Kodagu landslide: Rescue team gives up hope of finding any survivor

Mangaluru: The Mangaluru City police have apprehended two individuals in connection with the recent stone-pelting incident at the residence of MLC Ivan D'Souza.

City Police Commissioner Anupam Agrawal identified the suspects as Bharat, also known as Yakshith, aged 24, and Dinesh Kurthamogeru, aged 20. Bharat, a driver from Bolantoor village in Bantwal taluk, has a history of three previous assault cases. Dinesh, who works in finance collection in Kanyana, hails from Kolnadu village in Bantwal taluk and has one prior assault case.

Following the incident, an FIR was lodged at the Mangaluru South police station. A special investigation team, led by ACP Central Sub-Division Pratap Singh Thorat, was formed to track down the culprits. The team conducted a thorough investigation, meticulously reviewing CCTV footage, verifying vehicle information, and gathering statements from eyewitnesses.

During interrogation, the accused confessed to the crime, citing anger over statements made by MLC D'Souza as their motive. They admitted that, after dining at Fish Crown Hotel around 9:30 pm, they impulsively decided to throw stones at D'Souza's residence.

Bengaluru: Warning that inequality will increase as society is being divided in the name of religion and caste, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Saturday said it is a tragedy that educated people are increasingly becoming casteist.

The Chief Minister was speaking after inaugurating an international symposium "Mahatma Gandhi for the 21st Century" organised at Gandhi Bhavan to commemorate the 75th year of the Gandhi Memorial Fund.

"Due to the caste system, many people were deprived of education, leading to increased inequality. It is a tragedy that educated people are increasingly becoming casteist," Siddaramaiah said.

He alleged that "the nurturers of caste inequality killed Mahatma Gandhi." "Gandhi's ideas and guidance given to society are not limited to the 20th century, they remain relevant even today. Gandhiji celebrated peace, truth, justice, and brotherhood throughout his life. He believed that if the whole world adopts the quality of loving each other, the whole society can be at ease," the CM was quoted as saying by his office in a release.

Pointing out that Gandhi believed that nature fulfills our needs but not our greed, Siddaramaiah said as he attributed human "greed" as the reason for environmental disasters happening in Kerala's Wayanad and other parts of the state.

Noting that many educated people follow superstition and "Karma Siddhanta" due to lack of proper scientific education, he said, 850 years ago Basavanna (12th century spiritual leader and also a social reformer) and his followers outrightly rejected the theory of "Karma" (fate).

The CM lamented that today's educated people still believe in the theory of "Karma".

Jawaharlal Nehru led the country by preparing society in a scientific and rational way, while inclusiveness and non-violence were Gandhi's ways, Siddaramaiah further said and added that work needs to be done to take this to the youth.

Udupi: The Udupi CEN Police have arrested two people from Gujarat in connection with a cybercrime where they posed as customs and police officers and swindled Rs 1.33 crore from a 53-year-old man in the name of FedEx courier. The police have recovered Rs 13.95 lakh and five mobile phones from the arrested. 

Udupi Superintendent of Police Dr Arun K said that the arrested are Navadia Mukeshbhai Ganeshbhai (44), from Surat and Dharamjeet Kamlesh Chauhan (28), from Rajkot in Gujarat.

Complainant Arun Kumar had stated that he had received a call on July 29 from an unknown number, posing as a customs official and falsely claimed that a FedEx courier booked using the victim's Aadhaar number contained five passports, five ATM cards, 200 grams of MDMA, and $5000.

When the victim denied booking a courier, the fraudsters connected him to a senior officer who claimed to be a police officer who in turn had informed him that his Aadhaar card had been linked to several bank accounts used by terrorists to purchase SIM cards.

The victim was then put under "virtual arrest" wherein he was monitored via Skype. Based on the instructions of the ‘officers’ he was confined to a room in his house from July 29 to August 9. He was asked to transfer money to various bank accounts to resolve the case.

Based on the complaint, Udupi CEN police had registered a case under Sections 66(C) and 66(D) of the IT Act, and Section 318(4) of the BNS.

The SP had formed a special police team led by Inspector Ramachandra Nayak comprising PSI Ashok and officers Praveen Shettigar, Rajesh, Arun Kumar, Yateen Kumar, Raghavendra Karkada, Dikshit, Prashant, Mutteppa Adin, Mayappa Gadade, Parashuram, and Sudeep to investigate the case.

Sources said that the police was closely monitoring the bank accounts involved in the scam and acted immediately when the money was withdrawn, and suspects were arrested.