Karnataka: Debt-ridden techie arrested for bank heist
Bengaluru, Jan 22: Desperate to come out of a debt trap of around Rs 35 lakh due to online trading, a 28-year-old techie allegedly robbed a bank of Rs 85.38 lakh at knife-point but was eventually caught, police said on Saturday.
According to police, Dhiraj S, a mechanical engineer from Basaveshwar Nagar in the city, had allegedly stormed into the bank just when the staff were shuttering the SBI branch at BTM Layout under the jurisdiction of Madivala police station on January 14 evening.
With his face masked, Dhiraj held a bank staffer by brandishing a knife at him asking other employees to open the premises. The shaken officials followed his instructions, police added.
The accused then took them to the strong room of the bank where he got Rs 3.77 lakh cash and 1.8 kg gold jewels loaded in his bag, the police said, adding that he escaped with the booty.
Following a complaint, the police formed various teams and worked on various intelligence inputs. Police was finally able to crack the case and caught him on January 18 evening.
Upon interrogation, Dhiraj revealed that he worked in a software company with a monthly salary of Rs 30,000. He had lost a huge sum in an online trading platform called Olymp Trade. To overcome the loss, he had borrowed about Rs 35 lakh, police said.
As the money lenders started pestering him, he planned the bank heist. He learnt the basics of bank robbery using some YouTube channels.
Dhiraj allegedly surveyed many banks not only in Bengaluru but also in Anantapur in Andhra Pradesh and finally zeroed in on the SBI branch at BTM Layout.
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WHO declares global health emergency over Ebola outbreak in Congo, Uganda
Abuja (Nigeria) (AP): WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus declared the Ebola disease outbreak in Congo and Uganda a public health emergency of international concern on Sunday after more than 300 suspected cases and 88 deaths.
In a post on X, the World Health Organisation said the outbreak does not meet the criteria of a pandemic emergency like the COVID-19 pandemic, and advised against the closure of international borders.
Ebola is highly contagious and can be contracted via bodily fluids such as vomit, blood or semen. The disease it causes is rare, but severe and often fatal.
Health authorities have confirmed the current outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo virus, a rare variant of the Ebola disease that has no approved therapeutics or vaccines. Although more than 20 Ebola outbreaks have taken place in Congo and Uganda, this is only the third time the Bundibugyo virus has been reported.
Congo accounts for all except two of the cases, both of which were reported in neighbouring Uganda, the WHO said.
Officials first reported the spread of the disease in Congo's eastern province of Ituri, close to Uganda and South Sudan, on Friday. On Saturday, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention reported 336 suspected cases and 87 deaths.
“There are significant uncertainties regarding the true number of infected persons and geographic spread associated with this event at the present time. In addition, there is limited understanding of the epidemiological links with known or suspected cases,” Tedros said.
Uganda on Saturday confirmed one case it said was imported from Congo, and said the patient died at a hospital in Uganda's capital, Kampala, and the WHO said that a second case has been reported in Kampala. The two cases had no apparent links to each other, and both patients had travelled from Congo, it added.
The Bundibugyo virus was first detected in Uganda's Bundibugyo district during a 2007-2008 outbreak that infected 149 people and killed 37 people. The second time was in 2012 in an outbreak in Isiro, Congo, where 57 cases and 29 deaths were reported.
WHO's emergency declaration is meant to spur donor agencies and countries into action. However, the global response to previous declarations has been mixed.
In 2024, when the WHO declared mpox outbreaks in Congo and elsewhere in Africa a global emergency, experts at the time said it did little to get supplies like diagnostic tests, medicines and vaccines to affected countries quickly.
