1. Thane Cops To Rethink Invoking MCOCA Charges Against Iqbal Kaskar
After having been pushed on the backfoot after an Intelligence Bureau (IB) assessment poked holes at the Thane police stating that Dawood Ibrahim’s brother, Iqbal Kaskar is not involved in extortion activities, the cops may be prompted to do a rethink on seeking Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) provisions against him.
According to sources in Thane police, the application of MCOCA hinges on certain conditions. The IB assessment, which runs counter to the organised crime and extortion charges against Kaskar, is what may prompt the cops to do a rethink on seeking MCOCA provisions.
According to Thane cops, Kaskar has been running a thriving extortion racket primarily in Thane, with the help of Dawood aide Chhota Shakeel.
Mirror reported on October 25 that Kaskar’s revelations, when the IB interrogated him, did not match with the claims made by the police. Kaskar spawns no criminality now, says the IB assessment. Kaskar is also high on drugs and not in the best of health, say IB officials.
Kaskar was arrested on September 19 by the Thane Anti-Extortion Cell, led by encounter specialist Pradeep Sharma. Sharma told Mirror on Wednesday, “There is evidence against Kaskar and we are going to submit that in court.”
(Source: Mumbai Mirror)
2. Constable Arrested For Molesting 13-Year-Old At Mulund Hospital
The Mulund police have arrested a 48-year-old constable for molesting a 13-year-old girl, while he was on duty at a civic hospital in Mulund. The girl's mother had gone to the washroom when the incident took place. However, after registering a case against accused Sharad Hande, the cops immediately suspended him.
Police said on Friday the woman, who lives in Bhandup, had a fight with her neighbour. While they were quarrelling, the neighbour bit her hand. She immediately rushed to MT Agarwal Hospital along with her daughter around 2 am.
After undergoing treatment, the woman approached one of the on-duty cops to register a complaint in the matter. While he was taking down notes regarding the incident, the woman went to the washroom leaving her daughter back.
"As the woman is diabetic, she had to go to the toilet two to three times while the procedure was on. Her daughter later told her that while she was away, the constable misbehaved with her and touched her inappropriately," said a police officer.
(Source: Mid-Day)
3. MNS Claims 4 Of 6 Defector Corporators Want To Rejoin Party, Shiv Sena Rubbishes It
A war of words broke out between the Shiv Sena and the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) over reports that four of the six corporators who had defected from the MNS were going to rejoin the party. The Shiv Sena rubbished the reports and late in the evening produced a letter in which all the six corporators reaffirmed their support to the party.
On Wednesday , MNS leaders had claimed that Datta Narvankar, Archana Bhalerao, Parmeshwar Kadam and Harshala More had shown willingness to rejoin the party. Two of these corporators are reported to have spoken to MNS chief Raj Thackeray on the phone. MNS leaders claimed that by evening the four could rejoin the party.
A miffed Sena, meanwhile, herded all the six corporators and subsequently scotched romours of their defection and in the evening distributed a letter signed by the six in which they reaffirmed their support to the Sena. “We six corporators are with the Shiv Sena and will remain with the party. Please do not believe in rumours. This is a conspiracy to defame us. The public should not believe in these rumours,” the letter stated.
(Source: Indian Express)
4. Only Newspaper Vendors Can Sell Outside Mumbai Railway Stations
You can continue to buy your favourite newspaper from the vendor at the station, but nothing else. In the wake of the September 29 Elphinstone Road stampede which claimed 23 lives, the BMC had joined hands with railway authorities to launch a massive drive to free all station premises and bridges in the city of hawkers and encroachers. Even as the crackdown on illegal vendors continues, newspaper vendors got a reprieve thanks to the intervention of Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.
On Monday, state BJP chief Ashish Shelar, along with key members of the newspaper vendors' union, including Sanjay Chaukekar and Rajan Pendulkar, called on Fadnavis to highlight the plight of newspaper vendors at railway stations, especially at Mulund, Kurla, Bandra, Borivli, Santacruz and Vile Parle. Later, some other members of the union, led by Madhusudan Sadadekar, visited the CM to request him to spare newspaper vendors from civic action.
Soon after, the CM intervened and the civic body issued a letter to all 24 ward officers in the city urging them to refrain from dislodging or removing newspaper vendors at station premises.
(Source: Mid-Day)
5. Cobra Gives Andheri West Residents Midnight Scare
Thirty-five-odd families in a society at Andheri West woke up in the middle of the night to the fright of their lives after one of them spotted a cobra in their house. The snake, a five-foot-long Indian Spectacled Cobra, had apparently been spotted in one of the houses of Sahil Co-operative society on Sunday afternoon as well. But, before the rescuers could reach the spot on Sunday, the snake had escaped through an exit in the bathroom.
The snake rescuers, Prabhu Swami and Kaushal Dubey, came again around midnight from Aarey Colony after one of the residents called them. Vikas Kiratkudve, one of the residents, said, "There was loud shouting in the compound and all of us came out to check. We immediately called the snake rescuers and they managed to catch it alive. Luckily, nothing happened to the society members as the snake us highly venomous and there are about 15 children who live here."
(Source: Mid-Day)
6. Slum Kids Have Full Right To Access Cuffe Parade Garden, Rules Collector
The garden in Cuffe Parade is government land and it can be accessed by each and every citizen of the country, and not just the CPRA members, ruled Mumbai Collector Sampada Mehta after hearing the two sides seeking rights to use and maintain the garden on Wednesday.
The stark divide between the rich and the poor that immortalises the character of Mumbai in Gregory David Roberts’ 2003 novel – Shantaram – was evident at the city collector’s office on Wednesday, when a group of slum dwellers belonging to Machimar Sanghatana complained about how their kids were denied entry in a garden in Cuffe Parade by the upscale Cuffe Parade Residents’ Association (CPRA).
The tussle is now between the rich and the poor in Cuffe Parade over a precious green lung as the collector will examine CPRA’s plea for the renewal of permission to maintain and use the garden under caretaker policy. The permission has expired this year.
Collector Mehta, after listening to the arguments and grievances of both the parties, passed an order on Wednesday that said: “The poor kids have a right to open spaces and should be allowed entry during garden timings. The slumdwellers, on the other hand, should be responsible and not try to get access to electricity and water from the garden.”
(Source: Mumbai Mirror)
7. Bombay HC Upholds Preventive Detention Of Man
The Bombay High Court recently upheld a preventive detention order against a man — for abusing people in his locality and disturbing them — under the Maharashtra Prevention of Dangerous Activities (MPDA) Act, stating that “since public order is tempo of life of the community in a particular locality, in the present case the situation created by the detenu cannot be termed as only breach of law and order” as claimed by him but was also a breach of public order.
The petition, filed by Iqbal Sayyed of Hadapsar in Pune, who is lodged in Nashik Road Central Prison, claimed that there was no sufficient material on the basis of which his activities amounted to breach of public order. He sought to demonstrate that there is a distinction between “public order” and “law and order”, and sought quashing of the detention order, as the MPDA Act is applicable to breach of public order.
The public prosecutor maintained that Sayyed is a habitual criminal and the offences he indulged in affected public order. A division bench of Justice S C Dharmadhikari and Justice Bharathi Dangre observed that, “The term ‘public order’ is synonymous with public peace, public safety and tranquility and qualitatively the acts that affect law and order are not different from acts that affect public order. Every kind of disorder or contravention of law and order affects that orderly tranquility and the distinction between the two being only of degree or extent of impact on society. Both have the potential to disturb the even tempo of life and community, which make it prejudicial to the maintenance of public order….” said the Bench.
(Source: Indian Express)
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