Karnataka jail: Undertrial’s birthday bash in jail goes viral

Bengaluru, Mar 4: With details of the Bengaluru links of the Covid-19-positive patient from Hyderabad emerging, state health authorities on Tuesday got down to tracking any infection trail he may have left behind before heading home.

Schools from southeast Bengaluru asked parents to send students with masks and hand sanitizers or keep them at home if they had fever. Medical shops in Bengaluru reported panic buying of masks and hand sanitizers.

Two persons with no symptoms — the Hyderabad man’s flatmate in city, and a colleague — reported at Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Chest Diseases and put under watch at the isolation ward. Their test results are expected on Wednesday.

The authorities tracked down 71 people who had come in contact with the Hyderabad man and put them under surveillance. The 24-year-old techie had travelled to Dubai for work on February 15 and returned to Bengaluru on February 20. He attended work on February 20 and 21 before taking a bus to Hyderabad. His flat has been sealed for sanitizing.

According to Telangana officials, at least 36 of the 88 people who came in contact with the techie are showing some symptoms of Covid-19.

Contrary to reports, the infected person was not tested at the KIA since guidelines don’t say flyers from Dubai must be screened. WHO guidelines say identification of the infected person should not be revealed. However, WhatsApp groups were flooded with messages on where the infected person lived and details of his flatmate.

Bengaluru, Feb 17: Leader of Opposition in Karnataka Assembly Siddaramaiah on Monday demanded that forest minister Anand Singh should either be expelled from the Cabinet or assigned a different portfolio.

This comes amid a number of cases, pending against Singh, including those under the Karnataka Forest Act.

"How can we expect justice from Anand Singh who has been made forest minister and is accused of (illegal mining)? We demand that he should either be dropped out of the state Cabinet or at least his portfolio be changed," Siddaramaiah told media.

Earlier in the day, Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa allocated portfolios to the 10 newly inducted ministers in his Cabinet.

As part of state Cabinet's expansion, 10 MLAs including Ramesh Jarkiholi, Anand Singh, K Sudhakar, and BA Basavaraja took oath as ministers at Raj Bhawan in Bengaluru on February 6.

Mangaluru, June 13:  The Central Crime Branch of Bengaluru City Police, which is digging up old cases involving underworld gangster Ravi Pujari, has now launched a fresh probe into the murder of human rights lawyer Naushad Kashimji.

Kashimji was gunned down on April 9, 2009 at the basement of his apartment in Falnir in Mangaluru. Ravi Pujari had allegedly ordered the hit. 

As part of investigation, a team from Benglauru CCB has come to Mangaluru. CCB sleuths, who obtained Pujari’s police custody in connection with this case, are tying up the loose ends pertaining to the murder of Kashimji who was representing D-Company hitman Abdul Rashid Hassan Malbari aka Malbari. 

Pujari was said to be unhappy over Kashimji representing Malbari. Pujari had also allegedly issued life threats, directing him to desist from doing so.

Kashimji had reportedly received more than 10 international threat calls from March 30 to April 9 (the day he was murdered). According to a senior police officer, the advocate had not informed the police or his then senior Purushottam Poojary about receiving the threat calls. “This came to light when police went through his call records later,” the officer explained.

“CCB team is primarily focusing on Pujari’s role in the advocate’s sensational murder,” a senior CCB officer handling the investigating said. 

“We have also lined up other cases in which Pujari is allegedly involved, but had filed the chargesheet against him in absentia as he was then a fugitive,” the officer added. The team is now picking up threads of Pujari’s involvement cases in Dakshina Kannada, Udupi and Chikkamagaluru districts.

Pujari, currently in police custody in Bengaluru, is accused in more than 30 cases reported in Mangaluru from 2007 to 2018. Majority of the cases against Pujari pertain to extortion and extending death threats, one relating to murder, three to shootings/ abduction and one where he supplied money to his henchmen in prison. Police have filed ‘C’ report in 17 out of 28 threat call cases and ‘B’ report in one case. Rest are in different stages of trial.