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ED raids Shiv Sena minister Anil Parab, MP Bhavana Gawali

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Building up pressure on the Shiv Sena, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday raided multiple locations belonging to senior Shiv Sena Transport Minister Anil Parab and five-time Lok Sabha MP Bhawana P. Gawali, sources said.

The ED raids came a day after Parab was slapped with a notice requiring his appearance on August 31, but he said he will consult legal experts in the matter.

On the other hand, Gawali said that she has not received any ED notice so far, even as the agency raided around half a dozen locations linked to her in Washim district, including some trusts, a college, and social and business organisations.

While Patil is a close aide of Sena president and Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, Gawali is the party’s sole woman face in the lower house of the parliament, elected twice from Washim and thrice from the Washim-Yavatmal constituency.

“It (ED notice) is a legal matter. We shall deal with it legally,” Parab said on the development, which came a week after Union MSME Minister Narayan Rane was arrested, granted to magisterial custody and then given bail during his ‘Jan Ashirwad Yatra’.

Reacting to the issue, Sena MP and chief spokesperson Sanjay Raut said that the notice issued by the ED is not “a death warrant”, but “a love letter” for political workers.

“Only the frequency of such ‘love letters’ has increased after many unsuccessful attempts (by the opposition BJP) to breach the wall of the Maha Vikas Aghadi government, which remains strong and impregnable. We are not scared by it,” Raut told mediapersons.

Nationalist Congress Party spokesperson and Minority Affairs Minister Nawab Malik said that such notices and raids are an outcome of “a clear political vendetta” witnessed against states ruled by non-BJP parties.

“Some BJP leaders say in advance that so and so leader will face action and the central agencies start working. There’s a strong doubt in the minds of the people all over India about the ED and even the Supreme Court has made certain observations recently,” Malik said.

He pointed out how when leaders from other parties join the BJP, all actions against them are dropped, and reiterated that the MVA will not be cowed down by such tactics.

Crime

At least 18 killed in Israeli airstrikes on Gaza

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Gaza, Dec 21: At least 18 Palestinians were killed in Israeli airstrikes on the central and northern Gaza Strip, according to Palestinian sources.

Local sources and eyewitnesses reported that Israeli warplanes targeted an apartment in the multi-story “Yaffa” tower in the al-Nuseirat camp, located in central Gaza.

A statement from Al-Awda Hospital in the camp confirmed that eight people were killed and 14 others injured, some seriously, in the attack.

In northern Gaza, Israeli shelling struck a house belonging to the “Khilla” family in Jabalia Al-Balad, killing 10 people and injuring several others, according to the Gaza Strip’s Civil Defence.

The Israeli army has not commented on these incidents.

Also on Friday, the military wing of Hamas, Al-Qassam Brigades, announced that one of its fighters had carried out a suicide attack targeting an Israeli force of six soldiers in Jabalia refugee camp, northern Gaza.

The Israeli army has not issued a comment on this incident.

Earlier on Thursday at least 16 Palestinians were killed by Israeli bombings in northern Gaza, the Palestinian official news agency WAFA reported.

At least 10 people were killed on Wednesday night and some others injured when the Israeli aircraft bombed the house of the Al-Najjar family in the town of Jabalia, WAFA said.

Six more people were killed due to Israeli bombing on the house of the Al-Zaytouniya family near the Al-Tabi’in School in the Al-Daraj neighborhood, east of Gaza City, it added.

The Israeli army has not commented on these incidents.

Israel has been conducting a large-scale offensive against Hamas in Gaza in retaliation for the October 7, 2023 Hamas assault on southern Israel, which resulted in approximately 1,200 deaths and 250 hostages taken.

As of Friday, the Palestinian death toll from ongoing Israeli attacks in Gaza has risen to 45,206, according to Gaza-based health authorities.

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Crime

Maharashtra: Govt Employee Accused Of Attacking Marathi-Speaking Family In Kalyan Surrenders Before Cops

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The Maharashtra government employee accused of attacking a Marathi-speaking family at Kalyan in Thane district surrendered before police on Friday, a senior officer said.

Akhilesh Shukla (48), an employee of the Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC), his wife Geeta (45) and others have been named in an FIR related to the alleged attack on the family, their neighbour, on December 18 after an argument.

Akhilesh Shukla surrendered before the Khadakpada police, senior inspector Aamarnath Waghmode said.

“We will trace the other accused,” said the police.

Meanwhile, before surrendering, Shukla posted a video on social media in which he claimed his wife was beaten up by family members of the victims.

The police have registered a case against Shukla and his wife Geeta (45) under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) sections 74 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty), 115 (voluntarily causing hurt), 351(3) (criminal intimidation), 189 (2) (3) and (5) (unlawful assembly) and others.

According to police, the attack took place around 8.45 pm on December 18, and the accused as well as the victims live on the same floor of a building in Kalyan.

As per the FIR, the victim saw Shukla quarrelling with one of their neighbours over lighting of an incense stick. The victim asked Shukla to maintain peace and not to abuse and insult the entire Marathi-speaking community.

The accused couple got angry on hearing this and beat up the victim and his wife with the help of eight to ten others. They attacked the male victim using some sharp weapon, iron rod, pipes and wooden sticks, and inflicted wounds on his arms, legs and face. The accused also molested his wife and threatened the couple, it added.

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Crime

RG Kar tragedy: Calcutta HC rejects Bengal government’s objections on venue of protests by doctors’ body

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Kolkata, Dec 20: The Calcutta High Court on Friday rejected the state government’s objections on the venue for the sit-in protest by the West Bengal Joint Platform of Doctors, an association of senior doctors, against the default bail granted to two accused of tampering with the evidence in the case of the ghastly rape and murder of a woman junior doctor of R.G. Kar Medical College & Hospital within the hospital premises in August.

The single-judge bench of Justice Tirthankar Ghosh on Thursday already gave permission to the doctors’ body to hold the sit-in-demonstration at Doreena Crossing in central Kolkata.

At the same time, the bench gave the opportunity to the administration to furnish its views by Friday on the possible restrictions on the programme.

However, on Friday, the counsel for the state government objected to the venue of the demonstration on grounds of traffic congestion on occasions of Christmas and New Year’s Eve and suggested an alternative location in the area for the event.

However, Justice Ghosh refused to accept the argument and said that when he had already given permission on Thursday for the demonstration to be conducted at Doreena Crossing, there was no reason for the administration to raise objections on the venue.

He advised the state administration to raise a seven-foot tall guardrail around the protest venue and ensure the protesters stayed within the enclosure during the protest period. He also said that under no circumstance, the protest programme can be extended beyond December 26.

He also ruled that the protesters should not make any objectionable comment from the protest venue or do anything that might hamper the festive mood of the city in this part of the year.

Justice Ghosh also ruled that under no circumstance the number of protesters assembling at the venue should exceed 250.

Last week, a special court in Kolkata granted default bail to the former and controversial principal of R.G. Kar Sandip Ghosh and the former SHO of Tala Police Station Abhijit Mondal as the CBI failed to file the supplementary charge sheet against the two within 90 days from the day of their arrests. Both were accused of misleading the investigation and tampering with evidence while the initial investigation was being carried out by Kolkata Police. Following the development, the representatives of the medical fraternity in the state as well as the victim’s parents accused the CBI of gross incompetence

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