Mumbai News Live: The block could cause traffic snarls on the Mumbai-Pune expressway. (Express file photo by Narendra Vaskar)Mumbai News Today Live (August 26): The Mumbai-Pune expressway will be blocked for two hours on Friday afternoon near Kivale village, on the Mumbai bound lane for the construction of overhead gantry machine. The block could cause traffic snarls on the route.
The vehicular traffic will be diverted from Kiwale to Dehu Road (National Highway 48) from Somatne Phata to Mumbai via Talegaon Pathkar Naka on Expressway from 12 noon to 2 pm.
A Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) official said, “During this period of two hours on Friday, the motorists on the expressway should use alternative routes and if the motorists have any problem, they should contact the control room of Mumbai-Pune expressway on phone number 9822498224 or highway police department on 9833498334 for help.”
The Government Railway Police (GRP) have arrested four persons for allegedly stealing jewellery worth Rs 10.26 lakh from two women onboard an express train in Maharashtra, an official said on Friday.
The GRP Nagpur nabbed the accused Sheikh Rais Sheikh Sayed (26), Mohammed Samsher Shah Salim Shah (24), Firoz Ahmed Faruque Ahmed Sheikh (32) and Shahrukh Khan Nisar Khan (25), within 24 hours of the crime, the official said.
The incident took place onboard the Mumbai-Gondia Vidarbha Express late on Wednesday night, he said.(PTI)
The Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation has said people above the age of 75 can travel for free on its buses from Friday.An MSRDC releases also quoted the state-run transport undertaking's vice chairman and general manager Shekhar Channe as saying that those eligible for this free travel scheme will get a fare refund if they had booked their tickets before August 26.It said those between the age of 65 and 75 would get 50 per cent rebate on ticket fares on all types of bus services operated by the undertaking.The free travel facility can be availed by showing identity documents like Aadhaar Card, PAN card, driving licence, Voter's Card etc, the release said.(PTI)
The body of a 16-year-old girl was found stuffed in a bag on the side of a highway in Vasai of Maharashtra's Palghar district on Friday.
The body was found in the bushes near Naigaon bridge on the side of Mumbai-Ahmedabad Highway around 2 pm, an official from MBVV police said.
A passerby noticed the bag and alerted the Valiv police, following which a team rushed to the scene, he said.
The body bore multiple stab wounds and has been sent for post-mortem to a government hospital in Vasai, the official said.
A case under section 302 (murder) of Indian Penal Code has been registered, he said.(PTI)
The Maharashtra government on Friday waived toll on Mumbai-Bengaluru and Mumbai-Goa highways as well as toll plazas of other Public Works Department roads from August 27 to September 11 in view of Ganpati festivities, an official said on Friday.
It would give relief to Ganpati devotees travelling from different parts of the state to the coastal Konkan belt of the state, he said.
A statement from the Chief Minister's Office (CMO) said those wanting to avail the waiver must approach the Regional Transport Authority (RTA).(PTI)
Former Home minister Anil Deshmukh who is lodged in Arthur road jail for a corruption and money laundering case collapsed inside the jail at around 11 am.
His personal assistant said, ``Deshmukh collapsed inside the jail at 11 am and the jail authorities shifted him to the government run J J Hospital at noon. His ECG is abnornal and BP is very high. He has pain in the chest. He is yet to be shifted to a ward and is undergoing tests now.''
Maharashtra Bharatiya Janata Party leader Kirit Somaiya on Friday claimed former guardian ministers of Mumbai Aaditya Thackeray of the Shiv Sena and Aslam Sheikh of the Congress were involved in a "Rs 1,000 crore studio scam".
Both were allegedly connected to the construction of a film studio in the Madh-Marve area of Mumbai's northern Malad suburb by violating Coastal Regulation Zones, said Somaiya, who visited the site during the day with civic officials.
"Permission was given for a film set in the CRZ area in February 2021 by the Maharashtra environment ministry, which was headed at the time by Aaditya Thackeray. However, a proper cement-concrete structure with commercial facilities came up," the former Lok Sabha MP told reporters.(PTI)
Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray on Friday announced the party's alliance with the Maratha outfit Sambhaji Brigade.
The development came as the Thackeray-led party is reeling under the impact of Eknath Shinde's rebellion and the loss of power in Maharashtra.
Talking to reporters here, Thackeray said the alliance with Sambhaji Brigade was ideological and forged to uphold the Constitution and also regional pride.
He slammed the BJP for not adhering to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh's (RSS) ideology and said the Sambhaji Brigade comprises people who fight for ideology.(PTI)
A 30-year-old man was killed and five others injured when a jeep hit a truck on a highway in Maharashtra's Nashik district on Friday, police said.
The accident took place around 2.45 am near Vilholi on Mumbai-Agra Highway, an official said.
The jeep was on its way to Nashik from Mumbai when it rammed into the truck, he said.(PTI)
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The traffic helpline of Mumbai Police has received a WhatsApp message from an international number advising the force to take care to avoid a "Somalia-type attack" in India, an official said on Friday.
Last week the traffic helpline number had received several messages threatening of another "26/11-like" attack in the city.
The latest message did not issue any threat but police are investigating its source, the official said.
Terror group Al-Shabaab recently attacked the Hayat Hotel in Mogadishu, Somalia's capital. (PTI)
The four laning of Mumbai-Goa highway has not been completed in last 9 years and various stretches are still in a bad shape. The PWD Minister Ravindra Chavan is on a two day tour to visit Mumbai-Goa highway and ensure repairs are done before the 10-day long Ganesh festival starts on August 31.
Public Works Department Minister Ravindra Chavan inspected Mumbai-Goa Highway, and directed officials to ensure all potholes are refilled and repair work is completed within 48 hours.
Large number of people from Mumbai travel to their native Konkan region during the ten-days-long Ganesh festival every year.
This year, the festival will start from August 31.
A mere violation of bail conditions does not warrant the cancellation of bail unless it also affects the probe of the case, a court in Mumbai has said while rejecting a plea against Independent MP Navneet Rana and her MLA husband Ravi Rana.
"Overwhelming" circumstances are necessary for the cancellation of bail, the court said, refusing to cancel the bail granted to them.
Special judge R N Rokade for the cases against MPs and MLAs on August 22 rejected the application filed by Mumbai Police against the couple. The detailed order became available on Friday.
Navneet Rana, Lok Sabha member from Amravati in Maharashtra, and her husband Ravi Rana, an independent MLA from Badnera in Amravati district, were arrested on April 23 after they announced they would recite Hanuman Chalisa outside then Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray's private residence.
They were booked on the charges of sedition and 'prompting enmity between different groups.' The couple were granted bail on May 5 by the special court which also imposed several conditions on them, including not giving statements to the media about the case. The bail would be cancelled if any of the conditions were violated, it had said.
Police approached the court a few days later seeking that their bail be cancelled as they had made statements to the media about the case. The police also sought a non-bailable warrant against the couple.
Special public prosecutor Pradip Gharat told the court that the Ranas also tried to threaten some witnesses by giving interviews to the media.
The couple's lawyer Rizwan Merchant contended that no offence had been registered regarding the statements made by the Ranas after their release. (PTI)
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has rejected 16 per cent of the applications received from Ganesh mandals for erecting pandals in community spaces like arterial roads and footpaths, according to data from the civic body.
Of the 2,779 applications it received, the BMC has rejected 445 applications and approved 2,034. BMC has also extended the deadline for granting permissions from August 23 to August 26 following requests from Ganesh mandals across the city, the civic body said in a statement on Thursday.
For this year, BMC has advised processions for visarjan and bringing of the idol to the mandals to avoid 12 bridges, which it has declared dangerous. These include the Ghatkopar railway bridge, the currey road railway bridge, the Arthur Road railway bridge, the Byculla railway bridge, the Marine Lines railway bridge, the Sandhurst road railway bridge, the French railway bridge at Granst road, the Kennedy bridge and Faufland Bridge at Grant Road and the Prabhadevi Bridge. Read more here
Over 19 years after the custodial death of 27-year-old Khwaja Yunus, the sessions court is likely to decide on September 7 whether three former and one serving Mumbai Police officer can be included as accused in the case.
On Thursday, an application moved by Yunus’ mother said that the first witness in the case, who had deposed in 2018, had named the four as the policemen who had assaulted Yunus, and hence, can be tried as accused.
The state government, through Special Public Prosecutor Pradip Gharat, however, said that such a decision should not be made at this stage. The sessions court will decide on both pleas on September 7. Sadaf Modak reports
Four months after he was arrested, the sessions court on Thursday granted bail to Ashutosh Mishra, brother-in-law of absconding DCP Saurabh Tripathi.
This comes nearly two weeks after a metropolitan magistrate court rejected Mishra’s bail plea in connection with the angadia extortion case registered on February 19. Following this, Mishra, who was an assistant commissioner (GST) with the sales tax department in Uttar Pradesh, had moved the sessions court.
The police believe that now that his brother-in-law has been released on bail, Tripathi, too, may approach the Bombay High Court seeking anticipatory bail. With Mishra being released, all the arrested accused in the case have been granted bail. Mohamed Thaver reports
A 38-year-old police constable posted in the Local Arms department of Mumbai Police has been suspended after a case of molestation was registered against him.
Police said a case has been registered with the Worli police against Sachin Sanas for sexually harassing a woman and outraging her modesty.
The 24-year-old victim is the wife of another policeman who stays near Sanas’s house, the police said. Read more
The Anti Narcotics Cell (ANC) of the Mumbai Police arrested two persons of African descent on Wednesday while seizing high quality mephedrone worth Rs 2.8 crore from them.
The police alleged that one of the accused, Michael Chukwuma (34), also has a murder case registered against him. Chukwuma and the other accused, Ozolwesiri Okechukwu (46), were residing in Navi Mumbai.
An officer said that Bandra ANC officers spotted the two accused at Mankhurd. Suspecting that they were carrying narcotics, they were searched and the officers team found over 1 kg of mephedrone worth Rs 2.8 crore in the international market on them. Read more here
Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Thursday announced in the Legislative Council that the government will soon come up with a state amendment to the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act to fix the loopholes in it and curb drug-related cases in Maharashtra.
Over the past few days, Opposition leaders, including the Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Council, Ambadas Danve, have raised the issue of widespread drug use across the state. The capital city of Mumbai is considered to be a hub of narcotics demand. In the past few years, the NCB has registered two major cases – the Cordelia drug bust case and the Sushant Singh Rajput case – which are connected to Mumbai. Both the NCB and the Anti Narcotics Cell of the Mumbai Police have been involved in several drug busts lately.
While replying during the debate on the last day of the Council, Fadnavis said the issue of drugs in the state is serious and there is a need for strict action as their use is rampant in elite class parties. Vallabh Ozarkar reports
Refuting allegations that trees would be felled at Aarey Colony in Mumbai for the Metro 3 car shed project, Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Thursday said that there is no need to fell trees at the construction site.
Speaking in the Legislative Council, Fadnavis said, “There is no need to fell trees now and a false narrative is being spread by a few. There is no ego issue. We are in fact thinking of a better future for Mumbai.” He added that phase 1 of the Metro 3 corridor would start operation by next year and by 2024, the whole corridor would be functional.
He was responding to claims by Shiv Sena and Congress that the BJP is making the car shed an ego issue and more trees would be felled for the project at Aarey forest. Speaking in the Council, Congress MLC Bhai Jagtap alleged, “They are now saying that the trees won’t be felled at Aarey but they would be felled. They are trying to destroy Mumbai for their ego.” Read more here
The Maharashtra assembly on Thursday unanimously passed the resolution to send to the Union Home Ministry the proposal to rename Aurangabad as Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar. A similar resolution to rename Osmanabad as Dharashiv was also passed unanimously.
In its last Cabinet meeting, the previous Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government had passed resolutions to rename Aurangabad and Osmanabad. The new government led by Eknath Shinde, however, said that when the decisions were taken by the then Thackeray-led Cabinet, that government had lost its majority. Hence, the current government passed an identical resolution in a Cabinet meeting. Read more here