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By:

Quaid Najmi

4 January 2025 at 8:56:24 pm

Man gets death for minor’s rape, murder

Mumbai | Nashik: A Nashik Special Fast Track Court has awarded the death sentence to a 25-year old man who was convicted last week for luring a 4-year-old girl with a chocolate, kidnapping, raping and murdering her, here on Friday. Terming the case as the ‘rarest of rare’ crimes, the Special Judge K. D. Paldewar – who had found Vijay Sanjay Khairnar guilty of kidnap, sexual assault and murdering the child on Sep. 30 but reserved the verdict after the final arguments on Oct. 7 – pronounced the...

Man gets death for minor’s rape, murder

Mumbai | Nashik: A Nashik Special Fast Track Court has awarded the death sentence to a 25-year old man who was convicted last week for luring a 4-year-old girl with a chocolate, kidnapping, raping and murdering her, here on Friday. Terming the case as the ‘rarest of rare’ crimes, the Special Judge K. D. Paldewar – who had found Vijay Sanjay Khairnar guilty of kidnap, sexual assault and murdering the child on Sep. 30 but reserved the verdict after the final arguments on Oct. 7 – pronounced the capital punishment today. He also slapped a fine of Rs 10 lakhs as compensation to the victim’s family, hailing from Dongrale village before a packed courtroom where the villagers, the victim’s family and others were present. Emerging from the courtroom after the verdict, Special Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam told the media that “the Court had considered the gravity of the crime and the circumstantial evidence establishing Khairnar’s involvement” while deciding the sentence. The Court did not take into account the convict’s poverty – he was a daily wager – or illiteracy as grounds for leniency, added the ace criminal lawyer. It was on Nov. 16, 2025 in Dongrale village of Malegaon taluka when Khairnar lured the little girl on the promise of giving her a chocolate and took her to a desolate spot to carry out his devious plans. Betraying the trust of the child who used to call him ‘dada’ (elder brother) due to their acquaintance, Khairnar sexually assaulted her, killed her and abandoned her before decamping from there. A few hours later, the child’s body was found dumped in a nullah and the police were summoned. As details of the gruesome crime tumbled out and spread, it ignited widespread public outrage all over the state. The police swung into action, formed several probe teams and managed to track down Khairnar from his hideout within a few hours. Considering the sensitivity of the crime, the strong emotions plus the mass furore it created, the state government assigned the case to a fast-track court, assigned Nikam as the SPP and the matter was heard speedily. The SPP aggressively led the prosecution, arguing in the court that in view of the gravity of the crime, the circumstances leading to it and other aspects, it warranted the severest punishment – death – for Khairnar, irrespective of his age or financial status. The Dongrale villagers stood in solidarity with the victim’s family and they raised a chorus for quick investigations, an expeditious trial and slapping the death penalty on the convict to serve as a strong deterrent to potential offenders. As per the Indian law, the trial court’s verdict will now go to the Bombay High Court for confirmation. Political leaders from different parties hailed the court verdict and said “justice has finally been done to the victim’s family”.

First resignation in Sena (UBT) over Waqf Act

Correspondent
Apr 10, 2025
2 min read

Mumbai: In a significant development, a Shiv Sena (UBT) leader has resigned from the party citing differences with the party leadership over the party’s stand on the new Waqf (Amendment) Law.


Solapur deputy city chief of Shiv Sena (UBT) Omkar Chavan, on Thursday, announced that he is leaving the party due to differences with the party leadership over the Waqf amendment law. In a video gone viral over social media Chavan is seen tearing apart a photograph of party chief Uddhav Thackeray and blaming him for the anti-Hindu stand while announcing his resignation from the party post and membership.


“Shiv Sena was a staunch Hindu party till Balasaheb was alive. Now it has turned into Mughal Sena,” Chavan said as he announced his resignation. “Uddhav Thackeray has been supporting the Muslim community and is paying no heed to the Hindutva stand that his father Balasaheb Thackeray always adhered to. I condemn this and hence I resign from the post as well as membership of the party,” Chavan added.


“Several Hindu temples have been looted with the help of the faulty Waqf legislations till now. The new amendment does away with such a possibility and hence the party should have supported the Bill in the parliament. But they didn’t do that and exposed the anti-Hindu agenda. I cannot tolerate this. This amounts to betraying Hindus,” Chavan rued while elaborating reasons behind his decision to quit the party.


While Shiv Sena (UBT) MPs Arvind Sawant and Sanjay Raut aggressively opposed the Bill in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha respectively last week as per the party line defined by the leadership, a major chunk within the party doesn’t concur the line. “There are many like me who do not agree with the party line to oppose the bill at all. I have resigned today. Many such resignations are likely to follow soon,” Chavan concluded.


While Raut had, in his speech in Rajya Sabha, said that in future all Waqf land will go to the “industrialist friends” of the BJP and added that the BJP should not speak on poverty and claimed that money spent by it ahead of last year’s assembly elections was equivalent to the budget of Maharashtra; his party leader Uddhav Thackeray had stated that his party decided to oppose the Waqf amendment bill because the BJP planned to grab land under the pretext of amendments in the Waqf act.


Former Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Nirupam, however, had stated that the Shiv Sena (UBT) MPs were forced to vote against the bill.

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