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TOI : PUNE: Vishwakarma Institute of Technology (VIT) student Venugapal Yelgonda became the first student in the city to bag the prestigious Alten ‘n+i’ French scholarship worth Euros 39,950 (approximately Rs 25 lakh) for masters study in design, industrialisation and innovation.

Venugopal was among the 10 students from across the country who are bound for France for higher studies as part of the scholarship programme that was instituted under the Indo-French joint collaboration in education.
Alten is an international French group for advanced technologies counselling and engineering while ‘n+i’ is the official network of 75 engineering and technology institutes under the French department of education.

During French president Nicolas Sarkozy’s visit to India in January, the University of Pune (UoP) was part of the select Indian institutions that signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the ‘n+i’ network to facilitate the scholarship scheme.

On an annual basis, over 50 Indian engineering graduates, aspiring for post-graduate studies, are to be taken on board the scholarship programme. The batch of 10, including Venugopal, is the first to be picked up.

Hemant Abhyankar, principal, VIT, told reporters on Friday that the scholarship grant was the one of the manifestation of the sincere effort by the institute to provide quality education to students from different strata of the society.

Venugopal sounded upbeat about the upcoming visit to France as he said, “There couldn’t have been a better thing than this fully-financed scholarship. For me, its a combination of professional experience going alongside the PG studies as we will have to work for a year-and-a-half on live projects at Alten in phases during the study.”
The first two months will be for cultural integration, staying with a French family, familiarising with their language, culture and tradition, he said. Following this, a one-year internship would begin at Alten and after that the academic sessions of…More

TOI : PUNE: The crime branch, Pune on Friday arrested Tanaji Ratan Pawar (39) of Osmanabad under the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA).

According to the police, Pawar had formed an organised crime syndicate to commit house-breakins and dacoities in Pune, Mumbai, Latur and Osmanabad and terrorised these areas for the last 10 years.

ACP Sangramsinh Nishandar had sought Pawar’s custody from the Hyderabad police after his involvement in a case registered with the Dattawadi police station came to light.

Pawar will be grilled to know if he had purchased any properties with the money he obtained through the syndicate.

Earlier, the police had arrested his associates Umesh Ban (28), Sachin Shinde (25), Vijay Shinde (32), Pintu alias Jalindar Mali (32) and Vikram Pawar (35). Special judge R.Y. Shaikh remanded Pawar to police custody till July 25. Print EMail DiscussNew B…More

TOI : PUNE: In a bid to improve traffic conditions near schools, the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) and the traffic police have decided to impart training in road safety patrolling to students of std VI to IX.

Select students would be trained to regulate the movement of vehicles during the opening and closing school hours every day. Physical education teachers will also be trained to create awareness among schoolchildren about road safety. These decisions were taken at the meeting of the PCMC’s traffic mobility committee on Friday.

At the meeting, the civic authorities pointed out that a mere 35 traffic police personnel have been appointed for Pimpri-Chinchwad. They said that the figure was sorely inadequate considering that the twin township was a major city.

The traffic authorities have mooted a proposal to hire additional traffic personnel, and half the salary expenditure would be borne by the PCMC. The civic authorities have agreed to consider the proposal in detail.

Mayor Aparna Doke stated that Dange chowk and Chapekar chowk, which are major traffic junctions, have become highly accident prone. Committee members, including Chandmal Parmar, chairman of the rail and road traffic transportation committee of the MCCIA, urged the Regional Transport Office to draw a detailed plan to start the share-a-rickshaw facility in Pimpri-Chinchwad.

Committee member Shreeram Pande demanded that the 157 autorickshaw stands that have been identified in Pimpri-Chinchwad be announced as authorised rickshaw stands. Others present at the meeting included municipal commissioner Ashish Sharma, city engineer Eknath Ugile, assistant police commissioner (traffic) Subhash Shinde, police inspector Surendra Deshmukh, and committee member Nandkumar Saturdekar. Print EMail DiscussNew B…More

TOI : PUNE: The Bharati Vidyapeeth police have arrested ten suspects for allegedly abducting and severely assaulting a tempo driver and his nephew, following a petty quarrel on Friday night at Magdewadi near Katraj.

The suspects were identified as Sachin Bansode (22), Nitin Shelar (26), Anil Chavan (23), Amit Shinde (23), Anil Jadhav (21), Babu Mali (19), Sagar Sawant (21), Chetan Pawar (21), Prashant Thorat (19) and Nitin Ingulkar (26), all residents of Shelarwadi near Katraj.

The suspects have been remanded to police custody till July 23. A complaint in this regard was lodged by Ganesh Bhosale, a resident of Taljai vasahat at Padmavati.

Bhosale was heading towards Mangdewadi on his tempo on Friday night to collect scrap when he got into a heated arguments with Suhas Shelar. The police said, Bhosale zoomed past Shelar, who was driving a jeep. A while later, as many as 15 persons from Shelarwadi came to Mangdewadi and took Bhosale and his nephew Vinayak on a motorcycles by force. The duo was then severely beaten up with iron rods.
Later, Bhosale filed the compliant with Bharati Vidyapeeth police station. Print EMail DiscussNew B…More

TOI : PUNE: Finding truth in the sole testimony of a 15-year-old schoolgirl, additional sessions judge Shalini Phansalkar-Joshi on Saturday sentenced five youths to 10 years’ rigorous imprisonment (RI) and a fine of Rs 3,500 each for gang-raping her in 2005.

The judge also awarded a compensation of Rs 10,000 to the girl, to be paid from the fine amount deposited by the convicts.

The convicts are Sunil Maruti Padwal (24) of Shastrinagar, Kisan Vishnu Malkute (25) of Bhusari colony, Bhagwan Pandharinath Koli (22) of Gujarat colony, Sham Vitthal Nimble (22) of Paud road and Rahul Kailash Landge (22) of Shastrinagar.

The youths were also sentenced to two years’ RI for criminal intimidation under section 506 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

Padwal and Malkute were further sentenced to three years’ RI for kidnapping a minor under section 366 (a) of the IPC.

The duo were also sentenced to one month RI for wrongful confinement under section 342 of the IPC. All sentences will run concurrently.

The prosecution’s case was that the girl was a class eight student and had left home to visit a bookstall nearby. After finding the shop closed, the girl was on her way home around 8 pm when Padwal and Malkute kidnapped her, took her behind a nearby bush near Doordarshan Kendra where the duo raped her on November 20, 2005.

Later Malkute roped in his friend Nimble and the three confined the girl in a ‘path sanstha’ at Gujarat colony where their accomplice Koli was present. Malkute then called another friend Landge and they took turns raping the girl till 6 am the next day.

Malkute dropped the victim near More Vidhyalaya and fled. The victim managed to get home, but was unable to narrate the gruesome incident as she was in a severe state of shock.

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