Maharashtra News Updates: Harbour line local train services effect due to rain

Politicians of all stripes are wading into the matter of the Babulnath temple shivling in Mumbai which has weathered with the passage of time. Temple authorities have already commissioned IIT-Bombay to suggest measures to stem the wear and tear.

As thousands of farmers continued their march to Mumbai on Thursday to press their demands, Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde said his meeting with their representatives went well and the government would make a statement in the legislature on the issue. The foot march, which started from Nashik district four days ago, has entered the Thane district neighbouring Mumbai. (PTI)

Former Maharashtra minister and Nationalist Congress Party leader Hasan Mushrif, who faces a money laundering case registered by the Enforcement Directorate, said that he has been asked by the agency to come back on March 20 for further inquiry. He was speaking to reporters on Wednesday evening. (PTI)

A man from Maharashtra's Nanded has been arrested for allegedly extorting Rs 48 lakh from his childhood friend and threatening to kill him if he didn't pay more, an official said on Thursday. Complainant Satyaprakash Arya from Thane district was on a pilgrimage to Gujarat in December last year when his car hit a motorcyclist, injuring him, said the official. (PTI)

An official of the Maharashtra government's planning agency CIDCO was on Thursday allegedly caught red-handed while taking bribe in Navi Mumbai. The 57-year-old official had demanded Rs 7 lakh for facilitating the grant of a plot to a local resident whose house had been acquired for the upcoming Navi Mumbai airport, an Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) release said. (PTI)

A special CBI court here on Thursday acquitted two accused in a 1989 case pertaining to an alleged attempt on the life of businessman Nusli Wadia. The accused, Ivan Sequeira and Ramesh Jagothia, were acquitted for want of evidence by special judge S P Naik Nimbalkar. The two had been booked for conspiring to kill the industrialist. (PTI)

]An application has been filed in the Bombay High Court seeking immediate withdrawal of the ongoing strike of the Maharashtra state government employees, saying it has hit patients and students. It could come up for hearing on Friday. The state government employees declared an indefinite strike from March 14, seeking restoration of the Old Pension Scheme that was scrapped in 2005.

The application, filed by advocate Gunratan Sadavarte, said the strike has affected health services at government-run hospitals and education in schools and colleges.Patients in government hospitals are suffering due to the agitation, it said.Sadavarte claimed that the strike overlapped with the Class 10 and 12 board examinations.

The Enforcement Directorate is conducting searches at some places linked to asset manager Franklin Templeton and its former and current executives in Mumbai and Chennai as part of a money laundering investigation, officials said. The federal agency is looking to gather more evidence as part of its investigation against the company and its promoters under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), they said.

In November 2020, capital markets regulator Sebi issued a show-cause notice to the company following its April 2020 decision to wind up six debt schemes having Rs 25,000 crore of assets under management (AUM) from 3 lakh investors, citing liquidity challenges because of the pandemic.

Maharashtra School Education Minister Deepak Kesarkar told the Assembly on Thursday that 30,000 vacancies for teachers are being filled through the Teacher Aptitude and Intelligence Test (TAIT) and the process would be completed by April. The minister said it has been decided to hold TAIT twice a year. Replying during the question hour, Kesarkar said two private agencies – IBPS and Tata Consultancy Services – have been entrusted with the task of recruitment.

Fadnavis says a woman had started blackmailing his wife and demanding that her father Anil Jaisinghani be freed from police cases. First she offered money, and after being ignored, resorted to blackmail. She asked for help in getting her absconding father released from cases. And also then said that she and my wife should get into money-making involving bookies. My wife declined and blocked her. Then she started sending videos from an unknown number. This showed her filling money in a bag. And later delivering the bag to maid in our house. We then called the police and filed an FIR. We did a forensic test which shows that bags were different. The one received by the maid had clothes in it.

Police recovered drugs worth Rs 9.3 lakh after they raided the house of a 52-year-old woman in Maharashtra's Palghar district, an official said on Thursday. Acting on a tip-off, police on Tuesday searched the woman's house in Vijay Nagar locality of Nalasopara, on the outskirts of Mumbai, said senior inspector Shailendra Nagarkar of Tulinj police station. They recovered drugs like MD and brown sugar worth Rs 9.3 lakh, he said.

Former Maharashtra minister and Nationalist Congress Party leader Hasan Mushrif, who faces a money laundering case registered by the Enforcement Directorate, said that he has been asked by the agency to come back on March 20 for further inquiry. He was speaking to reporters on Wednesday evening.

Mushrif said, "I spent eight hours in the ED office (on Wednesday) and tried to give satisfactory answers to their questions. They have asked me to come back for the inquiry on Monday."

Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis's wife Amruta Fadnavis has filed a police case against a "designer" for allegedly trying to offer her money to intervene in a criminal case as well as threatening her, a police official said here on Thursday. On Amruta's complaint, a first information report (FIR) was registered on February 20 at the Malabar Hill police station against the woman, identified by her as Aniksha, and her father, the official said. No one has been arrested in the case so far, the official said.

A fire broke out in a single-storey house in Maharashtra's Thane city on Thursday morning and was brought under control in an hour's time, said an official. No one was injured in the fire that started around 7.30 am in the house in a chawl (row tenement) at Lokmanya Nagar, he said. Avinash Sawant, chief of Thane civic body's regional disaster management cell, said local firemen put out the fire in an hour. The cause of the fire is being ascertained, he added.

A 28-year-old Prabhadevi resident who imported 2kg marijuana via courier was arrested in a controlled delivery trap by Customs officials. At least 350gm marijuana, Rs 2 lakh cash and live bullets, were recovered from his home. The Special Intelligence and Investigation Branch of Customs arrested Pravin Lahu Raut and seized 2,150gm marijuana.

The state plans to frame new rules for public transport aggregators like Ola and Uber in Maharashtra and a committee is likely to be appointed by month-end to draft the guidelines, a senior official from state transport department told TOI on Wednesday. The guidelines will be aimed at bringing all driver partners under the ambit of the state government so that they could be prosecuted for “non-compliance”.

According to the IMD, there will be scattered to fairly widespread light to moderate rainfall with thunderstorm, lightning, and gusty winds (30- 40 kmph) in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Vidarbha and Chhattisgarh during the March 16-19 period.

The IMD (India Meteorological Department) has issued an orange alert for Pune district, Jalgaon, Nashik, Ahmednagar and Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, among others for Thursday, hinting at a gradual drop in the maximum temperature. It has advised people against venturing out during these events because of the possibility of thunder activity/lightning and short period strong winds, besides.

A 56-year-old builder was shot dead by two unidentified men on a bike in Nerul's Sector 6 on Wednesday evening. Police said the assailants pumped three bullets into Savji Manjiri, director of Imperia Developers, at point-blank range seconds after he sat in his SUV to return to his CBD-Belapur residence. Police suspect Manjiri may have been killed over a land dispute.

A 41-year-old Malad East resident died after he fell off a crowded BEST bus and came under its rear wheel on Tuesday. The victim, Mohammed Naseem, a tailor by profession, was standing on the footboard of the bus when he was hit by a tempo minutes after he boarded the BEST bus from Bandongri bus stop in Kandivli.

Samta Nagar police registered a case of rash driving, death due to negligence, and endangering life, and are searching for the unknown tempo involved in the offence.