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TOI : PUNE: Apparently upset over his transfer, a police constable shot himself dead with a colleague’s rifle at the Police Parade ground at Shivajinagar here on Thursday afternoon. This is the fourth instance of a policeman ending his life in the city in the last one-and-a-half years.

The constable, Sachin Wavhal (29), had joined the police force only in 2006. After undergoing a year-long training, he had been posted at the Shivajinagar headquarters since the last four months.

The transfer orders for 40 policemen were issued on Thursday and Wavhal, along with 24 other constables at the headquarters, was to be posted at the Yerawada police station. Wavhal’s colleagues, who spoke to TOI, said he was disturbed with the transfer as he was concentrating on his studies for the Maharashtra Public Service Commission (MPSC) exams.

At around 11 am on Thursday, Wavhal came to the headquarters with his colleague, constable A.D. Chaudar, on the latter’s two-wheeler. Chaudar, who has also been transferred to the Yerawada police station, had been directed to deposit his rifle at the headquarters. He was given the rifle upon his posting for maintaining security at a Bank of India branch.

Chaudar was parking his two-wheeler when Wavhal took his rifle and went behind a toilet near the race track on the ground. Soon thereafter, a shot rang out and Wavhal was found bleeding from the head. The rifle was found next to him. Additional commissioner of police (south region) Vivek Phansalkar said they are trying to analyse the reason for Wavhal ending his life. “He seemed to have been under acute depression,” he added.

Wavhal, who lived at Sangvi, is survived by his parents, a brother and a sister.
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TOI : PUNE: Commodification of water is a hotly discussed issue world-wide. And Pune politicians have already realised that water is the hottest commodity to invest in. Come summer and water tankers in the city do business worth crores of rupees and, not surprisingly, majority of these are owned by politicians who have repeatedly promised a ‘tanker-free’ city.

Corporators, MLAs and local politicos from various parties have invested heavily in water tankers. Ironically, some of the first-time corporators, who won from the plank of water scarcity issues, also have ensured that they are not left behind in the business.

“Besides around 500 PMC tankers, there is scope for 1,000 private tankers. The number goes up mid-summer. It’s a growing business in this growing city,” said a private tanker owner.

The PMC hires tankers every summer through tender system, but usually it is politicians who ‘win’ the tenders. Politicos run their private tankers also. They ensure that on record the tankers are ‘owned’ by their distant relatives or friends.

This leaves doubts in the minds of people about the seriousness of the corporators in solving the problem. Citizens allege that deliberate scarcity is created in some parts of the city so that tankers could do business.

“For the past seven days, we have not received water. The civic officials say that some repair work has affected water supply. When we asked for the PMC’s water tankers, we were told that PMC does not have any. We were asked to purchase water from private water tankers,” one of the residents from a society in Vimannagar told TOI on Thursday.
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TOI : PUNE: Officials of the Citizen Facility Centre (CFC) at the district collectorate and officials of the state Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) on Thursday trapped a government contractor, Satyaraj Yakob Nadar, while bribing a senior clerk.

Nadar approached the senior clerk for getting a domicile certificate for his daughter. Since he hadn’t attach all the required documents, the CFC officials asked him to produce documents like his daughter’s bonafide certificate, birth certificate of father and tax receipts of 10 consecutive years to get the domicile certificate.

“Following this, he insisted on getting his work done without submitting the documents and offered to give a bribe of Rs 5,000. We tried to advise him not to resort to such corrupt practices but he persisted. So we decided to trap him with the help of Anti-Corruption Bureau officials,” said Jyoti Kadam, special executive magistrate at the collectorate. Print Save EMail Write to Editor Get personalised news s…More

TOI : PUNE: A gang of seven-eight members allegedly involved in cheating several call centres in Pune, Bangalore, New Delhi and Chennai, of lakhs of rupees was unearthed by the Hadapsar police following the arrest of one of its members on Thursday.

The suspect, identified as Sohail Anwar Meghani (25) of Versova, Mumbai, has been remanded to police custody till March 3 by judicial magistrate first class G.B. Gurao.

Meghani was arrested for allegedly cheating Reletronics Technologies Private Limited at Hadapsar of Rs 15 lakh on the pretext of getting business for them. The deals took place between August and November, 2007.

Meghani, who holds a degree in commerce, is computer savvy and has worked at several call centres in Pune, Hyderabad and Gujarat. He was a team leader when he quit job to start his own business of canvassing business for call centres on commission basis.

Meghani used the internet to get in touch with his accomplices Arun Kumar and Shankaran from Chennai and Krishna Kumar from Indore. He held meetings with them at Pune, Indore and Bangalore to discuss modalities for starting the business.

According to the police, Kumar had introduced Meghani to Reletronics and another call centre at Indore in 2007. Meghani convinced the call centre officials that he will get business for them regularly from abroad.

Reletronics entered into an agreement with Meghani and issued a cheque of Rs 15 lakh in his name. He handed over two post-dated cheques of Rs 8 lakh and Rs 7 lakh to the firm. After encashing the cheques Meghani fled from Pune.

A Reletronics official, Rafique Nabilal Nadaf, suspected some foul play and lodged a complaint on February 12. The police booked Meghani for cheating and criminal breach of trust. The firm had made several attempts to contact Meghani but he avoided…More

TOI : PUNE: One person was shot dead outside his house at Parijaat colony, in Sangvi on Wednesday night. The Sangvi police have detained two persons in connection with the murder.

Sanjay Buniwal (40) was sitting and chatting with his friends, Sanjay Pardhi (32) and Charudatta Lendhe (36), in an open ground near his house and some serious disagreement ensued among them. Pardhi suddenly pulled out a pistol and opened fire at Buniwal.

Buniwal was rushed to a private hospital nearby by his father and wife. However, he was declared dead. Print Save EMail Write to Editor Get personalised news s…More