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,...
Usha Kamble was murdered over dispute of Rs 7,000 DISPUTE over a small amount of Rs 7,000 resulted in gory murder of a woman and her one-and-a-half year old granddaughter at Pawansut Nagar on Saturday evening. After slitting their throats with sharp-weapon at his residence, the accused packed the bodies in sacks and threw in a nullah near Durga lay-out, behind Vihirgaon village on Umred Road. The bodies were recovered on Sunday morning. The deceased have been identified as 54-year old Usha Sevakdas Kamble and one and half-year-old Rashi Ravikant Kamble, both residents of Plot No. 17, Pawansut Nagar, New Dighori. Usha was the mother and Rashi was daughter of Ravikant Kamble, crime reporter of ‘Nagpur Today’ portal. The accused has been identified as Ganesh alias Golu Ramcharan Shahu (26), a resident of Plot No. 34, Pawansut Nagar. He is the proprietor of a grocery shop situated on the main road and near the residence of the deceased. Deceased Usha Kamble with her granddaughter...