Gurugram, July 27 (IANS) A cyber crime team of the Gurugram Police have arrested three persons including a bank official for allegedly cheating people on the pretext of earning money daily, police said.

Police said on March 23 they received a complaint in which the complainant claimed that on May 11 last year, a girl Ishika Reddy contacted him on the Telegram app and introduced herself as an employee of Traveloka Advertising Agency, which provides voting services to hotels appointed in the Traveloka platform.

The girl told him about a job to earn daily and also sent him a code and link on Telegram and asked him to click on the link and deposit money. During this time she also added him to a Telegram group.

When the girl asked him to deposit the money, he deposited the money. After that, when he was asked to deposit more money, he deposited the money several times, but when he wanted to withdraw the money, he could not withdraw it.

However, he soon realised that he was being cheated and the complainant reported the matter to the police.

During the probe, police nabbed the culprits on Friday from Indore, Madhya Pradesh. They were identified as Jitender Patel, Ashish Jain and Utsav Chaturvedi.

Police found that the accused Ashish Jain runs a shop, along with his other partner Jitender Patel.

Jain also met Utsav, who was working as an Assistant Manager at ICICI Bank at that time. Ashish Jain with the help of Utsav opened Jitender Patel’s bank account in the name of his firm.

Thereafter, Jain and Utsav sold that bank account to another person for Rs 25,000. Some part of the amount defrauded in the above case was transferred to the bank account of Jitender Patel, police said.

“It was also found that the accused Utsav Chaturvedi was working as an Assistant Manager in ICICI Bank, Indore at that time and left the ICICI Bank job in December 2023. From December 2023 to June 2024, he worked in another bank in Indore but soon left it too,” Priyanshu Diwan, ACP (cybercrime) said.

Following their arrest, an official said, that a total of 17 bank employees have been arrested by Gurugram Police in different cyber fraud cases in the last four months.

–IANS

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Jammu, July 27 (IANS) Security forces launched a massive search operation on Saturday in J&K’s Reasi district after the movement of two suspected terrorists in the area was reported.

An official said that the search operation was launched in Badoa village of Pouni Tehsil in district Reasi.

“Locals have seen two suspects moving in the forest area along the village. Jammu & Kashmir Police and CRPF have launched the joint operation,” an official said.

In the last two months, scores of security personnel, terrorists and civilians have been killed during encounters with the terrorists in the Jammu division.

Reportedly, a group of hardcore 40-50 foreign terrorists are operating in the hilly, mountainous districts of the Jammu division.

They have carried out ambush attacks against the army and other security forces in Kathua, Doda, Rajouri, Poonch, Reasi, Udhampur and Ramban districts of the Jammu division.

The Army has deployed over 4,000 highly trained soldiers including elite Para Commandos and those trained in mountain warfare in all these districts to combat the terrorists.

–IANS

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Chandigarh, July 27 (IANS) Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Saturday said the Malwa Canal is being dug with an outlay of Rs 2,300 crore to cater to the irrigational needs of nearly two lakh acres of land in southern Punjab.

Addressing the gathering at Muktsar Sahib after inspecting the ongoing work of Malwa Canal, he said, “It is on record that none of the previous governments of the state had paid heed towards this necessity of the state.”

He said due to the “gross negligence” of the successive state governments, the groundwater was “over-exploited”, resulting in maximum blocks turning into dark zones.

CM Mann said the 150-km-long new canal will usher in a new era of unprecedented progress and prosperity in the state, especially in the Malwa region.

The Chief Minister said the government would spend around Rs 2,300 crore on this project that would cater to the irrigational needs of nearly two lakh acres of fertile land.

CM Mann said he had conceived the project much before assuming the charge of Chief Minister.

“In reality, this is my dream project which is aimed at giving a major impetus to the overall development and progress of the state in general and that of Malwa region in particular,” he said.

Taking a jibe over the previous governments, the Chief Minister said those who had always sought votes on the name of “panth” had never bothered to take such a step.

He alleged the Akali leaders were more “interested” in supplying water to their farms rather than executing projects that could have transformed the destiny of the common man.

He said due to such “anti-people” stances, the voters outrightly rejected these leaders and a whopping mandate was given to the incumbent government.

–IANS

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Jaipur, July 27 (IANS) Gold, copper, and lithium reserves found in Rajasthan are set to boost the revenue and employment opportunities in the state, Mines Secretary Anandhi said on Saturday.

“There is a clear mandate from the government that we have to boost revenues and generate employment from this segment, Now there are clear directions to double and triple the revenue in the next five years to use it in the development of the state. Our team is busy achieving these goals and is making this segment more active,” she said speaking exclusively to IANS.

“The department is witnessing hectic activity and our team has finished the auctions in seven months which were equal in number to the auctions conducted in the last seven years in the state,” she told IANS.

Anandhi said that not many people are aware that mining is the largest non tax revenue earning sector for the state government.

“Mining is the largest non tax revenue earning sector for the state govt. While it directly employs 3 to 5 lakh people, it employs 20-25 lakh people indirectly. So this number will definitely be going up in the next few years as there is a rising scope and significance in the sector.

“The minerals which are strategic and critical in importance and which were imported from other nations are now slowly being found in Rajasthan”, she added.

Accepting that the mines segment in Rajasthan is bustling with activity, she said that exploration has also started for coal bed methane and underground coal gasification which are significant sources of energy in countries like America, Canada and Australia.

She informed that Rajasthan is the richest state which has over 87 minerals and there is a major demand for certain minerals. The state government is taking inspiration from other states in using technology.

“There is a major demand for limestone, iron ore as well as gold. Now, as we are catering to the demand, there is a good response in auctions,” she added.

Anandhi explained that “We are taking inspiration from other states like MP, UP, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka and others. These are states which are experimenting with technology. For example Gujarat experimented with geofencing with good results, she stated.

Speaking about lithium, she said that there are some minerals like lithium which are strategic minerals. A good reserve has been found in Rajasthan. However, as strategic minerals are looked after by the Central government I am unable to speak much on it, she added.

After Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Jharkhand, Rajasthan has become the fourth state to yield gold.

An initial assessment of 113.52 million tons of gold ore has been done in an area of 940.26 hectares in Banswara.

The amount of gold is estimated to be 222.39 tons.

Gold mining in Banswara district is likely to generate opportunities for direct and indirect employment along with new investments in several industries including electronics, petroleum, petrochemicals, batteries, air bags etc, said Anandhi.

Besides Banswara, gold deposits have been located in Salumbar in Rajasthan, Anandhi added.

–IANS

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Kochi, July 27 (IANS) In a significant ruling, the Kerala High Court has ordered 28 lawyers of the Kottayam Bar Association to offer legal aid services for six months to get relief from contempt of court proceedings, stating that mere apologies will not suffice.

The lawyers came under the high court scanner for raising ‘abusive’ slogans against a Chief Judicial Magistrate inside the court in Kottayam last year.

When the high court started proceedings the erring lawyers, 28 of them offered to apologise unconditionally.

“This court is of the view that the respondents ought not to be allowed to get away by merely offering ‘sorry’ by way of an apology as the easiest way,” the court noted, as it pointed out that the 28 lawyers should provide free legal services to the poor and needy as a remedial measure.

The lawyers said they would do so provided it did not affect their right to practice law.

“Given the peculiar facts of this case, we deem it appropriate to accept the unconditional apologies tendered by respondents 2 to 29 and purge the contempt committed by them based on the undertaking that they shall offer their services to the District Legal Services Authority, Kottayam, for free to the poor and needy for a period of six months,” the court said, adding that these lawyers can go forward with their regular law career.

The incident occurred in November last year when a group of advocates entered the courtroom of Kottayam CJM Viveeja Sethumohan and raised slogans against her over her alleged conduct with the lawyers and to protest against the registration of a forgery case against one of them.

After receiving a report on the incident, the Kerala High Court issued contempt notices to the erring lawyers.

–IANS

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