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TOI : PUNE:The anti-extortion cell (AEC) of the Pune police has arrested history-sheeterYogesh Namdev Padekar (23) with a country-made revolver and abullet.Acting on tip-off, thepolice laid a trap near Warje and nabbed Padekar, who has been externed for twoyears.About 15 offences havebeen registered against him, including attempt to murder and theft. The case wasregistered in the Kothrud police station….More

TOI : PUNE:Veteran Marathi stage actor Prakash Inamdar passed away following a massiveheart attack early on Sunday morning. He was 60.Inamdar is survived by hiswife actress Jaymala Inamdar, son anddaughter.The last rites wereperformed at Vaikunth crematorium in the presence of prominent personalitiesfrom the field of theatre andstage.Inamdar’s role ofSawla Kumbhar, which he played in thevagnatya(a comedy that makes comments on the current socio-political situation)GadhvachaLagnaearned him much recognition. Theplay, which was presented by Kalasangam, an organisation established by Inamdarhimself, completed a thousand shows just few years ago. The 1000th show ofGadhvachaLagnawas held at Balgandharva Rangmandirin Pune.Besides,GadhvachaLagna, Inamdar was in the playsSaujanyanchi AishiTaishi,LafdaSadan,Sangeet Katyar KaljatGhusli,SangeetSaunshaykallolandDiva Jalu De SariRaat. Besides Marathi plays, Inamdar alsoacted in Marathi movies likeVajva revajvaandGoshta DhamalNarhyachi.Chanda teBanda, a Marathi serial by Inamdar, was ahit with Marathi audiences….More

TOI : PUNE:Close on the heels of the beheading incident in Kondhwa, anotherhistory-sheeter, Sanjay Chandrakant Khude (26), was brutally murdered by hisrivals near a hotel along the busy Pune-Satara road late on Saturday night.The assailants, numberingaround nine, executed the murder in as repulsive a manner as in the case ofhistory-sheeter Sohail Suleman Sheikh at Kondhwa, five days ago.The police have said theassailants inflicted multiple stab wounds on the head, back, upper limbs andtorso of Khude, a resident of Mangalwar Peth, before smashing his head withstones in an attempt to mutilate the face. Investigators have prima facieestablished enmity as the cause of the grisly killing.The police said that Khude,who was involved in several alleged body offences, was serving an externmentorder (issued a fortnight ago by the Faraskhana police) at Kolhapur, and hadillegally entered the city on Saturday night to meet his friends.Sahakarnagar police inspectorH N Sheikh, who is investigating the case, told TOI that the names of six of thenine suspects involved in the murder have been established. However, no arrestwas reported till Sunday evening. “Our investigating teams are working onthe arrests,” said Sheikh.The police have identified thesuspects as Nilesh Alhaat, Rahul Kamble, Amar Kamble, Vishal Ubale, BabluChavan, all residents of Mangalwar Peth, and Sonya Nikalje of Tadiwala road.They were accompanied by three more people, the police added.Investigations have revealedthat prime suspect Nilesh Alhaat and his accomplices suspected that Khude wasbehind the murder of one of their friends, Nandu Waghmare, at Mangalwar Peth afew days ago. They had been monitoring Khude’s movement since then, thepolice added.Around 9 pm onSaturday, Khude reached hotel Mehfil, along the Pune-Satara highway, for aget-together with his friends from Mangalwar Peth. The group had their dinner,following which Khude came out of the hotel around 11.30 pm. According to thepolice, it was at this point, that the assailants accosted Khude to a nearbyopen plot and launched a furious assault with iron choppers, sickles and stones.An offence…More

TOI : PUNE: A79-year-old woman was among two persons killed on the spot while another twowere injured when their speeding car crashed through the protective wall of aduct on the Mumbai-Pune expressway corridor before falling into a 20-ft ditch atBaur near Kamshet around 1.30 pm on Sunday.Police identified the dead asKamalini Anand Swadi (79), a resident of Tardeo in Mumbai, and her domestichelp, Ramu Nepali (39).Kamalini’s husband AnandVitthal Swadi (83) and car driver Chandrakant Naagre (45) sustained multiplefractures, the Kamshet police said and added that both were undergoing treatmentat the Lokmanya hospital, Pimpri.The Swadi couple, along withtheir domestic help, was headed for Pune in their car to meet their relatives,the police said.As theirvehicle approached Baur, the car driver lost control and it veered off the road,the police said….More

TOI : PUNE:The city is paying a heavy price for development. It is losing its green coverrapidly.While massive illegaltree cutting is rampant in the city, the Pune Tree Authority (formed to protectthe green cover of the city) had given the green signal for hacking more than7,000 trees this year. Thousands more are expected to face the axe soon as thePune Municipal Corporation (PMC) speeds up its massive road widening programmeahead of the Commonwealth Youth Games (CYG) nextyear.The PTA cleared cuttingof 42,000 trees in the last five years (2001-2006). Besides, the PMC has notconducted the mandatory tree census in the last five years as prescribed by theMaharashtra Tree Act of 1975. The civic body allowed transplantation of 7,000trees, but it has no figures to prove how many actuallysurvived.The green activistsare planning to approach the high court over the formation and functioning ofthe PTA. “The time has come to question the functioning of PTA whichshoulders the responsibility of protecting trees, but is doing exactly theopposite. The speed with which they are permitting tree cutting defies basicintention behind its formation,” said activist VinodJain.Appointment of membersother than corporators to PTA was illegal as many of them were not associatedwith any environmental organisations, Jain said. Politicians obtainedcertificates from social organisations to become members of the PTA, headded….More

TOI : AHMEDNAGAR:”I felt like spitting at the world… was ashamed… helpless… With aneight-month-old foetus in the abdomen, I went out to sell myself to get 10-15rupees to fill my stomach,” writes Latabai Pawar in her autobiography set to hitthe stands next month.Thebook, ‘Mi Raand’ (I am a Prostitute), exposes the dark side of politicians fromthe sugar belt of Maharashtra. It is the first such autobiography to bepublished in Marathi. After Latabai’s death last year, her counterparts inAhmednager got a publisher for the book and their efforts will bear fruit nextmonth.”We want the commonpeople, who loathe us, to read this book to get the real picture. Latabai’sstory is our story, which explains why we are in this hell,” says Geeta Sahane,a prostitute fromAhmednagar.Shantabai’storturous journey began after she was forced to marry someone almost twice herage. She left her home at Pargaon and came to Ahmednagar in search of a job. Shestudied till the first year of college and then got a job as a clerk in aco-operative society where she met a politician. Lured by the promise ofmarriage, she went ahead with the relationship till one day, the man, who laterbecame a prominent leader, dumped her. “He threw Rs 1,000 at me and asked me toget an abortion.” There was more hard luck in store for Latabai. “I lost my joband after failing to get work, I became a prostitute,” she writes.Latabaiwanted to get thebook published in her lifetime but got ill with tuberculosis and died last yearat the age of 52.”In her laststage she was yearning to get her story published. Before her death weinformally published a hand-written copy at a function and she was in tears,”recall her colleagues. Snehalaya, the NGO working for prostitutes andHIV-infected children, got the copy and approached a prominent Marathipublisher, who agreed to publish it….More

TOI : PUNE:The late night carol singing and customary midnight mass ushered in Christmasfestivities in the city on Mondayevening.Rt Rev ValerianD’Souza, Bishop of Poona started the mass at St Patrick’s church at midnightsharp. Thousands of people gathered at the church — which has a strengthof 10,000 — as the festivities began with carol singing at 11.30 pm.Almost all the churches in the city held their Christmas mass atmidnight.The St Patrick’scathedral mass went on for over an hour and people greeted each other andoffered season’s greetings. The church will hold mass at 6.30 am, 7.30 am, 8.30am and 10 am on Tuesday, according to officials. The Bishop will give the 8.30am mass on Christmas day. There will be no evening mass onTuesday.In his note written asguest editor for the Times of India’s features page of Tuesday, Rt Rev ValerianD’Souza said that the spirit of Christmas meant God’s unbounded love manifestedin giving and in forgiveness.”The saying, ‘Put Christ backinto Christmas’ was coined because the world of business, the ad men, theentertainment industry and others saw only the tremendous commercialopportunities of the feast. Christ, the centre of the festival, was relegated tothe background or totally erased from the picture,” the Bishopsaid.He pointed out that thefocus in Christmas has to be on Christ who is the everlasting expression ofGod’s love and forgiveness….More

TOI : PUNE:Following the arrest of one suspect, the city crime branch on Monday claimed tohave solved the mystery behind the death of 25-year-old Raja, alias AmrishsinghSudarshansingh, who was found murdered near the railway foot overbridge alongthe Raja Bahadur Mill road last Friday.The suspect was identified bythe police as Arif Afsar Sheikh (18) of the Patil estate slums. Arif, along withRaja, was part of a multi-member gang of robbers that regularly operated aboardthe south-bound trains originating from Mumbai.According to the police, afight between Raja and his six accomplices, over the share of spoils from thetrain robberies had led to the alleged murder. Raja’s body bore multiple stabwounds while Arif too was injured in the fight, the police said.In fact, it was Arif’s injuryand treatment at the Sasoon general hospital that enabled the crime branchinvestigators, led by senior inspector Tulshidas Mahajan, to gain vital tipsabout the suspect’s movement.Arif had faked the cause ofhis injury while getting admitted at the Sassoon hospital. He sensed thepolice’s intent and had slipped out of the hospital, but could not evade thepolice for long. The police have launched a hunt for the other five suspectsinvolved in the murder….More

TOI : PUNE:Twenty-year-oldDevi Shingade, who was pregnant, and her husband Nilesh (27) were found deadunder mysterious circumstances in their house at Kharalwadi in Pimpri on earlyMonday morning. Prima facie the Pimpri police suspect it to be a case ofsuicide.Nilesh’s father,Narayan and his brother Shrinivas rushed them to a nearby private nursing home,which referred the case to Yashwantrao Chavan Memorial Hospital (YCMH). Theauthorities at YCMH pronounced the couple as ‘brought dead’.A suicide note written purportedlyby Devi was recovered from the site which said that she was taking the extremestep on her own as she was fed up with life. The police said the couple had aone-year-old daughter and Devi was expecting second baby.According to the police,Narayan and Shrinivas stay in a separate house in front of Nilesh’s house atShingade chawl in Kharalwadi. Both Nilesh and Devi were in the habit of gettingup early in the morning. On Monday morning, Narayan did not see any activity inNilesh’s house and went to inquire. When the couple did not respond to therepeated calls, he broke into the house to find the couple hanging by theceiling bar.The police wereawaiting the post-mortem findings to establish the cause of death….More

TOI : PUNE:In order to facilitate the journey of pilgrims to Prayagdham trust, Uruli, theministry of railways has decided to allow two-minute temporary halts to someexpress trains at the Uruli Kanchan station for the annual festival of MakarSankranti.A statement releasedhere by Y.K. Singh, public relations officer, Central Railway, said that oneadditional second class general unreserved compartment will also be attached to1077 Pune-Jammutawi Jhelumexpress.Meanwhile, details of thetrains that will be permitted the additional halt at Uruli Kanchan station andthe timings are asfollows:2780 Hazrat Hizammudin(NZM) Vasco da Gama (VDG) Goa express: arrival at 15.33 and departure at 15.35from December 28 to January 13. The 2779Goa express will arrive at Uruli at4.41 hrs and depart at 4.43 hrs from January 15 to18.The 6530 BangaloreChhatrapati Shivaji Terminus Udyan express will arrive at 15.00 hrs and departat 15.02 hrs from January 12 to 18. The 6529 Udyan express will arrive at 12.05hrs and leave at 12.07 hrs from January 12 to18.The 2130 Howrah Pune AzadHind express will arrive at 6.00 hrs and leave at 6.02 hrs on January 11 and 12.The 2129 Azad Hind express will arrive at 18.49 hrs and depart at 18.51 onJanuary 14 and 15.The 6352Chhatrapati Shivaji terminus Nagarcoil via Tirupati Nagarcoil express willarrive at 15.51 hrs and leave at 15.53 hrs on January 14. The 6340 Nagarcoilexpress will arrive at 15.51 hrs and leave at 15.53 hrs on January15….More