20 Indians arrested after SR 9 billion hawala scam unearned in Saudi Arabia

October 14, 2016

Jeddah, Oct 14: Police in Saudi Arabia have busted a major hawala racket and arrested 32 from Jeddah on charges of money laundering.

According to reliable sources, at least 20 among the arrested are Indians and many of them are South Indians.

The accused, arrested in two separate cases, allegedly handled 9 billion Saudi Riyal in illegal money transfers, the police said.

Eight of them were released on bail while the trial of the remaining accused has been proceeding in a court here.

The accused Indians deposited the money in different accounts and transferred them through hawala networks in a year.

Several Saudi businessmen and bank employees who helped them to carry out the illegal transfers were among those arrested, the police said.

It is one of the biggest case under economic offences as per the crime records of Saudi Arabia.

Meanwhile, Saudi police have arrested one more Indian for suspected links with the IS. With this, the number of Indians arrested for terror links has risen to 20.

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9 billion saudi riyal! That means almost 20 times more Indian rupees!! I cant imagine. This is greater than any Indian state budget. Are they investing in terrorism?

expats dig their own graves.

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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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