News

TOI : PUNE: The Aashay Film Club has organised a two-day programme to pay a tribute to noted playwright and scriptwriter Vijay Tendulkar.

The tribute will begin with ‘ Ankahi ‘, a documentary on Tendulkar, directed by Santosh Aychith.
The film gives an insight into the different facets of Tendulkar.

Tendulkar, who passed away on May 19, was known for his plays like ‘ Ghasiram Kotwal’ and ‘ Sakharam Binder ‘ and also the screenplays he wrote for critically acclaimed films like ‘Ardha Satya ‘, ‘ Manthan ‘ and ‘ Akrosh ‘.

He wrote the screenplays for almost 21 films - both Hindi and Marathi. The programme being organised by Aashay Film Club is to honour Tendulkar’s contribution to the cinematic world.

Shyam Benegal’s ‘ Manthan ‘ and Ketan Mehta’s ‘ Sardar ‘, whose screenplays were written by Tendulkar, will be screened during the programme at 6 pm on June 25 and June 26 respectively. The programme is being organised in association with the National Film Archive of India. Print EMail DiscussNew B…More

TOI : PUNE: The Khadki police have registered a case against 14 people, including three policemen attached to the Sangamner police station and vice-president of the Sangamner municipal council, for allegedly thrashing a woman at her house at Range Hills on June 13.

Deputy commissioner of police (zone IV) Jalindar Supekar said the Khadki court had directed the police to investigate a private criminal case against the suspects for a case filed by one Tabassum Shaikh of Range Hills.

Supekar said the Sangamner police had gone to the residence of Tabassum for arresting her husband Khalil Shaikh in connection with a case.

But, they could not arrest him because of resistance from family members. The cops approached the Khadki police for help, but before any action could be taken Khalil went missing.

The DCP said that Tabassum had moved the court for taking action against the suspects. She accused a sub-inspector and two constables and Sangamner municipal council vice-president Riyaz Shaikh and others of barging into her residence and assaulting her and her family.

Tabassum alleged that the suspects had demanded money for going slow in a cheating case registered against her husband.

She charged sub-inspector Chandrakant Kshatriya and constables Ravindra Bharde and Jaisingh Avhad for the crime. The victim’s brother Natif Shaikh said the police failed to furnish the arrest warrant against Khalil. The police, however, refuted the allegations. Print EMail DiscussNew B…More

TOI : PUNE: Three traders from Surat were detained for their possible role in the unique Rs one-crore credit card fraud unravelled by the anti-dacoity cell at Hotel Le Meridien a few days back. The police doubt they may have knowingly accepted the duplicate cards.

Besides, the Pune police revealed on Monday that one of the accused, Wasim Salim Patel (21), a cashier with Hotel Le Meredien, who actually copied the credit card details in his pocket-size “card reader”, had received the best employee award last year and was promoted to the post of an auditor some time before the racket was unearthed.

Notably, a gang of four, including Patel, was nabbed by the police for stealing details of 33 premium credit card owners, who had visited the hotel over the period of time.

The suspects copied these details on magnetic strips of blank and blocked credit cards using computer technology. In this manner, they prepared 33 duplicate credit cards and used it for shopping costly items from various shops in Mumbai and Surat.

Deputy Commissioner (crime) Anil Kumbhare told the media on Tuesday that the police have communicated the multinational banks regarding the fraud.

Senior police inspector Sunil Pawar said that some credit cards prepared by the accused clearly appear like duplicate ones. Still some shop owners allowed shopping with these cards. “We suspect they too could be a part of the fraud,” said Pawar. Print EMail DiscussNew B…More

TOI : PUNE: A flash strike by the Shiv Sena over farmers’ issue and inflation caught thousands of travellers, especially train commuters between Pune and Mumbai, by surprise on Tuesday morning.

Rail and road traffic on the Pune-Mumbai route, as well as on various other main roads in Pune district, was disrupted for nearly two hours. The Sena men blocked vehicular traffic on the Pune-Mumbai expressway, near Kivale, for over an hour.

The Sena men began the agitation at the Lonavla railway station at 7 am and halted all trains. The Pune-Mumbai Sinhagad Express was caught at the station for nearly two hours, while other Mumbai-bound trains like the Deccan Queen and the Pragati Express had to be halted at intermediate stations. The Indore-Pune train was also stopped by the protestors at Lonavla.

Commuters, including office-goers, were put to great inconvenience as a result of the protest. Many of them were forced to look for alternative modes of transport to reach Mumbai.

Railway authorities said the Deccan Express, Indrayani Express and a few other Pune-bound trains were delayed by nearly an hour. Commuters and students on the Pune-Lonavla section too faced inconvenience as suburban train services were hit.

Sena leaders said the government had failed to provide enough fertilizers to farmers because of which their problems have aggravated. The agitation was led by Sena district chief Gajanan Babar and other leaders including Arvind Savant and Baba Dhumal.

There were heated verbal exchanges between the protestors and the police as the latter detained some of the leaders, who were however released later. Similar protests were held on the Pune-Satara road, Ahmednagar road and in Baramati. Print EMail DiscussNew B…More

TOI : PUNE: “Hello, good morning, sir! This is ‘Nitin’ calling on behalf of …… Bank. Can I please get some time later today with you to discuss your overdue car loan, sir?”

Don’t pinch yourself if you get such a call early in the day after having missed a couple of instalments of your car loan. The caller may well be one of the ‘recovery agents’ who has undergone a 100-hour training meant to transform him from burly, uncivilised rowdy into a soft-spoken gentleman!

“These boys with education hardly up to SSC level knew just one thing - recover money by hook or by crook from defaulters,” says Prakash Patki, general manager of Genesis Academy of Banking and Finance, which is among the 25 institutions, and the only one in Pune, accredited nationally by the Indian Institute of Banking and Finance (IIBF).

“They are paid on the basis of the money they manage to get back; as a result, they don’t care about the method they use to twist the defaulter’s arm,” he said.

The high-handed means of these agents, who have the tacit support of the banks which employ them, had led to serious incidents, including a defaulter committing suicide, Patki says, explaining the immediate background in which the supreme court (SC) directed the Reserve Bank of India to define norms for the training of recovery agents of banks, financial institutions and non-banking finance companies.

The training plan of 100 hours has been designed by the IIBF to acquaint the recovery agents with the elements of banking business, basic lending process of financial institutions, the principles on which credit card business operates, peculiarities of various loans, such as consumer loan or car loan, why defaults happen and how to deal with each of them and the legal methods of enforcing the security.

Additionally, the plan prescribed exposure…More