BSF personnel injured in IED blast in Chhattisgarh ahead of polls
Raipur, Nov 11 : A BSF personnel was injured when Naxals detonated an improvised explosive device (IED) in Chhattisgarh's Kanker district on Sunday, a day ahead of the first phase of Assembly elections in the state, police said.
A team of the Border Security Force (BSF) was out on an area domination operation when Naxals blew up the IED in a forest between Kattakal and Gome villages, located around 200 km from here, Kanker Superintendent of Police K L Dhruv told PTI over phone.
"BSF's sub-inspector Mahendra Singh sustained injuries in the explosion," he said.
Reinforcement was rushed to the spot and the injured personnel was being evacuated from the forest, he said, adding that a search operation was underway in the region.
This is the fourth IED blast triggered by Naxals in Chhattisgarh in the last 15 days.
Naxalites have called for a boycott of polls in the state and have executed half-a-dozen attacks in the last 15 days, three of them major ones which left 13 people dead, including a cameraperson of national broadcaster Doordarshan who was covering the election campaign.
Two BSF jawans were injured in an IED blast on November 2 in the same area in Kanker district.
On October 27, four Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel were killed and two others injured after Maoists blew up their bullet proof bunker vehicle with an IED in Bijapur district.
On November 8, four civilians and a CISF jawan were killed when Naxals detonated an IED in Dantewada district.
Polling parties are being sent to their destination amid tight security, election authorities said.
The 90-member Chhattisgarh Assembly will go to polls in two phases -- on November 12 and 20 -- and the results will be announced on December 11.
The first phase of polls on Monday will cover 18 constituencies of eight Naxal-affected districts that include Bastar, Kanker, Sukma, Bijapur, Dantewada, Narayanpur, Kondagaon and Rajnandgaon.
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Three company directors held in Rs 100-crore investment fraud in Kochi
Kochi (Kerala) (PTI): Police on Sunday arrested three directors of a firm accused of cheating hundreds of investors of over Rs 100 crore through a fake investment scheme linked to agricultural tourism here, officials said.
The accused were identified as Muraleedharan, Ashik Murali and Akhil Murali, all natives of Thrissur.
The arrests were made by the Kalamassery police in connection with a fraud involving ATCOS (Agri Tourism Cooperative Society), a firm headquartered at Pathadipalam here.
Police said the company had promised high returns by collecting investments from the public in the agricultural tourism sector, but allegedly cheated hundreds of people and fled with the money.
ATCOS was registered under the Multi-State Cooperative Societies Act and operated 13 branches across various districts in Kerala, besides a branch in Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu, officials said.
When investors failed to receive their promised returns or the invested amount, complaints were filed with the police.
Officials said around 54 cases have been registered against the firm in 32 police stations across the state, including 29 cases at the Kalamassery police station alone.
Following instructions from Kochi City Police Commissioner K S Mahesh Kumar, a special investigation team was formed under the supervision of Deputy Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) Shehensha and Thrikkakara ACP Manoj Kumar.
The team traced the accused to an apartment in Amala Nagar in Thrissur, where they had been hiding after secretly renting the flat, officials said.
The bank accounts of the accused have been frozen, and steps have been initiated to trace their assets, officials said.
Police also conducted a raid at the company’s office at Pathadipalam and seized several documents related to the case.
The accused were produced before the Judicial First Class Magistrate Court in Kalamassery, which remanded them to judicial custody and sent them to Kakkanad jail.
Police said they would seek the custody of the accused for further interrogation as the investigation continues.
