Mumbai Beat

Laxmi Rane Pushpakumar Roy was found with her throat slit in her flat at Sea Breeze Housing Society, Pahadi Nagar at 11.30 am. Police believe she died while trying to prevent a robbery. Roy, who stayed with her employed daughter Usha Sanjaykar, had been ailing for some time. When Sanjaykar called from her workplace no one answered her call. Worried she called up the neighbour to find out what happened. While the maid had gone out to pay the telephone bill, her five-year-old daughter had gone to school. The neighbour found the door ajar and found Roy lying in a pool of blood with her throat slit. The house had been ransacked. Enquiries revealed that cash and jewellery worth Rs 1.19 lakh was missing. The RCF police have registered a case of murder.

Malabar Hill robbery: 4 held,

n IN a swift action, the police arrested on Saturday all four accused involved inthe robbery of a Malabar Hill flat and recovered the entire booty worth Rs 59 lakh.

The incident took place at 2.30 pm on April 3 when two persons got into the fourth-floor flat of Darshana Jogani 49 and threatened her and her maid servant, Rehana, with choppers and collected all jewellery and cash before fleeing. Another servant Ajay Gangadhar Naik, who was conveniently missing when the robbery took place, soon left on some errand from the flat at Rambha building on Napean Sea road. While Naik was arrested within three hours boarding the Howrah Mail at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus with Rs 60,000 cash concealed in a bag, the police had to set up four special squads to track his three accomplices, according to Deputy Commissioner of Police Zone II Dr K Venkatesham.While one squad left for Igatpuri near Nasik, the others headed from New Delhi and Moradabad district in Bihar and succeeded in arresting other members of Naik8217;s team.

Plea against UMC stays

The Bombay High Court today refused todispose of the petition filed against the lack of clean-up drive of Ulhasnagar Municipal Corporation UMC.

Counsel for UMC, R Sawant, argued that the petition be dismissed since the corporation has initiated the cleanliness drive. 4However, counsel for petitioners A Bobde argued that the current clean-up drive was being undertaken by private agencies pressed into service following the court8217;s intervention. He requested the court to find out what arrangements were being made by the UMC to maintain the drive. quot;Until that is spelt out the situation may go back to what it was,quot; the counsel argued. UMC prayed for an adjournment which was granted. The case will now come up for hearing on May 3, 1999.