Breaking News, February 16 | HIGHLIGHTS

Police on Thursday filed a charge sheet in the case related to the alleged suicide of TV actor Tunisha Sharma in the Vasai sessions court in Maharashtra, an official said here. Sharma's co-actor Sheezan Khan was arrested for alleged abetment to suicide after Sharma (21) was found to have hanged herself on December 24. The incident took place on the set of a TV serial near Valiv in the Palghar district, near Mumbai. Valiv police filed the charge sheet, the local police official said without disclosing many details.
 

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Thursday winded up the ‘Samadhan Yatra’, the weekly public outreach programme as part of which he visited all 38 districts of the state in the course of a month and a half. He concluded the yatra at the state capital, where he conducted a thorough review of various schemes and development projects in Patna district in presence of his deputy Tejashwi Yadav, cabinet colleagues and top officials. Earlier, the final day saw Kumar, the state’s longest-serving CM, visiting Begusarai district where besides reviewing the works, he interacted with volunteers of the ‘Jeevika’ self-help groups. The yatra commenced on January 4 from Valmiki Nagar in the West Champaran district. Kumar has since been keeping a gruelling schedule, sometimes touring as many as three districts on a day.

Starting Friday, the Delhi Metro is organising a bilingual slogan writing and a handmade art competition for women commuters ahead of the International Women's Day. The topic for the slogan writing and art work competition is 'DigitALL: Innovation and Technology for Gender Equality', the DMRC said in a statement.
"The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation is organising a slogan writing (bilingual) and an art work (handmade) competition exclusively for its women commuters, from February 17-21, to commemorate the International Women's Day which is celebrated every year on March 8 all over the world," it said.

The Income Tax department's marathon "surveys" at BBC's offices ended on Thursday, after clocking over 58 hours in total, as officials prepared an inventory of financial data from select staffers and collected digital and paper data. The operation that began at the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) offices in Delhi and Mumbai around 11:30 am on Tuesday has ended in Mumbai and will be wound up in Delhi by tonight, sources said late on Thursday. 

The Delhi Police took Sahil Gehlot, accused of killing his girlfriend, to the crime spot on Thursday to recreate the sequence of events leading up to the incident.
Police have also found out that the accused had deleted chats and other data from the victim's mobile phone after the incident, officials said. Police also took Gehlot to his dhaba (eatery), where he had allegedly kept the body of his girlfriend Nikki Yadav (23) inside a refrigerator. The victim's family has demanded that the trial of the accused be held in a fast-track court.

No one was injured in the fire that started in Chopda Chawl on LBS Marg in Bhandup west at 6:15 pm and was extinguished at 8:30 pm, he said.
After being alerted, at least four fire tenders were rushed to the spot, the official said. "The fire was confined to the electric wiring and installations, hardware stock, GI sheets and wood items, including door and furniture, in four to five shops on the ground floor," the official said. The cause of the fire is being ascertained, the official added.

The government is working on introducing a curriculum on organ donation mostly likely in Class 9 or 11 in order to raise awareness among schoolchildren about the issue, sources said. They said India has a very low rate of deceased organ donation compared to Western countries and an estimated five lakh lives could be saved annually by timely organ transplant.  India's organ donation rate, which is the number of deceased donors per million population, continues to be less than 1 per million in comparison to countries like Spain, the USA, Australia, Croatia.

The Sports Ministry's on Thursday approved financial assistance towards training and competitions for 10 judokas, two badminton players and three fencers, among others. Ten judokas, including three TOPS development and seven NCOE athletes, will train for 21 days in Uzbekistan and Georgia, and compete in three Grand Slam events in Uzbekistan, Georgia and Turkey during this period. The players' participation fees, airfare, lodging and boarding, medical insurance costs, local travel, and food costs, among other expenditures, would be borne by the Sports Authority of India (SAI).

Uttar Pradesh school board exams began Thursday amid strict anti-cheating measures, including control rooms which monitored live video feed from exam centres, according to a government statement. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath also issued instructions to book those found involved in facilitating cheating during examinations under the National Security Act (NSA), the statement said. The NSA allows detention of a person up to a year without any charge. Over 31 lakh students are appearing for class 10 board exams and over 27 lakh for class 12 board exams, officials said here. Two control rooms in Lucknow and a control room each has been set up in 75 districts to monitor the exams.

A city court on Thursday dismissed the bail applications of five accused in a Delhi excise policy-related money laundering case, noting it was not possible to hold they will make no attempt to tamper with the evidence if released. Special Judge M K Nagpal denied the relief to Vijay Nair, Sameer Mahendru, Sharath Reddy, Abhishek Boinpally and Benoy Babu, saying that further investigation, including the role of other persons involved in the commission of alleged offences and to trace the complete trail of ill-gotten money, was still pending.

A team of scientists from Ahmedabad-based Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), the United States and Japan has found a unique group of ancient lunar basaltic meteorites, suggesting a new scenario for the origin of lunar basalts, according to ISRO. PRL, which is a unit of the Department of Space, carries out fundamental research in select areas of physics, space and atmospheric sciences, astronomy, astrophysics and solar physics, and planetary and geo-Sciences. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) issued a statement on Thursday saying the Moon's dark regions that are visible to the naked eye, known as the 'mare', are remnants of a violent history of the Solar System. There are no records, though, of these frenzied events on Earth.

Uttar Pradesh Secondary Education Minister Gulab Devi on Thursday compared Samajwadi Party leader Swami Prasad Maurya, who demanded a ban on a portion of Shri Ramcharitmanas, to 'Ravan'. The minister made the remark in a press conference here during her visit to the centres for the UP Board Examination.
"Even Ravan did not believe in Ramcharitmanas," she said.

Senior AAP leader Harsh Dev Singh on Thursday resigned as the chairman of its Jammu and Kashmir unit and quit the party's primary membership, citing personal reasons. Singh joined the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Delhi on May 7, 2022, in the presence of senior party leaders. He was the chairman of the J-K National Panthers Party before that. In his letter of resignation to AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal, Singh said, "Due to some personal reasons, I can no longer continue in the Aam Aadmi Party and am therefore quitting the same with immediate effect."

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said water security is an important concern for India and conserving the resource is a collective responsibility.
Modi said this in a virtual address at the launch of Jal Jan Abhiyan, a joint nationwide campaign of Brahma Kumaris and the Union Ministry of Jal Shakti, in Rajasthan's Sirohi district. “We will have to generate faith in the value of water conservation among the people of the country," he said and called for combating water pollution. The prime minister said depleting groundwater is a major challenge for the country.

Senior Congress leader Siddaramaiah today accused Karnataka Minister CN Ashwath Narayan of trying to 'instigate' people to kill him as he took exception to the latter's statement that he should be "knocked out and sent off" like the 18th century ruler of erstwhile Mysuru Kingdom, Tipu Sultan. He urged Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai to immediately initiate action against Narayan by sacking him from the cabinet. The Leader of Opposition in the state assembly was referring to Narayan's recent remark in Mandya while targeting him. "Tipu's son Siddaramaiah will come.... Do you want Tipu or Savarkar? Where should we send Tipu Sultan? What did Uri Gowda and Nanje Gowda do? In the same way he should be knocked out and sent off," Narayan had said.

A 16-year-old girl was pushed to death from the rooftop of a four-storey apartment allegedly by four youths in Jharkhand’s Dhanbad district, police said on Thursday. The incident happened in Bhelatand area in Barwadda police station area, some 170-km from state capital Ranchi, between 5.30 pm and 6 pm on Wednesday, police said. The mother of the victim has filed an FIR against four suspected youths including two named accused living in the same apartment, police said. "On the basis of the FIR, two youths have been detained for interrogation on Wednesday night," said Deputy Superintendent of Police Amar Kumar Pandey, who is supervising the case.

A case was registered against four people for allegedly sexually harassing seven minor girls from Odisha after "illegally" employing them at a brick kiln in Sangareddy district, police said on Thursday. A group of 72 people, including the minor girls were employed at the brick kiln in Narayankhed mandal of the district about five months ago. They workers had recently contacted the Odisha Chief Secretary and alleged that they were exploited by their employers. The Telangana government officials received information from the Odisha Chief Secretary in this regard following which officials from the state Labour department, Women Development and Child Welfare Department raided the brick kiln where they were informed by the minor girls about the sexual harassment by the owners.

Former TMC MLA Jatu Lahiri breathed his last on Thursday morning at his residence in Shibpur in West Bengal's Howrah district, party sources said. He was 87. The five-time legislator had been suffering from age-related ailments, they said. "Jatu da passed away at this residence this morning. He was under treatment for quite some time," a party leader said. Lahiri had started his political career with Congress. In 1991, he was elected from Shibpur constituency on a Congress ticket. He switched over to the TMC after it was founded in 1998. Lahiri had clinched the same segment four times for the Mamata Banerjee-led party. He quit the party after not being given a poll ticket in 2021.

BJP candidate Kausar Jahan won the election of the Delhi Haj Committee.

Customs officials have arrested a passenger coming from Riyadh at Delhi airport for allegedly trying to smuggle gold worth about Rs 90 lakh into the country, an official statement issued on Thursday said. The accused was intercepted after his arrival from Riyadh on Monday at Indira Gandhi International (IGI) airport here. The personal search of the passenger resulted in the recovery of two strips wrapped with white adhesive tape containing brown coloured paste in a transparent packing, "found concealed into waistline of the passenger's underwear (gym supporter)", the statement said.

Thirteen people, including a two-year-old child, were rescued after a fire broke out in an electrical meter box of a four-storey building in Maharashtra's Thane city on Thursday, civic officials said. No one was injured in the blaze which erupted at around 7.30 am in the building located in Charai area, Thane Municipal Corporation's regional disaster management cell (RDMC) chief Avinash Sawant said. A book store is located on the ground floor of the building and two rooms on the first floor are being used as a godown of the book store. A temple is located on the building's fourth floor, he said. After being alerted, three fire engines and water tankers were rushed to the spot. A team of the RDMC also reached the spot.

Income Tax survey operation on BBC India continues for the third day, said sources.

A 30-year-old woman was allegedly shot dead by her husband in Gadhi Ashrafali locality in Maudarwaja area here, police said on Thursday. The incident took place on Wednesday evening when Jyoti's husband, Upendra alias Bhanwarpal Yadav shot his wife outside their house, they said. According to the police, Upendra shot Jyoti over some argument killing her on the spot. The body has been sent for postmortem and a detailed probe is on in the matter, Superintendent of Police, Ashok Kumar Meena said. Jyoti was Upendra's second wife and they both had a 3-year-old son. Police is trying to arrest the husband who is absconding, he said.

An earthquake, measuring 3.9 on the Richter Scale, rattled Meghalaya on Thursday morning, according to the National Centre for Seismology. According to official data, the quake, which occurred at 9.26 a.m, with an epicentre in the East Khasi Hills in Meghalaya, was 46 km deep. The tremors were felt in Meghalaya and in some parts of Assam, including Guwahati. Notably, on February 13, a 3.2 magnitude earthquake occurred in Assam which was epicentred in Hojai district at a depth of 10 km.

Three men on their way to a wedding function were killed when their car collided head-on with a state roadways bus in Rajasthan's Nagaur district, police said Thursday. The incident occurred near Hudeel on Wednesday night. While two of the car occupants died on the spot, the third succumbed to injuries on way to a hospital. “There was no passenger in the bus,” Hariram Jajunda, SHO of Chitawa police station, said. He said the bodies will be handed over to family members after postmortem.

China's ceremonial parliament has accused American lawmakers of trampling on the sovereignty of other nations after the U.S. passed a measure condemning a suspected Chinese spy balloon's intrusion into U.S. airspace. The statement issued Thursday by the National People's Congress's Foreign Affairs Committee repeated Beijing's insistence that the balloon was an unmanned civilian weather research airship, a claim the U.S. has dismissed citing its flight route and payload of surveillance equipment. While China at first expressed regret over the Feb. 4 incident, it has toughened its rhetoric in a further sign of how badly relations between the sides have deteriorated in recent years. On Wednesday, the Foreign Ministry said it will take measures against U.S. entities somehow related to the downing of the balloon, without giving details. The resolution earlier passed unanimously by the U.S. House of Representatives “deliberately exaggerated the China threat,'" the Foreign Relations Committee statement said.

North Korea says leader Kim Jong Un attended groundbreaking ceremonies for new housing and farming projects, which are part of his push for domestic achievements as the country's economic isolation deepens amid his defiant pursuit of nuclear arms. North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency said Kim broke ground Wednesday for the construction of a huge greenhouse farm in the outskirts of the capital, Pyongyang, where senior North Korean official Jo Yong Won in a speech said that providing Pyongyang residents with “fresh vegetables in all seasons” was a “top priority.” Kim also attended a ceremony marking the start of second-stage construction project to build 10,000 new homes in Pyongyang's Hwasong district. The project is part of broader plans to supply 50,000 new homes in the capital under a five-year national development plan that runs through 2025.

A militant was killed as security forces foiled an infiltration bid along the Line of Control in Kupwara district of Jammu and Kashmir, officials said on Thursday. "During the preceding night, based on a specific input generated by #Kupwara police, joint team of Army & #Police intercepted an infiltrating group in Saidpora forward area. The joint team has #neutralised one #infiltrator," police said in a tweet. It said search operation was going on in the area.

A 70-year-old woman died and 20 other people suffered from suffocation after a fire broke out in a 13-storey residential building in Kurla area of Mumbai on Wednesday, officials said. The blaze erupted around 7 am in the building located in Premier compound, Kohinoor City, following which some people were stranded on different floors due to smoke in the premises. They were taken to the building's terrace and rescued with the help of a staircase, a civic official said. The fire was confined between the 4th and 10th floors of the building, he said.

Lt Governor VK Saxena on Wednesday said efforts will be made to have the first phase of Delhi's transit-oriented development (TOD) project at Karkardooma ready by March 24. He reviewed the progress of work of the project and the Bharat Vandana Park — a flagship project of the Delhi Development Authority — being developed in sub-city Dwarka. In a tweet, he also said that efforts will be made to have the Park ready before Independence Day 2023. "Reviewed the progress of works on the Iconic Bharat Vandana Park & Prestigious Karkardooma East Delhi ToD Hub, of @official_dda While the ToD Hub will alter East Delhi's Skyline and usher more economic activities in the area, the Bharat Vandana Park will be a Model Mini India," he tweeted.

Israel's parliament on Wednesday overwhelmingly approved a law to strip Arabs convicted in nationalistic attacks of their Israeli citizenship or residency and deport them if they have accepted stipends from the Palestinian Authority. The decision, which could potentially affect hundreds of Palestinian citizens and residents of Israel, was condemned as racist by Arab lawmakers as well as Palestinian officials in the occupied West Bank. The internationally recognized Palestinian Authority has long provided stipends to the families of Palestinians killed or imprisoned for attacks on Israelis.

The Allahabad High Court has quashed criminal proceedings against Congress leader and former Union minister Salman Khurshid for his remarks against Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath during the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. The proceedings were quashed after Khurshid expressed regret, saying he did not intend to hurt anyone. Justice Dinesh Kumar Singh allowed the petition filed by Khurshid for quashing the criminal proceedings. Khurshid made the statement during the poll campaign while responding to questions by journalists about an alleged statement of the chief minister that the Congress leader was a sympathiser of the Batla House accused/terrorists. In response, Khurshid, a former law minister, made the alleged indecent remark.

A man illegally entered the West Bengal assembly on Wednesday after allegedly identifying himself as an MLA, officials said. The man, identified as Gajanan Varma- a resident of Howrah district, was arrested by the police, they said. The incident happened when the state budget was being presented in the assembly, they added. The man identified himself as an MLA at the gate and got into the lobby of the House, officials said. "Security personnel enquired about his identity when they found him loitering in the lobby, asking people how to get inside the House to witness the budget session. First, he introduced himself as an MLA but could not produce any identity card. We informed the marshall who called the police," an official said.

Ukraine has informed the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe that it won't attend the next meeting of its parliamentary assembly if sanctioned Russian lawmakers are allowed to participate. The meeting is scheduled to take place in Vienna on Feb. 23-24, during the one-year anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. In a letter obtained by The Associated Press on Wednesday, the head of the Ukrainian delegation to the the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, Mykyta Poturaiev, wrote, “We do not find ourselves in a position to attend the winter meeting in case of Russia's participation.” The letter, which was dated Feb. 10 and addressed to Parliamentary Assembly President Margareta Cederfelt, noted that Russia's decision to invade Ukraine was widely supported by Russian politicians, including members of the Russian delegation to the OSCE.

A two-day literary festival here from February 19 will bring together authors from across the country, officials said on Wednesday. 'Shahrnama Kahani: Apne Shehro' is being organised by the Prabha Khaitan Foundation in collaboration with the Rajasthan Tourism Department. There are several cities in the country, including Jaipur, Jodhpur, Pushkar, Delhi, Bhopal, and Lucknow that are historical. During the festival, authors who have written books on such cities will share their experiences, Tourism Minister Vishvendra Singh told reporters. They will talk about their memories, stories, art and culture, food, ancient importance and ancient buildings, he added. Singh said people of different cities across the country will connect with each other and no city will feel unfamiliar to them.