Mumbai, Sep 21: The CBI arrested a CGST official from Uttarakhand’s Rishikesh in connection with a Rs 40 lakh bribe case that involved proceedings against a company based in Maharashtra’s Raigad, an official said on Monday.

Additional Commissioner, CGST, Vinay Kumar Kantheti, IRS 2009 batch, has been absconding since September 16, when the Bombay High Court cancelled his bail, along with that of two co-accused, and directed him to surrender before the CBI, the official said.

Instead of complying with the High Court’s order, Kantheti absconded and has now been traced in Rishikesh and taken into custody by the CBI, said the statement.

His colleague and Superintendent, CGST, Raigad, Rakesh Kumar Sinha, and a private person, Narinder Rajput, who worked as a conduit to the college on behalf of the officials, are already in judicial custody, the CBI said.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Anti-Corruption Branch, Mumbai, registered a case on August 26 under Section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, based on a complaint alleging that a Superintendent, CGST, Khandeshwar, Raigad, demanded illegal gratification.

It was alleged that an illegal gratification of Rs 1.50 crore, subsequently reduced to Rs 40 lakh, was demanded in connection with proceedings relating to the complainant’s firm, the CBI said

The Central probe agency laid a trap on August 27, during which a private person/Customs House Agent was apprehended while allegedly accepting Rs 40 lakh on behalf of the Superintendent, CGST, Raigad and the Additional Commissioner, CGST, Raigad, it said.

The CBI arrested all three accused and produced them before the learned Special CBI Court, Thane. The CBI sought five days of police custody for custodial interrogation. However, vide order dated August 28, the Special Court rejected the request for custody, held the arrests illegal and released the accused on bail, the statement said.

The CBI challenged the Special Court’s order before the Bombay High Court, which accepted the agency’s plea, quashed and set aside the Special Court’s order, and remanded three accused to two days’ CBI custody.

After examining the record, the High Court found that the grounds of arrest had been communicated to the accused in writing and that the family members and advocates had been duly informed, the statement said.

Pursuant to the High Court order, the accused Superintendent and the accused private person were taken into CBI custody for two days and subsequently sent to 14 days of judicial custody by the Court, the CBI said.

However, the accused Additional Commissioner, Vinay Kumar Kantheti, absconded instead of complying with the High Court order. The CBI said it has now arrested him He Rishikesh.

Mumbai, Sep 21: With several parts of Maharashtra facing severe drought conditions due to inadequate rainfall this season, Nationalist Congress Party-SP chief Sharad Pawar is set to undertake a tour of the affected regions from next Monday.

The veteran leader will visit farms directly to assess the situation on the ground and interact with affected farmers. The announcement comes amidst escalating political action over the agrarian crisis.

Earlier, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had directed all guardian ministers to conduct field reviews in their respective districts to expedite government relief measures.

While CM Fadnavis has accused the opposition of politicising the situation, Sharad Pawar’s planned tour is expected to raise the pressure on the state administration. Although the state government has announced that crop damage assessments (panchnamas) will begin on October 5, farmers have expressed anxiety over delays in receiving relief funds.

In a letter to CM Fadnavis, Pawar previously urged the state government to officially declare a drought and submitted a 9-point charter of demands. He also urged the CM to declare a state-level drought immediately without waiting for formal technical criteria, extend emergency drought benefits to heavily affected talukas, provide immediate compensation of Rs 50,000 per hectare to affected farmers and Rs 25,000 as special financial aid to landless farm labourer families, implement a farm loan waiver immediately, facilitate fresh crop loans, increase the incentive subsidy for farmers with consistent loan repayments from Rs 50,000 to Rs 100,000, and cover defaulting farmers from the 2025–26 season under the waiver.

Pawar called upon the CM to apply the Re 1 crop insurance scheme retroactively with all previously excluded trigger points restored, and immediately disburse the promised Rs 17,000 per hectare compensation for unseasonal rain damage from last year, initiate special works under the Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGA) focusing on agriculture and water conservation and provide dedicated water tankers to preserve fruit orchards, and conduct immediate surveys in villages facing drinking water shortages to deploy government tankers.

He has emphasised the need to set up cattle fodder camps, drinking water points, and veterinary services on demand, launch a special drive through the Energy Department to repair faulty transformers on priority to counter load-shedding issues and set up state- and district-level control rooms to monitor daily rainfall, crop health, water scarcity, and fodder availability. He also demanded that the government should waive complete tuition and academic fees for students studying in drought-affected talukas, rather than limiting concessions to examination fee waivers.

Meanwhile, NCP SP MLA Rohit Pawar has already initiated a tour of the drought-hit areas, launching sharp attacks on the state government. Rohit Pawar, in a post on X, said that when assessing drought, human errors should be avoided, accurate processing of information from various indicators should take place, and drought-affected talukas should be identified in less time. For this purpose, the government has developed Maha-MADAT, an advanced computer system, extremely important for determining Trigger-1 and Trigger-2, but he pointed out a crucial shortcoming in it.

“However, the shocking fact is that the tenure given to MRSAC (Maharashtra Remote Sensing Application Centre, Nagpur) for this computer system, Maha-MADAT, was only up to the Kharif season of 2024. Despite the Agriculture Department repeatedly submitting proposals for extension of tenure, this government has not yet taken any decision on it. While Maharashtra is burning in drought, how can the government sleep for two whole years like this? The government should immediately complete the necessary processes, declare drought in the state, and implement relief measures accordingly,” he noted.

Parallel to Sharad Pawar’s field visits, the NCP-SP has convened a comprehensive state-level meeting on September 28 in Mumbai. The meeting will be chaired by the party’s state President Shashikant Shinde in the presence of Working President Supriya Sule. Attendees include party MPs, MLAs, state office-bearers, observers, spokespersons, district and taluka heads, frontal organisation chiefs, and former candidates.

During the meeting, NCP SP will evaluate the drought and water scarcity situation across Maharashtra and its impact on rural life, formulate the party’s stance and strategy regarding youth unemployment, address paper leaks and examination malpractices affecting st, students’ futures and issue guidelines and vigilance tasks for office-bearers regarding the State Infrastructure/Information Register (SIR). Besides, the party will review the current political landscape in Maharashtra and discuss organisational expansion and party-building strategies.

Mumbai: Harshada Borade, a 26-year-old student and social activist, has lodged a complaint with the Police Commissioner regarding police harassment and the search of her home—conducted without any summons or notice—following a kite-flying event in Bandra, Mumbai, held on September 15 to express solidarity with the children of Palestine and Gaza. She has demanded action against the erring officers and personnel and submitted supporting evidence with her complaint. Police entered the student’s home in Vakola at 5:00 PM and conducted a search operation that lasted until 2:45 AM. In her complaint, Harshada stated that the police possessed no warrant for the search and conducted a private panchnama (record of proceedings), which is entirely illegal. She explained that she is a student at Mumbai University and had organized the kite-flying event to show solidarity with Palestinian children; subsequently, on September 17, the police arrived at her home, searched the premises, and harassed her, her friends, and other students. The police should have issued a legal notice prior to the search—a right held by every citizen—but failed to do so. The police action taken in response to the kite-flying event violates Article 19 of the Constitution, which guarantees every citizen the right to freedom of expression. Harshada has demanded legal action against the personnel from the Bandra and Vakola police stations and called for a transparent inquiry into the matter. She has urged that the entire incident be investigated by the Cyber ​​Cell under the supervision of senior officers and that action be taken against any police personnel found at fault.