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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,...

Three-member gang of bike lifters busted by LCB of Rural Police

A three-member gang of bike lifters was busted by the Local Crime Branch (LCB) of Nagpur Rural police and recovered 14 stolen motorcycles from their possession. The vehicle theft gang was using a ‘master key’ for their operation, police officials said.
The prime accused in the case is a 17-year-old boy whose father is a scrap dealer in Kalamna area of Nagpur. He was selling the motorcycles to accused Avinash alias Opan Prabhakar Ughde (24), a resident of Bramhani, Kalmeshwar and Charan Ramdas Nimawat (27), a resident of Ghorad, Kalmeshwar. According to police, the juvenile delinquent acquired ‘master keys’ from the shop of his father. He was using the keys to open the locks of parked motorycles. After taking possession of the bike, he straightway drove to Kalmeshwar where he was selling the bikes to Ughade and Nimawat. The two were purchasing the bikes at Rs 5,000/- from him.
All the stolen motorcycles were further sold in Kalmeshwar tehsil by Ughde and Nimawat in the last five months. Acting on a tip-off from informers, the LCB team nabbed the juvenile from Kalmeshwar red-handed with a stolen motorcycle. During interrogation, he confessed to committing thefts and revealed names of the ‘receivers’. Under the guidance of Superintendent of Police (SP) Rakesh Ola, Addl SP Rahul Maknikar, the arrest was made by Police Inspector (LCB) Anil Jittawar, APIs Rajiv Karmalwar, Jitendra Wairagade, PSI Narendra Gaurkhede, ASI Jaiprakash Sharma and staff including Gajendra Choudhary, Mahesh Jadhav, Durgaprasad Parde, Rajendra Rewatkar, Rama Aade, Rohan Dakhore, Mahesh Bisne, Amrut Kinge, Amol Wagh, Ajiz Dudhkanoj, Amol Kuthe and others.

Thefts for liquor and food 

The juvenile was spending the money on liquor and food, police said. A brand new motorcycle cost Rs 70,000/- in the market. The juvenile was selling it at just Rs 5,000/- and spending the money on liquor and food. He was leaving home late in the night for the ‘operation’. His parents were shocked after they learnt about the son’s involvement in the thefts.


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