A four months old pregnant housewife has been killed by her husband’s ex-girlfriend at Dahisar (E) on Wednesday afternoon. Police said the accused killed the woman and hid her body inside the Sofa in her resident for three hours.

The accused Ujwala Veer (22), a fashion designer and resident of Kajupada killed Preeti Prashant Bhagekar (26), a housewife. Bhagekar husband is working in a call centre as a driver and he was having affair with the accused Veer.

According to the police officials, “Few months back the deceased husband Prashant gave Rs. 20,000 to his ex-girlfriend Veer. Prashant was in touch with Ujwala as a result of this, there was rift between him and his wife Preeti.”

On Wednesday afternoon, Veer called Bhagekar and informed her that she kept the loaned money at her resident and said to come on specific location. From there they both had gone to murderer’s resident. “As they enter the house Veer started beating the Bhagekar and strangulated her neck with the rope as a result she died on the spot,” said officer.

“To satisfy herself that Bhagekar has been killed, once again Veer strangulated her neck with hand and then slit neck with the help of razor blade. After that she hit her head with iron rod”, said DCP Punjabrao Ugale.

The accused kept her dead body inside the sofa and cleaned blood stains on the floor. Later, Veer injured herself with knife and ran away to Prashant’s home. She informed Prashant that a tall man forcefully entered her home and stubbed her and his wife with the knife. Prashant took Veer to the nearby clinic for the treatment.

Meanwhile, Prashant’s sister informed to police. Dahisar police rushed to the spot and they found Ujwala’s body inside the sofa at Veer’s resident.

DCP (Zone 12) Punjabrao Ugale said, “We arrested the accused and will produce her in court today.”

According to the Bhagekar’s family, Ujwala was four months pregnant and the couple had a love marriage five years ago. Police also detained Ujwala’s husband Prashant and suspecting his involvement in the conspiracy.

To boost hydel power generation and resume those small projects in the sector which have been delayed due to various reasons, the Union Power ministry is planning to design a special policy, which will also ensure that a new project is announced only after getting necessary approvals are in place.

To boost hydel power generation and resume those small projects in the sector which have been delayed due to various reasons, the Union Power ministry is planning to design a special policy, which will also ensure that a new project is announced only after getting necessary approvals are in place.

“Therefore, we are planning to formulate a special small hydel power policy to remove the hurdles in implementing such projects,” Union Power Minister Piyush Goyal told a gathering at the Progressive Maharashtra Summit organised by industry body FICCI.

Calling for a radical change in the way large infra projects are announced, Goyal said it should be ensured that no projects are announced without the necessary approvals and land clearances, and the right of way are in place.

“We have to take a conscious decision before starting new projects. Announcements should be made only after the necessary approvals are in place,” he said.

The Modi government has set an ambitious target for renewable energy over the next five years at 3,000 billion units from the present 53 billion. The overall target is to double generation to 2 trillion units.

The government is also working towards reviving large hydro projects including the 1,200-mw Teesta-III project in Sikkim, which is behind schedule by over two years, the 2,000-mw Shubhamsari project in Arunachal Pradesh, which when completed will be the largest hydel plant in the country, and the 400-mw Maheshwar being put up by SKumar’s group in MP.

“Huge investments have gone into these projects which have now been delayed due to regulatory approvals. The Teesta project is of national importance and we have to support it as much as possible. Investments made by investors, contractors and promoters are stuck. We are sure we will be able to come to a conclusion soon.

“Besides, we are also in talks with the MP and Andhra governments for the revival of the stuck hydel projects in their states,” he said.

A chemical analyst deposed before the sessions court, which is hearing the 2002 hit-and-run case allegedly involving Salman Khan, that he had received a vial purportedly containing 6 ml blood of the Bollywood actor but found it had only 4 ml of the sample.

The blood sample of the actor, who was allegedly drunk when he rammed his SUV onto a pavement, killing one person, had been sent for chemical analysis after the incident.

Replying to a question by Salman’s lawyer Srikant Shivade, Balashankar, the analyst, said he was not aware where the 2 ml of the sample blood disappeared.

Balshankar had earlier told the court the sample had 62 mg of alcohol, double the permissible limit. A person who consumes alcohol would normally have 30 mg per 100 ml but it may increase by 40 per cent if the person is on medication.

To another question, the analyst said the sample bottle had a label which read ‘Salman Khan’ and not ‘Salman Salim Khan’ as put by police in the court case papers.

Advocate Shivade apparently put the question to show that the blood sample could have belonged to somebody else.

To a question about shortfall in the sample, the witness said such things had happened earlier too, but though it was his duty to inform the authorities about it, he did not do so.

Balshankar also admitted there was no proof to establish that the bottle of sample had come to him and he had verified it; there was also no evidence to show that there was preservative in the sample (a point made earlier by the defence to show that without preservative, blood test would not be reliable).

The cross examination would continue tomorrow.

The prosecution had examined the analyst to establish that Salman had had liquor before his car met with accident in suburban Bandra on September 28, 2002, killing one person and injuring four. He has denied that he was at the wheel.

The Maharashtra unit of NCP lashed out at the Congress for doubting its credentials as an opposition force and questioned why the Congress state leadership had sought NCP’s support for the Mukhed Assembly by-election scheduled for Friday.

“If the Congress felt that we are not a formidable opposition force, why did its chief Manikrao Thakre seek our written support to the Congress candidate for the Mukhed Assembly by-elections. Our legislator Prakash Gajbhiye and other local leaders campaigned in the constituency along with Ashok Chavan and Manikrao Thakre,” NCP state chief Sunil Tatkare said.

He said voters decide who will be in opposition and after 15 years of rule in Delhi, Congress drew a blank in the recent assembly polls.

Tatkare was responding to questions on his Congress counterpart Manikrao Thakre’s charge that NCP has not yet cleared doubts in the minds of people about its support to the BJP-led government and Congress alone was the opposition party in the state.

“NCP organised statewide silent protest on January 30 to condemn attempts to glorify Nathuram Godse and also held demonstrations to protest exclusion of 1.77 crore beneficiaries who are above poverty line (APL) from the Food Security Act,” Tatkare said.

Tatkare refused to be drawn into the issue of Shiv Sena ministers complaining about non allocation of work in the ministry.

“If these charges are true, then we ought to question how transparent this government really is,” he said.

“We would wait and watch,” he said in reply to a question about Mumbai BJP chief Ashish Shelar’s statement that Shiv Sena should first pull out of the government and then criticise Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The work on the much touted Colaba-Seepz underground metro line is likely to commence before March 2016-end.

“We have already completed the initial process for the project. We are currently in the final stages of selecting the bidder. We expect the pre-construction work on the project to commence before March 2016 and will be completed by 2020,” Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation (MMRC) Managing Director Ashwini Bhide, said.

She said MMRC has already shortlisted nine consortia for the over Rs. 23,000-crore, 33-km underground rail link, which will now go through the second round of bidding.

“Since the project will be developed in seven packages and is the first of its kind in the city, we have to go through a long process of selecting the final bidders. Currently, we have shortlisted nine bidders. We expect the selection process to be completed over the next 6-7 months,” she said.

Bhoomipujan for the project was carried out in August last year at Marol in the northern suburb of the city.

Talking about fares for the metro, Bhide said it will be determined on the lines of the fares fixed by the DMRC, indexed at 7.5 per cent and would be revised every second year.

The MMRC has fixed fares between Rs. 11 and Rs. 37 for the proposed corridor.

“The initial fares would be fixed on lines of those charged by DMRC. Later, it will be determined by the fare fixation committee,” she said.

On the funding for the Rs. 23,136 crore project, Bhide said that the Japanese funding agency JICA would be providing a soft loan to the extent of Rs. 13,235 crore in tranches.

In continuing trouble for the organisers and participants of the AIB Knockout show which raised the hackles of moral brigade, a court has ordered police to register a first information report (FIR). An FIR has already been filed in Pune, while Maharashtra government has announced an inquiry.

“The complaint be sent to the police station concerned for investigation and report,” said additional magistrate C S Baviskar, in response to an application by activist Santosh Daundkar who alleged that the participants used “vulgar, obscene and pornographic” language before an audience which had a large number of women. Daundar’s lawyer Aabha Singh said that the video of the show was also uploaded online and on social media.

The complaint also objected to the venue being used for entertainment show, in breach of Coastal Regulation Zone rules.

“The place was designated primarily for sports activities but… a commercial, vulgar, obscene and pornographic show comprising several Bollywood personalities was held at the SVP stadium at National Sports Club of India in Worli in South Mumbai on January 20,” it said.

The complaint named Jayantilal Shah, president of NSCI; Ravinder Agrawal, secretary of NSCI; Bollywood celebrities Karan Johar, Ranveer Singh, Arjun Kapoor, Deepika Padukone and Alia Bhatt, among others.

Daundkar sought registration of FIR under sections 294 (obscenity) and 509 (word, gesture, act intended to insult modesty of woman) of Indian Penal Code, as well as under the Bombay Police Act, the Environment Act and the Information Technology Act.

On Monday, the Bombay High Court had directed the government and I&B ministry to respond to a petition seeking action against organisers. The show was a comic ‘roast’, also called insult comedy, a format borrowed from the US. It attracted over four million views in less than four days on YouTube.

With national literary festivals focusing only on English writings, a group of literature lovers have come together to hold the country’s first regional language festival, titled Gateway Litfest, from Saturday.

The maiden edition of the two-day literary jamboree will be attended by around 50 top writers and art and film experts from different languages, particularly Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya and Tamil, who would debate and discuss the rich heritage of regional languages, the organisers said in a statement.

The event will honour Marathi poet-novelist Bhalchandra Nemade, who won the 2014 Jnanpith award, and past Oriya Jnanpith award winner Pratibha Ray, apart from various Kendra and State Akademi award winners, at a ceremony to be held at the NPCA theatre.

The Gateway LitFest, being organised by leading Malayalam literary quarterly ‘Kakka’ and integrated marcom agency Passion4Communication, will bring together vibrant vernacular writings and authors on one platform and put them on the same page with English and Hindi under the arclights.

The speakers will discuss, debate and decipher the plight as well as the prominence of regional writings and vernacular literary streams.

There will be deliberations on literature, media, script-writing, poetry and novel. One of the highlights of the festival will be a session on artistic freedom in the aftermath of deadly attack on French magazine Charlie Hebdo and the attack on Tamil writer Perumal Murugan, who declared to quit the world of writing.