Hyderabad Jail follows Tihar Jail, products get 'Sudhar' brand name

Udumula Sudhakar Reddy
 On the lines of Tihar Jail Charlapally prison and other jails in the State are going all out to market their products made by the prisoners and to establish their brand name 'sudhar'. Jails officials are selling bedsheets, towels, bread, biscuits, jellies, computer tables, office furniture and several other products.
Jails department Director General Mr C N Gopinath Reddy said ,"We want to promote the brand name Sudhar of the products made by the prisoners. This is aimed at not only increasing the revenues of the jails
department but also to improve the skill of the prisoners as well as give
them some more incentives for their work,"
As part of the promotion Charlapally prison will be setting up a stall at
secretariat on AP formation day on Tuesday with the products. "We are aiming at getting a revenue of Rs 30 crore per year from all the jails. This helps us to meet all expenses except the salaries of the jail
staff. Apart from this we are setting up four petrol pumps at  Charlapally,. Chanchalaguda, Warangal and Rajhumundry. We are aiming at the turnover of Rs 120 crore and a profit of Rs 10 to Rs 15 crore can be earned on it,"
He added that quality products are being brought out from the jails. "the bakery in the jail produces bread, biscuit, cookies with Sudhar brand name. In Anantapur we are setting up an exclusive outlet for james. jellies and pickles,"
He added a tractor repair centre is also being set up at Anantapur jail where the prisoners will be trained to work on them. Charlapally jail superintenet Mr K Srinivasa Rao said ,"we are even going to sell the organic vegetables. In the exhibition prisoners will be salesmen and in on day stall the staff will sell the products,"



Maoists movements curtailed in Andhra region of AOB

By U Sudhakar Reddy
Maoist activity has taken a backseat in the Andhra area of the Andhra Odisha border (AOB) and the movements of left wing extremists have been curtailed to the Orissa side of the border.

The last encounter between them and the security forces was in January and later on not much movement was detected from the People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army dalams in the villages in the Andhra area of the AOB.
According to the inspector general of police (east zone-Andhra), Mr Vinay Kumar Singh, police are helping villagers in the districts of Visakhapatnam, Srikakulam, Vizianagaram and Godavari to form Jana Samithis to form solutions for civil and petty cases.
These Jana Samithis will be a counter to the Praja Courts of Maoists where they settle the issues. Cops are also monitoring whether the government officials particularly doctors are reaching remote villages and sending reports to the district administration.
“After three consecutive encounters there was no movement of Naxals in these districts. Jana Samithis are formed with an aim to see that villagers solve their problems without interference of cops in civil issues and cases of non cognisable nature.
“This period of inactivity by the Maoists has come in handy for the police who are able to reach remote areas and are trying to develop a network with the tribals in the area,” Mr Singh told this correspondent.
The phone numbers of the district SPs and of the IGP were given to all political representatives from the sarpanch to MLA in these districts for receiving complaints via phone.
Serious action will be initiated against the police inspector including suspension if they fail to file FIRs in the police stations, he added.

Fake papers for US visa

By U. Sudhakar Reddy
.The number of cases of visa consultants, travel agents and visa applicants booked by the police for producing fake papers in order to get US visas from the consulate in Hyderabad is increasing.
At least one case is booked every month. The most recent case, on April 1, is of a 37-year-old man from Warangal who was arrested for producing forged bank statements and income-tax returns.
In the past two years, 20 such cases have been booked against various individuals who applied for US visas using fake financial documents, educational certificates, employment service certificates and sponsor letters.
On October 21, 2010, a case was registered against B. Raju, who paid Rs.20,000 initially and was to pay Rs.2 lakh subsequently for fake employment documents.
M. Srinivas claimed to be a software engineer and applied for a visa by producing a fake certificate from the University of Mysore and also a fake employment certificate which he had bought from an agent for Rs.15,000.
There is a case pending against four women from Gujarat who paid Rs.20 lakh for fake documents and applied for B1/B2 visas.
The people desperate to get to the US range from Mr Srinivasa Rao, who produced a fake employment certificate and a fake MCA certificate from Brilliant Tutorials, which he bought for Rs.60,000, to Ms I.
Rajeswari of Warangal who applied for a visa so that she can work as a maid for $800-$1500.
What is delaying matters in court is that the regional security officer of the US consulate has change twice so far and is not available for deposing in the court as a witness.
“Most of the cases booked in 2009 and 2010 are based on the complaint lodged by Mr Nathan Kim, the assistant regional security officer of the US consulate in the city,” said an officer from the North Zone. “One case was booked as per the complaint lodged by Mr Zack Kendell and the latest one, on April 1, on the complaint of Mr Michael Diamond.”

Credit car fraudsters mislead cyber crime investigators

By U Sudhakar Reddy
Credit card fraudsters are adopting newest methods to dupe the card holders to the tune of lakhs of rupees and to
mislead the cyber crime investigators. After stealing the card details by using wireless skimmers the online
criminals are using spoofing technique to produce proxy Internet Protocol address. This makes the job of cyber crime police tough and
the fraudsters are untraced. Cyber forensic expert of State Crime Investigation Department Mr U Ram Mohan says ,"there are several cases of credit card are reported with us. Out of around 50 cyber crime cases most of them are either credit card fraud or Nigerian cheating cases. At petrol pumps, restaurant, shopping malls and during online use of cards the details of
the card are stolen. They are using skimmers to copy the date when the card is handed over to them,"
The data is then used to for online shopping and online purchase of tickets. The cyber criminals are using blue tooth for transferring the
stolen card numbers.
Cyber crime police station inspector of police Mr Ravi Kumar Reddy said ,"In most cases registered with us the accused are using the credit card details for buying the air tickets. They are using spoofing technique so that the IP address is not traced,"
In one of the cases registered with the CID cyber crime police station the accused used IP spoofing. Though it is suspected that he had
purchased the tickets locally the IP address traced to Malaysia.
"when they buy domestic air tickets it is very difficult to trace. In the international tickets cases at least passport number help us to track the user of the ticket. In one of the case it tracked to a gulf unskilled
employee who said the agent had given him. We are yet to trace the person who actually stolen the credit card details and using spoofing," said an investigator. Cyber crime officials say that credit card holders shall always stay near when they are swiped.

Cobra Man Snake Raj Kumar dies of Mosquito bite cerebral malaria

By U Sudhakar Reddy

Friend of snakes K Raj Kumar who escaped venomous sanke bites 29 times had fallen to mosquito bite. Raj Kumar passed away

due to cerebral malaria at a city hospital on Monday morning. Ophiologist Raj Kumar who was featured by Paul Merton and was running

Friends of Snakes Society in Defence Colony in the city and known nationally. At the age of seven he started catching snakes and lost two of his fingers of both hands due to the snake bites. Deputy Conservator of Forests Mr A Shankaran who lost his personal friend

says ,"As a school boy he used to rescue snakes and hand over them to zoo.

He used to tell that officials that he was handing over them as the people are killing it. He had a great art of capturing the snakes and handle them gently as we handle the new-born. He survived the snake including cobra and viper bites several times and two times it was very serious as his fingers were amputated. Once he was admitted to Intensive Care Unit where 23 doses of

anti venom was given to save his life. He escaped all these but the cerebral malaria killed him,"

Raj Kumar used to attend at least 20 to 30 calls a month to rescue snakes in the twin cities. He had conducted hundreds of shows in the schools and institutions across the country.

K Prakash an engineer and brother of Raj Kumar says, "This is a great loss to the family. He is a such a loveable man. He was diagnosed for cerebral malaria and treatment began two days ago. He died on Monday morning,"

Raj Kumar had at least 200 disciples who adore him, Raj used to tell in interviews that he was rescuing snakes as they are

misunderstood species and friends of farmers. He used to tell that snakes eat rats that spoil the crop particularly paddy and if the snakes are endangered the food production will come down due to increased mice menace.

Raj Kumar is survived by a wife and son and parents. His son Dharam Teja was also featured by Paul Merton carrying python on his neck.

Rajkumar was trained in Pune snake par and Bronx Zoo in US. Shankaran recalls ,"He dedicated all his life for snakes. He never took

money for his shows. Government of India has donated him a jeep which he used for the rescue of snakes. Raj knows snake feeding habits,"

Raju and his team members used to lay traps at the railway tracks and catch the rats and bandicoots and bring them back to feed the snakes. A follower of world renowned Romulus Whitaker Raj Kumar says the snakes are soft natured warm and friendly.

In his first encounter with snake when group of people killed it he asked his mother Ms K Joan who told him that they are beautiful creations of god and were misunderstood. His father Mr K V Rao was a defence employee.

One of the disciples of Raj Kumar Mr M Shiva says ,"we are two hundred members and 30 of us are active. He used to train us with non poisonous snakes initially and then until he gets satisfied that we can safely handle he never used to expose us to poisonous snakes. He used to be always caution us about our safety,"

Raju another aspiring young ophiologist of Raj Kumar says ,"there are no words to describe him. We couldn't digest the death of our guru," Retired PCCF Mr R K Rao and several other prominent people helped him

to grow. Chief Wild Life Warden Mr Hitesh Malhotra and Additional PCCF Mr A V Joseph were members of executive committee of the society. Maneka Gandhi and Amala Akkineni were the chief patron of the society

His society was involved in spreading awareness apart from rescue and rehabilitation in the State. He had done around 3000 rescues and 4000 educational snake demonstration.

Raj Kumar was writing a book on snakes and his desire to establish a snake park couldn't be fulfilled.

 Mr. Raj Kumar, spent almost three decades handling snakes, has come out with a blue print and spent several months in the United Studies Though land was given for snake park at Mahendra Hills he couldn't construct as permission as denied as the land is in the flight path. National zoo authority had given clearance and Union government approved a grant of Rs 25 crore but it didn't take off as Begumpet airport authorities refused permission. Later he tried for land at Necklace Road which didn't

materialise.