Ahmedabad:

Police on Thursday registered a First Information Report (FIR) against BJP workers over a clash outside the Congress’ office in the Paldi area here.

The offence was registered hours after the opposition party threatened to launch a stir if no action was taken over Tuesday’s incidents.

The BJP had protested outside the Congress office on Tuesday over the alleged anti-Hindu remarks of Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi.

“We have taken a complaint from Congress and registered an FIR. No one has been arrested yet,” said Inspector B D Jhilaria of Ellisbridge police station.

Earlier in the day, Gujarat Congress president Shaktisinh Gohil threatened to launch a protest claiming that police were not registering an FIR against BJP workers even after various pieces of evidence established that they were involved in the attack.

Rahul Gandhi may visit Ahmedabad on July 6 and meet the Congress workers who stood their ground when stones were hurled at them, he said.

The state unit of the party has already extended an invitation to Gandhi and was confident that he will accept, Mr Gohil added.

A clash broke out between BJP and Congress workers outside Rajiv Gandhi Bhavan, Congress’s state headquarters, on Tuesday after BJP youth wing members reached there to protest against Rahul Gandhi’s remarks in his maiden speech as Leader of Opposition.

According to police, both sides engaged in stone pelting in which five policemen including an Assistant Commissioner of Police were injured.

On Wednesday, Ellisbridge police registered two FIRs, and arrested five Congress workers under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) for offences including unlawful assembly, rioting, endangering life or personal safety of others and causing hurt to an on-duty public servant.

While the first FIR was registered against nearly 450 workers of both Congress and BJP on the basis of a complaint given by injured police constable Karmraj Bhagvatsinh, the other was based on a complaint filed by the youth wing of the BJP’s Ahmedabad unit.

On Thursday, hours after Gohil threatened to launch a stir, police registered another FIR against 15 BJP workers and a mob of 100 to 150 persons.

It was based on a complaint filed by working president of the Gujarat Congress, Himmatsinh Patel.

BJP’s youth wing workers threw stones at Congress workers, injuring a few, the complaint alleged.

The FIR registered on the basis of the complaint given by constable Karmraj Bhagvatsinh named local Congress leader and Leader of Opposition in the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation Shehzad Khan Pathan and fellow party workers Pragati Ahir and Hetaben Parikh as accused besides a mob of some 250 Congress workers and 200 BJP workers.

It was Congress workers who first charged at BJP activists after being incited by some Congress leaders, and when police tried to stop them, the mob started throwing stones and thick wooden sticks towards BJP activists, it claimed.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

At the heart of the tragic billboard collapse in Mumbai, which claimed 16 lives, was an advertising agency, Ego Media Pvt Ltd, that had installed the fateful structure. The owner of the company, Bhavesh Bhinde, managed to evade police for 3 days, but was finally arrested from Udaipur.

He was arrested after an extensive manhunt spanning three states.

The collapse of the 120 feet by 120 feet billboard claimed the lives of 16 and left 75 others injured. The catastrophic incident, which occurred amidst strong winds and unseasonal rains, prompted swift action from law enforcement agencies.

Video | 16 Seconds Of Horror, When Mumbai Billboard Crushed Petrol Pump

https://t.co/FM129UZb0epic.twitter.com/NYWMcu981X

— NDTV (@ndtv) May 16, 2024

Following his realization that the police were closing in on him, Bhavesh Bhinde fled, setting off a pursuit that led through various cities. To evade capture, he kept changing his location and assumed a false identity.

His flight led authorities to Lonavala, Thane, and Ahmedabad before finally ending in Udaipur, where he was found hiding in a hotel under an assumed name. He would be in a new city every time the cops closed in on him, and Mumbai Police had to deploy eight teams, which worked round the clock, to track Bhinde.

The team revealed that Bhavesh Bhinde, upon learning of the impending police action, initially fled to Lonavala before returning to Mumbai the next day. Subsequently, he traveled to Thane, but continued his elusive journey to Ahmedabad, ultimately seeking refuge in a hotel in Udaipur, where he was finally nabbed by the Crime Branch.

He was finally caught after the investigation team utilised a combination of technical expertise and human intelligence.

The Udaipur operation was so discreet that even the local police were not informed that a team was in town to catch Bhinde.

“The operation was a top secret, and even the Udaipur police did not know about it,” said an official on the investigating team.

The hoarding collapsed onto a nearby petrol pump in the Chhedanagar area in Ghatkopar during gusty winds and heavy unseasonal rains, killing 16 people and injuring 75 others.

This incident has highlighted severe lapses in the regulatory oversight of advertising installations in Mumbai, sparking calls for stricter enforcement of safety standards.

Ahmedabad:

Emails threatening blasts sent to at least 36 Ahmedabad-based schools on the eve of the May 7 voting have been traced to Pakistan, the police said on Friday, labelling them as an attempt to spread fear among the people ahead of polling.

Lok Sabha elections for 25 of the 26 seats in Gujarat were held in a single phase on May 7. The candidate in Surat has already won unopposed.

“The emails were sent from the ‘mail.ru’ domain, in which a man impersonating himself as Tauheed Liaquat sent them to all the schools to spread fear among voters and Indian citizens,” the Ahmedabad crime branch said in a press statement.

Liaquat had also assumed another identity as Hamad Javed. The person with these names was operating from Faisalabad district of Pakistan, Joint Commissioner of Police Sharad Singhal said.

The same person has created various identities on different social media platforms, one of them being that of Hamad Javed. These social media platforms are used to spread anti-India messages, rumours and fear among Indians, he said.

“It is possible that the name was created to spread fear and rumour. But one thing is certain the emails were sent using the mail.ru domain and the location was traced to the Faisalabad cantonment area in Pakistan,” he said.

The name of this accused has also been revealed during a honeytrap investigation by another agency, the official said.

Further investigation is underway and agencies like the Intelligence Bureau (IB), Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS), National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO) and Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) have been contacted, Singhal said.

Several of the 36 schools that had received the threat email from the Russian domain ‘mail.ru’ were designated as polling booths.

The email was received on May 6, a day before the voting in the city where Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah exercised their franchise.

The content of the email was similar to the one sent to schools in Delhi recently. It was sent using the Russian domain ‘mail.ru’, and no explosive or anything suspicious was found after the schools were searched.

A technical surveillance was then initiated to trace the sender of the email, said the official.

The schools that received the threat email included DPS and Anand Niketan in Bopal, Udgam School on SG Highway, Calorx School in Ghatlodia, Kendriya Vidyalaya at Chandkheda and Army Cantonment on Airport Road. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

A woman wanted to satiate her food cravings and ordered a Paneer Tikka sandwich from an eatery through a food-delivery app. Her dinner arrived from ‘Pick Up Meals by Terra’ in Gujarat’s Ahmedabad. But instead of a Paneer Tikka sandwich, the restaurant delivered a sandwich with chicken.

Nirali, a pure vegetarian by choice, ordered from her office in Ahmedabad’s Science City on May 3. After a few bites, she felt the paneer was harder than usual. She thought it was soya, but it turned out to be chicken. The woman has never eaten non-vegetarian food and has now filed a complaint against the eatery seeking damages.

The woman has written to the Deputy Health Officer of Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation, filing a complaint against the eatery. 

Meanwhile, the Food Department has imposed a Rs 5,000 fine against the restaurant but the woman told India Today, “The incident was very dreadful and it can’t be reversed. Rs 5,000 fine is not enough and I will go to the consumer court.”

The woman said she would approach the consumer court to seek justice and said she had asked for compensation of Rs 50 lakh. “I could’ve asked for more but even that wouldn’t have served justice to what I felt,” she said. There is no response from the restaurant yet in the incident. 

Meanwhile, people have criticised her online for her demands but the woman said she is doing it for the youth who face such experiences and don’t know about their rights. However, some people have supported her decision to seek Rs 50 lakh as compensation.

– With Inputs from Ravi Bakola
 

In a novel gesture by the Indian Cricket Board (BCCI) has hosted 12,000 cancer and thalassemia patients as “special invitees” during the IPL match between Gujarat Titans and Delhi Capitals in Ahmedabad.

The Rishabh Pant-led side raced to a six-wicket win after bundling out the home team for their lowest ever IPL total of 89 at the Narendra Modi Stadium on Wednesday.

In a drive to raise awareness about cancer and thalassemia, the BCCI secretary Jay Shah welcomed the “special invitees”, including blood donors and blood donation camp organizers, stated a release.

“This extraordinary gesture will go a long way in raising awareness about cancer and thalassemia, and the challenges faced by those living with this condition,” it stated.

“It also provided the individuals with a much-needed day of fun and entertainment. The excited happy faces were clearly visible, cheering for their favourite teams leading to a unique atmosphere of joy and camaraderie never seen before at the stadium,” it added.

Ahmedabad:

Two persons who used to travel by air allegedly to steal money from ATMs have been arrested by the Ahmedabad Crime Branch in Gujarat for theft of Rs 10.72 lakh here, a police official said on Sunday.

During a probe into the ATM theft using a gas cutter under Amraiwadi police station limits this month, it was found the two accused hailing from Punjab had come by flight from Chandigarh to Ahmedabad to carry out the heist, he said.

“They stayed in a hotel near Ahmedabad airport which they booked on the basis of a duplicate Aadhaar card. They purchased a two-wheeler from an online marketing site, bought gas cutters, oxygen cylinders and entered an ATM they chose using Google Maps,” he said.

“They cut open the ATM, stole Rs 10.72 lakh in Rs 500 denomination notes, went back to the hotel, collected their belongings and flew to Delhi. They used to fly to different places to steal from ATMs in this manner,” the official added.

Based on a case registered in Amraiwadi police station, the two were held.

One of the accused, Amarjot Singh Aroda, was arrested at Mohali in 2005 in a murder case and was released on bail in 2010. He was also arrested while trying to break open ATMs in Nagpur and Pune in Maharashtra in April and June this year.

He also has four different FIRs lodged against him in Bengaluru for attempt to murder, robbery, theft, etc, as per police.