Sitting amid the blackened remains of his home, 32-year-old Nikesh Gawali carefully broke open a half-melted plastic box with a screwdriver. His hands shook slightly, not out of fear, but out of hope. “I’m trying to find my daughter Aarti’s gold earrings,” he said quietly, still focused on the box. “She’s just five. I got them made recently after months of labour work.” The plastic box, warped and blackened by heat, was one of the few things left from his two-room house on the outskirts of Dhamangaon village . All around him lay ash, broken tin sheets and charred wooden beams. The walls had cracked under the heat and the front room’s tin roof had caved in completely. What remained was a blackened debris all around - almost nothing to suggest a home once stood there. Nikesh earns his living as an agricultural labourer, like many in the village. Work is uncertain and depends on the season. Those earrings weren’t just jewellery - they were a small dream, a reward for his hard work,...
By Dheeraj Fartode Sessions Court on Tuesday sentenced five persons including two police constables to life imprisonment in connection with a sensational murder at Gittikhadan. District and Sessions Judge V P Ingle held Satish Sushilkumar Shukla (31), Shailesh Sushilkumar Shukla (30), Vipin Shrikant Mishra (26), Buland Shrikant Mishra (21), Rakesh alias Jeet Harikishan Meshram (20), a resident of Mankapur, guilty of brutal murder of Ashish Kalicharan Dubey (26) and awarded lifer to them. The court acquitted three accused- Sushilkumar Sarjuprasad Shukla (56), a resident of Mankapur, Dhiraj Sheshrao Gawande (19), a resident of Zingabai Takli and Pramod Chandrikaprasad Mishra (21), a resident of Mankapur, for want of sufficient corroborative evidence. According to prosecution, on August 28, 2010, the accused stabbed to death Ashish Kalicharan Dubey (26), a resident of Ingole lay-out, near Nirmala tours and travels office. Sister-in-law of deceased Shanti Dubey in her...