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Mangaluru, Jan 10: Two members of a notorious honey-trap gang that used to lure rich men using women and then extort money from them by staging fake police raid have been arrested by the Dakshina Kannada district police.

Lohith, a resident of Kushalnagara, and Sharif from Vittal, were arrested in connection with a honey-trap case registered in Uppinangady police station. Jamal, Jeevan and Naushad, who were also involved in the case, are absconding.

Police said they received information that a few people under the guise of being Kerala police, were planning to raid a resort near Uppinangady where two couples were staying.

They were informed that they would threaten and try to extort money from them. The police were tipped off about the same by their counterparts in Kerala.

Police said the accused are experts in setting honeytraps, and were involved in similar crimes since a long time. Their modus operandi was to use two women from Mangaluru to lure their intended targets.

Once they trap their target, the woman and victim are sent to resorts. They then raid the resort posing as police officials, and click pictures in compromising positions of the victim with the woman.

They threaten to release the pictures on social media or TV channels, if they fail to pay up.

Police said the accused demanded Rs 10 lakh from each victim, but they denied to pay up. Irked by this, the accused took away the victims’ belongings such as phone, money and car.

The victims who believed that the accused were police personnel, asked them to take them to the police station. Instead of taking them to the police, the accused took them to a secluded place, where they claimed that they were putting the victims under house arrest. Police have seized an SUV from the accused.

Mangaluru, Jan 19: Karnataka’s coastal city of Mangaluru has been ranked India’s safest city with the lowest crime index (24.14) in the country, according to a survey conducted by Numbeo.

Numbeo is a crowd-sourced global database of reported consumer prices, perceived crime rates, and quality of healthcare, among other statistics.

Mangaluru was named the city with the highest safety index of 75.86 among all major Indian cities.

According to the survey, Abu Dhabi is the world's safest city which has the lowest crime index of 11.33. It has the highest safety index of 88.67 in the list of 374 global cities.

Abu Dhabi sits on number one spot - as an increase in a city's ranking means a drop in its crime rate.

Sharjah ranked fifth safest and Dubai was ranked as the seventh safest city in the world with its safety index at 82.95.

Joining Abu Dhabi in the top ten are Taipei, Quebec, Zurich, Dubai, Munich, Eskisehir, and Bern. Islamabad (74) was ranked the safest in Pakistan.

Meanwhile, Caracas in Venezuela was rated the as the most unsafe city with the highest crime index 84.90.

Bengaluru, Jun 22: The Central Crime Branch (CCB) of Bengaluru Police has obtained the custody of an associate of gangster Ravi Pujari and is questioning him about his role in several cases against the gangster, the police said on Monday.

According to the police, Khan is convicted in the case related to the murder of a builder named Subba Rao in the year 2017. The accused has been identified as Yousuf Bacha Khan.

"Continuing the investigation of Ravi Poojary, CCB had obtained custody of Yousuf Bacha Khan, who is associate of Pujari. Khan was convicted in the Subba Rao murder case. He is being questioned about his role in other cases," Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Sandeep Patil said.

The CCB had recently filed two charge sheets against gangster Ravi Pujari in Shabnam developers double murder case and an extortion case.

Pujari, who was wanted in several cases including ones related to heinous crimes like murder and extortion, was extradited to Bengaluru earlier this year from Senegal.

The gangster, who parted ways with underworld don Chhota Rajan, had jumped bail after he was arrested in Senegal in 2019 and had escaped to South Africa, where he was involved in drug trafficking and extortion.

According to sources in the Indian intelligence, Ravi Pujari was hiding under the false identity of Anthony Fernandes, a Burkina Faso passport holder, in a remote village in South Africa.