SIT uncovers plot to kill writer Bhagawan, nabs four men

DHNS
May 30, 2018

Bengaluru, May 30: Four associates of the only suspect to be arrested for the murder of journalist-activist Gauri Lankesh have been taken into custody for conspiring to kill rationalist and Kannada writer, K S Bhagawan.

The Special Investigation Team (SIT) picked up the four near the Davangere bus station around 10.15 am on May 21 but made the formal arrests only now. It identified them as Sujith Kumar alias Praveen (37), from Kappanahalli near Shikaripur, Shivamogga district; Amol Kale alias Bhaisaab, from Maharashtra; Amit Degwekar alias Pradeep (38) and Manohar Dundappa Yadave alias Manoj (29), both from Ratnapura village, Vijayapura district.

They are close associates of K T Naveen Kumar, who has been arrested for Gauri’s murder. The men are also suspects in that case and will be in police custody for 10 days. The SIT is also hunting for another man named Dada alias Nihal.

How police caught them

SIT sleuths stumbled upon the plot to kill Bhagawan after obtaining Naveen’s call detail record (CDR) while investigating Gauri’s murder. The phone conversations suggested Naveen and Sujith were tasked with the job by right-wing organisations. Sujith went into hiding after police arrested Naveen. But police caught him in Mangaluru, an officer of the SIT said.

Sujith was brought to the Cottonpet police station in Bengaluru and subjected to intense grilling. Spilling the beans on the plot to kill Bhagawan, he said they had bought a pistol and bullets in Belagavi for the purpose and kept them in his grandmother’s home in Davangere. He, however, claimed innocence in Gauri’s killing. He also revealed his accomplices’ visit to Davanagere on May 21 to attend some event. SIT officials took him to Davangere and arrested the three others when they were travelling in a car.

The seizure

The SIT has seized copies of two newspapers from Mangaluru, two black bags, four mobile phone batteries, a map of Bengaluru, four mobile phones, a diary of phone numbers and Rs 22,931 in cash.

Gauri charge sheet today

The SIT is likely to file the charge sheet in the Gauri murder case on Wednesday. The charge sheet will likely mention that K T Naveen Kumar didn’t reveal anything during the interrogation and refused to undergo a narcoanalysis test after initially agreeing to it. In short, the investigation has reached a dead end.

Comments

Well Wisher
 - 
Wednesday, 30 May 2018

India and specially Karnatka not required these TUGS or their God fathers, shoot them or hang them in public and finish the matter for ever. Delay the verdict will cost more and it is missue of tax payers money.

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News Network
June 19,2020

Puttur, June 19: A 32-year-old woman in Puttur taluk of Dakshina Kannada district died due to complications caused by dengue yesterday.

The deceased is Naseema (32), wife of Nazeer Master, a resident of Parpunja village in the taluk.

She was not well for past few weeks and she was diagnosed with dengue fever with chills a week ago.

Initially she underwent treatment at a hospital in Puttur. After her condition worsened, she was shifted to a private hospital in Deralakatte.

However, she breathed her last without responding to any treatment last night.

Naseema is the second victim of the mosquito-borne infection in Puttur taluk this month. Last week, dengue had claimed the life of a woman in Bettampady village in the same taluk.

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News Network
February 16,2020

Kalaburagi, Feb 16: Fourteen years of life in jail has not deterred Subhash Patil from fulfilling his dream of becoming a doctor.

The 40-year-old man from Afzalpura in Karnataka's Kalaburagi was put behind bars in a murder case while doing MBBS in 1997.

Speaking to media, Patil said, "I joined MBBS in 1997. But, I was jailed in a murder case in 2002. I worked at the jail's OPD and was released in 2016 for good conduct. I completed my MBBS in 2019."

Earlier this month, Patil completed a one-year mandatory internship for getting the MBBS course degree.

Police arrested Patil in 2002 in a murder case when he was in his third year of MBBS course. A court sentenced him to life imprisonment in 2006.

He was put behind bars but he did not give up his childhood dream of becoming a doctor.

In 2016, police released Patil on Independence day for his good conduct.

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News Network
January 18,2020

Bengaluru, Jan 18: Amidst the ongoing probe into the multi-billion IMA ponzi scam, another similar scam has come to light in the city wherein around 2500 depositors, most of them Muslims, are fearing that them may lose Rs 350 crore.

Shockingly, Shafiullah, Rafiullah, and Zabiullah, three brothers who run the Baraka Investment Consultant Private Limited, have accused the police of taking over 10 crore rupees bribe from them.

The depositors say that when they recently demanded their investments back from the accused the trio, they allegedly told them that they had paid the Central Crime Branch (CCB) and the RT Nagar police over 10 crores and they could collect that money from the police.

The aggrieved investors alleges that the RT Nagar police have charge-sheeted the three accused only on the complaints of 13 affected depositors who lost precisely Rs 97 lakh and the case is being probed under the Prize Chits and Money Circulation Schemes (Banning) Act, 1978 instead of Karnataka Protection of Interest of Depositors in Financial Institutions Act, 2004 (KPID Act) or the Banning of Unregulated Deposit Schemes Ordinance, 2019 (BUDS) Ordinance.

Aggrieved victims alleged that when the Baraka Investment Consultants had a Registration Certificate of Establishments from Department of Labour issued on November 28, 2017. The CCB took up a suo-motu case against Tellnet Computers on August 16, 2018, after they received complaints from Baraka investors.

Apparently, the CCB knew that Baraka Investment Consultants and Tellnet Computers was one and the same and operating from the same office, but they did not mention the name of Baraka in the case initially for reasons best known to them, said the victims of the Ponzi scheme. A few victims who wished to remain anonymous told BM that a CCB police inspector and one of the accused, Zabiullah, were childhood friends, neighbours and both hailed from Chikkaballapur. This is one of the reasons, they allege, the inspector has protected the accused by downplaying the scam.

The case registered by the CCB states that there are only 500 to 600 depositors who deposited amounts between Rs 50,000 to Rs 1 lakh expecting returns ranging from Rs 5000 to Rs 7000 a month, but in reality there are more than 2500 investors who have deposited amounts ranging from Rs 50,000 to Rs 50 lakh, expecting returns between 12% to 24%, said the victims. Despite this, the CCB was sitting on the case and making no investigations, the victims alleged.

It was later on in May 9, 2019, an FIR was registered by the RT Nagar police when many victims approached the police commissioner and petitioned him. “Even in this case, the accused Zabiullah was not arrested. Zabiullah’s two brothers, Shafiullah and Rafiullah, and his father Abdul Rahman were arrested, but were later granted conditional bails,” one of the victims Mohammed Yahya (42), a software engineer said.

Yahya had invested Rs 10 lakh with Baraka. “Though this case has been charge-sheeted, the police have not made any recoveries or they have not confiscated any properties of the accused,” alleged victim Habibur Rehman (42) who had invested Rs 5 lakh in Baraka. “There is clear-cut evidence that the accused was dealing in foreign exchange using the investors’ money without their knowledge and was offshoring and parking crores and crores in countries like Russia, Dubai, Malaysia, and Singapore. Though the police knew about this, they did nothing to stop it or bring it back,” said Azgar Pasha (44), a businessman who had invested Rs 41 lakh.

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