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Maharashtra

Ex-Maha home minister Anil Deshmukh gets 4 days’ ED custody

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A holiday Special Court on Tuesday remanded former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh to the custody of Enforcement Directorate till November 6 in a money-laundering case, 16 hours after he was arrested at 1.00 a.m. on Tuesday morning.

Special Judge P.B. Jadhav rejected the plea by ED’s counsel, Additional Solicitor-General Anil Singh seeking 14 days’ custody, which the defence lawyers, Senior Advocate Vikram Chaudhri and advocate Aniket Nikam strongly protested.

Chaudhri said that before the Supreme Court and Bombay High Court, the ED had said that Deshmukh was only a suspect and not an accused in the case and termed the arrest ‘illegal’.

That was the reason Deshmukh voluntarily went to the ED office on November 1 and after 13 hours of questioning he was placed under arrest, he said.

The defence sought to know what fresh evidence the ED had gathered in the past four days since Friday (Oct 29) leading to the arrest especially since he had always cooperated with the agency whenever summoned.

The Bombay High Court on Friday declined Deshmukh’s plea to quash the ED summons against him, and he said that his matter was still pending before the Supreme Court.

Following an application by Deshmukh, the Special Judge Jadhav allowed home-food and medicines, and presence of a lawyer during the ED interrogation, given his advanced age of 72 and several health issues like a dislocated arm and heart problems, besides being a Covid-recovered patient, said Nikam.

The ED filed its case based on the CBI’s FIR against Deshmukh after former Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh had alleged that the minister had tasked sacked cop Sachin Vaze and others to collect Rs 100 crore from Mumbai hoteliers every month.

In a video-statement prior to appearing before the ED, Deshmukh had demanded to know “where is Singh who had levelled the false allegations” and now disappeared, amid reports he may have sneaked out of India.

Following Singh’s letter in March, the ED and CBI had carried out multiple raids on Deshmukh and family, and the ED sought his 14 days custody citing ‘non-cooperation’.

Deshmukh refuted the ED charges saying that whenever he was summoned, he had replied to them, provided documents, etc and said that he would appear after the outcome of his various court appeals.

“On account of a witch-hunt campaign launched at the instance of certain vested inimical interests, some blatantly false allegations have been levelled by those persons who have absolutely no credibility, honour or pride,” said Deshmukh.

He added that “these unscrupulous persons are themselves knee-deep involved in several rackets of extortion and even murder. The principal person who held the high office of Mumbai CoP is now a wanted absconding criminal”.

Maharashtra

New India Cooperative Bank embezzlement accused’s properties attached

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Mumbai: Mumbai Economic Branch (EOW) has also started property seizure proceedings in the case of embezzlement of crores of rupees from New India Cooperative Bank. EOW said that after identifying the properties obtained from the embezzled amount, it has been attached and seized. 5 accused have been arrested in this case and 21 immovable properties of these accused have been found, which have been allowed to be confiscated.

This is the first action under 107 BNSS in Mumbai city in which the property of the accused has been seized. Mumbai AOW said that the amount recovered from the seized properties will also be estimated. After the bank scam in Mumbai, EOW has taken major action and details of other properties of the accused are also being investigated.

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Crime

Mumbai Five members of Lawrence Bishnoi gang arrested, Mumbai Crime Branch gives a shock to Bishnoi gang

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Mumbai: Mumbai Crime Branch has claimed to have arrested five shooters of gangster Lawrence Bishnoi gang in a major operation. 5 revolvers and 21 live cartridges have been recovered from the possession of these shooters. Mumbai Police is also interrogating these shooters. Police arrested the attackers before they could execute the incident and averted the incident. Mumbai Crime Branch has arrested these five from Andheri area. They had come here with the intention of carrying out a major vandalism incident, but the police foiled the incident before that.

The arrested accused include Vikas Thakur, Samit Dilawar, Devendra Rupesh Saxena, Shreya Suresh Yadav, Vivek Gupta. Vikas Thakur is a resident of Versova Andheri, Samit Mukesh Kumar Dilawar is a resident of Sonipat, Haryana, Devendra Rupesh Saxena is a resident of Madhya Pradesh, Shreya Suresh Yadav is a resident of Jagdishpur, Bihar and Vivek Kumar Gupta is a resident of Rampur, Rajasthan.

Weapons have been recovered from their possession and the Crime Branch has registered a case against them under Section 3 and 25 of the BNS, Section 55 and 61 (2) and Maharashtra Police Act. The Crime Branch is investigating where the accused brought the weapons from.

After the shooting of Salman Khan, Lawrence Bishnoi gang is trying to become active in Mumbai, but due to the strict action of Mumbai Crime Branch, the back of the gang has been broken and now the Crime Branch has given a big blow to the Lawrence Bishnoi gang and arrested five of its members. The Crime Branch is further investigating the matter.

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Maharashtra

It is unconstitutional to deprive SP MLA Raees Sheikh of his right to handle religious affairs under Article 26 of the Constitution

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Mumbai: Maharashtra MLA Raees Sheikh has opposed the introduction of the Wakf Bill in the Lok Sabha. Raees Sheikh has strongly criticized the BJP for creating a false narrative and called the bill a misconception and unconstitutional bill which is harmful for the poor of the society.

Shaikh further said that Article 26 of the Constitution guarantees freedom to run religious institutions. It is unconstitutional to take away the right of a person to run his institution under Article 26 of the Constitution. MLA Shaikh said that this move is against the constitutional guarantee of dealing with religious matters.

Shaikh said that the BJP government is showing the UPA government that it is doing politics of appeasement of a particular community, while the BJP-led government is not doing so. This is an attempt to spread a lie that allows the community to seize any land under Waqf or claim it to be Waqf. The Waqf Board is not a private organisation of the Muslim community but a statutory body established under the Waqf Act. In the process of declaring a property as Waqf, a government surveyor conducts a survey and officially declares the property as Waqf. Sheikh remarked that it is completely wrong to present the idea that Muslims can arbitrarily declare any property as Waqf.

Shaikh further said that he strongly opposes the false image being created by the government and the government has not considered the suggestions given by Muslims or the opposition. All Waqf governing boards and trusts have been given the option to exit the Waqf framework. This has weakened the system. “This is an unimaginable and unimaginable bill that only harms the poor of the society,” Sheikh said.

He further said that some provisions, such as the condition that the person making the donation should have been a Muslim for five years, are strange. Earlier encroachment on wakf property was a non-bailable offence, but now it has been made a criminal offence

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