BJP MLA Babanrao LonikarMumbai news live: An audio clip has surfaced on social media, in which BJP MLA Babanrao Lonikar is purportedly heard threatening an official of the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Ltd (MSEDCL) with Income Tax raids for allegedly disconnecting the power supply of his bungalow in Aurangabad. However, talking to reporters in Jalna on Wednesday, Lonikar, a former Maharashtra minister, claimed that the audio clip was fake and there was an attempt to tarnish his image through it.
Meanwhile, a sessions court in Mumbai on Wednesday refused anticipatory bail to IPS officer Saurabh Tripathi in an alleged extortion case registered against him by angadiyas. Additional sessions judge R M Sadrani rejected Deputy Commissioner of Police Tripathi’s plea. The detailed order was not available yet. Tripathi moved the court through his lawyer Aniket Nikam after he was named as an accused in the case, registered on the basis of a complaint filed by south Mumbai-based angadiyas (traditional couriers).
In other news, Congress, which is part of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition government in Maharashtra, on Wednesday wrote to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and demanded implementation of the Common Minimum Programme (CMP). The CMP could not be implemented properly in the last two years due to the coronavirus pandemic, said state Congress chief Nana Patole in the letter.
Members of Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Co. Ltd. Union raise slogans in protest during 'Bharat Bandh', a two-day nationwide strike against the government over Unilateral Electricity Amendment Bill and privatisation of power firms in Maharashtra, in Thane, Monday, March 28, 2022. (PTI)
Congress, which is part of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition government in Maharashtra, on Wednesday wrote to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and demanded implementation of the Common Minimum Programme (CMP).
The CMP could not be implemented properly in the last two years due to the coronavirus pandemic, said state Congress chief Nana Patole in the letter.
“Now that the intensity of the pandemic has declined, the Common Minimum Programme should be implemented. Schemes should be planned and implemented for the welfare of Dalits, OBCs and the minorities,” he said. The other two prominent constituents of the MVA are the Thackeray-led Shiv Sena and Nationalist Congress Party. (PTI)
Police have seized two fishing boats off the Mumbai coast and recovered 10,950 litres of diesel illegally stocked in them, an official said on Wednesday.
Two persons found in the boats were arrested in this connection, he said. The operation was conducted by the Yellow Gate police station here on a specific information about the illegally stocked diesel, he said.
The accused persons, identified as Deepakkumar Tandel, 42, and Sureshbhai Tandel, 47, were in deep sea for the last 15 days and it is suspected that they had procured the diesel illegally from big vessels anchored off the Gujarat coast, the official said. (PTI)
A delegation of BJP leaders in the city met Mumbai Police Commissioner Sanjay Pandey Tuesday seeking permission for gudi padwa processions and urged him to end the use of loudspeakers in mosques.
The delegation led by BJP Mumbai chief Mangal Prabhat Lodha and MLA Atul Bhatkhalkar met Pandey at the Mumbai Police headquarters.
Speaking to the media later, Lodha said, “We met the commissioner firstly to seek permission for processions during Gudi Padwa, which is in a few days time. Secondly, we asked the police to stop the use of loudspeakers in mosques to recite azaan. We cited various court judgments that have in the past denied mosques permission to use loudspeakers.” Read more
An adult leopard, which had strayed into a village in adjoining Palghar district four days ago, was rescued on Wednesday, a forest department official said.
The wild animal, whose one of the legs had injury marks due to entanglement in a snare, was rescued by the forest department in collaboration with a team from Mumbai's Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP) from Kashid Kopar village, the official said.
According to the official, the leopard was spotted by local residents, whose houses are located near a forest, four days ago after which they informed the police as well as the forest department. The big cat did not attack any villager, but had killed four dogs, he said. (PTI)
An audio clip has surfaced on social media, in which BJP MLA Babanrao Lonikar is purportedly heard threatening an official of the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Ltd (MSEDCL) with Income Tax raids for allegedly disconnecting the power supply of his bungalow in Aurangabad.
However, talking to reporters in Jalna on Wednesday, Lonikar, a former Maharashtra minister, claimed that the audio clip was fake and there was an attempt to tarnish his image through it.
In the audio clip of the purported phone conservation, Lonikar, who currently represents the Partur Assembly constituency in Jalna district of the state, is heard asking the MSEDCL official the power supply of his bungalow in Aurangabad was snapped and the meter box was taken away although he has paid Rs 10 lakh outstanding bill amount this year. (PTI)
Senior police officers in Mumbai, including Joint Commissioners of Police, will have to do night duty once every 15 days, officials said on Wednesday.
A circular in this regard has been issued by Mumbai police commissioner Sanjay Pandey, who took charge of his post a month ago.
In the circular, Pandey has instructed all the five Joint Commissioners of Police - looking after Law and Order, Crime, Administration, Traffic and the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) - and all Additional Commissioners of Police to take up night duty, an official said. (PTI)
The Mumbai police have registered an FIR against a city-based developer for allegedly snapping the water connection of the members of a housing society at Vakola in suburban Santacruz and shutting the terrace as well as the welfare office of the building for them following a dispute over maintenance dues, an official said on Wednesday.
The FIR was registered against Shakil Khamkar of Dolphin Developer at Vakola police station on Tuesday. He was booked after Sunny Mahida, a member of the housing society, lodged a complaint against him, he said.
In the complaint, Mahida alleged that over a month ago, Khamkar had threatened over 40 families residing in the building that he would stop the supply of water and electricity and also the lift service if they don't pay the society maintenance charges to him. (PTI)
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Wednesday held a protest and demanded the arrest of Maharashtra BJP leader and MLC Pravin Darekar over his alleged role in a "fraud" at Mumbai District Central Cooperative Bank, where he is a director.
AAP workers staged the protest in the afternoon in front of the BJP office at Nariman Point in South Mumbai and demanded his resignation.
Darekar, who is also the Leader of Opposition in the Maharashtra Legislative Council, hit back at the Arvind Kejriwal-led party, calling its protest a 'nautanki' (drama) and termed fraud allegation against him as baseless. During the protest, the AAP supporters raised slogans against Darekar. (PTI)
Academic Anand Teltumbde, an accused in the Elgar Parishad-Maoists links case, told the Bombay High Court on Wednesday that the National Investigation Agency (NIA) had labelled him a terrorist without attributing to him any direct act of violence.
Teltumbde's counsel Mihir Desai told the high court that while the NIA had claimed in its charge sheet in the case that Teltumbde was part of terrorist organisations and that he abetted terrorist activities, he had not been charged directly for any particular act of violence in the case.
For one to be called a terrorist, there must be an act of violence, Desai told a bench of Justices S B Shukre and G A Sanap. He was arguing on Teltumbde's behalf, seeking bail for him in the case. (PTI)
The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) on Wednesday said it has arrested two clerks of a private school in Bhiwandi town of Maharashtra's Thane district for allegedly seeking and accepting Rs 9,000 bribe on the promise of giving admission to a child. The arrest was made on Tuesday, an official release said.
The accused were identified as Tehaseen Mohid Ahmed Momin, 36, and Akhil Malik Shaikh, 52. Momin and Shaikh work are clerk and senior clerk, respectively, at Ayesha Siddhika Girls Urdu School, Deputy Commissioner of Police (ACB - Navi Mumbai) Jyoti Deshmukh said in the release.
The accused demanded Rs 9,000 over and above the regular fees from the complainant for giving admission to a child in the Junior KG in their government-aided school, the official added. (PTI)
The Bombay High Court on Wednesday directed the chairperson of the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) Pune to ask the institute's director to reconsider the suspension a faculty member over an alleged anti-government Facebook post made in 2019.
A bench of Justices S B Shukre and G A Sanap said that prima facie (on the face of it), it appeared that the suspension order that was issued by the FTII director against the petitioner faculty member Indranil Bhattacharya was 'illegal.' It directed the FTII chairperson to inform the director of the court's prima facie view, and also said that an inquiry be initiated into the incident of suspension.
The bench took note of the petitioner's counsel advocate Sunip Sen that the director had apparently single-handedly taken the decision to suspend him and had not followed the due process. (PTI)
A sessions court here on Wednesday refused anticipatory bail to IPS officer Saurabh Tripathi in an alleged extortion case registered against him by angadiyas.
Additional sessions judge R M Sadrani rejected Deputy Commissioner of Police Tripathi's plea. The detailed order was not available yet. Tripathi moved the court through his lawyer Aniket Nikam after he was named as an accused in the case, registered on the basis of a complaint filed by south Mumbai-based angadiyas (traditional couriers).
The IPS officer was falsely implicated in the case, advocate Nikam told the court, contending that Tripathi had no reason to extort money from angadiyas. Prosecution opposed the pre-arrest bail plea, saying that he was a highly influential person and could tamper with evidence. (PTI)
The Bombay High Court on Tuesday dismissed two pleas by Hotel & Restaurant Association (Western India), Indian Hotel & Restaurant Association (commonly known as AHAR) and others representing hotels, which are self serving foreign liquor (FL) vendors, seeking to set aside January 28, 2020 notification issued by the Maharashtra Government notification that prescribed the FL-III license renewal fees for 2021–2022.
In doing so, the Court imposed a cost of Rs. 1 lakh each on nine petitioner associations (total Rs. nine lakhs) to be paid into the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund within two weeks. Omkar Gokhale reports
Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope on Wednesday said looking at the rise in coronavirus cases in many countries, it would not be right to take the risk of doing away with the face mask mandate.
Talking to reporters, Tope said the state earlier had 46,000 active Covid cases and the number has now come down to 960. Currently, the Covid positivity rate is 0.4 per cent.
Maharashtra on Tuesday recorded 103 fresh coronavirus cases, while no new death linked to the infection was registered, as per the state health department. (PTI)
A 27-year-old farmer has died of heat stroke in Maharashtra's Jalgaon district, as parts of the state continue to witness heatwave conditions, officials said on Wednesday. An official at the Jalgaon district collectorate claimed this was probably the first such case during the current summer season in the state.
On Tuesday, Jalgaon district, located over 400 km from Mumbai, recorded a maximum temperature of 41.8 degrees Celsius, which was 2.5 degrees C higher than normal, as per a report of the India Meteorological Department (IMD).
The farmer, Jitendra Sanjay Mali, was on Tuesday afternoon rushed by some people to the Amalner rural hospital in Jalgaon where he was declared dead on arrival, Dr Ashish Patil from the medical facility said. (PTI)
Union Minister for Education, Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Dharmendra Pradhan has indicated that the Nanar oil refinery project in Konkan region may be revived as the Maharashtra government was reconsidering its decision about stalling the project.
What is the Nanar oil refinery project?
The project, Ratnagiri Refinery and Petrochemical Limited, was going to be Asia’s ‘biggest oil refinery’, and was proposed to be built at Nanar village in Ratnagiri district in coastal Konkan region. It was supposed to be a joint venture between Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum, and Saudi Arabia-owned Aramco and United Arab Emirates’ National Oil Company. Read more
Mumbai police commissioner Sanjay Pandey has said that noise pollution, traffic woes and drugs are the bigger problems faced by the citizens than gangsterism or organised crime.
Speaking at the Mumbai Press Club on Tuesday, he said that this was the “surprising learning” he had based on the response he received from the public after sharing his personal number and social media accounts asking them for suggestions. Read more
Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray will inaugurate parts of the Mumbai Metro between Dhanukarwadi and Aarey on the occasion of Gudi Padwa, the Marathi New Year, on April 2, officials said.
The Mumbai Metropolitan Regional Development Authority (MMRDA) is constructing a 35-km stretch of two elevated metro corridors—Line 2A between Dahisar and D N Nagar and Line 7 between Dahisar East and Andheri East. These two new metro lines will run parallelly on the east and west side of the suburb and are expected to decongest the Western Express Highway, the major arterial road of Mumbai. Read more
Journalist Rana Ayyub was stopped from flying to London at the Mumbai International Airport Tuesday evening based on a lookout circular issued by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) which is probing her in connection with a case of alleged money laundering.
Sources in the ED said Ayyub had been summoned twice but she responded to only one summons following which the lookout circular was issued against her. Sources said based on this, Ayyub was detained by immigration authorities and ED was informed. Read more
An audit report from Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), Maharashtra, has said that the estimates prepared by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation for contracts for development and maintenance of gardens, recreational grounds and playgrounds were inflated.
Prepared last year, the audit report observed that rate analysis was not done properly while preparing the estimates.
CAG found these irregularities while auditing the contracts awarded from 2016-2020 (39 months) and 2018-21 (30 months). Read more