1. Peter And Indrani Siphoned £90 Mn, ED Tells CBI Court
Former media baron Peter Mukerjea and his wife Indrani have allegedly siphoned off 90 million pounds to foreign destinations through hawala transactions, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has said in an application, seeking permission to question the couple, filed in the CBI court on Thursday.
The special court conducting the trial in the sensational Sheena Bora murder case on Thursday allowed the ED’s application to question the key accused, Indrani Mukerjea, in connection with money laundering case against her and others, including Karti Chidambaram, son of former Finance Minister P Chidambaram.
“It will not be proper to reject the ED application and so it’s allowed,” observed Special CBI Judge JC Jagdale, while admitting the application. The court said that the agency can interrogate Indrani on Friday and on December 6.
The ED had earlier in May this year registered a case against Karti Chidambaram, INX Media and its directors, Peter and Indrani, and others, after taking cognisance of a CBI FIR against them.
(Source: Mumbai Mirror)
2. Beach Clean-Up Will Resume After I See Change On Ground: Afroz Shah
Afroz Shah, the face of the weekend cleanliness drive at the Versova beach who ‘suspended’ the initiative last Sunday citing “harassment by goons” and “administrative lethargy”, has put forth a list of demands to return to the beach. Shah spelt out the demands to Mumbai Mirror a couple of hours after he met Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis at the state guest house ‘Sahyadri’ on Thursday, saying while he was happy with the chief minister’s assurance, his volunteers’ safety and immediate clearance of garbage remained non-negotiable.
Support poured in for Shah, 36, a lawyer practicing at the Bombay High Court, from all quarters after Mirror reported that he had suspended the Versova beach clean-up after 109 weeks (‘Versova beach clean-up suspended as movement spearhead Afroz Shah alleges abuse by goons’, MM, November 20). In a subsequent interview with this newspaper, Shah said he felt “defeated” seeing his volunteers being abused by anti-social elements week after week.
He added that abandoning a movement he launched in 2015, and which has been applauded by the United Nations and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, was a personal decision.
(Source: Mumbai Mirror)
3. Hema Upadhyay Murder: Court Rejects Chintan Upadhyay’s Discharge Plea
The Dindoshi sessions court has rejected the discharge application filed by artist Chintan Upadhyay, arrested for the murder of his wife Hema and her lawyer Harish Bhambhani. Chintan had filed the discharge application in July, claiming his creative language could not be misinterpreted to prove criminal intent. He claimed there was no “legally admissible” evidence against him and that the police were relying on “insufficient circumstantial evidence”.
Chintan claimed entries made by him in his personal diary between 2012 and 2014 had been “randomly selected and read out of context”. He said the police had relied on the statement of Bhambhani’s wife Poonam that a picture was drawn by him with the words “I will destroy you”, which was shown to her by Hema. Chintan claimed the police had not recovered the alleged picture. Special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam has argued there was enough prima facie evidence to show his involvement in hatching a conspiracy to commit the murders.
(Source: Indian Express)
4. Elphinstone Stampede: Army Start Construction of Foot-Over-Bridge
The Indian Army has started construction of a new foot-over-bridge at Mumbai’s Elphinstone Road station, after the horrific stampede on 29 September that left 23 people dead.
Railway minister Piyush Goyal, defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman, and Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis visited the Elphinstone Road station on 31 October, where Fadnavis announced that the army will help build three new foot-over-bridge at the Elphinstone Road station in Mumbai
The FOB are to be constructed by 31 January 2018, at an estimated cost of Rs 10 crore, reported The Times of India.
5. Seeking Leave To Undergo Sex-Change Surgery, Beed Constable Moves High Court
Wearing a sweatshirt, brown jeans and floaters, Lalita Salve or Lalit Kumar Salve, as she prefers to be called, clutched a plastic packet that had all the documents to prove why a sex reassignment surgery is vital for the 29-year-old. The police constable from Beed, who sat despondently outside a courtroom on Thursday, said she decided to approach the Bombay High Court after the Maharashtra Police denied her request seeking one month’s medical leave from work for undergoing the surgery.
According to Salve, she had read media reports stating that Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had asked the Director General of Police to consider her request but was yet to receive any confirmation on this. “I have approached the High Court hoping for relief,” she said.
When the matter was mentioned by her lawyer Sayed Ejaz Naqvi before a division bench headed by Chief Justice Manjula Chellur, the court asked for the matter to be placed before the appropriate bench. It is likely to be mentioned before a bench headed by Justice S M Kemkar. Looking a little pulled down after the court hearing, Salve said, “I will smile when I finally get the relief I am looking for.”
(Source: Indian Express)
6. Help Pours In For Mumbai Teen Football Champ Who Was Living In Dire Poverty
Mumbaikars have once again proved that they have hearts of gold. A day after mid-day broke the story of a determined 16-year-old footballer Mary Naidu, who despite having no permanent home, sports gear or ground to practice on, dreams to someday play for the country, several people, including former MP Priya Dutt, came forward to extend their support to her.
Dutt is expected to meet Mary and her parents today evening, and will be helping the girl through her NGO Nargis Dutt Foundation, said a spokesperson from the NGO. Aditya Kumar, the founder of travel company, travelegend.com, has also promised financial support. "We read about Mary's skills in football and the hardships she has been facing. We are really keen on ensuring a bright future for her." Mary's coach Parvez Shaikh had also mentioned how the "disciplined and focused" teenager did not have jerseys, shoes and footballs to practice. That roadblock also will soon be ironed out.
After reading mid-day's report, Ishraque Gulrays of Sportnicians, a company dealing in sports products, has decided to gift Mary a basic football kit. "The kit will include jerseys and shorts, stockings, shin pads, studs, among other things. I've requested the family to send me the measurements so that I can arrange for the same as soon as possible. We are also planning to make a customised jersey for her," he said. Overwhelmed by the response, Mary's father, Prakash Naidu said, "I am very thankful to the people who've come forward to help my daughter. She will make all of them and our country proud."
(Source: Mid-Day)
7. Road Scam: Relief For Contractors, Engineer
In a major relief to six contractors and a BMC engineer who had been booked in the multi-crore road repair scam, the High Court has granted them anticipatory bail. The seven have been accused of using substandard material to build or repair roads across the city. They had approached the High Court after their anticipatory bail plea had been turned down by the sessions court last year.
Justice AM Badar granted prearrest bail to contractors Jitendra Kikavat, managing director of Mahavir Infrastructure, Manish Kasliwal, director of KR Constructions, Narendra Madhani of RK Madhani Infrastructure, Tejas Shah, owner of Relcon Infra Projects, Nalin Gupta of J-Kumar Infra Projects and Ketan Shah. Executive engineer roads department Vibhas Achrekar was also given relief.
The main contention of the accused was that the allegations against their companies were for ‘breach of contract’, which cannot amount to cheating under the IPC, especially when the tender document itself has mechanisms to penalise the contractor for any wrongdoing. The defence, therefore, argued that the FIR lodged against the contractors in April 2016 was premature.
(Source: Mumbai Mirror)
8. Navi Mumbai: CBSE School Loses Huge Sums Of Money In Cheque Fraud Case
A CBSE school based out of Khargar, Navi Mumbai has become the latest victim of transaction fraud. The Bal Bharti Public School lost over Rs 24 lakhs after unidentified men forged the school's cheques and later encashed them illegally.
The issue was brought to the attention of Kharghar police after the bank hosting the school's account notified bank authorities of the unapproved transactions. According to a report in the Indian Express, the cheque-related fraud was committed in two separate transactions.
While an initial sum of Rs 8.56 lakh was illegally withdrawn from the school's account on October 30, the second instance of fraud was committed on October 31, for a sum of Rs 16.20 lakh. Interestingly, the cheques were actually issued by the school to two different individuals for far lesser amounts.
(Source: Mid-Day)
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