`10 crore seized from bank lockers in Pune Green panel places interim ban across country on manja Police book Kapil for ‘illegal’ construction

The income tax department raiding the lockers of a private company at a Bank of Maharashtra branch in Pune since Tuesday, seized Rs10 crore — all in the new Rs2,000 banknotes — sources told HT.

The department began its raids on Tuesday, after top bank officials reported suspicious operation of some of the lockers at the branch, following the Centre’s demonetisation announcement in November.

Both the bank and I-T officials refused to divulge any more information, but sources said the multi-national company has 10 lockers at the branch in Pune’s Parvati area and all of them are being checked.

At the time of going to press, officials were yet to open five lockers, said sources.

The department is also investigating if some bank officials were involved in stashing the cash.

The buying, stocking, sale and use of manja, the abrasive, glass-coated kite strings, have been banned across the nation by the National Green Tribunal on Wednesday, until it next hears the matter in February.

The move is aimed at protecting birds and people from injuries during the Makar Sankranti festival on January 14. In April 2015, the Maharashtra government had banned manja under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986. On Wednesday, a bench headed by justice Swatanter Kumar, the chair of NGT Delhi, passed an interim prohibitory order.

Comedian Kapil Sharma has been booked by the Versova police under the Environment (Protection) Act, the Maharashtra Regional and Town Planning Act (MRTP) Act and the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for allegedly carrying out construction in a mangrove buffer zone and not naming the BMC officials he claimed had demanded a bribe from him in September.

On September 9, Sharma had tweeted to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, “I am paying Rs15 crore income tax from last 5 years and still I have to pay 5 lacs bribe to BMC office for making my office” and “Yeh hain aapke achhe din?” The tweets went viral and soon boomeranged on Sharma, when it was found that he had allegedly broken laws to make alterations to his apartment and also violated the CRZ rules.

HT tried to get in touch with the actor through one of his lawyers on Wednesday, but he remained unavailable for comment.

Higher education institutes can no longer hold back original mark sheets and other certificates of students, said a circular by the University Grants Commission (UGC). A circular put up on the UGC website states that institutes or universities can only verify original documents of students at the time of admissions and return them immediately, keeping only the attested photocopies for their records. Officials at UGC said the decision was made after a series of complaints by students.

Kapil Sharma: