A money laundering court has ordered attachment of Rs. 2.58 crore stash funds of a Navi Mumbai-based businessman who was part of a smuggling racket of precious wood that was busted in 2011.

The order for attaching Deepak Sharad Jare’s funds was made on a plea of Enforcement Directorate (ED) which had booked him on charges of money laundering after taking cognisance of a DRI smuggling case against him.

According to the chargesheet by probe agencies, Jare is an associate of Ajit Bapu Satam, The kingpin of Red Sanders smuggling trade, and used to run a syndicate with him.

Satam is based in Mumbai and according to investigating agencies; his smuggling business (of this protected wood) has fetched him over Rs. 40 crore.

The export of Red Sanders is prohibited under Section 11 of the Foreign Trade (Development and Regulation) Act, 1992.

The adjudicating authority of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), a judicial body to decide on strict enforcement orders, confirmed the ED’s order of attaching the cash in September last year.

“No doubt the properties attached are proceeds of crime and are involved in money laundering,” the court of Authority Member Mukesh Kumar said recently.

The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) raided Jare’s residence in 2011 and seized total cash of Rs. 2.58 crore. A joint probe report filed by DRI and ED states that the cash was accumulated from the illegal trade and smuggling of Red Sanders wood.

“Rs. 2.58 crore was recovered and seized from the residence of Deepak Sharad Jare. He admitted it to be part of amount received from Ajit Bapu Satam towards his share in the smuggling profit of Red Sanders,” the probe report said.

In the same case the agency had last year seized more than Rs. 30 crore worth of assets, including an elite set of Bentley, Ferrari and Mercedes cars in the name of Satam.

An attachment order, under Prevention of Money Laundering Act, is aimed to deprive the accused of the benefits of his ill-gotten wealth and assets.

A lookout notice has been issued against industrialist Yash Birla in connection with a cheating case registered against his firm Birla Power Solutions, police said.

The Economic Offences Wing of the Mumbai Police issued the lookout notice on Friday, said a police officer.

The case was first reported on December 31, 2013, when the Marine Drive police registered a cheating case against Birla Power Solutions for allegedly duping a Worli-based businessman of R 1 crore by not repaying his FD investment on maturity.

There have been eight incidences involving Naval warships since the sinking of the submarine INS Sindhurakshak at Mumbai harbour in August, 2013
An amphibious warship of the Navy was damaged when it ran aground off the coast of Vishakhapatnam last week, after which an inquiry has been ordered to ascertain the reasons for the mishap.

This was the eighth incident involving a Naval warship since the sinking of the submarine INS Sindhurakshak in Mumbai harbour in August last year in which all 18 personnel on board were killed. The Magar-class Landing Ship Tanker ran aground off the coast of Vishakhapatnam last week and suffered damages.

An inquiry has been ordered to probe the incident by the Navy, sources in the Navy said. A Navy spokesperson refused to comment on the issue. The LSTs are used by the Navy for amphibious warfare. Only two ships of the class were designed and built by Hindustan Shipyard Limited in partnership with the Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers.

The ships are stationed at the naval base in Vishakhapatnam. They can operate two medium-lift helicopters, which are primarily meant for “inserting” a small team of Special Forces (marine commandos). There have been several incidents in the recent past soon after Navy Chief Admiral DK Joshi claimed that the force’s record in terms of safety was “not that bad” when compared to other navies in the world.
After the sinking of the INS Sindhurakshak, the Navy has faced several mishaps including one in which the INS Betwa was damaged after probably hitting some underwater object. The INS Sindhughosh, another Kilo Class submarine, had a close shave after it entered the Mumbai harbour in a low tide phase.
India’s leading minesweeper, the INS Konkan that was undergoing repairs in Vizag, caught fire and suffered major damage to its interiors. The Pondicherry-class minesweeper was getting a refit at a dry dock when the incident occurred.

In another incident, a 30-mm gun on ICSG Sangram, a patrol boat undergoing a refit at the naval docks in Mumbai, fired accidentally. The shell pierced the Naval headquarters building damaging a few offices.

Following this, the INS Tarkash — a Talwar-class frigate which has conducted several overseas missions — hit the jetty while berthing at the Mumbai naval base. Its hull was badly damaged. Late at night on December 23, the Navy suffered a major embarrassment after the INS Talwar collided with a fishing vessel 10 miles off the coast, injuring many.

The 27 people aboard the fishing vessel had to be rescued after it sunk.
A fault on board the INS Vipul, a Veer-class corvette that recently underwent repairs and refit, has also come to light. The warship, sources said, was sent back for repairs after a breach was discovered during sailing.

The Bombay High Court has issued a show cause notice to a public prosecutor, appearing in multi-crore housing scam against former state minister Suresh Jain, for making contemptuous remarks against the court.

Justice A M Thipsay of the Aurangabad bench of the high court on January 27 issued notice to prosecutor N D Suryawanshi for making contemptuous remarks against the court.

In December last year, Justice Thipsay had sought clarification from special public prosecutor Suryawanshi for making false statement that the Maharashtra government has decided that there is no need for sanction to prosecute Jain.

Suryawanshi had told a sessions court in Jalgaon that the state government has come to a conclusion that there is no need for sanction to prosecute Jain in the 2006 Jalgaon mass housing project scam. Based on the statement, the session’s court took cognisance of the case and framed charges.

Jain approached the HC challenging the session’s court order taking cognisance. Jain said that the case against him is non-maintainable due to want of sanction. He also said a letter procured under RTI says the proposal seeking sanction to prosecute him is still pending before the government.

Replying to the high court notice, Suryawanshi clarified that in his statement he had not said the state government, but said that he himself had come to the conclusion that sanction was not required.

Along with the clarification, Suryawanshi filed an application taking objection to the manner in which Justice Thipsay dealt with the matter and alleged that the court had made derogatory remarks against him. Suryawanshi in his application sought the court to take back its remarks.

“The contents of the application are offensive and strange. Such type of contemptuous application does not call for an explanation to be given by the court. However, I am of the view that the present application needs to be sternly dealt with,” Justice Thipsay said.

“In my opinion, this is a fit case where action for having committed contempt of this court should be initiated against the applicant. However, considering that he is a Special Public Prosecutor, instead of initiating an action forthwith, I think it fit to grant one opportunity to the applicant to show cause against the proposed action,” he said.

Suryawanshi has been directed to file reply by February 11.

Maharashtra government employees have threatened to go on indefinite strike from February 13 if their long-pending demand for five-day week work schedule and grant of other facilities on par with central government staff were not met.

“We have been demanding a five-day week for quite some time. Also, we have been demanding various facilities which are there for the central government employees. We also want the retirement age of the state government employees to be increased from current 58 to 60,” G D Kulthe, chief advisor of Maharashtra State Gazetted Officer Federation said.

The federation has submitted the proposal for a five-day week work schedule and other facilities to the government staff before Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan and it is likely to be discussed during a meeting with him on February 4, he said.

“We (employees) would work for an additional 40 minutes every day, in order to compensate for the loss of working hours,” he said, adding their other demands of education allowance, transport allowance and child care leave for women should also be met.

The federation members yesterday held a meeting with Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on the issue.

“The meeting was positive. It was encouraging for us. We are hoping for the best,” he said.

“We also hope of getting some result during a meeting with the chief minister. If a decision is not taken, then we will definitely go on strike from February 13,” he added.

One suspect has reportedly been detained from Andhra Pradesh in the alleged murder case of software engineer Esther Anuhya, whose decomposed and burnt body was found in a swamp near a major highway on the outskirts of Mumbai on January 16.

Police sources say the suspect is believed to be known to the 23-year-old techie and his call data records show he was in touch with her before she went missing on January 4.

Sources also said the detained suspect’s phone could not be traced to Andhra Pradesh two days before the techie went missing while on her way to Mumbai after spending Christmas with her family in Hyderabad.

On Friday, the Railway Police recovered the CCTV footage where the young woman could be seen at the Kurla Railway Terminus the day she disappeared. The footage showed a man standing next to Ms Anuhya and is seen carrying her bag.

A team of railway police is in Andhra Pradesh to show the clipping to the young woman’s parents in an effort to identify the man.

Sources say the police believe that the person who has been captured on CCTV could be an accomplice of the detained suspect.

The police have so far failed to recover key evidence like the Ms Anuhya’s bag and laptop.

Her decomposed body was found 11 days after she went missing from the Kurla Railway Terminus. It was identified by her father, a retired Professor in the Andhra Pradesh University.