News Reporter

Maharashtra Police officers are working hard to protect civilians in the ongoing civil strife in South Sudan, despite facing shortage of food  By Dheeraj Fartode  NAGPUR, July 16 THERE is war. There is peace. And, there is a situation called civil strife that does not fit into category of either war or peace. But, in all these situations, saviours assume a special significance for people. For the strife-stricken people of South Sudan, a team of Maharashtra Police is proving to be that bunch of angels, saviours.  These angels are Sail Sheela, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP); Dr Sanjay Tungar, Vijay Pillewar, Gautam Pathare, Dhammapal Bansode, all Police Inspectors, are the officers who are serving in South Sudan under United Nations Peace-Keeping Mission. They are performing their duties almost round-the-clock, for, any incident can occur any time.  This picture speaks volumes about the disturbance  in South Sudan, as well as the risk of ...

                                                                INTERVIEW  Pravin Dixit, who retires as Maharashtra Police chief on July 31, talks to ‘The Hitavada’ on new initiatives, his achievements, and career experiences  By Dheeraj Fartode  In his almost four-decade long career, he has donned police uniform with pride. He has seen policing evolve through various challenging phases. Now, on the verge of hanging up his boots Pravin Dixit, Director General of Police, Maharashtra, feels that there is a need to keep tab on fronts of terrorist or Naxalite organisations operating in urban areas.  “It is with this motive that a Bill of internal security law has been prepared. We sincerely hope that State Legislature will pass Maharashtra Protection of Internal Security Act or MPISA soon. It would h...

Joint team of Imambada Police and Crime branch arrested the accused on Friday evening. The accused is a notorious goon and CCTV footage from a shop near TB ward gave clue about perpetrator of this heinous crime  By Dheeraj Fartode Tremendous hard work and dedication of joint teams of Imambada Police and Crime Branch on Friday bear fruits and the police have nabbed the culprit -- Sonu Gupta (24) -- in sensational TB Ward rape case in which the accused had sexually assaulted a 12-year-old girl on Wednesday night.  Commissioner of Police Shardaprasad Yadav confirmed the information about cracking the case. Another senior rank official said, Gupta, a notorious history-sheeter of the area, brutally abused the girl when she was returning home. The investigation stumbled many a times as the victim, who was shaken and under trauma, was changing her statement continuously. However, the police managed to nab the accused with the help of sketch and CCTV footage procured from...

Tejas to replace ageing MiG series aircraft in next 15 years  The first squadron named as 'Flying Daggers' By Dheeraj Fartode Indian Air Force (IAF) is all set to raise the first fighter squadron of indigenously developed Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas at Bangalore on July 1. The first squadron will have only two aircraft as opposed to global standard of 16 aircraft per squadron. It will be 45th squadron ane named as ‘Flying Daggers’ Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) and Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) have developed Tejas -- a single-engine compound-delta-wing tailless aircraft -- after hard work of around 30 years and it will replace ageing MIG series aircraft in next 15 years.  A top official of the IAF, preferring to be unnamed, confirmed the information and said that Air Marshal Jasbir Walia, AOC, Southern Air Command, would remain present for raising ceremony of the first squadron.  LCA Tejas An official of HAL told ‘The Hitavada’ that...

By Dheeraj Fartode  NAGPUR, June 17:  A new chapter will be written in the history of Indian Air Force (IAF) on Saturday when first three women fighter pilots -- Mohana Singh, Bhawana Kanth, Avani Chaturvedi -- will be inducted in the IAF after successfully completing advanced training.  Manohar Parrikar, Defence Minister, will confer the President’s Commission on behalf of the President of India, to these first women fighter pilots along with 126 graduating trainees of various branches including 19 women trainees in the Combined Graduation Parade (CGP), which will be held on Saturday at Air Force Academy, Dundigal, on the outskirts of Hyderabad.  Avani Chaturvedi in cockpit of training aircraft. This CGP will be a landmark event in the history of the IAF as the first three women pilots will be commissioned in the Fighter stream of the Flying branch. Parrikar will also present the ‘Wings and Brevets’ to the newly commissioned officers of the Flying bran...

By Dheeraj Fartode Tension prevailed at Jaripatka area when a protest for immediate arrest of the accused involved in double murder case at Samta Nagar slums on Monday took ugly turn after the police chased, kicked and latchi charged the protesters. Special teams of city police led by Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Zone V Abhinash Kumar dragged men and women from their houses and attacked them. Even wives of the deceased Imrat Rana and Oranlal Rana were not spared by the police. Later, DCP Abhinash Kumar attempted to snatch the camera of a woman photojournalist and also held collar of another photographer for capturing the police action. Trouble began when some residents of Samta Nagar gheraoed Jaripatka Police Station around 11 am and demanded immediate arrest of the accused including dreaded goon Ankush Tomaskar. As no assurance of immediate action came from the Police, the mobs started pelting stones at the Police Station. Sensing the mounting tension, DCP Abhinas...

Fund will be utilised to clone hard disks and secure encrypted data  By Dheeraj Fartode  Investigation of the multi-crore ‘Dabba’ trading scam is going to be most expensive investigation for Nagpur police. After learning cost of various equipments and receiving first bill of cloning of computer hard disks worth Rs 2.5 lakh, the city police is all set to send a proposal for ‘extra’ investigation fund worth Rs 25 lakh which will be exclusively spend on investigation of ‘Dabba’ trading scam. ‘Dabba’ trading has inflicted heavy revenue loss worth crores to the state exchequer, experts claim.  Deputy Commissioner of Police (EoW) Ranjan Kumar Sharma told The Hitavada that cloning and securing 64 digit hash value of all seized hard disk and DVR is the first part of investigation so that the seized evidence could be produced in the court to prove guilt of the accused. The cops will purchase same sophisticated hard disks and DVR for cloning and it needs Rs 16-17 lakh,...