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,...
With arrest of prime accused and recovery of stolen gold ornaments worth Rs 21 lakh, Bajaj Nagar police on Tuesday claimed to have solved a burglary case. A police official said that house of Prof. Yogesh Shende (37), a resident of Railway Colony, Rana Pratap Nagar was burgled in August last year when Shende along with family members had gone to relative’s place. The intruders had stolen gold ornaments weighing 455 grams and Rs 35,000/- in cash, the police said. After registering an offence, the police started investigation and arrested Amol Mahadeo Raut (32), a resident of Butibori. But only cash of Rs 35,000/- was recovered from him. During interrogation, Raut told the police that his accomplices in the crime Shrikant Jeevan Nikhade (29), resident of Titur, Kuhi, had kept the jewellry with him. When the police failed to arrest Nikhade, they declared him absconding. He was evading arrest for past one year. Acting on a tip-off that Nikhade is working as driver in Lakhandur town of...