Mumbai News Highlights: Two detained after assault of woman doctor at Sion hospital

Police have booked three persons, including two women, and detained two of them after a female doctor was allegedly assaulted at civic-run Sion hospital.

Police registered a case against the three alleged attackers under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and Maharashtra Medicare Service Persons and Medicare Service Institutions (Prevention of Violence and Damage or Loss to Property) Act.

Two of the three accused have been detained, the official said.

The financial aid under the Ladki Bahin Yojana will increase if "beloved sisters give us strength", Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde said.

Under the scheme, women with an annual family income of less than Rs 2.5 lakh are given Rs 1,500 as monthly financial aid. "My government will not stop at Rs 1500. If you give us strength, the money will increase," Shinde said at the launch of the scheme in Satara, his statement an apparent call for support in the Maharashtra assembly polls that are likely to be held in October-November.

A sum of Rs 3000 crore has been disbursed to one crore eligible women so far and Rs 35,000 crore has been earmarked for the year, Shinde said.

Senior Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan has demanded that the cut off time to register for the Maharashtra government's Mukhyamantri Majhi Ladki Bahin Yojana be waived off to enable all eligible women to avail financial assistance.

The August 31 cut off date should be scrapped and the scheme should be implemented as a social security right, Chavan said in a letter to Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.

Due to technical glitches, the server of the official portal is non functional most of the time, while in several instances women do not get the registration OTP for nearly six hours, he said.

What happened ?

A female doctor on-duty at Sion Hospital was physically assaulted by a patient's relatives on Sunday morning, while sahe was attending to his injuries, confirmed the dean of Sion Hospital, Dr Mohan Joshi.

The incident was reported at around 3.30 am, according to representatives from MARD.

A 35-year-old man caught for drunk driving allegedly manhandled and threatened an on-duty constable in Mumbai while claiming to be the son of a senior police officer, an official said on Sunday.

The incident took place on Friday at Four Bungalows locality in Andheri area and the accused was later arrested, the Versova police official said.

Police have arrested a 35-year-old man for allegedly robbing a businesswoman from Navi Mumbai in Maharashtra of Rs 30,000 and other valuables after threatening her, an official said on Sunday.

The man went to the woman's house at Ghansoli in Navi Mumbai, where he earlier worked as a cook and driver, on the night of August 14 and forced her at "gunpoint" to transfer Rs 30,000 to his account.

He also took away her gold chain weighing 15 gm, senior inspector Sanjeev Dhumal of Rabale police station said.

Approximately 16 years ago, 8-year-old Julekha Shaikh was found lying with an injured leg on the Shukrapur-Nagar highway by the police.

She was quickly taken to the nearest government hospital for treatment. The experience of sleeping on a bed was unfamiliar to her, as she had never slept on one before.

Until then, Julekha had spent her early years begging for money, using whatever she collected to get a vada pav before finding a place to sleep.

This is the story of Julekha, 24, who not only represented the country in volleyball at the Abu Dhabi 2019 Special Olympics World Summer Games but also won a bronze medal.

Read this exclusive interview here

Data reviewed by The Indian Express shows that the agency, despite being equipped with some of the most advanced instruments, issued inaccurate district forecasts for Mumbai on at least 13 days in July, of which, on eight days, the forecast warnings were off by more than 25 per cent.

Read the exclusive story here

Due to delays in the school admission process under the Right to Education (RTE) Act in Maharashtra, only 59,114 out of 93,009 students who had applied for admissions under the act have got admissions.

“This means that 33,895 students have not taken admission on their allotted seats, which is a significant number considering the high demand for school admissions under RTE in Maharashtra,” said a school teacher from Mumbai.

“This is likely because many parents opted for other school admission options, given the delay in RTE admissions this year,” the teacher added, noting that this situation persists despite an extension of the admission deadline.

A 17-year-old boy was killed when the ceiling plaster of a flat in a four-storey building fell in Maharashtra's Thane district, police said on Sunday.

The incident took place at around 8 pm on Saturday in the flat located at Kharivali in Bhiwandi area where a couple resided with their two sons and a daughter.

The ceiling plaster of the flat located on the building's second floor suddenly collapsed and fell on the house occupants, an official from Bhoiwada police station said.

The Mahayuti government in Maharashtra on Saturday formally launched the ambitious "Majhi Ladki Bahin" scheme for eligible women, with Chief Minister Eknath Shinde hinting at doubling the monthly stipend from Rs 1,500 to Rs 3,000 if the alliance is voted to power in elections.

More than 1 crore women are expected to benefit from this scheme whose launch coincided with Rakshabandhan festivities beginning Monday.

The Shiv Sena-BJP-NCP government, facing a tough assembly polls battle against the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi in coming months, came up with the "Mukhyamantri Majhi Ladki Bahin" scheme, months after a debacle in Lok Sabha elections in Maharashtra.

The scheme, modelled on the MP government's "Ladli Behna Yojana", provides monthly Rs 1,500 assistance to the married, divorced, and destitute women in the 21-60 age group with Rs 2.5 lakh annual family income ceiling.

"If we receive your support, we can manage to give you more than Rs 3,000," Shinde said at the launch event marked by the display of pyrotechnics on a specially-created ramp at Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex in Balewadi area of Pune. (PTI)

NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar questioned why the upcoming Assembly polls in states were not being held simultaneously, while adding that there was "no truth" in what Prime Minister Narendra Modi says. “Election dates in two states (J&K and Haryana) have been announced but polls in Jharkhand and Maharashtra have not been declared. Hence, there is no truth in what he (PM Modi) says,” news agency PTI quoted Pawar as saying.This comes after PM Modi, in his speech on Independence Day, had made a pitch for 'One Nation, One Election'. (PTI)

Shiv Sena MP Milind Deora takes a jibe at Shiv Sena (UBT) and calls the Uddhav Thackeray faction "negative....who only speak garbage."

"I would only say one thing, that people whose heads are filled with garbage, it's natural for garbage to come out of their mouth. People whose heads are filled with something positive will speak positively. There are two types of MPs in this country. One is an MP who speaks aggressively to demand positive work for their constituency, Srikant Shinde is one of them.

"Those who are dreaming of becoming the CM candidate, I am sure that in MVA, the other allies will not fulfil those dreams..." added Deora.

The Motor Accident Claims Tribunal (MACT) in Maharashtra's Thane district has awarded a compensation of Rs 5 lakh to the parents of a five-year-old boy who was killed in a road accident in 2017.

In his order, MACT chairman and principal district judge S B Agrawal directed the owner of the tempo involved in the accident to pay the compensation amount to the parents of the deceased along with interest at 7.50 per cent per annum from the date of petition till the payment is realised.

A 30-year-old man hurried to a hospital when a woman injured his private parts with a metal spatula to thwart his alleged unwanted advances in Maharashtra's Thane district, an official said on Saturday.

Accused Anil Satyanarayan Raccha was drunk when he tried to misbehave with the 26-year-old woman at her home in the Bhiwandi area, he said.

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After communal tensions arose in Maharashtra across several districts, Police in Maharashtra's Thane district have registered a case against Hindu religious leader Ramgiri Maharaj over his alleged objectionable remarks against Prophet Mohammad and Islam, an official said on Saturday.

The remarks were allegedly made recently by Ramgiri Maharaj in a viral social media video at Shah Panchale village in Sinnar taluka of Nashik district during an event earlier this week.

Even as Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister and NCP chief Ajit Pawar on Thursday said that he was not interested in contesting the Assembly elections, his party, the NCP, has scoffed at any such possibility.

In fact, NCP state chief Sunil Tatkare is confident Ajit Pawar will not desert Baramati and will contest the Assembly polls from the seat.

NCP sources said Ajit Pawar’s remark should be seen as a strategy to confuse his opponents ahead of the Assembly elections likely to be held in November. “It is part of a strategy to befuddle the opponents who are also planning to outdo him,” said an NCP leader.

BMC municipal commissioner and state appointed administrator Bhushan Gagrani on Friday called for the deployment of additional manpower to detect and fix leakages at the earliest. In a bid to improve monitoring, Gagrani directed senior officials to form squads to inspect and seize illegal motor pumps and cut unauthorised water connections.

The directives came two days after Shiv Sena (UBT) MLA Aaditya Thackeray took to social media to highlight widespread complaints of muddy and low-pressure water, noting that such a level of discontent was unprecedented.

Woman loses balance while sitting on Mumbai's Atal Setu safety barrier, saved by alert cop.

The Education Department of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has issued orders to 2,000 teachers, instructing them to take on the duties of block level officers (BLO) for election-related work. According to the orders, teachers are required to spend three days a week on BLO duty and the remaining three days in school.

With the academic year underway, teachers have expressed concerns about being away from schools for half of the working days. “The new academic year began in June, and most schools are currently conducting first unit tests. Intensive teaching is happening, and now we are asked to report for BLO duty,” said a teacher. The teacher also noted that this was unfair to students, especially since many schools are already struggling with a shortage of teachers due to delays in appointing new staff.

City police officials have booked a 45-year-old man for allegedly raping his 15-year-old daughter for the past year and impregnating her. Later, the accused father also made her take abortion pills. The police are looking for the accused.

The accused does odd jobs for a living, while his wife, the complainant in the case, works as a caretaker. She would often have to leave home for days for her work. Whenever she would go out for a longer period of time at work, the accused would abuse his teenage daughter at their house.

A 56-year-old woman from Mulund, who was trying to end her life by jumping in the sea from Atal Bihari Vajpayee Trans Harbour Link bridge, was saved by four police constable along with a driver of a tourist car.

The police said that the incident took place at around 7.15pm on Friday following which the woman was taken to the police station in Navi Mumbai and her family members were alerted.

The Bombay High Court on Friday came down heavily on the Maharashtra government for failing to make the state advisory board, constituted to frame policies under the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act 2016, functional despite its orders.

A division bench of Chief Justice D K Upadhyaya and Justice Amit Borkar had last month directed the government to make the board functional at the earliest. It had also ordered senior state government officials to hold a meeting to finalise names of non-official members of the board.

However, on Friday, the court was informed by additional government pleader Abhay Patki that officials met on August 13 but could not finalise the names of the non-official members.

This irked the HC bench, which said it knows how to get court orders complied with.

"You intend to make this court (HC) dysfunctional? You think we don't know how to get our orders complied with? Now tell us what to do?" the court said.

Making the board was not only a court order but also the mandate of the legislature, the HC bench further said. (PTI)

A controversy erupted on Friday over alleged objectionable remarks made by Hindu religious leader Ramgiri Maharaj against Prophet Mohammad and Islam, with police filing cases against him in two districts of Maharashtra following complaints by members of the Muslim community.

The remarks were made recently by Ramgiri Maharaj at Shah Panchale village in Sinnar taluka of Nashik district during a religious event and its video went viral on social media, police said.

Amid the row over his comments, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde shared the dais with the religious leader during an event in Nashik district on Friday, and called him a "saint", while minister Girish Mahajan and former Ahmednagar MP Sujay Vikhe Patil touched his feet on stage.

Speaking at the function, Ramgiri Maharaj, the mahant of Sarla Bet Dham in Shrirampur taluka of Ahmednagar district, defended his controversial remarks, saying that they were in response to the atrocities being committed against Hindus in Bangladesh, and that his objective was to unite members of the Hindu community. (PTI)

The Chief Minister Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena on Friday said Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray's opposition to the Waqf Amendment Bill is driven by his desire to retain Muslim votes in the upcoming assembly elections in Maharashtra.

Shiv Sena spokesperson and Thane MP Naresh Mhaske also asked why Thackeray was opposing the Ram Janmabhoomi temple.

"Thackeray's stance is driven by a desire to retain Muslim votes in the upcoming elections," Mhaske said in a reference to the Lok Sabha polls in which the Sena (UBT) garnered votes in Muslim dominated seats.

Mhaske said the Waqf Board Amendment Bill, introduced in Parliament, aims to bring justice to underprivileged Muslim communities.

He also accused Thackeray of opposing the bill out of fear of losing the support of certain religious groups in the upcoming elections.

Earlier in the day, Thackeray targeted Prime minister Narendra Modi over the Waqf (Amendment) Bill and asked why it was not passed when the BJP was in absolute majority. (PTI)

A Kenyan woman was arrested at Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport on Friday allegedly with cocaine worth Rs 20 crore concealed in liquid form in two shampoo and lotion bottles, which DRI officials said was a new modus operandi to smuggle the contraband.

The appearance of the liquid cocaine was similar to the normal shampoo and lotion contents of these bottles, which increased the difficulty in its detection, Directorate of Revenue Intelligence officials said.

"The woman passenger coming from Nairobi in Kenya was apprehended by a DRI team on the basis of a specific intelligence. A total of 1,983 grams of the viscous liquid was recovered. A test run on it returned positive for cocaine. Its approximate value in the illicit market is Rs 20 crore," an official said.

The woman was arrested under provisions of Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act provisions and was remanded in judicial custody, the official added. (PTI)

Tension erupted in Jalgaon and Nashik cities in north Maharashtra on Friday during a bandh called by a Hindu organisation to condemn the atrocities on Hindus in Bangladesh, officials said.

In Jalgaon, stones were hurled at a vehicle showroom when Sakal Hindu Samaj, an umbrella body of several outfits, took out a protest march.

"The incident occurred in Jalgaon city this morning during a protest march by the Sakal Hindu Samaj against the anti-Hindu violence in Bangladesh. Some unidentified persons hurled a few stones at a two-wheeler showroom," an official said.

The glass facade of the showroom got damaged, he said.

"Hundreds of supporters of the Sakal Hindu Samaj took part in the march, and the protesters later went to the collector's office and handed over a memorandum of their demands," the police official said.

The incident triggered tension for some time, but the situation came under control following the intervention of the local police, he said. (PTI)

Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray on Friday insisted that MVA decide its chief ministerial face first rather than going by the logic of which party wins most seats, asserting that he would back any candidate announced by the Congress and NCP (SP).

His Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) allies Sharad Pawar, who heads NCP(SP), and Congress pitched for focussing on unseating the BJP-led Mahayuti coalition in the state.

Addressing party workers of the opposition bloc MVA here, Thackeray said if the Lok Sabha polls were to protect democracy and the Constitution, then the assembly polls are a fight to preserve Maharashtra's self-respect.

Elections to the 288-member Maharashtra assembly are likely to be held in October or November.

Pawar stressed the need for a single-point agenda to change the government in Maharashtra if the situation has to improve in the state.

He told the MVA cadres that the three partners will take along the Left outfits, Peasants and Workers Party of India (PWP) and the Samajwadi Party by giving them due respect, and present a united face before the people of the state. (PTI)

It is "almost clear now" the Maharashtra government will not give reservations to the Maratha community as it is only listening to the OBC groups, activist Manoj Jarange alleged on Friday.

Speaking to reporters in his native Antarwali Sarati in Jalna, some 60 kilometres from here, he said the Eknath Shinde government is disrespecting the Maratha community.

"The state government is listening to and giving time to only Other Backward Classes leaders. The Maratha community is disrespected. It is almost clear now the Maratha community will not be given reservation by the Maharashtra government. Therefore, we need to remove them (government)," Jarange claimed.

Talking about upcoming assembly polls, he said a decision on fielding candidates will be taken after August 29.

"I think there should be no alliance as such and we can think of fielding independent candidates. We will think about the social equations of the candidates," he said. (PTI)

On being asked about Assembly Elections in Maharashtra, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar said during the press conference held today, "Last time, Maharashtra and Haryana Assembly elections were held together. At that time, J&K was not a factor but this time there are 4 elections this year and 5th election immediately after this, which is to start with J&K, Haryana, Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Delhi. Depending on the requirement of forces, we have decided to conduct 2 elections together...The other factor is that there was heavy rainfall in Maharashtra and there are several festivals lined up too..."

Nationalist Congress Party (SP) president Sharad Pawar on Friday hit out at the Centre, saying it did not honour the post of the Leader of Opposition by allotting Rahul Gandhi a seat in the last rows at the Independence Day event.

Addressing party workers of the opposition bloc Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), Pawar said the threat to the Constitution is still not over even if the BJP did not get a majority in the Lok Sabha polls.

Pawar alleged that the prime minister (Narendra Modi) does not honour Parliament and claimed he did not come to the House even for a day during the Budget session. The NCP (SP) chief said those in power care less about the parliamentary procedures.

The prestige of the PM's post has to be maintained. Similarly, the prestige of the post of LoP is equally important, Pawar stressed.

“It cannot be expected that (Mallikarjun) Kharge, the Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, or Rahul Gandhi's prestige will be respected because those in power do not believe in democratic institutions," Pawar said. (PTI)

Two persons were killed and three others injured after three trucks collided with each other after hitting an animal on a highway in Madhya Pradesh's Shajapur town on Friday, police said.

The accident occurred around 4 am near a bypass on the Mumbai-Agra Highway when a vegetable-laden mini truck hit an animal on the road and was rammed into by another truck, an official said.

After ramming into the mini truck, the heavy vehicle lost control and collided with another goods carrier coming from the opposite direction, additional superintendent of police (ASP) TS Baghel said.

Truck drivers Jaipal Singh (45) and Anil Yadav (35) died on the spot, and three others suffered injuries, he said.

The injured persons were undergoing treatment at the district hospitals in Shajapur and Dewas, the official said, adding that a case was registered and further probe is underway. (PTI)

Shiv Sena UBT president and former MVA Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray urged key MVA leaders Sharad Pawar and Prithviraj Chauhan to announce their candidate for Chief Minister. “I will have no objection to it and I will announce my support for that candidate,” he stated. Thackeray emphasized that his priority is defeating the current government rather than personal ambitions. He expressed a desire to avoid internal conflicts over the CM position, which he experienced during previous alliances.

Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) leaders are scheduled to address a joint meeting of office bearers of the alliance partners Shanmukhanand Hall at 10.30 am on Friday. Sharad Pawar, Uddhav Thackeray and state congress leaders to be present.