Muneer Katipalla tries to drag UTK's name into murder case; plaint lodged

July 2, 2016

Mangaluru, Jul 2: All three personal assistants of U T Khader, Minister for Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs, have lodged complaint with Mangaluru East Police against Muneer Katipalla, the state president of Democratic Youth Federation of India for levelling false allegations against them and attempting to defame the minister through social media.

The development comes after Mr Katipalla claimed on his Facebook wall that a person claiming to be the PA of Mr Khader called Mangaluru jailor and asked him to take good care of NaMo Naresh, the prime accused in RTI activist Vinayak Baliga murder case, and shift him to a private hospital.

Mr Katipalla went on to claim that when the jailor did not care the caller, the latter threatened the former with all sorts of “punishments”.

In their joint complaint, Praveen Kumar JP, Mohammed Libzeth and Vijaykumar, the three personal assistants of Mr Khader, made it clear that none of them had contacted Mangaluru jailor in connection with the arrest of NaMo Naresh.

The complainants have urged the police to conduct an inquiry into the issue and take necessary action against Mr Katipalla for attempting to defame the minister and his personal assistants through Facebook posts.

Meanwhile, the jailor himself rubbished the allegations made by Mr Katipalla and clarified that he did not receive any such call from the minister's PA or anyone else.

Expressing shock over the allegations, Mr Khader said that the one who made the allegations should provide proof. “When I was informed about the Facebook post, I personally contacted the jailor and he was not even aware of the incident,” he said.

Mr Khader said that the DYFI leader had tried to defame him through false and baseless allegations in the past too. “The same person had once blamed me for the murder of an auto-rickshaw driver,” the minister recalled. He also urged to police to conduct a thorough investigation into the allegations.

On the other hand Mr Katipalla has justified his Facebook post and claimed that Mr Khader had links with several Hindutva leaders.

Comments

Cannot rule out the interference of politicians like UTK

muneer katipalla dont have any other work to do,

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Elusive bamboo shrimp resurfaces in Mangaluru estuary after 70 years

News Network

December 7,2025

Mangaluru, Dec 7: A rare bamboo shrimp has been rediscovered on mainland India more than 70 years after it was last reported, confirming for the first time the presence of Atyopsis spinipes in the country. The find was made by researchers from the Centre for Climate Change Studies at Sathyabama Institute of Science and Technology, Chennai, during surveys in Karnataka and Odisha.

The team — shrimp expert Dr S Prakash, PhD scholar K Kunjulakshmi, and Mangaluru-based researcher Maclean Antony Santos — combined field surveys, ecological assessments and DNA analysis to identify the elusive species. Their findings, published in Zootaxa, resolve decades of taxonomic confusion stemming from a 1951 report that misidentified the species as Atyopsis moluccensis without strong evidence.

The shrimp has now been confirmed at two locations: the Mulki–Pavanje estuary near Mangaluru and the Kuakhai River in Bhubaneswar. Historical specimens from the Andaman Islands, previously labelled as A. moluccensis, were also found to be misidentified and actually belong to A. spinipes.

The rediscovery began after an aquarium hobbyist in Odisha spotted a shrimp in 2022, prompting systematic surveys across Udupi, Karwar and Mangaluru. Four female specimens were collected in Mulki and one in Odisha, all genetically matching.

Researchers warn the species may exist in very small, vulnerable populations as freshwater habitats face increasing pressure from pollution, sand mining and infrastructure development. All verified specimens have been deposited with the Zoological Survey of India for future reference.

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