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Showing posts from November, 2015

A Village Burnt Overnight: Tears, Loss and Survival in Dhamangaon Blaze

  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,...

Lawyer found dead at Nyay Mandir under mysterious circumstances

Suicide note dated Nov 18 found from Adv Khandalkar’s shirt  Family, friends confirm that he was under depression  Cops to probe homicidal angle Post martem report likely today  CM directs top brass to personally supervise probe  DBA demands CCTV surveillance, better security at Nyay Mandir  By Dheeraj Fartode Sensation prevailed in legal fraternity after a badly mangled body of a prominent lawyer Adv Shrikant Khandalkar was found inside Nyay Mandir premises on Sunday afternoon. The discovery of dead body on back side of District Court building Civil Lines under the jurisdiction of Sadar Police Station raised a serious question-mark over security of the building and after initial confusion about cause of death, it became clear by Sunday night that Adv Khandalkar abruptly ended his life by jumping from Nyay Mandir. The cops discovered a suicide note dated November 18 from his person and his elder brother confirmed the handwriting and...

Srivastava's report one sided, Collector not to write ACRs of Superintendent of Police: DGP

By Dheeraj Fartode Maharashtra's Director General of Police (DGP) Pravin Dixit has rejected the report into the spat between Collector and Superintendent of Police in Bhandara, that had stirred hornet’s nest among the Indian Police Service (IPS) cadre in State. Principal Secretary (Revenue) Manu Kumar Srivastava was appointed by State Government to probe the matter and he had submitted the report to Government and made certain recommendations. One of the recommendation which Srivastava made was to delegated powers of writing annual confidential records (ACRs) of SP's to District Collector. This particular recommendation had the IPS cadre seething with anger as they claimed it an unwarranted intrusion on their powers. DGP Pravin Dixit DGP Dixit when contacted by The Hitavada to ascertain his views said he had read the report and found it to be totally one sided. Further he disclosed that the particular recommendation about ACR was also summarily rejected. Dixit said ...