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The Times of India, New Delhi INDIA Friday,December 26, 2003 7 Jadhav sent to Mohite-Patil takes Bhujbal’s place police custody : The NCP on Thursday being involved in the fake stamp pa- Mumbai: Assistant Police In- named PWD minister Vijaysinh per scam. “Everybody knows that spector G W Jadhav of the Mohite-Patil the new deputy CM of he (Bhujbal) is a fighter. It is not Former deputy CM’s loyalists Mumbai Crime Branch, arrest- . He replaces Chhagan new.... it is always that the result- ed by the Special Investigation Bhujbal, who resigned on Tuesday oriented persons are targeted,” Team for his alleged complici- on moral ground after NCP ac- Pawar told reporters. angry with Pawar politics ty in the fake stamps scam, tivists ransacked the office of a tel- Pawar indicated that the NCP was remanded to police cus- evision channel which telecast a was willing to put on backburner By S Balakrishnan he should be allowed to continue tody till December 30. programme criticising him. the issue of Congress chief Sonia TIMES NEWS NETWORK as deputy CM. That too was shot The SIT produced Jadhav in However, the home port- Gandhi’s foreign origin for down by Pawar, who asked him the court of magistrate P P folio, held by Bhujbal, was the sake of a pre-poll tie- Mumbai: The Chhagan Bhujbal to ‘‘resign immediately’’. Suroshe Thursday.Public pros- handed over to water sup- up in Maharashtra. camp in the NCP is angry with When Bhujbal reportedly ecutor Nagarale said Jadhav ply and sanitation minis- “The NCP can set aside party chief for pointed out to Pawar that the lat- ter R R Patil. The an- the contentious issue, if didn’t take steps to arrest Telgi ‘‘heaping injustice’’ on its leader. ter had given him a clean chit a nouncements were made the alliance on an agreed in 1995 even after his anticipa- Sources said Pawar had forced few days ago and had ruled out by Patil himself, who programme can for tory bail plea was rejected. PTI Bhujbal to step down as deputy the possibility of his resignation, heads the party’s state formed”, he told a news CM on Tuesday though the latter the NCP chief said there was a unit. The handing over of conference at the end of had suggested that he be allowed strong possibility that the Spe- the home portfolio to Patil the party’s two-day brain- to continue as deputy CM with- cial Investigation Team (SIT), was on expected lines as he had storming meeting here. out the home portfolio. The NCP which is probing the scam, made a mark with his efficient han- Ruling out any ultimatum of De- chief had called Bhujbal to his would summon him That would dling of the water supply and rural cember 31 by his party to Congress residence on Tuesday and, after a cause enormous embarrassment development ministries. for forging an electoral alliance, general discussion, had asked to both the NCP and the Democ- But political circles are excited Pawar said, “Ours is a small party. him to quit in view of the contro- ratic Front government, Pawar over the promotion of Mohite-Patil, We can not issue any ultimatum.” versy over the fake stamp paper said. who doesn’t share a comfortable re- He said a broad alliance of secu- scam. Bhujbal initially asked for Bhujbal sent in his resignation lationship with chief minister lar parties in the state should be two days’ time to mull over the to the chief minister on Tuesday although both formed at the earliest so that prepa- request, the sources added. ostensibly owning moral respon- of them hail from Solapur district. rations could be made for elections. When this was rejected, he re- Party president Sharad Pawar The NCP leadership held prelimi- sibility for an attack by NCP ac- quested that the home portfolio strongly defended Bhujbal, who has nary talks with Shinde over the is- tivists on the offices of a TV be taken away from him but that channel. been alleged by the opposition of sue on Wednesday night. PTI Munde will take stamp scam to its bitter end Mumbai: BJP leader ‘‘several ministers and offi- asks the SIT to probe their has threat- cials’’ involved in the fake activities as well as those of ened that his party would stamp paper scam. some top officials within a launch an agitation against ‘‘ We know the names of fortnight, this government the Democratic Front (DF) many Congress and Nation- will have to deal with BJP government if chief minis- alist Congress party (NCP) activists on the streets of ter Sushilkumar Shinde ministers connected with Maharashtra,’’ Munde told fails to order a probe against the scam. Unless Shinde reporters on Wednesday. TNN Two Meerut businessmen shot dead By D S Kunwar TIMES NEWS NETWORK Meerut: Two businessmen were shot dead in Meerut on Wednesday night by gang- sters. The police are yet to make any arrests. According to SSP Badri Prasad Singh, a 46-year-old jeweller,Rakesh Dua, was al- legedly shot dead by two armed motorcycle-borne youths at 7.45 pm in his shop. His two brothers, Ravindra and Mukesh, were present at the time of the incident. Ac- cording to the police, the ac- cused fired at Dua from a point-blank range. He was rushed to the hospital, but was declared “brought dead”. The news of Rakesh’s murder spread like a wild- fire and shopkeepers closed down their shops in protest. Angry traders also staged a dharna at the Kagji Bazzar market and gheraoed senior police officers to demand the arrest of the culprits. In another incident, a 5O- year-old businessman, Nathu, was allegedly shot dead near Behshuma, 35 km from Meerut. He was return- ing home at Behshuma from Meerut. After killing him, the gangsters fled with Rs 15,000. The police said the gangsters had apparently shot at the businessman when the latter refused to handover his briefcase con- taining the cash. MCC leader arrested with explosives Bokaro: A self-proclaimed area commander of the banned Maoist Communist Centre (MCC), Laxman Man- jhi, has been arrested along with a huge quantity of ex- plosives and a grenade man- ufacturing factory of the outfit unearthed in Jhark- hand, a top district police of- ficial said on Thursday. Laxman alias Torpa Man- jhi was arrested with 129 hand grenades from Annan- Beltharwa village, about 40 km from here, on Wednesday night in a joint operation by the police and CRPF, Super- intendent of Police Anil Pal- ta told reporters. Palta said following the confessional statement of Manjhi, the police searched the deep forests of Jhumara valley and unearthed an ex- plosive manufacturing facto- ry in a cave. The equipment and gener- ator used for manufacturing hand grenades were seized, he said. Palta said it ap- peared that the ultras had hired technical experts from other states for manufactur- ing the explosives. Meanwhile, four people, including three policemen were killed when suspected activists of the Maoist Com- munist Centre ambushed a patrol party near Pithoria in Ranchi district. Jharkhand director general of police R R Prasad said the three po- licemen and a civilian driver were killed in the ambush at a ghati near Pithoria, about 35 km from here. PTI

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