Pedestrian killed after third-floor balcony collapses (Representative image)

MUMBAI: A 51-year-old pedestrian working at a nearby petrol pump died after a portion of the third-floor balcony of a ground plus three storey MHADA cessed building collapsed at Walkeshwar late on Tuesday night.The incident which was reported to the Mumbai Fire Brigade (MFB) at 11.22 pm took place at Surya Prakash Building on Babulnath Road in the Gaondevi area. According to on lookers, part of the third-floor balcony of the MHADA cessed building gave way and crashed onto the road below.The victim, identified as Santosh Ramchandra Bharaskar (51), was a pedestrian who worked at a nearby petrol pump. He sustained severe injuries in the collapse and was rushed to Sir J. J. Hospital, where doctors declared him brought dead.Teams from the Mumbai Fire Brigade, police, BEST, the 108 ambulance service and ward staff rushed to the spot after the collapse. The exact cause of the incident is yet to be ascertained.Police and civic authorities are investigating the incident.

AYODHYA: Three women drowned and two girls went missing while bathing in Ghaghara river in a village here on Tuesday evening, police said.Villagers pulled out the bodies of three women from the river at Sanaha village.The administration and relief-rescue teams conducted a search operation in the river to trace the missing persons. Police and local administration were present at the spot and monitored the rescue work.The deceased have been identified as Mariyam (18), Shaheen (35) and Sajrul (40), police said.Rashida and Naziya, both aged around 15 years, are missing.The administration has appealed to people to exercise special caution while bathing in rivers and water bodies.Additional Superintendent of Police Balwant Kumar Chaudhary said the bodies have been sent for post-mortem.

13th arrest in concert drug OD deaths case

Mumbai: Vanrai police on Monday made the 13th arrest over the suspected drug overdose deaths of two MBA students in April.Police said the accused, Dipak Hamlani (25), had been given a package of drugs to keep at his place by a co-accused. However, Hamlani told police that he had no knowledge of the contents of the package. Police are also probing whether there were any monetary transactions between Hamlani and the co-accused.On April 11, two MBA students popped ecstasy pills at a music concert at Goregaon and died the next day. Another student, who had also consumed ecstasy, took ill but has since recovered.Among those arrested are two MBA students who were the victims’ classmates. Investigators have recovered 935 ecstasy pills that had been allegedly dumped in Raigad by one of the key accused, Ayush Sahitya. A chargesheet is likely to be filed in July.

Mumbai: CM Devendra Fadnavis on Tuesday said the anti-conversion bill passed by the legislature earlier will provide a dedicated legal framework, noting that existing BNS provisions are inadequate to effectively address forced religious conversion cases.Fadnavis, who handles the home portfolio, said approval of the bill from the Centre is awaited. “No innocent person will be implicated,” he said, adding that the law would strengthen the state’s ability to deal with forced conversion cases.The CM said charges of religious conversion had surfaced recently in Nagpur, but the victim’s complaint was primarily related to sexual exploitation. PTI

The wire is valued at around Rs 40 lakh

Mumbai: The city Crime Branch arrested four persons for allegedly impersonating MTNL officials and stealing nearly 985 metres of underground MTNL copper cable worth Rs 39.40 lakh from Borivali East.The police said they caught the accused red handed while they carried digging tools and machinery. Police said the total value of the seized property, including vehicles and machinery, was estimated at Rs 1 crore.The arrested accused were identified as Sahil Shakeel Sah (20) of Siddharthnagar, Uttar Pradesh; Abdul Siddique Ahmed Sheikh (38) of Kurla, Mumbai; Rizwan Mehtab Malik (24) of Siddharthnagar, Uttar Pradesh; and Mohammed Afzal Hasan Khan (35) of Ghatkopar, Mumbai.Acting on a tip-off, a unit 10 team laid a trap near the Magathane Telephone Exchange opposite Clarion Building on Vasant Marvel Road in Borivali East during the early hours on Tuesday and intercepted two Bolero pick-up vehicles. Police allegedly found them loaded with cut pieces of stolen 2,000-pair MTNL underground copper cables.Police seized two Bolero pick-up vehicles, 985 metres of copper cable valued at Rs 39.40 lakh, a JCB excavator, and two mobile phones. Police said the accused disclosed that the underground cable had been dug out using the JCB without any permission from MTNL.The case was initially registered at Kasturba Marg Police Station under Sections 303(2), 324(5) and 3(5) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, along with Section 42 of the Telecommunications Act, 2023, before being transferred to the Crime Branch for further investigation.Police said Abdul Siddique Sheikh was the alleged mastermind who procured information about the underground cable network and organised its theft. Police were probing to identify other members of the gang, trace buyers of the stolen copper, recover additional stolen property, and investigate the involvement of accomplices who allegedly escaped during the raid. Police said Abdul Siddique had a previous criminal case registered against him at Navghar Police Station.

The vacancies have created major difficulties for investigating agencies

Mumbai: Eight of the nine metropolitan magistrates of Esplanade court in Fort have been transferred and elevated as ad hoc district judges without immediate replacements, leaving only one to handle the busy court alone since June 19.Officers seeking remand are being compelled to produce those arrested before the 28th court or three in-charge courts at Mazgaon.The vacancies have created major difficulties for investigating agencies, including crime branch, central agencies such as directorate of revenue intelligence, ED, customs, directorate general of GST intelligence, CBI, and police stations across south Mumbai.The crisis erupted after Bombay HC’s June 19 notification, under which eight judicial magistrates serving at Esplanade were elevated as ad hoc district judges and additional sessions judges with effect from June 23. “These magistrates immediately handed over charge and left and since then, the load of these courts has fallen on the 28th court and the Mazgaon courts. There is confusion as there is no information on the matters listed and we have to urgently rush to the Mazgaon court 4km away, sometimes during peak traffic hours. Often, the matter is over before we reach or is kept back for hearing,” said an advocate.The magistrates promoted are A K Mandavgade, B N Ichpurani, V R Patil, V V Kulkarni, S K Fokmare, K S Zanwar, S V Nikam and S S Parave. Six of them have been posted to the city civil and sessions court, Nikam at Dindoshi, and Parave at Mazgaon.Members of the bar said the sudden transfer of remand work without simultaneous posting of replacement magistrates has disrupted the daily functioning of one of Mumbai’s busiest magistrate courts.

Roshan Suvarna was remanded in police custody till July 6 in connection with the murder of a co-traveller, Mayank Lohar, on a local train

Mumbai: A 17.5cm knife used to stab to death a 21-year-old passenger in a local train last week was recovered on Monday and the accused had carried it around in his bag for four to five months, GRP told a magistrate court on Tuesday.The court extended the police custody of the accused, Roshan Suvarna, till July 6 as police said they are yet to establish the motive behind carrying the knife.The victim, Mayank Lohar, had an altercation with Suvarna over shutting the door amid heavy rain on June 23. Suvarna later knifed him three to four times in the chest and the abdomen.In their remand application, police said Suvarna claimed to have thrown the knife away after getting out of the subway at Borivli West following the crime. They checked surveillance camera footage but couldn’t locate it. The manager of a local restaurant approached them on Monday and said a staffer had found the knife in a lane after exiting platforms 2-3 in Borivli West the night of the murder. The staffer and his colleagues placed the knife in a box and informed their employer. The manager claimed they recognised the knife from the now viral video clip of the murder. Police have sent the knife for forensic tests to check if the bloodstains match the victim’s sample.The knife has a 12cm long blade. Suvarna told police he had picked up two knives—one small and another larger that was used in the murder—from the godown of an e-commerce platform at Mira-Bhayander, where his friend works. Police have recorded the friend’s statement. Suvarna claimed he used the small knife at his workplace for making barcodes and labels, while he kept the large knife in his bag for protection. Police are verifying his claims and are ascertaining whether he used the knife to threaten or harm anyone else in the past seven months.Lohar’s mother broke down in court during Suvarna’s production.Suvarna’s lawyers, Surendra Landge and Azad Gupta, said in court police had failed to apply Arms Act in the case.

Police recovered the firearms along with 50 live cartridges and extra magazines from their possession

Mumbai: The city crime branch has arrested two men from Punjab and seized a cache of illegal Turkish-made pistols and ammunition during a trap operation near P D Mello Road in South Mumbai. The duo had come to Mumbai to supply the foreign origin weapons to a local gang and investigators are probing possible links between the accused and the Lawrence Bishnoi crime syndicate, said police sources.The accused, identified as Ranjeet Singh (36) and Amrut Pal Singh (23), were allegedly caught while attempting to sell the pistols. Police recovered the firearms along with 50 live cartridges and extra magazines from their possession.Deputy commissioner of police (crime) Raj Tilak Roshan, said preliminary investigation revealed one of the accused has a previous case registered under the NDPS Act. Police have registered offences under relevant provisions of the Arms Act. “Now we have asked the Anti Extortion Cell to probe why the duo brought the weapons, who was likely to purchase it and whether they are connected to any gang,’’ said Roshan.