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TOI : PUNE: State forest minister Babanrao Pachpute on Monday admitted that hunting of the endangered Chinkara deer had taken place in Bhor and Baramati talukas of Pune recently. He said those involved in the case would not be spared.

However, he declined to comment on media reports that the forest department had seized a Belgium-make gun and two live cartridges from minister of state for transport Dharmaraobaba Atram’s friend’s office in Panchgani.

On June 14, villagers in Choudharwadi, Baramati, spotted a car with red beacon light with three other cars. The red beacon car registration number was noted as MH 02-AL-007 by the forest department.

Villagers told the forest officials that the people who arrived in cars hunted the Chinkara. The department then recognised the car in which Atram was seen by villagers. Atram has admitted that he had passed through the area, but said he had nothing to do with the hunting of the deer.

Pachpute said, “It is true that Chinkaras were killed. A probe is under way. Two different incidents of hunting were reported in Baramati and Bhor. There is no pressure in this regard and I have asked the forest department officials to nail the culprits.”

Forest officials seized a Belgium-make 12 DBBL gun (No. 4716) and two live cartridges from the house of a Panchgani-based person, who is allegedly a friend of Atram, and was allegedly present during the hunting of the deer.

Forest department officials have submitted the seized gun and cartridges and report of the same to judicial magistrate (first class) V.B. Bhadale in Saswad court. According to the said report two Chinkara deer’s were killed, said sources. Print EMail DiscussNew B…More

TOI : PUNE: Eight members of the Rakesh Bharne gang, arrested on Sunday for possessing 12 firearms were on Monday remanded to police custody till June 27 by judicial magistrate first class R. Bhagwat.

The gang members include Vinayak Jadhav, Dinesh Yadav, Prashant Mandu, Chandrakant Thapa, Ravi Dhumal, Umesh Waghulkar, Sachin Dhumal and Dilip Dhumal.

The crime branch, Pune, produced the men before the court at 2.30 pm. Assistant public prosecutor Laxman Maindad told the court that custodial interrogation of the gang members was required in order to find out from where exactly they had procured the weapons.

Maindad sought time to arrest one more gang member, identified as Anil Mohite, and to find out whether the gang had used the weapons in committing any other offence.

The court considered the prosecution’s plea and remanded the men to custody till Friday. Print EMail DiscussNew B…More

TOI : PUNE: Private aided schools in the state will now be required to reserve a few jobs in the class III and IV teaching and non-teaching staff categories for ex-servicemen or a member of soldier’s family, who had died fighting or rendered permanently disabled.

A government resolution (GR) to this effect was issued on June 17 by R.C. Patil, additional secretary to the department of school education and sports. “It’s a positive step. The order will help ex-servicemen and their dependents,” said Colonel (retd) Bhagatsingh Deshmukh.

According to Deshmukh, as many as 297 soldiers from the state have lost their lives in war and peace-time actions since 1999. Similarly, close to 200 soldiers have been rendered permanently disabled. Dependents of these soldiers, mainly sepoys and despatchers, will have one more option, apart from a government job, to lead a life of dignity.

As of now, a 15 per cent quota in class III and IV recruitments for all state government jobs is set aside for ex-servicemen as per a government resolution (GR) passed on July 3, 1980.

In September 1983, the state government passed another resolution, which stated that one member from the family of a soldier, who was killed or rendered permanently disabled in war or peace-time actions, be given top priority while filling up the 15 per cent quota for ex-servicemen.

Both the GRs were applicable only to government jobs including schools run by government or self-governing bodies like the Zilla Parishads. Private aided schools in the primary, secondary and higher secondary sectors were left out.

The latest GR — posted on the state government’s official website www.maharashtra.gov.in — now brings private aided institutions under the quota ambit. It specifies that the 1980 as well as the 1983 GRs would be applicable in toto to privated aided institutions. Print EMail DiscussNew B…More

TOI : PUNE: In a case based on circumstantial evidence, additional sessions judge Shalini Phansalkar-Joshi recently sentenced rickshaw driver Prakash Kaluram Kodre (30) of Mundhwa village, to life imprisonment for murdering his wife Surekha.

The judge, however, acquitted Kodre’s father and mother due to lack of evidence.

Kodre married Surekha on February 16, 1999. The couple had three daughters. He started harassing her after they failed to get a son. Additional public prosecutor Vikas Shah said that Kodre had stopped working, started drinking and harassed Surekha for failing to bring money from her parents.

The victim’s parents sold their land and gave Rs 10,000 to Kodre but the harassment did not stop. Shah said that Kodre covered Surekha’s face with a pillow and suffocated her on October 25, 2006. He then dumped her body in a well and lodged a missing complaint with the police.

The police fished out Surekha’s body the next day and registered a case of abetment to suicide and severe cruelty against Kodre and his parents after a complaint lodged by the victim’s mother, Shubadra Bhosale.

However, investigations conducted by sub-inspector Madhav Shete revealed that Surekha had been murdered and that she had not ended her life. The post-mortem report also ruled Surekha’s death as homicide. Print EMail DiscussNew B…More

TOI : PUNE: The Southern Command Headquarters, Pune, has approved a proposal of the Pune Cantonment Board (PCB) to spend Rs 32 lakh for renovation of the National War Memorial on Maneckji Mehta road.

The memorial was constructed from funds raised by civilians during the tenure of former PCB president Brig Madan Gopal in 1997-98.

The new funds will be used for renovating the compound wall, constructing a new pathway, renovating the main gate, etc, said PCB cantonment executive engineer K.B. Shirodkar on Monday. Print EMail DiscussNew B…More