Mumbai Beat

The dhobis have therefore moved the Bombay High Court against the BMC, which has been ordered to file an affidavit explaining why it has been reluctant to transfer the plot.

When the matter came up today, the BMC8217;s advocate said the transfer of such prime real estate involved a major cost. The case will come up for further hearing on September 16.

Today8217;s directive was given on a petition filed by Umashankar Mishra on behalf of the Dhobi Kalyan Audhyogik Vikas Cooperative Society Limited. The petitioner today produced a letter in court which shows that the BMC had asked for over Rs 25 crore as the cost of the plot. It was argued that as per the Memorandum of Understanding signed between the dhobis and the BMC in 1993, the civic authorities had agreed to the unconditional transferafter the formation of the dhobis8217; society.

However, the petitioner pointed, the MoU had not been executed even though the society was set up.

VIP passes scam: Bail rejected

Principal Sessions Judge A S Aguiar on Wednesday rejected the anticipatory bail application of the main accused in the VIP railway pass scam Chandrakant Dayamma and his associate Dr G K Bhanji.

According to the prosecution, Dayamma had paid Rs 50,000 and obtained fake documents for the purpose of posing as a member of the Rajya Sabha. Dayamma had used the documents for obtaining concession in the higher class of the railways and also procured free railway tickets from the VIP quota. Dayamma had posed as a member of the Railway Parliamentary Standing Committee in Expenditure. Police investigations revealed there is no such committee.

Bharadwaj challenges EC

The Bombay High Court today admitted a petition filed by Nitish Bharadwaj challenging the decision of the Election Commission to suspend his teleserial,Geeta Rahasya, as the code of conduct is in force.

Bharadwaj, who has produced the serial, is a BJP MP from Jamshedpur. He had expressed an apprehension that his serial on Doordarshan would be off air from Sunday. His counsel, however, pointed out that that his client is not contesting the elections and if the serial was taken off air, he stood to lose crores of rupees.

He said if Bharadwaj does contest the elections, he would intimate the EC by August 23 and the EC would have to take a decision and give in writing, with reasons supporting the decision, by August 25. The bench accepted his suggestions.

The petition has been kept pending, open for Bharadwaj in case he wanted to challenge the EC decision. Till then, his serial will continue on Doordarshan.