AI generated image New Delhi: An alleged Rs 200-crore donation theft scandal at the Shri Ram Temple in Ayodhya has sparked an intensive investigation after two individuals were detained and large sums of cash were reportedly recovered. With six people now under scrutiny, the controversy has evolved into a major political and administrative issue. The alleged financial irregularities came to light following a routine audit and scrutiny of CCTV footage at the temple. The contro

The death of Twisha Sharma has reignited uncomfortable questions about dowry, domestic abuse and family power structures. Last week, scrolling through some reels on my cell phone trying to find out more about the Twisha Sharma case, I came across a reel on Kiran Bedi’s views on the girl’s tragic end. For some reason, the reel was dubbed in Bengali. I was shocked at what Kiran Bedi said. She questioned why at all did Twisha Sharma, all of 33, well-educated with a career to fal

The death of a young concertgoer has exposed uncomfortable questions about drugs and the hidden costs of Mumbai’s nightlife boom. Mumbai has long prided itself on being India’s city that never sleeps. From luxury lounges and music festivals to celebrity concerts and exclusive nightlife experiences, the city has cultivated an entertainment culture that attracts thousands of young people every weekend. However, recent incidents have once again raised uncomfortable questions abo

A shocking double murder case in Badlapur's Juveli village has sent shockwaves across the city after the blood-soaked bodies of a woman and an Ola driver were discovered inside a locked car. The investigation took a dramatic turn when the woman's three-year-old son, who was reportedly present inside the vehicle during the incident, allegedly told police that "the driver uncle killed my mother." However, the circumstances surrounding the death of the Ola driver remain unclear,

Three weeks after issuing InterPol Notice Ganesh Balaso Kale Mumbai: In one of the swiftest international manhunts in recent years, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), working in close coordination with multiple Indian and foreign agencies, secured the deportation of notorious cybercrime accused Ganesh Balaso Kale from Thailand to Mumbai - barely 21 days after an Interpol Red Corner Notice (RCN) was issued against him. Absconding since nearly a year, Kale was wanted

The Pune police’s crackdown on nightlife and assemblies exposes the uneasy nexus between crime, politics and public security AI generated image Pune: Pune likes to think of itself as Maharashtra’s cultured capital, a city of students, software engineers and retirees. But in the past decade or so, that reputation has taken a beating with the city increasingly turning into a netherworld where criminal gangs operate with growing audacity and where citizens are no longer certain

How my family was pushed into mental and financial trauma During my wife Vrushali’s pregnancy, I witnessed the apathy of the government hospital in Ulhasnagar. The hospital had two operation theatres, yet both were reportedly kept closed simultaneously. The modular operation theatre remained shut from August 21, 2024 to February 20, 2026 while the second operation theatre was also closed for renovation work for several months. I could not understand how a government maternity

Dombivli: Police have detained 24 Nigerian nationals from a high-profile society in the Khoni-Palava area of Dombivli. The detained foreign nationals are originally from Ghana and Uganda in South Africa. Police are investigating whether the detained Nigerians have any connection with drug trafficking. The major action was carried out through a joint combing operation conducted by Thane and Navi Mumbai Police between 3 am and 10 am. During the operation, a Nigerian woman all

Ulhasnagar: Tension prevailed in the Camp-5 area of Kailash Colony on Friday evening following the brutal double murder of two brothers in a broad daylight firing incident that has triggered outrage among local residents and the victims’ family members. Relatives of the deceased staged a sit-in protest on the main road, refusing to accept the bodies until all the accused are arrested. The bodies of brothers Anil Harkesh Chouhan (22) and Aman Harkesh Chouhan (17) were brought

The NEET scandal exposes the commercial ruin of Pune’s academic legacy. For generations, Pune wore its scholarly reputation with great pride. It was known by its famous sobriquets - Vidyeche Maherghar (“abode of learning”) and ‘Oxford of the East’. Students from across the country flocked to its colleges and libraries. Reformers built schools there not for profit but for social transformation. Teachers once commanded the sort of reverence now reserved for celebrities and poli

How CBI breached Shivraj Motegaonkar’s unscathed coaching empire Mumbai: For over two decades, Shivraj Raghunath Motegaonkar, affectionately and fearfully known as “M Sir” across Maharashtra’s education hubs, built an empire that seemed untouchable. Today, that aura of invincibility was shattered when the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) formally arrested him in connection with the nationwide NEET-UG 2026 paper leak case, following a grueling 11-hour interrogation and a

Mumbai: AIMIM President Asaduddin Owaisi has flayed what he termed as a ‘media trial’ in the alleged TCS Nashik conversion case and claimed that educated Muslims youth are being deliberately targeted as part of planned ‘hate campaign’, here on Saturday. Reiterating full faith in the judicial process, Owaisi said that justice cannot be handed out through media narratives or television debates and the law must be allowed to take its own course. “We are seeing a very dangerous t

The rape and murder of a four-year-old girl has left Maharashtra grieving and demanding accountability from a system that failed to stop a known offender. She was only four years old. She was spending her summer holidays at her grandmother’s house in Nasrapur, a quiet village in the Bhor area of Pune district. She liked playing outside. On the afternoon of May 1, 2026, a 65-year-old man from the same village walked up to her and said he would show her a calf. She smiled and f

Mumbai: A Nashik Sessions Court – which declined anticipatory bail to a woman employee of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) in an alleged conversion case – has observed that the charges against her point to a ‘systematic and organised attempt’ to influence and push a female Dalit colleague towards changing her religion. Additional Sessions Judge K. G. Joshi said that the nature of accusations against the accused – Nida Ejaz Khan – pointed to a deliberated pattern rather than an

In giving voice to a mother who understands her son’s rebellion too late, Mahasweta Devi transforms private grief into collective conscience. This is the centenary year of Mahasweta Devi, remembered as a fearless chronicler of India’s marginalised communities who fused literature with activism. Through stories that unsettled conscience and demanded justice, she gave voice to Adivasis and the oppressed. One of her major works, Mother of 1084, remains a searing indictment of st

Lawyer reclaims grabbed properties, exposes administrative lapses Advocate Sanjeev Deshpande Mumbai: In Bhusaval, a glaring example of what is being termed ‘Land Jihad’ has recently been brought to light, exposing a systematic grab of prime real estate worth hundreds of crores. At the center of this revelation is a hard-fought legal victory that successfully vacated ill-intentioned occupants from a plush property, prompting urgent calls for the administration to remain vigila

From concert floors to coastal routes, Maharashtra’s drug problem is no longer easy to ignore In 1971’s ‘Hare Rama Hare Krishna,’ Asha Bhosle’s languid rendition of the song ‘Dum Maro Dum’ gave Indian cinema one of its earliest, stylised encounters with narcotics. The Dev Anand-directed film itself was perhaps the first to deal starkly with the corrosive effects of drugs. Either way, for years, such portrayals seemed distant from Maharashtra’s reality. Drugs, to the extent th

Thane’s health department faces allegations of blatant violation of norms Dr. Kailas Pawar Thane: Serious allegations of corruption and administrative irregularities have surfaced in the District Government Hospital with Civil Surgeon Dr. Kailas Pawar at the center of a controversy. Dr. Pawar has remained in the same post from last nine years raising major concerns over transparency and governance. A section of the employees has demanded to forma a Special Investigation Team

The Nashik IT scandal is forcing India’s tech industry to confront failures of power and protection. In the first week of this month, the Nashik city police registered nine cases involving attempt to religious conversion, sexual harassment and harassment at the workplace, all centred on a local branch of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS). The nine accused, including seven men and two women, held positions of authority such as team leaders and are alleged to have misused their r

The TCS Nashik scandal reveals a profound institutional failure where HR inaction turned a marquee workplace into a site of sustained abuse. Imagine getting your first big job at a famous company. You are young, excited, and full of hope. That is exactly how hundreds of young women felt when Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) opened its Nashik center in March 2016. For many of them, it was the start of a bright future. But for some of those women, the workplace became a nightmar