Udupi: In a tragic road accident reported from Udupi from NH 66 near Ambagilu in Udupi, a Mahendra Bolero vehicle rammed into a signboard killing two people including the driver on the spot. Reports added that the two were on their way to APMC Market to purchase vegetables.

The deceased have been identified as driver Dinesh (37) and his neighbor Manjunath (26). Both are reportedly residents of Moorukai in Kundapur.

According to the reports, Dinesh used to purchase vegetables at the APMC Market in Adiudupi and then sell it on his vehicle. Manjunath who worked with Dinesh used to travel on his vehicle.

On Thursday morning, Dinesh reportedly lost control over the vehicle and rammed the vehicle into a signboard beside the road. Both Dinesh and Manjunath sustained critical injuries. Dinesh died on the spot while Manjunath succumbed to the injuries at the District hospital here, police said.

Dinesh was married and had two kids, while Manjunath was unmarried. A case in this regard has been registered at Udupi Traffic Police Station.

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Raipur (PTI): The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) has attached properties of Rs 4 crore belonging to suspended IAS officer Sameer Vishnoi, an accused in a coal levy scam, for allegedly amassing assets beyond his known sources of income, officials said.

The EOW had registered a disproportionate assets case against Vishnoi in July 2024, an official release said on Saturday.

During the investigation, the agency identified nine immovable properties, valued at around Rs 4 crore, allegedly acquired through illicit means in the names of Vishnoi’s family members and associated firms, it said.

“An application seeking attachment of these properties was filed before the Special Court under the Prevention of Corruption Act in Raipur. Following a hearing on April 17, the court ordered attachment of all such properties,” the statement said.

Accordingly, the Anti-Corruption Bureau/Economic Offences Wing attached the properties. The attached properties cannot be sold or transferred, it said.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had earlier provisionally attached five immovable properties linked to Vishnoi in connection with the coal levy scam, it added.

Proceedings are also underway in cases involving other public servants, including action taken in September last year against properties linked to Saumya Chaurasia, who was deputy secretary in the chief minister’s office during the Congress government, the statement said.

Vishnoi, a 2009-batch Indian Administrative Service officer, was first arrested in 2022 by the ED in connection with the alleged coal levy scam. He was among several accused who were granted bail last year by the Supreme Court.

The case refers to an alleged Rs 540 crore racket between July 2020 and June 2022, when an illegal levy of Rs 25 per tonne was being extorted by a cartel involving senior bureaucrats, businessmen, politicians and middlemen for every tonne of coal transported in the state.