Don Ravi Poojary detained in Senegal, Kumaraswamy says it's due to his govt's efforts

Crime

Ravi Poojary was arrested by the West African Police in Senegal on January 19.

Theja Ram

PTI

Indian intelligence officials reported on Thursday evening that they were notified about the detention of underworld don Ravi Poojary in Senegal. Poojary, who hails from Udupi district in Karnataka, had been on the Interpol's Red Corner Notice list for long and was finally detained by the West African police force as he was reportedly travelling from Burkina Faso. Indian intelligence officials are now coordinating with the West African Police to bring Ravi Poojary back to India. Speaking to the media on Friday, Karnataka Chief Minister Kumaraswamy said that his arrest was due to the coalition government's efforts. "When the coalition government was formed, we had instructed the state police to track down Ravi Poojary. The Karnataka State Police, through solid investigation tracked him down to Senegal. They got his call records and many other evidences to obtain his location. Once his location was confirmed, they managed to get him arrested with the help of the officials abroad. This is the coalition's success," Kumaraswamy said. The Chief Minister said that the police had received information about his alleged criminal activities in 2006. On December 31, 2018, intelligence officials had obtained information that Ravi Poojary was organising cricket tournaments in Africa and had obtained photographs to prove the same. "The state police immediately contacted the authorities there and informed them about his criminal activities. He was arrested on January 19. We are completing formalities so we can bring him back to India. The state police must be lauded for their efforts. The sleuth working for the central government too have worked hard for this," Kumaraswamy added. Ravi Poojary is wanted in scores of cases including making ransom and threat calls to Bollywood actors, politicians and other prominent personalities. He has been on the run for several years now. Ravi Poojary describes himself as a 'patriotic' underworld don. He was reportedly living out of Australia until about three years ago. He has made several threatening phone calls to prominent persons including activist Shehla Rashid, politician Jignesh Mevani and Bollywood singer Arijit Singh. Several politicians from Karnataka and Kerala have also claimed that they have received threat calls from the gangster. This includes Karnataka MP DK Suresh, Kerala Opposition Leader Ramesh Chennithala and Tanveer Sait among others. Ravi Poojary- the don born in Udupi He was born in Udupi and in his teenage years, shifted to Mumbai where he was working in Andheri. He shot to infamy for allegedly killing a gangster called Bala Zalte. He also worked under Chhota Rajan, a famed criminal from Mumbai, before parting ways and going alone in 2001. Poojary began his criminal career in Mumbai's Andheri area and soon became close to gangster Chotta Rajan and his cronies. Poojary is also considered to be one of Rajan's protegees.  In the mid-1990s, three of his men allegedly shot Om Prakash Kukreja of Kukreja Builders in his office. Eight years later, a Navi Mumbai-based builder, Suresh Wadhwa, is believed to have escaped a murder attempt by ducking under his office desk. Police believe that Poojary's men targeted Wadhwa.   He is believed to have moved to Dubai in the late 1990s and allegedly began extorting money from builders and hoteliers there. Chhota Rajan split with Dawood Ibrahim after the March 1993 serial blasts in Mumbai. At the time, Guru Satam and Ravi Poojary also broke away from the gang and sided with Rajan. Dawood Ibrahim then attempted to kill Rajan in Bangkok in 2000. Rajan was admitted to a hospital in a European country. At the time, the internal war in Chhota Rajan's faction had kicked off. A sharp shooter in Rajan's gang, Rohit Verma, allegedly caused Rajan to distrust Poojary. Rajan had allegedly suspected that several of his associates like Vinod Shetty and Mohan Kotian had turned on him. He had them killed in Navi Mumbai's Panvel area and Bengaluru respectively. Unable to convince Rajan that he had remained loyal, Poojary broke away from the gang and moved to Australia in 2006. In order to extract revenge, Ravi Poojary set up his own gang and identified himself as a warrior for the "Hindu cause". He is accused of killing Shahid Azmi, a lawyer representing the terror accused in the 1993 blasts case, and allegedly hatched a plot to eliminate Ehtesham Siddiqui, an accused in the 2011 blasts. By doing so, Poojary tried to establish himself as one who was "fighting the enemy" in Mangaluru, which had by then become a hotbed for communal politics.  

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Tiger which killed 2 people in Nagarahole captured by forest officials

Wildlife

The capture brings an end to a search operation that began on Monday and involved forest officials, elephants and camera traps.

Prajwal Bhat

The tiger which killed two persons in the past week near Nagarahole National Park was captured by forest department officials on Friday afternoon at Aanemala, a dense forest area in the DB Kuppe range of the national park.  The tiger was spotted and tranquilized in a tense operation which began at 6 am and ended at around 1:30 pm on Thursday. "Killing the tiger was the last resort in case any of our lives were in danger. We managed to capture the tiger and we will observe its condition before taking any further action," confirmed M Narayanswamy, Conservator of Forests and Director of Nagarahole National Park.  The male tiger is aged 5 years old and was injured in its hind leg. It will now be sent to a rehabilitation centre in Koorgalli on the outskirts of Mysuru where it will be monitored. "Due to the injury, it could not hunt and was attacking humans, which are soft targets for the tiger. The animal usually does not attack humans," says Narayanswamy.  There are around 100 tigers in the Nagarahole forest area with a tiger at every 4-5 square kilometres. Residents of the villages along the forest areas continued to agitate even after the tiger was captured. "The people here are asking us to show the captured tiger but we have followed NTCA guidelines in closing off the area in which the tiger was spotted and captured it," added Narayanswamy.  The capture brings an end to a search operation that involved elephants began on Monday after the tiger attacked a man in Hullumutlu village. The tiger, however, evaded camera traps set up by forest officials before it attacked another man in Thimanna Hosahalli, around 3 km away from Hullumutlu, on Thursday.  Read: Man mauled to death by tiger in K’taka’s Nagarahole forest, second death in a week     The news of the second attack spread further panic among the communities living along the forest areas prompting forest officials to write to the National Tiger Conservatory Authority (NTCA) asking for permission to kill the tiger. The NTCA is a statutory body under the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change working for the conservation of tigers.  The decision, however, enraged wildlife activists who argued that the tiger was injured and should only be killed as a last resort. Eventually, the tiger was captured and not killed.  However, the latest man-animal conflict in Nagarahole has sparked a debate about rehabilitating people settled in the core forest areas. "There are more than 80 people residing in the core forest areas and they should be resettled elsewhere. The tribal people are ready to move but people who are not tribals are often unwilling to leave their homes. If people do not move away from the core forest areas, this conflict will persist," warned Kantharaju, a retired forest official who worked in Nagarahole. 

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The Mandya dilemma: Will Sumalatha contest Lok Sabha polls in 2019?

Politics

JD(S) isn't happy with the Congress' efforts to being Sumalatha into electoral politics as this could be a stumbling block for Kumaraswamy's son Nikhil Gowda who wants to contest from Manyda.

Theja Ram

File Photo

After the death of rebel star Ambareesh, a void has been created in the Mandya Congress. With hundreds of Ambareesh fans demanding that his wife Sumalatha contest from the Mandya Lok Sabha constituency, the question is - will she? On Friday, hundreds of Ambareesh fans gathered outside Sumalatha's residence in Bengaluru and requested her to contest the Lok Sabha elections as an independent candidate. Speaking to the media after interacting with the fans, Sumalatha said, "Ambareesh's fans were very supportive when he contested elections. Even after his death, they are offering to support me. I had never given a thought about entering politics or contesting elections in the past. Seeing the amount of respect they have for Ambareesh and me, I do not want to disappoint them. However, this is not an easy decision to make and I feel like I still need to think about it," Sumalath said. The actor also said that she had not yet held talks with leaders of any political party. And if she decides to contest, Sumalatha is unsure whether she wants to be a Congress candidate and get embroiled in the tension on ground in Mandya between JDS and Congress. "Ambareesh was with the Congress and I am yet to talk to the leaders from the party. I don't know if I will contest the elections but if I do, I will contest from Mandya. Ambareesh had worked for the people of Mandya and our family will continue to do the same. I am humbled by the support the people have shown me and I do not want to disappoint them," Sumalath added. According to Congress sources, the party lost a lot of votes during the 2014 Lok Sabha election as Ambareesh did not campaign actively for the Congress candidate. "When Ramya lost by a small margin, it was only because Ambareesh's voter base did not vote for the Congress. With the pre-poll alliance in place, Sumalatha will be a neutral choice. If the JD(S) does not agree to field Sumalatha as the alliance's candidate, then it would spell trouble for them. If she contests then it would be beneficial to Congress as Ambareesh was a Congress loyalist," the source added. However, JD(S) insiders say that the party is not happy with the Congress' move to bring Sumalatha into electoral politics as it would then become difficult for Kumaraswamy's son Nikhil Gowda to enter the fray. "Kumaraswamy wants Nikhil to contest simply because his nephew Prajwal Revanna is contesting this time. Although Deve Gowda is not inclined towards offering Nikhil a ticket, the chances of him getting one would become lesser if Sumalatha decides to enter electoral politics. It would be worse if she contested as an independent as it would split the vote bank," the source added.  

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A new immersive play in Bengaluru explores our growing disconnect with nature

Theatre

Aruna Ganesh Ram’s play ‘Under Pressure’, to be performed at Atta Galatta in Koramangala on February 2, poses some poignant questions on sustainability.

Anjana Shekar

“How would you like to be remembered as a species?” Quite a deep question that would render the opponent speechless at first before they break into half-hearted mumblings and eventually fall silent again. This is the question that artist Aruna Ganesh Ram’s latest play ‘Under Pressure’ aims to ask. The 90-minute performance is presented by Aruna’s Visual Respiration, an immersive theatre company that was founded in 2012. “Visual Respiration focuses on creating various experiential encounters for the audience to look at socio-political relevant themes and find ways to engage with it. Over the years we’ve worked with aspects of self-expression, gender and lives of street food vendors,” says Aruna. The concept of ‘Under Pressure’ came to Aruna after listening to a podcast by writer Amitav Ghosh. “Ghosh asks a very poignant question. What occupies the front page of our newspapers? What interests us as a species? We know climate change is real but why is it not being spoken about in the front pages? It is the job of artists, journalists and poets to speak about the cause. This sparked a very conscious realisation within me,” begins Aruna. Wanting to explore the growing disconnect with nature further, Aruna gathered together three likeminded performers – Aditya Garg, Asha Ponikiewska and Deepika Chauhan – and the group together filtered down the bigger environmental topic to one question – “How is an individual’s choice affecting the collective relationship with earth? Our process started with a lot of research,” she explains. The performers, we learn, share a keen and passionate interest in exploring the environment and worked together for about 7 months, talking to researchers, activists, rag pickers and others to understand the broader picture better. Aruna adds that since there are plenty of ways to find solutions to our problems, the journey cannot be that of a single person. “Therefore, we split the play into three different performances – Earth, Human and Plastics.” Forming a strange connection with the element of time – past, present and future – ‘Under Pressure’ becomes a performance that questions the way we live and our relationship with nature. “It was interesting to explore the intersection between all three – Earth and Humans; Humans and Plastics; Earth and Plastics. Are we experiencing a connection or is it a growing disconnect?” asks Aruna. The play’s first section is that of movement, poetry, fluidity and nostalgia while the second portion will question consumerism, vanity and pop culture. ‘Under Pressure’ also features poetry by Gulzar. “The last portion is about plastics. What happens when plastic enters the food chain? There’s enough evidence to prove we are breathing nano-plastics and consuming micro-plastics. What happens when the plastic human becomes a reality?” Aruna tells us that the performance does not aim to provide a solution but rather leave the audience with questions. “What could be our signs of hope? We need larger systemic changes to be able to feel environmental consciousness,” she finishes. ‘Under Pressure’ will be performed at Atta Galatta in Koramangala on February 2 at 3.30 pm and 7.30 pm. For tickets, visit bookmyshow.com and insider.in.

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Mirage 2000 fighter jet crashes near HAL airport in Bengaluru

Plane Crash

HAL sources said that a technical snag lead to the crash.

TNM Staff

Screenshot.

A fire, a plume of black smoke, and a helicopter hovering overhead. This was the scene after a Indian Air Force Mirage 2000 fighter jet crashed near the HAL airport in Bengaluru on Friday morning. According to HAL sources, there were two pilots inside the jet, and both of them ejected before the crash. Details are awaited on whether there were any casualties in the crash. Both pilots have been taken to Command Hospital, according to HAL sources. The plane crashed in the Yemalur area of Bengaluru around 10.30 am. According to the HAL police, the aircraft was on a test sortie when it crashed on Friday. Three helicopters and two fire engines came to the rescue within minutes of the crash. A jet crashed at HAL airport. Initial reports are that it's a IAF Mirage. HAL yet to confirm. Happened just few minutes back. pic.twitter.com/RddiZEZ4I0 — Nagarjun Dwarakanath (@nagarjund) February 1, 2019 pic.twitter.com/tjIwAOTkZG — Nagarjun Dwarakanath (@nagarjund) February 1, 2019 HAL sources said that a technical snag lead to the crash. Site of the accident: This is a developing story. More details will be added soon.

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Man mauled to death by tiger in K’taka’s Nagarahole forest, second death in a week

Tiger Attack

The incident occurred at Thimanna Hosahalli in the DB Kuppe Range, a dense forest area of the Nagarahole national park.

TNM Staff

Image for representation

One person was mauled to death in a tiger attack near Nagarahole national park on Thursday. This is the second such incident to take place this week and has spread panic among the communities living along the forest area.  The incident occurred at Thimanna Hosahalli in the DB Kuppe Range, a dense forest area of the national park. The victim was identified as Mara, a resident of the area who was grazing his sheep. KM Narayanaswamy, Conservator of Forests, confirmed that the victim's face was badly mauled by the tiger. "Tigers do not usually turn out to be man-eaters but according to the wounds on the man, it appears to be that of the tiger. The incident has occurred around half-a-kilometre inside the forest. We are yet to determine why this tiger is attacking people. It may be too old to hunt so it might be targeting humans as easy prey," Narayanaswamy told TNM.  The authorities have sought permission to shoot the tiger dead. "We had no choice but to ask permission to shoot the tiger," he adds.  The latest incident comes days after another tribal man - Chinnappa - was attacked by a tiger at Hullumutlu, around 3 km away from Thimanna Hosahalli. Forest officials had begun a combing operation in the dense forest as soon as the tiger attack was reported but the tiger had not appeared even on a camera trap until Thursday.  However, wildlife activists claimed that shooting the tiger should be the last resort. "The last resort should be shooting the tiger dead. We must try all possible ways to capture and rehabilitate the tiger. Our team is working with the forest officials and according to the information we have collected, the tiger is attacking humans since it is injured," Manjunath J, founder of the Wilderness Club told TNM.  The activist also added that the area is known for having a dense tiger population with around 100 tigers spread out across the habitat.

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BJP eyes 22 seats from Karnataka for upcoming Lok Sabha elections

Politics

The BJP had won 17 parliamentary seats from the southern state in the 2014 general election when the party stormed to power at the Centre.

IANS

An upbeat BJP is aiming to win 22 of the 28 Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka in the general elections, due in April-May, said party's state unit president B.S. Yeddyurappa on Thursday. "We want to win 22 Lok Sabha constituencies in the state and gift them to make Narendra Modi the country's Prime Minister again," said Yeddurappa at a party meeting here ahead of the general election. The BJP had won 17 parliamentary seats from the southern state in the 2014 general election, when the party stormed to power at the Centre with a majority (272 seats) for the first time after three decades. "Modi will visit Karnataka to address a party convention at Hubballi in the state's northwest region on February 10," Yeddyurappa told the party's state leaders and cadres to galvanise them for the electoral battle. Though Modi is also scheduled to visit the state again on February 19, the venue where he would address the party convention has not been finalised. "Party's national president Amit Shah is also visiting the state on February 14 and February 21, although the cities where he would address the party members are yet to be decided," said Yeddyurappa. The BJP is preparing for the possibility of facing a joint campaign by the JD(S) and Congress. It was earlier announced following the State Assembly elections in Karnataka that the two parties would face the Lok Sabha elections together in a seat-sharing arrangement. This is expected to affect the BJP's chances of securing seats in the state even further. 

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