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TOI : PUNE: An online sex racket operating out of Pune was busted by the Delhi police following the arrest of a 21-year-old college girl from her residence at Koregaon Park here on Monday morning.

The girl was picked up in a case of theft and cheating committed at Chanakyapuri in Delhi. During investigations, the Delhi police discovered that she had started a porn website to lure youths and that she had made several visits to various places across the country, including Delhi, to attract clients.

However, when contacted, station house officer Jagat Singh Bhati, incharge of the Chanakyapuri police station in Delhi, claimed to be clueless about the online sex racket. But he confirmed the girl’s arrest in Pune, adding that the police were only concentrating on the investigations pertaining to the theft and cheating case.

The girl was picked up from her residence by a police team led by assistant sub-inspector Satish Chand of the Chanakyapuri police station.

According to the Delhi police, the girl, during one of her visits to the capital, had stolen a bag containing a mobile phone, debit card, wrist watch, locker keys, driving licence and a make-up kit belonging to one Rama Sisodiya, a professor at Maitri college in Chanakyapuri, on April 16.

The girl then allegedly used the debit card to make purchases at various places in Delhi, forging Sisodiya’s signature each time. Her image was captured on closed-circuit cameras at some shopping centres, but the police were unable to identify her since she wasn’t a Delhiite.

The girl also found the mobile phone of a passenger in a rickshaw in Delhi, which she kept. She switched off both mobile phones on reaching Pune.

TOI : PUNE: The Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (Merc) on Monday approved an average 6.76 per cent tariff hike for electricity for the year 2008-09. Domestic consumers with monthly consumption of 300 units will have to bear only a marginal increase.

The new tariff rates have come into effect from June 1.

The tariff for domestic consumers in BPL category has remained unchanged at 40 paise per unit. Domestic consumers having 0 to 100 unit consumption will have to pay Rs 2.05 per unit as against Rs 2, those consuming 101 to 300 units will have to pay Rs 3.90 per unit as against Rs 3.70, those with consumption between 301 and 500 units will have to pay Rs 5.30 per unit as against Rs 5 and people consuming above 500 units will have to pay Rs 6.20 per unit as against Rs 5.75 only for the balance units.

Besides increasing tariff for electricity used for luxury, Merc has laid out a new load-shedding protocol and introduced two new categories, i.e. E and F, which will bear more load-shedding for higher transmission and distribution losses and poor revenue collection.

TOI : SANGLI: Noted wrestler Yuvraj Patil died in a road accident near Kedarwadi in Sangli district on Sunday night. Patil (50) was travelling back to Kolhapur in a car after a wrestling competition in Pune.

According to the police, Patil along with other wrestlers Laxman Wadar, Sagar Patil and entrepreneur Mahesh Manglekar, had come to Dighi near Pune to participate in a competition. After a halt at Khed-Shivapur for dinner, they resumed their journey towards Kolhapur.

Around 3.30 am, their car hit a guardstone near Kedarwadi on the Mumbai-Bangalore highway. Others accompanying him sustained injuries.

Patil shot to fame after he defeated Delhi’s bigtime wrestler, Satpal. He hailed from Koparde village of Karveer taluka, 15 km from Kolhapur. He had received the Maharashtra Kesari award at the age of 16 and was also given the ‘kusti samrat’ (king of wrestling) title.

TOI : KOLHAPUR: A gas cylinder in a cold drink manufacturing unit exploded here on Sunday evening, injuring ten persons, three of them seriously.

The cold drink manufacturing unit, S. Mohmmad Brothers, is located in the busy part of the city. The incident occurred when a city bus was passing the manufacturing, injuring six passengers. All the injured were rushed to a hospital.

According to the police, the cold drink manufacturing unit supplies soft drink bottles, ice-creams and bakery items to retailers in the city. A cylinder containing carbon di-oxide used for making cold drinks, exploded by which pedestrians and passengers were injured as iron materials pierced their bodies. The shop was also damaged.

Shahaji Umap, additional police superintendent police who visited the location said, ” It’s second explosion within two weeks time. It is very dangerous to store cylinders at shops in busy locations in the city. The unit will be shifted out of the city, soon.”

“I already have talked with the municipal commissioner. An appropriate action will be taken,” he said.

TOI : KOLHAPUR: A gas cylinder in a cold drink manufacturing unit exploded here on Sunday evening, injuring ten persons, three of them seriously.

The cold drink manufacturing unit, S. Mohmmad Brothers, is located in the busy part of the city. The incident occurred when a city bus was passing the manufacturing, injuring six passengers. All the injured were rushed to a hospital.

According to the police, the cold drink manufacturing unit supplies soft drink bottles, ice-creams and bakery items to retailers in the city. A cylinder containing carbon di-oxide used for making cold drinks, exploded by which pedestrians and passengers were injured as iron materials pierced their bodies. The shop was also damaged.

Shahaji Umap, additional police superintendent police who visited the location said, ” It’s second explosion within two weeks time. It is very dangerous to store cylinders at shops in busy locations in the city. The unit will be shifted out of the city, soon.”

“I already have talked with the municipal commissioner. An appropriate action will be taken,” he said.

TOI : PUNE: Summer ended on a cooler note for the city that experienced a heat wave during the month of April this year. Not once did the temperature in the city rise above the 40 degrees Celsius mark in May.

The highest temperature in the past 31 days was 38.6 deg C, which Pune experienced on May 1, thereafter the temperature has ranged between 35 deg C to less than 39 deg C.

Met department officials said that a change in the wind direction was the result of a lower temperature. “After the heat wave conditions, the winds started coming from the westerly side. This kept the temperature low during month of May,” A.B. Mujumdar, deputy director-general of IMD told TOI.

In April the city experience a heat wave and temperatures touched 42.1 deg C, the highest ever in over a century. For Pune, the summer peaks in the last week of April and goes on till the second week of May.

Since 1990, day temperatures till April 24 had not gone above 41.4 deg C. In the last 18 years the temperature has passed the mark of 41.3 deg C only twice - once on 24 April, 2001 and on April 27, 2007.

TOI : PUNE: Four women from West Bengal, who were forced into prostitution, were rescued from the Budhwar Peth area by the Faraskhana police late on Saturday night.

Three brothel owners, Laxmi Mayla Thapa (35) and Asha Mayla Sonar (36) of 994 Budhwar Peth, as well as Rupa Kancha Tamang (50) of 1,066 Budhwar Peth, have been arrested.

The police said the women were brought to the city, from West Bengal, a few months ago on the pretext of providing them with employment. Instead, they were sold to brothel owners at Budhwar Peth. Here, the women were beaten, starved and confined to a room and were thereafter forced into prostitution.

Acting on a tip off, the police conducted a raid and rescued the women. The arrested brothel owners have been charged under relevant sections of the Prevention of Immoral Trafficking Act. Inspector V.T. Pawar is investigating the case.