

Dr GS Srinivasa Reddy, Director, KSNDMC, said, “Coastal districts have already been witnessing heavy downpour since Monday morning. This will continue for another two days depending on the cyclonic movement along the east coast.”

Until last evening, Haleyangadi and Surathkal in Dakshina Kannada district had received 83 mm and 82.5 mm of rainfall, respectively. Several other areas in Udupi also witnessed heavy rainfall of about 60 to 70 mm rainfall.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) attributed the rain, which intensified on Monday, to a cyclonic circulation over parts of the Arabian Sea (Comorin area) off the coast of Kerala.

The weather department said the sudden convergence of wind over the peninsular region was due to Super Cyclone Amphan, which is set to barrel into the east coast. The IMD issued an Yellow Alert for coastal Karnataka and Malnad, warning of moderate to heavy rainfall in the next few days.

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coastaldigest.com news network
July 26,2020

Mangaluru, Jul 26: Rubbishing reports about cancellation of institutional quarantine for international passengers in Mangaluru, local health authorities have clarified that 14 day isolation including first seven day institutional quarantine must for international passengers. 

For past couple of days rumours were doing rounds on social media that the government has done away with quarantine for international passengers. A few Mangaluru-based news portals also had published it as news without quoting any reliable sources. 

Meanwhile, district health officer in his clarification message said that neither Karnataka government nor Dakshina Kannada district administrant has revised the quarantine norms for international passengers. 

“Those who arrive from overseas must remain in isolation for 14 days. Out of this, seven days have to be spent in institutional quarantine (in hotel or lodge). During this period, the throat swab sample of the person will be sent for covid-19 testing. If the report is negative, then they will be sent to home quarantine for another seven days."

He said that concession in terms of number of days has only been given for people with other health conditions, children and the elderly. "For children below 10 years, pregnant women, elderly above the age of 60 years and other with other ailments, the throat swab will be collected on the second day of institutional quarantine. If the report turns negative, they will be sent to home quarantine for 14 days."

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News Network
February 28,2020

Bengaluru, Feb 28: “Those who struggle to come up can understand people’s problems better. Yediyurappa is one such leader who has reached this position after a struggle,’’ said former chief minister Siddaramaiah, in praise of Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa, who celebrated his 78th birthday on Thursday in Bengaluru.

Siddaramaiah was the only non-BJP leader on the dais, who not only attended the event, but was present throughout. He released a coffee table book, ‘A Leader who Saw Tomorrow’, on Yediyurappa’s life and achievements, compiled by The New Indian Express.

Dwelling on the political spectrum and human relationships, Siddaramaiah said, “Our ideologies are different, but that is limited to politics. Politics should not come between personal relationships.’’ Recalling his association with Yediyurappa, Siddaramaiah said that in 1983, he and Yediyurappa had entered the Assembly for the first time.

“Yediyurappa did not become chief minister just like that. It took years of struggle and hard work. We both have many similarities — neither of us came from political backgrounds. We came up through struggle and those who come from such backgrounds understand people,’’ he said.

Siddaramaiah said that it was Yediyurappa who first became chief minister, and he had reached the post only five years later. “I am five years younger than him, maybe that is the reason,’’ he said on a lighter note. Yediyurappa has become chief minister four times, but I have been chief minister only once, he added. He also spoke about how Yediyurappa had played an important role in bringing the BJP to power in the state, the party’s first government in South India. “Very few leaders know the pulse of the state and Yediyurappa is one among them,’’ he said.

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