A middle-aged security guard was allegedly murdered by his 25-year-old colleague in the wee hours on Thursday, following which the accused was arrested, police said.

The alleged murder took place at a construction site in Wadala here around 3 am on Thursday, in which the accused Nirmal Roy, who also works as a watchman, murdered the victim Shatrughan Paswan (50).

“Both of them had entered into an argument and the deceased had insulted the accused last night while having dinner together at the site,” DCP (Detection) Dhananjay Kulkarni said.

Later, when Paswan was in deep slumber, the accused hit him with an iron rod, in which the victim died, police said.

Swinging into action soon after getting information about the crime, RAK Marg police station immediately arrested Roy and charged him under section 302 (murder) of IPC, said police.

Shiv Sena lambasted Sharad Pawar for defending actor Aamir Khan over his intolerance remarks, saying the NCP chief has lost connect with the sentiments of the people.

“If according to Pawar intolerance means betraying the country whose food you eat then you should call Aamir Khan to Baramati and honour him with ‘Nishan E Baramati’ award,” Sena said in an editorial in its mouthpiece ‘Saamana’.

“What Pawar is saying in Aamir Khan’s defence does not befit the character of Maharashtra,” it said.

“By that yardstick seeking (extradition of) Dawood Ibrahim and raising voice against Pakistan will also be construed as intolerant,” the editorial said.

“It is unfortunate that a leader who has been in politics and in power for so many years should consider anti-India remarks of the actor as a personal view”, the party said.

“It is not surprising that chief of the party which feels terrorist Ishrat Jahan was a saint should support Aamir,” it added.

“It is necessary to tell Pawar to make comments befitting his age and experience,” the editorial added.

Leaders do not know what is going on in society and have lost connect with people’s sentiments, it said.

The Bombay High Court directed civic bodies across Maharashtra to take up from December 5 a special drive to remove illegal hoardings, posters and banners, which should be completed by the Republic Day.

“Making the municipal areas hoarding-free should be the objective of every Corporation or Council and if this happens, it would be an ideal way to celebrate the Republic Day,” said a bench of Justices Abhay Oka and Gautam Patel while hearing two public interest litigations.

The PILs, filed by Suswaraj Foundation and Bhagwanji Riyani of Janhit Manch, alleged that political workers, NGOs and private organisations put up illegal hoardings, banners and posters all over the state in complete violation of civic rules, defacing private and public properties and spaces.

The judges asked the civic bodies to give wide publicity to the grievance redressal mechanism adopted to remove illegal hoardings such as e-mails, letters, toll-free numbers etc.

The HC also allowed the citizens to file anonymous complaints in this regard, if they wanted to.

The judges directed the civic bodies to introduce a dedicated website where complaints or photographs of such illegal hoardings can be uploaded for necessary action.

Such websites should be on the lines of those websites already introduced by the civic bodies for complaints about potholes on streets and roads across the state, the judges said.

The bench further asked the heads of the municipal bodies to act promptly on complaints of court commissioners appointed to remove illegal hoardings. Such complaints should be dealt within a week, the Judges said adding that response should be given to these issues within 72 hours.

The bench issued notices to BJP state president Ashish Shelar and other political leaders asking them to show cause on January 8 why contempt action should not be initiated against them for violating High Court orders on putting up illegal hoardings.

The allegations against them were that illegal hoardings on public roads had displayed their photographs.

The HC noted that three parties– BJP, MNS and NCP– had come forward before it to give their response to the issue of illegal posters.

A Pune court dismissed a suit seeking a ban on Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s upcoming film “Bajirao Mastani” for allegedly distorting history relating to late king Shrimant Bajirao Peshwe and his family members.

The court opined that the plaintiff could approach the Central Board of Film Certification, commonly known as Censor Board, with his grievances about the release of the film.

“The film cannot be released without the authority of the Censor Board. The plaintiff can approach the concerned authority if he has any grievances about the release of the picture. Hence, the (civil) suit is not maintainable under section 91 of CrPc. The plea is rejected,” said S S Gulhane, Chief Judge, Senior Division, Pune, in his order.

“Under section 91 of C.Pc, a suit is maintainable if it is a case of nuisance or other wrongful act likely to affect public life. Production of a film cannot be termed as public nuisance. The act merely of affecting sentiments of a particular class do not amount to public nuisance. Hence, the suit is dismissed,” the judge noted.

The suit, filed by Hemant Patil, president of NGO Bharat Against Corruption, alleged that historical facts had been wrongly portrayed in the film while showing late king Bajirao Peshwe and his wives Kashibai and Mastani.

The “Pinga” song in the film shows leading heroines Priyanka Chopra and Deepika Padukone dancing together, which, the plaintiff said “distorts” history.

‘Pinga’ dance is an integral part of Marathi culture and has been portrayed as an ‘item song’ in the film, advocate Wajid Khan argued on behalf of the plaintiff.

Earlier, Prasadrao Peshwe, the descendant of Bajirao Peshwa I, had also alleged that historical facts have been “altered” while portraying the late king and his wives in the film.

In a letter written to Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Prasadrao demanded that the government look into the matter, review the soon-to-be-released film, investigate the matter and take a decision accordingly.

The film is set for release on December 18.

Seven years after Mumbai witnessed the 26/11 attacks, distraught families of the four fishermen onboard the ‘MV Kuber’, which was hijacked by the terrorists, continue to face hardship as they await the government to declare their “missing” kin as “dead” and duly compensate them.

Ten Pakistani terrorists had hijacked MV Kuber, a fishing trawler, off Jhakau coast in Gujarat to reach Mumbai for carrying out the strike.

Family members of three fishermen belonging to Navasari district submitted a memorandum to district collector Ramya Mohan demanding that as per Gujarat government rules, missing persons are declared dead after seven years.

Gujarat Fishermen Association (GAF) has also sought intervention of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi in getting compensation to kin of the four fishermen.

“All the four of them should be declared dead and a compensation of Rs 10 lakh should be given to family members of each of them,” Navsari collector said.

The family members also demanded that death certificate should also be issued. State government has declared the four fishermen — Ramesh Nagji Bamaniya from Junagad, Balwant Prabhu, Mukesh Rathod and Natu Nanu — all from from Navsari, as “missing”.

“The family members met me on Tuesday as they (four fishermen) have been declared ‘missing’ by the government, and represented that they were the only bread earning members of their family. So, the fishermen should be now declared as ‘dead’ and a proper compensation should be given to them,” Mohan said.

She said the district authority has decided to send a fresh proposal to the government to consider the time factor and hardships faced by the families.

The body of only one of the five fishermen, Kuber Amarsinh Solanki, who was also the captain of the trawler, was recovered.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis is likely to expand his council of ministers before the winter session of the state legislature starts in Nagpur on December 7, a BJP leader said.

“The expansion is likely next week,” the leader said.

Accordingly, four berths will go to smaller allies– Rashtriya Samaj Paksha, RPI (A), Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghtana and Shiv Sangram Party. Shiv Sena will get two berths and BJP four. “Two berths in BJP quota will not be filled now,” the leader, who did not wish to be named, said.

Fadnavis is likely to visit Delhi soon to discuss the expansion with the party’s central leadership as Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he added.

The council of ministers can have a maximum of 42 ministers, including the CM, in Maharashtra.

There are at present 20 ministers from BJP, ten from Shiv Sena and none from the other four allies.

Shiv Sena today said that BJP should take the decision on expansion quickly. “We are ready for expansion any time. Sena is not a hindrance to the expansion exercise. Chief Minister and BJP should decide quickly,” senior Sena minister Subhash Desai said.

“With the expansion, new people will get the chance to work,” Desai told reporters in Navi Mumbai.

BJP had recently held parleys with the smaller allies in this regard. State BJP chief Raosaheb Danve met the RPI leader Ramdas Athawale, RSP chief Mahadev Jankar, SSS leader Raju Shetti and Vinayak Mete of Shiv Sangram Party.

Mete and Jankar are members of the Legislative Council.

Fadnavis took oath as the Chief Minister on October 31 last year with seven cabinet ministers and two ministers of state. When Shiv Sena joined the government in December, the strength rose to 30.

The Mumbai Regional Passport Office (RPO) will organize Passport Adalat on December 2.

The Passport Adalat will be attended by Regional Passport Officer Swati Kulkarni and will settle the matters on the spot. It would be held between 10:30 AM to 01:30 PM at the Regional Passport Old Office in Worli.

“Applicants who have applied for passport before 3 months back and in whose case, police verification or clearance reports have also been received, but still the delivery (of passport) is pending, are eligible to take advantage of the adalat,” a statement released by Deputy Passport Officer H T Fulpadia said.

Before taking part in the adalat, applicants would have to register their complaints in writing with the passport office or through email at rpo.mumbai@mea.gov.in before Dec 1, and then come to the office at the specified time with original documents,” the statement said.

The last such adalat was held in May that saw scores of passport applicants avail the services, an officer from the department said, adding, the frequency of such adalats has gone down as the department has adopted a mechanism for speedy delivery of passports.

A recent RTI query has found that the Regional Passport Office (RPO) in Mumbai has witnessed a rise in the issuance of passports in the last three years.

In 2012, a total of 1.50 lakh diplomatic, official, ordinary jumbo and ordinary normal passports were issued by Mumbai Regional Passport office.

This number went up to 3.35 lakh in 2013 and further rose to 3.69 lakh in 2014, according to the RTI reply.

The Mumbai RPO started functioning in November, 1954. Its jurisdiction extends to the districts and regions of Mumbai, Daman, Beed, Sindhudurg, Aurangabad and Ratnagiri in Maharashtra state.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis along with other ministers and the Mumbai Police, on Thursday paid homage to the martyrs on the seventh anniversary of the horrific terror attack of 26/11.

AIATF chairman M S Bitta along with other members of his organisation visited the Police Gymkhana, the Omble Statue at Chowpatty, Trident hotel at Nariman Point, Cafe Leopold in Colaba, Hotel Taj Mahal Palace in Colaba and the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, where the terror attacks had taken place in 2008, and paid tributes to the victims.

“After seven years of 26/11, Mumbai, India and our borders have become much safer. But, the government needs to be more alert regarding ISIS, after the recent incident of the alleged desecration of the holy book of Sikhs,” Bitta told PTI.

“The attacks like the one we witnessed in Paris recently should not repeated again. The government also needs to create an anti-terrorist military court,” he said.

On this day in 2008, ten Pakistani terrorists had arrived by sea route and opened fire indiscriminately at people killing 166, including 18 security personnel, and injuring several others, besides damaging property worth crores of rupees. The attack had begun on 26 November and lasted until 29 November.

The then Maharashtra ATS chief Hemant Karkare, army Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan, Mumbai’s Additional Police Commissioner Ashok Kamte and Senior Police Inspector Vijay Salaskar were among those killed.

Ajmal Kasab was the only terrorist who was captured alive. He was hanged four years later on November 21, 2012.

The entire Mumbai city has been put on alert and security has been beefed up at key installations in the city.

Martyrs will be remembered and paid homage at various locations in the city.