Maharashtra

Mumbai, Dec 23 (PTI) Persons accused of sexual offences against minor victims should be "mercilessly and inexorably punished", the Bombay High Court said while upholding the conviction of a 29-year-old man for raping a five-year-old girl.

A single bench of Justice Prithviraj Chavan on Friday dismissed an appeal filed by Sagar Dhuri, challenging a special court order of June 2018 convicting him for sexually assaulting the victim and sentencing him to ten years in jail.

Mumbai, Dec 23 (PTI) NCP chief Sharad Pawar on Monday said he was surprised by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's comment that his government never discussed a nationwide National Register of Citizens (NRC).

Pawar said President Ram Nath Kovind had talked about the government's plan to implement NRC across the country in his joint address to Parliament.

Even Home Minister Amit Shah had also spoken on this issue in Rajya Sabha, Pawar told reporters here.

Latur, Dec 23 (PTI) Social activists, political workers and people from different walks of life on Monday took out a peaceful march demanding scrapping of the amended citizenship law and boycott of the proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC) here in central Maharashtra.

The march, with the theme 'Sanvidhan Bachao, Desh Bachao' (Save the Constitution, Save the country), was organised under the banner Amhi Laturkar (we, residents of Latur) and comes amid nationwide protests against the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) and the NRC.

Nagpur, Dec 22 (PTI) Union minister Nitin Gadkari on Sunday asserted that the Citizenship (Amendment) Act is not against the Muslim community in India.

He said by bringing the new law, the NDA government was not doing any injustice to Muslims in the country.

Gadkari also accused the Congress of spreading "misinformation" over the issue for 'vote bank politics'.

Pune, Dec 21 (PTI) NCP chief Sharad Pawar on Saturday said that like eight other states, Maharashtra should also refuse implementation of the new citizenship law, which he feared would hurt the religious and social harmony of India.

Dubbing the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC) "ploys" by the Centre to "divert attention" from serious issues plaguing the country, Pawar expressed apprehension that the Centre might dismiss the state governments opposing the new citizenship law.

Beed, Dec 19 (PTI) A 43-year-old sports teacher has been arrested for allegedly raping a class nine student in Maharashtra's Beed district, police said on Thursday.

The Ambejogai police on Wednesday arrested Shyam Digamber Waarkad, who works as a sports teacher at a local school, an official said.

The incident took place on October 27, when the accused took two girls from the school for a sports meet in Jalna district, he said.

Thane, Dec 17 (PTI) A school teacher and two others were arrested for allegedly raping a 14-year-old girl in Ulhasnagar in Maharashtra's Thane district, police said on Tuesday.

A Hill Line police station official identified the arrested persons as Ulhasnagar residents Akshay Jadhav (19), Chandrakant Bhoir (33), and Ajit Sargar (19) from Solapur.

Nagpur, Dec 18 (PTI) Maharashtra BJP legislators, including former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, visited the Dr Hedgewar Smruti Mandir in Reshimbaug area of Nagpur on Wednesday morning.

The lawmakers, who are currently in Nagpur to attend the ongoing winter session of the state legislature, paid tributes at the memorial of RSS founder K B Hedgewar, a Sangh functionary to PTI.

They were welcomed at a programme held in the premises and later shown a short film on the memorial.

Nagpur, Dec 16 (PTI) Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Monday night said the Shiv Sena will remain "Hindutva-vadi" (pro-Hindu) and that it has not "converted", as far as the ideology is concerned.

Addressing a gathering of Shiv Sena workers in Nagpur, Thackeray, who heads the party, said the BJP-led Central government seemingly had no idea on where and how to settle Hindus and other immigrants who are set to get Indian citizenship under the new law (CAA).

Pune, Dec 17 (PTI) Students of the Fergusson College in Maharashtra's Pune city took out a rally on the campus on Tuesday and held a signature campaign against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC).

They had earlier sought permission from Pune police to stage a protest and conduct a signature campaign at the main gate of the college, but it was denied, Santosh Rasve, a student from the college, said.