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TOI : PUNE: Ulhas Narayan Kullad (28) of Jathe village in Shirur taluka, a small-time contractor, was allegedly shot dead late on Wednesday night. The Shikrapur police on Thursday arrested an electronic shop owner Anand Umap (25) of Shikrapur and booked Bhushan Gholap and two others in the case.

Assistant inspector Ajmuddin Mulla of the Shikrapur police station said that Kullad was talking to the suspects when Gholap suddenly opened fire at him around 9.35 pm on Wednesday. The injured was rushed to the rural hospital at Talegaon Damdhere, where he was declared dead on arrival by the doctors.

Mulla said the motive behind the murder has not been ascertained yet. The police are on the look out for Gholap and two others as they have gone missing after the incident.

Investigations have revealed that Gholap had used a country-made revolver. The bullet had pierced into the victim’s chest on the left, killing him instantly, the police said.

Ganesh Pote (29) of Jathe village, a family member of the victim, has registered a case against the suspects under the relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and Arms Act.

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TOI : PUNE: The state animal husbandry department has decided to draft a piggery development and regularisation act to regularise the scattered and unorganised pig farming sector.

An expert committee will draft a bill which will be presented to the state government for approval. The move assumes significance against the backdrop of swine-flu outbreak in Mexico that has prompted the government machinery to initiate immediate steps to keep the threat at bay.

“Pig farming is a scattered business in the state. Hence, piggeries are not on the surveillance system of the department. Once the bill is passed, it will become mandatory for all piggery owners to register themselves with the department. This in turn will help keep a check on outbreak of diseases or viral infections among pigs,” said D N Zagade, commissioner of state animal husbandry department.

Elaborating on the benefits of such an act, Zagade said, “The greatest benefit will be disease surveillance and control. Besides, regular inspection, scientific rearing methods, monitoring of hygienic conditions are among a few other benefits.”

Enumerating the existing limitations of the department, Vasant Ramteke, additional commissioner of the department said, “We have no control over the piggeries right now. And as along as there is any act in place, the piggery owners will never come forword for registering themselves. This further hampers the disease surveillance and control. And an outbreak, due to this, can remain undetected for sometime.”

The expert committee will comprise seasoned professionals from disease control division, poultry development division and veterinary doctors. The committee will draft the bill and it will be presented to the state government for passing into act within six months, added Ramteke.

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TOI : PUNE: The Pune Cantonment court on Thursday issued a non-bailable warrant against actor Rajiv Kapoor in a nearly 12-year-old accident case. Kapoor is the son of Hindi film actor-director Raj Kapoor.

Judicial magistrate first class Prashant Kale issued the warrant after Kapoor failed to appear before the court.

Kapoor’s case came up for hearing at 11 am. The complainant, Sandeep Khole of Wanowrie, was present at the court to give his testimony. The police had so far been unable to trace him as he had changed his residence. They recently managed to locate his new home at Wanowrie and served witness summons to him.

“Khole arrived at the court on time. He waited for a considerable time to testify,” assistant public prosecutor Devendra Sonnis said. “The magistrate took cognisance of Kapoor’s absence and issued a warrant to seek his presence at the next hearing.”

Sonnis added that the prosecution had earlier obtained an order from the court to re-issue summons to Khole through the office of the deputy commissioner of police (zone II). “I had ensured Khole’s presence in court for the smooth conduct of the trial with great difficulty,” he said.

Kapoor’s lawyers, Girish Shinde and Mohan Wadekar, turned up before the court after 12.30 pm. The magistrate informed them that it had issued a warrant against Kapoor.

Shinde prayed to the court to stay the warrant, but the magistrate said there was no provision in law to do the same. Shinde insisted that the prosecution examine the witness, but the court deferred the hearing. “I will file an application seeking the cancellation of the warrant,” Shinde said.

According to the prosecution, Kapoor, who was driving a car under the influence of liquor, knocked down Khole, who was on a motorcycle, at Volga chowk on East street around 11.30 pm on April 19, 1997. Khole fell from the motorcycle, injuring his…More

TOI : PUNE: Eight people had a miraculous escape when the state transport bus in which they were travelling fell into a 150-ft ditch in Peth Avsari ghat near Manchar on Wednesday night.

The Manchar police said the Dhule-bound bus was travelling towards Pune when the driver lost control over it around 9.45 pm. The bus fell into the ditch, but its occupants escaped unhurt as the vehicle did not overturn.

The police rushed to the spot on being informed about the mishap and rescued the passengers with the help of villagers. A crane was pressed into service to pull out the bus from the ditch.

Bus driver Daulat Kumbhare of Dhule has been booked for reckless driving under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code.

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TOI : PUNE: The anti-narcotics cell of crime branch, Pune on Tuesday evening arrested Renuka Pawar (25) of Pimpri for allegedly possessing 115 gram of brown sugar worth Rs 1,72,630.

Acting on a tip-off that Pawar was selling drugs, a police team, led by inspector G V Nikam, nabbed her under the Pimpri railway overbridge around 5 pm.

The police have recovered 570 small packets of drugs weighing 115 gram from Pawar. The cell has registered a case under the relevant sections of the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act against Pawar with the Pimpri police station.

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TOI : PUNE: Kiran Kumar, mission director of Chandrayaan-I, on Thursday said the success of India’s maiden lunar mission was an example of international co-operation.

He was speaking at a lecture organised by the Pune chapter of the Indian Society for Remote Sensing (ISRS) on the subject, Chandrayaan mission, a new vision for Indian space research’.

“In the days to come, for any country that wishes to engage in planetary or inter-planetary missions, collaboration with other countries will be necessary. The Chandrayaan-I mission has proved that India can co-operate well with the international community,” Kumar stated.

The spacecraft carried 11 payloads to achieve its scientific objectives. The instruments were carefully chosen on the basis of many scientific and technical considerations. Of these, five were designed and developed in India, three were from the European Space Agency, one from Bulgaria and two from the United States.

He further said that India could be proud of the fact that Chandrayaan-I had sent back the highest spatial resolution data acquired by any country so far. Speaking to TOI, Kumar shared that the images were highly appreciated at the recent Lunar Planetary Scientific Conference in Houston, USA.

The objective of the mission was to enhance the available knowledge on the moon, upgrade India’s technological capacity, as well as chemical and mineralogical mapping of the entire lunar surface at high spatial resolution.

“Chandrayaan-I has been able to provide systematic coverage of the lunar surface, which will be necessary in the days to come to understand the moon surface better,” he said. “For instance, if, in the future, we wish to build colonies on the moon, we would require these images for digital elevation model generation. It provides data in 64 wavelengths, thereby allowing for a detailed analysis and classification of information. The two instruments responsible for the data are the Terrain Mapping Camera and the Hyperspectral Imager,” he explained.

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TOI : PUNE: Additional sessions judge S S Gadge on Thursday issued a non-bailable warrant against probationary superintendent of police Abhishek Trimukhe of Pune rural police for “failing to file a written statement opposing the bail plea of two suspects involved in a multiple murder case”.

The judge has directed the Pune rural police chief superintendent of police Ravindra Kadam to produce Trimukhe before the court on May 4.

The suspects, Shantaram Vasant Kale (35) and Akbarya Vasant Kale (25) of Shrigonda in Ahmednagar district, who are facing trial in a 2005 multiple murder case, had applied for a bail in February this year.

Defence lawyer Milind Pawar said, “The police had failed to file a written statement opposing the bail pleas of his clients on various occasions.” The warrant was finally issued against Trimukhe after he failed to file a written statement when the bail applications came up for hearing again, Pawar added.

When contacted, Trimukhe said, “The bail applications were received by his office and were transferred to inspector Navnath Bere of Shirur police station as he was investigating the case.”

Trimukhe said, “I have come here for three months on a probation. The delay may have happened due to some communication gap.”

Clarifying his position, inspector Navnath Bere said, “The original documents of the case were at the district and sessions court as it had earlier conducted trial against the eight suspects.”

“When the bail applications came up for hearing, I was in the Bombay High Court. I have told additional public prosecutor Neelima Vartak that I could not appear before the sessions court because I was busy in high court,” Bere added. Vartak was not available for comment.

Seven members of the Mantri-Kale family were murdered at Shirur in January 2005. The Shirur police had arrested eight suspects, but they were acquitted on March 17, 2006. The police had…More

TOI : PUNE: The Union department of animal husbandry has directed its state counterparts to conduct check-ups of pigs in areas with sizeable pig populations in response to the swine flu alert sounded by the World Health Organisation.

The state departments have also been told to verify any reports of suspected cases, including media reports, and send samples to the High Security Animal Disease Laboratory (HSADL), Bhopal. The departments have also been issued fact sheets on swine flu.

“After receiving the directives on Thursday, we immediately issued orders to the regional joint commissioners to carry out the check-ups,” state animal husbandry commissioner D S Zagade said.

The regional joint commissioners will, in turn, instruct the district animal husbandry officers and departmental deputy directors to launch the check-up drive. The regional divisions of the department in the state are Pune, Konkan, Nashik, Aurangabad, Amaravati, Latur and Nagpur.

“The 3,000-odd veterinary doctors in the state will undertake the medical examinations,” Zagade further said.

The Union department has defined the symptoms to identify suspected cases. “The animal should be untreated and acutely ill with an elevated rectal temperature,” additional animal husbandry commissioner Vasant Ramteke said.

According to the fact sheet, the virus can best be identified if the samples are collected within 24 to 48 hours of development of clinical signs.

“Although ELISA (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays) are commercially available for detecting type A influenza viruses, we are not authorised to conduct tests on our own,” Ramteke said.

Among the seven divisions, a few pockets like Kolhapur, Nanded and some other parts of Marathwada, Chandrapur, Gadchiroli and Nagpur have large pig populations. The check-up drives in these areas should have a larger scale and deeper penetration, he stressed.

Flu facts

What is swine flu?

It is a highly contagious viral infection of pigs. Swine influenza virus (SIV) infections cause respiratory disease characterized by coughing,…More

TOI : PUNE: Autorickshaws fares in the city have been reduced by Re 1 from May 1. The minimum fare (for the first one km) will be Rs 9 instead of the earlier Rs 10. Similarly, for every additional km, the fare will be Rs 7 instead of the earlier Rs 8.

The decision to reduce the fares was taken by the Regional Transport Authority (RTA) on Thursday following the poor response from autorickshaw drivers to the RTA directive to convert their vehicles to CNG before April 30. The meeting was presided over by divisional commissioner Dilip Band, also the RTA chairman.

Earlier, the RTA, in its meeting held on February 26, had decided to make no change in the fares, but had appealed the drivers to convert to CNG before April 30. The RTA had said that using CNG will be economical for them.

While the fares for autorickshaws needed to be reduced as petrol prices had been reduced twice by the government, the RTA, in its meeting on February 26, had deferred the decision. The autorickshaw unions had then argued that although fuel prices have reduced, there was a substantial increase in spare parts and maintenance costs. The RTA considered the request of the auto unions, but had given them an option to convert to CNG before April 30.

The RTA on Wednesday stated that as there has been a low response from the rickshaw operators for switching over to CNG, the decision to reduce fares by Re 1 will now come into effect.

Of the 43,000 autorickshaws in the city, only over 400 autorickshaws have converted to CNG so far.

Meanwhile the RTA has once again made an appeal to citizens to forward their complaints if they face any problems in autorickshaw service. Citizens can contact on the 24-hour complaint number 26123520, or can send a SMS to 59994; type RTOPUNE (space),…More

TOI : PUNE: Additional sessions judge T M Jahagirdhar on Thursday sentenced three people two policemen and a woman to life imprisonment for the murder of housewife Suvarna Hake in 2006. The convicts include assistant sub-inspector Vijay Hake (50), his son constable Sidram (30) of the state reserve police force (SRPF) and wife Mallamma (48).

The accused were sentenced to seven years rigorous imprisonment for demanding dowry under section 304 (b) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). They were further sentenced to five years and three years under sections 3 and 4 of the Dowry Prohibition Act. The accused were also sentenced to one year for subjecting the victim to severe cruelty under section 498 (a) of the IPC.

Additional public prosecutor Sanjay Pawar said the accused had demanded a dowry of Rs 40,000 at the time of Suvarna’s marriage to Sidram.

Pawar said Suvarna’s parents had paid Rs 35,000 at the time of marriage and assured to make the remaining payment of Rs 5,000 at a later stage. He added that after the marriage, the accused had subjected Suvarna to physical and mental torture for not meeting to their dowry demands.

The accused had beat her severely after her parents had failed to make the payment. Suvarna, who was grievously injured was admitted at a private hospital on August 4, 2006. After seven days, she died while undergoing treatment, Pawar stated.

The defence lawyer argued that the accused should be acquitted because Suvarna had received injuries after a fall and was not ill-treated by his in-laws.

However, citing section 113 (b) of the Evidence Act, Pawar submitted that the burden on how Suvarna had received injuries lies with the accused to prove as the marriage was less than seven years old.

Pawar argued that the accused had inflicted 14 injuries on Suvarna leading to her death and prayed to award maximum punishment to…More