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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,...

Man held with Rs 60 lakh cash at Nagpur Railway Station

Sleuths of Railway Protection Force (RPF) nabbed a man who carried Rs 60 lakh cash in a bag at Nagpur Railway Station on Saturday. The cash was handed-over to the Income Tax (I-T) department for further probe.
According to Divisional Security Commandant (DSC) RPF, Central Railway, Ashutosh Pandey, the man, identified as Shabbir Husain Hasan Ali Karanjawala (55), a resident of House No. 858, Itwari Road, Bengali Panja, deboarded from New Delhi- Chennai Grand Trunk Express in the morning hours. He was carrying a large bag with him. When he was passing through the Foot Over Bridge (FoB), RPF Inspector R L Meena, Constables Sikandar Yadav and Kamsingh Thakur grew suspicious at him.
The RPF staff stopped the man and checked the bag. After finding huge cash in the bag, they took him to the RPF station. “A total of Rs 60 lakh were found in the bag,” said DSC Pandey. The man reportedly told RPF that the cash belongs to Ismile and Sons company, Ganjakhet Chowk. The man reportedly boarded the train at Itarsi railway station. However, he was unable to disclose the reason for carrying such huge cash in the train, said DSC Pandey. “He could not produce any evidence pertaining to the cash he was carrying. Therefore, we have informed the IT officials and handed-over the cash to them,” DSC Pandey informed.

Hawala trading increasing at Nagpur 

It may be mentioned that Nagpur has become a centre of Hawala trading. Delivery boys of these traders often travel in the trains with huge cash. In February, 2019, a total of Rs 67 lakh were seized by the RPF at Nagpur Railway station. Rupees 30 lakh were seized from a passenger in December 2017 when the passenger was boarding in the Mumbai bound train. Some traders are indulged in hawala trading in the garb of their small business house.


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