Inter-State gang busted, huge cache of arms recovered

The gang was formed in Central Jail and specialised in ganja smuggling

The city police within a span of about 50 days arrested an eight-member gang, including four from Bihar, and recovered a huge cache of weapons from them, here on Tuesday. This was the second incident in the last two months, when the police arrested an inter-State gang possessing semi-automatic pistols.

The arrested were identified as Karanam Ravindra Babu of Padmapuram, Srikakulam; an ex-serviceman D. Raju; A. Manikanta; D. Appa Rao alias Babji, all natives of Rolugunta mandal in Visakhapatnam district; and Mukesh Kumar, Mohammed Sharuk, Ramnath Prasad and Bhola Sankar Gupta, all natives of Bihar.

The weapons seized included four country-made semi-automatic .32 pistols and 50 rounds of .32 calibre and 8 magazine clips.

The gang members were arrested by the City Task Force team lead by ACP I. Chittibabu.

In the earlier incident on March 9, the police arrested two members of an eight-member gang from Bihar and seized five semi-automatic .32 pistols, one local make tapancha, 80 rounds of .32 and 6 rounds of 9mm.

Unlike the gang that was arrested on March 9, who intended to loot finance companies such as Manappuram and Muthoot, this gang was involved in ganja smuggling.

According to Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP Law and Order) Naveen Gulati, D. Raju, the kingpin, is a noted ganja smuggler from Narsipatnam and Rolugunta area. He met Karanam Ravindra Bab - who after retiring from the army took to ganja smuggling in the Central Jail in October last year when both were serving sentences under the NDPS Act.

“They bonded well, and also met the other six accused in the Central Jail, who were also serving sentence under the NDPS Act for ganja smuggling. In the jail itself they formed a gang and decided to dominate the ganja smuggling in the Agency areas by procuring arms with the help of Mukesh Kumar, who had good knowledge of the illegal arms bazaar in Bihar,” said Mr. Naveen. After coming out on bail, Raju sent Mukesh and Ravindra to Bihar to procure arms and gave them about ₹4 lakh. Ravindra Babu accompanied Mukesh to a village in Arrah district of Bihar and procured four country-made butt-loaded semi-automatic pistols for ₹30,000 each, eight magazine clips and 50 rounds at ₹350 per round. “Mukesh was paid a commission of ₹40,000 for the deal,” said Mr. Chittibabu.

Gang war

Disclosing the intent for purchasing the weapons, the DCP said, “Raju had two reasons - one he wanted to eliminate the killers of Bolem Rajubabu alias Raju, who was killed in Rolugunta in a gang war in 2016, and secondly, he wanted to arm his gang to dominate the ganja smuggling in the Agency area.”

Police sources say Raju has a strong network of about 200 people spread across the Agency area of Visakhapatnam district and he had the intention to buy about 20 such pistols.

“The timely arrests prevented the establishment of an armed ganja gang, which would have led to gang wars for dominations of turfs. And it would have been difficult for the police to ascertain the real culprits, as all killings, especially through the gun is attributed to the Maoists in the Agency areas,” said the DCP.

Holiday crowd relishes Deodhar Trophy final

Successful conduct of matches comes in for appreciation

For the cricket-crazy fans of the Port City, who will be unfortunately missing the high-profile IPL action this year, the season-ending Prof. D.B. Deodhar Trophy limited-overs championship featuring some of the best contenders staking a claim for a slot in the Indian team could well be what the doctor would have prescribed for them. The action from Deodhar Trophy was a reminder to all those who also looked at this event as a huge platform to prepare themselves for the IPL too.

And, the fair sprinkling of holiday crowd on Ugadi should have gone home content on Wednesday after seeing the batting exploits of Dinesh Karthik, who is on a comeback trail, the classy bowling of pacer Dhawal Kulkarni and the belligerence of the likes of Manish Pandey, Shikhar Dhawan and Gurkeerat Mann on Wednesday.

The guiles of the young spinners from Tamil Nadu, including Rahil Shah, Sai Kishore, Washington Sundar and M. Ashwin, should also have been a lesson for those young cricketers in the stands in the art of getting wickets on placid tracks.

The whole conduct of the event was itself a gentle reminder of the organisational skills of the cricket administrators in this part of India here despite some 'dissenting voices' at being ignored in the scheme of things.

What could not have missed the cricket pundits notice were the efforts of the curator Naga Mallaiah and his support staff in producing beautiful wickets for all the four games - with good bounce.

The presence of MSK Prasad was good enough to see that everything went off well and the chief guest of the prize distribution, ACA president G. Ranga Raju, too had every reason to be smiling at the end of it all.

‘Bright future predicted for Vizag in new year’

VUDA Children’s Arena provides perfect setting for Ugadi celebrations

The renovated VUDA Children’s Arena (VUDA Children Theatre) provided the perfect setting for the Ugadi (Telugu New Year) celebrations, organised by the district administration, on Wednesday.

A tastefully decorated stage with green plants on either side, colourful banners and ‘panchanga patanam’ by Brahmasri Madugula Naga Phani Sarma and many of the guests and officials, including Minister for HRD Ganta Srinivasa Rao, Collector Pravin Kumar turning up in traditional attire gave an ethnic touch to the celebrations.

The programme commenced with a Kuchipudi dance performance by children. While reading out the almanac, Brahmasri Naga Phani Sarma said the planetary alignments augured well for both the Telugu States. Visakhapatnam would have a bright future.

He said bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh was pre-destined and no one could either claim credit or blame anyone else for it. On the positive side, both the States could grow further as separate entities. He predicted good crops and development of the State this year.

Felicitated
The HRD Minister hoped that the State would prosper on all fronts in the New Year. He felicitated senior journalist B. Prabhakara Sarma, professor of Andhra University D. Yohan Babu, musician Manda Sudharani, magician B.S. Reddy, R. Ravi Prakash, farmer from T. Arjunapuram of Raavikamatham mandal, horticulturist Allu Ramunaidu of Settipalem in Makavarapalem mandal, Rajana Syam Kumar of Vennelapalem village of Parawada mandal for his contribution to animal husbandry and Ayanampudi Venkatanarayana Raju of Gunupudi village of Nakkapalli mandal for his work in fisheries development.

A large number of schoolchildren participated in the celebrations. Girls presented a Kuchipudi dance. Traditional sweets like ‘boorlu’, ‘khaja’ and ‘pootharekulu’ were served to the guests and participants.

At Sarada Peetham
Ugadi was celebrated at Sri Sarada Peetham at Pendurty under the auspices ofSri Swaroopanandendra Swamy.

Vedic rituals were performed under the aegis of priests Krishna Sarma and Hanuman Sarma. Pandit Panthula Ramalinga Sarma read out the almanac.

Ugadi pachchadi and prasadam were distributed to devotees, who participated in the programme.

Anakapalle MP seeks funds for Central institutes

He expresses concern over delay in faculty appointment

Anakapalle MP Muttamsetti Srinivasa Rao has asked the Centre to ask Indian Institute of Management -Visakhapatnam and other premier institutes sanctioned for Andhra Pradesh to make the buildings and other infrastructure ready by 2019.

Debate in LS
Participating in a discussion in Lok Sabha on National Institute of Technology, Science Education and Research (NITSER) (second amendment) Bill, 2016, he said NIT at Tirupati had been allotted ₹40 crore out of ₹137.3 crore sanctioned for release over three years.

He said the institute had been started on a temporary campus at Sree Rama Engineering College and the detailed project report should be completed fast to allot more funds.

He also expressed concern over delay in faculty appointment.

Mr. Rao said even after nearly three years of bifurcation, there was no progress on setting up of tribal and Central universities in the State.