Balasore: At least 30 people were injured, seven of them seriously when a tourist bus from West Bengal on its way to Puri skidded off the road and turned turtle on NH 16 near Talanagar at Soro in Balasore district on Wednesday, police said. The bus had about 60 tourists on board and was on its way to Puri from North 24 Praganas district in West Bengal when the accident occurred in the wee hours, the police said. The injured were admitted to Soro government hospital and the critically injured among them were shifted to Balasore district headquarters hospital where their condition was stated to be out of danger, the police said Fire brigade and five ambulances were pressed into service to rescue the injured at the accident site. This was the second bus mishap involving tourists from Bengal in Odisha in less than three months. In May a bus from Howrah district had overturned at Kalinga Ghat on way to Vizag killing six persons. —PTI

At least 30 people were injured, seven of them seriously when a tourist bus from West Bengal on its way to Puri skidded off the road and turned turtle on NH 16 near Talanagar at Soro in Balasore district on Wednesday, police said

30 Bengal tourists injured in road mishap in Balasore

Odisha

Bhubaneswar:&nbsp;The Mumbai Police have taken three fraudsters who were recently arrested by the economic offence wing (EOW) of Odisha crime branch on transit remand, in connection with an illegal loan app scam case, officials said on Sunday.The accused have been identified as Nitin Mallik of Delhi, Rakshith, and Sushanth of Karnataka.The officials of VP Road police station in Mumbai have taken Nitin on remand while the SDJM Court here on Saturday allowed the West Region Cyber Police Station, BKC Bandra, to take Rakshith and Sushanth on remand, an EOW official said.On July 13, the EOW of Odisha police had arrested Mallik from Hari Nagar police station area of New Delhi while Rakshith and Sushanth were held from Karnataka on June 10.The accused were the directors of different illegal shell companies. The shell companies were used to transfer money from the bank accounts attached with the fake loan apps to the accounts of Chinese nationals through different channels, an official said.The official also said the shell companies of Rakshith and Sushanth were used to make threatening and humiliating calls and send obscene messages to victim persons who had availed loans through illegal loan apps and their contacts through a call centre from Bangalore.Similarly, Mallik with the connivance of 'Chinese masterminds' used to purchase and run virtual phone numbers of different service providers to be used for running and facilitating the lending and recovery through different loan apps.Nitin Mallik was in direct and regular touch with at least three Chinese nationals and used to get a huge salary for this job, the EOW officials claimed.—IANS

The Mumbai Police have taken three fraudsters who were recently arrested by the economic offence wing (EOW) of Odisha crime branch on transit remand, in connection with an illegal loan app scam case, officials said on Sunday.

 Mumbai police take three on remand in loan app scam case

Bhubaneswar:&nbsp;Odisha's COVID-19 tally rose to 13,18,875 on Sunday as 730 more people, including 130 children, tested positive for the infection, while two fatalities pushed the toll to 9,148, a health bulletin said. The state had logged 836 infections on Saturday. Sundargarh district reported the highest number of fresh infections at 157, followed by 96 in Khurda district. The state now has 5,851 active COVID-19 cases, of which 1,395 are in Sundargarh. As many as 882 more people were cured of the disease in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of recoveries to 13,03,823. Fifty-three other patients have died due to comorbidities thus far. The daily positivity rate was at 3.69 per cent as 19,823 samples were tested for the infection in the last 24 hours.—PTI

Odisha's COVID-19 tally rose to 13,18,875 on Sunday as 730 more people, including 130 children, tested positive for the infection, while two fatalities pushed the toll to 9,148, a health bulletin said

Odisha logs 730 new COVID-19 cases, two fresh fatalities

Bhubaneswar:&nbsp;The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested two more persons in connection with the Rs 25 lakh Paradip Port Trust (PPT) bribery case, sources said on Saturday.The CBI had arrested PPT chief mechanical engineer Saroj Kumar Das and three others on Friday after conducting raids at several places in the state.After their interrogation, the agency arrested Charchit Mishra, director of Orissa Stevedores Limited (OSL) and the son of the state's leading industrialist, Mahimananda Mishra, on Saturday, the sources said.The agency also apprehended real-estate developer Sisir Kumar Das in this connection, which took the total number of arrests made so far in this case to six.After producing them before a local court, the CBI has taken them on remand. The accused will again be produced before the special court on August 10.Mishra's lawyer Joydeep Pal claimed that there is no direct evidence against his client."As he is the director of OSL and was looking after the business at Paradip port, he has been arrested," Pal said.Apart from Charchit, Sisir and the engineer of the port, the others arrested include Surya Narayan Sahoo, Deputy GM (operations) of OSL, Sumanta Rout and Sankha Subhra Mitra, the manager of Kolkata-based logistics company Karam Chand Thapar (KCT).As per sources, OSL officials allegedly damaged the conveyor belt at the Paradip port while unloading cargo, and its repairment cost the port a lot.The port's Chief Mechanical Engineer, in alleged conspiracy with Charchit, Mitra, and conduit Sumanta Rout, got it repaired with funds from the Paradip Port Trust.In return, on behalf of Das, the conduit allegedly demanded Rs 60 lakh as bribe. Accordingly, he collected Rs 25 lakh from Cuttack and kept Rs 10 lakh separately for himself, the CBI said.It was also alleged that the conduit handed over Rs 10 lakh to Sisir, with whom Saroj had allegedly booked a property.—IANS

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested two more persons in connection with the Rs 25 lakh Paradip Port Trust (PPT) bribery case, sources said on Saturday.

 CBI makes two more arrests in Paradip port bribery case

Sambalpur:&nbsp;Five suspected poachers have been arrested from Debrigarh Wildlife Sanctuary in Odisha's Bargarh district early on Friday, a forest official said. The poachers entered the wildlife sanctuary late on Wednesday for hunting sambar deer and bison for their horns and skin, he said. Acting on a tip-off, an 18-member night patrol team apprehended the suspects near Ushakothi area under Hirakud Wildlife Division. A sambar horn, an axe, wire traps and motorcycles were seized from them. Debrigarh has a significant population of leopard, bison, wild boar, sambhar, peacock and chousingha or the four-horned antelope. Interrogation of the poachers and data analysis of their mobile phones revealed that they were regularly involved in the trade of wildlife skin, horn and hair. The body parts of the animals are smuggled mostly to neighbouring Chhattisgarh, the official said, adding that further investigation was underway.—PTI

Five suspected poachers have been arrested from Debrigarh Wildlife Sanctuary in Odisha's Bargarh district early on Friday, a forest official said