Flats racket: 3 held

According to the police, the accused collected nearly Rs 80 lakh from hundreds of needy persons under the false pretext of providing rooms and shops under the 2 per cent and 10 per cent discretionary quotas of the Chief Minister and World Bank project respectively.

The racket came to light following a complaint by one Sharayu Rege and her son Prasad. Posing as MHADA engineer, Santosh Shirke had promised two rooms and two shops at Dadar and took Rs 8 lakh from them. When he refused to give them physicalpossession of the flats the Reges took a close look at the documents and shocked to find they were false and forged.

During interrogations, EOW officials found that Santosh was a former telex operator with the General Post Office while his wife Snehal worked as a beautician.

Kadam, a sub agent of MHADA and a close confidante of Shirke, brought clients and received advances for MHADA flats while Chawre, Shirke’s driver, also played an active role in the racket.

Snehal, Kadam and Chawre were produced before Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate A A Kidwai at the 37th Esplanade Court and were remanded to police custody upto February 5.

BMC demolishes roadside temple

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation called in police following the demolition of a Saibaba temple on the pavement at Worli Sea Face on Saturday.

“The slumdwellers and the taxi drivers at Jaywant Palkar Marg had gheraoed the civic squad and shouted anti-BMC slogans when the demolition squad had arrived and there was certainlytension in the air,” said the G-South ward officer, A N Khaire.

The BMC officer in-charge of demolitions (city), S S Shinde said, “In the past, too, the BMC has demolished such roadside places of worship as some vested parties try to commercialise such spots.”

Woman found murdered

The police are yet to identify the body of a 22-year-old woman found murdered and put in a gunny bag at Borivli on Sunday.

The police were alerted by an unidentified caller about an abandoned bag near a nullah close to Ratnabai chawl in Saibaba Nagar, Borivli (W) at around 6.15 pm. When opened the police found the body of a woman clad in blue Jeans and red T-shirt.

The body has been sent to Cooper Hospital for post-mortem. A report is awaited.

SC order on rent control

The Supreme Court of India today ordered the Maharashtra state government to file a detailed affidavit regarding the rent control issue before March 9, 1999. The apex court was hearing a petition filed by Property Owners’ Association,Mumbai. The association had appealed for the interim Rent Control Act, which has affected a five per cent rent hike, to be struck down.

The SC further ruled that any tenants’ association or others interested in the matter may also file their written submissions in the form of an affidavit before March 9. The case will now be listed for directions regarding the date of hearing on April 1.

While noted senior counsel Fali Nariman represented the landlords, the state was represented by senior counsel Ashok Desai, Anil Dewan represented tenants. Minister of State for Housing, Raj Purohit and Housing secretary V P Raja were also present in the court.

Cancer specialist passes away

Dr Sumati Bhide, well-known cancer specialist and academic director of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan’s ayurvedic research centre `SPARC’, died on Sunday night after a brief illness. She was 67.

Bhide was the first president of Indian Women Scientists Association and during her stint with the Cancer Research Institute (CRI) hadpioneered the research on tobacco-induced pre-cancerous changes and on the preventive effects of dietary and natural products against cancer.

Her work on cancer preventive effects of turmeric was nationally and internationally recognised and recently she was invited as the regional editor for Asia, for the journal `Ethnomedicine’. She is survived by her son Dr Amar Bhide, an eminent economist and daughter Dr Gauri Bhide, a clinical oncologist in USA.