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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,...

Katol police seize Ganja of Rs 19 lakh

IN AN ‘accidental’ breakthrough, Katol Police busted a gang of inter-state drug racketeers by arresting two of its and seized over 189 kilogramme Marijuana valued at Rs 19 lakh from their Honda Accord car on early Monday morning. 


The speeding Honda Accord car (DL-4C/AB-6700) in which the two smugglers were carrying a huge consignment of Marijuana in 83 packets met with an accident near village Meena Chikhli, about seven kilometre from Katol, and fell into a canal around 5.30 am. 

Two smugglers --Amitsingh Kisansingh alias Kisanlal Tomar (25), a native of Mathura (Uttar Pradesh) and Vijay Sarjuram Koi (28), a resident of R K Puram, Delhi -- survived due to airbags fitted in the car. Villagers passingby rushed to the spot. Some of them alerted the cops. Villagers pulled out the two drug peddlers from the mangled vehicle. Within minutes, staff from Katol Police Station arrived at the spot. Amit Singh and Vijay, who sustained some injuries, tried to escape but cops nabbed and took them into custody.

Amitsingh and Vijay told police during their preliminary interrogation that they loaded the consignment of Marijuana in their car from the residence of a well-known Katol-based sweets trader.

Arrested on charges under relevant sections Narcotic Drugs & Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, Amitsingh and Vijay told the investigators that they were heading towards Madhya Pradesh via Wadchicholi. Their car was at a high speed. Near Meena Chikhli turning, one of the tyres of the car burst. The driver lost control of the car and it fell into the canal. As the news about seizure of Marijuana reached the Nagpur (Rural) Police Headquarters, senior police officers visited the spot. Cops also seized the mangled car of the drug peddlers.

Investigators suspect that the two arrested drug peddlers belong to an inter-state gang of narcotics and drug smugglers.  On Thursday, Nagpur City Police had seized more than 765 kilogramme Marijuana valued at Rs 76.51 lakh from an ambulance in Kalamna area. However, the two drug peddlers had managed to give a slip to the cops.



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