Margao blast probe takes NIA team to Belthangady; Two Sanatan Sanstha activists questioned

Bengaluru: JD(S) leader H D Kumaraswamy on Tuesday won the Mandya seat in Karnataka with a margin of 2,84,620 votes.

The former Chief Minister defeated Venkataramane Gowda (also known as Star Chandru) of the Congress.

According to the Election Commission, Kumaraswamy secured 8,51,881 votes, while Gowda got 5,67,261.

JD(S) fought the Lok Sabha polls in alliance with BJP in the State.

The 64-year-old son of former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda has made no secret of his desire to become Agriculture Minister, if the Modi government comes back to power.

Kumaraswamy, who is also the state JD(S) President, is a five time MLA, and currently represents Channapatna Assembly seat.

An Indian expatriate working in Saudi Arabia’s Tabuk, has been cleared of allegations related to a hacker's scam and is now permitted to return to India for leave. The man, who wishes to remain anonymous, hails from the outskirts of Mangaluru city in Karnataka.

Employed by the Greek company for nearly three years, he had been diligently performing his duties. On November 15, 2022, he received a call from an individual pretending to be an officer from the Saudi Arabian Interior Ministry. The “officer” informed him that his Iqama (Residency Permit) was about to expire and sent him an OTP (One-Time Password) to validate it. Trusting the caller’s identity, the man accepted the OTP and continued his work without issues until he planned to take a vacation.

On September 30, 2023, while traveling from Tabuk to Jeddah International Airport for his flight to India, he was contacted by his company and instructed to return to Tabuk because his exit re-entry had not been processed due to a case against his Iqama.

Upon his return, he discovered that SAR 17,000 had been withdrawn from a citizen’s bank account through his account. The man had no knowledge of this transaction and did not have any money in his account. Recalling the OTP incident from a year earlier, he realized he had been a victim of a cyber-scam.

A case was filed against him at the concerned police station, and he made a clear statement to the police about the incident. After an investigation lasting more than nine months, he was exonerated and is now allowed to go on leave to India.

The man expressed his gratitude to all those who supported him during the ordeal, including the authorities, his company, and social workers advocate P. A. Hameed Padubidri and Naufal Mulky for their unwavering support and constant follow-up.

This incident serves as a stark warning to other expatriates: be cautious and vigilant against unknown callers and unsolicited requests for sensitive information.

Mangaluru: The Air India Express is all set to increase the frequency of its flights from Mangaluru to Abu Dhabi to a daily flight from July 22. 

At present, Air India Express operates four flights in a week to Abu Dhabi on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday.

This will also result in an uptick in daily flights to Bengaluru to eight, with AIE and IndiGo restarting flights and AIE routing aircraft for enhanced Abu Dhabi operations.

At present, IndiGo and AIE operate a total of five flights daily on the Bengaluru-Mangaluru sector. From July 8, the daily flights on this sector will go up to six, with AIE restarting its second daily flight. 

This number will further increase to seven from July 22, on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. AIE will operate this additional flight onwards to Abu Dhabi from Mangaluru.

The Bengaluru-Mangaluru leg will operate purely as a domestic flight, and Abu Dhabi passengers will board at Mangaluru.

From August 1, flights on the Bengaluru-Mangaluru sector will go up to eight on three days in a week – Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, respectively. AIE will operate the third flight on these days to go with its two daily flights.

IndiGo will operate five daily flights, including the fifth flight which it announced in the summer schedule starting March 31. For operations on this sector that sees high passenger footfalls, AIE uses the Boeing-737 Max and IndiGo uses the Airbus series aircraft.

On the Mumbai-Mangaluru sector, AIE will operate the afternoon flight from July 16 in place of Air India, which will continue to operate the morning flight.

Currently, airlines from Mangaluru International Airport, operate five daily flights to Mumbai and Bengaluru, two daily flights to Chennai and Hyderabad, respectively, one daily flight to Delhi, three weekly flights to Pune and one weekly flight to Tiruchirappalli.

International flights operation includes two daily flights to Dubai by AIE, and four weekly flights by IndiGo, four weekly to Dammam, three weekly to Muscat, two weekly to Doha and Bahrain, and one weekly flight each to Kuwait and Jeddah – all by AIE.