Mumbai: The Bombay high court has set aside an order against a bank employee for sexual harassment under the POSH Act as the alleged offence took place in a shared auto that does not fall under the definition of “workplace.” The share-auto was not a ride that was employer-arranged and hence doesn’t fall under the definition of workplace under the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act (POSH).The internal committee of a company or an organisation can entertain a complaint of an aggrieved woman of being subjected to sexual harassment only at the “workplace”, said the HC ruling by Justices Suman Shyam and F P Pooniwalla. The banker had moved the HC against the decision.In March 2023, the bank employee was travelling to his office in BKC from Kurla railway station in a shared auto. He was in the middle seat between the complainant woman and another passenger. The ride was bumpy due to bad roads and at times, his left hand must have touched her bag which she carried on her right arm, his lawyer argued. She stopped the ride and allegedly abused him and “abruptly” sprayed pepper spray into his eyes, alleging that he touched her inappropriately, said his plea. A crowd gathered, the auto driver asked everyone to sit back and proceed to the destination. He said she claimed to be related to an ex-public servant and called him, the police, her colleagues to “come and hit” him. The police arrived, took him to the police station and registered a case of sexual harassment under the Indian Penal Code.The HC said it has not gone into merits of the controversy of whether he had sexually harassed her in the shared auto or not.She also lodged a complaint with the internal committee or IC of her company. The IC forwarded the complaint to his employer. A probe was held and the bank’s internal committee found him “guilty of sexual harassment” and recommended “action as per service rules” against him. The bank’s IC concluded that the shared auto ride was indeed ‘workplace,’ as it invoked Section 2(o)(v) of POSH Act. The section stated that any place visited by the employee arising out of or during employment, including transportation by the employer for undertaking the journey, would mean a “workplace”.His counsel Anand Pande said the IC has erred since the transportation ought to have been provided by the employer, which the auto was not. The HC said, “It can be seen that Section 2(o)(v) includes within the meaning of “workplace” transportation by the employer for undertaking a journey to any place visited by the employee arising out of or during the course of employment. Therefore, in order to fall within the meaning of “workplace”, the transportation has to be provided by the employer,” which the bench said was not the case in this matter. The IC had not jurisdiction to entertain her complaint and pass an order, since the alleged incident did not occur at a ‘workplace’, HC held.

Thane: Nearly six out of every 10 voters in Thane district have received enumeration forms under the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise, a constituency-wise review of the ongoing process revealed.The review, conducted by Maharashtra chief electoral officer and additional chief secretary S. Chockalingam on Thursday, showed that Owala-Majiwada and Bhiwandi Rural Assembly constituencies recorded the highest distribution of enumeration forms, while Kalyan Rural and Kalyan West reported the lowest numbers so far. Chockalingam, during his address to officials, directed them to ensure completion of the revision of all stages within the prescribed timeline and maintain continuous monitoring of field-level work.“Officials have been instructed to ensure that Booth Level Officers (BLOs) conduct door-to-door verification, accurately fill enumeration forms, verify documents, process applications on time and clear pending cases. Authorities have also been told to remove ineligible entries strictly as per rules while ensuring that no eligible voter is left out,” an official present for the meet said.Meanwhile, even as the authorities push to complete the revision within the deadline, voters and political leaders raised concerns over difficulties in the process.NCP (SP) MLA Jitendra Awhad highlighted the case of a senior medical professional whose name was allegedly missing from the electoral roll despite having voted for several decades. In a video message shared on social media, Awhad questioned how elderly voters could be expected to stand in queues to locate their names and submit documents, including identity proofs of parents who have passed away.“I am a voter for decades, and am I expected to search my name standing in queues? They are also asking for documents of my father, who passed away years ago,” the professional said.On the other side of the suburbs, Shiv Sena (UBT)’s Rohidas Munde raised questions over the implementation of door-to-door verification in Diva. He alleged that instead of BLOs visiting voters’ homes, the process was increasingly dependent on special camps.“The purpose of SIR is physical verification of voters to check whether they still reside at the given address, have migrated or are deceased. If the process is limited to camps, senior citizens, persons with disabilities and those unable to visit may be excluded,” Munde said.

Palghar: Flood conditions continued to prevail across Palghar district on Friday despite a reduction in rainfall, leaving three people dead in Dahanu, and with several villages remaining cut off and without electricity. Rescue teams evacuated 244 people stranded by floodwaters, while nearly 1,500 residents were shifted to safer locations as authorities continued relief operations.The heavy rain over the past few days has severely affected Dahanu, Talasari and Palghar talukas, submerging roads, damaging bridges and culverts, and disrupting connectivity to several villages.The three people who lost their lives in rain-related incidents in Dahanu taluka include Jagdish Machhi, 39, who was swept away in floodwaters, and Rupesh Dhadga, 30, who died after slipping into a waterlogged area while on his way to his farmland. The identity of the third deceased person is yet to be established, officials said.Four teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) were deployed for rescue and relief operations across the district. In a joint operation, the NDRF and the Vasai-Virar Municipal Corporation’s fire brigade rescued 244 people and two animals from Gunjale, Kirat and the S Crane Factory area.Flooding also disrupted road traffic at several locations. Traffic on stretches of National Highway 48, including the Talasari-Ahmedabad carriageway, as well as on several state highways and major district roads, was temporarily suspended after roads were inundated, culverts were washed away, landslides occurred and trees fell on roadways.The torrential rain caused extensive damage to MSEDCL‘s power distribution infrastructure. A total of 97 high- and low-tension electricity poles collapsed, while around nine kilometres of power lines were damaged. In addition, 25 distribution transformers and 10 power feeders were affected, leaving several villages without electricity. MSEDCL said efforts were underway to restore power supply across the district by Saturday.The public works infrastructure also suffered significant damage. Nearly 29.45 km of roads have been damaged, while 24 cross-drainage structures and causeways and six bridges have been affected. The preliminary cost of restoration has been estimated at Rs 13.5 crore.District collector Dr Indurani Jakhad said the administration was closely monitoring the situation and that rescue, relief and restoration work was continuing on a war footing.Vasai-Virar faced a second consecutive day of complete disruption in water supply on Friday as power supply to key water treatment facilities remained unrestored too.Heavy rainfall over the past three to four days has knocked out electricity at the Suryanagar Water Treatment Plant at Kavdasa, the old and new Surya dam water supply schemes at the Maswan pumping station, and the Dhuktan Water Treatment Plant. The outage has brought the city’s water distribution system to a standstill.

Mumbai: A 73-year-old Andheri resident, who runs a tours and travels business, lost nearly Rs 8 crore to fraudsters who posed as Delhi police officers and placed him under digital arrest for almost two weeks in a fake money laundering case.In a first, the complainant realised he had been duped only when officials from the West Region Cyber police station in Bandra (W) reached his residence on July 18, and said that they had received information from the Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre (I4C) intelligence team in New Delhi about him being targeted by fraudsters.According to the FIR registered at West Region Cyber police station on July 21, the fraud began on July 5. The complainant said: “I received a WhatsApp call at 11.30am. The caller told me he was from Delhi Police and that they needed to interrogate me as a bank account in my name was used in the multi-crore money laundering case related to Jet Airways founder Naresh Goyal registered there.”The complainant believed the caller as the WhatsApp number had a Delhi Police display picture. “They told me that since the case was related to national security, they would investigate it with extreme confidentiality and therefore, I should not tell anyone at home about it,” he said. “Later, I received a WhatsApp video call for the ‘interrogation’. The caller identified himself as Rahul Gupta from Delhi Police. He said that my Aadhaar card details had been used to open an account in a nationalised bank and Rs 7 crore had been deposited in it. He also threatened to send an arrest warrant via WhatsApp. I got scared.”Explaining the modus operandi of such fraudsters, a cyber police officer said: “What starts as a simple call quickly becomes controlled. The victim is pressured with legal threats and kept engaged for hours. As urgency builds, resistance fades, and compliance follows. By the time money is demanded, the situation feels real enough to not question.”The officer said that to further scare the complainant, the fraudsters sent fake documents referring to the case filed with the Enforcement Directorate on the victim’s WhatsApp. They also called him every few hours to check on his whereabouts. “Later, one Nisha Patel from Delhi cyber police station called him and said that as his involvement was apparent in the transactions that took place in the bank account, they had filed a writ petition in Supreme Court. She further claimed that the SC had instructed that all his mutual funds, fixed deposits, and bank deposits would have to be sent to the bank accounts they have provided for verification. The fraudsters also sent him a fake SC order on WhatsApp to gain his trust,” said the officer.The complainant transferred around Rs 7.9 crore to various private bank accounts provided by the accused between July 7 and 16. “I realised that I had been duped only when the West Region Cyber police came home on July 18 and said that they have received information from the I4C intelligence team about a ‘digital arrest’ fraud happening with me,” he said. Cyber police have initiated the process of recovering the Rs 7.9 crore that the complainant was made to transfer in six transactions to the private bank accounts.What is 14C intelligence teamThe ⁠Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre (I4C) in New Delhi is a national-level nodal center under the Ministry of Home Affairs that assists law enforcement agencies with cybercrime investigations, featuring the National-Digital Investigation Support Centre and a pilot e-Zero FIR system for major financial frauds. Operates under the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to coordinate a nationwide ecosystem against cybercrime.

Navi Mumbai: A 35-year-old typist clerk at Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation’s Zone 2 office in Koparkhairane was booked on Friday for not reporting for duty as Booth Level Officer (BLO) during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise.The FIR was registered at Koparkhairane police station by the NMMC ward officer of Koparkhairane node, Bharat Dhande (57), after the Electoral Registration Officer (EFO) for the 150-Airoli Assembly constituency, Priti Patil, complained against the civic employee identified as Jeevan Sonawane for skipping his SIR duty by remaining absent from July 16 to 23.The accused was booked under Section 32 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950, for the offence of breach of official duty, which penalises election officials and personnel for failing to properly perform duties related to the electoral rolls without reasonable cause.Meanwhile, NMMC commissioner Kailas Shinde warned that any employee neglecting duty in the SIR exercise will face strict legal action and that all appointed BLOs must ensure that the electoral roll revision work is completed accurately within the stipulated time period, which was extended till Aug 8.Ward officer Bharat Dhande said, “The typist clerk Jeevan Sonawane was issued an order by EFO Priti Patil on July 15 to accept responsibility as a BLO, as per list part number 343, for verification of the voter list for the 150-Airoli Assembly constituency. He was assigned the responsibility of door-to-door enumeration in the Bonkode area to physically verify resident details and distribute enumeration forms to citizens to register or update their data in the voter list of 2026. However, he remained absent from July 16 till 23 and failed in the official duty assigned to him. Despite repeatedly telling him to fulfil his official duty of SIR, he ignored the orders of the ERO. I had even convinced him to attend his BLO duty as it was only till Aug 8 and even told him to give priority to SIR work and, if needed, he would even be provided an assistant. But he was reluctant and remained absent continuously, which adversely affected the SIR exercise in the area assigned to him.”Dhande added, “After the FIR was registered against Sonawane, he came to my office and said that he will fulfil his BLO duty from July 25. After he completes his official duty, I will personally take him to Koparkhairane police station’s senior inspector and submit a report. However, regarding the FIR against him, the further legal course of action will be decided by the State Election Commission.”