Police search villas in northwest Turkey for ''Khashoggi remains''
Ankara, Nov 26: Turkish police on Monday were searching two villas in a northwestern province for the remains of murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, state media reported.
The officers began searching a two-storey building in Termal district in Yalova with the help of sniffer dogs and drones on Monday morning, and the investigation later widened to the adjacent villa, state news agency Anadolu said.
Crime scene investigators were inspecting a well in the garden of the first villa in Samanli village, Anadolu reported, while images showed fire trucks at the scene.
Khashoggi, a contributor for The Washington Post, was killed by Saudi officials on October 2 during a visit to the kingdom's consulate in Istanbul for paperwork before his wedding.
His body has not been found and his death has triggered widespread international criticism of Riyadh. There have been reports in pro-government media that his remains could have been dissolved in acid.
The searches on Monday comes over two weeks after Sabah daily had reported that samples taken from the consulate drains showed traces of acid.
Turkish authorities say a team of 15 Saudi officials were sent especially to kill Khashoggi, 59, but Riyadh insists the team conducted a rogue operation.
Anadolu said some of the suspects had spoken to an unnamed Saudi citizen on the phone.
After learning this, authorities initiated the search of the Saudi businessman's villas, Anadolu added, but he was not in Turkey during the phone calls with the suspects.
Yalova governor Muammer Erol told Anadolu in a written statement that the Istanbul public prosecutor in charge of the murder investigation would provide the "necessary information" about the results of the search later.
There have been previous inspections of the Saudi consulate and the consul-general's residence in Istanbul as well as a forest in the city.
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21 hours raid fetch nothing for ED, claims Karnataka Cong MLA’s son
Bengaluru (PTI): Karnataka Congress MLA N A Haris' son Mohammed Haris Nalapad on Tuesday claimed that the 21 hours of search by the ED in his house and other locations did not fetch anything.
The Enforcement Directorate on Monday raided the premises of the two sons of Haris (Mohammed Haris Nalapad and Omar Farook Nalapad), Aqeeb Khan, grandson of ex-Union cabinet minister K Rahman Khan and an alleged crypto hacker named Srikrishna Ramesh alias Sriki in a crypto currency-linked money laundering case.
More than a dozen premises in the city have been covered as part of the action executed under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
"My grandfather is 89-year-old. There is not a single bad mark. My father (N A Haris) is a four-time MLA. There is not a single accusation against him. Their only intention was to target myself and my brother. As simple as that," Mohammed Nalapad, who is a former Karnataka Youth Congress president, told reporters.
According to him, the ED officials carried out raids for 21 hours.
"After 21 hours of search, they took away only two mobile phones from our house. They did not get a single paisa. The ED will testify it," the Congress leader said.
Exuding faith in the law, he said he is ready to fight the case in court.
"Me and my father have opted for politics and we are in public life. You can call me whatever you want but I have not done anything wrong," Mohammed Nalapad said.
Regarding his relationship with Sriki, he said he knew him but had no clue what he was doing.
"I have never said that either me or my brother do not know Sriki. But how will I know what he does in his house? Can his crimes be linked to us," he asked.
The money laundering case stems from some Karnataka Police FIRs and chargesheets filed in a 2017 case of hacking of national and international websites, stealing of bitcoins and sale of these 'stolen' virtual digital assets (VDA) through crypto platforms by the alleged hacker Sriki and his associates.
The Nalapad brothers and Aqeeb Khan are alleged to be the beneficiaries of the proceeds of crime generated through this alleged crypto-linked crime, the ED said.
