A Pocso court in UP’s Banda sentenced to death Friday a former govt junior engineer and his wife for sexually abusing 33 boys over a decade, some as young as three, and selling videos and photographs of their torture on the dark web to customers across 47 countries. Additional district judge PK Mishra said convicts Ram Bhawan (50) and Durgawati (47) inflicted such physical and psychological trauma on the survivors – some required hospitalisation for injuries to their genitals and a few developed squint eyes – that their crimes deserved to be categorised as “rarest of rare”. “The sheer scale of this victimisation across multiple districts, combined with the extreme moral turpitude of the convicts, marks this as a crime of such an exceptional and heinous nature that it leaves no room for reformation, necessitating the ultimate judicial deterrent to meet the ends of justice,” says the order. The court directed the UP govt to pay Rs 10 lakh in compensation to each of the 33 victims. Ram Bhawan, who worked in the UP jalkal (waterworks) department, and Durgawati would lure children by offering them access to online video games, money and gifts. They remained active in Banda and Chitrakoot from 2010 till 2020, when Interpol got CBI involved in an inquiry on child sexual abuse content on the dark web.‘Still battling trauma’ CBI registered an FIR on Oct 31 that year after the trail led to Ram Bhawan and Durgawati. The agency had filed a chargesheet documenting their crimes on Feb 10, 2021. Special public prosecutor Kamal Singh Gautam said the case had an overwhelming amount of evidence of what the children were subjected to. “The survivors are still suffering the psychological trauma caused by the predators”, Gautam said. CBI had medical experts from AIIMS Delhi to examine 25 of the children who suffered severe injuries at the hands of the convicts. The prosecution relied on their reports, digital evidence and the testimonies of the children to build their case and seek capital punishment to those accused in the case. Additional district judge Mishra convicted the couple of offences ranging from aggravated penetrative sexual assault and using children for pornographic purposes to abetment and criminal conspiracy under relevant sections.

Mumbai: Seven months after Mumbai police registered an FIR in a land-grab case in Kandivli, the property cell of the city crime branch last week filed a chargesheet against five accused. TOI was the first to report on the case last August. Of the 17 acres, 10 acres were reserved for public purposes and had already been surrendered to the BMC. However, the accused allegedly sold the BMC portion to a third party. The accused, Rinkesh Vadilal Shah, his late father Vadilal Shah, Jagdish Bhat, Girish Bhat, Suresh Bhat and Vatsala Joshi, allegedly executed sale deeds between 2024 and 2025, by submitting defective declarations in the name of deceased people. Probe found fabricated ownership claims, continued property tax payments in deceased persons’ names and wrongful conveyance of society-held and reserved plots to create false title and monetary gain, said the chargesheet. The accused have been booked for cheating, forgery and under the Registration Act 1908. The case was filed by BMC officials in August last year alleging that the original land owners along with the developers fraudulently sold the BMC acquired land to third parties based on power of attorney. According to investigation records, the Kandivli land was originally purchased by Nanubhai Bhat in 1943. Out of the total 67,932sq. m. land, approximately 29,969 sq. m. was reserved for public purposes under the 1967 Development Plan, and was to be transferred to the BMC, while the remaining unreserved portion was to be developed. To facilitate development, Nanubhai Bhat and his heirs formed M/s Indian Plumbingo in 1973 and entered into agreements with developer U.B. Luthria and Elel Hotels and Investment between 1974 and 1978. In Dec 1978, the reserved plot was formally transferred to the Municipal Corporation, and 18 buildings were subsequently constructed on the unreserved land through various housing societies using increased FSI linked to the surrender of the reserved land. Investigators found that although the developer and architect were required to demarcate the reserved land and record the Municipal Corporation’s name on the property card, this condition was never fulfilled despite official correspondence in 1985 and 1989. The land records continued to reflect Nanubhai Bhat’s name until 2001. The probe further states that in 2004, Jagdish Bhat allegedly executed a power of attorney in favour of Vadilal Shah and Vijay Sheth for the entire 17-acre land, despite authority being limited to only about 7 acres and 12 guntas. Officials allege that this expanded authority was misused. Despite the disputed ownership and the fact that some alleged executants of the power of attorney were deceased, the firm M/sShah & Sons, run by Vadilal Shah and his son Rinkesh Shah, allegedly sold multiple plots between Oct 2024 and Jan 14, 2025, by submitting a defective declaration regarding the power of attorney at the Sub-Registrar’s Office.

Mumbai: Seven months after Breach Candy resident Nigum Lakhani, who lives opposite the Mumbai Coastal road interchange in the area, wrote to the Prime Minister’s Office with his concern that their demand for another exit from Nepean Sea Road was only being pushed from one table to another, he has finally received a detailed reply from the authorities stating that the BMC is awaiting PWD clearance for Nepean Sea Road access to Coastal Road.Lakhani first wrote to the PMO on Aug 8, 2025, and then kept forwarding the letter to first the state government before it eventually reached the BMC authorities who were forced to give him a detailed reply. “Recently, in compliance with the direction of the Chief Minister conveyed through a letter dated Dec 1,2025, the Municipal Commissioner, BMC, issued letter on Dec 26,2025 to the Additional Chief Secretary, PWD, requesting to handover a 10.5 m-wide land strip from MSRDC to the Coastal Road Department, BMC. This land is required for construction of an access road along Embassy Apartments within the MSRDC plot at Nepean Sea Road. The proposed road will enable: Exit from the Coastal Road to Nepean Sea Road & Public access to the Green Space/Promenade developed under the Coastal Road Project. However, no response has been received to date from the Additional Chief Secretary (PWD) or the VC & MD, MSRDC, regarding the above requests,” states the reply.The reply also stated how early planning documents, including a Joint Technical Committee report from 2011, had envisaged an entry and exit near Priyadarshini Park, where the coastal road tunnel emerging from beneath Malabar Hill would connect to Nepean Sea Road using reclaimed land. However, as the project evolved, seven alternative design options were examined by the Detailed Project Report consultant and placed before the Maharashtra Coastal Zone Management Authority (MCZMA).Based on environmental observations and technical recommendations, Option 7 was finalised, providing interchanges only at Amarsons Garden, Haji Ali and Worli. The Amarsons Garden interchange—also referred to as the Tata Garden interchange—was designed as a trumpet-type interchange to efficiently handle traffic from Bhulabhai Desai Marg (Warden Road), serving key areas such as Kalbadevi, Girgaon, Bhuleshwar, Malabar Hill and Kemps Corner. The civic body said the interchange location was shifted from Nepean Sea Road to Amarsons Garden primarily due to land availability.The BMC also relied on the Bombay High Court order dated July 16, 2019, which upheld the decision to locate the interchange at Amarsons Garden. In its judgment, the court stated that shifting the interchange northwards, as demanded by petitioners, would have required acquisition of private land from residential buildings such as Vaibhav Apartments and Lincoln House, while also obstructing access to a hospital and a school located nearby.