The Bombay High Court on Friday allowed Shiv Sena to hold its annual Dussehra rally at Shivaji Park in central Mumbai on October 22 here subject to certain conditions, including adherence to noise pollution rules.
The conditions — which the saffron party has to abide by this year — had been imposed by the high court in the past. These pertain to adherence to noise pollution rules and restoration of the ground to its original position after the rally.
“We have allowed Shiv Sena to hold the rally in the past and there is no reason why we should not allow the party to organise it this year…However, the party would have to abide by the conditions imposed by the HC earlier,” said Justices V M Kanade and Anuja Prabhudessai.
The HC cautioned the Sena against violating the rules. “A political party is for the benefit of citizens and therefore it should ensure that they (citizens) are not troubled. We, therefore, request Shiv Sena to observe the noise pollution (regulation and control) rules and other conditions,” the bench observed.
The party has been facing opposition from certain quarters in organising the event at Shivaji Park in the past two years as the high court had declared it as a silence zone.
Sena has been organising its annual rally on Dussehra every year since its inception to announce its policies and it has become a prestige issue for the party to hold the event every year at the same place.
The HC passed the order today, allowing Sena to hold the rally at Shivaji Park this year on separate applications moved by the BJP-led Maharashtra government and Shiv Sena, which also is part of the state government.
The applications were opposed by Wecom Trust and Awaz Foundation. Both NGOs said the noise pollution rules debar use of loud speakers in a silence zone.
The CBI on Friday questioned Vidhie, daughter of Indrani Mukerjea and Sanjeev Khanna, in connection with the Sheena Bora murder case. Indrani’s husband Peter Mukerjea was also questioned for the second time by the agency.
According to sources, Vidhie was questioned about the emails she had allegedly received from Sheena Bora after her death. Accused Indrani Mukerjea had allegedly asked a former employee to create an email id for Sheena claiming that she was facing some problems in USA to create the ID.
After Sheena’s death, Indrani had reportedly claimed that Sheena had moved to the United States and had settled there. “Indrani impersonated as Sheena had sent two emails each to Peter, Mekhail and Vidhie. We wanted her to identify those emails,” a senior official said.
Vidhie was also questioned if her real father (Sanjeev Khanna) had made any attempts to meet her on April 24, 2012. Khanna had claimed that he was in Mumbai to meet his daughter Vidhie who now lives with Peter and Indrani in their residence in Marlow apartments in Worli.
Vidhie was adopted by Peter after marrying Indrani in 2002. The agency has also questioned Rahul, Sheena’s fiancee who is the elder son of Peter Mukerjea from his first wife.
Rahul has told investigators that the two were scheduled to get married in late 2012 against the will of his step mother but in April 2012 Sheena went ‘missing’ and had sent a couple of text messages to him stating that she had ended her relationship with him and was in a relationship with somebody else in USA.
The CBI suspects blackmail and jealously to be the primary motives behind the murder. “From the preliminary interrogation of Indrani and the other two accused it looks like Indrani wanted to kill Sheena and Mekhail after the two started blackmailing her and threatening to expose their real relationship with her in the social circuits in which Indrani used to move around. Indrani used to introduce them as her younger siblings when the two in reality were her own children” said the source.
Bollywood superstar Salman Khan’s lawyer today argued in the Bombay High Court that the prosecution did not examine star witnesses singer Kamaal Khan and the actor’s brother Sohail, who could have thrown light on the crucial aspects of the 2002 hit-and-run case.
The HC is hearing an appeal filed by Salman against the five-year sentence awarded to him on May 6 this year by a sessions court for ramming his car into a bakery in suburban Bandra killing one person and injuring four others who were sleeping outside. The mishap had occurred on September 28, 2002.
Instead of deciding to place in the court the evidence of police constable Ravindra Patil, who died in 2007, the prosecution should have examined singer Kamaal Khan and Salman’s brother and actor Sohail Khan, the defence lawyer Amit Desai argued before Justice A R Joshi.
“There were two eye-witnesses– Kamaal Khan and Sohail Khan. They should have been examined before applying section 33 of Indian Evidence Act and considering the statement of Ravindra Patil that he gave before a magistrate in Bandra earlier” said Desai who represents the 49-year-old actor.
Section 33 of Indian Evidence Act deals with “relevancy of certain evidence for proving, in subsequent proceeding, the truth of facts therein stated”.
According to Desai, section 33 cannot be used in this case. “It has to be used not routinely but under extraordinary circumstances,” he said.
The lawyer argued that Kamaal Khan, the singer, was throughout with the actor right from Salman’s house at Galaxy Apartments at Bandra to Rain Bar and Restaurant at Vile Parle and then to J W Marriott at Juhu. Sohail Khan, the younger brother of the actor, was with him inside the Rain Bar.
“Both were important witnesses in as much as Sohail Khan could have thrown light on drinking, while Kamaal Khan could have given evidence on drinking and driving,” Desai said.
Observing that maximum number of accidents occurred due to crossing at rail tracks, the Bombay High Court today directed Central and Western Railways to put up barricades at spots vulnerable to track-trespassing at all suburban stations in the metropolis.
The Railways informed a bench headed by Justice V M Kanade that barricades had been put up at several stations.
However, the bench asked the Railways to put up the barricades at all stations to prevent mishaps due to crossing of tracks. It also directed the Western Railway (WR) to ensure that emergency medical services were provided at all suburban stations up to Dahanu (the last local station in adjoining Palghar district located 120km away).
Earlier, the emergency medical services, which consist of a doctor and ambulance, were provided at stations up to Virar. Recently, the local train services were extended up to Dahanu.
The division bench of Justices Kanade and Justice Shalini Phansalkar Joshi also directed the state government to ensure that doctors recognised by Maharashtra Medical Council were posted at the medical centres at railway stations.
The direction was given after petitioner Sameer Zaveri, an activist, informed the court that doctors from Unani and Auyrvedic streams were posted at emergency medical centres.
The HC suggested the government tie-up with private hospitals located near the stations so that injured persons can be moved swiftly there and medical treatment given to them in the golden hour (the first one hour after injury sustained in a mishap).
Runway repair at the domestic terminal of Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport resulted in major chaos and long queues on Friday. The repair of the runway resulted in massive air traffic congestion too with several flights being delayed by up to three hours.
While the maintenance is happening every Friday but passengers are not informed resulting in the chaos.
Airport officials said that there would be a delay of 1-2 hours for most of the flights because the runway was under maintenance.
As the drought situation in Maharashtra turned out to be worse than earlier calculations, the Fadnavis-led BJP government on Friday declared drought in 14,708 villages in the state.
Fees of school & college students in those villages, which has been put under drought-hit zone, is likely to be waved off.
The report further added that one third of electricity bill of agricultural pumps will also to be waved off.
The state government will also establish special centres to purchase agricultural products.
The ruling partner Shiv Sena had earlier slammed the state government’s decision to levy an additional surcharge on a host of items to raise money to tackle the drought situation in the state, dubbing it as “pick pocketing”.
To raise funds for tackling drought, the state government had in September announced a surcharge of Rs 2 on petrol and diesel while increasing the VAT on liquor, cigarettes and beverages by 5 percent.
It had also imposed a 1.20 percent surcharge on VAT on gold and diamond jewellery. The additional levy will be in force for five months.
Marathwada is reeling under the worst drought in recent years, pushing scores of locals to migrate to cities in search of livelihood, with Beed witnessing a steep rise in farmer suicides accounting for 105 cases in August itself.
The agrarian crisis in Marathwada has been compounded for the fourth successive year, forcing many of the 25 lakh people in drought-wrecked region, comprising 70 percent of the area’s population, to cities like Mumbai in Western Maharashtra.
While Vidarbha reports the highest farmer suicides in the state, cases have been spiralling in Marathwada too which earlier faced a drought in 2012 and 2014. Crops had also been destroyed in the region which had been ravaged by hailstorms in 2013.
An official release said, Beed in Marathwada reported 105 farmer suicides in the single month of August this year with meagre rains destroying large swathes of crops.
A day after the Supreme Court stayed provisions of the Maharashtra Police Act banning dance performances at bars, the state government on Friday said it wants the ban to continue and is awaiting the final order of apex court in this regard.
It also said it plans to amend the existing law to hike entertain duty on dance performances or enforce strict time regulations for such performances.
Maharashtra Revenue Minister Eknath Khadse said that the Supreme Court order to stay the operation of 2014 amendment in the Maharashtra Police Act that had banned dance performances at these places was interim.
“We will await the final order and taken take steps accordingly. The government wants the ban to stay,” he said.
The order paves the way for reopening of dance bars across the state.
The Supreme Court has, however, added a rider to its interim order and allowed the licensing authorities in the state to regulate indecent dance performances at bars and other places.
Khadse said the government would consider hiking taxes or enforcing strict time regulations for such performances.
“We can increase entertainment duty on these performances or enforce strict time regulations,” he said.
The Maharashtra government had brought an amendment in 2005 — the Bombay Police Act — which was challenged in high court by an association representing restaurants and bars.
The Bombay High Court on April 12, 2006 had quashed the government’s decision and declared the provision as unconstitutional saying that it is against Article 19(1)(g) (to practise any profession, or to carry on any occupation, trade or business) of the Constitution.
However, the state government had moved the apex court against the high court’s order that same year.
On July 16, 2013, the Supreme Court upheld the Bombay High Court verdict quashing the state government’s order and had said that the ban violated the constitutional right to earn a living.
The state Assembly however, on June 13, 2014, passed the Maharashtra Police (second amendment) Bill which prevented licences for dance performances in three-star and five-star hotels. The ban also covered drama theatres, cinema halls, auditoriums, sports clubs and gymkhanas, where entry is restricted only to members.
The 2014 amendment in the Maharashtra Act was challenged by the Indian Hotels and Restaurant Association and others before the apex court.
At least eight people were killed in a blaze that swept a crowded restaurant in Mumbai after a gas cylinder exploded on Friday.
The explosion took place at City Kinara Hotel near the Holy Cross School in the Kurla area at around 1.30 pm.
The eatery was full of customers for the lunch time. Suddenly, a cylinder burst in the hotel’s kitchen, leading to the fire in which eight people were burnt alive, said an official of the BMC Disaster Control.
Deputy Commissioner, Zone 5, Mahesh Patil said a fire was reported at Hotel City Kinara in Kurla West around 1 p.m. It serves Chinese food. Fire brigade personnel rushed to the spot, and extricated eight bodies from the spot. Bodies were sent to Rajawadi Hospital.
The cause of the blast which was followed by a deafening explosion and a fire, is being investigated, said police.
The injured have been admitted to Rajawadi Hospital in Ghatkopar East.
Twelve fire tenders were on the spot to douse the blaze.
In a vitriolic attack on Sharad Pawar for equating the Shiv Sena to “ants that will be stuck to jaggery of power,” the ruling alliance partner Friday described NCP as “blood sucking leech” waiting to join hands with the BJP to be a part of Maharashtra government.
“Before calling others ants, it would have been better if Pawar had self-introspected. The NCP is infamous for sucking the blood of Maharashtra like leeches. These are leeches whose stomach will remain empty despite sucking out all the blood of the state,” the Sena said in stinging remarks in an editorial in party mouthpiece ‘Saamana’.
Pawar had recently said that power was like a block of jaggery and termed the BJP and Shiv Sena as ants drawn to it, sucking as much sweetness as they could.
On Pawar’s taunt that Sena was hungry for power and would not “dare” to leave the government, the Sena said the Maratha strongman first needs to answer why the NCP stuck to power with the Congress for 10 years, despite being humiliated several times by its ally.
“You spoke of (Congress president) as being a foreigner, but ate Italian pizza with her for 10 years. Congress leaders accused the NCP of corruption. (Former Maharashtra Chief Minister) Prithviraj Chavan abused the NCP time and again. But the way the NCP still stuck to power is nothing but a miracle,” the editorial said.
The Sena claimed that Pawar is waiting for an opportunity to come to power.
“The truth is that Pawar is only waiting for an opportunity to come to power in the government after the Sena-BJP alliance breaks,” it said.
“After the (Maharashtra) Assembly polls (last year), this was the same NCP that tried to cling onto the ‘pro-Hindutva’ BJP like ants,” the Sena said.
