Thane: Fugitive mafia don Dawood Ibrahim is "keen to return to India" if he would be lodged in the high-secure precincts of Arthur Road Central Jail (ARCJ) in Mumbai, officials told to court here.

Criminal Lawyer Shyam Keswani on Tuesday said, "He (Dawood) had conveyed his intentions through (former union minister and eminent lawyer) Ram Jethmalani a few years ago but the Indian government has not entertained any of his preconditions to return."

Mr Keswani's statement on Dawood's desire to return came more than six months after Maharashtra Navnirman Sena President Raj Thackeray made a similar revelation in Mumbai.

The case pertains to alleged extortion of Rs. 3 crore from a builder in a deal involving a 38-acre plot of land worth crores of rupees in Gorai, a coastal village in south-west Thane.

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Lucknow (PTI): Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on Wednesday alleged large-scale illegal mining and environmental destruction in the Chambal ravines in Etawah, accusing UP government-led officials of facilitating the disappearance of entire hills.

In a strongly worded post on X, Yadav questioned whether the small and large hills near the historic Sumer Singh Fort had been "transferred" to regions like Basti and Gorakhpur in collusion with lower and higher-ranking officials.

He shared a video clip showing what appeared to be a partially flattened landscape where hills once stood.

"New officials may come and go," Yadav wrote, "but the hills of Chambal that were hacked away and vanished with the spade of corruption and divided through collusion'”how will those return?"

The former Uttar Pradesh chief minister added, "Paryavaran kahe aaj ka, nahi chahiye BJP (In the name of today's environment, we do not need the BJP)!"