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TOI : PUNE: Interrogation of the first suspect in the decapitated corpse case, who was arrested on Saturday, has helped crack the murder of a 37-year-old woman which took place in December last year.

The deceased has been identified as Naseem Shaikh (37) of Bhavani Peth. Naseem was killed on December 18 last year. The suspects beheaded her corpse and threw her body in a well in Wanowrie Bazar. Her skeleton was found on June 28 this year, but she could not be identified.

The Wanowrie police have arrested five persons, including her husband, in the case. They have been identified as Naseem’s husband Kalim Shaikh (45) of Bhavani Peth, Yunus Shaikh (24) of Wanowrie Bazar and Shoaib Shaikh (24) of Wanowrie. The latter two are also suspects in the beheading case. The other two suspects are Majhar Shaikh (20) and Amin Shaikh (25) also of Wanowrie Bazar.

According to sub-inspector S.D. Pingle, Naseem was killed because of her alleged illicit relations with Yunus. Her husband Kalim was aware of it. “She later developed illicit relations with another person and Yunus had objected to this,” said Pingle.

He said that last year, in the month of December, Kalim and Naseem had gone to Gulbarga. When they returned to Pune on December 18, Yunus, Shoaib, Majahar and Amin received the couple at Pune station and went to Wanowrie. “While still on their way, Yunus started fighting with Naseem over her illicit relation with someone else. The group then stopped the vehicle and Yunus hacked Naseem to death near Veer Smruti Colony. They beheaded her corpse and threw her dead body in the well,” said Pingle. Print EMail DiscussNew B…More

TOI : PUNE: To cater to the increasing fruit and flower production in Maharashtra, the state government will set up facility centres at Vashi in Navi Mumbai and at Kalwan in Nasik district. The centres will start operating within a year’s time. The Maharashtra State Agriculture Marketing Board (MSAMB) has signed an memorandum of understanding (MoU) with New Delhi-based Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (Apeda), an export-promoting initiative by the Union government to set up these facilities in the state.

With this MoU, the total number of facility centre for fruits in the state has risen up to 12. These centres process alphanso and kesar varieties of mangoes, pomegranate, grape and wine-grapes, banana and oranges. Apart from these, another facility has been started at Indapur in Pune district for processing onions.

The total cost for all these 12 facilities would be Rs 55 crore, out of which Rs 35 crore will be given by Apeda. The facility centres for banana, pomegranate and onion are also under constructions, and will be ready within a year.

Apart from these two proposed centres, the existing centres in the state are, Packhouse for mangoes at Ratnagiri, Jamsande (Sindhudurg) and at Jalna, Packhouse for onion at Indapur (Pune), Vapour heat treatment facility at Vashi, Navi Mumbai, Packhouse at Baramati for Pomegranate, Packhouse for bananas at Raver (Jalgao) and Basmat (Hingoli), Packhouse for Orange at Arvi (Vardha) and Packhouse for pomegranate and Kesar mango at (Latur).

The total expenditure for the two facilities would be around Rs 22 crore, of which Rs 16.5 crore will be funded by Apeda, Harshavardhan Patil, state marketing minister, said. The Vashi centre will have vapour heat treatment facility for fruits, to be exported to US and European countries. The Kalwan facility will process onions for further transport and export.

Asit Tripathy, chairman, Apeda, said, “In fruit, vegetable and…More

TOI : PUNE: A first of its kind memorial is being built in Pune to commemorate the sacrifice of sailors who laid down their lives during the two world wars. The memorial built by Indian Maritime Foundation (IMF) in association with Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), will be opened for public in October.

“The construction work is underway and is expected to be completed by the first week of October. We are planning to open the memorial to public on the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi,” said Commodore Rajan Vir (retd), president of IMF, adding that the intention is too keep these sailors’ memories alive.

“Many Indian sailors have lost their lives during World War I and World War II. Their sacrifice should get proper recognition and respect from the people. So we have planned to build this memorial. PMC has given the space to our organisation for this purpose,” he added.

The memorial will come up at Bund Garden on an allocated space of around 200 sq ft. It will be built of black granite using the funds provided by PMC and IMF. Expected expenditure incurred will be around Rs 2 lakh.

Vir pointed out that nearly 7,955 Indian seamen lost their lives guarding the coasts in different parts of the world. IMF had approached the Commonwealth War Graves Commission of UK for procuring the details of these sailors. Print EMail DiscussNew B…More

TOI : PUNE: Despite an appeal from the civic authorities not to damage roads in view of the forthcoming Commonwealth Youth Games (CYG), Ganesh mandals in the city have begun digging up roads while erecting pandals this year as well.

Like last year, the issue of damage to the roads is once again likely to flare up into a controversy as the mandals seem to be in no mood to pay heed to the appeal made by the civic administration and mayor Rajlaxmi Bhosale. With the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) working overtime to ensure that roads are in shape for the CYG to be held in October, the damage to the roads would prove to be a nightmare for the civic administration in the coming weeks.

At a meeting last week, Bhosale had asked the mandals not to dig roads to erect pandals. Municipal commissioner Pravinsinh Pardeshi had pointed out that the PMC had already incurred a heavy expenditure for resurfacing roads and that any digging of roads will cause irreparable damage. “Even if the pits are filled, it would not serve the purpose as it would clearly appear like a patch-up job,” Pardeshi had stated.

However, many mandals have said that it is “impractical” to erect pandals without digging. They are also not wary of any possible action by the PMC.

Office-bearers of the Shirmant Dagadusheth Halwai Sarvajanik Ganapati Trust say that the civic administration has not provided proper details about how to erect pandals without damaging roads and whether they will stand for ten days. “Merely saying that roads should not be dug is not enough,” Hemant Rasne, chairman of the trust, stated.

Shyam Mankar, president of the Akhil Navi Peth Hatti Ganpati Mandal, said, “I have not seen a pandal being erected without digging the road. I challenge the civic authorities to show how this can be done….More

TOI : PUNE: The city police have banned chief of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) Raj Thackeray and his party workers from organising any meeting, gathering, discussion, agitation or interacting with the media in public or private in Pune till August 28.

Joint commissioner of police Rajendra Sonawane issued an order in this regard on Sunday as a precautionary measure to maintain law and order in the city.

Sonawane said that Thackeray instigated the local youths against students who have come from outside Maharashtra with his speech at Ganesh Kala Krida Kendra on August 14. Thackeray had asked his party workers to check the number of students from other states in the admission lists of various educational organisations and had also asked private establishments to display Marathi name plates in their premises.

Sonawane further said that this ban has been imposed because Thackeray is likely to visit the city in the near future and his statements may result in more violent agitations causing loss of public and private property.

Meanwhile, following the attack on Mercedes school by MNS workers, the city police detained 64 MNS activists from different parts of the city on Saturday as a precaution. Print EMail DiscussNew B…More

TOI : PUNE: It was a bet that led to a gory incident in which the head of a body in government Sassoon hospital morgue was severed and subsequently dumped into a canal in April, police said on Sunday.

The arrest of one Shoaib Shaikh in connection with a case of dacoity also threw light on the morgue horror during the course of interrogation.

When Shoaib and his two accomplices, involved in a house-breaking in Cantonment area of the city, were having a drinking session, one of them dared Shoaib to enter the morgue and cut head of the dead.

Accepting the challenge, the culprit, a hardened criminal according to police, went to the Sassoon hospital on the night April 3, 2008, managed to go inside the morgue despite the presence of security personnel and severed the head of a deceased identified later as Natir Shaikh.

A row erupted in the hospital when relations of the dead arrived early morning to claim the body which was without the head and refused to take its possession.

The incident caused a flutter in the city and embarrassment to hospital authorities who were blamed for desecration of the dead even as an intensive search by police resulted in the discovery of the severed head in a canal at Hadapsar, a suburban area.

After cutting off the head, the accused took it out of the morgue, showed it to the person who had betted and later threw it in the canal waters, police, who are now looking for Shoaib’s accomplices, said. Print EMail DiscussNew B…More