Congress in Maharashtra said that blatant endorsement of corruption has been the “hallmark” of the Devendra Fadnavis-led state government which completes a year in office this week.

“Fadnavis has a penchant for granting clean chits to his ministers without an inquiry into any allegation of misdeed,” Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee spokesperson Sachin Sawant said.

“Fadnavis just speaks on transparency in governance but does not implement it. He has set a precedent in supporting corruption and this is regrettable. Blatant endorsement of corruption has been the hallmark of this government,” Sawant said.

Reiterating his demand for a CBI probe into the alleged suicide of Senior Police Inspector in Jalgaon Ashok Sadare, Sawant said the leak of the police department probe into the suicide by a BJP activist Deepak Falak which has gone viral in the social media is a cause of concern.

He claimed that Falak has been travelling with Revenue Minister Eknath Khadse during his official visits to different parts of the state.

“The issue is how did the report reach the BJP activist. Who is interested in it? The report casts aspersion on Sadare’s professional record and makes no mention of the two police officer whom the deceased cop named in the suicide note, as being responsible for his death. Similarly, there is no mention of alleged sand mafia Sagar Chaudhary,” he claimed.

Sawant alleged that Fadnavis had not taken action against the decision of Principal secretary (energy) Mukesh Khullar to scrap his decision to grant Rs 572 crore electricity duty waiver to JSW Steel.

“The decision to grant a waiver was in violation of business rules in the first place and was done in connivance with energy minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule.

It was done without consent of the Cabinet. Now the principal secretary (energy) stays his own decision when the wrong doing is revealed through an RTI query. But, no action is taken against him so far,”he said.

The BJP government will complete a year in office on October 31 while Shiv Sena joined the government later.

A petition in the Bombay High Court sought that the civil and sessions courts located in two different places in the city be combined and put up in one location, preferably in central part of the metropolis.

Currently, the civil and sessions courts are located near the High Court building in South Mumbai and in a separate building in suburban Dindoshi (near Goregoan).

The petition, filed by criminal lawyer Ejaz Naqvi, also challenged a recent Maharashtra government notification on allocation of Andheri police station cases to sessions court in suburban Dindoshi.

It said the High Court and not the state had the powers to decide through a notification on locating sessions court in keeping with the provisions of section 9 (6) of Cr.Pc.

The petition further prayed that the civil and sessions court should be located in Bandra or in a nearby place so that accused from nearby Thane jail and Arthur Road prison could be conveniently brought there.

It also sought facilities such as parking lot for litigants and a lock-up for accused in the court.

It further said only four criminal courts and eight civil courts were located in Dindoshi, which was not sufficient because cases from 35 police stations were being heard there.

The petition argued that this violated fundamental rights of the accused.

The petition came up for hearing today before a bench headed by Justice V M Kanade who asked the petitioner to move the appropriate bench.

The lawyer told reporters outside that the appropriate court was a bench headed by Justice Abhay Oka and said that he would move the petition before this bench on Tuesday.

The Bombay High Court posted for final hearing on December 15 on a bunch of petitions seeking action against “illegal” structures constructed by political parties, including BJP, at Nariman Point in South Mumbai.

A bench, headed by Justice Abhay Oka, also extended till then the interim relief granted by the court in August 2013 restraining BJP and other political parties from carrying out renovation work at their offices near Nehru Garden at Nariman Point.

The petitioners’ advocate had told the court last year that despite the HC stay, BJP had carried out construction in their office premises.

BJP-Shiv Sena combine is currently ruling the state.

Two months back, the HC had expressed displeasure over Maharashtra government’s failure to take a stand on whether the changes made to a structure in South Mumbai allotted to BJP in 1978 were legal or not.

The other political party which has an office in this area is Janata Dal (S), according to the petitions.

The petitions have been filed by three residents’ associations seeking action against illegal structures constructed by political parties, including BJP, inside and near the Nehru Garden and other illegal shanties that have sprung up there.

The court had in an earlier hearing directed the state to examine if any changes were carried out by BJP, and if yes, then whether the requisite permissions were taken.

The court was informed that when the structure was allotted it was 2,686 sq ft and now it is 9,500 sq ft.

The government subsequently filed an affidavit stating that there is nothing on record of the Public Works Department to show whether or when any change was made.

The affidavit said that BJP had, on June 8, submitted an application to the General Administration and Urban Development Department seeking rectification of the allotted area in the allotment letter as there is discrepancy in the area shown in the letter and the one which was and is actually in use.

After perusing the affidavit, the high court had said that “in our order of April 16, we had directed the government to examine if any material changes were made to the area allotted. The government was expected to file affidavit on this. However, the government has not done so. It is avoiding to take any specific stand.”

The HC had also restrained the government from taking a final decision on the letter dated June 8 written by BJP.

The matter will come up for final hearing on December 15.

A 26-year-old model chased two boxers from Haryana, who allegedly passed lewd comments at her mistaking her for a “call girl”, leading to the arrest of one of the men.

The woman strongly opposed the two men, identified as Dinesh Yadav and Amit Yadav, after which they boarded an auto-rickshaw, but she continued to follow the vehicle and managed to get one of the boxers arrested, police said.

The incident took place on Thursday night around 10.30 PM when the model, who had earlier won the title of ‘North India Teen Queen’, was speaking on phone at Bandstand in suburban Bandra.

At that time, two youths allegedly flanked her and started misbehaving with her by offering night rates, a police officer said.

“After finishing my jogging, I was talking to my relatives while sitting on a bench, when one guy approached me asking if I needed any help. Though I did not pay any attention to him, he continued to pester me,” the model, who has worked in music videos and an ad-film made for the Uttar Pradesh government said.

Recalling the incident, she said, “A few minutes later, another person came and sat besides me and came closer which frightened me. He then asked me how much I would charge to join them for the night.”

“Sensing something amiss, I just got up and began yelling at them and also threatened to file a complaint with the police, to which they retorted saying do whatever you want, we are not afraid,” she said.

“I got scared and screamed for help from 10-15 onlookers, but nobody responded,” the woman said.

The model said that after she kept on screaming, the two men started walking away and sat in an auto-rickshaw.

“I also gathered courage and chased them in another autorickshaw. I alerted the policemen present on the ‘nakabandi’ about the two men,” she said.

Bandra police station’s senior inspector Ramchandra Dhavle said after a brief chase, the police managed to nab the two men, both boxers from Haryana, police said.

While Dinesh was arrested the same night, Amit managed to escape from the police station.

The accused have been booked under sections 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the IPC.

Dinesh was later produced in court and granted bail.

“We are conducting a thorough inquiry and on the basis of information provided by Dinesh, we are hopeful of nabbing Amit,” Dhavle said.

A Congress Corporator wants Mumbai civic body to use cow urine to sanitise hospitals across the metropolis.

Parminder Bhamra said cow urine has ‘germ-killing’ property and he has been using it for long to clean his home.

The Corporator from Malad, North Mumbai has submitted a proposal to the Shiv Sena-BJP run Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), urging it to use cow urine as disinfectant in public hospitals.

“Gomutra (cow urine) has been used for this purpose since ages. I use it at home every day. It kills germs and is easily available; I get it from the nearby gaushala (cattle shed). I am sure even hospitals can be cleaned properly using it,” said Bhamra.

The Congress leader also wants private hospitals to be cleaned with cow urine.

Asked if his proposal would face opposition from political parties, Bhamra told that he did not see such a thing happening. “I wish to remind people that cow with her calf was once the symbol of my party.

“This is not a political issue. I have made the proposal keeping in view my personal experience in using cow urine for cleaning and considering its medicinal properties,” Bhamra maintained.

However, doctors did not appear enthusiastic about Bhamra’s idea.

Avinash Supe, Dean of KEM Hospital, said, “I am not aware of this particular proposal or who suggested it. I’ll have to check its effectiveness before commenting.”

Bhamra’s proposal is marked on the agenda for the BMC general meeting on November 3.

In March, cow urine was touted as a cure for cancer in the Rajya Sabha by BJP member Shankarbhai N. The BJP MP had said, “If you want to save yourself from cancer, there is a need to protect cows on a priority because cow urine is effective in curing cancer completely.”