QMumbai: Portuguese Team to Meet Abu Salem; B’wood Singer Stalked
Man who stalked and threatened singer Palak Muchhal has been arrested and other city stories.
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1. Portuguese Team To Visit City To Check On Abu Salem
The Portuguese government has a sought a meeting with gangster Abu Salem, who was extradited from Lisbon in 2005, to determine if the hardfought conditions of his return to India are being honoured, Mirror has learned.
A team of Portuguese officials is expected to arrive in Mumbai on June 12 and meet Salem at Taloja Jail the same day.
The development came even as a Delhi court on Thursday jailed Salem for seven years over a 2002 extortion bid on a Delhi businessman. He is already serving two life sentences for the 1993 serial blasts and the 1995 murder of builder Pradeep Jain.
Salem, who was arrested in Lisbon on September 20, 2002, has repeatedly complained to Portuguese authorities that their extradition agreement with India, which agreed to a nodeath penalty clause, has been violated. His main grouse is the lengthy prison time he faces. State prison officials have received a letter from the external affairs ministry about Portugal’s wish to meet Salem. Lisbon had suggested two dates for the one-to-one: June 7 and June 12. The plan for Thursday could not move forward as Salem was awaiting sentencing in Delhi.
“We have agreed to a meeting between officials from the Portuguese embassy (in Delhi) and Salem at Taloja Jail,” BK Upadhyay, additional director general of police (prisons), told Mirror.
(Source: Mumbai Mirror)
2. Mumbai: 41-Year-Old Man Duped Of Over Rs 12 Lakh By Fake Dating Website
A 41-year-old man employed with a private bank has been allegedly duped of Rs 12.55 lakh by a ‘fake’ online dating website. The police said the complainant paid Rs 12.55 lakh to the alleged fraudsters after they promised him a ‘date’ with girls in the city. The complainant, Pankaj Prabhu, who stays in Prabhadevi, registered a case of cheating and criminal intimation against the website.
“On May 21, I was surfing the internet when suddenly several sites popped up on my screen, out of which, one turned out to be a dating website. I filled the formalities and started browsing through the website. Later, I got a call from an unidentified number and a woman, who introduced herself as Tania, started talking with me,” said the complainant in his statement to the police.
Later, the caller alleged that she was going to offer Prabhu a date with a girl in the city, for which he will have make a payment. “The caller asked me to pay Rs 3.4 lakh in three instalments and she claimed that the money was refundable. I deposited the money in three accounts mailed to me on my personal email ID,” the complainant told the police.
(Source: Indian Express)
3. ‘Professor’ Held For Stalking, Threatening Singer
Singer Palak Muchhal, who is known for lending her voice to numbers like Prem Ratan dhan payo, Kaun tujhe and Gori tu latth maar, on Wednesday registered a complaint against a man for allegedly stalking and harassing her. A 30-year-old man, who claims to be a professor from Bihar, has been arrested in the matter.
In her complaint filed at Amboli police station, Muchhal alleges that she has been repeatedly getting calls and messages from an unknown number. In the beginning, the caller said he was a huge fan of her and requested to meet her. She politely declined but the man allegedly persisted and continued to text and call. Initially, the singer decided to ignore him, but things took a violent turn when his messages got abusive and threatening.
(Source: Mumbai Mirror)
4. IIT-B Climbs To 162 In Top World Varsity Rankings
The Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (IIT-B), continued its stellar form by climbing 17 spots in the latest Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World Rankings 2019, rising to 162 from last year’s 179 in an announcement by QS on Wednesday.
IIT-B is now the top-ranked institute from India, with an overall score of 48.2 out of 100. It has a score of 52.5 in academic reputation, 72.9 in employer reputation, 54.1in citation per faculty, 43.3 in faculty-student ratio, 4.4 in international faculty, and 1.8 in international students. All scores are out of a maximum of 100 points.
“Among the six [QS] parameters, employer reputation is the strongest one for IIT Bombay, with a rank of 93 globally,” the institute said in a statement. “Since2014, in the world university rankings by QS, IIT Bombay has moved up 71 places.”
Last year, the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi (IIT-D) was the top-ranked institute from India at 172. This year, too, IIT-D remains at 172, but the Indian Institute of Science in Bengaluru trounced it to make it to 170 – besting its 190 ranking last year. On the other hand, the University of Mumbai continued its dismal performance, falling in the 801-1,000 bracket; same as last year.
(Source: Mumbai Mirror)
5. Firm Struggles To Refloat Capsized Floatel, As Choppy Mumbai Sea And Rain Hit Ops
Arc Deck Bar, the floatel on ship Avior that capsized near Mahim bay, is yet to be refloated two weeks after the incident as the rough sea has made it tough for divers to access it.
Last Thursday, from Singapore-based SMIT Salvage, the firm hired to refloat the ship, had managed to locate the puncture at the base of the ship, and anticipated that they would be able to refloat the ship and bring it to the Bhaucha dhakka harbour in three days’ time.
However, divers have not been able to access the ship for the past week because of choppy weather, said Sanjay Sharma, chief port officer of the Maharashtra Maritime Board (MMB). The team will now try a new method to refloat the ship, he added. “The base of the ship is touching the sea bed now, so divers cannot reach the puncture from outside the ship to repair it. They have submitted a fresh plan to dock the ship.”
(Source: Hindustan Times)
6. Mumbai Floods In Pre-Monsoon Rainfall, Navy To Step In If Required
Several parts of Mumbai flooded after moderate rainfall on Thursday, putting a question mark over the city’s preparedness for monsoon and prompting the municipality to reach out to the Indian Navy.
Parts of central Mumbai, Elphinstone Road, Parel, Dadar TT Circle and Hindmata were flooded in the pre-monsoon thundershowers between 11:30am and 12:30pm. The rains stopped at noon, but the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) announced it had cancelled the leaves of its senior officials for the weekend. It asked for three teams of the National Disaster Response Force to be stationed at Parel, Mankhurd (for the eastern suburbs) and Andheri Sports Complex (for the western suburbs).
Navy personnel will be deployed in Colaba, Worli, Ghatkopar, Trombay, Malad for flood rescue if required, said a BMC press release. Mumbai has since morning recorded around 50mm rainfall in Dadar, 20 mm near Dharavi, 15 mm in the eastern suburbs, 26 mm in Goregaon and 18mm in Malad, in the western suburbs, BMC officials said. “There are five pumps working at Hindmata, and water is likely to recede in half and hour,” said Kishore Desai, assistant commissioner of F-South ward.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) reported an average of around 20 mm rainfall in Mumbai, slowing down traffic on the Western Express Highway. Local trains, however, were unaffected.
(Source: Hindustan Times)
7. 1.77 Lakh E-Challans Issued To Speeding City Drivers This May
The Mumbai Traffic Police issued around 1.77 lakh e-challans in the month of May with the help of CCTV cameras, mostly because of speed cameras installed along major roads in the city that automatically track speeding vehicles and generate e-challans.
On an average, the Traffic Department issued around 6,000 challans per day, the police said, out of which around 4,000 challans were issued based on Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras that track a vehicle which is speeding beyond the permissible limit of 60 kmph (the Bandra-Worli Sea Link is the exception, with a permitted speed of 80 kmph).
Around 5,100 CCTV cameras and around 40 speed cameras are installed at various places along the Eastern Express Highway, Western Express Highway, Eastern Freeway and the Bandra-Worli Sea Link, and issue e-challans to speeding vehicles.
“While the speed limit for the Bandra-Worli Sea Link is 80 kmph, for other roads, the speed limit is 60 kmph. If somebody drives above the speed limit, a challan is immediately generated by the camera and the traffic constables stationed at the media centre of the Traffic Police headquarters,” a police official from the Traffic Department said.
(Source: Mumbai Mirror)
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