Earlier, the Supreme Court refused to stay the acquittal of former Delhi University professor G N Saibaba, who was accused of Maoist links under sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and of criminal conspiracy under the Indian Penal Code (IPC). The National Investigation Agency (NIA) moved the Supreme Court for stay hours after the Bombay High Court order. The apex court, however, allowed the NIA to move an application before the registry requesting for urgent listing.
In other news, heavy rainfall lashed Mumbai on Friday resulting in traffic jam in most parts of the city, especially in the western suburbs. Motorists are stuck on Saki Vihar road towards Sakinaka for over half an hour around 8 pm. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) in its update at 4 pm yesterday, said thunderstorm accompanied with lightning and light to moderate spells of rain with gusty winds reaching 30-40 kilometres per hour were likely to occur at isolated places in Mumbai, Palghar, Thane, Satara, Sangli, Solapur, Beed, Parbhani, Hingoli, Nanded, Latur, Nasik, Aurangabad over the next three to four hours.
Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari said Saturday that the Centre was planning to build an express highway between Mumbai and Bengaluru. He also said the Mumbai-Pune Express Highway would take a turn from near the Ring Road of Pune and run as the highway towards the Karnataka capital.
“Just like the national water grid, we want to develop a national highway grid,” the minister said in a virtual address to the Association Of National Exchanges Members Of India’s international convention in Mumbai.
Gadkari said income from tolls had reached Rs 40,000 crore and would rise to Rs 1,40,000 crore by the end of 2024 and added that 27 express highways were coming up in the country. Read more
At least 200 people from North Indian communities joined the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) at a function in Kalyan city of Maharashtra's Thane district on Saturday.
The function organised by Kalyan Rural Assembly constituency President Vinod Patil to induct members of North Indian community from Sagaon Chera Nagar.
Talking to reporters, people who joined the fold claimed that they were fed up of the ongoing politics in the state and hence, decided to go with the MNS.
Both factions of the Shiv Sena were trying to woo north Indians, but they preferred to go with the MNS as they were impressed by the work and principles of Raj Thackeray, one of the new entrants said.
Notably, the MNS had staged a violent protest against north Indians over the issue of recruitment exams of the Railways 14 years ago. (PTI)
As of September-end, kharif sowing across Maharashtra recorded a minuscule rise from 145.42 to 146.86 lakh hectares, but the sowing of foodgrains saw a 9.05 per cent decline, according to the agriculture department.
The area with foodgrain farming this season has come down to 49.79 lakh hectares from 54.75 lakh hectares last year. The data is based on crop-wise reports from the districts for paddy, jowari, bajri, ragi, maize, tur, moong, udit, chawli and rajma.
The shortfall is mainly in jowari, which is sown in 1.42 lakh hectares, down from 2.08 lakh hectares last year. And bajri sowing fell to 4.07 lakh hectares from 5.04 lakh hectares. Paddy, essentially grown in parts of Konkan and eastern Vidarbha, has remained constant at 15 lakh hectares. The area of ragi farming has shrunk from 73,369 hectares to 68,612 hectares. Maize is slightly better at 8.80 lakh hectares compared with last year’s 8.72 lakh hectares. Read more
In what could be a breather to motorists battling the traffic snarls in Dahisar check naka of Mumbai and the satellite city of Mira Bhayander, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) Saturday issued tender to build the elevated road linking Dahisar West to Bhayandar (West) – the last leg of the coastal road. At present, it takes nearly 30 minutes for a 5-kilometre journey via the check naka.
The tender, published by the department of bridges, has set a deadline of 42 months, inclusive of monsoon, to finish the project.
The elevated road with a width of 45 metres will have some bridges. Ahead of the construction, the contractor will have to get clearance from the state coastal zone management authority and the forest department as the alignment passes through mangroves. The tender also mandates pre-approval from Maharashtra Maritime Board, Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA), Mira Bhayander Municipal Corporation and salt commissioner. Yogesh Naik reports
Maharashtra on Saturday reported 462 Covid-19 cases, which took the state's tally to 81,27,259, while the death toll stood unchanged at 1,48,371, a health department official said.
A day earlier, the state had seen 477 cases and four deaths, he pointed out.
Mumbai circle accounted for 288 of the new cases, followed by Pune (89), Nagpur (25), Akola(17), Aurangabad (16), Nashik (11), Latur (10) and Kolhapur (6) circles.
The recovery count increased by 403 in the last 24 hours to touch 79,76,070, leaving the state with 2,818 active cases, he said.
Mumbai led with 1,143 active cases, followed by 550 in Pune and 487 cases in Thane, the official added.
As per the health department's data, the recovery rate is 98.14 per cent and the fatality rate stands at 1.82 per cent.
So far, 8,50,56,146 coronavirus tests have been conducted in Maharashtra, including 18,618 in the last 24 hours, as per official data.
Coronavirus figures of Maharashtra are as follows: Positive cases 8127259; fresh cases 462; death toll 148371; recoveries 79,76,070; active cases 2818; total tests 8,50,56,146. (PTI)
A Bangalore-bound Akasa Air flight returned to the Mumbai airport due to a burning smell in the cabin, which later turned out to be due to a bird strike, a DGCA official said on Saturday.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation is looking into the incident, the official said.
The number of passengers on board the flight could not be immediately known. Read more
A 35-year-old man was arrested for allegedly attacking a priest with a knife at an ashram in Maharashtra's Thane city, police said on Saturday.
The incident took place at the ashram located in Ramnagar locality of the city on Friday afternoon, senior inspector Sunil Shine of Srinagar police station said.
The accused who was in an inebriated state allegedly attacked the 63-year-old priest with a knife. The victim managed to escape unharmed, he said.
A man who was present in the ashram at the time intervened and snatched the knife from the accused, the official said.
The accused was drunk and pelted stones at the ashram. When the victim questioned him about it, he attacked him with a knife, he said.
A case under section 307 (attempt to murder) and other relevant provisions of the Indian Penal Code has been registered against the accused who has been arrested, the official said. (PTI)
Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Saturday welcomed the decision of the Supreme Court to suspend the Bombay High Court's order of acquitting former Delhi University professor G N Saibaba and others in a Maoist links case.
The top court on Saturday rejected Saibaba's request to order his release from jail due to his disability and health conditions and put him under house arrest after the Maharashtra government opposed the prayer, saying that nowadays, there is a new tendency of "urban naxals" to seek house arrest. The high court had acquitted Saibaba and others in the case on Friday.
Speaking to reporters at the Nagpur airport, Fadnavis said, "I am satisfied with the apex court's decision to suspend the high court order on professor G N Saibaba. Yesterday, I had said that the high court decision was surprising and shocking for us, because releasing a person on technical grounds, against whom there was ample evidence of directly helping Maoists, was wrong. Hence, we approached the SC yesterday itself." The senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and former chief minister said he was thankful to the top court for forming a bench on Friday and suspended the high court order.
"We will fight the legal battle ahead," he said, adding that the SC decision would provide a relief to the families of the policemen that were martyred in attacks by Naxalites. (PTI)
The Maharashtra government on Saturday declared a public holiday for the Andheri East Assembly constituency on the day of the bypoll to be held on November 3, an official said.
In an official release, the district election officer stated that this holiday will be applicable to Central and state government offices, semi-government offices, public enterprises, banks and others.
The holiday will also apply to voters who work outside the limits of the Assembly constituency, the release stated.
"In order to increase the percentage of voting in this byelection, public awareness is being created on a large scale," said Mumbai suburban district collector and district election officer Nidhi Choudhary while appealing to citizens to vote in large numbers.
This will be the first byelection in the state after the collapse of the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government in June. (PTI)
Murji Patel, the BJP’s candidate for the Andheri East Assembly by-election, has in his affidavit mentioned there are no criminal cases pending against him. The affidavit shows that Patel and his wife together own moveable and immovable assets worth Rs 11.70 crore.
Patel, who will lock horns with Shiv Sena’s Rutuja Latke in the Andheri East Assembly by-election, is 9th standard pass as per the affidavit submitted by him while filing his nomination Friday.
The movable asset shows two vehicles — Innova and Fortuner — apart from the fixed deposits (FDs) and savings in the bank. Vallabh Ozarkar reports
A day after the Bombay High Court acquitted her father, along with former Delhi University professor G N Saibaba and four others, Shikha Rahi, the daughter of journalist Prashant Rahi, said that she was disappointed by the Supreme Court’s decision on Saturday to suspend the judgment.
“This was the first case where the state made allegations about urban naxals. The conviction in 2017 was a matter of great pride for the state and we knew that an appeal would be filed if we got a fair judgment from the high court. We did not expect the judiciary to get coloured by the picture painted by the prosecution about my father and others,” Shikha said.
The Supreme Court on Saturday suspended the impugned judgment of the Bombay High Court and mentioned during the hearing that it had found fault with the high court for not entering into the merits of the case and finding a shortcut to decide.
Shikha said that it was not expected that the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court would not go into the merits of the case in the judgment passed on Friday. “The high court had heard both the sides on merits of the case for 10 days. We had submitted discrepancies in the evidence including the irregularities in the seizure of electronic evidence. The court had seemed to be questioning the prosecution about it but it discarded all the arguments, only relying on the sanction instead,” she said.
Walking along the road that leads to the Basilica of Our Lady of the Mount Mary in Mumbai’s Bandra, one passes through the artistic St Stephen’s Steps. What makes the zig-zagged climb up and down the serpentine stairs scenic are the paintings that flank both sides, most of them made by artists paying tributes to various art forms across the country.
One of the graffiti paintings that greets you as you start to descend the steep stairs is an Indian tribal art-inspired painting by artist Avantika Mathur that is an amalgamation of different styles from across the country. Read more
The Supreme Court on Saturday suspended the Bombay High Court order acquitting former Delhi University (DU) professor G N Saibaba and others in a Maoist-links case. The high court acquitted Saibaba and others in the case on Friday.
An apex court bench of justices M R Shah and Bela M Trivedi, which sat on a non-working day to hear the matter, also rejected Saibaba's request for putting him under house arrest in view of his physical disability and health conditions.
It stayed the release of all the accused in the case, including Saibaba, from jail, as directed by the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court. It sought responses from Saibaba and the other accused on a plea moved by the Maharashtra government against the high court order. (PTI)
An unidentified man called the State Bank of India’s (SBI) south Mumbai office and allegedly threatened to kidnap and murder the bank’s chairman and also blow up its office if a loan of Rs 10 lakh was not sanctioned to him, a police official said on Saturday.
The call was received at the office of the personal assistant of SBI chairman located in the Corporate Centre in Nariman Point area on Wednesday morning. Based on the complaint lodged the next day, a first information report (FIR) was registered against the unidentified caller, he said.
During the probe, police found that the call had been made from West Bengal and a team of the Mumbai police was on its way to trace and nab the accused, he said. (Read more)
The Supreme Court is scheduled to hold a special sitting Saturday to hear Maharashtra's plea against the Bombay High Court order acquitting former Delhi University Professor G N Saibaba in a case relating to his alleged Maoist links. A bench of Justice M R Shah and Justice Bela M Trivedi is likely to hear the matter at 11 am.
On Friday, the top court had refused to stay the Bombay High Court order. Following the High Court acquitting Saibaba, the Maharashtra government swiftly moved the apex court seeking a stay on the order which was declined. The top court, however, allowed Maharashtra to move an application before the registry requesting an urgent listing of the matter. (PTI)
A 21-year-old college student was allegedly molested by an autorickshaw driver and dragged with the vehicle in Maharashtra’s Thane city on Friday, police said. A video of the incident that took place in the city around 6.45 am surfaced on social media, an official said.
The woman was on her way to college when an autorickshaw driver standing on the road passed some remarks about her and when she questioned him, he caught hold of her hand and pulled her, senior inspector Jairaj Ranaware said. (Read more)
Thane district in Maharashtra has reported 111 new coronavirus positive cases, which took the tally of infections to 7,45,822, a health official said on Saturday.
These cases were recorded on Friday, and the district currently has 447 active cases. The death toll remained unchanged at 11,962 as nobody succumbed to the infection during the day, the official said, adding that the recovery count stood at 7,34,070. (PTI)
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Friday told the Bombay High Court that it will issue Occupancy Certificate (OC) to a developers only after they secure water connection certificate to get water supply from the civic body mainline.
The civic body made a submission in a plea by a petitioner who has claimed that he along with others were given possession of the flats in Integrated Arya at Narayan Nagar Ghatkopar (W) without municipal water supply.
During earlier hearing, the HC had pulled up the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and a developer who constructed a building at Ghatkopar and secured “part” Occupancy Certificate ( OC) for it without ensuring proper water connection, calling the state of affairs “symptomatic” of real estate projects across Mumbai. (Read more)
Several parts of Mumbai, especially the eastern suburbs, received heavy rains on Friday evening, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said. The island city received 8.23 mm of rainfall, western suburbs 19.72 mm and eastern suburbs 27.66 mm of rainfall since 8 am. Some areas in eastern suburbs received upto 62 mm of rainfall, BMC data showed.
Vikhroli, Bhandup, Nahur and Malad received the highest rainfall between 4 pm and 7 pm. The metropolis did not report major waterlogging anywhere except on the 24th road in Sion area. Some buses of the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) on the route were diverted. (PTI)
Maharashtra | Due to bad weather conditions in Mumbai today, 8 flights were diverted to nearby airports: Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport
Rutuja Latke resigned on October 3, however, her resignation is yet to be accepted by the civic administration. (Express Photo)Rutuja Latke ‘relieved’ after High Court order; Uddhav Thackeray-led Sena welcomes move
Welcoming the Bombay High Court’s directive to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (MC) to accept the resignation of Rutuja Latke, the party’s candidate for the Andheri (East) Assembly bypoll, the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena said on Thursday it was “unfortunate” that they had to move the court in this matter and blamed the Eknath Shinde government in Maharashtra for “using the civic body” for their own political gain.
“There was no need for the ones in power to be so insensitive and cruel in this case. We all have been seeing how this government works; how the state government gives orders to the BMC or government officials… Now, the question is if there is democracy in the country or fascism,” said Shiv Sena MLA and former minister Aaditya Thackeray, reacting to the verdict. Aaditya will accompany Latke during her nomination filing on Friday.
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