Man arrested for theft at Kannada actor's house in Bengaluru
Bengaluru (PTI) A man has been arrested in connection with a theft at the residence of a Kannada serial actor, and stolen articles, including gold and silver ornaments worth Rs 65.28 lakh have been seized, police said on Tuesday.
The incident occurred at a house in the J P Nagar area of the city, they said.
With his arrest, the police have detected seven similar theft cases allegedly committed by the accused.
According to police, in her complaint, the woman said she is a make-up artist by profession and her husband is a serial actor. On March 11, her husband left for a shooting, while she went to her mother-in-law's house in Hoskote to attend a festival after locking the house.
Expecting her husband to return home, she kept the house key in a shoe rack box. However, instead of returning home, her husband also went directly to Hoskote the same night. Later, on March 13, he travelled from Hoskote to Chennai along with relatives.
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Subsequently, her husband informed one of his friends over the phone to collect the house key kept in the shoe rack box. Accordingly, the friend collected the key the same night, the complaint said.
On the evening of March 17, when the woman returned home, the husband's friend sent the house key through an e-commerce delivery service. After receiving the key and opening the door, she found household articles scattered.
On checking the cupboard in the room, she noticed that a gold pendant chain, four rings and a pair of earrings were missing, police said.
Based on the complaint, a theft case was registered at the J P Nagar police station.
While continuing the investigation, the police conducted inquiries from various angles and, based on credible information received from informants, apprehended a person along with a two-wheeler near a tea shop at Nagawara Circle on December 5, a senior police officer said.
During interrogation, the accused allegedly confessed to committing the theft in this case and also admitted to having committed similar gold thefts in various districts of the state, he said.
"The accused revealed that the gold ornaments stolen in this case and in other districts were kept at his residence in Sarai Palya and at a jewellery workshop in Channarayapatna," the officer said.
With his arrest, 478 grams of gold bars and ornaments, 1.55 kg of silver bars, Rs 4.60 lakh in cash and a two-wheeler allegedly used to commit the offence, with the total value estimated at Rs 65.28 lakh was seized, police said.
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AI-powered robotic canal cleaning system commissioned in Thiruvananthapuram
Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala) (PTI): In a major step to phase out manual scavenging and ensure the safety of sanitation workers, the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation commissioned G-Spider, an AI-powered robotic canal-cleaning system, at the Amayizhanchan canal near the railway station premises at Thampanoor here, officials said on Thursday.
The system was launched by Minister for Local Self-Governments MB Rajesh at a function presided over by Thiruvananthapuram Corporation Mayor VV Rajesh on Wednesday.
The AI-powered canal cleaning project is a joint initiative of the city corporation and Technopark-based Genrobotic Innovations, which developed Bandicoot, a robotic scavenger.
As per the agreement, Genrobotics will bear the full cost of deploying the robotic system, while the corporation will supervise its operation and maintenance.
Speaking at the event, the minister said Genrobotics has set an example of how innovative ideas can be transformed into impactful entrepreneurship.
He said that of the seven compressed biogas (CBG) plants to be commissioned in the state for solid waste management, one will be set up in the state capital.
Rajesh said Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan will inaugurate the Rs 100-crore CBG plant at Brahmapuram in Kochi on February 28, adding that 90 per cent of the nine lakh metric tonne of accumulated waste at the site has already been removed.
He further said work on the Palakkad plant will be completed in February, while construction of another plant in Thrissur is progressing, and a plant at Changanassery is in the pipeline.
The minister added that the construction of four sanitary plants will be inaugurated next week.
In his address, the mayor reiterated the corporation’s commitment to leveraging cutting-edge technologies for waste management and lauded the Genrobotics team, stating that the civic body would explore all possible ways to utilise the company’s technology.
Repeated manual cleaning efforts in the area had led to serious safety incidents, including the death of sanitation worker Joy in 2024.
In this backdrop, the corporation initiated the deployment of robotic cleaning technology in strict compliance with the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, with the aim of eliminating human entry into hazardous canal-cleaning operations, officials said.
Corporation Deputy Mayor Asha Nath GS, Divisional Railway Manager Divyakant Chandrakar, and Genrobotic Innovations CEO and co-founder Vimal Govind MK were present on the occasion.
G-Spider is designed to operate in complex, high-risk canal environments without requiring human entry.
Built on a cable-driven parallel robotics architecture integrated with AI-enabled vision and sensor systems, the robotic platform enables precise detection, assessment and removal of accumulated waste.
The system uses machine vision and intelligent sensors to autonomously identify and assess waste in real time, dynamically adapting to varying waste types, water flow conditions and structural constraints within canals, officials said.
Guided by AI-driven vision algorithms, the robotic mechanism performs precise waste extraction through a five-degrees-of-freedom configuration, enabling accurate positioning, stable gripping, and reliable debris removal.
The extracted waste is automatically transferred to designated collection vehicles, enabling a fully hands-free, end-to-end canal cleaning process from detection to disposal, they added.
