A beneficiary gets vaccinated in Navi Mumbai on February 21, 2022. (Express Photo: Amit Chakravarty)A day after reporting less than 100 Covid-19 cases, Mumbai on Tuesday added 135 patients to its tally and recorded two fresh fatalities due to the infection, a civic official said. The caseload in the metropolis now stands at 10,55,792 and the Covid-19 death toll is 16,690. With 233 being discharged after treatment, the count of recoveries went up to 10,34,914 in Mumbai, which was 98 per cent of the tally, he added.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court Tuesday directed the Maharashtra government to put “hands on hold” in the investigation against former police commissioner Param Bir Singh over the allegations of misconduct and corruption. A bench of Justices S K Kaul and M M Sundresh said the “messy state of affairs” has “the propensity of unnecessarily shaking confidence of people in police system”. When the counsel for Maharashtra asked the apex court not to record its direction to put “hands on hold” the in order, the bench recorded his assurance in the matter.
The Bombay High Court granted interim protection from coercive steps till February 28 to Sameer Wankhede, former zonal director of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), seeking to quash and set aside a case registered against him for allegedly falsifying his age to obtain a liquor licence. A division bench of Justice S S Shinde and Justice Nitin R Borkar was hearing Wankhede’s plea against the FIR calling it “arbitrary” and “motivated ” and there is no case made out against him by the police.
Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation has undertaken a new and unique initiative to collect and re-use various objects which are rejected, like e-waste, clothes, books, shoes, crockery and toys. Local citizens can keep these items in the bins, which can then be picked up by those in need. (Express Photo: Amit Chakravarty)
A special NIA court here denied bail to former policeman Pradeep Sharma, one of the accused in the Antilia bomb scare and businessman Mansukh Hiran's murder case, by noting that 'protectors of people's lives took away the life of a human'.
Special NIA judge A T Wankhede had, on February 16, rejected the bail plea of the former cop and the detailed order was made available on Tuesday.
As per the probe agency, Sharma 'willingly and intentionally' entered into a well-organised criminal conspiracy with other accused, including dismissed policeman Sachin Waze, to execute the murder of Thane-based businessman Mansukh Hiran. (PTI)
With Covid cases dropping in the city, parents want schools to return to pre-pandemic functioning with full capacity. According to many parents, students continue to face loss of academics and overall growth in the current scenario in which schools are following hybrid learning model of online and offline classes.
Schools across Maharashtra have resumed offline operations since January 24. As per existing guidelines, schools are calling students in batches or on alternate days to ensure physical distancing is maintained.
But parents say schools should go completely offline with Covid cases dropping. The Mumbai Parents Association is in discussions with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on this subject. Pallavi Smart writes
Residents of Kamathipura in south Mumbai have approached the Bombay High Court seeking removal of references to the area in the Alia Bhatt-starrer Gangubai Kathiawadi.
The film, which has been directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali, is slated for release on February 25.
The plea has been filed by a woman on behalf of 55 other Kamathipura residents. It claims that owing to the film, women residing in the neighbourhood “will be termed prostitutes” and “families will have to live with lowered dignity”. Read more
Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Tuesday e-inaugurated the construction of Siddharth Nagar (Patra Chawl) redevelopment project in Goregaon here.
Thackeray took part in the inaugural event via an online platform, while NCP president Sharad Pawar, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, Revenue Minister Balasaheb Thorat, Housing Development Minister Jitendra Awhad and others attended it physically.
In his address, the chief minister urged the chawl tenants to not forget their struggle for homes, and urged them to not sell the houses later and leave Mumbai. Awhad said MHADA will ensure people get their homes in the next three years. (PTI)
Restrictions on unvaccinated people for the local train travel and other modes of public transport are still in operation though the orders issued on separate dates in July and August 2021 and the SOP dated August 10 have been withdrawn, the Maharashtra government said on Tuesday.
The government also stressed the need to continue to observe COVID-appropriate behaviour like wearing masks, maintaining social distancing and frequently sanitising hands.
Currently, only those people who have received two doses of anti-COVID-19 vaccines and completed 14 days after the second shot are allowed to travel in Mumbai suburban trains. (PTI)
A special court here has observed that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has not taken an 'active approach' to begin the trials in money laundering cases that are pending since a long time.
Special judge M G Deshpande had made the observation on February 16 while granting bail to Yes Bank founder Rana Kapoor, his wife Bindu, businessman Gautam Thapar and seven others in a case pertaining to the sale of a property at a prime location in Delhi.
The detailed order was made available on Tuesday. (PTI)
A policeman was injured in a freak firing incident on Mumbai-Ahmedabad Highway in Maharashtra's Palghar district in the early hours of Tuesday, police said.
The incident took place around 2 am at Pelhar on Mumbai-Ahmedabad highway, where a police team from Virar police station was at vigil to nab a man accused of stealing betel nuts worth Rs 75 lakh, an official said.
The probe team led by senior inspector Pramod Badakh kept a vigil in the area and spotted the accused travelling in a truck, he said. The police team gave a chase and stopped the truck and were attempting to pin down the accused, who tried to escape, the official said. (PTI)
Maharashtra on Tuesday reported a big jump in deaths linked to coronavirus at 47 from just four fatalities registered a day ago, while the daily case tally again crossed the 1,000-mark to stand at 1,080, the health department said.
With these additions, the state's Covid-19 tally reached 78,60,317, while the death toll increased to 1,43,633, the department said in a bulletin. The case fatality rate is the state is 1.82 per cent, it added.
The state had recorded 806 cases and four fatalities on Monday. Mumbai registered 135 cases and two fatalities, while Pune city reported 205 infections and one death. (PTI)
Maharashtra Congress chief Nana Patole on Tuesday wrote to President Ram Nath Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, seeking classical language tag for Marathi, contending that it fulfils all the criteria to be categorised so.
In separate letters to the President and Prime Minister, Patole noted that Marathi is Maharashtra's state language and it has separate grammar and script, and at least 10 crore people speak the language.
“Marathi lives up to all the criteria to be tagged as a classical language. Hence, Marathi should be categorised so,” the Congress leader stated in the letter. (PTI)
The Bombay High Court granted interim protection from coercive steps till February 28 to Sameer Wankhede, former zonal director of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), seeking to quash and set aside a case registered against him for allegedly falsifying his age to obtain a liquor licence.
A division bench of Justice S S Shinde and Justice Nitin R Borkar was hearing Wankhede’s plea against the FIR calling it “arbitrary” and “motivated ” and there is no case made out against him by the police.
Wankhede, through senior counsel Aabad Ponda and advocate Niranjan Mundargi, submitted that he will extend full cooperation in the investigation till the matter is heard by regular bench and pleaded for interim protection of no-coercive steps. Omkar Gokhale reports
The Supreme Court Tuesday directed the Maharashtra government to put “hands on hold” in the investigation against former police commissioner Param Bir Singh over the allegations of misconduct and corruption.
A bench of Justices S K Kaul and M M Sundresh said the “messy state of affairs” has “the propensity of unnecessarily shaking confidence of people in police system”.
When the counsel for Maharashtra asked the apex court not to record its direction to put “hands on hold” the in order, the bench recorded his assurance in the matter. Read more
Upset about suffering losses in the share market, a 24-year-old man committed suicide by shooting himself with a country-made pistol at his apartment in the western suburb of Bandra here, police said on Tuesday.
The incident took place in Sai Dham Society in Bandra (east) on Monday morning, an official said. Mayank Jayesh Gala allegedly shot himself in the head with a country-made pistol while his brother was asleep in the same room, he said.
The victim's brother woke up to the sound of a gunshot and found him lying in a pool of blood, the official said. (PTI)
The Navi Mumbai police have arrested two Bangladeshi nationals for allegedly committing theft at a temple in Kharghar in January and seized Rs 80,000 in cash and stolen idols from them, a top official said on Tuesday.
Addressing a press conference here, Navi Mumbai Police Commissioner Bipin Kumar Singh said three cash boxes, some cash and idols were stolen by unidentified persons from the ISKCON temple in Kharghar on January 31, 2022.
Officials of the Central Crime Unit of the Navi Mumbai police worked on various leads after scanning CCTV footage and taking into account intelligence inputs, and zeroed in on the accused, who are facing separate charges for illegally entering India, he said. (PTI)
A Nigerian, who was out on bail in drugs case, has been arrested for alleged possession of narcotics worth over Rs 22 lakh in Navi Mumbai, police said on Tuesday.
The Navi Mumbai police have recovered emphatamine and methaqualone worth Rs 22.65 lakh from the accused, Annehe Kingsley Chinedu (37), Navi Mumbai Police Commissioner Bipin Kumar Singh said.
The Anti-Narcotics Cell (ANC) of the Navi Mumbai police had received information about some persons arriving near an IT park at Turbhe on February 19 and laid a trap at the location, the official said. (PTI)
Mumbai Mayor Kishori Pednekar on Tuesday said that the statements made by Union minister Narayan Rane and his MLA son Nitesh questioning the circumstances surrounding the death of Disha Salian, former manager of Bollywood actor the late Sushant Singh Rajput, in 2020, caused mental agony to her parents.
She also said that "distrust" is shown in the investigation reports of the CBI and the Mumbai Police, Disha Salian's post-mortem report and even in her family members.
"Narayan Rane and his son Nitesh have been repeatedly making statements even two years after Disha's death, which is hurting and angering her parents," the mayor told reporters after visiting the residence of the Salian family in Dadar in central Mumbai. (PTI)
A day after reporting less than 100 Covid-19 cases, Mumbai on Tuesday added 135 patients to its tally and recorded two fresh fatalities due to the infection, a civic official said.
The caseload in the metropolis now stands at 10,55,792 and the Covid-19 death toll is 16,690. With 233 being discharged after treatment, the count of recoveries went up to 10,34,914 in Mumbai, which was 98 per cent of the tally, he said.
Some 85 per cent, or 115 cases, of the 135 detected during the day were asymptomatic, with just 20 patients requiring hospital admission and eight needing oxygen support in the last 24 hours, he said. (PTI)
A special NDPS court here on Tuesday denied interim bail to actor Armaan Kohli, who was arrested by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) for alleged possession and consumption of drugs.
The actor's regular bail pleas have been rejected both by the special court and the Bombay High court on previous occasions.
Kohli had recently sought interim bail for 14 days to visit his ailing parents. He later urged the court for grant him bail for two days. (PTI)
Referring to the NSE case, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman Tuesday said: “I have no comment to make on whether adequate corrective measure was taken until I get into the depth of the issue. I am looking into it and will not be able to comment as of now.” She was speaking during a Post Budget press conference in Mumbai.
The Finance Minister further said “We have been on course as far as privatisation is concerned. Air India has been cleared. LIC IPO is also on track. Since the LIC DRHP has been filed, there is a lot of interest in the market. The LIC IPO will come out in the current financial year.”
Regarding filling up the post of IRDA chief that has been vacant for nine months, Sitharaman said: “We want to fill up the post as soon as possible and we are looking into it.”
A 31-year-old man was arrested from Bengaluru by Mumbai police for allegedly duping a music teacher of Rs 2.43 lakh with the promise of high returns on a cryptocurrency investment, an official said on Tuesday.
As per the complaint filed by the victim at Matunga police station, he had received a message on his mobile from one 'Argohash' about the chance to earn Rs 2,000 per day through cryptocurrency mining. he said.
"The victim started depositing money after clicking on the link and downloading the Argohash app. The app stopped working some time later, and another app called Argopro went operational. The man soon realised he was being cheated and approached police," he informed. (PTI)
The Bombay High Court on Tuesday said the Maharashtra government's orders of 2021 permitting only people fully vaccinated against Covid-19 to travel in local trains were "illegal" and brazenly affected the fundamental rights of citizens.
A division bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice M S Karnik said the three orders signed by the government's then chief secretary Sitaram Kunte were in clear diversion from the prescribed procedure under the Disaster Management Rules.
"The orders passed by the former chief secretary were in clear diversion of the prescribed procedure. Due to the illegal orders, the fundamental rights of citizens were brazenly affected," the HC said. (PTI)