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indianexpress:Only six of the 280 in judicial custody were released from Yerawada central prison on Tuesday evening with the special court asking for surety from local residents. This decision is said to have been imposed on the basis of the Pune rural police intimation that many names and addresses of the accused were fictitious. The court had granted bail to 150 accused on Monday, while the rest were granted bail on Tuesday. The six released included two women.

“Over 50 per cent of the names and addresses given by the accused were fictitious. In the case of the accused from Mumbai, we found on a random check that eight out of 10 addresses were fake. Now, we are verifying the authenticity of more names and addresses and informing the court accordingly,” said Pune rural superintendent of police Vishwas Nangre Patil.

Scores of parents, friends and relatives were seen shuttling from Yerwada Central Prison to Shivajinagar Court arranging for the elusive surety. Most of them were finding it difficult to locate a willing relative or acquaintance in the city to give a surety. “Every single contact of ours expressed fear about coming under the police scanner,” said an anxious parent.

Aftab Khan (name changed), who had come representing a leading city hotelier whose son was in the jail, said: “We have been running from pillar to post ever since he was picked up by the police. Our lawyer has moved application and we hope that he will be released by today evening.” At the end of the day, he was not among the six to be released.

indianexpress: Donje, a nondescript village, 25 km from Pune, has been driven to shame by the ‘reckless’ behaviour of one of its sons, Ramdas Hagavane who organised the all-night party in his mango orchard. Most villagers feel that one night of indiscretion has cost the village its hard-earned glory of having fought the Mughals.

Hagavane was a “lost cause” said the villagers — elders, housewives, children, and even the police patil (the village guardian). He was not staying in the village after marrying a girl against his family’s wishes. But nobody thought he would organise such a party was the common refrain of the village of around 3,500 people.

“It is a shame people are coming to see the telltale marks of the party at the foothills rather than look up at the imposing fort rising 800 metres above the village,” said Ankush Paigude, the village police patil for Donje and Sinhagad.

The rugged countryside surrounding Donje was the sight of a recapture of the fort by Shivaji’s men from Mughal emperor Aurangazeb’s Rajput garrison in March 1670. The local folklore tells how Maratha general Tanaji used a pet monitor lizard to climb up the wall with a rope, and launched a surprise attack during the night.

It was no different on the night of March 4 when Paigude was woken up at 2.30 am by the Pune rural police wanting to borrow his searchlight. Paigude accompanied the police to bust the party. “It would not have taken place. Sunday afternoon I checked on Hagavane’s suspicious activities at the orchard. He said he was preparing for a ‘havan’ to mark the full moon”.