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Tuesday,16-June-2026
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Maharashtra

Phone snooping row: Maha Congress chief slaps Rs 500 cr libel suit on IPS officer Rashmi Shukla

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Congress’ Maharashtra unit President Nana F. Patole has filed a defamation case of Rs 500 crore against senior IPS officer and a former State Intelligence Department (SID) chief Rashmi Shukla for illegally tapping his phone.

Patole said it was necessary to get to the bottom of the matter and find out who is “the mastermind of the plot” enacted by Shukla – currently the Additonal DGP, CRPF, Hyderabad.

The suit has been filed before the Nagpur District and Sessions Court alleging harassment and blackmailing of people by snooping into their private lives and to dig out the person/s behind the conspiracy, he added.

Shukla, when she was the Pune Police Commissioner in 2016-2017, had ordered the illegal tapping of various politicians, including Patole, who was shown as a drug dealer with the name of ‘Amjad Khan’.

“When I raised the matter in the Maharashtra Legislature, an inquiry committee was appointed which found Shukla guilty. Later, the Pune police have registered a case against her,” said Patole.

However, though the police investigations are underway, Patole said that his “personal and public image has been severely damaged and can never be repaired”, compelling him to file the defamation suit through the appropriate legal channels.

He said that illegal phone-tapping is a serious crime and can be done only with special permission to investigate serious cases like terrorism or drug-trafficking.

“We had nothing to do with such activities and it was a violation of our individual freedom and other rights. The then Bharatiya Janata Party government in the state conspired against me to trap in fake cases and systematically finish off my political career by misusing the government machinery,” Patole said.

The illegal phone-tapping incidents, which erupted last year into a major political row between the Maha Vikas Aghadi government the opposition BJP, led to the filing of cases against Shukla in Mumbai and Pune.

Besides Patole, the phones of other prominent leaders like Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut, NCP leader Eknath Khadse and others in the MVA government were spied upon unauthorisedly, when Shukla was the SID head.

Top MVA leaders have also said the illegal phone tapping activities were carried out when the three parties were involved in the government formation exercise after the October 2018 Assembly elections which left the BJP out of power.

Maharashtra

Mumbai: BMC’s helpline ‘My BMC Marg System’ launched ahead of monsoon, special focus on filling potholes

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Mumbai: BMC launches special helpline to fill potholes in Mumbai With an aim to address citizens’ complaints promptly and effectively, the Mumbai Municipal Corporation has implemented an integrated complaint management system ‘MyBMC MARG’ (Complaint Management and Redressal System) this year. Through this system, citizens will be able to register 114 different types of complaints related to the Municipal Corporation through a single application and they will also be able to follow up on them. Under this, the facility of registering complaints of potholes on roads on the ‘MyBMC MARG’ system has been provided to the citizens.

Potholes sometimes form on the roads during the monsoon season. In this context, the Municipal Corporation is constantly striving to take immediate notice of the complaints received from the citizens and take necessary corrective action. Digital media is being used to make the process of registering pothole complaints easy and efficient for the citizens. Last year, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation had launched a separate mobile application ‘Pothole QuickFix’ for lodging complaints about potholes on roads. Through this application, citizens can lodge complaints with information, photos and location of potholes on roads. The initiative received a good response from the citizens. During this time, citizens had to use different systems for lodging complaints related to different departments of the municipal corporation. Keeping this in mind, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation has launched a comprehensive system ‘MyBMC MARG’ from this year to provide more comprehensive and convenient services to the citizens. The mobile application ‘Pothole QuickFix’ has been integrated into this system. Accordingly, the facility to lodge a total of 114 types of complaints related to various departments of the municipal corporation including potholes, solid waste management, sewage issues, water supply, road maintenance, parks, public health, pest control, encroachments, lighting is available on ‘MyBMC MARG’.
The feature of the ‘MyBMC MARG’ system is that it is possible for citizens to register complaints from one platform, upload relevant images, check the current status of the complaint, track the action taken by the concerned department and get information about it after the complaint is resolved. Hence, the entire process from complaint registration to redressal has become more transparent and citizen-centric. This initiative by the Burhan Mumbai Municipal Corporation has made the complaint registration process easy, transparent and efficient and has provided a single comprehensive digital platform for citizens to follow up on their grievances. Especially when citizens register complaints of potholes on the roads, it becomes easier for the concerned department to take immediate action. This helps in expediting the pothole repair process. Android users can download the MyBMC MARG application on their smartphones using MyBMC MARG – Apps on Google Play and iPhone users can download the MyBMC MARG app – App Store. The people of Mumbai are appealing to the Municipal Corporation to register all complaints regarding potholes on the roads on the ‘MyBMC MARG’ system.

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Maharashtra

Mumbai: Two accused arrested for staging a drama of jewellery theft worth over Rs 60 lakh in Andheri

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Mumbai: Police have succeeded in arresting two such clever accused who had fabricated a story of theft and road accident and staged a drama of jewellery worth Rs 60 lakhs being stolen. However, during the police investigation, it was revealed that the person delivering the gold jewellery was the thief and he had committed the theft along with his friend. MIDC police had registered a case of theft on the complaint of Kanchan Pawar of Gold Star Company. According to the details, the complainant had sent his employee Avinash Gangadhar Kadam (26) to deliver the gold jewellery. At the same time, he told that his motorcycle Activa had met with an accident and during this time the gold jewellery and bag were also stolen. He pretended to be admitted to the hospital without any injury or wound. During this, the police examined several CCTV footage and it was revealed that the suspect, whose name is Manoj Hemant Jogdand (41), was patrolling here in a suspicious manner before the accident. During the investigation, the police came to know that It turned out that both of them had faked the theft and planned the robbery by describing the incident as an accident. After that, the police also took Avinash into custody. In this case, the police arrested both the accused and solved the mystery. This operation was carried out by DCP Dutta Nalawade on the instructions of Mumbai Police Commissioner Devin Bharti.

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Crime

Accused in Rs 2 crore Pune embezzlement case arrested in Nashik

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Nashik (Maharashtra), June 16: An absconding accused in a Rs 2 crore embezzlement case registered in Pune was arrested in Maharashtra’s Nashik on Tuesday, police said.

According to a complaint filed by Kiran Dadasaheb Shinde, 38, with Pune police, the responsibility for flat sales and related activities across four buildings (A, B, C, and D) of the ‘Ganga Fernhill’ project had been entrusted to Senior Sales Manager Simon Ronnie Peter, 42, but he allegedly, instead of depositing the proceeds from flat sales into the company’s account, transferred the funds to a fraudulent private bank account belonging to his associate, B. Chandrashekhar, thereby embezzling approximately Rs 2 crore collected from 32 customers.

Based on the complaint, a case was registered at Pune’s Kalepadal Police Station on June 9 (Crime No. 257/2026), under various sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023.

However, following the registration of the case, Peter went absconding and even switched off his mobile phone to evade arrest.

During the course of the investigation, Pune police received information that the accused was hiding in Nashik city and officials from Kalepadal Police Station contacted Senior Police Inspector Ashok Sharmale of the Gangapur Police Station and sought assistance in tracing and apprehending Peter.

Acting on credible intelligence, Sharmale learned that the accused Peter had arrived in Nashik in a car and was staying in Room No. 301 of Hotel Treebo Sapphire in Kalenagar on Gangapur Road.

Upon receiving the information, Crime Investigation Team officer Ghanshyam Bhoye and his team were immediately dispatched to the location. Acting swiftly, the police team detained the accused and subsequently handed him over to the Pune police for further legal proceedings.

The operation was successfully carried out under the leadership of Senior Police Inspector Sharmale of the Gangapur Police Station, and his team, including Assistant Sub-Inspector Tushar Deore and Police Head Constables Ravindra Mohite, Girish Mahale, Bhagwat Thavil, Ghanshyam Bhoye, Pravin Kedare, Gorakh Salunke, Sujit Jadhav, and Tulshidas Chaudhary.

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