Thousands of Hindus, Muslims throng Hazrat Khwaja Banda-Nawaz Dargah as 614th Urs begins

Bengaluru, Feb 27: About 60kg of unaccounted gold ornaments worth Rs. 21 crore were unearthed by officers of the Commercial Taxes Department of Karnataka Government.

The ornaments were recovered after the department conducted surprise inspections and raided business premises of wholesale jewellery dealers in Ranganatha Mansion and Sakalajee Market in Chickpet area of Bengaluru on Tuesday.

"The raid was based on information that many traders from other states visit the city and carry gold jewels without any valid documents and supply it to local jewellers without invoices," said Srikar MS Commissioner of Commercial Taxes in a statement.

The officers raided the premises of 23 jewellers and found 60 kg gold ornaments in stock which were not covered by valid documents. A penalty was levied on the undocumented ornaments.

"It is informed that the enforcement wing is keeping a close watch on the interstate movement of gold, silver and all the dealers in the state are hereby advised not to buy any goods without valid purchase invoices, added Srikar MS.

Bengaluru, Feb 21: Amulya Leona, a college student, who raised to pro-Pakistan slogans to embarrass organisers of a protest against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) here on Thursday evening, has been charged with sedition.

The student-activist, who was allowed to talk on stage, suddenly raised pro-Pakistan slogans. She was arrested by police after All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi snatched her mike.

Deputy Commissioner of Police Ramesh Bannoth confirmed the girl has been charged with sedition, provoking enmity between groups, and intentional insult to provoke breach of peace.

It was just after Mr. Owaisi’s arrival on the stage at Freedom Park here that the 19-year-old student was asked to speak. After preliminary remarks, she suddenly shouted “Pakistan zindabad” thrice, leaving the crowd and organisers stunned.

Some of the organisers rushed to her and tried to take the mike away and stop her from speaking further. Mr. Owaisi too joined in and snatched the mike. Holding on to the mike, the girl then went on to shout “Hindustan zindabad” twice, before a posse of police personnel and organisers whisked her away from the stage

Soon after the student was taken away, a visibly upset Mr. Owaisi told the crowd: “Whatever has been spoken [by the girl] is wrong. Neither my party nor I has any connection with it. As long as we are alive, we will be raising Bharat zindabad slogans. Never had we any relationship with Pakistan nor will we have anything in future,” he announced.

He further stated: “This is condemnable. The organisers should not have invited such people to this place. If I had known that these kind of things would be said here, I would not have come here.”

It is unfortunate that the organisers have invited such people and a wrong message is going out, he said. “Now, BJP has got an opportunity and will blame me,” he added.

Every speaker, who took the podium after the incident, condemned the pro-Pakistan slogans raised by Amulya.

Janata Dal (S) councillor representing Gurappanapalya, Imran Pasha, one of the organisers of the protest under “Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Isayi Federation”, claimed that they had not invited the “activist” and were not aware that she would be speaking from the stage. Mr. Pasha said that such statements were “a deliberate attempt to drive a wedge between Hindus and Muslims”.

Meanwhile, the BJP State unit tweeted, “Truth is that protests against CAA are a joint venture between Pakistan and anti-National forces led by INC India.” In a press release, BJP State unit president Nalin Kumar Kateel termed this as an “anti-national act” and urged the police to take action.

Udupi, May 4: Udupi Deputy Commissioner G Jagadeesha said that mechanised boat fishing will be permitted in Udupi district in another two days.

He further said that the decision was taken after the district was declared as a Green Zone as no fresh cases of COVID-19 were reported from the district in the past several days.

The Deputy Commissioner told the media here that fishing will be permitted but social distancing has to be practised and only 30 boats will be permitted in a day.