A delegation of ‘Jain Alpsankhyak Seva Sansthan’ met the Maharashtra Minister of State for Home Ram Shinde and demanded enhanced security at the Jain temples in the state.

A centuries-old stone idol of Lord Mahavir was stolen from a temple in Lachuar village in Jamui district in Bihar on Friday.

The delegation included president of the organization Arvind Shah, vice president Sanjay J Shah, Mumbai BJP spokesperson Yogesh Verma and others.

“Our Santhan would provide the guidelines for the precautionary measures to be taken at all the temples in the state and will extend all sort of help to the government,” said Sanjay Shah, who is also a member of the state-appointed Jain minority development committee.

“I pray to the Lord Mahavir to give wisdom to the people involved in the theft so that they return the idol,” he said after the meeting.

Verma said the incident was a major setback for the Nitish Kumar-led Bihar government. “I hope at least now the Bihar government wakes up, otherwise ‘jungle-raj part II’ will start,” he said.

The organisation said in a statement that Shinde assured that security-related help would be provided to thousands of Jain temples in Maharashtra and the community should not worry.

Maharashtra Director General of Police (DGP) Pravin Dixit released former top cop Julio Ribeiro’s book ‘Bullet for Bullet’ here.

Addressing the gathering at the launch, Ribeiro, known for leading the Punjab Police during peak Sikh militancy period, said, he was re-releasing his book that was first published in 2000, because he wants to reach out to the youngsters in Police and motivate them with the new book.

“This is the second time that I am releasing my same book, which was first released in year 2000. My main motto to re-release the book is to motivate the young generation of police force,” the former Mumbai police commissioner said.

“Post retirement, I learnt that the whole attitude of the government officials has changed…Wherein they have started thinking that they are the masters and forgotten that they are actually working to serve people, as a servant. I want to change this attitude of theirs,” Ribeiro said.

Ribeiro said it is expected out of a Police officer to address people’s problem and help them getting justice, but these days, it is seen that police is not doing its work and on the contrary they themselves create lot of problems.

“I hope that my book, which completely describes about my life as a police officer and the good and bad experiences as a cop in my 36 years of service, motivate more and more police officers in the years to come,” he said.

On the occasion, recalling his days as Superintendent of Police (SP) in Raigad district, Dixit said, “With Ribeiro’s total support during Maharashtra Band those days, I was very much motivated.”

“With this book, the memories has once again brought us in very sharp focus to recollect the turbulent events that had taken place in 80’s and how the top cop had tackled it,” Dixit added.

Several retired IPS officers and serving IPS officers were also present on the occasion.

With the arrest of three persons, the city police claimed to have busted a gang involved in bike thefts in Bhandup area, and recovered six motorcycles from them.

“Sleuths from Bhandup police station arrested three people and recovered six motorcycles from them,” DCP (Detection) Dhananjay Kulkarni said.

The accused are identified as Ajay Suravde, Yogesh Kene and Nilesh Bhoisar.

According to police, the accused used to steal the motorcycles from Bhandup area and then go into hiding in Kalyan, Kalva, Titwala and Mumbra areas in Thane district.

“Our team of police officials received the information about the main accused Suravde, who was then trapped in Titwala and then arrested,” Shripad Kale, senior inspector of Bhandup police station, said.

During his interrogation, Suravde told police about his aides– Kene and Bhoisar– who were picked up from different locations near Kalyan, Kale added.

According to police, Suravde has around eight criminal cases registered against him.

The Bombay High Court rapped the railways for its lackadaisical approach towards safety of passengers and failure to provide better services in suburban local trains.

A division bench of Justices N H Patil and S B Shukre, which is hearing a batch of public interest litigations on the safety aspect, was today informed about the death of a 21-year-old man.

Bhavesh Nakhate, a resident of Dombivili, had died after falling from a crowded train on November 27 in Thane district neighbouring Mumbai.

“These deaths will continue unless you (railways) do something immediately. Nobody is taking this seriously. For railways it is just another death. This is a sorry state of affairs and the railways seems to be completely helpless,” Justice Patil said.

The high court sought to know from the railways as to what steps it has taken in the past few decades towards addressing the issue of over-crowding and increasing number of deaths of passengers.

“What have you done in the last five years? Population will continue to increase but is the railways prepared to handle the situation? Railway authorities should take every measure to ensure that people are not forced to over-crowd, make such arrangements that passengers do not mind skipping one train. There is complete lack of vision and planning,” the court said.

The HC said in future the coming generations should not face the same trouble the present one is facing and steps should be taken at the earliest.

Advocate Suresh Kumar, appearing for the railways, informed the high court that a meeting has been scheduled by the Advocate General with the authorities concerned tomorrow and the court’s suggestions will be discussed.

The HC has now posted the matter for hearing on December 16 and sought a report from the railways.

Apparently fed up with his frequent transfers, senior Maharashtra IPS officer Sanjay Pandey has sought deputation at the Centre by applying for the post of CEO of National Intelligence Grid (Natgrid).

Pandey, currently posted as Deputy Commandant, Home Guards and Deputy Director, Civil Defence, sent an application in this regard to Director of MHA, North Block on November 27 and has also submitted a copy for needful action in the matter to Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Maharashtra and State Director General of Police.

Pandey, a 1986 batch IPS officer, is known for his honest and strict ethics and was praised by the Srikrishna Commission and later by Amnesty International for his work in controlling the 1993 Mumbai riots.

However, he has faced 14 transfers in his 15 years of police career, including three transfers in last one year.

Prior to his Home Guards posting, he was serving as Controller of Legal Metrology Department of Maharashtra in March this year bringing fundamental changes in the functionality of the organisation, where government has not found his replacement so far.

But, on October 3, Pandey was once again transferred to the Home Guards department which was considered as a “punishment” posting where he is reporting to former Police Commissioner Rakesh Maria. Pandey has also worked with SEBI.

When contacted, Pandey said, “I have sought a deputation in the Centre’s post and have applied for that, as I see a better opportunity there.”

An aide of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim allegedly responsible for gunning down of two BJP leaders in Gujarat’s Bharuch district, was today arrested at the Indo-Nepal border by central security agencies with the help of Nepal Police.

Brother of Javed Chikna, one of the close aides of Ibrahim, Abid Patel was nabbed when he was crossing over to Nepal, official sources said.

They said security agencies had been tracking his activities after his name surfaced in the conspiracy of the killing of the two BJP leaders. The sleuths had information that he would be crossing over to Nepal from Bihar.

The central security agencies had taken their Nepalese counterparts into confidence and in a joint operation Abid was nabbed as he had entered into the Nepalese territory, the sources said.

He will be handed over to Gujarat Police, who will question him in connection with the murder case. Two unidentified gunmen had shot dead former party president of Bharuch district and senior RSS member Shirish Bangali and the Bharuch district general secretary of BJP’s youth wing Pragnesh Mistry on November 2.

Three farmers allegedly committed suicide in separate incidents in Nashik’s Malegaon taluka during the last 24 hours, police said on Wednesday.

A 33-year-old farmer, Ganesh Himmat Bacchav, resident of Sonaj Takali village, committed suicide by hanging himself to a tree at his agricultural land, they said.

Ganesh was apparently upset over the continuous drought for three years and was finding it difficult to meet the medical expenses of his paralytic father, disabled younger brother and daughter, said nayab tahsildar Amit Pawar, who did the ‘panchanama’.

In another incident, Mahesh Bansilal Sonawane (33) from Padalde village ended his life by consuming poison at Pimpale-Shivar yesterday. He was found dead at a field yesterday afternoon, police constable SK Bogir said.

42-year-old Pravin Bhatu Magar, a farmer from Zodge village, also committed suicide by consuming poison yesterday, an officer at Malegaon’s taluka police station said.

Police said Sonawane and Magar took the extreme step as they were stressed over loan burden and crop loss incurred due to inadequate rainfall.

Notably, several areas of Maharashtra have been reeling under drought owing to less rainfall this year, with farmers bearing a major brunt as they are suffering crop losses and facing heavy debts.