Latest news with #MahindraJeep
Hindustan Times
28-05-2025
- Hindustan Times
26 years on, CBI court acquits gangster Ravi Pujari in Dawood gang aide murder case
MUMBAI: A special court designated under Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has acquitted gangster 56-year-old Ravi Pujari in the 1999 murder of Anil Sharma, an alleged member of the Dawood Ibrahim gang and an accused in the infamous 1992 JJ Hospital shootout case. The verdict was pronounced on Tuesday by special judge AM Patil. However, the detailed judgment is yet to be released. This marks the first case in which Pujari was tried following his deportation from Senegal in 2021. Sharma was gunned down on September 9, 1999, in Andheri's Teli Galli Cross Lane while driving his Mahindra Jeep. According to the prosecution, assailants in a Maruti car overtook and intercepted his vehicle around 10.15 am before opening fire, killing him on the spot. His murder was believed to be a result of gangland rivalry. CBI investigators alleged that gangster Chhota Rajan had ordered Sharma's killing as retaliation for the JJ Hospital shootout of 1992 — a deadly attack carried out by Dawood's men to avenge the killing of his brother-in-law, Ibrahim Parkar, by the rival Arun Gawli gang. Sharma was suspected to be among the 24-member hit squad, led by gangster Subhashsingh Thakur, that stormed ward no 18 of JJ Hospital on September 22, 1992. In that ambush, Dawood's men killed Gawli gang shooter Sailesh Haldankar along with two police constables who tried to retaliate. According to the CBI, Rajan later tasked Pujari with eliminating members of the Dawood gang involved in the shootout, resulting in Sharma's murder. Rajan himself was discharged from the case in December 2022 due to lack of 'cogent evidence'. Ravi Pujari, once closely associated with the Rajan gang, vanished from India in 1994. He allegedly lived across West Africa under various aliases, most notably as a businessman named Antony Fernandes. Acting on a tip-off, Indian authorities traced him to Senegal and, with the help of local officials, secured his deportation. On February 22, 2020, Pujari was handed over to Indian authorities and brought back by a Karnataka police team. He is also facing multiple charges related to extortion attempts against politicians in Karnataka.
Hindustan Times
26-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Hindustan Times
Billionaire's post on 'spirit of Mumbai' after heavy rain batters city, damages roads and disrupts local trains
As heavy rains inundated Mumbai and brought train services to a standstill on Monday, Indian billionaire with a net worth of $4 billion, Harsh Goenka took to the social media platform X to share a video, sarcastically captioning it 'spirit of Mumbai.' Also read: Kemps Corner road disintegrates after heavy rainfall in Mumbai, traffic disrupted The clip showed a blue off-road vehicle battling its way through a deeply rutted and muddy dirt road, seemingly overwhelmed by the harsh terrain. As the Chairman of RPG Enterprises, the parent company of tyre manufacturer CEAT, Goenka shared the video with a tongue-in-cheek caption: 'I hope you have the perfect tyres to go to work to uphold the 'spirit of Mumbai' #MumbaiRains.' However, the video isn't recent. It had originally been posted in 2024 by Anand Mahindra, Chairman of the Mahindra Group, who had reshared the clip from video creator Josh Koelbel. The footage features a modified Mahindra Jeep being skilfully driven across a challenging off-road trail. Mahindra's caption had read: 'You'll get to your destination… No matter how tough the road…' The phrase 'spirit of Mumbai' in the RPG Group chairman's recent caption echoes an earlier post that sparked backlash. In that widely circulated video, he had shared footage of women hurriedly scrambling to board an overcrowded Mumbai local train. Also read: Businessman worth $4 billion trolled for Mumbai local video. His cryptic clarification 'Daily life in Mumbai… what we call the 'spirit of Mumbai'!' he had captioned that post. Though many in Mumbai refer to their collective resilience as the 'spirit of Mumbai,' Goenka's romantic take, especially coming from a billionaire, did not sit well with many. 'It's survival... not spirit. Expecting even basic dignity in public transport is a struggle in this country,' one user had written. Another asked: 'Are you mocking them? Why don't you travel just a week like them! People like you who have means to make some meaningful change, yet indulge in 'poverty porn', are the real parasites of this society.' Goenka responded with a cryptic clarification to one critical comment of an X user named Samir Shah. 'No, Mr. Harsh. This is not Spirit of Mumbai, this is Majboori of Mumbaikar,' wrote Shah. Goenka replied, hinting that his post was meant to be sarcastic: 'Understand sarcasm,' he wrote.
