
Snake found coiled in AC unit at Bengal home
1
2
Kolkata: Panic gripped a household in Barasat, North 24-Parganas on Sunday when a
non-venomous rat snake
was found hiding inside the indoor unit of their split air-conditioner machine. Tapas Baidya, a private firm employee and resident of Nawpara, said he heard a strange crackling sound on Saturday night when his daughter turned on the AC.
"When we looked closely at the unit, we saw the snake's face peeking out," Baidya told TOI. When AC service technicians couldn't coax the reptile out of the unit despite repeated efforts to release pressure on Sunday, the family informed the forest department. Though the snake had tightly coiled itself within the unit, forest department team managed to extract the snake, which escaped later. A forest officer said the snake might have entered the unit in search of food, mostly lizards and insects. The officials recovered its skin from the unit.
Get the latest lifestyle updates on Times of India, along with
Mother's Day wishes
,
messages
, and
quotes
!

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Time of India
2 hours ago
- Time of India
Plan for police unit to improve public safety & service delivery
Bhubaneswar: The commissionerate police are planning to engage a professional agency to conduct an extensive study of policing and crime control requirements in Bhubaneswar and Cuttack. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now Senior police officers said the initiative aims to enhance public safety and improve service delivery in the twin cities. "We plan to set up a project management unit (PMU) with a data-driven approach to understand the evolving needs of our citizens and strengthen our policing infrastructure. Thw study will help us identify gaps in our current system and implement more effective crime prevention strategies," a senior police officer told TOI. The proposed unit's objective is to leverage technology for modernising police operations and strengthening police-citizen relationships. The PMU is likely to analyse various aspects of public service delivery, including emergency response times, citizen satisfaction levels and crime patterns across different areas in both cities. "The study will provide valuable insights into areas requiring immediate attention. We are particularly interested in understanding how technology can be better integrated into our operations and public service delivery mechanism," the police officer said. The agency will facilitate proper implementation of police-related projects, and ensure better communication management. The PMU will design, develop, customise, test and manage existing as well as new software, web-based and mobile applications. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now "Its key responsibilities will be to plan, design, launch awareness campaigns on cyber safety, road safety and drug demand reduction. It will maintain better and effective communication with citizens by using different social media platforms for better public safety. PMU will also assist us in setting up a social media listening laboratory," the police officer said. The agency will suggest and document upgrade of command and control infrastructure, and prepare SOPs for integrating public CCTVs with the police control room. Its experts will build the skills and capacity of personnel in the emergency response support system (ERSS) and police control room (PCR). "The agency will document and present performance reports on citizen-centric initiatives. It will work to create a positive perception in the minds of the stakeholders about the efficiency and effectiveness of Odisha police in general and commissionerate police in particular," the senior police officer stated.


Time of India
2 hours ago
- Time of India
48 hours after Ghaziabad shooting, cops yet to track key suspect
Ghaziabad: Nearly 48 hours after businessman Rahul Dagar was shot dead outside a highrise in Ghaziabad's Raj Nagar Extension, cops have searched more than 20 possible hideouts of the suspects and detained five persons for questioning, but are yet to arrest his business partner, the key accused in the case, or the six others named in the FIR. Senior officials said they are keeping a watch on airports to ensure the accused don't leave the country. Six gunmen had come in a car and shot Rahul, who owns a hotel at Haldwani in Uttarakhand, and his nephew Ashish just outside their society, Classic Residency, around 9.30 pm on Sunday. Rahul died on the spot after a bullet hit him in the stomach. Ashish, who was hit on the leg, continues to be under treatment. Rahul's brother-in-law Avinash, who was also present at the spot and assaulted by the criminals, had identified the hotelier's business partner Nagendra Chaudhary and three other attackers—Mohit Chaudhary, Ritesh Bindal and a man who goes by the name Mantri—in his complaint. He claimed Nagendra and his brother Manish were Rahul's business partners and had a fallout with him over managing the finances of their hotel, Shiva Palace, and had even threatened him a few days before the murder. "Nagendra, Mohit, Mantri, Ritesh and two other men pulled up outside the society in a car. First, they assaulted Rahul and Ashish. They turned to me as I started shouting for help. Then, right before my eyes, Nagendra and Mohit shot at Rahul and Ashish. Rahul had immediately collapsed to the ground, but Mohit sat on his chest and tried to strangle him," the complaint filed by Avinash stated. On Tuesday, ACP Nandgram Poonam Mishra said police have reviewed footage of CCTV cameras installed near the commercial complex outside the society. The officer said one of the men, Mohit Chaudhary, can be seen firing at Rahul in one of the feeds. It also showed him trying to strangle Rahul, even as he lay bleeding on the ground. "Six of the accused are absconding. More than five teams are looking for them. We detained Ritesh Bindal on Monday. He was called in for questioning again on Tuesday. The man has multiple businesses, like real estate and electronics, and has an office in Classic Residency's commercial area. His call details show that he was at the crime spot on Sunday evening when Rahul Dagar was murdered. We are trying to ascertain his role in the case," the ACP said. Earlier, police told TOI that Ritesh had filed an FIR against Rahul and Avinash on May 31, a day before the shooting, accusing the two men of barging into his house with weapons and misbehaving with his family. The FIR was lodged under BNS sections 333 (house-trespass after preparation for hurt, assault or wrongful restraint), 351 (3) (criminal intimidation), and 352 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace). Besides Ritesh, four other persons have been detained for questioning, too, police said. A senior police officer told TOI that Mohit frequently travelled to Duba,i and cops have alerted the Airports Authority of India about the suspect. Since Monday, police have also searched more than 20 places across Delhi-NCR, but no arrests have been made yet. While Rahul's business partner Nagendra is the key suspect in the case, the FIR also names his brother Manish and five others: Mohit, Ritesh, Mantri, and two unknown persons. The case has been file under BNS sections 103 (murder), 109 (attempt to murder), 115 (2) (voluntarily causing hurt), 190 (every member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object), 191 (2) (rioting), 191 (3) (rioting, armed with deadly weapon).


Time of India
3 hours ago
- Time of India
Professor of engg college in Pune's Wagholi, 3 students arrested for circulating answer sheets to students for cheating after exam
Pune: A professor and three second-year students of an engineering college in Wagholi were arrested early on Tuesday by crime branch officials of the Pune police for circulating answer sheets after the exam on Monday to first-year students for cheating in exchange for money. Additional commissioner of police (crime) Pankaj Deshmukh told TOI that assistant inspector Madan Kamble received information about the professor giving out the answer sheets illegally to the students late in the night on the college premises so that they could rewrite the answers to some sections of the question paper and put the sheets back in the strongroom after finishing. Deshmukh said, "The first-year students appeared for their engineering mathematics examination on Monday. It was a tough paper for some. They were told to leave blank spaces on the answer sheets for the questions they did not attempt and fill them up later in the night with the right answers." Senior inspector Yuvraj Hande of the Wagholi police said, "We have arrested the professor, Pratik Satav (37), of Wagholi, and the three students. We are questioning them." The examinations are conducted by Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU). Colleges away from the core city limits have to safely keep the answer sheets overnight and deliver them for checking to the university the next day. Deshmukh added that the professor took Rs 15,000 to Rs 50,000 from each student to give them the answer sheets so that they could score well in the examination. The second-year students, who have been arrested, took the first-year students to the professor, the police officer said. He added that the professor was the exam officer in the college, but was recently relieved of the post. He now teaches mechanical engineering to the students in the same college. Deshmukh said, "Satav prepared a duplicate key to the strong room where the answer sheets are kept. He colluded with the second-year students to earn quick money. He gave them the duplicate key and they pulled out eight answer sheets and circulated them to the students who had left blank spaces to fill up." The students were caught writing the answers. The professor was not present in the room. He was arrested after the police questioned the students and their replies led to him. The police team also seized six bundles of answer sheets and Rs 2 lakh in cash. "The money was given by the first-year students to their seniors in the second year," Deshmukh said. Prabhakar Desai, acting director of the examination and evaluation board of SPPU, in a statement on Tuesday said, "The board is committed to systematic examination planning, evaluation, and result processing. It is fully aware that every action in this regard must be lawful, honest, sensitive, and governed by rules and ethics. Efforts are being made to instil sensitivity regarding this in all components associated with examination planning, evaluation, and the result process. " The statement added, "However, the act committed on Tuesday by the faculty member of the college located at Wagholi is highly unethical and a violation of the university's examination planning regulations. SPPU has formed a fact-finding committee to investigate the matter and has instructed the committee to submit its report within just seven days. The board will take strict action against the concerned individuals as per the university's law. "