Tally of coronavirus infections rose to 10,49,348, according to Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) bulletin. (Express Photo by Amit Chakravarty)Mumbai reported 846 new Covid-19 cases on Friday taking the toll number of active cases to 7135. With 1297 patients discharged from the hospitals, the recovered number of patients stands at 10,23,589.
Maharashtra had recorded 15,252 new Covid-19, and 75 fatalities on Thursday, the state health department said. No Omicron infection was reported during the day. The state has so far reported 3,334 infections of the Omicron variant. Mumbai on the other hand recorded 827 new Covid-19 cases and seven deaths. Mumbai reported a second dip of 301 cases from a day ago and the daily tally was below 1,000.
In another development, another witness in the 2008 Malegaon blast case turned hostile on Thursday, claiming that he was pressured by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) to name members of the RSS. Of the 226 witnesses who have deposed so far, he was the 17th witness to not support the prosecution case.
The Supreme Court on Friday granted protection from arrest to actor Sherlyn Chopra in a case registered by Mumbai Cyber police in 2020 in connection with the porn films racket expose.
A bench of Justices Vineet Saran and Aniruddha Bose issued notice to the Maharashtra government on the appeal filed by Chopra challenging the Bombay High Court’s November 25, 2021 order rejecting her anticipatory bail application.
“Issue notice… In the meanwhile, no coercive action shall be taken against the petitioner,” the bench said.
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Looking at new measures to boost revenue income in the civic budget 2022-23, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has suggested collecting an additional fee from residential and commercial properties for collection, transportation and disposal of garbage. But the move has drawn opposition from sectors like the hotel industry, which claims it is being burdened with an unnecessary fee at a time when businesses have not recovered from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The BMC plans to mop up Rs 174 crore annually through this fee. But getting the user fee policy approved has proven an uphill task for the administration.
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A metropolitan magistrate court in Bandra, that on February 1 granted bail to 22-year-old Yash Kumar — one of the three accused in the Clubhouse app case, has in its bail order criticised the Mumbai Cyber Police, saying that they have shown nothing to establish connection of the accused with the alleged acts of posting derogatory chats. The eight-page bail order also cited around 12 aspects for granting bail to Kumar in the case, in which he, along with two others, was arrested for allegedly engaging in obscene chats targeting women and auctioning their body parts.
The bail came as a setback to many of the victims who claimed that they were disappointed with the order. One of the victims told the Indian Express that she is “disheartened” by the court’s decision and termed the bail “unfair”. “I hope cyber police will appeal against his bail. If he is old enough to describe rape and call himself a potential rapist, then he must face the consequences,” she said. The cyber police sources however claimed that the evidence were submitted and they might approach a higher court against the order.
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Mumbai reported 846 new Covid-19 cases on Friday taking the toll number of active cases to 7135. With 1297 patients discharged from the hospitals, the recovered number of patients stands at 10,23,589.
Maharashtra health minister Rajesh Tope on Friday said the number of COVID-19 cases had begun declining statewide and predicted that the third wave of the pandemic might get over by the second or third week of March.
He said the state, which was reporting 48,000 cases per day during the third wave which started some weeks ago, was now seeing the tally increase by 15,000 daily, adding that the infection curve was flattening in major cities like Mumbai, Pune, Thane and Raigad.
Speaking to reporters here, the minister said the Centre must start the process of vaccinating children in the 12-15 age segment against COVID-19. He said Maharashtra was ready with the health infrastructure to vaccinate this age group. (PTI)
Justifying the restrictions imposed on local train travel in Mumbai amid the Covid-19 pandemic, the Maharashtra government told the Bombay High Court on Friday that, as a welfare state, it had a responsibility to ensure its citizens "did not die." Senior advocate Anil Anturkar told a bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice MS Karnik that the Maharashtra government had prohibited unvaccinated persons from traveling on local trains in the city to check the spread of Covid-19.
Anturkar was arguing on behalf of the state government on a public interest litigation claiming that the restriction imposed on unvaccinated persons was illegal and in breach of their fundamental right to move freely across the country as guaranteed under Article 19 (1) (d) of the Constitution.
The government counsel said the restriction was a reasonable one and was meant for the greater good. (PTI)
The Central Goods and Services Tax (CGST) authorities in Thane have arrested a couple, who are partners in a city-based firm, for alleged GST evasion of Rs 12.23 crore, a senior official said on Friday.
The couple - 50-year-old man and his 48-year-old wife - was arrested on Thursday and presented in a court, which remanded them in 14-day judicial custody, he said.
The arrest was made by the anti-evasion wing of CGST Thane Commissionerate under the Mumbai zone. (PTI)
YouTuber Vikas Fhatak (41), alias ‘Hindustani Bhau’, was on Friday afternoon produced before a magistrate court in Bandra and remanded to police custody for one more day, till Saturday. He was arrested Tuesday for his alleged role in provoking students of classes 10 and 12 in Maharashtra to protest against offline exams. Meanwhile, his aide Ikrar Khan was remanded to judicial custody.
Public prosecutor Prasad Joshi argued that Fhatak had received instructions from one person on social media to orchestrate the protest. The police said that this person is linked to a political party and it needs to be found out why Fhatak had taken instructions from him. The police said they are trying to trace this person.
The police said that Fhatak was not sharing his Gmail password with them and they need to go through it. In his defence, Phatak said he had forgotten his Gmail password and said he would help the police in recovering it. After listening to both sides, the magistrate extended Fhatak’s custody for one more day. Fhatak was also allowed to have a chat with his lawyer.
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President Ram Nath Kovind will visit Maharashtra from February 10 to 13 and inaugurate the renovated Darbar Hall in Raj Bhavan on February 11.
The inauguration of the Darbar Hall was scheduled for December 8 but was postponed due to the death of Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) Bipin Rawat.
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Police arrested a 48-year-old man late on Thursday for allegedly killing his wife, who was a medical officer at the Nashik Municipal Corporation’s Morwadi hospital.
The charred body of Suvarna Vaze, 38, was found dead late on January 25 inside her car, which was gutted. “We have arrested her husband, Sandeep, on the basis of circumstantial evidence. Her family members had also suspected him. The technical evidence procured by the investigating team indicates that he was behind the killing,” said Sachin Patil, superintendent of police for Nashik Rural.
After the charred remains of the doctor and her car were found near the Khed Bhairav village off the Mumbai-Agra highway in the district, the Wadivarhe police had registered a case of accidental death.
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A case has been registered against three persons, including two police personnel, for allegedly attempting to extort money from a woman in the eastern suburb of Chembur here, police said on Friday.
An FIR was registered on Thursday against the assistant commissioner of police (ACP) Shalini Sharma, suspended inspector Anil Jadhav and one Raju Sontakke at Chembur police station, an official said.
According to the complainant, who is in the business of event management, the accused had demanded money from her on February 24 last year, he said. The accused had allegedly demanded Rs 2 lakh and Rs 50 lakh from the complainant, the official said. (PTI)
Expressing dismay over the delay in filling up judicial vacancies across the country, the Bombay High Court on Friday asked the Union government when will it think about giving a "booster" for the judiciary.
It also said that if the government wants the country's economy to get a booster, how can it not fill up the vacancies in the tribunals that are supposed to help banks recover financial dues.
"We are talking about boosters these days. Booster vaccines, boosters for the economy. We read somewhere that the current budget is a booster for the nation's economy. But where is the booster for the judiciary?" the high court asked. (PTI)
A court has acquitted two brothers who were accused of murdering their employee at a grocery store in Maharashtra's Thane district. Additional sessions judge R V Tamhanekar, in his order, said the prosecution had failed to prove the charges under section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code.
The copy of order passed on January 31 was made available on Friday. The court acquitted brothers Abhijeet Ashok Patil (30) and Jagdish Ashok Patil (34), hailing from Shilgaon. The prosecution informed the court that the victim, Dilip Sah, a native of Jharkhand, lived with other workers in the quarters of the grocery shop ran by the accused men's father in Mumbra.
The Republic Of Korea will be sharing its technology with India to monitor and manage the 701-km Mumbai-Nagpur Super Communication Expressway, set to be the country’s longest expressway. This will be the first time in the country that an intelligent transportation system (ITS) will be implemented on an expressway for the safety of motorists and to prevent accidents, said officials.
Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) is the nodal agency to execute the eight-lane expressway, set to be the fastest in the country with a speed of 150 km per hour, at a cost of Rs 55,000 crore. (With Vallabh Ozarkar)
The Maharashtra Administrative Tribunal (MAT) has asked the authorities to resolve the issue of the transfer of 187 police officers by DGP Sanjay Pandey and their not being relieved by the Commissioner of Police, Mumbai, Hemant Nagrale. This means that additional chief secretary (home) Manukumar Srivastava, CP Hemant Nagrale and DGP Sanjay Pandey have to sit together to resolve the matter.
In Maharashtra, the Mumbai Police Commissioner reports directly to the state government while the rest of the state reports to the DGP. Some of the officers who were not relieved by the CP had approached the MAT. In the hearing on January 31, MAT had asked the home department to be a party in the case as the advocate for one of the officers who is not being relieved by Nagrale asked for the ACS Home to be made a party. (With Yogesh Naik)
Another witness in the 2008 Malegaon blast case turned hostile on Thursday, claiming that he was pressured by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) to name members of the RSS.
Of the 226 witnesses who have deposed so far, he was the 17th witness to not support the prosecution case.
Officials of the ATS, who had last week sought to remain present during the recording of evidence, have not moved a formal plea so far to attend court. State Home Minister Dilip Walse Patil had last month said that taking note of witnesses turning hostile, an ATS representative would be asked to remain present before the court during trial.
The Mumbai police have taken the custody of gangster Suresh Pujari in a Rs 10-crore extortion case, an official said on Thursday. Suresh Pujari was wanted in the extortion case registered at the Chembur Police Station in suburban Mumbai on a complaint filed by a share broker and the crime branch has taken his custody for questioning in the matter, the official said.
At least, 10 persons have been arrested in the case and Suresh Pujari was their leader, he said, adding stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) sections have been invoked against the accused. The gangster was shown as arrested in the extortion case and produced before a court on Thursday, which sent him to police custody till February 8, the official said.
Maharashtra agriculture minister Dada Bhuse on Thursday said he had asked state officials to follow up with the Union government farmers' complaints about crop insurance claims. Bhuse was speaking to reporters after holding a meeting with officials and farmer leaders on the issue. Insurance companies try to avoid payment of insurance amount to farmers on technical grounds, said Ravikant Tupkar, a leader of the Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatna.
"Untimely and heavy showers damaged crops in Marathwada last year. As per the rules, a farmer must register a complaint about crop damage within 72 hours. But there was no mobile phone connectivity because of rains, so many farmers could not do that," Tupkar told reporters.
Dismissed Mumbai police officer Sachin Waze on Thursday told an inquiry commission, probing corruption allegations against former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh, that he wants to file an affidavit to retract certain deposition made during his cross-examination. Waze, currently in judicial custody following his arrest in the Antilia bomb scare-Mansukh Hiran murder case, had recently deposed before the commission headed by Justice K U Chandiwal (retd).
The state government formed the commission last year to probe allegations of corruption levelled against Deshmukh, a senior NCP leader, by former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh. Waze's statement is part of a supplementary charge-sheet filed by the ED in a money laundering case against Deshmukh, which stems from the graft allegations, in a court here in December last year. Besides Deshmukh, his two sons as well as nine others, including companies, have been named in the charge-sheet.