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

Mumbai: The alleged sensational sex scandal in Amravati took a political turn with the Maharashtra State Minorities Commission (MSMC) rubbishing what it termed as ‘grossly exaggerated’ claims about the number of suspected victims and their videos circulating on the sordid incident. MSMC Chairman Pyare Khan said a fact-finding team sent to Amravati has completed its probe and found “there are only eight victims”, including a couple of minors, all belonging to the minority com

Achalpur Municipal Council serves ‘bulldozer justice’ Mumbai: Amid growing public outrage in Vidarbha, police in Amravati arrested three associates of the prime accused, 19 year old Ayan Ahmed Tanveer in the scandal involving recording and circulation of obscene videos of young women. The police also formed a 47-member Special Investigation Team even as authorities say preliminary inquiries point to a large cache of material and possible involvement of minors, prompting a rap

Stands accused of recording and circulating objectionable photographs and videos of over 180 minor girls AI generated image Mumbai: The BJP has demanded that the illegal residence of the accused in the Paratwada case, Ayan Ahmed Tanveer Ahmed be razed even as the police arrested the 19-year-old man on Monday. A massive social media exploitation scandal rocked Paratwada in Amravati district following the arrest of Ayan Ahmed Tanveer Ahmed. He was arrested for allegedly recordi

Kisan Kathore Ambernath : A major controversy has erupted in the Ambernath–Badlapur region of Thane district after jailed gangster Ejaz Lakdawala alleged that BJP Murbad MLA Kisan Kathore was linked to a contract killing plot targeting businessman Vishwanath Panvelkar. In a letter sent from Mumbai’s Arthur Road Jail on March 30 to Thane–Badlapur police, Lakdawala claimed he was approached to carry out a murder, triggering a massive political and criminal uproar across the dis

Godman sexually exploited vulnerable women with ‘divine power and death’ threat Mumbai: The Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the sprawling criminal empire of self-styled godman Ashok Kharat held its first press conference on Tuesday signalling a decisive turn in a case that has sent shockwaves across Maharashtra. Speaking from the center of the investigation, SIT Chief and IPS officer Tejaswi Satpute broke the silence to detail a harrowing pattern of sexual exploitati

Mumbai: As outrage continues across the state over the revival ‘babas’ and ‘buwas’ – self-styled fake godmen on the rampage targeting people, especially women, a social activist has called for a crackdown on this scourge by the government, coupled with awareness and grassroots support at the village-levels. Towards this end, Mahatma Phule Samaj Seva Mandal (MPSSM) chief Pramod Zinjade submitted a memorandum to the Rural Development Ministry seeking a state-supported initiativ

Police recover seven guns, 371 cartridges from hidden cache Dombivli: A 55-year-old builder known for his ‘gangster-style’ reels has once again been arrested after police recovered a massive cache of illegal weapons from his residence. The accused, Surendra Pandurang Chaudhary alias Patil, was taken into custody following a joint operation by the Thane Crime Branch and Manpada Police, who raided his bungalow in Dawdi and uncovered arms hidden in a secret compartment near a sh

Mumbai: Sharpening knives, several women political and social leaders called on the Nashik Commissioner of Police Sandeep Karnik and Special Investigation Team (SIT) chief Tejaswi Satpute, seeking action against several bigwigs allegedly linked with the Ashokkumar Eknath Kharat scandal that has scalded Maharashtra politics. A delegation led by Shiv Sena (UBT) Deputy Leader Sushama Andhare, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Rupali Patil-Thombare, Sangeeta Tiwari of Biti

Mumbai: The Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing self-styled godman Ashok Kharat has widened its investigation, turning the spotlight on his financial empire with a detailed scrutiny of bank accounts held by him, his family and close associates. Investigators have so far identified five bank accounts linked to Kharat across major lenders: State Bank of India, Union Bank of India, ICICI Bank, Saraswat Bank and Vishwas Cooperative Bank. These accounts hold deposits totallin

Mumbai: In a high-voltage courtroom packed with tension, the Nashik Sessions Court extended the police custody of fake godman Ashokkumar Eknath Kharat till March 29, as investigators sought time to probe shocking leads pointing at suspected human sacrifices and huge wealth besides the alleged sexual exploitation crimes. In a startling revelation, the police said that they recovered a black revolver with 21 bullets from his Mirgaon farmhouse, but five shells are missing. The

‘Pami Guru’ wows followers with MPs and police at darbar Kalyan: Following the high-profile Ashok Kharat case in Nashik, the emergence of the ‘Pami Guru’ scandal in Kalyan has sent shockwaves across the state. Allegations of blind faith, financial exploitation, and potential political-police collusion have intensified public concern. Viral videos circulating on social media show the self-styled transgender spiritual leader, known as ‘Pami Guru,’ flaunting a luxurious life