Bantwal: Mother dies, daughter rescued after hillock caves in on house

Mangaluru, June 10: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has arrested another prime accused in 2022 BJP Yuva Morcha worker Praveen Nettaru murder case. 

32-year-old Jilla BJP Yuva Morcha committee member Nettaru was hacked to death in front of his broiler shop in Bellare of Dakshina Kannada by bike-borne miscreants in July 2022. The case is being investigated by the NIA and several arrests have been made so far.

Mustafa Paichar, accused number four in the case, was absconding after the murder and the NIA had declared a Rs 5 lakh reward to catch him. 

He was arrested at Sakleshpur in Hassan district by the NIA team led by Inspector Shanmugam. 

According to officials Mustafa was reportedly a member of now banned Popular Front of India and a resident of Shantinagar in Sullia in Dakshina Kannada.

In a fresh claim, arrested BJP leader and advocate G Devaraje Gowda has alleged that Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar and four other ministers were behind exposing Prajwal Revanna’s sex scam that has brought disgrace to Janata Dal (Secular) H D Deve Gowda family. 

Devaraje Gowda has been arrested in a sexual abuse case. 

Speaking to reporters while being taken to the district prisons, in Hassan on Friday, Gowda alleged that he was offered Rs 100 crore to drag the name of H D Kumaraswamy in the Prajwal’s case. 

“D K Shivakumar had offered me Rs 100 crore to project that H D Kumaraswamy was behind the case. The offer was made through ministers N Chaluvarayaswamy, Krishna Byre Gowda, Priyank Kharge and another minister. They had even sent Rs 5 crore as advance to Bowring Club. But I did not agree. Hence, they hatched a plot to trap me,” Gowda alleged.

“It is D K Shivakumar, who collected all information from Prajwal Revanna’s former car driver Karthik and readied the pen drive. A team of four ministers were formed to handle the issue. As I did not agree to the plan. They planned to bring disrepute to the BJP, Narendra Modi and H D Kumaraswamy,” he said.

Gowda further alleged that former MLC M A Gopalaswamy of Channarayapatna was sent to him for negotiation.

“The main intention of D K Shivakumar is to bring disrepute to Modi and BJP in the case. Besides, he wanted to defame H D Kumaraswamy’s leadership in the state” he claimed. “They filed a sexual harassment and rape case against me, but found no evidence. Now, they are trying to fix me in the pen drive case” he alleged.

Mangaluru, May 12: In a shocking development, a group of pilgrims which had travelled from Mangaluru International Airport to Saudi Arabia earlier this month, to perform Umrah has alleged that 26,432 Saudi Riyals, which were kept in a bag, have been stolen. 

In a complaint submitted to the Bajpe Police, Soukath Banu, wife of Ahmed Iqbal of Ajyad Tours and Travels, said that her husband, Ahmed Iqbal, along with 35 members, planned and scheduled to perform the Umrah and were travelling from Mangaluru International Airport (MIA) via Mumbai to Jeddah. 

Soukath Banu had given Ahmed Iqbal 2,000 Saudi Riyals for performing Umrah and other expenses. The group members were also told to bring Saudi Riyals to meet their expenses.

In her plaint, Soukath stated that the group had left for Jeddah on an IndiGo flight via Mumbai, and their return ticket to India was booked for May 13. 

At the airport, she said that 26,432 Saudi Riyals were collected in total, and they decided to keep them in baggage that had a lock. Accordingly, it was kept in the bag of Mohammad Badruddin Kadambar. The airport staff had even questioned what he had kept in the bag. 

The group reached Jeddah on May 1. To their surprise, Kadambar found that the baggage lock was broken open, the zip was damaged, and cash was stolen upon reaching Jeddah.

DCP (Law and Order) Sidharth Goyal said that following the complaint, one round of CCTV checks was conducted at the MIA along with the CISF personnel. The loading at the MIA was intact.

Further checks have to be carried out at Mumbai and Jeddah Airport as the victim found out that cash was missing only when they got the bag at the final destination, he added.