Mangaluru: Puneet Shetty (35), a resident of Shakti Nagar, has been apprehended by the Urva police on charges of intimidating a police inspector and an Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) in relation to a car and bike collision incident.

The accused was presented before the court and subsequently remanded in judicial custody.

The altercation arose between a car driver and a motorbike rider over a collision involving the two vehicles. It is alleged that the bike rider, in a fit of anger, struck the car. A case was registered at the Urva Police Station in connection with this incident.

Puneet Shetty, concerning this matter, contacted the ASI of Urwa police station, urging the arrest of the bike rider in question. During the exchange, Puneet Shetty allegedly disregarded the ASI's explanations and reportedly threatened to escalate the matter to the commissioner and have the ASI transferred. The purported conversation spanned approximately 8 minutes.

A case has been filed at Urva Police Station against the accused, charging him with obstructing police duties and making threats over the phone.

Accused Puneet Shetty has faced multiple cases registered across various police stations, including Barke, Pandeshwar, Port, Urva, and Kankanadi Nagar. A criminal record has also been established due to his history of unlawful activities.

Given Puneet Shetty's criminal background, coupled with his possession of a licensed pistol, Inspector Bharti of Urva station has submitted a report to higher authorities requesting the annulment of the accused's pistol license.

Reports suggest that Puneet Shetty, once associated with the labor unit of the Congress, was suspended on account of violating party discipline.

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Wayanad (Kerala) (PTI): Top Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra was on Saturday comfortably cruising towards her maiden electoral win from Wayanad in Kerala, as she surpassed the lead achieved by her brother Rahul Gandhi in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls earlier this year with party leaders and ally IUML predicting a big win for her amid the counting trends.

The Congress-led UDF's candidate from this hill constituency, Priyanka, extended her lead by over 3.8 lakh votes after five hours of counting of the ballots in the Wayanad Lok Sabha bypoll, according to the Election Commission.

Reacting to the lead achieved by Priyanka, Congress' ally Indian Union Muslim League and Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy said she would get more votes than her brother Rahul Gandhi in the Lok Sabha polls in April this year and will win by a record margin.

"An amazing first trend on counting day is the massive early lead for our leader @priyankagandhi ji in Wayanad, Kerala, by-election. People of Wayanad are surely going to record in victory margins today and Priyanka ji will make Parliamentary debut with a grand win," Reddy said in a post on 'X'.

IUML supremo Panakkad Sadiq Ali Shihab Thangal said that going by the trends, Priyanka will get more votes than what Rahul got and the majority she achieves would also be higher than that of her brother.

A similar view was expressed by IUML's national general secretary P K Kunhalikutty.

On the other hand, BJP leader Anil K Antony, earlier in the day, had claimed that though Priyanka has achieved a good lead, her victory margin would be less than what Rahul got in the 2024 and 2019 LS polls in the hill constituency.

According to the latest EC figures, Priyanka had a lead of 3,82,975 with 5,78,526 votes. LDF's Sathyan Mokeri was behind her with 1,95,551 votes and NDA's Navya Haridas was in the third spot with 1,04,947 votes.

Rahul had got 6,47,445 votes and won by a margin of 3,64,422 votes against his nearest rival, CPI's Annie Raja, in the LS polls this year. In 2019, he had got 7,06,367 votes and had won by a margin of 4,31,770 votes.

After winning from Rae Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh as well, in this year's polls, Rahul vacated the Wayanad seat, and the party nominated his sister Priyanka, paving the way for her electoral debut.

The bypoll turnout in Wayanad, which has over 14 lakh registered voters, was around 65 per cent, a decline from the close to 74 per cent in the LS polls held in April this year and much lower than the over 80 per cent turnout in the hill constituency in the 2019 general elections.

The counting of votes commenced at 8 am with postal ballots being taken up first.

The strong rooms, where the EVMs were kept, were opened more than an hour before counting began.

The bypoll for the Wayanad Lok Sabha seat was held on November 13.

Of the 16 candidates who contested, the main contenders are Priyanka, ruling CPI(M)-led LDF's Sathyan Mokeri, a political veteran, and BJP-headed NDA's Navya Haridas.