Mangaluru, Feb 6: An appeal was made on Sunday to not politicise the 'hijab' (scarf) issue in pre-university colleges in Karnataka.

In a statement here, the president of the Muslim Central Committee and former MLC Haji K S Masood criticised the MLAs in the twin districts of Dakshina Kannada and Udupi for trying to derive political gains from the row.

He said the principal of a college does not have the right to disallow students into class for wearing hijab.

The principal should prove under whose orders he had told the students to not wear hijab.

The committee has written to the Karnataka Chief Minister Bommai, State Ministers and the Education Department seeking permission for girl students to wear hijab. An issue involving students should not be communalised, he said.

He also criticised Dakshina Kannada district-in-charge Minister V Sunil Kumar for his remarks on the issue.

The students have approached the court seeking safeguarding the rights guaranteed in the Constitution, Masood said in the statement.

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Baghpat (PTI): An interstate cyber-fraud racket involved in duping people on the pretext of providing bank jobs was busted by police in this Uttar Pradesh district on Sunday with the arrest of seven people, including two women, officials said.

Police said the accused were running a fake call centre and luring job seekers from several states by issuing forged appointment letters and fabricated agreements in the name of bank recruitment, collecting large sums of money in return.

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Twelve mobile phones, two laptops, two SIM cards on fake names, several forged appointment letters and agreements, 15 bank passbooks, two chequebooks, UPI QR codes, ATM cards and 11 other cards were seized from the possession of the accused, police said, adding that the data of around 6,450 people from different states was found stored in the laptops.

According to the officials, the gang misused information obtained from online platforms, such as OLX and job-related websites, to target unsuspecting victims.

The racket was uncovered following complaints received on the Union home ministry's "Pratibimb" portal and subsequent technical surveillance.

Investigations revealed at least 20 complaints from various states, including Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Assam and Meghalaya.

The arrested accused were identified as Mohit Kumar, Puneet Kumar, Vardaan, Anuj Kumar and Akshay, besides the two women.

They were arrested at around 11:30 am from under the Eastern Peripheral Expressway in the Kotwali Baghpat area.

A case has been registered at the cyber crime police station under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and section 66D of the Information Technology Act, police said.