The two missing persons have been identified as 43-year-old Hansraj Bhati and seven-year-old Johan Mohammad Nisar Ahmed Pathan, the police said.
The race for the Maharashtra Chief Minister post has intensified following the Mahayuti coalition's landslide victory in the state assembly polls. The Shiv Sena has backed Eknath Shinde for the top job, citing the Bihar model, while the BJP has thrown its weight behind Devendra Fadnavis, emphasizing his leadership qualities and understanding of the state. The BJP's preference for Fadnavis stems from its dominance in the alliance with 132 seats, compared to Shiv Sena's 57 seats. Amidst these developments, both parties have held meetings to discuss the matter, while Fadnavis and other BJP leaders have denied any dispute over the CM's post.
As the race for Maharashtra chief minister enters the last lap, Hemant Waje looks at several scenarios which can play out.
The Bharatiya Janata Party's jail bharo agitation was cancelled on Friday in the wake of the massive fire at the Mantralaya.
The city police, investigating last week's major fire at Mantralaya, on Monday claimed to have made a substantial progress in the probe and recorded statements of 50 witnesses in this connection so far.
The Badlapur school, where two young girls were allegedly sexually abused, preferred to cover up the crime instead of helping their parents file a police complaint, said Susieben Shah, chairperson of Maharashtra State Commission for Protection of Child Rights, on Wednesday.
The Mantralaya inferno and how it played out, from inside the building, on the street, and in the blame game afterwards, elaborates Sanjay Jog.
Maharashtra government employees returned to work at Mantralaya, the secretariat building in Mumbai, on Monday, four days after its top floors were damaged in a fire.
The blaze at Mantralaya that has so far claimed five lives and destroyed several official documents could have been averted if the state government had heeded fire audit warnings two years ago, a leading RTI activist has claimed.
Renovation of the Mantralaya, the Maharashtra state secretariat, which was engulfed by a devastating fire last week is likely cost about Rs 50 crore.
Over 12 hours after its broke out, the massive fire which engulfed Mantralaya (the state Secretariat building) was doused early on Friday morning.
The CM also said all papers and files in his office have been gutted.
A special meeting of Maharashtra Cabinet will be held on Friday to review the situation in the aftermath of the massive fire that engulfed the state secretariat 'Mantralaya'.
A 21-year-old woman was allegedly raped by three persons on the outskirts of Pune, while her male was assaulted, police said on Friday.
A 27-year-old woman, daughter of Maharashtra cadre IAS officers, allegedly committed suicide by jumping off the 10th floor of a building near Mantralaya in south Mumbai early Monday morning, the police said.
Two days after a devastating fire swept Maharashtra's secretariat Mantralaya, Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan on Saturday said all files of the Urban Development Department will be reconstructed within a month's time.
Amid apprehensions that several important files relating to the Adarsh Housing Society scam may have been destroyed in Thursday's fire at 'Mantralaya', officials of the CBI and the judicial panel probing it said they have copies of all relevant documents.
A major fire broke out at the fourth floor of the Mantralaya building which houses the state secretariat in south Mumbai on Thursday afternoon, fire brigade sources said.
Ruling out any sabotage angle in the June 21 Mantralaya inferno, Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan lashed out at the Opposition for fuelling such speculations.
Several legislators cutting across party lines in Maharashtra on Thursday staged an agitation outside the Mantralaya, the state secretariat in south Mumbai, in support of the demand for reservation to the Maratha community.
Learning a lesson from the fire that destroyed top four floors of the state secretariat last week, the authorities at the Maharashtra Legislature have imposed a ban on plywood in its vicinity.
Efforts on seeking information about structural audit of the Mantralaya building, where a massive blaze gutted several offices on Thursday, will take place on Friday morning, Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan said. The Crime Branch will probe the fire.
The department has installed the system that would prevent the employees from accessing these two sites and making any transactions online.
Only 10 per cent of the files which were destroyed in the fire that gutted top floors of the Mantralaya on June 21, 2012, have been reconstructed so far.
Hinting at sabotage in Mantralaya blaze, Shiv Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray on Wednesday said senior Nationalist Congress Party leader Ajit Pawar "showed courage" to step down as deputy chief minister of Maharashtra only after files pertaining to various scams gutted in the fire.
Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) president Sharad Pawar has invited Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, deputy CMs Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar to share a meal at his residence in Baramati during their visit to his hometown on March 2.
A devastating fire in the Maharashtra government secretariat, including offices of the chief minister and the deputy chief minister, on Thursday left two persons dead and 16 injured and destroyed large number of files, raising questions on whether any sabotage was the cause.
The argument with Nehru happened when Bachchan translated the president's speech in English into Hindi, which in accordance with regular practice was to be delivered by the vice president.
A major fire broke out on Thursday at Mantralaya, the Maharashtra government Secretariat, gutting three floors of the seven-storey building including the offices of the chief minister and injuring at least 16 people.
The Maharashtra government has become the owner of iconic Air India building with the Union government approving transfer of the asset on Thursday. The Maharashtra government bought the Air India building at Nariman Point in Mumbai for Rs 1,601 crore. "GoI has approved transfer of Air India building, Mumbai of AI Assets Holding Company Ltd (AIAHL) to Government of Maharashtra (GoM) at consideration of Rs.1601 cr. GoM has agreed to waive dues of Rs. 298.42 cr, which would have been otherwise payable by AIAHL to GoM for this transaction," DIPAM secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey said in a post on X.
The monsoon spelt mayhem in several parts of the country on Monday, particularly Mumbai where local train services and flight operations were hit and everyday life disrupted as well as Assam that was grappling with floods yet again.
Admitting that there were lessons to be learnt from the devastating fire at Mantralaya that claimed five lives, Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan on Monday announced that a fire audit would be conducted in all the government buildings.
The Nationalist Congress Party is livid as Shivtare continues to criticise Pawar, whose wife Sunetra is likely to contest from the Baramati Lok Sabha seat, even after meeting Shinde in Mumbai recently.
The Maharashtra cabinet on Thursday cleared a proposal that offers an option of availing the Old Pension Scheme (OPS) to the state government employees who joined the service after November 2005.
The former chief minister was speaking at 'Vidhik Vimarsh 2023', a gathering of lawyers organised by the state Congress's Legal and Human Rights Cell in Bhopal.
The farmers have been holding a long foot march from Nashik to Mumbai in a bid to put forward their demands before the government.
Maharashtra government on Wednesday decided to acquire the iconic Air India building at Nariman Point in Mumbai for Rs 1,601 crore. The decision was taken at a meeting of the state cabinet in Mumbai. The meeting, chaired by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, also decided to waive off around Rs 250 crore unrealised income and interest on the property, an official said.
The files pertaining names and the total number of counsels, solicitors, advocates and legal advisors, public prosecutors appointed by the state in the hit-and-run case were destroyed in the Mantralaya blaze.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Wednesday visited the state secretariat 'Mantralaya' for the first time after recovering from a spine surgery which he underwent in November last year, and asked the state administration to focus on paperless governance with increased use of technology.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Investor Information - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances