Witness in cable operator case brutally assaulted

pune:the deccan police on wednesday registered an offence against rafiq sheikh and abdul gaffoor, both residents of salisbury park, and one shamsundar laxminaryan, a resident of amar housing society, for allegedly beating up firoz salim khan, who is a key witness in the mohan padmanabhan extortion case. it may be recalled that corporator and cable operator razzak khan was booked by the pune police last month for trying to extort money from padmanabhan, a small cable operator from the wanowrie area.on a complaint given by firoz khan, a former employee of razzak khan, the police registered an offence of kidnapping against razzak khan in early 2001. in the complaint, firoz claimed that while he along with his wife had gone to the shivajinagar court on january 5, for some work, he was assaulted by the trio. he was warned against deposing in the padmanabhan extortion case. firoz's three teeth were also broken by the trio. seminar on rural marketing:a day-long seminar has been organised by the vaikunth mehta national institute of coopeartive management to highlight the importance of rural marketing. it is estimated that nearly one-third of the national income of india is generated by rural areas where two-thirds of the population live. the new thrust area of marketing is thus expected to be in this sector. speakers at the seminar are sankara pillai, general manager, org-marg; shiv kumar, product head, hair, hll; suresh balakrishnan, general manager linterland (lowe-lintas & partners), and r krishnamoorthy, general manager hr&adm, syngenta india. the seminar which is open to all on a first come first served basis will be held at the vaikunth mehta institute auditorium from 9 am to 6.30 pm on january 12. the seminar is supported by venkateshwara hatcheries and the ad council, pune. scholarship exam postponed:the pre-secondary and secondary scholarship examinations which were to be conducted by the state examination board on february 17, have been postponed to february 24. the details of seating arrangements for students from schools within pune municipal limits have been put up at gogate vidyalaya, narayan peth. hepatitis-b vaccination:a special campaign to administer the hepatitis-b vaccine will be organised on january 12 and 13 at various places in the city from 9 am to 5 pm. the programme is jointly planned by the lions club of pune deccan gymkhana, ruby hall clinic, ranka hospital, sanjeevani hospital and krishna hospital. asthma allergy camp:the academy of asthma and allergy will organise an asthma allergy relief camp from january 14 to 24. the camp would include a computerised pulmonary function test, allergy tests and a health check-up. for further details contact the world natural health organisation (wnho) clinic,tilak road. 'spectrum 2002':the sinhagad institute of management will organise a cultural and sports event 'spectrum 2002' for management students from pune, mumbai, kolhapur, nasik and ahmednagar. the event will be held at the institute campus on the sinhagad road from january 20 to 24. around 40 management institutes from all over the state are expected to participate.this is the eighth year of the event. muslim bank poll:all 15 candidates of awami mahaz panel, headed by present chairman p.a. inamdar, have been elected to the board of the muslim co-operative bank. the polls were conducted on january 8. two candidates of panel were earlier elected unopposed.