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Bengaluru, Mar 28: Karnataka government on Saturday launched a food helpline number --155214-- for the labourers who have been affected due to lockdown imposed by the central government to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

This came after Prime Minister Narendra Modi had on Tuesday announced a 21-day lockdown in the entire country effective from midnight to deal with the spread of the coronavirus, saying that " social distancing" is the only option to deal with the disease, which spreads rapidly.
Similarly, other states including Delhi have started both official and non-official helpline numbers for necessary assistance.
Both the government institutions and social organizations are contributing together in the fight against coronavirus during the lockdown.
According to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), there are 918 confirmed cases of coronavirus cases in the country and 19 fatalities have been reported.

Bengaluru: Seven fresh Covid 19 positive cases are reported in 24 hours which includes one death from Kalburgi. Of the 7 cases, Kalburgi and Vijayapura share 3 cases each and one case is from Dakshin Kannada, as per the Tuesday mid day health bulletin issued by the Department of Health and Family Welfare.

The deceased has been identified as a 80 year male from Kalburgi. He was bedridden from the past 3 years and was suffering from Parkinson’s Disease since 4 years. Health officials said that he came with the complaint of Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI) and expired on Monday night.

Along with his death, the total death tally now stands at 17 and the total positive cases in the state is 415.

Kalburgi which recorded the first death for Covid 19 in India has so far reported 4 deaths including the above one. The first slot for recording more deaths in the state is now shared by Bangalore urban district and Kalburgi district with each recording 4 deaths each.

Kalburgi district now has 24 active cases.

All the three cases are females, reported from Vijayapura were the primary contacts of a Corona positive patient (P306), who inturn got infected from a patient with history of SARI.

Apart from the deceased male who tested positive, the other cases from Kalburgi is of 29 year old male with influenza like illness and other case is of a 61 year old male whose source of infection is yet to be traced by the health department.

The case from Dakshin Kannada district is from Bantwala region and the positive patient is a 67 year old female with history of SARI. She is getting treated at designated hospital at Dakshin Kannada.

Bengaluru, Feb 29: Dreaded underworld don Ravi Poojary's lawyer Dilraj has allegedly been kept out of hearing distance and as a mute spectator during interrogation by the police.

"The lawyer is a mute spectator out of hearing distance from the interrogation. He is not privy to what police ask Pujari," a source told media.

As directed by the court and requested by Poojary, Dilraj is allowed to be present near the interrogation for him to consult on legal issues, but the cops have made sure that he does not hear anything for fear of leaking information.

The court has also ordered the interrogation to be video graphed, which the police are carrying out.

Police sources said that Ravi Poojary is relaxed and cool during the multi-lingual interrogation.

"He is cool, giving frank replies. Poojary is exhibiting confidence in whatever he is telling. Maybe confidently lying, police are not new to him," said the source.

According to source, the gangster knows how to handle police, with sufficient knowledge to reveal how much he wants to, when to stop, when to talk, when to mislead and plant false information.

"Poojary is being interrogated in his mother tongue Kannada, Hindi and English. He is fluent in English," the source said.

However, the source denied speculation gaining currency that Poojary requested police not to send him to Mumbai fearing of being eliminated by the henchmen of dreaded underworld dons Dawood Ibrahim and Chota Rajan.

"Nothing of that sort happened. It doesn't work like that. He has been captured after 25 years, and he is not a king to choose. Wherever the law takes him, he will go there," said the source.

Rajan is serving a life sentence inside a high security cell in Delhi's Tihar jail.

Currently, the probe is focused on Tilknagar Shabnam Developers double murder shootout case. Police are discovering information, verifying it with respect to evidence and building the case.

Taking regular breaks, police are interrogating Poojary from morning till evening.

Of the over 200 cases against Poojary in the southern state, 39 are in Bengaluru, 36 at Mangaluru, 11 in Udupi on the state's west coast and one each at Mysuru, Hubballi-Dharwad, Kolar and Shivamogga in Malnad.

The other cases are in Mumbai (49) and in Gujarat (75) pertaining to extortion, kidnapping, ransom demand and murder threats.

Poojary also extorted huge amounts from popular Bollywood stars and realtors. He was also involved in an attempt to murder case, aimed at killing a prominent lawyer of Mumbai.

A four-member Karnataka police team led by Pandey brought the 52-year-old underworld don to Bengaluru from Dakar in Senegal via Paris in an Air France scheduled flight during the wee hours and kept him at an interrogation centre in the city's south-east suburb.