Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and former Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray with Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann

Mumbai: Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party national convener Arvind Kejriwal on Friday met Shiv Sena (UBT) head Uddhav Thackeray at the latter’s residence in Bandra here.

Kejriwal was accompanied by his colleague and Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann, Rajya Sabha MPs Sanjay Singh and Raghav Chadha during the visit to ‘Matoshree’.

Talking to reporters after the meeting, the Delhi Chief Minister expressed confidence that Thackeray will win all future elections.

Queried on whether AAP would align with Shiv Sena (UBT), Kejriwal said, “You will get to know when elections are announced.”

Thackeray said the discussion revolved around how to strengthen the country.

The meeting assumes significance as the Election Commission had recently allotted the ‘Shiv Sena’ name and ‘bow and arrow’ symbol to the faction headed by Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.

Shinde’s rebellion in June last year had split the Sena and brought down the Maha Vikas Aghadi government of Thackeray. Shinde became CM with the support of the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Incidentally, the AAP has said it would contest the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation polls, which are due since early last year.

The undivided Sena had led the country’s richest civic body for several years now, while the AAP wrested the Municipal Corporation of Delhi from the BJP recently.

Both Thackeray and Kejriwal are bitter critics of the BJP.

Prayagraj (UP): Umesh Pal, the prime witness in the 2005 Raju Pal murder case, was shot dead Friday evening at his residence here, police said.

Prayagraj Police Commissioner Ramit Sharma told reporters that Umesh Pal was attacked with crude bombs and shot outside his house this evening. Two of his gunners too were injured in the attack.

Both the gunners were provided by the government for Pal’s security.

Umesh was the prime witness of the 2005 murder of Bahujan Samaj Party MLA Raju Pal. The main accused in the Raju Pal murder is mafia-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed, who is currently lodged in a Gujarat Jail.

A severely injured Umesh Pal was rushed to Swaroop Rani Nehru Hospital where he succumbed during treatment, police said.

The condition of one of the gunners injured in the attack remains critical and he has been put on ventilator while the other gunner is being operated upon by doctors, police said.

Sharma said that efforts are being made to identify the attackers on the basis of CCTV footage of the area.

“The incident occurred right outside the house of Umesh Pal. So far it has been confirmed that two bombs were thrown and he was fired at by a small firearm,” said Sharma.

A case was registered at the Dhoomanganj Police Station on the complaint of the family members of the victim.

“We have formed eight police teams to investigate every aspect of the incident and arrest those behind the attack,” the officer

Bhopal: The death toll in the accident in which a cement-laden truck hit three buses parked on the side of a road on the Rewa-Satna border in Madhya Pradesh has gone up to 14, which also left at least 60 persons injured, officials said on Saturday.

The accident occurred around 9 pm on Friday outside a tunnel near Barkhada village and people in the buses were returning from the ‘Kol Mahakumbh’ in Satna city, they said.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah had addressed the event in Satna earlier on Friday on the occasion of Shabri Mata Jayanti.

“Fourteen persons were killed and 60 others were injured. Of the injured persons, the condition of three is very serious

Talking to reporters after meeting the injured persons at the Rewa Medical College Hospital late Friday night, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said the cement-laden truck hit three buses parked on the roadside as it veered off following a tyre burst.

Because of the impact of the collision a bus fell on one side, while another one overturned on the other side causing injuries to the passengers, he said.

Terming the incident as “very unfortunate”, Chouhan said that if necessary, patients will be airlifted outside Rewa for better treatment.

The chief minister announced a financial assistance of Rs 10 lakh to the kin of those killed in the accident, and also said that government jobs will also be offered to the kin of the deceased persons.

Those who suffered serious injuries will be given Rs 2 lakh, while other injured will be offered Rs one lakh compensation.

Benefits of several welfare schemes will also be given to the kin of the deceased, he said.

Eyewitnesses said that the truck hit the buses from behind and one of the buses overturned and fell into a ditch.

The accident took place near Mohania tunnel around 9 pm when the buses had stopped for distribution of food packets to the passengers returning after attending the Mahakumbh, they said.

Rajora said top officials, including collectors and superintendents of police of Sidhi and Rewa districts reached the spot.

Chouhan has directed officials to supervise the treatment of the injured persons and asked them to keep the Rewa Medical College and Sidhi District Hospital on alert, he said.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah expressed grief over the accident in a tweet.

Barabanki (UP): A police personnel deputed in the security of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Adityanath died after he accidentally shot himself in the head with his service revolver, police said.

The incident took place on Friday. The deceased, Sandeep Yadav, was scheduled to join duty on Saturday, Additional Superintendent of Police Ashutosh Mishra said.

“Yadav was cleaning his revolver at his house located within the Masauli police station limits when the gun accidentally got fired. The bullet hit him on the head and he died on the spot,” the officer said.

Yadav’s body was sent for post mortem and the matter is being investigated, police said.

Mumbai: The Union government has approved the renaming of Maharashtra’s Aurangabad city as ‘Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar’ and that of Osmanabad city as ‘Dharashiv’.

Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis shared the news on Twitter on Friday.

Aurangabad derives its name from Mughal emperor Aurangzeb, while Osmanabad was named for a 20th century ruler of the princely state of Hyderabad.

Chhatrapati Sambhaji, the eldest son of warrior king Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, was the second ruler of the Maratha state founded by his father. Sambhaji Maharaj was executed on Aurangzeb’s orders in 1689.

Dharashiv, the name of a cave complex near Osmanabad, dates back to the 8th century according to some scholars. Hindu right-wing organisations had been demanding renaming of the two cities for long.

Fadnavis tweeted two letters from the Ministry of Home Affairs to the deputy secretary of the state General Administration Department dated February 24.

The letters stated that the Centre had no objection to the change in the names of these two central Maharashtra cities.

Fadnavis thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah for the decision.

The state government headed by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde ‘did what was promised ‘, he said.

Notably, to rename Aurangabad as Sambhajinagar and Osmanabad as Dharashiv was the last cabinet decision of the Shiv Sena-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP)-Congress government, which collapsed last June following Shinde’s rebellion against Uddhav Thackeray.

The new government headed by Shinde scrapped the cabinet decision and took a fresh decision.

Reacting to the news, Aurangabad MP and All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) leader Imtiaz Jaleel tweeted that they will show their strength for Aurangabad.

“Aurangabad is, was and will always be our city. Now wait for our show of strength for Aurangabad. A massive morcha for our beloved city! Get ready Aurangabadis to defeat these forces (BJP) playing politics in the name of our city. We condemn & we will fight,” he tweeted.

Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Ambadas Danve said the renaming was a victory of Shiv Sena founder late Bal Thackeray’s stand.

Danve, leader of opposition in the Maharashtra Legislative Council, tweeted that Thackeray had “renamed” the city of Aurangabad as Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar way back on May 9, 1988.

“The name of the person (Aurangzeb) who broke the temple of Kashi Vishweshwar has been erased,” he wrote.

Nava Raipur: Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and former AICC chief Sonia Gandhi will address leaders here, as well as political, economic and international affairs resolutions will be deliberated upon at the party’s 85th plenary session Saturday.

At the start of the second day of the three-day conclave, the Congress president will release a book and party general secretaries will submit their respective reports.

After this Kharge will address the gathering.

A “thanksgiving” statement for former Congress president Sonia Gandhi will also be read out at the session following which she will deliver her address.

The delegates will then deliberate upon the political, economic and international affairs resolutions, according to the programme shared by the party.

On the first day of the session, the Congress steering committee unanimously decided not to hold elections to the CWC and authorised the party chief to nominate its members.

The decision was taken at the Kharge-led steering committee meeting which members of the Gandhi family skipped.

Later in the day, the party’s subjects committee held its first meeting in which Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi were also present soon after they arrived here late Friday afternoon. The meeting saw deliberations on the six resolutions to be adopted at the session.

The session, which comes in the backdrop of the Bharat Jodo Yatra that has been touted as a success by the party, is being attended by around 15,000 delegates.

Balasor: A senior official of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) was arrested on Friday for allegedly sharing secret information related to India’s defence sector with a Pakistani spy, the Odisha Police said.

The 57-year-old official was posted at the DRDO’s Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur in Odisha’s Balasore district, it said.

Chandipur has two DRDO test ranges — PXE (Proof and Experimental Establishment) and ITR. India evaluates the performances of its missiles, rockets and air-borne weapons systems at these two ranges.

“A senior employee of ITR-Chandipur has been arrested. He managed to transmit some sensitive information regarding missile tests to a foreign agent,” said Himansu Kumar Lal, the Inspector-General of Police (Eastern Range).

The official was arrested on the basis of a complaint filed at the Chandipur police station, he said.

The details of the information he shared could be ascertained after a thorough interrogation, said Balasore’s Superintendent of Police (SP) Sagarika Nath.

A case has been filed against him under IPC sections 120A and 120B (criminal conspiracy), besides the Official Secrets Act, police said.

He was allegedly sharing sensitive defence-related information with a Pakistani agent for “sexual as well as monetary gratification”, they said.

WhatsApp chats and sexually explicit photos and videos were found in his phone, which was seized, they added.

In September 2021, five contractual employees of ITR-Chandipur were arrested in another espionage case.

A contractual employee of ITR-Chandipur was arrested in a similar case in 2015. He was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2021 for sharing information with Pakistan’s ISI.

CHENNAI:  In yet another development in the Shraddha Walkar murder case, a Delhi Court on Friday said it will hear on Mach 7 the arguments on charges against the accused and her live-in partner Aaftab Amin Poonawala.

Poonawala was accused of killing Walkar on May 18 last year. He then chopped her body into several pieces and kept it in a fridge for almost three weeks at his South Delhi residence before disposing of them in various locations in the city, as per the cops. The next hearing was fixed by the court after the accused was produced before Additional Sessions Judge Manisha Khurana Kakkar at Saket court in the city.

The Poonawala (28) was charged with various sections including 302 (murder) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of an offence or giving false information to screen offender) and  365 (kidnapping) under IPC. On February 7, the court had taken cognisance of the 6,629-page voluminous charge sheet filed by the police on January 24.

The chargesheet was filed 73 days after Aaftab was arrested on November 12, 2022, six months after he had allegedly committed the heinous crime. His arrest was followed by Shraddha’s father’s complaint about her missing after learning from her friends that they were unable to contact her for over two-and-a-half months.

Poonawala was arrested by the Delhi Police on November 12. The charge sheet, accessed by TNIE, revealed the extent of the barbarity of the crime. “To get rid of Shraddha, once in all, I sat on her chest and choked her till the time she was dead…,” the confession of accused Aaftab in the chargesheet read.