Ravi Shastri visits Karvalu Vishnumurthy temple in Karkala
Udupi (Karnataka), Mar 18 (PTI): Former Indian cricketer and coach Ravi Shastri on Tuesday visited the Erlapadi Karvalu Vishnumurthy temple in Karkala taluk, Udupi district with his family.
During the visit, rituals including Panchamrita Abhisheka, Kalapokta Puja, and Nagatambila Seva were performed for the temple’s presiding deity, the original Naga deity, followed by a grand Mahapooja to Lord Vishnumurthy.
Between 2007 and 2025, Shastri visited the Karvalu Temple 13 times, offering special prayers to the Naga deity. Every time, he was escorted by his distant cousin and a former journalist, the late Manohar Prasad, but Prasad was no more, and Shastri remembered his commitment to the growth of the temple.
Shastri’s ancestors hail from Erlapadi Karvalu of Karkala taluk in Udupi district.
His grandfather, M V Shastri, was a noted doctor in Mangaluru during the 1950s, while his father, Jayadratha Shastri, pursued his education in Madras before becoming a doctor and settling in Mumbai. Though there are not many from Shastri's clan living in Karvalu, the temple devotees, elders and leaders still remember the family, said an elder of the village.
Born and raised in Mumbai, Shastri completed his education there before joining the Indian cricket team. Since the birth of his daughter, Alika, he has made it a tradition to visit the temple annually and offer prayers.
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Sex racket busted in Navi Mumbai; two girls rescued, one man arrested
Thane (PTI): Two minor girls were rescued after a prostitution racket was busted in Navi Mumbai, a police official said on Monday.
On a tip off about one Harish running a flesh trade racket, the Navi Mumbai Crime Branch started a probe on February 20, the official said.
"A decoy customer was sent to verify the information, following which a trap was laid in front of a hotel in Sector 11. The Anti Human Trafficking Cell nabbed Harish Vikas Chhari, a resident of Koparkhairane, while his associate Raj Singh is on the run. Two minor girls were rescued," the CBD Belapur police station official said.
A case has been registered under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, the official added.
