Mumbai:

A new charge sheet filed against five accused of plotting to assassinate Bollywood actor Salman Khan has revealed chilling details. According to the Navi Mumbai Police, the accused, associated with the notorious Lawrence Bishnoi gang, have been charged with conspiracy to murder and other grave offences. 

On April 14, Two men on motorbikes fired multiple rounds outside Mr Khan’s residence in Bandra, leading to the arrest of several individuals.

According to the charge sheet, the Bishnoi gang had issued a contract worth Rs 25 lakh to assassinate the actor. The plan was hatched over several months, from August 2023 to April 2024. Investigations have revealed that the gang intended to acquire advanced firearms from Pakistan, including AK-47s, AK-92s, M16 rifles, and the Turkish-made Zigana pistol, the weapon used in the murder of Punjabi singer Sidhu Moose Wala on May 29, 2022.

The conspiracy wasn’t merely confined to acquiring weapons; it extended to a well-orchestrated surveillance operation. According to the charge sheet, a network of approximately 60 to 70 individuals was involved in tracking Mr Khan’s every movement. This extensive surveillance covered his residence in Mumbai, his Panvel farmhouse, and even the Goregaon Film City, where he often visited for film shoots.

The charge sheet claims that boys below the age of 18 were recruited to execute the assassination. These minors were reportedly waiting for orders from Goldie Brar and Anmol Bishnoi, key figures in the gang believed to be operating from North America, to initiate the attack.

A day after the shooting incident outside Mr Khan’s home, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde met with the actor and assured all help.

“The government is with you, I have told Salman Khan. Both the accused have been arrested. They will be interrogated. We will get to the root of the case. Nobody will be spared. Nobody should targeted this way,” Eknath Shinde told reporters outside the actor’s home.

“No gang or gang war will be allowed. We won’t allow this to happen. We will finish (Lawrence) Bishnoi,” he added.

 Angered by his father’s prodding to report to work, a 19-year-old man jumped to death from the terrace of a 22-storey building in the Kandivali area of Mumbai, police said on Tuesday.

The teenager, identified as Pratham Krishna Naik, used to work at a pizza shop in a mall, an official said.

“Naik didn’t go to work on Monday, following which his father received a call. He started looking for his son and spotted him sitting at the Dahanukarwadi metro station at night. He asked the teenager why he skipped work and asked him to go to the pizza shop,” the official from Kandivli police station said.

In a fit of rage, the teenage boy rushed to the terrace of a 22-storey building and jumped, he said.

After residents of the building spotted Naik lying in a pool of blood, he was rushed to a nearby hospital where he was declared dead before admission.

Police have registered a case of accidental death and investigating further, the official added. 

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

Mumbai:

The Sena versus Sena battle heated up on the occasion of the Shiv Sena foundation day as Uddhav Thackeray and Eknath Shinde held parallel programmes in two parts of Mumbai. And from Sion’s Shanmukhanand Hall, Uddhav Thackeray, powered by the people’s support, issued an open challenge to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“Modi-ji I invite you to start campaign for assembly election in Maharashtra… it will be you versus me,” he said, pointing to the election due by year-end.

“My message to the BJP — try winning an election without using my original symbol. I am proud that we did not use anyone else’s picture. We will never use either, especially of PM Modi. I challenge PM Modi to start preparations today – keeping this fake Shiv Sena away,” he added.

Mr Thackeray also rubbished speculation about the two Sena factions joining hands and remaining in the NDA fold. He would never go with those who tried to “finish off” his party, Mr Thackeray said.

Though the rebel faction led by Eknath Shinde was awarded the name and election symbol of the undivided Shiv Sena by the Election Commission, the voters had decisively settled the legacy issue. And they did not agree with the poll body.

The Uddhav Thackeray faction of Shiv Sena won nine seats and the Shinde faction seven.

The other party in the same boat,  the Sharad Pawar faction of the Nationalist Congress Party, won eight seats. The faction led by his nephew Ajit Pawar — which also got the name and party symbol from the Election Commission — only one.

Ally Congress won 13 seats.

The people’s disapproval of the political upheaval in the state extended to the BJP, which, Mr Shinde once let slip, had engineered the Sena split. The party’s score was cut down to nine seats, from 23 in 2019 .

But Chief Minister Eknath Shinde remained determined to push the point he based his rebellion on — that Mr Thackeray had strayed from the ideology set down by Sena founder and his father Balasaheb Thackeray.

“Where has your Hindutva gone? You have no right to seek votes in Balasaheb Thackeray’s name,” he said at a massive rally in Worli’s NSCI dome.  “Even a small kid will tell you that the Shiv Sena UBT won because of the Congress’ vote bank. Those who left Bal Thackeray’s thoughts for position, lost in the election. Bal Thackeray always talked against the Congress,” he added.

But Mr Thackeray had already covered the point.

“We got votes of all patriots, people of all religions. They said we left Hindutva, because we went with the Congress. I did not leave Hindutva. If everyone voted for us to save the country and the constitution, then people are with us. It shows the BJP is the one that left Hindutva,” Mr Thackeray said.

Mumbai:

 A Mumbai-bound IndiGo flight from Chennai received a bomb threat message on Tuesday, but it landed safely here, an airport source said.

The bomb threat message was received at the private airline’s call centre in New Delhi, the source said without delving into specifics.

The flight landed safely at the Mumbai airport at 10.30 pm, he said.

“IndiGo flight 6E 5149, operating from Chennai to Mumbai, had received a bomb threat. Upon landing in Mumbai, the crew followed protocol and the aircraft was taken to an isolation bay,” the airline said in a statement.

All passengers have safely disembarked the aircraft, IndiGo said.

“We are working with security agencies and post completion of all security checks, the aircraft will be positioned back in the terminal area,” it added.

Earlier in the day, as many airports, including in Varanasi, Chennai, Patna and Jaipur, received bomb threat emails, prompting authorities to scramble contingency measures and carry out anti-sabotage checks that lasted hours, and each of them was found to be a hoax, official sources said.

Security was beefed up as agencies swept the airport terminals after the emails were received around 12.40 pm from the ID exhumedyou888@gmail.com.

The airports in Varanasi, Chennai, Patna, Nagpur, Jaipur, Vadodara, Coimbatore and Jabalpur were among those that received the hoax threats, as per the officials. PTI IAS RSY

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

Mumbai:

More than 60 establishments in Mumbai, including the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), prominent hospitals and colleges received emails threatening bomb blasts, following which searches were carried out although nothing suspicious was found in them, a police official said on Tuesday.

The emails were received on Monday and Tuesday from a single mail id, he said.

“The emails received on Tuesday were similar to those received on Monday, which said that there was a bomb threat to prominent private, state and civic-run hospitals and colleges across the city,” he said.

As an investigation was underway, similar bomb threat emails were received by the BMC and other establishments, he said.

During the probe, the Mumbai police conducted security checks of those establishments and later it came to light that somebody played a mischief as nothing suspicious was found at all these places, he said.

Process to register a case against unidentified persons is underway at the Azad Maidan police station, he said.

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

Thane:

A man has been booked on Saturday for allegedly stabbing to death his employer over non-payment of wages of Rs 1,250, a Navi Mumbai police official said.

No one has been arrested in the case, the Kalamboli police station official said.

“On Friday, the accused approached his employer Parevez Ansari and sought his wages of Rs 1,250. However, Ansari said he would pay him by June 20. An argument ensued during which the accused attacked Ansari and and the latter’s friend,” he said.

Probe into the case is underway and no one has been arrested, the official added.

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

Thane:

Police has arrested a man from Dombivli in the district for allegedly killing a 65-year-old woman and stealing her jewellery to pay off the debts incurred in online cricket betting, an official said on Saturday.

Asha Arvind Raikar, resident of Kopar area, was found choked in her flat on Friday, said deputy commissioner of police (zone III) Sachin Gunjal.

CCTV footage showed that Satish Vichare (28), resident of the same building, had entered her flat on Thursday afternoon.

During questioning, he allegedly told police that he was addicted to online cricket betting and indebted to the tune of Rs 60,000.

To get money, he decided to rob the woman, Vichare allegedly told police.

After allegedly strangulating Raikar, he stole her chain and earrings before locking the flat from outside and fleeing, the police official said, adding that probe was underway.

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

Delhi has been placed 350 in the Oxford Economics Global Cities Index 2024, making it the highest ranked Indian city. The ranking compares the world’s 1000 cities.

Bengaluru, India’s IT hub, stood at 411, higher than the country’s financial capital Mumbai, which stood at 427.

On the other hand, Sultanpur in Uttar Pradesh ranked last in the index, at 1000th place.

Released on Tuesday, the Global Cities Index Report is an annual report that ranks roughly 1,000 largest cities across the world, spanning 163 different countries in five crucial categories.

The index is calculated based on scores across categories such as Economics, Human Capital, Quality of Life, Environment, and Governance. These scores are combined to generate an overall rank for each city. In 2023, cities in the report accounted for 60% of global GDP and 30% of the world’s population.

Once again, New York achieved the highest ranking in all five categories with a score of 100, followed by London and San Jose securing the 2nd and 3rd positions, respectively.

Mumbai was ranked 915th in terms of quality of life, while Thrissur, a city in Kerala, achieved the 757th position in the Quality of Life category in India. On the other hand, Saharanpur, a city in Uttar Pradesh, ranked lowest at 966th place.

Delhi secured the 55th rank in the Human Capital category and 108th in the Economics category, while Bengaluru ranked 179th in Human Capital and 171st in Economics.

All Indian cities scored 380 in the Governance category.

Cities under military control and on the verge of war have been ranked above many Indian cities. For instance, Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, obtained the 311th rank, surpassing India’s highest-ranked city, Delhi. Similarly, Myanmar, which has been under military control since 2021, was ranked 680th, above most Indian cities.

The Oxford Economics Global Cities Index provides a holistic assessment of the 1,000 largest cities in the world. The report assigns scores to 1000 cities, and rankings are based on these scores. The highest scoring city achieves a score of 100. This report considers not only the city’s economic performance but also its education level, resident well-being, climate volatility, political risks, and more.

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.

Mumbai:

Irregularly shaped hoardings, especially those larger than 40×40 feet, will be removed immediately from the boundary of the railway administration, the Mumbai civic body said days after a 250-tonne hoarding fell in Ghatkopar, killing 14 people and injuring around 75. The rescue work at the site is still in progress and several people are suspected to be buried under the hoarding.

The Brihanmumbai Corporation does not allow hoardings larger than 40×40 feet in view of the financial capital’s proximity to the coastline, and the resulting weather conditions.  

“However, it has been observed that irregularly sized advertising boards have been installed around the roads/private constructions within the boundary of the railway administration,” read the civic body’s notice to the Central and Western Railways Administrations.

“In the light of this, as an additional measure to prevent accidents, the Additional Municipal Commissioner (City) has directed the immediate removal of all advertising boards larger than 40 x 40 feet within the boundary of the railway administration,” the notice added.