Mumbai: residents woke up to what appeared to be an ideal winter morning on Monday, with clear blue skies, cool temperatures and light winds offering a welcome break from the city’s usual humidity. The pleasant start, however, proved to be short-lived as a thin layer of smog soon engulfed several parts of the city, sharply reducing visibility and once again drawing attention to Mumbai’s worsening air quality.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) had forecast generally comfortable weather conditions for the day, with minimum temperatures hovering around 20°C and maximum temperatures expected to touch 32°C. While the temperature range remained favourable, deteriorating air quality quickly overshadowed the brief spell of winter-like comfort.

According to data from air quality monitoring platform AQI.in, Mumbai’s overall Air Quality Index (AQI) was recorded at 264 during the early hours of the day. This placed the city in the ‘unhealthy’ category. The sharp rise in pollution levels has raised concerns, especially since Mumbai had experienced relatively improved air quality for a few days last week, offering residents some temporary relief.

Dust and fine particulate matter are seen as the primary contributors to the worsening air conditions. Extensive construction activity across the city continues to be a major source of pollution. Large-scale infrastructure projects, including multiple metro rail corridors, flyover construction, coastal road work, road widening initiatives and numerous private real estate developments, are majorly increasing dust levels and adding to Mumbai’s pollution burden.

Several areas emerged as major pollution hotspots, recording alarmingly high AQI levels. Chembur reported an AQI of 345, placing it in the ‘severe’ category and posing serious health risks even for healthy individuals. Other areas such as the Wadala Truck Terminal and Deonar followed closely, with AQI readings of 335 and 322 respectively. In the western suburbs, Versova recorded an AQI of 325, while Juhu reported 312, both indicating severe air pollution.

Some suburban areas fared slightly better, though air quality remained far from ideal. Bandra East recorded an AQI of 103, and Charkop stood at 113, categorised as ‘poor’. Jogeshwari East reported an AQI of 130, Kandivali East 137, and Govandi 170, suggesting that unhealthy air conditions persist across many residential areas.

As per standard air quality classifications, AQI values between 0 and 50 are considered ‘good’, 51 to 100 ‘moderate’, 101 to 200 ‘poor’, 201 to 300 ‘unhealthy’, and levels above 300 are classified as ‘severe’ or ‘hazardous’.

Sadanand Date took over as DGP of Mumbai Maharashtra from his counterpart Rashmi Shukla. After the retirement of Rashmi Shukla, the state government had recommended the names of senior IPS officers including Date, after which Date was made a contender for the post of DGP. Sadanand Date has also rendered excellent service as the head of the National Security Agency NIA. He has played an important role in the investigation of the Delhi Red Fort bomb blast, Pahalgam attack and the extradition of the main accused of Mumbai attacks, Tahur Hussain Rana. In 92% of the cases registered by the NIA, the accused have been convicted. Date was first transferred to the Maharashtra cadre and then he was appointed as Rashmi Shukla’s successor today. Other issues including administration in Maharashtra are also a big challenge for Date. Date is skilled in his work. He has previously worked in many sensitive places. Date has also rendered good service as the head of Maharashtra ATS. Apart from this, he also had the honor of being elected the first Police Commissioner of Mira Bhayandar Commissionerate. Sadanand Date is considered an honest and dutiful officer. First, he met Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and then took charge of his post. Date is a 1990 batch IPS officer of Maharashtra cadre.

Lucknow, Jan 3: In fresh action against real estate player, the Amrapali Group, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) provisionally attached immovable properties worth Rs 99.26 crore for fraudulently diverting and misappropriating homebuyers’ funds, an official said on Saturday.

The immovable properties attached under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002 include the office and factory land and building of Mauria Udyog Ltd., which is one of the entities of the Sureka Group, whose promoters are Navneet Sureka and Akhil Sureka.

The aggregate fair market value of the seized office and factory land and building was Rs. 99.26 crore as on December 30, 2016, the ED said in a statement.

The ED has now passed a total of six Provisional Attachment Orders, including the present one, under Section 5(1) of the PMLA, 2002, attaching properties having a cumulative value of Rs 303.08 crore.

The ED, Lucknow Zonal Office, initiated the investigation on the basis of multiple FIRs registered at different Police Stations in Gautam Buddha Nagar, Uttar Pradesh, and EOW, Delhi Police, and also pursuant to a Supreme Court order.

On July 23, 2019, the Supreme Court passed the order in Bikram Chatterji versus Union of India matter that was related to petitions filed by aggrieved homebuyers.

The allegations were that the Amrapali Group collected huge sums of money from homebuyers, failed to deliver possession of flats within the stipulated time, and fraudulently diverted and misappropriated the homebuyers’ funds by adopting a criminal conspiracy involving bogus transactions, forgery and cheating.

The ED investigation revealed that the accused persons, their associates and promoters — namely Anil Kumar Sharma, Shiv Priya and Ajay Kumar, Directors of the Amrapali Group — in connivance with Navneet Sureka and Akhil Sureka, Directors of Mauria Udyog and Jotindra Steel and Tubes Ltd, diverted homebuyers’ funds through non-genuine and fraudulent transactions under the guise of procurement of TMT bars and construction material.

The funds were layered through a complex web of shell entities and bogus suppliers, withdrawn substantially in cash and irreversibly dissipated, thereby generating and laundering the Proceeds of Crime (POC), the ED said.

It has been established that an amount of Rs110.39 crore was diverted to Mauria Udyog, representing POC generated from the money collected from Amrapali homebuyers.

As the original POC were dissipated and no longer available for direct attachment, the ED has attached the immovable properties of Mauria Udyog on the principle of “value thereof” under the PMLA, 2002, in order to secure the POC.

Earlier, the ED had arrested Anil Sharma, Shiv Priya and Ajay Kumar, Directors of the Amrapali Group; Anil Mittal, Statutory Auditor of the Amrapali Group; and Chander Prakash Wadhwa, CFO of the Amrapali Group.

So far, the ED has filed six Prosecution Complaints in this case, arraigning 33 individuals and entities as accused.