Residential school student dies, parents suspect foul play

Bengaluru, May 14: Reformed underworld don Muthappa Rai, who was battling cancer for the past year, was said to be in a critical condition at Manipal Hospital in Bengaluru, late Wednesday night. Doctors said he was on life-support at the time of going to press. Rai (68), realtor, entrepreneur and founder of pro-Kannada organisation Jaya Karnataka, had retired from public life after he was diagnosed with cancer. He was part of an ongoing investigation into gangster Ravi Pujari, who was extradited from Senegal recently.

Born in Puttur into a Bunt family, he started out as a bank employee in Bengaluru, and later ran a live band restaurant. In 1994, he was shot in a Bengaluru court by a man dressed as a lawyer, after which he was bedridden for a couple of years.

Rai Moved to Dubai in 1996. He was deported from the UAE to India in 2002, and was arrested in Bengaluru when HT Sangliana was the police commissioner. Both Rai and Pujari had allegedly been associated with underworld don Dawood Ibrahim.

Udupi, Apr 2: The Udupi Administration has given its nod to lift and transport watermelons, pineapples, papaya and Mattu Gulla after growers in the district complained that their produce will go waste and start rotting due to the lockdown on account of COVID-19.

In statement issued here on Thursday, Deputy Commissioner G Jagadeesha said that the administration has already held a meeting with wholesale fruit merchants registered with the Agriculture Marketing Produce Committee (APMC).

It has directed these merchants to purchase 35 tonnes of pineapples, 55 tonnes of watermelons and 5,000 bunches of bananas from growers and sell them within the district and also send them to other districts. Such transportation has been exempted from prohibitory orders, he said.

Udupi, Apr 9: Deputy Commissioner G. Jagadeesha said that criminal cases would be booked against owners of houses and sheds who were collecting rent from those, including workers, staying in rented houses.

In a statement issued here on Wednesday, Mr Jagadeesha said that to prevent the spread of COVID-19, restrictions had been imposed throughout the district under Section 144 (3) of the Criminal Procedure Code.

The administration had through an earlier order made it clear that house owners and shed owners should not collect rent from their tenants and workers for March and April.

But the administration had received complaints that some house owners and shed owners were collecting rent despite the order.