4 drown in 24 hours in Maharashtra

3 Class IV boys drown in Chandrapur pond during Republic Day outing; man drowns in Badlapur dam while immersing Ganesh idol

First India Bureau

Chandrapur: What was meant to be a fun outing for three 10-yearolds on Republic Day turned into a tragedy, when Paras Deepe, Darshan Shankar Bacha Shankar and Arjun Singh drowned in a pond in Chandrapur district on Thursday.

The bodies of the

Ex-fireman gets life term for setting wife on fire

First India Bureau three children--all Class IV students at Aditya Birla Public School, Korpana--were fished out from the pond on Friday, an official from Gadchandur sub-divi- sion police office said.

Mumbai: A sessions court has sentenced a 33-year-old former fireman to rigorous imprisonment for life for setting his wife on fire after harassing her for dowry in suburban Mulund six years ago.

Additional sessions judge AB Sharma on Wednesday found the accused Lakhan Gaikwad guilty of offences committed under relevant provisions of the Indian Penal Code for murder and subjecting his wife to cruelty.

The details of the order were made available on Friday.

According to the prosecution, Gaikwad had physically and mentally harassed his wife Manisha. In October 2017, the accused set the victim on fire by pouring thinner on her and killed her, it said.

The victim’s mother had told court that Gaikwad and his family tortured Manisha as she could not pay the Rs1 lakh they had demanded as dowry, she said.

The incident took place in Awarpur village of Korpana tehsil on Thursday, when the boys had gone to the pond to play after at- tending a Republic Day programme in the village, and had ventured into the water for a swim, the official said.

Awarpur is about 54km away from the district headquarters, he said. When the children did not return home in the evening, the parents started looking for them. A search party found the boys’ shoes and clothes next to the pond, he said.

"The boys could not be traced due to poor light on Thursday evening. Following a search operation, three bodies were found in the pond on Friday," sub-divisional police officer Sushilkumar Nayak said, adding that a case has been registered in this regard.