Maharashtra
80-hour regime: Ajit Pawar, Fadnavis ‘ko gussa kyun aata hai’
Thirty months after BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar suddenly took oath as Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister respectively, in the morning of November 23, 2019, that incident continues to haunt and embarrass them.
Despite their best efforts to chase away the ghost of that clandestine swearing-in ceremony at Raj Bhavan that morning, it keeps popping up frequently in the most unexpected ways — this time raked up by none other than Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray himself at his huge rally on May 14.
Replying to the Bharatiya Janata Party’s criticism, Thackeray declared that he allied with the Congress (and NCP) openly, not in an ‘early morning’ oath-taking ceremony of the 80-hour-long two-man regime — and his words pierced the target.
Willy-nilly, the CM also hinted at the ‘real secret’ behind why the Central probe agencies like the CBI, ED, NCB, I-T and the NIA keep hounding only the Shiv Sena and Nationalist Congress Party leaders for over two years.
The Shiv Sena President thundered saying if the BJP and MNS do not stop their vicious politics, hounding by the Central agencies, lodging false cases against the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government leaders or their families, then “we won’t forgive or spare you”.
“Tomorrow, they will go after Dawood (Ibrahim Kaskar) but if he joins them, he will be made a cabinet minister… If that (2-man govt) ‘experiment’ had succeeded, then people like Anil Dashmukh or Nawab Malik would have been in your good books,” said Thackeray amid applause.
As the MVA government trudges to the mid-way mark in its five year term, BJP’s Leader of Opposition Devendra Fadnavis continues to cry over the spilt milk, his ‘birth-right’ to power that he was unceremoniously deprived of after the 2019 Assembly elections.
The Ajit Pawar-Fadnavis duo has been lampooned and ridiculed since that indiscretion in Raj Bhavan, sans any trappings, but with the drapes drawn tightly to keep off peeping-toms prying at the political hustle enacted that dawn when the groggy state was engaged in its morning ablutions.
Once, displaying rare courage, Fadnavis confessed that “it should not have happened”, and again hammered Thackeray for ‘backstabbing BJP’ to grab power with the help of the Congress-NCP.
Even the much-pilloried Ajit Pawar, painted as a ‘black sheep’, feebly tried to justify the swearing-in event, saying it was not in the early morning as speculated, but “at 8 a.m.”, though later the NCP hugged him and rewarded him with the same post as Fadnavis did for 80 hours!
Wily Uncle and NCP President Sharad Pawar also never missed an opportunity to take a swipe at the dawn ceremony in his characteristic style.
In late-2020, when Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari published a coffee table book, Pawar wrote to him how everything was there in his coffee table book “except a particular swearing-in ceremony”.
Congress state President Nana Patole also took a potshot saying Ajit Pawar was to “explain” it at an appropriate time, but has nothing till date.
“So much water has flowed under the bridge… We 3 parties are now working together, the government is running well… Why do you keep raising it repeatedly,” an irked Ajit Pawar said of that 80-hour fling, Monday.
There have been heated exchanges inside the Maharashtra legislature and outside with the MVA leaders laughing and leering at that morning venture while livid unrepentant BJP leaders shielding it.
Maharashtra
Issuance of QR code-based identity cards for registered hawkers

The efforts to resolve the issues pending for years to establish genuine and officially operating hawkers and remove unauthorised hawkers in Mumbai are now succeeding. As part of this, a representative launch of QR code-based identity cards for registered hawkers is being held today, Mumbai Mayor Ritu Awade said. As per the court directions and on the basis of the Municipal Street Vendors Act, the process of distributing QR code-based identity cards to a total of 99,435 registered urban street vendors (hawkers) was formally inaugurated by Mumbai Mayor Ritu Awade. The inauguration ceremony held at the Standing Committee Hall of the Mumbai Municipal Corporation headquarters was attended by Leader of the House Ganesh Khankar, Standing Committee Chairman Prabhakar Shinde, Shiv Sena Group Leader Aimee Ghole, Indian National Congress Group Leader Ashraf Azmi and others. Chairperson of the Improvement Committee, Chairperson of the Education Committee, Scindia Doshi, Rajeshree Shravadkar, Corporator Deep Malabadhe, Corporator Preeti Satam, Corporator Sheetal Gambhir, Corporator Dr. Syeda Khan, Corporator Ramakant Rahete, Corporator Tejendra Singh Tiwana, Corporator Shivkumar Jha, Licensing Superintendent Anil Katte etc. were present on the occasion. On this occasion, about 100 registered city street vendors (hawkers) from different areas of Mumbai were provided with QR code based identity cards by Mayor Ritu Tawde and various dignitaries. Speaking on the occasion, Mayor Ritu Tawde said that after taking charge of the Mayor, I got all the information about the hawker policy and the current situation to solve the problem of hawkers in the Municipal Corporation. Continuous efforts were made to solve the problems in this regard.
Although the election of the City Street Vendors i.e. Hawker Committee was held in August 2024, the counting process could not be completed due to legal reasons. The court allowed the process to proceed and the Law Department was directed to make efforts in this regard. After the permission was granted by the court, the counting process was completed and the issue of the City Street Vendor Committees was resolved. As per the directions given by the court and within the stipulated time, QR code-based identity cards are being distributed to a total of 99,435 hawkers on the basis of the City Street Vendors Act. We will continue our efforts to resolve various issues related to hawkers. The Mayor said that we will continue comprehensive efforts so that no one is abused and no deserving person is deprived of benefits.
Maharashtra
Mumbai: Fraudulent cyber gang exposed, more than 90 fraudsters, wanted in more than 3,000 fraud cases, 500 complaints in the state

Mumbai: The Cyber Cell of Mumbai Crime Branch has claimed to have busted a gang that used to send APK files to hack mobile accounts and withdraw money from bank accounts. Two members of this gang have been formally arrested. So far, the police have arrested six accused in this case. The accused used to send APK files to mobile phones and ask them to open them and hack the mobile phones and loot all the money. More than 3,000 complaints have been registered on the cyber portal in this case, while more than 90 complaints have been registered in Mumbai. The investigation of one case revealed who prepared the APK file and from where this group operated. This group is also involved in the National Cyber Portal case. 5000 cases are from Maharashtra. The complainant was asked to pay Rs 10 on the phone in the name of Mahanagar Gas Connection and after that the complainant’s mobile was hacked. So far, 6 people have been arrested in this case and two have been arrested so far. Investigation is underway with them. Many of the accused were used only to talk on mobile phones and send APK files. In this, the accused belong to Jharkhand and other provinces. This information was given here today by Mumbai Cyber DCP Bajrang Bansode.
Crime
Pune fort murder: CCTV footage of Siya meeting lover Chetan, before fiance’s death, surfaces now

Pune, June 25: The probe into Pune’s Lohagad Fort incident, where the death of Pune businessman’s son Ketan Agarwal, which was initially passed off as an accident, later turned out to be a cold-blooded murder, is unearthing murkier details each passing day, and more secrets related to his fiancée Siya Goyal are tumbling out of the closet.
In the latest revelations, Goyal and her lover Chetan Babulal Chaudhary are understood to have met to plan in detail how to kill Agarwal during a vacation trip and project it as an “accidental fall”.
CCTV footage has emerged showing Goyal meeting her Chaudhary at a cafe, before she pushed her fiancée to his death from the Lohagad fort.
According to media, which accessed the CCTV footage, the duo met at a café in Pune on June 18 when they hatched a conspiracy to eliminate Agarwal, 26.
Both have already been charged with murder and criminal conspiracy by the Pune police. According to police, Siya and Chetan met at a cafe in Pune on June 18 to hatch the murder plot.
They discussed a plan to murder Agarwal and also identified specific locations on the fort from where he could be pushed to his death. The same day, Goyal accompanied Agarwal to Lohagad Fort, while Chaudhary followed them clandestinely on the mountain trek.
It was between 10.30 a.m. and 11 a.m. that Goyal called up Agarwal’s family to inform them that he had fallen into a gorge. She told the family that he slipped during the trek, but the police maintained that he was pushed by the duo from behind.
Earlier, the police questioned both Goyal and Chaudhary after bringing them face-to-face.
The two accused, sent to seven-day police custody, were questioned until late last night.
Agarwal, the son of a prominent businessman in Pune, was engaged to Goyal in February this year. The two families were preparing for a lavish wedding scheduled for November, reportedly involving private jets and palace venues.
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