Security personnel during a National Investigation Agency (NIA) raid at the residence of Gangster Dawood Ibrahim's associate Salim Fruit, in Mumbai, Monday. (PTI)Mumbai News Highlights: The National Investigation Agency has arrested two Mumbai based alleged associates of Dawood Ibrahim and Shakeel Shaikh alias Chhota Shakeel. The arrested accused have been identified as Arif Abubakar Shaikh (59) and Shabbir Abubakar Shaikh (51). As per NIA both were involved in handling Dawood Ibrahim’s illegal activities and terrorist financing in the western suburbs of Mumbai. They were produced before the special NIA court today and have been sent to NIA’s custody till May 20.
Maharashtra on Friday recorded 263 new Covid-19 infections and two pandemic-related deaths, according to news agency PTI. With this, the state’s overall Covid-19 tally rose to 78,80,337 and death toll reached 1,47,853. While, Mumbai recorded 155 new cases and one death on Friday.
A day after the Maharashtra unit of the BJP tweeted an edited video of his speech and accused him of being a Hindu-hater, NCP chief Sharad Pawar on Thursday said he was reading out lines from a poem which presents the pain of the labourer class, but those who wanted to spread misinformation were free to do so. The @BJP4Maharashtra on Wednesday had tweeted a short video of Pawar’s speech in Satara, claiming that “atheist Sharad Pawar always hated Hindu religion” and he would not have achieved his political success without insulting Hindu gods and goddesses and indulging in casteism.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray (File)
Maharashtra Chief Minister and Shiv Sena head Uddhav Thackeray will hold a rally here on Saturday, during which he is expected to hit back at parties like the BJP and MNS that have been trying to corner him over Hindutva, Hanuman Chalisa and loudspeakers atop mosques.
The rally, scheduled to be held at Bandra Kurla Complex, which is a stone's throw away from his private residence 'Matoshree', will be attended by senior party leaders and legislators. This will be the Sena chief's first rally since his spine surgery in November last year.
Earlier, former Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis and MNS chief Raj Thackeray have held rallies, with both leaders mounting strident attacks on the MVA government as well as on Sena's Hindutva credentials. (PTI)
Maharashtra BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis on Friday said AIMIM MLA Akbaruddin Owaisi had insulted "nationalist Muslims" of the country by trying to glorify Aurangzeb. Fadnavis was speaking to reporters after his arrival from Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh.
Owaisi, MLA from Chandrayangutta in Telangana, had recently offered prayers at the tomb of the 17th century Mughal emperor in Khuldabad in Maharashtra's Aurangabad district.
"Owaisi has attempted to glorify Aurangzeb and, thus, has insulted the nationalist Muslims in this country. Aurangzeb can never be an idol for Muslims in this country. He had tortured Sambhajiraje before killing him," Fadnavis said. (PTI)
Mumbai is one of the most congested cities in the world. Ongoing development projects, which are meant to ease out commuting in the city have, however, emerged as one of the key factors for increase in traffic congestion in the city. In a weekly series starting today, The Indian Express will identify these ongoing and delayed infrastructure projects that are leading to clogged, narrowed and blocked roads across Mumbai. Pallavi Smart writes..
The Bombay High Court on Friday refused to pass an order permitting a 16-year-old girl to donate a part of her liver to her ailing father noting it was concerned for the minor.
A vacation bench of Justices A K Menon and N R Borkar said it was not inclined to grant the prayer sought by the girl, who had earlier this month approached HC seeking a direction to the state government's authorization committee to take a decision on her application for approval to donate a part of her liver.
The girl's father has been diagnosed with liver cirrhosis decompensated and she has been found to be a suitable donor.
The government's authorization committee, however, refused to grant approval to the girl observing it cannot rule out the existence of emotional pressure or confirm that the consent given by the minor daughter is out of free will. The committee had also noted the father was an alcoholic. (PTI)
Maharashtra on Friday recorded 263 new coronavirus infections and two pandemic-related deaths, the state health department said. The state's Covid-19 caseload rose to 78,80,337 and death toll reached 1,47,853. On Thursday, the state had recorded 231 new cases and one fatality.
Mumbai recorded 155 new cases and one death on Friday. Another fatality was reported from neighbouring Thane district. The case fatality rate in Maharashtra stands at 1.87 per cent. The state has 1,455 active cases now.
The districts of Nandurbar, Latur, Hingoli, Osmanabad, Akola, Buldhana, Yavatmal, Bhandara, Gondia and Gadchiroli have zero active cases. As many as 240 patients recovered since previous evening, taking the tally of recovered patients to 77,31,029. The recovery rate in the state stands at 98.11 per cent. (PTI)
Sambhajiraje Chhatrapati, the descendant of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, has set a cat among the pigeons in the mud pit of Maharashtra politics. The retiring Rajya Sabha MP has expressed his desire to become a member of the Upper House again, smartly proposing that he hopes to be elected by consensus.
Given Sambhajiraje’s Shivaji links, no Maharashtra party can afford to antagonise him. The BJP in fact helped him to the Rajya Sabha seat last time as a presidential nominee, as a way of neutralising the Maratha quota agitation against its government in the state. Read More
The Central Railway’s Mumbai division will suspend the Harbour line train services between Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus and Panvel, Belapur and Vashi from 10:34am to 3:54pm on Sunday to carry out engineering and maintenance works, for which the division has announced a mega block.
According to a press release, the block on the main line will be between Matunga-Mulund up- and down-fast lines from 11.05am to 4.05pm. Down-slow services leaving the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus from 10.14 am to 3.32 pm will be diverted on the down-fast line between the Matunga and Mulund stations. They will halt at the Sion, Kurla, Ghatkopar, Vikhroli, Bhandup and Mulund stations, be re-diverted on the down- slow line at Mulund and arrive at the destination 15 minutes behind schedule. Read More
The Symbiosis Society, Pune on Friday assured the Bombay High Court that it will reinstate one of its unvaccinated employees who was asked to go on unpaid leave till he produced a vaccine certificate and reimburse his dues. The society also said that it will review its Covid-19 vaccination mandate for employees.
A division bench of Justice Anil K Menon and Justice Nitin R Borkar accepted the society’s statement and also passed an order dealing with a question of compensation to the said employee from the month of January till date and disposed of the plea. Read More
The Railway Protection Force (RPF) of the Central Railway said on Friday that it had rescued 504 children in coordination with Government Railway Police and other frontline railway staff from railway platforms in the past four months under Operation Nanhe Farishte.
They included 330 boys and 174 girls and were reunited with their parents with the help of non-governmental organisations such as Childline. Read More
Even after two extensions in the deadline, the parents of over 28,000 children are yet to confirm their admissions for seats allotted to various schools in Maharashtra under the Right To Education (RTE) provisions, officials said. This indicates a significant number of parents have refused to take up allotted seats, even as the applications received under RTE this year were double the available seats.
This year a total of 9,086 schools across Maharashtra are participating in RTE admissions offering 1,01,906 seats. The total number of applications received are 2,82,783 out of which 90,685 students were allotted seats after the lottery process. However, only 62,179 parents have confirmed admission on these seats as the extended deadline ended this week, officials added. Whereas 28,506 candidates have been practically denied the seat allotted under the RTE. Read More
In view of the overwhelming response received by the Vistadome coaches attached to the Mumbai Central-Gandhinagar Capital Shatabdi Express on an experimental basis over the last month, the Western Railway has decided to permanently add two Vistadome coaches to the train from May 17.
The Vistadome is a state-of-the-art coach made by Indian Railways, designed to provide passengers with travel comfort as well as an enhanced viewing experience of their surroundings. Read More
A 19-year-old student riding a bike was killed on a bridge in Bhayandar, a suburb in Mumbai, on Wednesday after he suddenly applied the front brake of the vehicle, trying to dodge a cyclist coming from the opposite end. The pillion rider suffered minor injuries.
The incident took place around 7.50 pm when the deceased, Jebas Nadar, 19, and his friend, Sunil Pariyar, 19, were travelling on a Unicorn bike from Bhayandar (west) to Bhayandar (east). The duo was heading to a snacks shop in Mira Road owned by Nadar’s father. Read More
Maharashtra Environment Minister Aaditya Thackeray on Thursday said that the state government was working on a plan to ensure that a single planning authority governs Mumbai in a year, to be headed by the mayor, who would be given enhanced administrative powers.
He was speaking at the international conference on ‘Climate Crisis 2.0 – Mobilizing Finance for Coastal Cities’, in collaboration with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the state government and not-for-profit organisation Mumbai First. Read More
In one of the oldest cases lodged under the special law formulated in Maharashtra for the protection of depositors, a 55-year-old woman was recently acquitted of all charges by a special court, 22 years after the case was filed.
The Maharashtra Protection of Interest of Depositors (in financial establishments) (MPID) Act, 1999, was enacted in the state to protect depositors from financial establishments detrimental to their interests with an intent to cause fraud.
A case was filed under the MPID Act and Indian Penal Code sections of cheating and criminal breach of trust against Rajesh Jaiswal and his wife Manisha. It was alleged that in 1997, they had given an advertisement in a newspaper that said a financial establishment would give 22 per cent and 24 per cent interest per annum on investments. After receiving investments, the money was misappropriated, the Tardeo police had claimed. Rajesh died during the trial. Read More
The BJP in Maharashtra on Friday dared the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government to file sedition charges against All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) leader Akbaruddin Owaisi for paying respects at the tomb of Mughal emperor Aurangzeb at Khuldabad in Aurangabad city. Owaisi was in the city on Thursday to attend a public rally. Read more
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) informed a special CBI court in Mumbai on Friday that Rahul Mukerjea, son of former media executive Peter Mukerjea, who was expected to depose as a witness today in the Sheena Bora murder case, has contracted Covid-19. The trial in the case against Peter, his former wife Indrani and her former husband Sanjeev Khanna was expected to commence on Friday after a gap of over two years. Read more
Citing technical difficulties and “serious impact on the project”, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has refused to accept suggestions to change the existing alignment of its coastal road by moving open spaces towards the seaside to make it “citizen friendly”. Read more
With the retail inflation rising to an eight-year high at 7.79 per cent in April, the NCP on Friday took a dig at the BJP, saying its 'achhe din' poll slogan needs to be 'archived and forgotten' now.
In a veiled attack on the J P Nadda-led party, NCP spokesperson Clyde Crasto also sarcastically said it needs to be seen who will be blamed for the same and what will be the new diversion to hide this 'failure'.
The BJP had raised the 'achhe din' (good days) slogan during the 2014 Lok Sabha polls campaigning.
'India's #RetailInflation rises to 8 year high of 7.79% in April almost twice the rate targeted by #RBI which is 4%. #AchheDin, #Vikas, these words need to archived and forgotten. Now to wait and watch who will be blamed and what will be the new diversion to hide this failure,' Crasto tweeted. (PTI)
NIA has arrested two Mumbai based alleged associates of Dawood Ibrahim and Shakeel Shaikh alias Chhota Shakeel.
The arrested accused have been identified as Arif Abubakar Shaikh (59) and Shabbir Abubakar Shaikh (51). As per NIA both were involved in handling Dawood Ibrahim's illegal activities and terrorist financing in the western suburbs of Mumbai.
Both Arif and Shabbir will be produced before the NIA Special Court today for seeking their police custody for investigation purposes.
Interpol has issued Red Corner Notice against Chhota Shakeel who operates an international criminal syndicate from Pakistan. He is involved in extortions, narcotics smuggling and violent terrorist activities.
The arrests are in connection with the raids conducted by the NIA in and around Mumbai on Monday. Several persons including brother-in-law of Chhota Shakeel have been called in for questioning.