The bench recorded that Pandey, in the letter, expressed willingness to step down and urged the state government to revoke the notification appointing him till April 30.
Though authorities and NGOs have made arrangements for their food, most of them want to go back to their native places to escape the hardship brought by the sweeping curbs.
Over two months after 74 people were killed in a building collapse, the police on Monday filed a charge sheet against 27 accused, which included real estate developers, civic officials and a local corporator.
The arrests followed searches in Amrut Nagar, Kausa, Moti Baug and Almas Colony areas in Thane's Mumbra township and in Aurangabad's Kaisar Colony, Rahat Colony and Damdi Mahal areas on Monday late night and Tuesday early morning.
The controversy brewing over the role of Intelligence Bureau officer Rajendra Kumar in Ishrat Jahan fake encounter killing case in Gujarat figured in a Parliamentary committee meeting on Tuesday as Bharatiya Janata party members claimed all the four were Lashker-e-Tayiba terrorists.
The Central Bureau of Investigation on Wednesday gave a clean chit to former Gujarat Home Minister and Narendra Modi's close aide Amit Shah in the alleged fake encounter case of Ishrat Jahan and three others, saying it did not have sufficient evidence to charge sheet him.
The Bombay high court restrained the Maharashtra government and the police from taking any coercive steps against the editor of the Urdu daily.
Jailed Gujarat IPS officer D G Vanzara on Friday told a special CBI court that he executed the 2004 Ishrat Jahan encounter on orders given by his superior on the basis of inputs received from the Intelligence Bureau.
Heavy rains since Monday night and subsequent waterlogging at five vulnerable spots, failure of Mandovi Express engine at Dadar station, passengers' outcry at Diva station and a landslide caution near Parsik tunnel near Mumbra severely affected the suburban train operations of Central Railway on Tuesday morning, a senior railway official said.
Ishrat Jahan's family is likely to challenge the Union home ministry's decision not to prosecute four Intelligence Bureau officials in the alleged encounter case.
Bringing down curtains to the 11-year-long probe, the government has turned down the request of the Central Bureau of Investigation for granting prosecution sanction to four IB officials, including retired Special Director Rajender Kumar, who were allegedly involved in conspiracy behind killing of Ishrat Jahan and three others.
The Bombay High Court on Thursday granted bail to former IPS officer of Gujarat D G Vanzara, in jail for over 7 years, in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case.
In a nearly 25-minute televised address to the nation, Modi said implementation of the lockdown will be strictly ensured in its second phase and detailed guidelines will be brought out on Wednesday to ensure that outbreak does not spread to new areas.
However, flight operations at the Mumbai airport were not impacted due to rains, an airport official said.
Vanzara, an accused in the fake encounter cases of Ishrat Jahan, said good days have returned.
Former Union Home Secretary G K Pillai on Thursday said that the affidavit submitted to the Gujarat high court in 2009 about Lashkar-e-Taiyba links of Ishrat Jahan and her accomplices, who were killed in an alleged fake encounter in 2004, was changed at the "political level".
A third accused in the brutal gang rape of a 23-year-old photojournalist was arrested on Saturday from south Mumbai even as police launched a manhunt for two others in the case, which sparked a wave of protests.
Suspended IPS officers D G Vanzara and PP Pandey were on Thursday granted bail by a special Central Bureau of Investigation court in Ahmedabad in the 2004 case of fake encounter of Ishrat Jahan and 3 others after remaining in jail for 18 months.
Pillai said that it was surprising to see that the minister, who is competent to revise the affidavit, was taking cover behind the home secretary.
'Look at Kejriwal. With his work, he's made a place in our hearts. But the BJP leaders have only abuses for us," protesters at Shaheen Bagh tell Jyoti Punwani.
'The Babri Masjid wasn't just a mosque, it was a test of our secularism,' says Jyoti Punwani.
In a significant claim, Pakistani-American terrorist David Coleman Headley on Thursday said that Ishrat Jahan -- who was killed in an alleged fake encounter in 2004 in Gujarat --was actually a suicide bomber of Lashkar-e-Tayiba terror outfit.
'Amid the different versions of truth on the Ishrat case, what is certain is that Ishrat's mother Shamima Kausar, who has continued to maintain that Headley's confession was nothing but an attempt by powerful people to save themselves in the case, is unlikely to find a closure anytime soon.'
'There is nothing in Headley's testimony. Where is he saying anything? He says, 'I don't know, I don't know.' He says 'I overheard somebody's speech.' Is this evidence? This is double hearsay.' 'If this (the Ishrat Jahan encounter) investigation is really carried out further it points to the heart of BJP's political leadership. And therefore they want you to distract you and say terrorist, terrorist.'
Rediff.com captures the mood among the people at Elphinstine Road railway station, a week after 23 people died in a stampede at a footover bridge.
It might have been the season of Basant Panchami, but for Pasbola it was definitely Halloween as he set about scaring the wits out of Rangwala, his tone growing harsher.
'The Ishrat encounter was neither genuine, nor fake. I believe it was a 'controlled killing,' says Shekhar Gupta.
Dhananjay Desai has been allowed to spread his poison to young men in Maharashtra and Goa over the last five years, by a 'secular' Congress-NCP government. The 23 cases pending against him have not stopped him. He and his supporters must have thought they were immune when they lynched a bearded Muslim at night. Neither Desai nor his followers, nor the police, nor their 'secular' political masters, must have expected the nationwide furore that followed, says Jyoti Punwani.
'If chutzpah nationalists brought the Babri Masjid down, chutzpah secularists did precious little to stop it from being torn down.' 'If chutzpah nationalists ensured carnage in Gujarat, chutzpah secularists allowed Muzaffarnagar to become their next hunting ground.' 'Chutzpah secularists readily banned SIMI, but dragged their feet when it came to banning the Bajrang Dal.'
