Karnataka govt to pay fees of school, college students in flood-hit Kodagu

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.

Kasaragod, Mar 23: The district administration on Monday decided to abandon efforts to map out the movement details of the NRI who came from Dubai recently and came into contact with many in North Kerala.

The district has been completely locked down since Monday morning, on the directive of the Central Government. Prohibitory orders have been slapped in the district since Sunday night to restrict socialisation of the people.

As the person now in isolation have allegedly been non-cooperative, the authorities were finding it difficult to sketch out a rote map as his movement and socialisation has been so vast and wide since his arrival here on March 12.

The middle aged and popular NRI who landed at Karipur airpprt on March 11 had been in Calicut till midnight prior to boarding the Maveli Express to make it to his hometown Kasaragod, which is 160 kms away from Calicut. He had come into contact with very many, including two MLAs of the district, prior to getting tested positive and getting isolated in the hospital.

Bengaluru, Apr 18: The Karnataka government has fixed the cost of test for COVID-19 in private laboratories at Rs 2,250, an official said on Friday.

"Based on the discussions and negotiations, the cost per test has been fixed at Rs 2,250. This includes the screening test and a confirmatory test," said order by Health and Family Welfare Department's Additional Chief Secretary Jawaid Akhtar.

A total of 16 laboratories (11 government and 5 private) have been approved by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) for testing samples of possible COVID-19 cases in the state.

Realising that early detection of coronavirus cases and timely treatment was the need of the hour, meetings were held to rope in more private laboratories to conduct COVID-19 sample tests.

As per the protocol by the Centre, testing the samples of suspected COVID-19 cases can be taken up in private laboratories subject to conditions which include sharing the lab data pertaining to the diagnosis of COV1D-19 with the state government and with the ICMR on a timely basis.

As per the Union Health Ministry, 353 people have infected from coronavirus in the state of which 83 are cured and discharged and 13 succumbed to the virus.