1. No Takers for Iqbal Mirchi’s Flats; Another Auction Likely
The two flats in Juhu belonging to gangster Dawood Ibrahim’s aide the late Iqbal Mirchi found no bidders in the auction on Tuesday.
The ministry of finance conducted the auction as part of the crackdown on Dawood’s syndicate and properties in the country. The area of the flats, 501/502, in Milton Apartments on Juhu Tara Road in Santacruz (West), that have been joined is 1,200 sqft. The base price for both the flats was ₹3.45 crore, which many found too high, according to sources from the Smugglers and Foreign Exchange Manipulators Act (SAFEMA) office. The base price was decided according to the market value. Now, the officials will try to auction the property again at a lower base prize, SAFEMA sources said.
(Source: Hindustan Times)
2. PMC Bank Fraud Case: HDIL Did Not Give Sufficient Collateral for 80% of Its Loans
At least 80% of the money the Punjab and Maharashtra Co-operative (PMC) Bank gave to Housing Development Infrastructure Limited (HDIL) in the form of loan/overdraft facilities was sanctioned without appropriate and sufficient collateral (security), investigations of the economic offences wing (EOW) have revealed.
The prime accused, Rakesh and Sarang Wadhawans, kept taking funds in the form of overdraft facility from PMC Bank from 2008 to 2017, offering negligible properties as security, said EOW officers, adding senior bank officials were aware of it. One of the main accused, former MD Joy Thomas, has admitted to it. “Thomas told us that in 2017 he got worried about loans given to HDIL and started insisting Wadhawans keep sufficient properties as security with the bank. HDIL then started to do it,” said an EOW officer.
(Source: Hindustan Times)
3. Fathima Lateef’s Suicide Institutional Murder: IIT-B Students
Describing the recent suicide of a student at IIT-Madras as “institutional murder”, students of IIT-Bombay on Tuesday held a protest on the campus while accusing the institute administration of indulging in “casteist and Islamophobic behaviour” and of harbouring other discriminatory attitudes.
The suicide of Fathima Latheef, a first-year student at IIT-Madras on 9 November, resonated with IIT-B, where a student, Aniket Ambhore, had committed suicide in September 2014.
“We call the case of Ms Fathima an institutional murder because institutions of higher education have failed to provide constitutional safeguards and institutional mechanisms for students from SC, ST, OBC, Muslim, LGBTQ and other minority communities, who enter these premier institutes despite lack of socio-cultural capital,” said a statement issued by the students.
(Source: The Indian Express)
4. Sena Proposes 21-Day Gap Between Two Tree Authority Meetings
The Shiv Sena has suggested that there should be a gap of at least 21 days, instead of the current 15, between two meetings of the civic body’s Tree Authority. The move, it said, would serve the city’s green cover.
Sena leader and Standing Committee chairman Yashwant Jadhav has moved a notice of motion proposing changes in Maharashtra (Urban Areas) Protection and Preservation of Trees (Amendment) Act, 2015, which states that meetings of the Tree Authority can be called once every 15 days or whenever the chairman of the committee (the municipal commissioner) decides to.
Jadhav has sought changes in the amendment Act and proposed that the gap between two meetings of the committee should be increased by six days.
(Source: The Indian Express)
5. Agnelo Valdaris ‘Custodial Death’: No Objection If Special Court Wants to Charge 8 Cops With Murder, CBI Tells Bombay HC
The CBI on Tuesday told the Bombay High Court that it will not have an objection if the special court conducting the trial against eight police personnel for the 2014 custodial death of 24-year-old Agnelo Valdaris, wants to charge them for murder.
CBI counsel Hiten Venegaonkar submitted that while the agency’s probe has not found evidence to show that the accused could be tried for murder, if the trial court, on the basis of the material before it, decides to charge them for murder, the prosecution will not object.
The division bench of Justice B P Dharmadhikari and Justice S S Jadhav was hearing a writ petition filed by Agnelo’s father Leonard Valdaris, seeking that the accused be charged with murder.
(Source: The Indian Express)
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