Breaking News, July 20

A court in West Bengal’s South 24 Parganas district on Saturday remanded to police custody a man who was arrested on the charge of torturing a woman in a kangaroo court at his residence. It was alleged that the arrested Jamaluddin Sardar chained the woman and beat her up in the kangaroo court in the first week of July and had held similar sessions in the past inside his Pratapnagar village home. The victim filed a complaint with the police against him and the accused was arrested on Friday

Two waste-to-charcoal plants, also known as green coal plants, will be established in Haryana with the support of the central government, an official statement said on Saturday. This project will be the first of its kind green initiative and will be set up in Faridabad and Gurugram.

Nearly two years ahead of the Assembly election in 2026, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin on Friday constituted a committee comprising senior DMK leaders and youth wing secretary Udhayanidhi Stalin to recommend changes to the party organisation in order to face the polls.

Stalin said a party panel set up ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls to coordinate and supervise party's activities performed pretty well. The DMK and its allies together won 39 LS segments in Tamil Nadu besides the lone Puducherry constituency.

Rajasthan Chief Minister Bhajanlal Sharma on Saturday announced that one crore saplings will be planted in Rajasthan on Hariyali Teej on August 7. 

"There is a tradition of nature worship in our ancient culture. We worship trees, rivers, and mountains. Our ancestors have done a wonderful job of environmental protection by linking it with culture," Sharma said.

A class 11 student was allegedly stabbed by another here in a government school in northwest Delhi's Jahangirpuri area, police said on Saturday. The victim was rushed to a hospital immediately where he is undergoing treatment. The incident happened over a minor dispute between the two students on Friday, they said. Police said the juvenile accused of the stabbing was taken into custody. During investigations, it was found that he stabbed the victim over something the latter had said the previous day

A rescue and restoration operation is underway in Karnataka following a massive landslide on NH 66 near Shirur village in Ankola taluka. So far 7 bodies have been recovered while three people are still missing. Union Minister and former state CM HD Kumaraswamy visited the site today to take stock of situations.

The Judicial Magistrate Court Pune on Saturday (July 20) extended two days of police custody of Manorama Khedkar mother of trainee IAS Puja Khedkar. 

A BJP MLA in Madhya Pradesh on Saturday urged the state government to make it mandatory for all shopkeepers to display their names outside their shops, a demand coming in the wake of a controversy over the Uttar Pradesh government's order to all eateries along the Kanwar Yatra route to display their owners' names.

Tipra Motha supremo Pradyot Kishore Manikya Debbarma on Saturday urged the Centre to enhance vigil along the country's border with violence-hit Bangladesh. Tripura shares an 856 km-long border with the neighbouring country.

At least 10 kanwariyas were injured when their truck overturned near a village in Muzaffarnagar on Saturday morning, police said. According to the police, one of the tyres of the truck burst and the vehicle overturned near Satheri village. Circle Officer (crime) Ramashish Yadav said the injured were rushed to a nearby hospital. The accident took place when they were on their way to Haridwar from Agra to collect water from Ganga.

Congress's deputy leader in Lok Sabha, Gaurav Gogoi, on Saturday alleged that the ruling BJP was resorting to its "old brand of communal politics", as it was "unable to digest the moral defeat" in the parliamentary elections. He claimed that this was being manifested in instances such as the order in Uttar Pradesh to owners of eateries to display their names during the Kanwar Yatra and Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma targeting a specific community over population figures.

The depression over Bay of Bengal crossed the Odisha coast near Chilika Lake on Saturday, triggering heavy rain in parts of the state as the IMD forecast more downpour in the next five days. According to sources in the Regional Meteorological Centre, Bhubaneswar, Chitrakonda in Malkangiri district received highest rainfall of 220.5 mm, followed by 217 mm at Korkunda in the same district.

The National Testing Agency (NTA) on Saturday announced the centre and city-wise results for medical entrance exam NEET-UG, which is under the scanner over alleged irregularities. The results, which were initially announced on June 5, have been published in this format following an order of the Supreme Court, which is hearing several petitions about the alleged irregularities in the conduct of the exam, including paper leak. The exam was conducted on May 5 at 4,750 centres in 571 cities, including 14 cities abroad, for more than 24 lakh candidates.

The Indian Coast Guard (ICG) on Saturday said three of ships have been trying to douse the fire that broke out on a merchant vessel - an operation that has been continuing for the last 12 hours off the coast of Karwar in Karnataka. The three ICS ships - Sujeet, Sachet and Samrat - have been engaged in the firefighting operation on the cargo vessel 6.5 nautical miles south of Karwar, it said.

The flood situation in Assam improved as the number of affected people deceased to 2 lakh in 10 districts, official sources said on Saturday. Two major rivers, including the Brahmaputra, continued to flow above the danger level.

Airline systems across airports, which were impacted due to a global IT outage on Friday, have started working normally, and all issues are likely to be resolved by noon on Saturday, Civil Aviation Minister K Rammohan Naidu said. The ministry is constantly monitoring the operations at airports and airlines to ensure travel readjustments and refunds are taken care of, he added. "Since 3 AM (Saturday), Airline systems across airports have started working normally. Flight operations are going smoothly now," Naidu said in a statement.

In a major move, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested Congress MLA from Sonipat, Surender Panwar in connection with the illegal mining case in the Yamunanagar area of Haryana. The ED took him to their office in Ambala.

Delhi Lt Governor VK Saxena has alleged that Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who is lodged in Tihar jail under judicial custody, may deliberately not be taking medical diet and medicines prescribed to him, according to a Raj Niwas communication. The LG in a letter to Chief Secretary Naresh Kumar cited a report by Superintendent (Prison) regarding the health status of Kejriwal, to allege that there were several instances of "willful low calorie intake" by the CM, despite sufficient home cooked food being provided to him.

Lucknow's Akbar Nagar will now be known as 'Saumitra Van' (forest) as more than 10,000 saplings will be planted in this region as part of the Uttar Pradesh government's 'Ped Lagao, Ped Bachao Jan Abhiyan - 2024' (Plant Trees Save Trees campaign). The campaign was flagged off by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in 'Saumitra Van' on Saturday. Under this initiative, a total of 36.5 crore trees will be planted across the state.

Delhi High Court got its first Pilot Hybrid Court room with 'speech to text' facility.

The month of 'Sawan' will begin from 22nd July.

Three more persons were arrested in connection with the murder case of Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) chief Mukesh Sahani's father Jitan Sahani, Bihar's Darbhanga Police said on Saturday (July 20). Those held were identified as Sitare, Chhote Laheri and Mohd. Azad. The prime accused in the murder case, Kazim Ansari, has already been arrested, SSP Darbhanga said.

The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) chairman Manoj Soni has resigned citing personal reasons before the expiry of his tenure in May 2029, official sources said today (July 20). His resignation is "not in any way connected to controversies and allegations surrounding UPSC after probationary IAS officer Puja Khedkar issue came to the fore," they said.

Surender Panwar, MLA Sonepat has been arrested by ED in an illegal mining case.

IMD issued has been Orange alert in Nagpur.

Chief of Army Staff Gen Upendra Dwivedi will visit Jammu today to review the security situation there. He will be briefed by the formation commanders on the areas being taken by the security forces: A security review meeting with other security agencies is also likely to be held, officials said.

Severe waterlogging was witnessed in Navi Mumbai amid heavy downpours.

Former US President Donald Trump said that he had a “very good phone call” with Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday (July 20) in which the latter congratulated him on his nomination for the presidential candidate in the US election this year. He said that the Ukrainian president also condemned the assassination attempt on him last week at a Pennsylvania rally. The conversation between the two leaders came after Trump formally accepted the Republican Party’s nomination for the president.

Radical Sikh preacher and Member of Parliament (MP) from Khadoor Sahib, Amritpal Singh, who is lodged in a prison in Assam's Dibrugarh district under the National Security Act (NSA), on Friday (July 19) moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court seeking directions for quashing of entire proceedings against him under the act, including detention.

US President Joe Biden has criticised Donald Trump, now his official Republican opponent in the November presidential polls, over his speech at the National Convention (RNC) stating that the Americans got a glimpse of the “same Donald Trump they rejected four years ago”, The Hill reported. He also said that Trump only focused on his “own grievances” in his over 90 minutes-long speech, and presented a “dark vision” for the future of the country.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has attached immovable properties spanning 88.29 acres and valued at Rs 300.11 crore belonging to a private company under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002. "Enforcement Directorate (ED) has attached immovable properties spanning 88.29 acres and valued at Rs 300.11 crore belonging to M3M India Infrastructures private Ltd under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002. The properties attached are in the form of land parcels, located in Basharia village in Haryana's Gurugram," the ED said.