Vol. 66 No. 73 | MONDAY | JULY 25, 2022 | 15 Pages | CM TO CEO SHINDE ‘PINDI GIRL’ FROM PUNE GETS WARM PAK WELCOME EDITIONS: MUMBAI*, Pune, Nashik, Konkan, Indore, Bhopal, E-paper OPPN UNITY FLOUNDERS AS PRESIDENT TAKES CHARGE CMO to personally fast-track infra projects in state SANJAY JOG MUMBAI The Maharashtra government has been in power for 25 days but there is nary a whisper on cabinet expansion so far because of the mad rush for ministerial berths and the ongoing legal and legislative battles. However, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde has decided to personally keep an eye on the progress of a slew of infrastructure projects of over Rs 10 lakh crore that are being proposed in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region and the BETWEEN THE LINES MONKEYPOX CASE IN DELHI, ATTENDED HP STAG PARTY T he Centre on Sunday held a high-level review meeting after a 34-year-old man from the national capital with no history of foreign travel tested positive for the monkeypox virus, making it the fourth case of the disease to be reported in the country. The latest patient, who is presently recovering at a designated isolation centre at the Lok Nayak Hospital, had attended a stag party in Manali in Himachal Pradesh, official sources told PTI. A resident of West Delhi, the patient was isolated at the Hospital around three days ago after he showed symptoms of the disease. His samples were sent to the National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune, on Saturday which came out positive. AKSHAY TOP TAXPAYER? A ctor Akshay Kumar, one of the top-paid stars in Bollywood, has been reportedly honoured by the Income Tax department as the 'highest taxpayer' in the country. An honorary certificate issued to Akshay Kumar by the IT Department has been doing the rounds on the internet. A social media user tweeted, "According to haters, he is not a Global superstar, he don't have HGOTY, not much BB, he is Canadian and many more things, but still he is paying highest income tax, as against those in rest of the industry. My superstar." rest of Maharashtra. For the first time, the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) will coordinate and drive the development of infrastructure projects to avoid procedural delays and red tape and facilitate the timely coordination and cooperation of various departments and agencies for the completion of projects. These projects are being implemented by the urban development and public works departments and various agencies, including the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development, the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation and the City and Industrial Development Corporation. ALLU AND SAMANTHA'S POPULARITY HAVE ENHANCED MY MUSIC: DSP EDIT Shinde, who is expected to retain urban development and the MSRDC, has already told the administration that he will personally review the progress of various infrastructure projects, including the MumbaiAhmedabad bullet train, the Mumbai-Nagpur Samruddhi Marg, Mumbai Metro, the Mumbai Trans Harbour Link, Mumbai, Thane and Konkan coastal roads, the Navi Mumbai airport, elevated roads and the expansion of the Mumbai-Pune express way .  CONTD. ON NATION PAGE QUOTE OF THE DAY/ RAJNATH SINGH "P akistan-occupied Kashmir was a part of India, is, and will remain a part of India. How is it possible that Baba Amarnath is in India and Maa Sharda Shakti is across the Line of Control? (Sharda Peeth encompasses the ruins of a temple dedicated to Saraswati, also known as Sharda.) – SEE NATION ED FINDS ITS ONION IN ARPITA BHAVNA UCHIL MUMBAI Observing that there was no sexual intent in a then 23year-old’s act of following a teen into her classroom in 2016, pulling her bag and asking her to come with him, a Sessions Court has Sunrise: 06:13 am Sunset : 07:17 pm Not cowered by Covid, 18 score 99.75% in ISC ADITI ALURKAR MUMBAI The ‘results’ season drew to a close as the Council of Indian School Certification Examination announced the Class 12 results through the website on Sunday The ISC . has recorded this year's highest overall pass percentage at 99.38, with CBSE and HSC trailing. The southern region surpassed all others with the highest pass rate of 99.81%. As is often the case, girls again managed to outshine boys, though by a slender margin of 0.42%. Eighteen students shared Upasana-AIR 1 Sahir the first rank in the ISC exams this year. Amongst them, Thane student Upasana Nandi from Smt. Sulochanadevi Singhania School, was the only first ranker from Maharashtra with a score of 99.75%. “Being AIR 1 was definitely a curveball,” said the science student. “I am now looking forward to my college applications. Research in the fields of biotechnology and Aiming for the eye of the needle Court rejects her bail plea; gives ED one-day custody so that it can probe deeper ARITRA SINGHA KOLKATA The Enforcement Directorate on Sunday produced Arpita Mukherjee, a close aide of TMC minister Partha Chatterjee, in the court and sought her custody for at least 14 days. Likening her to an ‘onion’, the ED officials told the court that just as ‘when you peel an onion, you unravel layers,’ a further probe is needed to ferret out more information. “We demanded at least 14 days’ custody so that we can dig deeper into the case. A heap of cash amounting to Rs 21 crores, foreign currency and a jewellery box – reminiscent of Alibaba’s treasure trove -- were found on her premises. Envelopes scribbled with Partha Chatterjee’s name were also recovered; so, we wanted to investigate further,” said ED Likening her to an ‘onion’, the ED officials told the court that ‘when you peel an onion, you unravel the layers.’ sources, giving the rationale for their plea in the court. The ED officials also submitted medical certificates in the court and claimed that she was fit. “Arpita can resort to theatrics and claim that she is not well. So, we have submitted medical cer- The Calcutta High Court has, meanwhile, directed officials to transfer arrested Bengal minister Partha Chatterjee to AIIMS Bhubaneswar. The Enforcement Directorate moved the High Court on Sunday challenging the lower court’s nod to Chatterjee’s treatment at the state-run SSKM. According to ED, the probe might be influenced if Chatterjee stays in SSKM.  “Partha Chatterjee is behaving like a don and not cooperating with officials.’’ tificates which clearly indicate that she is fit,” added sources. Arpita’s lawyer, in turn, demanded bail and claimed that she would ‘cooperate’ with the investigation. Dismissing the bail plea, the court gave the ED a day’s Fire Brigade report on NOCs sought Issued to fire-evacuation lifts, starting from 2018  SWEETY ADIMULAM MUMBAI The Maharashtra energy department (MED) will ask for a report from the Mumbai Fire Brigade on the number of no-objection certificates (NOCs) issued to high-rises for fire-evacuation lifts, starting from 2018, according to Uday Dambe, a MED official.  Dambe said, “We have data on 50 projects, showing that gondola lifts, mainly used to carry construction material, have been installed. Such lifts will not serve the purpose of evacuation in case of a fire. Therefore, we will ask the fire brigade to issue notices to these developers to install standard-quality lifts.” The department will also identify buildings where such poor quality lifts have been installed in name of fire evacuation lifts, he added.  The official further asserted that big developers’ projects in Worli, Kanjurmarg, have fire-evacuation lifts of substandard quality “It is so . alarming that we are already carrying out inspections of high-rise buildings,” he said.  Currently the MED has 60 , inspection engineers in Mumbai, 40 in Pune and 30 in Nashik. So far, these engineers were responsible for the inspection of regular lifts installed in buildings. Dambe said that from now on, these inspection  engineers would CONTD. ON NATION PAGE custody of Arpita. He lawyer, Niladri Bhattacharya, said that the court had said that Arpita should be quizzed in the presence of woman officers and also that she cannot be questioned between 9 pm and 6 am. CONTD. ON NATION PAGE OMICRON KIN : 48 CASES DETECTED T hirty cases of BA.4 and BA.5 Omicron variants and 18 cases of BA.75 variant were detected on Sunday in Maharashtra, as per the latest data obtained from the National Institute of Virology, Pune, and BJ medical College, Pune. According to the state public health department, of the 30 cases, 2 were of BA.4 and 28 of BA.5 variant; of the total 48 cases, 21 were from Pune, 13 from Thane, 6 from Sangli, 4 from Raigad, 2 from Kolhapur and one each from Amravati and Jalna. CONTD. ON NATION PAGE acquitted him in the sixyear-old case. The girl, her mother, her college vice-principal and the institution’s watchman had all testified as witnesses in the case. The incident had taken place on Aug 8, 2016. The victim had narrated the incident in court. The watch- The then 23-year-old had followed a teen into her classroom in 2016, pulled her bag and asked her to come with him man, who had been called by another student in the situation and had asked the accused to leave, had also deposed. The vice-principal too had identified the boy as the same youth who had come to the college that day . The court, however, said in its judgment of last month that in order to hold the youth guilty of sexual harassment, it will have to be proved that he constantly and repeatedly followed the victim with sexual intent. Special Judge under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) CONTD. ON NATION PAGE Act Anshul Parnika microbiology has always piqued my curiosity said ,” Upasana on what’s next. Speaking about the overall performance of her students, Revathi Srinivasan, Director of Education and Principal of Smt. Sulochanadevi Singhania School, said, “Our students have secured the first, second and a third rank this year at the national level. CONTD. ON NATION PAGE SMRITI NOTICE TO 3 CONG LEADERS OUR BUREAU NEW DELHI HC: PARTHA TO SHIFT TO AIIMS ‘No sexual intent’; delivery boy acquitted after 6 yrs LAST WORD 290c. 260c. The gold eluded him but with a landmark silver medal in Eugene, Olympic champion javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra still created history one more time, becoming only the second Indian and first male track and field athlete to win a medal in the World Championships. ONLINE FRAUD Union Minister Smriti Irani kept her word and served a legal notice on three Congress leaders and their party for alleging that her 18-yearold daughter was running an "illegal bar" in Goa. The notice has been sent to Pawan Khera, Jairam Ramesh and Netta D' Souza. The Union Minister has sought a written unconditional apology and withdrawal of allegations with immediate effect. "The false allegations were intended to hurt the CONTD. ON NATION PAGE Man loses ` 4L on two spurious crypto platforms Lady cheated of ` 97k while raising plaint For all those keen on investing in cryptocurrency, a note of caution – fraudulent information, fake websites and apps are afloat on the internet. A 21-year-old Kurla resident who thought he would invest in cryptocurrency to earn quick money, stumbled into two fraudulent cryptocurrency trading platforms on one of his internet rambles and ended up losing Rs 4 lakh. According to the Nehru Nagar police, on July 19, the victim came across information about two cryptocurrency trading platforms. He did some due diligence, like checking the ratings of the said companies and found these to be impressive. He then subscribed to the said trading platforms by sharing his mobile number and email ID. After some time, the victim received a WhatsApp call from a female ‘executive’ on one of the trading platforms. She informed the victim that he could get five to ten per cent returns on his investment. Later on, he received a phone call from another woman from the other trading platform, who also gave him similar information as the first caller, police said. CONTD. ON NATION PAGE A 61-year-old woman who wanted to lodge a complaint against a BEST bus which had been allegedly involved in a minor accident with her two-wheeler, lost Rs 97,000 after she corresponded with a fraudulent ‘consumer court helpline’ number that she found on the internet. The person who responded to her call, on the pretext of helping her, allegedly sent her a phishing link and eventually siphoned the money from her bank account. According to the N M Joshi Marg Police, the complainant is a resident of Tardeo and works in a private company at Lower Parel. On July 15, when she was riding her twowheeler from home to her office, a BEST bus hit her vehicle near Mahalaxmi railway station. On reaching her workplace, the victim decided to raise a complaint against the BEST bus. On the internet, she came across a ‘helpline’ number. The victim then called the said number and the person on the other side heard her complaint and then disconnected the call. Minutes later, she received a call from an unknown mobile number and the caller claimed fraudulently that it was a ‘consumer court helpline’ number and that the victim’s complaint would be addressed. CONTD. ON NATION PAGE SOMENDRA SHARMA MUMBAI SOMENDRA SHARMA MUMBAI