IN brief

The Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) has decided to complete elections for office-bearers of the party units from booth committees to the state unit in a phased manner by the end of July this year.

GPCC polls to be over by July
The Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) has decided to complete elections for office-bearers of the party units from booth committees to the state unit in a phased manner by the end of July this year. The guidelines for the organisational elections were given to all district Congress presidents and leaders from district panchayats,nagaraplika and mahanagar palika who attended Thursdays meeting. It was attended among others by state party president Siddharth Patel,Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly Shaktisinh Gohil and AICC representative Vallabh Panigrahi,appointed as pradesh returning officer (PRO) for conducting the elections.

3 dupe bank customer with plain paper notes,arrested
Three persons were arrested near a State Bank of India branch in Bapunagar on Thursday for handing plain paper to a bank customer and conning him of Rs 17,000 cash. The accused have been identified as Sulaiman Mansoori (23) from Krushnanagar,and Nisar Badbuja (20) and Raza Mansoori (28) from Madhya Pradesh.
The police said,complainant Gavend Vanzara,a resident of Delhi Chali in Naroda,went to deposit Rs 17,000 in his account when he was conned by the accused. One of them went to Vanzara and told him that he did not have an account in the bank but had Rs 50,000 in cash,which he needed to deposit. He lured Vanzara to take the money and deposit it into his account.
Believing in the cooked-up story,Vanzara went outside the bank to make a deal,where he met the other two accused. They convinced him to take a bundle of money and asked him to hand over the Rs 17,000 he was carrying. When Vanzara went inside the bank to deposit the bundle given to him by the accused,he discovered only one genuine note of Rs 500; the rest being plain paper,said the police.
The victim rushed to the Bapunagar police station and lodged a complaint of fraud against the three. Inspector R G Pandya said: The victim was greedy and lost his money. In return of the Rs 50,000 he got only Rs 500. When we went to inquire,we found the accused roaming near the bank. We arrested them immediately.

Fake currency: three sent to police custody
AHMEDABAD: THE court of Metropolitan Magistrate RT Pandya on Thursday sent three accused in the fake currency notes case to 13 days in police custody. Murshid Pechi (16) and Farukh Shaikh (26) of Jaunpur in West Bengal,and Shena-ul Afsar (25) of Sahebgunj in Jharkhand used to get a salary of Rs 10,000 for encashment of the fake currency notes of Rs 500. A consignment of fake currency to the tune of Rs 2.6 lakh was recovered from the three,the police said.
The Special Operations Group (SOG),which is investigating the case,had sought their remand for 14 days. The SOG intends to find out whether the fake notes were only brought to Gujarat or were circulated into the market as well.
The SOG is looking at the terrorism angle too. The two other accused Attaur and Rajesh the supposed kingpin of the racket,are absconding.

CEPT plans new masters course in climate change
The Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology (CEPT),Ahmedabad,plans to introduce masters programme in climate change from the next academic session.
Director R N Vakil said a faculty group has been formed for Environment and Climate Change Studies.
An MoU has also been signed with the Indian Society for Community Education,an NGO,to study the impact of climate change,especially on rural communities,Vakil said.

Customs conduct raids at importers premises
OFFICIALS of the Ahmedabad Customs Commissionerate conducted searches at the business and residential premises of the importers of electronic goods,who allegedly did not declare or in other cases,quoted lesser value of the imported goods. Twenty-four search parties involving 100-odd custom officers were sent out on the search at various places in Ahmedabad to probe into past imports made by the city-based importers. According to the Customs department,imports made by at least 13 importers at the Ahmedabad air cargo complex are under scrutiny. Most of the imports were sourced from Hong Kong,except a few from Singapore and Taiwan. The high-value low volume electronic goods include Chinese mobile phones,flash memory cards,and mp3 players among others.
The search was conducted on January 20 in order to substantiate the charge of under-valuation and mis-declaration of the goods,which have gone out of the Customs area.

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