A month after threatening to quit, Rane and son seek assembly tickets

MUMBAI: Within a month of threatening to quit active politics, rebel Congress leader Narayan Rane on Wednesday sought nomination for himself as well as his son Neetesh for the assembly elections.

According to a senior Congress leader, Rane sought tickets from Kudal where he is the sitting MLA and Neetesh from Kankavali, both in Sindhudurg. Kankavali is represented by BJP's Pramod Jathar. "Both Rane and his son appeared before the Congress election committee," the leader said.

"We are not surprised by Rane's volte face. It was expected," the Congress leader said.

A day after his elder son, Neelesh, was defeated in the Lok Sabha polls from Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg by Shiv Sena's Vinayak Raut, Rane submitted his resignation to chief minister Prithviraj Chavan on moral grounds. His resignation was not accepted at that time.

He had also told Congress president Sonia Gandhi that under Chavan's leadership, the party would not be able to retain power in the state. Later on July 17, Rane declared he would quit the cabinet and submitted his resignation to the CM on July 21. He had then said he planned to quit electoral politics to pave the way for his son to contest assembly polls. Rane had written to the CM, listing his grievances, the most prominent one being the Congress' failure to keep its promise to consider him for the CM's post. He has now made the state campaign committee head.

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2.5k crore given to farmer hit by hailstorm

MUMBAI: The state on Thursday told the Bombay high court that it had distributed over Rs 2,500 crore to farmers whose crops were destroyed in the unseasonal hailstorm in March.

Accepting assistant government pleader Milind More's statement that 31.76 lakh farmers have been given prompt relief, a bench of Chief Justice Mohit Shah and Justice M S Sanklecha disposed of a PIL that sought state aid to affected farmers.

Lawyer Ashish Gaikwad and farmers pegged the loss at Rs 42,000 crore over 17 lakh-hectare area. The HC said farmers could come back to court if they found any lapse in the disbursal of funds. The HC was hearing a bunch of PILs by farmers, including Gorakh Ghadge and Vithalrao Pawar from Solapur.

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3 arrested for molesting and robbing woman

MUMBAI: A 24-year-old woman accused four men of bundling her into a car, sexually assaulting her and robbing her between Bandra (E) and Dahisar on Tuesday.

Three of the accused were arrested on Thursday.

Two of the accused posed as policemen at the time of the crime, said police officers.

The arrested men were identified as Shivdani Gupta, Pratik Khandariya and Raunak Poladia.

"Gupta and Poladia are journalists," an officer said. "One more person is wanted in the case."

Around 11.30 pm on Tuesday, the complainant was asked to come to Bandra (E) by Khandariya.

"A Bolero, with the four accused inside, halted near her and two of the accused introduced themselves as cops," the officer said. "The quartet forced her to get into the vehicle, threatening to book her for soliciting if she did not comply. They were aged between 20 and 30 years."

The accused drove her to Dahisar and kept threatening to stop at a police station and hand her over. The complainant stated that she was sexually assaulted inside the vehicle by the accused.

After turning the vehicle around from Dahisar, the group halted at Kandivli (E). The four men told the complainant to empty her handbag of valuables if she did not wish to be booked in an immoral trafficking case.

The complainant was scared and handed over the Rs 10,000 that she had on her.

"The accused took away two ATM cards that the complainant had," senior inspector Ashok Kadam of the Kherwadi police station said. "They drove her down to two ATMs in Malad (W), around 2.30 am, forcing her to withdraw Rs 20,000 from a machine and Rs 5,000 from another."

The accused also took away the complainant's voter identity card and passport-sized photographs before abandoning her and fleeing.

The complainant went home and confided in a friend. On Wednesday night, she approached the Samta Nagar police station and registered a complaint. The case was transferred to the Kherwadi police station on Thursday as the chain of events began in its jurisdiction.

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Cancel bail of Paraskar for perjury, model's lawyer to court

MUMBAI: The defence in the rape case involving DIG Sunil Paraskar iterated its stand that at no point during the bail hearing had they claimed that the woman was arrested in an escort service case. Defence advocate Rizwan Merchant said, "The anticipatory bail application nowhere states that she was arrested in the case. In fact, we have stated that she was a complainant in the case."

The defence stand comes in response to a perjury application filed against Paraskar by the woman's advocate Chitra Salunke. Judge Vrushali Joshi adjourned the matter to Friday. Salunke said she would seek cancellation of Paraskar's anticipatory bail while alleging that a man had threatened her with respect to the case.

Paraskar was granted anticipatory bail last week after the judge pointed out that there was a possibility that the relationship could have been consensual. During the hearing, Salunke filed a perjury application against Paraskar alleging that he wrongly told the court that she was arrested in an escort service case. Salunke said there was a possibility that in its absence, the accused would have never been granted interim protection from arrest. The lawyer cited a newspaper report which allegedly quoted Paraskar as saying that the woman had falsely implicated him after the arrest.

The police have summoned Deepak Sharma, a resident of Govandi, who had allegedly barged into Salunke's Chembur home and threatened her not to pursue the case. She alleged that the man threatened her in the presence of a police guard posted for her security on the Bombay high court's orders. %"We have sent him summons and we will question him as to on whose behalf he went to %Salunke's residence," said %an officer.

Salunke has submitted CCTV footage of the man to the police and said she will take the case to its logical end.

The police on Wednesday registered an FIR of her being threatened by an unknown person and have started a probe. Sources said Salunke alleged that a man walked into her flat and told her that she should not pursue the case.The model alleged that Paraskar molested and sexually assaulted her on December 1 and 7, 2013, in a bungalow at Madh Island in Malad and his flat in Navi Mumbai. She said she had first met Paraskar in 2012, when he was additional commissioner, for help as somebody had uploaded her profile on an escort service website.

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Accused in acid attack seeks bail

MUMBAI: The defence in the Preeti Rathi acid attack case has filed a bail plea in the sessions court and argued that the accused, Ankur Panwar, was being made a scapegoat.

Defence advocate Wahab Khan said that the circumstantial evidence in the case was weak. Special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam opposed the bail plea and said that there was sufficient evidence against the accused.

The court is likely to pass an order on the plea on Friday.

Panwar was arrested on January 17, 2014, for allegedly attacking Rathi on a long-distance train at Bandra Terminus. The crime allegedly took place in May last year. Rathi died a month later. Khan argued that the injuries Panwar is said to have sustained in the attack were in fact very old. "The police relied the train's reservation chart, which had the name of the accused. However, there were three boys named Ankur on the list."

He further said that while the police claimed that the accused was known to the family, no one had come forward and recognized him until the arrest.

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Rs 2.5k crore given to farmers hit by hailstorm

MUMBAI: The state on Thursday told the Bombay high court that it had distributed over Rs 2,500 crore to farmers whose crops were destroyed in the unseasonal hailstorm in March.

Accepting assistant government pleader Milind More's statement that 31.76 lakh farmers have been given prompt relief, a bench of Chief Justice Mohit Shah and Justice M S Sanklecha disposed of a PIL that sought state aid to affected farmers.

Lawyer Ashish Gaikwad and farmers pegged the loss at Rs 42,000 crore over 17 lakh-hectare area. The HC said farmers could come back to court if they found any lapse in the disbursal of funds. The HC was hearing a bunch of PILs by farmers, including Gorakh Ghadge and Vithalrao Pawar from Solapur.

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Bhojpuri actor Anjana Singh gets extortion call

MUMBAI: Bhojpuri actor Anjana Singh has filed a police complaint after allegedly receiving an extortion call on her cellphone from an unknown number.

Singh (24) received the call on August 19 at her Mira Road home. The caller demanded Rs 10 lakhs and threatened to kill her if she did not pay the money.

On August 20, Singh approached the Mira Road police. The police registered a case under section 507 (criminal intimidation by an anonymous communication) of the IPC. The police is tracking the number from where the call was made.
Singh has acted as the female lead in a number of Bhojpuri films.

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Rs 2 crore bets lost, trader's son fakes own kidnapping

MUMBAI: Faced with betting dues of around Rs 2 crore, the 28-year-old son of a Mumbai-based steel trader staged his own kidnapping with the help of his friends to demand a Rs 2 crore ransom from his father.

Using an internet calling facility, Suraj Patel (name changed) called his father saying he has been kidnapped.But his luck ran out as his father approached the police who cracked the case and nabbed him near Haji Ali last week.

Patel, a resident of Santa Cruz, left his Charni Road office around 5.30pm last week, telling his father he was going to the Mazgaon sales tax office. An hour later, his father received a call from a hysterical Patel saying some people were dragging him into a vehicle and pleading with his father to rescue him.

Worried, his father tried calling back on Patel's number but the phone was switched off by then. The 28-year-old son of a city trader, who staged his own kidnapping after running up betting debts of Rs 2 crore, was caught by cops after one of his friends spilled the beans.

Last week, his father received a call from an internet number from his son. "Daddy, save me. I have been kidnapped. These people have made the call and asked me to talk to you," Suraj Patel (name changed) told his father before the call got disconnected.

Patel's father approached senior crime branch officials and a team was put on the job.

Cyber crime investigation cell (CCIC) personnel also swung into action to trace the origin of the call. "Initially, we were looking at the kidnapper's modus operandi to identify which underworld gang could be behind it. We spoke to the family and collected numbers of their business and family friends," said a policeman who was part of the investigation team.

By next evening, the CCIC traced the SIM card used by the 'kidnapper'. "The mobile number's location was very much in Mumbai. When we scrutinized the call data records, we found one of Patel's friends was in touch with the number. He was picked up," he said.

What Patel's friend told police was startling. "Patel had incurred huge debts as he lost around Rs 2 crore in betting on the IPL and a commodities exchange. To clear his debts, Patel took two of his friends into confidence and planned his own kidnapping to demand ransom from his father," the friend told police. Interestingly, the number used for the internet call belonged to Patel.

A police team went near Lala Lajpat Rai College where Patel's second mobile's location was traced. "He tried to give pretend he escaped from the kidnapper as he didn't know his friend was already in our net," said police. Later during questioning he admitted to plotting his own kidnapping and was allowed to go home.

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2kg of gold-diamond jewellery found in CBFC chief's second locker

MUMBAI: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) opened second locker of arrested CEO of the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), Rakesh Kumar, on Thursday and found around 2kg of gold and diamond jewellery worth Rs 65 lakh along with six property documents.

On Wednesday, the CBI found gold ornaments and investment related documents in Kumar's another locker. The CBI is in the process of ascertaining the value of the jewellery. It also found several gold purchase receipts in the locker.

CBI said that they are inquiring about the property details. The CBI arrested Kumar on Sunday in a bribery case where his agents demanded bribe from film makers to issue them censor certificate.

The CBI had recovered Rs 10.5 lakh cash, gold jewellery along with property documents from Kumar's residence.

CBFC is a statutory body under ministry of information and broadcasting who appoints its members and the chairman. Films can be publicly exhibited in India only after they have been certified by the Central Board of Film Certification.

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Laptop gang racket busted in Mumbai

MUMBAI: The Mumbai crime branch has busted a major laptop theft racket with the arrest of two persons and have seized 182 laptops and monitors. Police have arrested two persons namely Santos bhosle (38 ) and muhammad Alam (40) and have recovered branded laptops and monitors from them. Interestingly the seizure of so many laptops and monitor settings have baffled the police as there is no complaint of bulk theft in any part of the city. However during the course of intwrrogations of the two accused they revealed that they were part of a bigger racket. They told police that they were just tempo drivers and the main kingpins were a group of security guards.
The police team on behest of the two accused carried a search of the two go downs in Rabble in thane and diva and recovered the 182 laptops and monitors.
" the accused have told that in month of July this month the security guards set a go down on fire in Narpoli in Bhiwandi but before setting on fire the accused secretly removed the expensive laptops and computer monitors and made it look like an accident." Said an officer of crime branch unit 12. Later the gang of security guards than ask this two tempo drivers to keep the boot with them in safe and after sometime they had planned to sell off the lot. Now the Mumbai crime branch have intimated the Narpoli police to register a case of arson and organised house breaking after informing the owners of the warehouses.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/followceleb.cms?alias=Mumbai Crime Branch,Laptop gang racket

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