Belagavi: Police have arrested the kingpin of the agarbatti scam, who is accused of cheating over 8,000 women by promising them jobs as agarbatti packers and fled after collecting crores of rupees from them.Belagavi Shahapur police arrested Babasaheb Kolekar, 35, from Jaloli of Pandharpur, Maharashtra.Laxmi Kamble of Patil Galli, Khasbag, filed a complaint at the Shahapur police station, stating that Kolekar cheated them by taking lakhs of rupees from each woman after promising them work as agarbatti packers in various companies. Later, hundreds of victims, all women, took out a protest march at Belagavi and submitted a memorandum to the govt through the deputy commissioner.The accused created a ‘BM Gruha’ employment group in the guise of a self-reliant business to attract and trap gullible women. The Belagavi police, after investigation, arrested the accused.Man arrested in stabbing caseAPMC police have arrested Kannappa Nayak, 22, of Mutyanatti village in the Belagavi taluk, an accused in connection with the case of attempting to murder five people by stabbing them with a knife near Sadashiva Nagar during the Karnataka Rajyotsava procession. Another minor was also taken into custody.Nayak confessed to having attacked five people with a knife in Nov. According to police, the accused said that there was a quarrel between two groups over the volume of the DJ sound playing during the Karnataka Rajyotsava procession. He said that he had a few others accompanying him and that he had attacked members of the rival group.Police said that efforts are under way to find the other accused in the case. Five people were injured in the incident and admitted to the district hospital for treatment.
