Young techie goes missing after visiting Sri Sri's Art of Living ashram

Bengaluru, Mar 29: Escoms have been directed neither to penalise its customers nor go for disconnection if one fails to pay the bill. The relief is applicable till June. However, the entire bill will have to be paid at the end of three months.

The revised power tariff, which was to be announced on April 1, has also been deferred.

A similar three-month relief has been given on rentals for APMC and BBMP shops.

New Delhi, Jun 8: Two civil defence employees have been arrested by the Rajasthan Police today in Jaipur based on Military Intelligence (MI) inputs that they had been passing on sensitive information to Pakistan's spy agency ISI.

The arrested are: Vikas Kumar (29), a civil defence employee at an army ammunition depot near Shri Ganganagar (Rajasthan) and Chiman Lal (22), a civil contractual employee of the army's Mahajan Field Firing Range (MFFR), Bikaner. 

Both were working as espionage agents on behalf of Pakistan's intelligence agency and were giving out details of Ammunition and MFFR, vital military installations in India's Western front. 

The MI Lucknow's operation named Desert Chase assumes great importance as the Shri Ganganagar Ammunition Depot and Bikaner MMFR are strategically important military installations on the western front along the Pakistan border.

The work on the "operation" began in August 2019, when the MI Lucknow, through its sleuths, learnt about an espionage agent near Sri Ganganagar who was passing military information to his handlers in Pakistan. The individual was identified as Vikas Kumar - the civil defence employee at an army ammunition depot near Sri Ganganagar.

The MI Lucknow shared the case with UP ATS in the month of January 2020. Vikas's activities were monitored and analysed by a joint team of MI Lucknow and UP ATS. The operation was code-named 'Desert Chase'.

Based on these, it was learnt that Vikas is acquiring photos of a "water distribution register" at a water point/pump house in MFFR through a contractual civil employee named Chiman Lal. The development of the case was halted due to the start of the lockdown period all across the country.

Finally, the case shared with Rajasthan Police Intelligence in the first week of May 2020. A joint team was formed between Rajasthan Police-Intelligence and MI Lucknow.

Fresh leads were found as new payments were detected along with a trail of sensitive information being passed on to Pakistan by two accused.  

Vikas Kumar confessed to having passed the following information to Pakistan:

•    Details received from Chiman Lal about Army units and their strength coming to MFFR.
•    Details of ammunition coming to his ammunition depot including their type, quantity, mode of transportation, date of arrival on a routine basis (almost every time it came to his notice).
•    Details of ammunition (to include their type, quantity and mode/date of transportation) further distributed/transferred to local army establishments/units (including two local brigades) and elsewhere from his ammunition depot.
•    ORBAT (Order of battle; composition related details) of two local army brigades and all changes in them as they came to his notice.
•    Name, rank and personality traits of some Senior Military Officers in the two army brigades nearby, his ammunition depot and others who visited the military station.
•    Photos of arms, ammunition, tanks other military vehicles (with their tactical numbers) at MFFR whenever he could visit it after April 2019.

Vikas also confessed to having received at least Rs 75,000 in total from his Pakistani handler for the information he has shared during this entire period. He used to receive them mostly on bank accounts of his and his brother, Hemant Kumar. The latter was found to have no links to the espionage case otherwise. Out of this sum, he had paid approximately Rs 9,000 in total to Chiman Lal for his assistance in lots of Rs 1000- Rs 2000 since their first meet.

Mangaluru, Jul 18: Days after Air India operated a flight from Qatar to Mangaluru,  the Karnataka Cultural Foundation (KCF) chartered a flight from Doha to this coastal city to repatriate the stranded NRIs. The flight landed at Mangaluru International Airport on July 16.

This KCF operated flight left the Hamad International Airport Doha at 9:35 am and reached Mangaluru international Airport at 16:10 pm on Thursday. 

The flight had over 174 NRIs, included pregnant women, patients in need of urgent medical treatment, senior citizens, and those who were stuck with expired visit visa and job loss. With the timely intervention Dr Arathi Krishna has helped a patient to make his approval from embassy, who had to leave for medical treatment on emergency basis.

Starting from the registration of travellers, KCF has provided all with the necessary documental, health-related information and each of them have been met by KCF representatives along with snacks and PPE kit to be worn during the journey as a precaution against the spread of the pandemic. 

Organization workers were constantly in touch with each of its passengers, supporting them for their safety and serve them during journey and stay at the hotels and this will continue until the quarantine is completed.

KCF, the proud organization of Kannadigas has been working in the public sphere, and this initiative of charter flight and their dedication on this have been praised by travellers.

On their successful charter, KCF thanks Dr Arathi Krishna, former vice-chairman of Karnataka State NRI Forum for her extensive support on acquiring relevant documental clearances. Sindhu B Rupesh, the deputy commissioner of Mangaluru, Dr Yathish Ullal, assistant commissioner of Mangaluru, Meena Nagaraj, the nodal officer, Bengaluru, are also praised for their timely approvals and permissions for this charter.

The untiring efforts, hard works by the workers and leaders of SSF, SYS and Karnataka Muslim Jama-ath have been appreciated and background supports by Moulana Shafi Sa-adi, the member of Karnataka state Waqf Board is also remembered by KCF Qatar.

The members of KCF Qatar have been tirelessly working behind this grand success, the chairman Abdul Raheem Saadi and general convener Muneer Magundi have thanked all its members, including Embassy officials and Indigo Airlines for all cooperation.