Breaking News, January 5 | Highlights

An office bearer of the Ajit Pawar faction of the NCP on Friday accused BJP MLA Sunil Kamble of hitting him during an event at Sassoon Hospital in Pune, a charge denied by the latter even as a purported video of a slapping incident went viral on social media.

Uttarakhand Police on Friday arrested a member of an inter-state gang that cheated people from different states on the pretext of giving them loans, officials said.

A court here on Friday sentenced a man to 20 years imprisonment for raping a minor girl.

The Union Home ministry has ordered a CBI inquiry into the alleged supply of "substandard" medicines in Delhi government hospitals and whether the drugs were also distributed through mohalla clinics, sources said on Friday.

A 13-year-old boy was injured allegedly in a firing between two rival gangs in northwest Delhi's Jahangirpuri area, police said on Friday.

An unmarried couple allegedly committed suicide by hanging themselves in Gunnaur police station area of this district on Friday, police said.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s ‘Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra’, which is scheduled to start on January 14 from Manipur, will pass through seven districts of Chhattisgarh next month, a party functionary said today. The yatra will culminate in Mumbai after covering a distance of over 6,700 kilometres, passing through 110 districts of 15 states in 67 days, state Congress spokesperson Dhananjay Thakur said.

Dense fog disrupted visibility early Friday in Punjab and Haryana which were in the grip of a cold wave, the weather department said. Fatehabad in Haryana and Gurdaspur in Punjab recorded a minimum of 5.3 degrees Celsius and 4.5 degrees Celsius, respectively, according to the weather department. Among other places in Haryana, Ambala recorded a low of 6.6 degrees Celsius. Karnal, Hisar, Bhiwani and Sirsa also experienced a cold night recording respective minimums of 6.3 degrees Celsius, 7.5 degrees Celsius, 6.8 degrees Celsius and 7.2 degrees Celsius.

The Enforcement Directorate on Friday searched premises of Baramati Agro, a company owned by MLA Rohit Pawar, grand nephew of NCP supremo Sharad Pawar, and linked entities as part of a money laundering probe in the alleged Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank scam, official sources said. At least six locations in Baramati, Pune, Aurangabad and Amravati are being searched, they said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi greeted veteran BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi on his birthday on Friday and hailed him as "a guiding light and a source of inspiration" whose efforts towards educational advancement have left an indelible mark. Joshi, who turned 90 on Friday, is a former BJP president and a former Union minister who was one of the prominent faces of the party during its first wave of rise through the late 80s and 90s.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Friday visited the famous Pashupatinath Temple here dedicated to Lord Shiva and prayed for the well-being of the peoples of the two countries and India-Nepal ties. Jaishankar arrived in Nepal on Thursday on his first visit to a foreign country in 2024. He visited the Pashupatinath Temple early in the morning before starting his engagements in the country on the second day.

Commercial vehicles and other modes of public transport stayed off the roads in most parts of Assam on Friday, owing to a 48-hour strike called by a joint forum of transporters' unions to protest against the new penal law on hit-and-run cases. Office-goers had a difficult time reaching their workplaces as buses, taxis and app cabs didn't ply, abiding by the strike call.

Arunachal Pradesh's ginger, locally known as Adi Kekir, handmade carpets and Wancho wooden craft have secured the Geographical Indication (GI) tag, Chief Minister Pema Khandu has announced. A geographical indication or GI is a sign used on products that have a specific geographical origin and possess qualities or a reputation that are due to that origin.

A criminal carrying a reward of Rs 1 lakh on his head was killed in an encounter with Uttar Pradesh Police's Special Task Force in Sultanpur district on Friday morning, officials said. The criminal was identified as Vinod Kumar Upadhyay, they said. Upadhyay sustained bullet injuries during an encounter with the Special Task Force and was admitted to a hospital, where he died, Additional Director General of Police, STF, Amitabh Yash told the media. 

ISRO said that it has successfully flight-tested a fuel cell today to assess its operation in space and to collect data to facilitate the design of systems for future missions. Powering missions with efficiency and emitting only water, these fuel cells are the future for power production in space habitats, the national space agency headquartered in Bengaluru said.

The Uttarakhand High Court has suspended District and Sessions Judge of Rudraprayag and former Registrar (Vigilance) of the high court, Anuj Kumar Sangal on charges of harassing a subordinate. Sangal is accused of harassing Harish Adhikari, a Class IV employee posted at his residence, by abusing him and threatening him with removal from service. This led Adhikari to consume poison, the suspension order issued by Registrar General Ashish Naithani said.

The Tirunelveli police opened fire on a history-sheeter involved in 18 criminal cases and four others on Friday morning at Perundurai in this district. The accused escaped unhurt, and a search is on to nab them, police said. According to police, history-sheeter Sivasubramani and four others were involved in a murder that took place recently at Kalakkadu in Tirunelveli district.

Dense fog has gripped Delhi as the temperature dipped further in the national capital. 

Polling for the Karanpur Assembly seat in Rajasthan's Sriganganagar district began at 7 am on Friday, an official said. Surendra Pal Singh TT, the BJP nominee from the seat, has already been sworn in as a minister in the newly-formed state cabinet. "The polling in Karanpur began at 7 am. The polling will be held till 6 pm," District Collector Anshdeep said.