Maharashtra News Updates: Gutka, banned tobacco products worth Rs 74 lakh seized in Navi Mumbai; 3 held

Delhi chief minister and Aam Aadmi Party national convener Arvind Kejriwal on Friday met Shiv Sena (UBT) head Uddhav Thackeray at the latter's residence in Bandra here. Kejriwal was accompanied by his colleague and Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann, Rajya Sabha MPs Sanjay Singh and Raghav Chadha during the visit to 'Matoshree'. (PTI)

A 30-year-old businessman has been arrested here for filing a fake complaint of Rs 44 lakh robbery following a fight with the wife, police said on Friday. The man was booked for filing a fake complaint, said an Agripada police station official. The accused approached Agripada police on Wednesday night stating that four persons posing as policemen stole Rs 44.08 lakh in cash from his car near Monte South building in Byculla, the official said. (PTI)

In separate operations, police seized gutka and other banned tobacco products collectively worth nearly Rs 74 lakh from three vehicles at Turbhe in Navi Mumbai, and arrested three persons in this connection, an official said. While the first seizure was made on February 19, the second operation was conducted on February 22, he said. (PTI)

A student from a suburban college will be booked by the Samta Nagar police for assaulting four youngsters with a paper cutter, following a trivial dispute, and injuring them. The incident occurred outside Thakur College at Kandivali East on Friday evening.

Sexual activities with girls of "immature" age have a traumatic effect on their lives and such crimes committed by a person in a position of trust and authority adversely affects a child's perception to look at life positively, a special court said while sentencing a man to 10 years in jail for sexually assaulting his minor daughter. The man was held guilty of sections 354 (molestation) and 509 (words, gestures or acts intended to insult the modesty of a woman) of the Indian Penal Code and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. (PTI)

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and his Punjab counterpart Bhagwant Mann will call on former Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray at his Mumbai residence on Friday. "Thackeray has invited Arvind Kejriwal and Bhagwant Mann for tea at his residence," a source in the AAP said. (PTI)

The Maharashtra government told the Bombay High Court on Friday the 2018 tender for the Dharavi redevelopment project was cancelled and a fresh tender was issued in 2022 because of several factors, including the Covid-19 pandemic and the Ukraine-Russia war that affected financial and economic affairs. The Gautam Adani Group had bagged the 2022 tender with a bid of Rs 5,069 crore to redevelop an area of 259 hectares. (ANI)

Union railways minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Friday said the Rs 18,000-crore CSMT redevelopment project in the city will be awarded in mid-March. Speaking at an event organised by news broadcaster ABP News here, the bureaucrat-turned-politician said in three years, India will emerge as an exporter of railway technology which will be a quantum leap from being an importer for the longest time. (PTI)

Police have arrested two persons for allegedly running the flesh trade from a massage parlour in Maharashtra's Thane district and rescued a woman and a minor girl from there, an official said on Friday. Following inputs about a prostitution racket, the police sent a decoy customer to the massage and spa centre at Naya Nagar area of Mira Road, on the outskirts of Mumbai, on Wednesday, said the official. (PTI)

A case of defamation was registered against Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut in Beed district of Maharashtra for his claim that there was a threat to his life from Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde's son Shrikant Shinde, an official said on Friday. The case was filed based on a complaint lodged by Shiv Sena's Beed district unit chief on Thursday, he said. (PTI)

Police in Maharashtra's Ahmednagar district had to intervene and make way for a dancer to leave a venue after the audience went berserk and demanded that she perform beyond the permissible time limits, an official said on Friday. The potential law and order situation arose at Chitale Road in Rahata on Thursday night during a live performance of social media star Gautami Patil, where more than 5,000 spectators had gathered, he said. (PTI)

A special court here has sentenced a 35-year-old Navi Mumbai resident to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment after holding him guilty of sexually abusing a child. In his order of Thursday, Special Judge A N Sirsikar also imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 on the man, who was tried under the Indian Penal Code and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.Special Public Prosecutor Vijay Munde told the court that the child was three years old when the man sexually abused her in May 2018. Both were neighbours in the Turbhe area of Navi Mumbai.

The ongoing high decibel political and legal battle between rival Shiv Sena groups is all set to resonate loudly in the Maharashtra legislature when it begins its Budget session on February 27. The Shiv Sena led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, buoyed by an Election Commission (EC) ruling in its favour, and the Uddhav Thackeray faction are locked in a bitter feud to lay claim over the 56-year-old party and legacy of its founder Bal Thackeray. Going by the legislative majority, the EC last week allotted the Shiv Sena name and the 'bow and arrow' poll symbol to the Shinde group while recognising the split in the party, which was rocked by a rebellion in June last year.

A special court in Thane convicted a former tax official with the vigilance cell of the BMC for demanding and accepting a bribe from an octroi agent and sentenced him to four years of imprisonment.An ACB official informed that the order was dictated in the open court by the special ACB judge Amit Shete who convicted the accused, Sunil Bane, aged-64 (now retired) and also imposed a fine of Rs 20,000.

The central office of the Shiv Sena led by chief minister Eknath Shinde has now been set up in Thane, since the Shiv Sena Bhavan in Dadar belongs to a trust controlled by the faction led by Uddhav Thackeray.Recently the Election Commission of India decided in favour of Shinde on the issue of which faction was the real Shiv Sena. With Shinde deciding not to take over Shiv Sena Bhavan, which served as the Shiv Sena headquarters for decades, he had to choose another location for the party central office. He decided on Anand Ashram in Tembhi Naka, Thane.The party has now started issuing appointment orders and circulars from Anand Ashram. At the Shiv Sena national executive held on Tuesday, Shinde had reiterated that the party was going to move forward with Balasaheb Thackeray’s ideology and would not stake claim to anyone’s property or funds, including the Shiv Sena Bhavan.

After the 2009 assembly election, Patil was the front-runner along with Ajit Pawar. Recently, Ajit Pawar had observed that there was a chance for the NCP nominee to take over the reins of the state but the NCP did not take the opportunity.Patil’s hoarding was followed by Ajit Pawar’s outside the NCP office in Ballard Pier. Several hoardings there described Ajit Pawar as the future chief minister.

: The Sharad Pawar-led NCP is nowhere near the majority mark required for formation of government, but that has not discouraged supporters of its various top-layer politicians from putting up posters and banners calling them “future chief ministers” in south Mumbai.A large hoarding was put up outside the Nepean Sea residence of state NCP unit president Jayant Patil on his birthday on February 16, calling him the future chief minister. The hoarding bore the names of a section of officebearers of the NCP.

Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis on Thursday said the bypoll to the Kasba Peth assembly constituency in Pune was a battle “between the nationalist and anti-nationalist ideologies”.Addressing a rally for BJP candidate Hemant Rasne, Fadnavis said, “The fight for Kasba is no longer limited to two individuals or two parties. It has now become a battle between two ideologies — one is nationalist and the other anti-nationalist. ”He said, “People who were unhappy with abolition of Article 370 in then J&K have locked horns with those who praised abrogation of the special status for the Kasba bypoll. The constituency has always supported Hindutva ideology. Congress and NCP should clarify their stand on the Punyeshwar temple. ”

Deputy CM Devendra’s Fadnavis’s remarks that he would reveal the truth on the BJP-NCP government formation in 2019 came in the context of NCP chief Sharad Pawar’s statement on Wednesday that President’s rule in the state would not have been lifted in 2019 if a government—with Fadnavis as CM and Ajit Pawar as his deputy—had not been formed following a hurried, early-morning swearing-in ceremony on November 23. He did not elaborate on his comment. The government had lasted 80 hours, following which the Maha Vikas Aghadi government assumed office.