Mangaluru: 251 cases of excise law violation in Dakshina Kannada

MANGALURU: The police department has so far registered as many as 251 cases in the Dakshina Kannada district for excise law violation since the model code of conduct was implemented on March 27.
Of these the police have demarcated 22 cases as heinous crimes.
The excise department officials conducted 192 raids in the period based on credible information that liquor was being served without obtaining prior permission and a total of 140 people were arrested.
As many as 18 cases of violation of the model code of conduct have been registered in seven of the eight constituencies in Dakshina Kannada. Interestingly, not even a single case of violation has been recorded from Sullia.
Of these, the maximum number of cases, four each, are registered in Mangaluru City South (203), Bantwal (205) and Puttur (206), followed by Mangaluru City North, three, (202), and one each in Mangaluru (204), Belthangady (200) and Moodbidri (201).
Some of the prominent names that have featured as accused in the revised list of the model code of conduct violation are that of MLC Ganesh Karnik, MP Nalin Kumar Kateel, BJP leader Harikrishna Bantwal, officers of the SCDCC Bank at BC Road, and RSS leader Kalladka Prabhakar Bhat.
While Karnik, Kateel and Bantwal are booked for “personally blaming Congress candidate B Ramanath Rai in their speech”, Bhat is charged with making “religious and communal hatred and revenge provoking speech at Vishwa Hindu Parishat Bhajarangadal Sri Dharmasastha Shake, Kajepadavu, Bajpe”. An FIR has been lodged against the officers of the SCDCC bank after 1,222 sarees were seized from the bank.
The police have also arrested one Nihal Mohammed for possessing Rs 3 lakh without appropriate documents.