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,...
Forty seven cattle being illegally transported in a truck were rescued by the police after a dramatic chase of around 40 kms, which ended with its driver abandoning the vehicle and fleeing from the spot here, an official said on Sunday.
The incident occurred in the wee hours of Saturday, during which the truck driver broke through police barricades at two points and a barrier at a toll plaza on the outskirts before entering Nagpur city, the official said.
"Police received a tip-off in the wee hours of Saturday that a truck carrying some cattle would be passing by NH-47. Accordingly, a 'nakabandi' was put in place at Kelwad. The truck arrived there around 4 am. The police signalled the driver to stop the vehicle, but he sped away instead," Kelwad police station inspector Suresh Mattami said.
"So we started chasing the truck. On the way, the truck also hit a car near Pipala village. We then alerted Patansaongi toll plaza operators and asked them to stop the vehicle. However, the speeding truck even broke into the boom barrier at the toll plaza and continued its run," he said. Meanwhile, Kelwad police officials alerted their Nagpur city counterparts about the truck.
"The city police team blocked the road with barricades at Naka no. 2 area on Koradi Road. However, the driver did not stop the vehicle and broke into the barricades even there," he added.
He then took the truck to Mominpura Chowk area of the city, where he abandoned the vehicle and fled from the spot.
"The police team then rescued 47 cattle, including some cows and bullocks. These animals were being illegally transported in a pathetic condition. We chased the truck for around 40 kms from Kelwad," the official said.
An offence under IPC sections 279 (rash driving or riding on a public way), 427 (mischief causing damage to the amount of fifty rupees) and various sections of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act as well as the Motor Vehicles Act. A hunt has been launched to nab the driver.
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