Two Mangaluru residents among nine arrested in fake passport racket in Bengaluru
Five of nine arrested accused are Sri Lankan citizens
Bengaluru: City police on Wednesday arrested nine people on charges of forging Indian passports using fake credentials. Those among the arrested include five Sri Lankan citizens and two people from Bengaluru. The other two accused reportedly hail from Mangaluru.
The accused have been identified as Sadiq Pasha, 33, and his associates Anees Sait, Nawal, and Hydar.
The five Sri Lankan citizens arrested during the operation are said to have procured fake Indian passports from Pasha and his gang.
City Police Commissioner C.H. Pratap Reddy said that the accused have similar cases against them in six police stations in and around the city and were arrested earlier. However, after coming out on bail, the accused continued to create fake credentials for their clients to apply and get passports. The fake credentials include voter ID, Aadhaar, and school leaving certificates in the name of their clients to be used as documents to be submitted to claim domicile status for a passport.
Using the modus operandi, the accused helped 50 people get a passport. The beneficiaries include foreign nationals and habitual offenders. Citing an example, a senior police officer said that one of the beneficiaries is a habitual thief having as many as 36 house break-in cases while his brother has 15 criminal cases pending against him.
The scam was unearthed on October 19 when alert passport verification duty staff based on a complaint cross-checked their credentials and reported the matter. Following this, a special team was formed to arrest the gang.
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South African police arrest suspect in mass shooting that killed 12, including 3 children
Johannesburg (AP): A 32-year-old suspect has been arrested in connection with a mass shooting which claimed the lives of 12 people including three children at an unlicensed pub earlier this month, South African police said on Monday.
The man is suspected of being one of the three people who opened fire on patrons in a pub at Saulsville township, west of South Africa's capital Pretoria, killing 12 people including three children aged 3, 12 and 16.
At least 13 people were also injured during the attack, whose motive remains unknown.
According to the police, the suspect was arrested on Sunday while traveling to Botlokwa in Limpopo province, more than 340 km from where the mass shooting took place on Dec 6.
An unlicensed firearm believed to have been used during the attack was recovered from the suspect's vehicle.
“The 32-year-old suspect was intercepted by Limpopo Tracking Team on the R101 Road in Westenburg precinct. During the arrest, the team recovered an unlicensed firearm, a hand gun, believed to have been used in the commission of the multiple murders. The firearm will be taken to the Forensic Science Laboratory for ballistic analysis,” police said in statement.
The suspect was arrested on the same day that another mass shooting at a pub took place in the Bekkersdal township, west of Johannesburg, in which nine people were killed and 10 wounded when unknown gunmen opened fire on patrons.
Police have since launched a search for the suspects.
South Africa has one of the highest homicide rates in the world and recorded more than 26,000 homicides in 2024 — an average of more than 70 a day. Firearms are by far the leading cause of death in homicides.
The country of 62 million people has relatively strict gun ownership laws, but many killings are committed with illegal guns, according to authorities.
According to police, mass shootings at unlicensed bars are becoming a serious problem. Police shut down more than 11,000 illegal taverns between April and September this year and arrested more than 18,000 people for involvement in illegal liquor sales.
