Kolkata, Dec 6: Trinamool Congress and suspended party legislator from Bharat constituency Humayun Kabir will hold two counter programmes on Saturday to mark the demolition of the disputed structure in Ayodhya on December 6, 1992.

On one hand, Trinamool Congress will be organising its annual ‘Sampriti Diwas (Harmony Day)’ programme at Esplanade in Central Kolkata. The programme, organised by Trinamool Congress’ youth and students’ wings, will be attended by the top party leadership.

“Besides issuing the appeal for communal harmony day, our leaders will also highlight the plight of the people in West Bengal because of the ongoing Special Intensive Revision in the state, which is being carried out in an unplanned manner,” said a member of the West Bengal cabinet.

On the other hand, the focus will also be on the foundation stone laying ceremony of the ‘Babri Mosque’ at Beldanga in Murshidabad district by Kabir.

Even as Kabir’s programme led to his suspension from the party earlier this week, he is determined to organise it at any cost.

The stone-laying function will be organised under security cover from both state police forces and Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF), as instructed by a division bench of the Calcutta High Court on Friday.

As per reports from Beldanga, thousands of people have started flocking to the site for the event since Friday night.

Kabir himself had visited the site several times since Friday evening, supervising the arrangements.

“Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee thinks that she is the only right person and the others are wrong. She must not forget that it was people from the Muslim community who ensured the consecutive victories of her party since 2011. Now the Muslims will demolish her arrogance in the 2026 West Bengal Assembly election,” Kabir said on Saturday morning.

The leader of the opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, however, claimed that Kabir’s suspension and his function are actually “pre-planned matches” between Mamata Banerjee and her rebel leader.

Trinamool Congress leader, on the other hand, has claimed that the BJP was behind all such initiatives by Kabir.

Vasai: A gang specializing in stealing mobile tower batteries has become active in the Vasai-Virar region. The Crime Detection Branch team of the Pelhar Police has successfully arrested members of this gang. Stolen goods worth ₹6 lakhs have been confiscated from them.

While incidents of house burglaries, mobile thefts, vehicle thefts, and chain snatching are occurring in Vasai-Virar, the area is now seeing cases of theft of mobile tower batteries installed for networking purposes.

Recently, twenty-four batteries belonging to the Indus Company’s mobile phone tower, valued at ₹50,000, were stolen by unknown thieves from the Arshad Compound area within the jurisdiction of the Pelhar Police Station. A case was filed at the police station regarding this incident.

Taking the seriousness of the crime into account, Senior Police Inspector Sachin Kamble instructed the Crime Detection Branch team to investigate the matter.

Accordingly, the detection team, led by Assistant Police Inspector Ramesh Waghchaure, Police Sub-Inspector Tukaram Bhople, and their team, started the investigation. It was discovered that a pickup Bolero vehicle was being used for the crimes and that the accused were employed at ARC Company (related to mobile phone towers).

Police tracked down and arrested three individuals: Aurangzeb Sarwar Ansari (19), Parvez Ghulam Rasul Shah (24), and Rafiq Aminsab Sheikh (38). Police reported seizing property worth ₹6 lakh 12 thousand from them.

The operation was conducted by the team comprising Senior Police Inspector Sachin Kamble, Police Inspector (Crime) Shivaji Patil, Crime Detection Team Assistant Police Inspector Ramesh Waghchaure, Police Sub-Inspector Tukaram Bhople, Faujdar Yogesh Deshmukh, Police Constables Tanaji Chavan, Valmik Patil, Abhijit Nevare, Ravi Wankhede, Ashok Parjane, Anil Waghmare, Wasim Sheikh, Amol Masse, and others.

Mumbai: In a significant ruling on product classification under the Bombay Sales Tax Act, 1959, the Bombay High Court has held that Nescafé Premix must be taxed at 8% as “coffee / instant coffee,” and not at the higher rate of 16% applicable to general beverage powders.

A bench of Justices M. S. Sonak and Advait Sethna reiterated the cardinal principle that specific tax entries must prevail over general ones. Applying the common parlance test, the court concluded that Nescafé Premix, as marketed and consumed, had created a clear perception of “instant coffee”.

The case arose from a dispute between Nestlé India Ltd. and the Sales Tax Department regarding whether Nescafé Premix — containing 8.5% soluble coffee powder, 54% sucrose, 37% partially skimmed milk powder and 0.5% maltodextrin — should be classified under Schedule Entry C-II-3 (8%) or Entry C-II-18(2) (16%).

The Commissioner of Sales Tax had earlier ruled in 1998 that the product fell under the higher-taxed general entry for powders used in non-alcoholic beverages, emphasising that the coffee content was “minuscule 8.5%”.

The Maharashtra Sales Tax Tribunal reversed this decision in 2001, holding that ingredient percentage was not decisive — relying on Supreme Court precedent that even small quantities, like salt in food, do not alter the essential character of the final product.

Upholding the Tribunal’s order, the HC stressed that the product’s actual use and consumer understanding were crucial. “Ultimately, in all such matters, we must go by the common parlance test,” the bench said.

It noted that the premix was expressly marketed as Nescafé Premix and used to dispense Nescafé from vending machines simply by adding hot water. “The resultant product, in common parlance, was nothing but Nescafé,” the Court observed.

Rejecting the Department’s argument that low coffee content disqualified it from being considered instant coffee, the Court agreed with the Tribunal that removing coffee powder altogether would fundamentally change the product’s identity — demonstrating that the coffee component, though proportionally small, was determinative of classification.

The bench also emphasised that Entry C-II-3, covering “coffee” and “instant coffee”, was a specific entry and therefore prevailed over the general entry for beverage powders under C-II-18(2). “The concept of instant coffee must conform to modern development and modern perceptions,” the Court added.