The body of a 12-year-old girl, allegedly raped and then killed, was found at a village farm, police said on Sunday.

The girl, from Kaman village in Vasai area of Thane district, had left for her school on January 16, but did not return home.

Later, her family members, after carrying out a search in vain, lodged a missing complaint with the local police, Waliv Police Station inspector Rajendra Mohite said.
Police received information about a body lying at a farm in the village. The police rushed to the site and later the decomposed body was identified as that of the missing girl.

Police said the body was sent for postmortem which revealed that the girl had been raped before being killed.

Offences have been registered against unidentified persons under sections 302 (murder) and 376 (rape) of the IPC along with relevant sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012, police said, adding that search for the culprits was on.

Former Air India Executive Director Jitendra Bhargava, whose book blaming Praful Patel for the near grounding of the national carrier has been pulled off the shelves after an out-of-court settlement between the ex-Aviation Minister and publisher, now plans to e-publish it.

He has also slammed the legal settlement between Patel, now Union Heavy Industries Minister, and the publisher, as it was reached without consulting him.

“A lot of e-publishers have been approaching me for my book. I may exercise this option,” said Bhargava.

“A lot of Air India employees, particularly retired ones, have a lot of emotional connect with this book and they would be wanting to read it as well,” he said.

‘The Descent of Air India’ chronicles the financial woes of the airline caused by alleged Government interference in its functioning and decisions taken by it that were detrimental to the national carrier’s interests.

Patel, a senior leader of the NCP, helmed the Civil Aviation Ministry between 2004 and 2011.
In the book, Bhargava has alleged that the then officials of Air India totally gave in to Patel’s whims and fancies.

The book highlights factors that led to a huge pile-up of debts and heavy losses to the airline because of alleged distribution of bilateral traffic rights to foreign carriers and surrender of profitable routes to private carriers at the expense of Air India during Patel’s term.

Miffed over the allegations against him, Patel had filed a defamation suit against Bhargava and the publisher, Bloomsbury. The publisher then reached a compromise with Patel and agreed to destroy the remaining copies of the book besides tendering an apology in leading newspapers.

Following the compromise, a Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court here compounded the offence and acquitted the publisher. However, the case against Bhargava would continue.

“Patel and the publisher reached an out-of-the-court settlement without prior discussion with me. This is unprecedented,” said Bhargava.

“I have the confidence to say that whatever I have stated in the book is based on facts and documents. I will justify each and every statement in the court,” said Bhargava. However, Patel’s lawyer Satish Maneshinde said there was no need to consult Bhargava before reaching a settlement with the publisher.
“Why should we consult Bhargava for a compromise. The case was also against the publisher and this has been settled. He has no choice but to accept our settlement,” he said.

Nearly 40,000 people including 500 foreigners took part in the eleventh edition of Mumbai Marathon on Sunday morning. Among the participants were 200 people with disabilities and 1360 senior citizens. Bollywood celebrities were also present at the event and many corporate honchos participated in the run. With 3,60,000 US dollars as prize money, the competitive categories saw a hard fought race.

Dr. Mithu Alur, the Founder Chairperson of ADAPT, who flagged of the Champions with Disability category, told, “Everyone who participated felt very euphoric and excited to be a part of the marathon. There was a wonderful entertainment and quiz show for the participants at the end. They really enjoyed the race. The participants felt supported and they were very pleased.”

In its 11 years, the marathon has raised more than Rs. 100 crore for charity. This year 269 NGOs were part of the event.

Security was a concern for the police after the Boston Marathon Bombings. The Mumbai Police kept vigil with 2000 policemen on duty. Another 1000 private security guards were also deployed.

Additional Commissioner of Police (South Zone), Krishna Prakash said, “We had planned meticulously for security arrangements and had several meetings with the organisers. We carried out many anti-sabotage checks. 11 Bomb Detection and Disposal Teams (BDDS) teams were deputed to check the entire route. High rise buildings were checked and plain clothes policemen were deployed. Twenty-four Quick Response teams along Force One were also deployed.”

Winner of the men’s event Evans Ruto from Kenya, said, “The race was good overall, but I am disappointed to miss the record by one second. I felt welcomed in Mumbai and enjoyed the race,” Mr. Ruto said.

In the women’s event, last year’s runner-up, Ethiopian Dinknesh Mekash, won the race. Lalita Babbar of Central Railway created history completing a hat-trick of triumphs by winning the Indian women’s full marathon in a new record time of 2:50:31, which was three minutes better than her time of last year.

Bombay High Court has reserved its order on an application filed by two witnesses in the 2002 Pune German Bakery bomb blast case seeking protection from officers of state Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS).

A division bench of justices V K Tahilramani and P N Deshmukh will soon pass its order on the application of the witnesses alleging that they were coerced into giving false statements against lone convict Himayat Baig, before the trial court.

The two witnesses had filed the application soon after Baig made an appeal in the High Court against his conviction and the death penalty awarded to him by a sessions court for carrying out the blast.

The witnesses claimed that they were coerced and tutored into making deliberate false statements before the court with a malafide intention of securing Baig’s conviction.

The witnesses also alleged that prior to their deposition before the trial court; they were kept separately for several days and tutored by the ATS personnel as to the nature of the recoveries and statements that were relied on to convict the accused during the trial.

The ATS opposed the witnesses’ claim.

Apart from the two witnesses’ application, journalist Ashish Khetan also filed an application seeking probe by an independent agency in the blast case again.

On February 13, 2010, a bomb exploded inside the German Bakery in Pune’s upmarket Koregaon Park area killing 17 people, including five foreigners, and injuring 58 others.

On April 19 last year, the sessions court in Pune had awarded death penalty to Baig.

Filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt, who is active on Twitter, believes the social media “encourages cowards” to express their feelings online.

“Social Media encourages cowards and haters to spout the ugliest things that they would never dare to say in real life to people face to face,” Mahesh tweeted.

On microblogging site Twitter, the veteran filmmaker has over six million followers.