Mumbai: A manhunt has been launched to trace leading Marathi writer Laxman Mane, who has been booked for raping three Dalit women working at a school he runs, police said here yesterday. Mane’s family meanwhile dismissed the charges.
“He is still absconding and police teams are investigating the matter,” an official from Satara police control said.
A former Maharashtra legislative council member, the 63-year old Mane has been charged with raping three women who were working as temporary cooks at a residential tribal school he runs at Jakatwadi in Satara, around 250km to the south-east of Mumbai.
According to police, the complaints were lodged on Monday night by the trio — married and aged between 30-35 — alleging Mane raped them under the lure of making them permanent employees of the school.
The victims — all aged between 30 and 35 - have claimed that he raped them between 2003 and 2010 in the school premises, at his home in Satara and at a guest house in Pune. After registering offences under Indian Penal Code Sec. 376 (rape), police teams have visited Mane’s home and other known places frequented by him, but so far he remains untraceable, the official said.
Junior doctors on flash strike in UP
Lucknow: Junior doctors of all medical colleges in Uttar Pradesh went on a flash strike yesterday after doctors from the King George’s Medical College here were forced to end their indefinite hunger strike on Monday night. While resident and junior doctors struck work by last evening junior doctors in Kanpur, Meerut and Allahabad medical colleges also joined the statewide strike. The doctors went on strike seeking the cancellation of the Uttar Pradesh post graduate medical examination.
After several attempts by the administration to have the indefinite fast end failed, Lucknow District Magistrate Anuraag Yadav ordered police to forcibly break up the agitation. Angered at the use of force by police, junior and resident doctors of all medical colleges went on strike and were joined by the doctors of the trauma centre in Lucknow.
Doctors have also decided not to celebrate Holi Wednesday.
The district administration has since announced the the examinations would be now held April 21.
Six Kashmir cops injured in blast
Srinagar: Six policemen were injured, two of them critically, in a powerful blast in a police station here yesterday that occurred while they were inspecting seized explosives.
Those injured in the blast include the station house officer (SHO) of Parimpora on the outskirts of the city.
A senior police officer said the explosion occurred while the police personnel were inspecting the seized ammunition and explosives.
“The injured policemen have been taken to Soura medical institute for treatment,” the officer said. Senior police officers later visited the police station.IANS
