The statement of film actress Mamta Kulkarni and two others in connection with a 1993 obscenity case was recorded today by a Metropolitan Magistrate Court under Section 313 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.

The actress was present in the 19th Esplanade Court of Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate K H Holambe-Patil along with editor of Stardust magazine, Ashwin Varde, and photographer Jayesh Sheth. On August 9, the magistrate had threatened to issue a warrant against the actress if she failed to appear before the court. Kulkarni did not appear before the court on two earlier occasions, that is, on July 27 and August 9.

In 1994, the vigilance branch of Mumbai police filed a case under the obscenity act against Kulkarni, Varde and Sheth in connection with the allegedly obscene photographs of the actress carried by Sheth in the September and November 1993 issues of Stardust, which was then edited by Varde.

1.42 lakh new voters in suburbs

About 1.42 lakhnew voters have been added to the electoral rolls for suburban Mumbai since 1998, according to suburban district collector Vasant Gavai.

Addressing a press meet, Gavai said the electoral rolls had been updated and computerised to avoid confusion during elections. He said there were in all 57,65,587 voters in Mumbai's suburbs, out of which over 32 lakh were male and over 25 lakh female. Gavai said 1,650 polling booths were identified as sensitive out of the total 6,313 in suburban Mumbai. He said the Election Commission had appointed 10 videographers to trail various candidates for each Assembly constituency in the suburbs. The collector said 33 cases had been registered till date for violation of poll code.

New Congress leader in BMC

Congress corporator from Bandra (East) K A Bastiwala has been appointed leader of the party in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). The announcement was made by Mumbai Regional Congress Committee (MRCC) chief Murli Deora today. Bastiwala succeeds KisanJadhav, who has been given the party ticket for the Assembly election from the Opera House Assembly segment.