Some of the seized capsules

Mumbai: The Pune man arrested for allegedly passing out pills filled with zinc phosphide at a Muharram procession last week had destroyed some of the poison he had ordered online, said police.The probe has shown that the suspect, Fayyaz Premji (39), had ordered 30,000 capsules and 50kg of zinc phosphide, often used as rat poison, from an online platform. It isn’t clear how much of it was destroyed. A team is working on the order’s digital trail. “A letter seeking his account statement has been sent to his bank,” said a police officer. Police had seized 14,900 capsules filled with the poison from Premji and are awaiting a chemical analysis report.The motive behind the mass poisoning plot is yet to be ascertained.The officer said Premji appeared to be “disturbed” and claimed that some people from the Khoja Shia community, to which he belonged, had “made his life miserable”. “His wife left him in 2016-17 and moved in with her parents. The couple had no children. His brother’s wife too left the marital home. Premji’s two sisters—an accountant and a physiotherapist—are settled in Iran, along with their mother. The two brothers and their father stayed in Pune.” Premji contested and lost an election within his community in 2015, said the officer. “He claimed that some people used to harass his grandfather as well.”A community leader said he initially questioned many religious practices, but over time, he turned more “destructive”. A leader of Khoja Shia Isnaashri Jamaat in Mumbai said Premji led a campaign against some long-held customs and revered figures in the community. “He began a campaign against Maulana Ahmed Ali Abdi, who is a representative of our Iraq-based marja (a very senior cleric) and spiritual head Agha Syed Ali Sistani in India. He said instead of self-flagellation, Shias should donate blood on Ashura. We do hold blood donation camps, but cannot abolish rituals.”A court on Monday extended Premji’s police custody till July 4.Habib Hospital in Dongri said four persons who had taken ill after consuming the pills are recovering. Javed Shroff, chairman of the hospital trust, said the patients are out of danger.

Babu Samir Das and his wife Sapna stay on P D’Mello Road

In Bandra East, Shabbir Khan (33) has stacked a month’s worth of dry firewood beneath the plastic-sheet shelter that eight members of his family call home. Once monsoon arrives, dry wood becomes nearly impossible to find.“We need it to cook whatever we have. This stock will last us a month,” said Khan, a daily wager from Banda village in Maharashtra who earns Rs 8,000–10,000 a month while living on a footpath.But rain is only one of his worries. “I lost my two-week-old child to diarrhoea two years ago. Children get malaria too because water stays accumulated for weeks, and nobody cleans it. It gets filthy.”Unlike Khan, Dadar’s barefoot ragpicker Mukesh Jha (27) has no fixed place to sleep. A BA graduate from Bihar, he earns barely Rs 150 a day collecting discarded bottles. Rains make even that uncertain. “People don’t buy as many bottles during monsoon, so I don’t find enough to sell. Many times, I sleep without eating anything.”On the streets, danger follows Jha every night. “Drug addicts come asking for tobacco or gutkha. If I wake up, it’s fine. But if I’m fast asleep, they use blades to empty my pockets.” Since arriving two years ago, he has been robbed twice, beaten and forced to beg.In Navi Mumbai, Vinodha Bhosle (40) from Amravati has come with her family for daily wage work, which often involves cleaning gutters before the monsoon. A couple earns Rs 1,000 a day, while an individual is paid Rs 500. “We come every summer and usually return before the rains, but this year our dues haven’t been cleared,” she said.Recent rain submerged the family’s shanties, pushing them under a bridge. “The contractor is not helping us. Yesterday, civic officials came, yelled at us and told us to leave. Aren’t we doing this work for them and for the city?”Half-blind Altesha Pawar (40), also from drought-hit Amravati, faces the same trap — stranded by unpaid wages, shelter destroyed by rain. “I wear my husband’s clothes while mine dry. I cannot fall sick; nobody will help.”Mumbai has over 1.5 lakh homeless but only 23 night shelters with space for around 2,500. Most are designed for individuals, forcing families to remain on pavements.Sitaram Shelar, director of Centre for Promoting Democracy, says the city’s homeless are not addicts or mentally ill, but workers who keep Mumbai running.. “The biggest misconception is viewing homelessness through a Western lens. This is nothing but caste bias. The homeless clean drains, recycle waste, and do much of the city’s dirtiest work. Mumbai depends on their labour but denies them basic facilities, turning survival into exploitation.”He notes that while summers have grown harsher, monsoon remains the sharpest pain point. “Extreme heat is getting worse, but at least you can find shade. The rains take away everything: shelter, dry food, livelihood, dignity. There is no hiding from monsoon when you have no roof.”Shelar said nearly 85% of Mumbai’s homeless are from Maharashtra and around 70% belong to historically marginalised denotified and nomadic tribes like Pardhis, Lamanis, and Vanjaris that continue to face systemic exclusion.“Not one homeless family we surveyed had benefited from Ladki Bahin or Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana. Is this a coincidence?” he asked.For some, homelessness has become a permanent condition. On South Mumbai’s P D’Mello Road, Babu Samir Das (70) and his wife Sapna (50) have lived on the pavement for 25 years. Monsoon means less police harassment, but harder survival. “We stay awake all night fixing the plastic whenever water starts seeping in.” He refuses to leave the spot as it rarely floods and is near a hospital, where he feels safer living with his wife and their dog.Despite Supreme Court mandates recognising shelter as part of right to life under Article 21, Mumbai continues to rely on a handful of shelters that cannot accommodate even a fraction of those living on its streets. “If BMC can build a coastal road, it can certainly build 24/7 family shelters,” Shelar said. Referring to the 25,000 homes built under Mahatma Gandhi Path Kranti Yojana, he said the problem is not resources but intent.“The government’s focus should be on permanent housing. But I know nothing will happen. I have lost faith in those elected to govern.”For Jha, the promises of India’s financial capital have long faded. “They stole my bags, they beat me and took my phone,” he said.“Mumbai turned a graduate into a beggar.”

Babu Samir Das and his wife Sapna stay on P D’Mello Road

In Bandra East, Shabbir Khan (33) has stacked a month’s worth of dry firewood beneath the plastic-sheet shelter that eight members of his family call home. Once monsoon arrives, dry wood becomes nearly impossible to find.“We need it to cook whatever we have. This stock will last us a month,” said Khan, a daily wager from Banda village in Maharashtra who earns Rs 8,000–10,000 a month while living on a footpath.But rain is only one of his worries. “I lost my two-week-old child to diarrhoea two years ago. Children get malaria too because water stays accumulated for weeks, and nobody cleans it. It gets filthy.”Unlike Khan, Dadar’s barefoot ragpicker Mukesh Jha (27) has no fixed place to sleep. A BA graduate from Bihar, he earns barely Rs 150 a day collecting discarded bottles. Rains make even that uncertain. “People don’t buy as many bottles during monsoon, so I don’t find enough to sell. Many times, I sleep without eating anything.”On the streets, danger follows Jha every night. “Drug addicts come asking for tobacco or gutkha. If I wake up, it’s fine. But if I’m fast asleep, they use blades to empty my pockets.” Since arriving two years ago, he has been robbed twice, beaten and forced to beg.In Navi Mumbai, Vinodha Bhosle (40) from Amravati has come with her family for daily wage work, which often involves cleaning gutters before the monsoon. A couple earns Rs 1,000 a day, while an individual is paid Rs 500. “We come every summer and usually return before the rains, but this year our dues haven’t been cleared,” she said.Recent rain submerged the family’s shanties, pushing them under a bridge. “The contractor is not helping us. Yesterday, civic officials came, yelled at us and told us to leave. Aren’t we doing this work for them and for the city?”Half-blind Altesha Pawar (40), also from drought-hit Amravati, faces the same trap — stranded by unpaid wages, shelter destroyed by rain. “I wear my husband’s clothes while mine dry. I cannot fall sick; nobody will help.”Mumbai has over 1.5 lakh homeless but only 23 night shelters with space for around 2,500. Most are designed for individuals, forcing families to remain on pavements.Sitaram Shelar, director of Centre for Promoting Democracy, says the city’s homeless are not addicts or mentally ill, but workers who keep Mumbai running.. “The biggest misconception is viewing homelessness through a Western lens. This is nothing but caste bias. The homeless clean drains, recycle waste, and do much of the city’s dirtiest work. Mumbai depends on their labour but denies them basic facilities, turning survival into exploitation.”He notes that while summers have grown harsher, monsoon remains the sharpest pain point. “Extreme heat is getting worse, but at least you can find shade. The rains take away everything: shelter, dry food, livelihood, dignity. There is no hiding from monsoon when you have no roof.”Shelar said nearly 85% of Mumbai’s homeless are from Maharashtra and around 70% belong to historically marginalised denotified and nomadic tribes like Pardhis, Lamanis, and Vanjaris that continue to face systemic exclusion.“Not one homeless family we surveyed had benefited from Ladki Bahin or Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana. Is this a coincidence?” he asked.For some, homelessness has become a permanent condition. On South Mumbai’s P D’Mello Road, Babu Samir Das (70) and his wife Sapna (50) have lived on the pavement for 25 years. Monsoon means less police harassment, but harder survival. “We stay awake all night fixing the plastic whenever water starts seeping in.” He refuses to leave the spot as it rarely floods and is near a hospital, where he feels safer living with his wife and their dog.Despite Supreme Court mandates recognising shelter as part of right to life under Article 21, Mumbai continues to rely on a handful of shelters that cannot accommodate even a fraction of those living on its streets. “If BMC can build a coastal road, it can certainly build 24/7 family shelters,” Shelar said. Referring to the 25,000 homes built under Mahatma Gandhi Path Kranti Yojana, he said the problem is not resources but intent.“The government’s focus should be on permanent housing. But I know nothing will happen. I have lost faith in those elected to govern.”For Jha, the promises of India’s financial capital have long faded. “They stole my bags, they beat me and took my phone,” he said.“Mumbai turned a graduate into a beggar.”

A nationwide Jail Bharo campaign involving farmers, workers and agricultural labourers has been planned on August 10 at district headquarters across the country, AIKS leaders said.

MUMBAI: Raising concerns over growing agrarian distress, the All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) on Monday announced a series of nationwide agitations, including participation in a countrywide Jail Bharo movement on August 10, following a two-day meeting of its Central Kisan Committee in Mumbai.The meeting, attended by farmers’ leaders from across the country at the YMCA Centre on June 28-29, resolved to intensify protests over what the organisation described as worsening conditions faced by farmers due to government policies.In a statement issued after the meeting, AIKS said key issues discussed included falling farmgate prices, rising cultivation costs, crop insurance concerns, land acquisition, fertiliser shortages, alleged shortcomings in farm loan waiver schemes, sugarcane pricing, and what it termed attempts to weaken the role of the Food Corporation of India (FCI).The organisation also expressed concerns over the possible impact of the proposed India-US, India-European Union and India-New Zealand free trade agreements on Indian agriculture, saying these issues would form the basis of its nationwide campaign.In Maharashtra, where farmers continue to face challenges such as fluctuating crop prices, demands for a remunerative minimum support price (MSP), delayed crop insurance settlements and irrigation issues, the resolutions are expected to add momentum to ongoing agrarian concerns.AIKS said it would strengthen coordination with other farmers’ organisations and participate in the National Convention of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) scheduled in Delhi on July 28 to formulate a broader strategy.The organisation also decided to build closer coordination between farmers and workers by participating in the National Struggle Convention, jointly organised by SKM and central trade unions on July 29 against what it termed “anti-people policies” of the government.A nationwide Jail Bharo campaign involving farmers, workers and agricultural labourers has been planned on August 10 at district headquarters across the country to press for their demands. AIKS said it would mobilise members in large numbers.As part of celebrations marking 90 years since its formation, AIKS announced that programmes would be organised across the country. On November 15, the birth anniversary of tribal freedom fighter Birsa Munda, the organisation plans to hoist AIKS flags and hold meetings, seminars and cultural programmes in villages highlighting farmers’ issues.The next national conference of AIKS will be held in Nalgonda, Telangana, from November 18 to 21.

Pradeep GuptaBhiwandi: The probe into the state Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) paper leak has revealed that the papers may have been leaked while being transported from a printing press in Uttar Pradesh to exam centres in Maharashtra, prompting Thane police to launch a multi-state hunt for the alleged mastermind Bjiender Gupta and his associates. Police have begun the process of issuing a lookout notice for Gupta and another accused who is on the run.According to investigators, the Maharashtra State Council of Examination had entrusted printing of TET papers to Mahim Patran Pvt Ltd, an Agra-based company with a corporate office in Delhi that has reportedly been printing papers for the council for nearly 25 years. After printing, the papers were despatched under security to exam centres across Maharashtra.Police said that by analysing QR codes printed on the four leaked papers recovered from the arrested accused, they found three were meant for exam centres in Washim, Jalna and Latur districts. Investigators suspect the papers were leaked somewhere between the Agra printing facility and their destinations in Maharashtra. Papers recovered from the accused were photocopies of the originals.“We are tracing every link in the movement of the papers to identify where the security breach occurred,” an officer said.The probe is currently centred on the alleged mastermind Gupta, a resident of Samastipur, Bihar. According to investigators, Gupta has been accused in several paper leak cases registered in different states over the years. Police believe his interrogation will be crucial in identifying the source of the leak.Police are also searching for Kapil Dahiya, another key suspect who was with the three arrested accused—Rajiv Shah, Akash Kumar and Dhiraj Singh—in Bhiwandi on the day cops caught them with the papers. But before the police raid, he allegedly left for Pune to negotiate the sale of the leaked papers. After allegedly learning his associates had been arrested, Dahiya is believed to have returned to Mumbai and boarded a flight to Delhi.According to police sources, undercover officers posing as prospective buyers contacted the accused and negotiated a deal for four leaked TET papers—Marathi, Hindi, social science and maths. The accused allegedly demanded Rs 1.25 crore. After the officers agreed to pay Rs 25 lakh as advance, the accused allegedly produced the papers, following which the police team caught them.Investigators said Rajiv Shah and Akash Kumar, both residents of Bihar, were allegedly in contact with Gupta and were in possession of papers, while Dhiraj Singh and Dahiya, both from Haryana, were responsible for negotiating deals with prospective buyers.The probe has also brought family members of the accused to Bhiwandi. A family friend of Akash Kumar, Nitesh Singh, who travelled from Patna, claimed Akash had left home telling his parents he was going to appear for an exam. According to the family, Akash is the only son of his parents, holds a BCom degree, and had been preparing for govt exams. His father works as supervisor at a four-wheeler showroom, while his mother has been unwell for some time.Relatives of Dhiraj Singh said he belongs to a family of farmers in Panipat, worked in a private company and after the death of his parents was supporting his younger brother and sister, both of whom were preparing for govt jobs.Dhiraj’s lawyer Satinder Redhu alleged that Gupta, known for allegedly promising govt jobs, had taken money from Dhiraj on the assurance of arranging employment. The family claimed Gupta may have falsely implicated Dhiraj.The third arrested accused, Rajiv Shah, is married and holds a BSc degree in physics, while Dahiya is the son of a retired army serviceman.“The investigation so far indicates Bijender Gupta is the main accused. Once he is arrested, we expect to establish how the papers were leaked, who assisted the accused and whether more people are involved,” DCP Pawan Bansod of Thane police said.

Mumbai: From next year, all exams conducted by the state govt will be held online, school education minister Dada Bhuse announced in the Maharashtra assembly on Monday. A committee has been formed under state chief secretary Rajesh Agarwal to create the necessary infrastructure to conduct online examinations. Bhuse added that all those found guilty in the TET paper leak case will be tried under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) after making appropriate changes in the law.Brijkishor Zanwar, public relations officer for the school education department, said “the committee has been formed to look into how all exams like the TET conducted by various departments and ministries can be conducted online.”The TET examination, scheduled for Sunday, was postponed on Saturday, after the alleged paper leak surfaced.Speaking on the paper leak, BJP MLA Sudhir Mungantiwar in the assembly asked why the question papers were printed in Agra when currency notes are printed in Nashik, demanding that all question papers be printed within Maharashtra. He alleged that outsiders were involved and no Maharashtrians were part of the leak.Bhuse said the state govt was serious about the matter and an SIT has been formed and three teams have been sent outside the state – one to Delhi, two to Bihar and one to Haryana – to probe the crime.Earlier in the day, the opposition held a demonstration outside the state assembly demanding the resignation of state education minister Dada Bhuse.Congress legislator Vijay Wadettiwar alleged in the assembly that “the main accused in the TET case (at the time of the TET paper leak in 2018), Abhishek Savrikar, was involved in a similar case but was given respectful entry into the ruling party.”Wadettiwar stated that the paper leaks have affected six lakh teachers and hurt the state’s reputation.Shiv Sena (UBT)’s Bhaskar Jadhav said, “The reputation of Maharashtra is suffering because of paper leaks. Even in the NEET exam, seven of the 11 accused were from Maharashtra.”On the setting up of the committee, Madhav Suryavanshi of the Shikshan Vikas Manch at the Yashwantrao Chavan Centre stated, “Such committees are always set up and they are only a mirage to show the govt is doing something. Similarly, in 2018, the TET paper was leaked, a committee was formed, and reports were prepared, yet nothing came of it and we are back in the same place. Fundamentally what needs to happen is that the paper-setters need to change. They have been the same for years. Also, a multi-set system of question papers should be created each year for better security.”