Mumbai Notes

Malabar Hill robbery: 4 held, booty recovered

In a swift action, the police arrested on Saturday all four accused involved in the 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, withchoppers 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.

Investigations revealed that the robbery was planned by Naik when his accomplices frequented the Priyadarshini Park in the neighbourhood. The police identified the arrested trio as Mukesh Bhupsingh Choudhary alias Ratanlal, Basantkumar Ramchandra Nayak and Ramesh Naidu.

As per the plan, Choudhary and Nayak entered the flaton the pretext of meeting Jogani. Earlier, Naik had picked up the phone when the security guard called to seek permission to let the duo in. When they knocked at the door, not to arouse suspicion Naik asked Rehana to open the door.

All four had planned to escape from the city at the earliest and headed for their native villages.

Phones of 378 MPs snapped: MTNL

The telephone lines of 378 former members of parliament had been disconnected this year for non-payment of arrears, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd MTNL informed the Bombay High Court today.

Sunil Dutt, Sharad Dighe, Prakash Patil and Anupchand Shah are among former MPs whose telephone lines were cut off on March 30, 1999 on account of default in paying the bills, MTNL official A V Mestha stated in an affidavit. Chief Justice Y K Sabharwal and Justice S Radhakrishnan were hearing a petition filed by advocate M P Vashi who alleged MTNL8217;s discriminatory attitude towards politicians by not recovering from them arrears of telephone billsamounting to Rs 15.73 crore.

Dighe8217;s arrears amounted to Rs 2.61 lakh and his two telephone connections were snapped after he had failed to pay the amount. Dutt had to pay Rs 1.76 lakh and had asked for making the payment in instalments. But he defaulted in paying the instalment too and hence his telephone number 6442522 had been cut off.

HC refuses to dispose of plea against UMC

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

The counsel for the UMC, R Sawant, argued that the petition be dismissed since the corporation has initiated the cleanliness drive.

However, 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 itwas,quot; the counsel argued. Since the UMC did not have any answer it prayed for an adjournment which was granted. The case will now come up for hearing on May 3, 1999.

Nominations for Marathi film awards

Marathi film stars Ajinkya Dev, Dilip Prabhavalkar, Mohan Joshi, Usha Naik, Alka Athaley and Suhas Joshi were among those nominated for the 36th Maharashtra State Marathi Film Festival awards, announced Cultural Affairs Minister Pramod Navalkar today. Raatra Aarambh, Aandhala Sakshidar, Tu Tithe Mi, Hasari, Shandhyug, Gharsansaar and Ashi Dnyaneshwariquot; are the seven Marathi films that figured in the list of nominees for the best movie award which will be given away at a function in Shanmukhanand hall on April 30, Navalkar informed. This year the government will also felicitate Marathi film industry8217;s artistes of the yesteryears including Master Bhagvan, Anant Marathe, Rajdutt, Shriram Lagoo, Niloo Phule, Suryakant, Vanmala, Sulochana.