Man who sexually assaulted minor and escaped from police finally caught

September 11, 2014

Puttur, Sep 11: Mohammed Ashraf, who had escaped from police custody when he was detained on charges of sexually assaulting a minor girl in Nellikatte in Puttur on Monday, was caught and apprehended in Hassan.

Puttur town police arrested Ashraf after they found him in Arsikere in Hassan.

Three teams were formed by Puttur inspector B K Manjaiah to nab the criminal, which were sent to Hassan, Ramnagar and Kasargod districts respectively.

Preliminary investigation had shown that the possibility of Ashraf having fled out of the state was unlikely since he was in a habit of smoking cannabis (ganja) which would be more difficult to obtain outside the state.

Deadline

Hindutva organisations had given police a deadline up to Thursday evening to apprehend the criminal, failing which they threatened to go on a strike in Puttur. However, the police managed to successfully nab the accused earlier than the given deadline.

Dakshina Kannada Additional Superintendent of Police T P Shivakumar held a discussion with representatives of Hindutva organisations here on Wednesday.

In connection with the case, auto rickshaw driver Mohammed Hussain was already arrested by the police as an accessory and remanded to judicial custody.

Mohammed Ashraf had been booked under the POCSO Act, among other sections of the Indian Penal Code.

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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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