Breaking News, March 28 | HIGHLIGHTS

 An 18-year-old polytechnic student was found dead in her hostel room in Odisha's Jajpur district on Tuesday, police said.

The body of the woman, a third-year Electrical Engineering student, was found hanging from the ceiling fan in her room on the college campus in Korei police station area, they said.

The incident triggered tension on the campus with her family alleging that the college administration was responsible for her death as she was forced to take her own life because of continued ragging.

"A male student of the college messaged my daughter that she got selected for campus placement, but he threatened that she would not be allowed to appear for it.

More than three dozen towns and villages of nine states -- from Delhi to Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat to Assam -- have become cyber crime hotspots which are being closely monitored by law enforcement agencies, sources said on Tuesday.

Besides, a number of hostile countries have been trying for long to cripple India's financial system and national security grid where additional preventive measures are put in place by the government.

The states where the cyber crime hotspots have been located include Haryana, Delhi, Jharkhand, Bihar, West Bengal, Assam, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh, they said.

The telecom regulator Trai on Tuesday directed telecom operators to start reporting about network outages that affect all consumers in a district. The direction has come into force with immediate effect.

 AAP supremo and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal launched a no-holds-barred attack on the prime minister on Tuesday, levelling allegations of corruption against him in reference to the raging Adani issue. "There is rampant loot by the Centre. They have looted more in seven years than what the Congress had looted in 75 years.
The country is passing through difficult times. We are deeply worried about the situation," he charged, speaking on a resolution in the Delhi Assembly.

Japan on Tuesday committed Rs 7,084.5 crore to India for three infrastructure projects, including Patna Metro Rail Construction Project and Rajasthan Water Sector Livelihood Improvement Project.

Notes in this regard were exchanged between Rajat Kumar Mishra, Additional Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs and Japan Ambassador to India Suzuki Hiroshi, an official statement said.

The Enforcement Directorate on Tuesday conducted fresh searches against a senior IPS officer and some individuals with political links in Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh as part of its ongoing money laundering investigation into an illegal coal levy case, official sources said.

The investigation relates to "a massive scam in which illegal levy of Rs 25 was being extorted for every tonne of coal transported in Chhattisgarh by a cartel involving senior bureaucrats, businessmen, politicians and middlemen", the agency has said.

The ED has claimed at least Rs 540 crore was "extorted" over the last two years.

The European Union on Tuesday defended its record on helping relieve the suffering of migrants in Libya after UN-backed investigators accused the 27-nation bloc of abetting human rights abuses and other crimes in the largely lawless north African country.

Libya is a major departure point for people from northern Africa and elsewhere willing to make the perilous Mediterranean Sea crossing in poorly maintained boats in search of better lives or sanctuary in Europe.

At least 529 migrants were reported dead and 848 others missing off Libya last year, according to the United Nations' International Organization for Migration (IOM).
More than 24,680 people were intercepted by the Libyan coastguard as they tried to leave, and brought back.

Bihar and West Bengal have the lowest ratio of police personnel to per lakh population in the country at 75.16 and 97.66 respectively, Union Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai said in Lok Sabha on Tuesday.

The minister said according to data on police organisations compiled by the Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPR&D), the ratio for the whole country as on January 1, 2022 of police personnel per lakh persons is 196.
23 as per sanctioned strength and 152.80 as per actual strength.

 Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Tuesday alleged that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was disqualified from the Lok Sabha under a conspiracy. Gandhi was disqualified as a Lok Sabha member on March 24, a day after he was sentenced to two years in jail by a Surat court in a 2019 criminal defamation case.

"Rahul Gandhi's membership of parliament was terminated... This was done under a conspiracy," Gehlot said.

The Calcutta High Court on Tuesday refused to interfere in the West Bengal panchayat election process at this stage, which is to be held by May, while holding that there is substance in petitioner Suvendu Adhikari's contention over seat reservation criteria used for the upcoming rural polls.

Passing judgement on a PIL by the Leader of Opposition in West Bengal Assembly, a division bench presided by Chief Justice Prakash Shrivastava said that any interference at this stage in connection with the petition may lead to postponement of the panchayat elections in the state.

Disposing of the petition, the court declined to interfere at this stage, while holding that there is substance in the argument of the petitioner's counsel on the reservation of seats for other backward classes (OBC), scheduled caste (SC) and scheduled tribes (ST).

 Streets of the Bihar capital were on Tuesday dotted with posters that virtually declared Samrat Choudhary, who became the state BJP chief last week, as the claimant to chief ministership. "The Yogi of Bihar has arrived. Vacate 1, Anne Marg (the chief minister’s official residence)" was the slogan on the posters with huge photographs of Choudhary, who formally took over as the state president the day before, within half a decade of joining the party. The ruling ‘Mahagathbandhan’ in the state chuckled, seeking to know whether the BJP in Bihar has given up on leaders who have served the party for a long and is pinning hopes on Choudhary, who was for long with the RJD and for a brief period, with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s JD(U) before landing in the saffron camp.

Senior Congress leader Salman Khurshid on Tuesday said Opposition unity in the face of Rahul Gandhi's disqualification from Lok Sabha provides a fertile ground to "build an edifice on", and noted that if this is the beginning of a more sustained cooperation it was "worth paying the price" for. Khurshid also said he was confident that Rahul Gandhi will be back in Parliament "very quickly" through the legal process.

Lok Sabha adjourned for day amid protests by opposition members.

Rajya Sabha proceedings adjourned for day as opposition continues protest over Adani issue.

The Aam Aadmi Party will be displaying posters against Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 11 languages across the country on March 30, party's state convener Gopal Rai said on Tuesday. "The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) will display posters in states across the country on March 30. All state units of the party have been asked to paste posters in their respective states. The posters have been printed in 11 languages," Rai, the Delhi AAP chief and environment minister, told PTI.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to list for hearing on April 21 a plea of the Hindu side seeking consolidation of all suits filed in a Varanasi court pertaining to the Gyanvapi mosque complex row. A bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justice P S Narasimha and Justice J B Pardiwala took note of the submissions of lawyer Vishnu Shankar Jain that the district judge of Varanasi has deferred five times the decision on a plea seeking clubbing of all civil suits pertaining to the dispute. “We will list it for hearing on April 21," it said.

The BJP on Tuesday launched a fresh attack on Rahul Gandhi, saying the Congress leader's refusal to apologise to the OBC community for his "indecent" comments is yet another "manifestation" of the Gandhi family's political arrogance. BJP leader and Union Minister Smriti Irani alleged that Gandhi was trying to "rip" apart the image of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. But he will not succeed as the people of the country are with the prime minister, she asserted at a press conference. On the Congress raising questions over Gandhi being served a notice to vacate his official bungalow, she said the property does not belong to him, but the people.

An MP-MLA court here on Tuesday held gangster-politician Atiq Ahmed and two others guilty in the 2006 Umesh Pal kidnapping case. Special MP-MLA court judge Dinesh Chandr Shukla held Ahmed, Saulat Hanif, a lawyer, and Dinesh Pasi guilty in the case, government counsel Gulab Chandra Agrahari said. Seven others including Ahmed's brother Khalid Azim alias Ashraf have been acquitted in the case, he said. The quantum of punishment will be pronounced by the court later in the day.

The government is working to bring down logistics cost to GDP to 7.5 per cent from the current 13 per cent, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said Tuesday. Addressing the annual session of Assocham, Shah said, without the development of the country's infrastructure and reduction of logistics costs, development was not possible.

The Congress on Tuesday announced a protest march from Red Fort to Town Hall in old Delhi's Chandni Chowk against the disqualification of party leader Rahul Gandhi from Lok Sabha. Congress MPs will participate in the 'Loktantra Bachao Mashal Shanti March' starting from Red Fort at 7 pm, sources said.

Delhi Assembly proceedings were adjourned for 15 minutes Tuesday afternoon, amid noisy arguments between AAP and BJP members over the issue of corruption. The arguments broke out when the assembly started a discussion on "financial loss to Union Government exchequer and public due to a private company and no enquiry being conducted by Union government in this regard."

Lok Sabha was adjourned till 2 pm on Tuesday as Opposition protests over the Adani issue continued to disrupt the House proceedings. The Question Hour was again washed out and the proceedings were adjourned in less than a minute after the House convened for the day. Some Opposition members wearing black protested in the Well of the House. Congress members S Jothi Mani and Ramya Haridas tore the order papers and hurled them at the Chair.

Rajya Sabha proceedings were on Tuesday adjourned in the pre-lunch session as opposition MPs continued their protest over the Adani issue. Members of the Congress and other parties started raising slogans as the listed papers were laid on the table of the House. They were raising slogans demanding a probe by a joint parliamentary committee into allegations of corporate fraud and stock price manipulations against the Adani Group. Sensing the mood, Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar adjourned the proceedings till 2 pm.

Two personnel of the Border Security Force (BSF) were injured on Tuesday morning when a pressure improvised explosive device (IED) planted by Naxalites went off in Chhattisgarh's Kanker district, police said. The incident occurred near the BSF camp at Chilparas, around 120 km from Kanker, under Koyalibeda police station limits when a team of BSF was out on a road security operation, a senior official said.

The Enforcement Directorate on Tuesday conducted fresh searches at multiple locations in Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh as part of its ongoing money laundering investigation into an illegal coal levy case, official sources said. The investigation relates to "a massive scam in which illegal levy of Rs 25 was being extorted for every tonne of coal transported in Chhattisgarh by a cartel involving senior bureaucrats, businessmen, politicians and middlemen", the agency had earlier said.

A 20-year-old man ended his life by jumping in front of a train here, police said on Tuesday. SHO Jaswantnagar police station Mukesh Kumar Solanki said the incident took place on Monday in Nagla Vishun village. Rinku, a resident of Sajan Nagar, killed himself by jumping in front of the train, he said. The man's motorcycle was found at the spot, the SHO said.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday appealed to President Droupadi Murmu to protect the country's Constitution and its citizens' constitutional rights to save “the nation from a disaster”. At a civic reception for Murmu here, Banerjee lauded her as a "Golden lady" and said the country has a proud heritage of people from various communities, castes and creeds living in harmony for ages. "Madam President, you are the constitutional head of this country. I would request you to protect the Constitution and the constitutional rights of the poor people of this country. We would request you to protect the country from a disaster," Banerjee said at the civic reception.

A CBI court here has rejected a plea moved by gangster-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed and his son Umar, seeking a clean chit in an extortion case. The court of Special CBI Judge Ajay Vikram Singh has summoned Ahmed, Umar and the other accused on April 7 for framing charges.

The opposition Congress on Tuesday boycotted the hearing on the delimitation exercise in Assam alleging that it did not receive any response from the Election Commission on its allegation that the state cabinet had a “mala fide intention” in merging four districts with others. The Chief Electoral Officer, however, has written to the Congress to join the consultation by 1 pm on Tuesday as the EC places high value on the viewpoints of a national political party, an official said.
The grand old party is yet to respond to the fresh invitation.

Andhra Pradesh district judiciary job aspirants who wrote directly to the AP High Court Chief Justice, Justice Prasanth Kumar Mishra, regarding announcement of exam results will not be considered for employment, said an official on Monday. Taking a serious note of the development, the authorities (Registrar recruitment), termed the the act as 'highly objectionable.'

A court here on Monday rejected the bail plea of Shahrukh Pathan, who had allegedly pointed a gun at a Delhi Police head constable during the 2020 riots in the national capital. Additional Sessions Judge Amitabh Rawat was hearing Pathan's bail plea, which was moved in October last year but not pressed on his request for considering it after the main eyewitnesses in the case were examined.

Amid a spike in COVID-19 cases, the Centre on Monday reviewed with states and Union territories the preparedness for the pandemic management and the progress of vaccination. Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan who chaired the high-level meeting stressed on ramping up testing with a higher proportion of RT-PCR, and whole genome sequencing of positive samples.

An inter-ministerial meeting to discuss preparations ahead of the International Day of Yoga 2023 was held here on Monday.
Several Union ministers attended the meeting and gave suggestions regarding increasing the outreach, pooling resources to reflect the 'whole government approach' and to put in joint efforts to take IDY-2023 to greater heights, an Ayush ministry statement said. Union Minister of Ayush and Ports, Shipping and Waterways Sarbananda Sonowal said the IDY has already become an international event.

A local court here on Monday sentenced a woman to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment for killing her five children by throwing them in the river Ganga in 2020. Additional sessions judge Shailoj Chandra convicted Manju Devi and imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 on her, government counsel Vikas Narayan SinghIn case the convict fails to pay the fine, she will have to  spend an additional six months in jail.

A shooting at a private Christian grade school in Nashville wounded several people on Monday, authorities said. The suspect is dead after a confrontation with police. The shooting occurred at The Covenant School, a Presbyterian school for about 200 students from preschool to sixth grade. Students walked to safety on Monday, holding hands as they left their school surrounded by police cars, to a nearby church to reunited with their parents.

A functionary of the Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) of Puducherry was allegedly hacked to death at a bakery shop in neighbouring Villianoor, police said on Monday. A seven member gang who had come on three motor cycles on Sunday night "first hurled country bombs at Senthil Kumaran and subsequently attacked him using lethal weapons causing his death," they said.

Hungary's parliament on Monday approved Finland's bid to join NATO, ending months of delays and bringing the Nordic country one step closer to becoming a full member of the Western military alliance. Hungarian lawmakers voted 182 for and only six against with no abstentions. The vote came after Hungary's government frustrated allies in NATO and the European Union by repeatedly postponing the measure for months after nearly all other members of the alliance had ratified Finland's bid.

The Nagaland Assembly on Monday passed the Nagaland Fire and Emergency Services Bill, 2021 and Nagaland Goods and Services Tax (Sixth Amendment) Bill, 2022. The bills were introduced by Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio on March 23 with Speaker Sharingain Longkumer scheduling it for consideration and passage on Monday. However, with no amendments from the legislators, the two bills were passed unanimously by voice vote.

Gangster-politician Atiq Ahmed and his brother Khalid Azim alias Ashraf were brought to the Naini jail here, after long road journeys from two separate prisons amid allegations that the former Samjwadi Party legislator would be killed in an encounter on the way. They will be produced in a court here on Tuesday in connection with the 2006 kidnapping of Umesh Pal, a witness in the BSP MLA Raju Pal murder case, who was killed last month in an attack allegedly orchestrated by the two. The verdict is also likely to be pronounced during the day.

A court in Gujarat's Navsari fined Congress MLA Anant Patel Rs 99 in a 2017 case in which he was accused of entering the chamber of the vice chancellor of an agriculture university and tearing the photo of Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a students' protest. The court of additional chief judicial magistrate VA Dhadhal found Patel, an MLA from Vansda (ST) seat, guilty under Section 447 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for criminal trespass.