Pune Beat

Kala Gaurav for Nilu Phule
This year’s Kala Gaurav Puraskar will go to prominent stage and film actor Nilu Phule, Kala Gaurav Pratisthan president Abhay Chhajed announced at a press conference here today. Senior drama critique Dr V B Deshpande will be honoured for his work in the field of drama. The best actor award will go to Kishor Kadam for the role of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar in the play Gandhi Ambedkar. Sonali Kulkarni will receive the best actress award for Chahul. Chetan Datar, who directed Gandhi Ambedkar, is to get the best director award while the best playwright award is for Prashant Dalvi for Chahul. Gandhi Ambedkar also gets the best production award and tamasha artist Kalu Balu is to be felicitated for his contribution in folkart.

`Cop’ loots man
The Vishrambaug police today arrested an imposter for taking a man’s wallet by posing as a policeman. The incident occurred on Tuesday night, when the complainant Jayant Manohar Pande was going to his Paud Road residence after visiting his friend. Pande, who was driving his car, was intercepted by the accused, Raju Ashok Dongre, near Nagarkar Talim, Shaniwar Wada. Dongre asked Pande to show him the documents of his car. When Pande insisted that he would show them only at the police chowky, the latter agreed. However, after travelling up to a certain distance, Dongre threatened Pande of dire consequences he did not surrender the cash he was carrying. Dogre threatened to beat Pande up with the help of his accomplices.

Pande gave him his wallet and the former fled the scene. Pande immediately rushed to the nearby Vishrambaug police chowki and lodged a complaint. Based on the description provided by Pande, the police sent a message to the squad patrolling the area. Within a few minutes, the accused was caught and brought to the chowki in a drunken state. Pande’s wallet containing Rs 470 was also recovered from him.