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,...
Two youths attempted to set a petrol pump afire by throwing a petrol bomb following a quarrel over wearing face masks in Lakadganj police station area on Saturday. According to police, accused Omkar Bhaurao Tale (44), a resident of NIT garden, Shastri Nagar, Nandanvan and Suraj Ramesh Dahake (23), a resident of Jai Bhim Chowk, Hiwri Nagar, came to Bharat Petroleum’s fuel station on a motorcycle without wearing face masks on Saturday evening. When the employee was filling petrol in the motorcycle Dahake spitted near the petrol filling machine. When the employees objected to Dahake, the two refused to pay the bill of petrol. Later, the accused left the spot and threw the money on the face of the employees. Soon after, the accused came back to the fuel station and threw a petrol bomb on the petrol filling machine. As the machine caught fire, the employees doused the flames using a fire extinguisher. The accused were nabbed by the employees and handed-over to the police. An offence under S...