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TOI : PUNE: That the city is getting unsafe, especially for women, was proved beyond doubt on Saturday when four hoodlums took a young woman hostage to enter the flat she was sharing with eight other women to commit a robbery.

Yogita Gokhale (22) was ambushed by the robbers on the staircase of the D-building of Guru Teg Bahadur society on Aundh road at Khadki. She had just returned from work at a call centre at 3.30 am.

According to the police, the robbers, armed with sharp weapons, first tried their luck in an unoccupied flat on the ground floor of the same building. They, however, could not find anything in that flat.

Soon, the robbers saw Yogita stepping out of her cab and climbing the staircase. They threatened her at knifepoint and forced her to wake up her six flat mates. After gaining entry to the flat, they robbed the girls of Rs 30,000 cash, a mobile phone and gold ornaments totally worth Rs 40,000, the police said.

When the robbers came down with the booty, they found their car tyre flat. They quickly opened a car parked in the society with a master key and escaped. The car is owned by the Gangurle family that lives in the society. The police have seized the robbers’ car from the spot.

The victims hail from various places and had come to Pune for education and job. Nine women stay together in the flat, but two of them were not at home at the time of the incident. Sub-inspector Anil Pawar is investigating further.
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TOI : PUNE: The outsourcing of catching stray dogs has yielded good results for the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) with the Animal Health Organisation (AHO) succeeding in netting as many as 222 in just 13 days.

Speaking to TOI on Saturday, PCMC veterinary officer Satish Gore said the AHO is being paid Rs 170 for each catch. “The catch-and-sterilise drive will continue as this will definitely reduce the population of strays.”

He said the AHO began the work in the municipal limits on April 21. The dogs were caught from different parts of the Pimpri-Chinchwad township. The organisation has six employees and a small vehicle has been pressed into service to catch dogs.

Explaining the reason for outsourcing the work to AHO, Gore said, “The PCMC employees used to catch the stray dogs during day time when they are active and run away. The canines rest at night and it is easier to catch them, but our men cannot work at night. Hence, the decision to outsource the work.”

A number of stray dog bite cases were reported in Pimpri-Chinchwad township from areas of Bhosari and Sant Tukaramnagar.

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TOI : PUNE: A robbery bid on the Catholic Syrian Bank in Ramwadi, Wadgaonsheri was foiled on Saturday morning after the burglar alarm went off, forcing the dacoits to flee.

It appears that the alarm, attached to the safe and activated every night, had not been turned off when the bank re-opened in the morning, thereby leading to the narrow escape.

The Yerawada police said the six dacoits, carrying firearms, stormed into the bank around 9.30 am. Besides bank staff, a few customers were also present in the bank. Threatening the bank officials with the guns, the dacoits slapped manager Verghese Paul Akkara and asked for the keys to the safe.

Ambika inserted the key in the safe; the alarm got triggered, forcing the dacoits to scamper from the spot.

According to the police, the alarm system is activated every night and turned off in the morning. However, the staff apparently forgot to turn it off on Saturday morning. The dacoits, in the age group of 25 to 30 years, spoke in Hindi and Marathi. Even their faces were not covered. An artist was later called to make sketches of them. Police teams sent out, but no one has been arrested so far.

Deputy Commissioner of police Jalindar Supekar told TOI on Saturday that a 15-member special team headed by inspector Prasad Hasabnis, in-charge of the Yerawada police station, has been constituted to nab the culprits. The police are also digging into past records of similar crimes. Verghese has registered a complaint with the police.
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TOI : PUNE: The illegal ferrying of passengers by sleeper coach buses in the city is resulting in heavy revenue loss to the state transport authority. Although the matter has been repeatedly taken up with the concerned officials in the state administration, no corrective action has been taken so far.

According to a government notification issued in 2004, sleeper bus owners are not allowed to have more than 20 berths. But, most buses carry almost double the number. To accommodate these extra passengers, the buses are made wide against the set norm.

This violation results in loss of revenue to the state transport department as the service providers evade annual passenger tax of approximately Rs 6,250 per person. The total loss amounts to over Rs 1, 25,000 for every bus since 150 buses operate from Pune every day. The government may, therefore, lose over Rs one crore in revenue from Pune division.

A transport official told TOI that the service providers do not even abide by the rules of the air-conditioning facility. “These issues have been raised with the department. But, no action has been taken as of now,” he said.

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TOI : PUNE: The Bhor police on Saturday arrested two people involved in the boat tragedy at the Bhatgar reservoir in Bhor taluka, where 22 people had drowned on April 23.

The suspects — boat driver Baban Bhagwan Padwal (40) and boat owner Krishna Genba Padwal (60) of Rajgarh village in Bhor taluka, were remanded to police custody till May 5 by judicial magistrate first class A.K. Mandavgade.

It may be noted that on April 23, a boat carrying 31 passengers — which had left for Bhor from Rajgarh village, had capsized as it was packed to capacity. Twenty-two people had died in the accident and nine others had managed to swim to safety. The district administration had had to take help of locals and Central Reserve Police Force officials to fish out the bodies.

Padwals, who are related, have been charged for committing an offence of culpable homicide not amounting to murder on a complaint lodged by inspector Bhopal Rawal, in-charge of the Bhor police station. They were produced before the court to obtain custody remand.

Assistant public prosecutor A.V. Ausekar told the court that custodial interrogation was required because Baban, who had ferried 31 passengers, had collected money despite being aware that there was danger.

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