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TOI : PUNE: “I did not know that my neighbour was murdered. I saw some people coming to her flat on Friday. I thought that they might have come for Diwali, but after sometime, I came to know from the security guard that Nayana Phatak was no more,” said Saili Belurkar, who lives in the adjacent flat.

When TOI visited Nayana’s residence at Ashok Aagam on Katraj bye pass on Saturday, her flat was locked. The neighbours did not have any information when her husband, Abhijit, would return.

According to Belurkar, the couple would leave home every day by 7.15 am and returned around 7 pm.

“We are staying here since a year and we know Nayana since then. I don’t have any personal information about her, but the couple used to leave for their native place on the weekends very often. She was good in communication as she would often interact with my child,” Belurkar stated.

“Nayana met me last Sunday and told me that her mother-in-law had come and she was busy cleaning the house. She reminded me that one of her vessels was with me which I could not return on time as my child was troubling me when she had arrived,” she added.

“Her family did not inform me about her death. I initially thought the family members were mourning the death of some other person when I heard them crying. After I went downstairs for some work, I came to known from the security guard that she was murdered and her funeral would be performed at Karad,” Belurkar added.

Nivedita Dikshit, who lives on the fifth floor of the building, said, “Nayana use to call me aaji (grandmother). I always called her home, but she would say she will come one fine Sunday as she was always occupied with work.”

Dikshit said, “Her Sunday never came. I had gone…More

TOI : PUNE: In view of the magnitude of the occurrence of dementia as well as Alzheimer’s disease among the elderly population, the International Longevity Centre-India (ILC-I) has take up a major study to identify behavioural markers of dementia in older persons in the city.

The aim of the study is to help revert dementia and to rehabilitate the patient and absorb him/her in the social mainstream. The ILC-I will identify 1,000 cases in the city and 200 identified cases of Alzheimer’s patients from hospitals, clinics and old age homes for the study.

Speaking on the conduct of the study, S D Gokhale, honorary president, ILC-I, said, “Presently, there is no test to define dementia or Alzheimer’s disease. Hence, through this study, we are trying to find out if there are any behavioural markers to identify these conditions.”

The centre will approach senior citizens clubs and old age homes in and around the city requesting the authorities to send the names of the elderly people who are willing to volunteer to answer this test. On receiving the replies, and after decoding and tabulating, the centre will classify gender differences and rural-urban differences according to the age brackets as suggested by the United Nations.

“Ageing is a major challenge in the century. As longevity increases, issues like dementia and Alzheimer’s disease take a prominent place in the lives of some of the elderly. These conditions are growing fast in India and soon it will be a pandemic-like situation. We need to start working on solutions to prepare for the future,” Gokhale said.

According to Gokhale, Martin Roth, an US gerontologist has stated that Alzheimer’s has a prevalence rate of 6.2% with an average annual incidence of 1.4%. It was found that it was 2.3% for the age group 65-70 years, 3.9% in the age group 70-80 years and 22% in the age group 80 years and above….More

TOI : PUNE: Confident of a significant victory, NCP candidate from Kothrud, Anna Joshi said on Saturday that he will get at least 80,000 votes on October 13.

Addressing a press conference, Joshi said, “Though I am new in the NCP, I am getting good response from the party leaders as well as from our alliance partner, the Congress. I have received huge response during the campaign in the constituency.”

Joshi said, “I am quite confident about my victory and I have straight fight with Shiv Sena candidate Chandrakant Mokate.” Joshi said that the problem of the workers of Cummins company is critical and he would try to solve it by the Diwali festival. Joshi said, “Former MLA Vishwas Gangurde recently left the BJP. Like me, he too was humiliated in the party.”

Topics: NCP Anna Joshi More Stories from this section Guard against politics of religion, language and region: Sonia ‘Stand by me & I’ll stand by you throughout’ 600 to be arrested a day before polling Foodgrain prices will ease by April: FM Tw…More

TOI : PUNE : Police are examining the CCTV footage of one of the four ATMs from where over Rs 40,000 was withdrawn using the victims software engineer

Nayana Phatak-Pujari’s ATM card since Wednesday night when she went missing while on her way home from work.

25 year old Nayana’s body was found in Zarewadi forest area at Khed about 50 kms from Pune. This is the fourth incident of a woman software engineer murdered in 2009.

Police are looking for a suspect whose images with face covered was caught on a CCTV at an ATM in Khadki. Police have prepared sketch of the suspect on the basis of decription given by the ATM security guard.

Probe has revealed that the suspect had withdrawn the amounts from ATMs at Khadki, Kalyaninagar and Vimannagar and another ATM and he had left a balance of Rs 200 even after her body was identified on Friday.

Investigations have revealed that Nayana had informed her husband Abhijit on Thursday at 7.58 pm that she had missed the pick up vehicle and that she would be reaching home in an hours time in some other vehicle.

Sub inspector S C Madhe who is investigating the missing persons complaint of Nayana has found that the CCTV installed at the software company’s gate had shown her while leaving the office.

The company’s security guard has given a statement to the police saying that he had seen Nayana leaving the office hurriedly.

It has been further revealed that the company officials on Thursday had made numerous attempts to contact her on the cell, but she could not be contacted as her cell was switched off. Abhijit had also called up at her office at 10 pm, but he was informed that she had left for the day.

Speaking to TOI, deputy commissioner of police (zone iv) Jalindar Supekar on Saturday…More

TOI : LONAVLA: The BJP’s start campaigner and popular television personality Smriti Irani addressed a rally at Main bazaar chowk in Lonavla on Saturday. She was here to campaign for BJP candidate from Maval Bala Bhegade. People, especially women, thronged the venue in thousands to get a glimpse of the real-life Tulsi’.

Irani appealed people to vote for Bala Bhegade since BJP was the only party that favoured the common man, specially women. She said the BJP will implement 33 per cent reservation for women and it was also serious about solving problems like terrorism and unemployment in the state.

Irani blamed the NCP-Congress for doing nothing for the development of the state. “The Congress was not interested in solving the problems of the public. The state government failed to stop terrorism, unemployment and price rise. The Congress was responsible for all these problems,” she said.

Meanwhile, Maval MP Gajanan Babar appealed voters not to vote for criminals and elect the right person. Stressing the fact that farmers in the state are still dying and terrorists being able to strike at will, Babar said, “Still the NCP-Congress party shamelessly talking about the welfare of farmers and the aam admi.”

MLA Digamber Bhegade, Shiv Sena district president Machindra Kharade, Talegaon Nagar Parishad president Ravindra Dabhade, Panchayat Samiti chairman Pramod Lonkar and others were present at the public meeting.

Topics: Smriti Irani BJP More Stories from this section Guard against politics of religion, language and region: Sonia ‘Stand by me & I’ll stand by you throughout’ 600 to be arrested a day before polling Foodgrain prices will ease by April: FM Tw…More

TOI : MUMBAI: The Centre, on Saturday, airlifted 18 companies (three battalions) of paramilitary forces from Jammu and Jalandhar to the naxal-hit Gadchiroli district in Maharashtra to assist in the peace-keeping operations on October 13, the day the state goes to vote.

Besides the local police, there are 35 companies of paramilitary forces in Gadchiroli. The recent Naxal encounter that saw the death of 17 policemen is the third big massacre in the district. And top police officials said the morale of the local police had gone down.

Chief Secretary Johny Joseph said the state government made an appeal to the Union home secretary and the defence secretary, following which they agreed to airlift the troops. He added that the men from the Central Reserve Police Force were airlifted from their bases at Jammu and Jalandhar by IAF planes and were taken to Nagpur. Two battalions arrived at Nagpur on Saturday evening; the third one is expected to land later in the night.

State chief electoral officer Debashish Chakrabarty, who has been updating Election Commission on all developments in the area, was also of the opinon that district needed more police force to ensure free, fair and above all safe elections.

Topics: naxal Battalions More Stories from this section Guard against politics of religion, language and region: Sonia ‘Stand by me & I’ll stand by you throughout’ 600 to be arrested a day before polling Foodgrain prices will ease by April: FM Tw…More

TOI : PUNE: The anti-narcotics cell (ANC) of Pune crime branch on Friday arrested a foreign student with 11.3 gms of cocaine worth Rs 1.10 lakh and other narcotic substances including hashish, marijuana and opium totalling Rs 1.38 lakh.

The suspect have been identified as Peman Mahmood Khavanin (31) of Aundh and a citizen of Iran. Acting on a tip-off, the police team led by inspector Satish Devare nabbed Khavanin from Kalyaninagar.

Inspector Devare said, “Khavanin is residing in Pune since 2007. He is doing his BCS course from a college in the city.” Devare added, “Our constables, Eknath Khule and Sushil Kakde, received a tip-off that one foreign student will be coming at Kalyaninagar for selling the drugs. Accordingly, we laid a trap and nabbed the suspect, who reached the spot in a car on late Friday night.”

The police have recovered 11.3 gms of cocaine from the possession of the suspect. “When we searched the car, we recovered 96 gms of hashish worth Rs 9,600, 133 gms of opium worth Rs 13,300 and 56 gms of marijuana worth Rs 6,000,” Devare said.

Devare said that a case in this regard has been lodged with the Yerawada police station. Topics: Drugs Iranian More Stories from this section Guard against politics of religion, language and region: Sonia ‘Stand by me & I’ll stand by you throughout’ 600 to be arrested a day before polling Foodgrain prices will ease by April: FM Tw…More

TOI : PUNE: The district election office on Friday registered a case of poll code violation against MNS chief Raj Thackeray for allegedly using foul language against a senior Congress leader during an election rally. The utterances were purportedly made in Kothrud on October 8.

An offence was also registered against state finance minister Dilip Walse-Patil on Thursday for allegedly holding a rally at a religious place near Manchar on October 5 in violation of the model code.

Confirming the registration of the offences, Dnyaneshwar Khillari, co-ordinating officer of the code of conduct cell of the district election office, said,

The case against Thackeray was registered at the Kothrud police station, while the offence against NCP s Walse-Patil was registered with the Manchar police, he added.

The election office has so far registered 136 cases of election code violations in 21 constituencies. Most relate to defacement of property, misuse of vehicles during rallies, campaigning without permission and illegal publications. The Shirur constituency has seen the highest number of cases (24), followed by Shivajinagar (16). No offences have been registered in Baramati and Junnar so far. Topics: MNS Raj Thackeray More Stories from this section Guard against politics of religion, language and region: Sonia ‘Stand by me & I’ll stand by you throughout’ 600 to be arrested a day before polling Foodgrain prices will ease by April: FM Tw…More

TOI : MUMBAI: The police are acting on a complaint filed by BJP candidate Ram Naik who has taken offence over alleged ageist comments made by the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena’s (MNS) Shirish Parkar in a television interview on October 1.

According to Naik, referring to his age, Parkar said on TV: “Ram Naik yana dar teen mahinyani rakt badlave lagte (Naik needs to have a blood transfusion every three months).” The MNS candidate also allegedly accused Naik of hating Marathi. These comments, said Naik, is in violation of the Election Code of Conduct. “I am planning to file a defamatory case,” he added.

Senior inspector S M Ghuge of Parksite police station said: “We will book Parkar under section 188 of the IPC for violating the Election Commission’s Model Code of Conduct. Although, the complaint was filed on October 2, we received the orders only on October 9.”

Despite repeated calls, Parkar remained unavailable for comments.

Topics: MNS Ram Naik More Stories from this section Guard against politics of religion, language and region: Sonia ‘Stand by me & I’ll stand by you throughout’ 600 to be arrested a day before polling Foodgrain prices will ease by April: FM Tw…More

TOI : PUNE: Those shoes are big to fill, but Poonam Mahajan Rao, daughter of slain BJP leader Pramod Mahajan, is trying her best to carry forward her father’s legacy.

Poonam gets upset when people call her inexperienced’ or an outsider’ in Ghatkopar West assembly constituency. “My father has been fighting, winning and losing from this constituency since 1984. I have known the entire area for 24 years now and I have a connection with people at the grass-roots level,” she told TOI on Saturday.

“Like my father I never say what I cannot do. I always dream big. I cannot say which of my father’s qualities I have inherited but I want to be like him in every aspect, especially his punctuality and time management skills. I am trying to follow my father, and God willing, I will succeed,” she said. For her, the party is of utmost importance. “Just like it was for my father,” she said.

Poonam said she met “every voter” during campaigning. “I can say that I covered over 80 per cent houses in my constituency and the response was tremendous.”

Her campaign centered around five major issues. “Almost 75 per cent of my constituency has slums. So, rehabilitation of slums, improving water supply, especially in high-rise areas of Ghatkopar, setting up a modern medical facility in Ghatkopar West and controlling price rise are the main issues,” Poonam said, adding that for slum rehabilitation, she intends to push for implementation of the Afzalpurkar committee report, which was commissioned by the saffron alliance when it was in power.

She joined the BJP on October 31, 2006, after being encouraged by her uncle Gopinath Munde senior BJP leader and former deputy chief minister. This was prior to her father’s murder and the then 29-year-old did not hold a high public profile.

In the run up to the Lok Sabha elections, she made…More