Two days after Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray’s meeting with the Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors (MARD), the state’s Medical Education Department on Friday issued an order announcing Rs 1,21,000 each for the resident doctors treating Covid-19 patients in all government and municipal medical colleges.
As per the order, all the resident doctors of government and municipal medical colleges, as well as government-run Ayurveda colleges, will be given Rs 1,21,000 each as gratitude for their services during the pandemic. The amount will be given in two instalments: one each in October and March.
READ | Maharashtra govt to give Rs 1,21,000 each to residents doctors for service during the pandemic
The Bombay High Court, while observing that mental health is a “wider concept”, recently overruled the recommendation of an expert panel of the J J Hospital in Mumbai and allowed an unmarried teenager to medically terminate her 26-week pregnancy. The HC passed the order despite the panel’s conclusion that the case did not warrant medical termination of pregnancy, as there was little risk that having the child would cause “grave mental injury” to the teen, who is barely 18 years old.
READ | Mental health wider concept, all such illnesses not diagnosable: Bombay HC
A 55-year-old man was arrested for allegedly murdering his brother over property dispute at their residence in Santacruz (east) in early hours of Friday. The victim is identified as Ramesh Lal Bahadur Singh, 42, a driver by profession. The accused is Suresh Lal Bahadur Singh, 55, who works in a private company.
The two lived in Ram Khilavan chawl in D’Mello compound on Datta Mandir road. Ramesh was unmarried and stayed with his mother while Suresh was married and stayed with his family on the 1st floor of their one-storey structure. “Both brothers used to fight regularly. They also had property dispute going on,” said a police officer from Vakola police station.
A magistrate's court has no jurisdiction to entertain a bail application for an offence with prescribed punishment of more than three years under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act as it is triable by a special court, as per the order by which the bail plea of Aryan Khan and two others, held in the cruise ship drugs case, were rejected.
Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate(ACMM) R M Nerlikar had rejected their bail pleas on Friday.
monthly limit of free stories.
with an Express account.
In the 15-page order, the details of which were made available on Saturday, the ACMM said "this court ceases its jurisdiction to entertain the applications for bail" considering section 36A and the fact that all three were held for one crime under various provisions of the NDPS Act for which the prescribed punishment was more than three years. All the alleged offences are exclusively triable by the special court, his order further stated.
Aryan Khan, son of Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan, as well as Arbaaz Merchant and Munmun Dhamecha were arrested on October 3 following the alleged seizure of banned drugs aboard a cruise ship off the Mumbai coast. They have been booked under various provisions of NDPS Act and are currently in judicial custody. (PTI)
Mumbai police on Saturday pasted a notice outside the residence of IPS officer Param Bir Singh, asking him to appear before it in connection with an extortion case on October 12, an official said.
Recently, Maharashtra Home Minister Dilip Walse-Patil had said that there were reports that Singh, a former Mumbai police commissioner who is now facing at least five criminal cases in the state, had left the country, but there was no confirmed information.
The crime branch of Mumbai Police is probing an extortion case registered against Singh in suburban Goregaon and wanted to question him, the official said.
A police team went to Singh's flat in Nilima building in Malabar Hill area and pasted a notice outside as he was not there, the official added.
The case was registered at Goregaon police station on the complaint of builder-cum-hotelier Bimal Agrawal. Besides Singh, dismissed police officer Sachin Waze, Sumit Singh alias Chintu, Alpesh Patel, Vinay Singh alias Babloo and Riyaz Bhati are named as accused in the FIR. (PTI)
The cyber cell of Mumbai Police on Saturday summoned CBI director and former Maharashtra DGP Subodh Kumar Jaiswal in a phone-tapping and data leak case, a senior official said here.
Jaiswal has been asked to be present to record his statement on October 14, the police official said.
The case relates to the ‘leak’ of a report prepared by IPS officer Rashmi Shukla about alleged corruption in police transfers in Maharashtra when she headed the state intelligence department. Jaiswal was the director general of police during this period. Read More
If the pension scheme for freedom fighters and their dependents was introduced with a desire to help and honour such persons, then it ill behoves the Maharashtra government to reject claims due to lack of documents or late applications, the Bombay High Court has said.
A division bench of Justices Ujjal Bhuyan and Madhav Jamdar said that the state government should reach out to freedom fighters and their dependents and give them the benefits of the scheme, instead of making such people file applications.
The court on Thursday directed the Maharashtra government to start paying pension to the 90-year-old widow of a freedom fighter under the 'Swatantrata Sainik Samman Pension Scheme, 1980' from October 2021.
The order was passed on a plea filed by Shalini Chavan, a resident of Raigad district, who sought that benefits of the scheme be accorded to her, as her late husband Laxman Chavan was a freedom fighter. (PTI)
The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on Saturday said all the allegations levelled against the agency in connection with the cruise ship raid and alleged recovery of drugs, in which Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan's son Aryan Khan was arrested, are "baseless, motivated afterthoughts and prejudicial".
NCB Director, Mumbai Zone, Sameer Wankhede said the anti-drugs agency works professionally. "We do not see any political party and religion. We do our job professionally," he added.
Based on a tip-off, an NCB team raided the Goa-bound cruise ship last Saturday and claimed to have recovered banned drugs. A total of 18 persons have been arrested in the case, including Aryan Khan.
The incident took a political turn when Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader and Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik on Wednesday claimed that the raid was "fake" and that "outsiders" were involved in it.
On Saturday, Malik alleged that the NCB had initially detained 11 persons from the Goa-bound cruise ship, but let off three of them, including the brother-in-law of BJP leader Mohit Bharatiya, a couple of hours later. (PTI)
Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), Mumbai Zonal informed that it recovered 25.45 kgs of heroin on October 5 from a container that arrived at Nhava Sheva Port in Navi Mumbai from Afghanistan's Kandahar via Iran's Chabahar port. A person has been arrested in the case. (ANI)
Shiv Sena Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut on Saturday said his party will participate with full force in the October 11 bandh in Maharashtra to protest against the killing of farmers in Uttar Pradesh's Lakhimpur Kheri.
Addressing a press conference along with NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik and state Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant, Raut said it was necessary to wake people up against the anti farmer policies of the Central government. Farmers are not alone in this fight and the process of showing solidarity with them must begin from Maharashtra, Raut asserted.
The Shiv Sena leader said he had discussed the need for a joint opposition strategy with NCP's Sharad Pawar and Congress' Rahul Gandhi, adding that other states must follow Maharashtra's lead to express solidarity with farmers.
Eight people, including four farmers, had died in Lakhimpur Kheri on October 3. The farmers died after being knocked down by vehicles reportedly carrying BJP workers, after which an angry mob allegedly lynched some people in these vehicles. (PTI)
The Maharashtra government Saturday announced a special incentive of Rs 1.21 lakhs each for resident doctors treating Covid-19 patients in all government and municipal medical colleges. (ANI)
A 20-year-old woman was allegedly raped by some robbers on board the Lucknow-Mumbai Pushpak Express train between Igatpuri and Kasara railway stations in Maharashtra on the Central Railway route, a police official said on Saturday.
The incident occurred late night on Friday and the Mumbai Government Railway Police (GRP) has arrested four persons in this connection, he said. Quaiser Khalid, Mumbai GRP’s Police Commissioner, said the alleged crime was committed when the express train was traversing the ghat section.
Read more
A 14-year-old boy was attacked by a leopard in unit no 13 of Aarey Colony in Goregaon East on Friday night. Darshan Dravid had claw injuries on his neck, jaw and head. This is the eighth case of a leopard attacking a resident of the area in a month. Aarey resident Ajay Pradhan said Darshan was attacked at 9 pm.
“It appears that the leopard went for his neck. Fortunately, it did not bite him. The animal has clawed him. He was taken to Hinduhridaysamrat Balasaheb Thackeray Hospital in Jogeshwari and his injuries are being sutured.”
Read more
With Opposition mounting to the proposal to build a cycling track around Powai lake, the BMC on Friday said that a committee of environmental experts has been set up “to discuss the lake’s development and carry out any mitigation measures required to not just alleviate but also enhance the lake and its surroundings”.
In a statement, the BMC said that a six-member committee is working on a detailed project analysis to handhold the civic body for sustainable construction during and after the project.
The experts on the committee are Dr Rakesh Kumar, environmental scientist at National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI); Dr Deepak Apte, environment specialist and marine biologist from BNHS; Dr Pramod Salaskar, environment specialist on Powai lake; Dr Kedar Bhide, herpetologist and IIT-Bombay professor DN Singh.
Read more
The Powai police, who recently cracked a burglary case at the flat of a retired Naval officer, said that one of the accused arrested by them is a serial burglar with 215 cases against him in four states.
The burglary took place sometime between September 18 and 19 at a flat in Jalvayu Vihar in Powai. The Navy officer had gone to Agartala with his wife on September 10. The couple had handed over their house keys to their domestic help Shaila Shirke (45), who stays in Vikhroli. On September 19 afternoon, when she reached the house, she found that the lock of the door was broken.
Read more
A 55-year-old man was arrested for allegedly murdering his brother over property dispute at their residence in Santacruz (east) in early hours of Friday. The victim is identified as Ramesh Lal Bahadur Singh, 42, a driver by profession. The accused is Suresh Lal Bahadur Singh, 55, who works in a private company.
Read more
The Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) on Friday laid a trap and caught an assistant commissioner of police (ACP) while accepting a bribe of Rs 40,000 in her office in Mumbai. The officer, Sujata Patil, is posted as ACP of Meghwadi division in the western suburbs.
In his complaint, the complainant has said that he owns a 220 sq ft shop at Subhash Nagar in Jogeshwari. The shop was on rent, and as per his direction, a woman tenant vacated it on October 5. However, on October 6, the woman, with the help of others, broke the lock and occupied the shop again, he claimed.
Read more
The Bombay High Court, while observing that mental health is a “wider concept”, recently overruled the recommendation of an expert panel of the J J Hospital in Mumbai and allowed an unmarried teenager to medically terminate her 26-week pregnancy. The HC passed the order despite the panel’s conclusion that the case did not warrant medical termination of pregnancy, as there was little risk that having the child would cause “grave mental injury” to the teen, who is barely 18 years old.
Read more
The Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport Undertaking (BEST) on Friday presented a deficit budget of Rs 2,236 crore which is higher than the previous fiscal year. The BEST, however, provided an outlay of Rs 695 crore for capital expenditure for the fiscal year of 2021-22. While BEST earned Rs 4,997.04 crore, it spent Rs 7,233.52 crore in 2020-21.
Read more
The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) is searching the residence and office of film producer Imtiyaz Khatri in Bandra in connection with the cruise ship drugs case in which Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan has been arrested, an official said on Saturday. He added that Khatri’s name had come up during the investigation.
The Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation will soon convert 1,000 buses out of its total 17,000 vehicles into CNG. A tender for the conversion was floated Friday. Speaking to The Indian Express, Vaibhav Wakode, mechanical engineer of MSRTC, said the decision was taken in view of the rising cost of diesel.
“At present we have 50 buses which run on CNG and these were acquired in 2009. They operate on Thane-Panvel and Thane-Kalyan route since we have a CNG pump in Thane depot. The cost of diesel is increasing day by day and now diesel cost us Rs 96 per litre (cheaper for MSRTC as it’s a bulk buyer) and it is unaffordable for MSRTC,” said Vaibhav Wakode, who is also among the officials in charge of the conversion.
Read more
Although the issue of consumption of drugs in Mumbai is being much highlighted of late, the menace is not new in the City of Dreams. Almost a century ago, erstwhile Bombay was gripped by a drug epidemic of sorts and the culprit back then was cocaine, a recreational drug and euphoriant obtained primarily from the leaves of Coca leaves.
Even before that, opium was the preferred recreational drug smoked in the opium dens or madak houses that dotted Bombay. Opium was smoked in two forms — a relatively milder form called Madak and a stronger preparation called Chandu.
A parliamentary commission set up in 1893 by the British government to inquire into the extent of opium consumption in India recommended the prohibition of sale except for medicinal purposes. The recommendations then led to the forceful closing of the dens by the local administration in the same year.
Read more
Shiv Sena leader and executive editor of party mouthpiece Saamana, Sanjay Raut, on Friday issued a legal notice to BJP state president Chandrakant Patil over his remarks linking him and his wife to the PMC Bank scam. Raut has given seven days to Patil to issue an unconditional apology in Saamana, threatening to move to court if he fails to do so.
“I have issued a legal notice to Chandrakantdada Patil for his defamatory, baseless and bogus comments against me and my wife. If Chandrakant dada doesn’t give an unconditional apology, I will be taking further legal action and move the honourable court,” said Raut in a tweet.
Read more
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) will conduct a Covid-19 vaccination drive exclusively for women on Saturday in an effort to reduce gender disparity in immunisation and vaccine hesitancy among women.
The drive will be held at more than 300 civic and government-run centres from 10.30 am to 6.30 pm. This will be the third such special drive for women in a month. The earlier ones were held on September 17 and 27, when as many as 1.07 lakh women were administered vaccines at the civic and government-run centres in a day.
Read more
A year after municipal schools in the city were rebranded as Mumbai Public School, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has invited tenders for installing signboards on the gates of the campuses to reflect the new name and logo.
The BMC has floated a tender worth Rs 12 crore for putting signboards and gates with new names in seven zones covering all municipal school buildings. Read full report here
Maharashtra on Friday reported 2,620 new coronavirus infections which took the state's caseload to 65,73,092, the health department said. As many as 59 patients died during the day, raising the death toll on account of the pandemic to 1,39,470. Total recoveries rose to 63,97,018, with 2,943 patients being discharged from hospitals. As of Friday there were 33,011 active cases in Maharashtra.
Mumbai reported 529 new infections and eight deaths. The total of cases in the country's financial capital rose to 7,47,685, and death toll reached 16,149. Nashik division reported 429 new cases including 329 in the Ahmednagar district alone.Pune division reported 789 new cases including 290 in Pune district. Kolhapur division reported 217 cases, Aurangabad division 57 cases, Latur division 100 cases, Akola division eight and Nagpur division reported 10 new coronavirus cases. (PTI)
As older children have finally started returning to classrooms with the state School Education Department allowing resumption of offline sessions for students in classes VIII to XII in urban areas and from class V onwards in rural pockets, the focus needs to shift on younger children who may have suffered one of the biggest ‘learning losses’ during the pandemic period, according to the results of a study across 650 households and involving 50 pre-school teachers in Mumbai and Pune.
Conducted between April and June this year by the Delhi-based Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy along with Akanksha Foundation and Rocket Learning, the study on Early Childhood Education (ECE) was conducted in two categories of pre-schools – balwadis (run through PPP model with municipal corporations) and pre-school grades of Akanksha schools, both catering to low-income households in Mumbai and Pune. Read full report here
A metropolitan magistrate’s court on Friday rejected the bail applications filed by Aryan Khan, son of actor Shah Rukh Khan, his friend Arbaaz Merchant and anchor-model Munmun Dhamecha — who were arrested last week in connection with a drug raid on a cruise ship — stating that they were not maintainable before it. The plea was not decided on the merits and facts of the case.
Their lawyers will now have to move a special court designated under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act. Read the full report here
NCB has opposed grant of bail to Aryan Khan on grounds including that he is an influential person and may tamper with evidence.
Lawyer Satish Maneshinde opposesdthe ground. "Merely because person belongs to affluent family, it cannot be said that evidence will be tampered with. What influence have I used? I am suffering for 6-7 days. People roaming free with much serious offences. I am not one of those," Maneshinde argued on Aryan's behalf.
Aryan Khan and other accused will be kept in quarantine cell for 3-5 days in Arthur Jail, says Nitin Waychal, Superintendent of Arthur Jail.
Aryan Khan and five other accused were taken to Arthur Road jail, while two women accused were taken to Byculla women's jail. The court had yesterday sent them to judicial custody for 14 days. The NCB had requested the court to allow them to be kept at its office citing Covid-19 protocol which requires a negative RT-PCR test to be submitted before admitting anyone in jail.
18th accused in the NCB drug raids case, Nigerian national Chinedu Igwe, has been sent to NCB custody till October 11. He was allegedly caught with 15 grams of ecstasy pills. NCB claimed that he was one of the suppliers to the cruise.
I am 23-year old with no antecedents. I happen to be from Bollywood. When I reached there they searched me and nothing was found. They went through my mobile and they downloaded all the data. Mobile has been sent for forensic examination. From the first day till today nothing has emerged. Contact with Archit was revealed on first day and they took their own time. Their contention is I am required for confrontation. That has been rejected by the Supreme Court. Top Court says interrogation, investigation, confrontation can take place when someone is released on bail: Satish Maneshinde on behalf of Aryan Khan
Satish Maneshinde: High Court has always been liberal in granting bail even though the prosecution always opposes it. Since I am not found in possession of anything I cannot be trucked with them
Aryan Khan’s counsel Satish Maneshinde argued that since no drug was found with him, he should be granted bail on merits.
The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) has questioned the merits of Aryan Khan's bail plea. The central agency had already informed that it will oppose the bail applications of Shah Rukh Khan's son and others in the drug bust case.
The NCB has raised the maintainability issue of bail plea before the magistrate court. "I am raising the issue of maintainability and that has to be decided first and then the merits if the case," said the ASG.
The Bombay High Court on Friday said the interim orders passed by various courts and authorities in Maharashtra after April 9 pertaining to eviction, demolition and dispossession, which are still in operation, will be kept in abeyance only till October 11 in view of the “gradually improving pandemic situation”, The court said that from October 12, interim protection will “cease to exist”.
However, the HC said that in view of the increase in Covid-19 infections, orders pertaining to demolition, dispossession and eviction passed by courts in five districts including Satara, Osmanabad, Ahmednagar, Pune and Ratnagiri will be kept in abeyance for two weeks.
Read more
Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh, who is the NCB’s counsel said that the bail applications was not maintainable before the Magistrate's court. Singh said that the Court will first decide if the applications can be heard before it or they need to be heard before a special NDPS court.
The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Thane Police arrested the Managing Director of a jewellery firm Tuesday for allegedly duping at least 13 investors to the tune of Rs 8 crore by taking investments from them promising unrealistic returns.
The police said Virath Gopalan Nair, managing director of VGN jewelers, got about 50,000 investors to partake in the scheme out of which 40 have approached them so far alleging that they have been duped of Rs 15 crore. A process is underway to record their statements.
Read more
In fresh allegations against NCB raid on party onboard Cordelia ship, NCP leader Nawab Malik has said that two persons including a relative of a BJP leader was allowed to leave the ship. Said will provide evidence in press conference tomorrow. NCB has denied the allegations.
The Maharashtra railway police Thursday arrested a Superintendent with the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) Mumbai for allegedly molesting a woman on a train journey between Hyderabad and Pune. The accused, identified as Dinesh Chavan, an NCB SP, is a resident of Navi Mumbai. Chavan has been charged with sexual harassment. NCB officials said Chavan had been on medical leave for the past several months as he was undergoing treatment.
Read more
The Central Railway (CR) administration has decided to restart issuing platform tickets in its Mumbai division from Friday. Officials said the rates of platform tickets would, however, be increased to Rs 50 per ticket from Rs 10 of the pre-pandemic times. The tickets would be available only at selected stations – Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus, Lokmanya Tilak Terminus, Kalyan, Thane, Dadar and Panvel. An official said that to avoid crowding, the ticket rates have been increased till further notice.
Read more
Three men have been arrested for allegedly stealing cash and valuables from the house of a retired Navy officer in Powai nearly three weeks ago. According to police, the theft took place on the night of September 18, when the former Navy officer, who stays at Jalvayu Vihar, had gone to Agartala along with his wife. The couple had handed over their house keys to their domestic help Shaila Shirke (45). She stays at Parksite in Vikhroli. “Shirke would go, clean the house and leave,” said an officer.
Read more
A 68-year-old man died after lightning struck a residential building at Diva in Thane district on Wednesday when heavy rain lashed Mumbai and neighbouring cities. The victim has been identified as Prabhakar Govind Ambure. According to the Thane Regional Disaster Management Cell (RDMC), the incident took place around 8 pm when lightning struck near Gopalgham building at Ganesh Nagar.
Read more
The Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) on Friday said it has imposed a fine of Rs 10 lakh on a civic contractor for the poor condition of roads in the city due to substandard and faulty work. Municipal Commissioner Dr Vipin Sharma held the contractor, Bitcon India Developers, responsible for the problems faced in the city due to bad roads and imposed the fine, the civic body said in a statement.
The work carried out by the contractor was not in keeping with the work order and despite the warnings by the supervising engineers, the contractor ignored the quality of work that led to chaos, it added. A show-cause notice had been issued against the contractor for the faulty work, but since he did not respond to it, this action was taken, the statement said.
Four engineers of the TMC were placed under suspension on September 25 for dereliction of duty over the poor condition of roads in the city. The action had been taken after District Guardian Minister Eknath Shinde took a tour of the pothole-riddled roads in Thane and warned of severe action against the officials responsible. (PTI)
Maharashtra Home Minister Dilip Walse Patil has directed officials to set up 'Anti-Drug Cell' in each district under the chairmanship of the Superintendent of Police to curb the growing menace of narcotics substances, it was stated on Thursday. He gave the direction while reviewing anti-narcotics actions in the state, especially in Mumbai, at a high-level meeting of the home department here, a statement said.
In recent times, the sale of narcotics substances has started in villages and their use has increased among schoolchildren and youth, it said. The minister directed the police to be vigilant and curb the growing drug use in Maharashtra, the statement said.
The meeting was attended by Additional Chief Secretary, Home, Manukumar Srivastava, Additional Chief Secretary, Appeals and Security, Anand Limaye, Director General of Police Sanjay Pandey, Mumbai Police Commissioner Hemant Nagarale and Additional Director General of Police, Law and Order, Rajendra Singh, among others. (PTI)
The Income Tax (I-T) department on Thursday said it has busted a syndicate of "businessmen/ middlemen and people holding public offices" in Maharashtra and unearthed unaccounted transactions of Rs 1,050 crore. It indicated that these middlemen run real estate and construction businesses in the city.
Sources said the findings of the tax department pertain to builders and some other people allegedly linked to a senior Congress leader. The tax agency said it has been working on the case for over six months.
"In all, 25 residential and 15 office premises were covered under the search, while four offices were covered under the survey. Some suites in Oberoi Hotel in Mumbai, permanently rented by two of the middlemen and used for meeting their clients, were also subjected to search. The syndicate, consisting of businessmen/ middlemen/ associates and persons holding public offices, used various code names in their records and in one case had back-dated records by 10 years. The total transactions detected during this search are to the tune of Rs 1,050 crore," it said.
Read more
There was a heavy rush at the Mumbai International Airport on Friday morning as Mumbaikars left the city for their hometowns for the Navratri festival. The terminal looked like a crowded railway station.
An official of Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL) said, “We had anticipated this rush and hence shifted some of the airlines to Santacruz terminal.” An official statement from MIAL is awaited.
Additional Municipal Commissioner Suresh Kakani of the Brihammumbai Municipal Commission said, “We have told the airport to enforce Covid-appropriate behaviour. I will also tell my health department staff to intervene and tell the airport. We fear these travellers may return with Covid-19. Social distancing has to be maintained.”
Read more
Protest against the cycle track project in Powai Lake has received support from BJP MP Manoj Kotak. On Thursday, Kotak wrote to municipal commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal requesting to stop the construction work as it could destroy the biodiversity of Powai Lake, which is also home to Indian Marsh crocodiles. Kotak also suggested that BMC should take steps for the preservation and conservation of the ecology of the lake.
Read more
A 19-year-old delivery boy from a restaurant in Mumbai was arrested on Wednesday for sexually assaulting a six-year-old girl on the terrace of her building. The crime took place around 10 pm. The accused, Lokchandan Sahu, works as a delivery boy for a Chinese restaurant.
Sahu went to the girl’s flat to make a delivery and the police suspect he had visited the building in the past too for deliveries. Sahu spotted the girl playing alone in her flat and called her out to ask her help with an address to deliver food.
Read more
State BJP vice-president Chitra Wagh has been appointed as a member of the national executive committee. The decision was announced by BJP president J P Nadda. Wagh defected from the NCP to join the BJP in September 2019. In February 2021 she was appointed vice-president of the state BJP when the Maharashtra unit was restructured.
“Wagh has been rewarded for her proactive role in attacking the Maha Vikas Aghadi government in Maharashtra, especially her aggressive campaign against former Shiv Sena minister Sanjay Rathod for his alleged links with the Pooja Chavan suicide case,” a BJP source said.
Read more
As places of worship in the state reopened on Thursday, several Shiv Sena and NCP leaders visited temples in Mumbai, Pune and other parts of Maharashtra.
The visits to temples assume significance in the backdrop of the BJP’s attack on the MVA government over not opening the places of worship. Places of worship were closed in the state after the second wave of Covid-19 started in March this year. Last year, after the first wave subsided, places of religious worship were reopened from Diwali Padwa on November 16.
On Thursday, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, his wife Rashmi and son Aaditya, the Tourism Minister, visited Mumbadevi temple in South Mumbai and offered prayers. Thursday is also the first day of the nine-day Navratri.
Read more
Places of worship in Mumbai reopened on Thursday after remaining closed for over six months due to the second wave of Covid-19. The first day of reopening did not see much crowd as many popular temples like Mumbadevi and Siddhivinayak only allowed devotees who had booked online appointments for darshan.
Over 2,500 devotees visited Mumbadevi temple in Kalbadevi. “We are allowing 250 devotees in an hour, all with prior booking. At the entrance, we are checking their temperature and oxygen level. Nobody is allowed inside without a mask. The temple will remain open from 7 am to 6 pm. We will ensure that Covid-19 protocol is followed properly,” said Hemant Jadhav from the Mumbadevi temple trust.
Read more
Mumbai city Thursday reported 458 new covid-19 cases and 5 deaths. So far, 7,47,156 cases and 16,141 deaths have been recorded in the city. Maharashtra on Thursday reported 2,681 new coronavirus positive cases, taking its overall infection tally to 65,70,472, while the death of 49 persons pushed the toll to 1,39,411.
State Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant has said that the NCB did not follow laid down rules while conducting the raid on cruise ship Cordelia.
"Surprising to see NCB saying action was taken following all procedures as per rule and law when there is a serious violation of the set of procedures in the NCB handbook while arresting the accused in the raid on the cruise. It clearly suggests that NCB wants to shove the matter under the carpet," Sawant said.
Kiran Gosavi, the self-styled detective who was seen in a viral selfie with Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan's son Aryan Khan after the latter's detention by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on October 2, and was cited as an “independent witness” by the NCB, is a wanted accused in a 2018 cheating case registered with Pune City Police.
Pune Police Commissioner Amitabh Gupta confirmed that Gosavi was wanted in connection with the cheating case.
NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik had on Wednesday alleged that Gosavi and Manish Bhanushali, who was also seen with those detained by NCB after its team raided a cruise ship near Mumbai, had links with the BJP.
Read more
State BJP vice-president Chitra Wagh has been appointed as a member of the party national executive committee. The decision was announced by BJP president J P Nadda.
Wagh said, "I am grateful to the BJP central leadership for the appointment. I express my deep gratitude. I will continue to serve the organisation with greater zeal."
In September 2019, Wagh resigned from the NCP to join the BJP. In February 2021 she was appointed vice-president of the state BJP.
A source in the BJP said, "Wagh is being rewarded for her proactive role in attacking the MVA government. Especially her aggressive campaign against former minister Sanjay Rathod for his alleged links with the Pooja Chavan death case." ENS
All the eight accused in the cruise ship drug raid case will be taken to the NCB office till their interim bails are decided. NCB zonal director Sameer Wankhede had requested that accused be kept in NCB office as jails do not admit the accused in absence of Covid-19 reports.
A Mumbai court will heard Aryan Khan's interim bail plea on Friday at 11 am. The court also asked the NCB to file its reply by then.
Aryan Khan, Arbaz Merchant and six others have been sent to judicial custody in the case pertaining to drugs seizure from cruise ship.