1. Manjula Shetye Murder Case: ‘She Begged For Her Life, They Ignored Her’
A magistrate, who visited Byculla Jail on the day Manjula Shetye was allegedly beaten up, did not visit her barrack at all, according to statements in the over 900-page charge sheet filed in the murder case of the inmate last week.
The statements of various inmates that refer to the inspection visit are important, considering the fact that the magistrate’s visit happened after Shetye was beaten up -- twice in the span of half an hour -- and when she was allegedly lying unconscious in the first-floor barrack-no. 5.
The statements and footage recovered from the CCTV camera near the staircase next to barrack no. 5 point to the fact that Shetye could have got medical attention six hours before she was actually taken to the hospital. Shetye was first beaten up around 11 am on June 23, 2017 by Jailor Manisha Pokharkar, who is referred to as a “wicked woman” by several inmates. Pokharkar was accompanied by jail constables Bindu Naikode, Waseema Sheikh, Sheetal Shegaonkar, Surekha Gulve, and Aarti Shingne.
She was then allegedly beaten up even more brutally half an hour later, just before the magistrate’s visit.
Complainant Mariam Sheikh, inmates Ranjana Rathod, Zainab Khan, Julie Warner, Fatima Chambo and Fazleen Shaikh are among those who mentioned this fact in their statements, along with a few other inmates. Mariam’s supplementary statement, based on the CCTV footage shown to her, says the magistrate is seen walking up to their floor and leaving hastily. The inmates say that they were threatened of dire consequences if they revealed the incident to anyone.
(Source: Mumbai Mirror)
2. Death Trap: Railways Begins Audit Of Mumbai’s Stations
Four days after the Elphinstone Road station stampede claimed 23 lives, the railway administration on Tuesday launched a “multidisciplinary audit” of all stations in and around Mumbai, senior officials said.
While the Central Railway has formed eight teams for the task, the Western Railway has set up five. They have roped in representatives of five municipal corporations, including the BMC.
The audit, which was announced by Railway Minister Piyush Goyal the day the tragedy struck, will cover more than 110 stations. Meanwhile, the Western Railway also launched an inquiry into the circumstances leading to the stampede.
Hours after the railway foot overbridge stampede on September 29, Goyal had announced a safety and capacity audit of all FOBs on the suburban network, considered the lifeline of the city. He had also ordered an inquiry by the chief safety officer of the Western Railway.
Apart from BMC, officials of Thane Municipal Corporation, Kalyan-Dombivali Municipal Corporation, Vasai-Virar Municipal Corporation, Mira- Bhayandar Municipal Corporation, the Government Railway Police and the Mumbai Police are involved in the exercise, a senior railway official said.
(Source: Mumbai Mirror)
3. Mumbai: Railway Police To Keep A Check On FOBs To Stop Needless Gathering
Following the Elphinstone Road station tragedy, the railways have been scrambling with temporary measures to avert a similar disaster at the city's many overcrowded stations.
Starting this morning, announcements were being made at Thane and Dombivli stations during peak hours, urging citizens to not crowd staircases or stand on foot overbridges.
"We've started announcements during morning and evening peak hours. The railway police will keep a check on FOBs to stop the needless gathering of crowds," said a senior railway officer from Thane station.
He said they had been instructed to make announcements following a meeting of senior officers after Friday's stampede. "The project was started at two stations, Thane and Dombivli, which see the highest number of passengers every day. This will help prevented accident," said AK Singh, Central Railway PRO.
(Source: Mid-Day)
4. Brace For Major Changes In Mumbai Local Train Schedule
In the aftermath of the stampede at Elphinstone Road station, the authorities are racing to improve railway safety. But after engineers complained about the lack of time for maintenance, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal suggested that they push the last local to an earlier slot, and delay the first local of the next day, so the workers get four hours at a stretch.
Meanwhile, Minister Goyal has also given the go-ahead to appoint three new additional divisional railway managers (ADRM), one of whom will solely be responsible for the safe running of the network.
The city currently has a divisional railway manager (DRM), who is the functional head of the Mumbai division. The DRM also has an ADRM to assist, but both are usually busy with train operations, punctuality and interactions with public representatives and passengers.
(Source: Mid-Day)
5. Mumbai Crime: Friend's Hacked Email Costs South Mumbai Woman Rs 40,000
The Malabar Hill police have arrested a man suspected to be part of a cyber fraud gang, which duped a SoBo woman recently. The accused had hacked the email account of the complainant's friend and sent an email to her, seeking money for a medical emergency. The woman discovered the fraud after transferring the money.
According to the police, the complainant, Shahnaz Kharas, received an email from her friend Sandhya Jaiswal in the first fortnight of August. The email stated that her (Jaiswal's) college professor needed money for his daughter's surgery. It added that she was writing to Kharas about this instead of calling as there was a network problem, assuring repayment on her return to India. Kharas immediately transferred Rs 40,000 into a bank account given in the email. "A day after sending the money, Kharas called up Jaiswal to confirm she'd received it. That's when she found out about the hack. Similar emails had been sent to other friends of Jaiswal," said a police source.
The police, during their investigation, obtained details of the account in which the money had been transferred. It was of a nationalised bank's Koper Khairane branch, belonging to Firoz Ali Mohd Ali Shaikh, 38, a Dharavi resident. Shaikh was arrested yesterday; during interrogation, he told the police that a friend of his, identified as Razi Javed Ali from Kausa in Mumbra, had taken details of his bank account a few months ago on the pretext of business dealings, saying some transactions would be done through his account, another source said. The source added, "Details have revealed that 16 suspicious transactions worth over Rs 15 lakh were carried out through this account recently."
(Source: Mid-Day)
6. If Looks Could Steal: Serial Rajdhani Exp Robber Finally Held
A career criminal who altered his appearance and robbed passengers on premium trains has been arrested after an over month-long investigation into his last feat — the Rs 5-lakh theft aboard Mumbai-Delhi August Kranti Rajdhani Express on August 16.
Kulbeer Singh, 41, was nabbed in Amritsar on October 1 after investigators monitored his calls to his wife, who lives there, RK Malik, chief security commissioner of West Central Railways told Mirror on Tuesday. Singh is suspected to have carried out at least four other thefts on Rajdhani Express, including the one on the Delhi-Mumbai service on August 8.
Singh, who hails from Amritsar, would board the trains with confirmed reservation and make rounds of different compartments to see where passengers were placing their handbags and purses. He would strike once they slept off, said inspector Rajiv Kharab of the Kota Railway Protection Force’s Crime Branch.
Investigators believe Singh is involved in more cases and are trying to gather details from different cities. He often changed his look — from a full beard to a French cut to being clean-shaven — after each crime. He employed another trick to avoid detection: he changed his mobile phone and number repeatedly. According to inspector Kharab, Singh used and discarded about 30 devices and SIM cards in the past two months.
(Source: Mumbai Mirror)
7. Fadnavis Has Invited Me to Join NDA, Says Narayan Rane
Narayan Rane, who quit the Congress last month, said on Tuesday that Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had invited him to join the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance.
Rane, who met Fadnavis at the chief minister’s official residence, Varsha, said he had sought two days’ time to decide.
Rane set up his own party, the Maharashtra Swabhiman Paksh, on Sunday after ditching the Congress, which he said had repeatedly overlooked him for top leadership roles in the state. Lately, Rane has been slamming Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, who has reportedly threatened to quit the alliance with the BJP if Rane is brought into NDA fold.
“In my meeting with the chief minister this (Tuesday) evening, I was given an offer to become a part of the NDA. I have sought two days’ time to think about the proposal,” Rane said.
Meanwhile, Nationalist Congress Party president Sharad Pawar launched a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration on Tuesday. Pawar asked his supporters to start preparing for elections as the public opinion had turned against the BJP.
(Source: Mumbai Mirror)
8. After Fan Collapses In School, Parents Demand Answers
Days after a ceiling fan fell inside a classroom at Vibgyor High school, Malad, injuring two girl students last week, nearly 50 parents held a meeting with the school administration to take stock of accident measures and preventive steps in the wake of the incident.
Parents of one of the injured girls also wrote to the school alleging negligence and expressing their deep trauma.
They said their daughter got hurt badly and received five stitches on her head. So deep was the cut on her head that her “skull was visible”, the parents said.
“Can you imagine the shock and trauma, the child would have undergone? As parents, we are shocked and devastated with this life-threatening accident. We are deeply traumatised by all this,” they wrote in a letter to the school.
Parents of other children who met Principal Sadhana Pandey said that a deadline of October 28 has been set for the school to take some concrete steps to upgrade its infrastructure and safety mechanisms, in terms of weekly maintenance, structural audit, checking of staircase tiles among other things.
(Source: Mumbai Mirror)
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