Am already 71; faced 13 elections so far... it’s time to retire: Siddaramaiah

Mangaluru, Jun 21: The first flight chartered by Karnataka Sports and Cultural Club (KSCC) to repatriate stranded UAE Kannadigas today reached Mangaluru from Sharjah.

The Air Arabia flight with 173 passengers took off from Sharjah international airport around 6:00 am (UAE Time) and landed at Mangaluru International Airport at around 11.00 am (IST) on Sunday. 

The flight had 29 pregnant women, 16 children, 5 infants, senior citizens, people with medical emergencies and those who have lost jobs among others.
 
KSCC Manager Mr Shafi said that all the legal procedures were carried out smoothly. Charter flight was arranged only for the stranded Kannadigas.
 
KSCC had set up help desk to finalize list of passengers, given discounted ticket fare for needy passengers who cannot afford the full repatriation cost. Free PPE kits were distributed to all passengers along with snacks.

Meanwhile rapid tests for Covid-19 was conducted before departure and mandatory quarantine for all the passengers was arranged accordingly in 3 hotels in Mangaluru for a period of seven days.
 
KSCC office bearers Shafi, Althaf, Javed, Naseer and volunteers were present at airport during the flight departure. KSCC has expressed gratitude to Consulate General, DC of DK District, Umar U H and Ataullah Jokkate for their support.

Bengaluru, Feb 24: Fugitive underworld don Ravi Poojary, with more than 90 criminal charges pending against him, was brought to the city in the wee hours of Monday after he was arrested from Senegal in South Africa.

Police said that he was wanted in more than 92 criminal cases. In Bengaluru alone, he was involved in more than 39 cases, including double murder of Ravi and Shobana in 2007, an attempt to murder attack on Mantri developers 2009, extortion and other crimes etc. He had committed crimes in various parts of the state including Myusuru, Hubballi, he had involved in extortion, threatening builders, politicians, etc.

"Though Senegal police had nabbed him about six months back to get him to India it took more than six months since there was no agreement to deport criminals from that state to us. However, now all legal hurdles have been removed and we have succeeded in bringing him", a top police official told media.

A team of Bengaluru Police headed by Additional Director General of Police Amar Kumar Pandey, Joint Police Commissioner Sandeep Patil reached Senegal on Saturday and brought him to the city by Air France flight.

Ravi Poojari was wanted in cases of extortion and murder and was active in the Mumbai underworld. He was part of the underworld don Dawood Ibrahim's gang and later is said to have worked with 'Chota Rajan' for some time. Claiming to be an enemy of Dawood, Poojari reportedly finished off all his associates and anti-India elements in the country. His men were involved in a shootout on the Shabanam Developers office in Bengaluru in which a woman staffer was killed.

He is also said have been involved in the shootout case of Shahid Azmi, an advocate from Mumbai. There are cases against him in Kerala, Gujarat, and Maharashtra.

Bengaluru, Jan 10: Demanding the setting up of a House Committee to probe the Mangaluru violence, former Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy on Friday released multiple videos of the clashes that broke out during the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protest that claimed two lives on December 19.

Janata Dal-Secular leader further demanded suspension of Police Commissioner PS Harsha and insisted that House Committee consisting of members of all the parties should be formed to probe into Mangaluru violence and said that magisterial inquiry ordered by the state government cannot be trusted.

"Constitute a House committee and produce the fact. The main culprit is the commissioner of Mangaluru, remove the officer as he is the main culprit. I am going to take this issue on the floor of the House." Kumaraswamy said during a press conference here.

Two people were killed in Mangaluru in the alleged police firing after protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act turned violent.

The Act grants Indian citizenship to refugees from Hindu, Christian, Sikh, Buddhist and Parsi communities fleeing religious persecution from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh who entered India on or before 31, 2014.