Breaking News, August 21 I HIGHLIGHTS

Three people were arrested in a joint operation carried out by the police and the military intelligence on Monday for allegedly duping people on the pretext of giving them jobs in the army, an official said.

Britain's security minister on Monday pledged more U.K. support for Iraq's security forces in combatting drug production and trafficking

A Sharjah-bound flight was forced to land at Jaipur airport after a passenger complained of chest pain, airport sources said on Monday. The Indigo flight had taken off from Lucknow for Sharjah on Sunday. The pilot of the flight sought permission for landing from the ATC of Jaipur airport citing medical emergency.

Panic gripped the Shri Guru Ramdas Ji International Airport here when staff cleaning an Air India aircraft reported a bomb threat on Monday. However, it later turned out to be a hoax.

A 22-year-old youth died of a heart attack in a toilet of Khajuraho Express train on Monday, police said. Sanwar Singh, head constable of Chittorgarh GRP Police Station, said that Akshay, a resident of Senthi in Chittorgarh, died in the train.

A controversy erupted in Bihar on Monday when the opposition BJP alleged that the state government was renaming a park in the capital city, named after former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, a charge promptly denied by the department concerned.

Uttarakhand High Court on Monday heard the bail application of Pulkit Arya, the main accused in the murder of resort receptionist Ankita Bhandari. Arya filed the bail application, claiming that he had been falsely implicated in the case.

The 27th edition of Exercise MALABAR concluded on the East Coast of Australia off Sydney on 21st August. 

Directorate of Revenue Intelligence officials have recovered and seized 27,940 e-cigarettes and 3.3 tons of Poppy seeds in the Old Delhi area.

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami met Union Energy Minister RK Singh in New Delhi today. On this occasion, the CM requested the Union Minister to make permanent allocation of 400-450 MW from coal-based plants to secure the base load in view of the energy security of the state and to make the state free from power cuts. On this occasion, the Chief Minister also thanked the Union Minister for providing an average of 300 megawatt power per month from the unallocated quota from April to September 2023.

A police team on Monday visited the house of a senior Delhi government official accused of raping a minor several times and impregnating her. The team visited the officer's house in Burari in connection with its probe into the case. The girl was staying with the accused - a deputy director in the women and child development department - and his family at their house after her father passed away on October 1, 2020.

Ahead of the expected touchdown of Chandrayaan-3 mission's lander module on the surface of the Moon on Wednesday, former ISRO Chairman G Madhavan Nair kept his fingers crossed and said it is a very complex manoeuvre and one has to be cautious as all systems have to work in unison for its success. Nair, who headed the space agency when Chandrayaan-1 mission was launched in 2008, said a successful landing would herald a big beginning for ISRO's next phase of planetary exploration. "It's a very complex manoeuvre. We narrowly missed it (soft landing on the Moon in Chandrayaan-2 mission) in the last two kms (above the lunar surface)," he told PTI on Monday.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday said there was an era of "corruption and scams" before 2014 and the rights of the poor and their money were robbed, but now every penny is reaching into their accounts directly. The data shows an increasing number of people are paying taxes, which shows their faith in the government that their money is being put to good use, Modi said. He was virtually addressing the training-cum-orientation programme of newly appointed teachers at the CM Rise Government Mahatma Gandhi Higher Secondary School in Madhya Pradesh capital Bhopal.

A man allegedly stabbed and injured a couple over their refusal to dance during a function at a village in Maharashtra's Nagpur district, police said on Monday. The incident took place in Kharsoli village on Sunday night, an official from Hudkeshwar police said. The accused Dinesh Subhashrao Patil (45) allegedly attacked his neighbour Sukhdeo Uikey (55) and his wife Rekha (50) after they refused to dance during a naming ceremony, he said.

As part of its efforts to bring down incidents of trespassing, the Central Railway has installed a new escalator at Diva east in Maharashtra's Thane district, an official said on Monday.

Union minister Anurag Thakur has asked authorities in the district to construct houses for those who have lost their homes due to heavy rains in Himachal Pradesh. Chairing a review meeting on the damage caused by heavy rains in the district on Sunday, the Hamirpur MP said changes will be made in the Relief Manual of the Central and State Governments to provide more relief to the people hit by the calamity.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday assured that all temporary employees of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) would be regularised. He was addressing a programme organised by the MCD, where he handed over appointment letters to 370 newly regularised employees. MCD employees are getting salaries on time for the last two months and the civic body's tax collection has also increased because it is being led by an honest dispensation, Kejriwal said.

A panel headed by former judge Gital Mittal to oversee relief and rehabilitation of victims of violence in Manipur on Monday submitted three reports to the Supreme Court, including one on the need to upgrade the compensation scheme for the strife-torn people of the state. The Supreme Court said it will pass orders on Friday to facilitate functioning of the three-member panel. A bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra said the copy of the three reports be given to all lawyers concerned and directed advocate Vrinda Grover, appearing for one of the victims, to collate suggestions for the panel.

Operations at the new terminal building of the Port Blair airport began on Monday morning, officials said. The operations began with the arrival of an IndiGo flight from Chennai. The flight, 6E-6213, landed at the Veer Savarkar International Airport with 83 passengers at 7.10 am, they said.

India has logged 54 new coronavirus infections, while the active cases have been recorded at 1,475, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Monday. The death toll was recorded at 5,31,926, the data updated at 8 am stated. The country's Covid case tally stood at 4.49 crore (4,49,96,653). 

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday conducted searches at multiple places in Kolkata and its neighbourhood in connection with its investigation into the school jobs scam, officials said.

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday ordered the suspension of a Delhi government officer accused of raping a minor several times and impregnating her. The chief minister has also sought a report from Chief Secretary Naresh Kumar by 5 pm, officials said.

A local BJP functionary was injured after a man allegedly attacked him with a knife following an argument over a monetary dispute in Maharashtra's Jalna city, police said on Monday. The incident took place at around 6 pm on Sunday near Mantha bypass, police inspector Prashant Mahajan said.

The Kerala police on Monday took into custody a 25-year-old man for allegedly sexually abusing a Nagaland-native woman. Police said Thiruvananthapuram resident, Aneesh, was taken into custody for attempting to molest the woman and injuring her near Thumba here. The incident happened late on Sunday night, a police official told PTI, adding that she was on her way back home after her work in a hotel.

Seventeen Indian nationals, who were held captive by an armed group in Libya, have been rescued and brought back to India following sustained efforts by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), people familiar with the matter said on Monday. The Indian nationals, hailing from Punjab and Haryana, reached Delhi on Sunday evening, they said. The Indian embassy in Tunis played a key role in evacuation of the Indians, the people said.

Two Haryana natives have been arrested from here for cheating in a test held by the ISRO for recruiting technical staff for the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC). The duo were caught from two different examination centres here while using unfair means to answer the test questions, a senior police officer said. The arrest was formally recorded late Sunday night, he said.

Ten people, who were trapped in the reservoir at the Kol Dam Hydel Project in Himachal Pradesh's Mandi district, have been rescued by the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) after an overnight operation, officials said on Monday. Five employees of the forest department were among the 10 rescued. A large number of logs had floated into the reservoir following heavy rains in the past few days and the five employees along with some locals had gone to take stock of the situation.

A fire broke out at two factories in Nilothi village here on Monday, officials said. Information about the blaze was received at 8.52 am, they said and added that 20 fire tenders have been deployed.
 

An anti-encroachment drive was carried out in east Delhi's Geeta Colony area on Monday, police said. The drive was conducted under the supervision of the sub-divisional magistrate and it is related to a place of worship, according to a senior police official. Police provided security for carrying out the anti-encroachment drive, the official said. On Sunday, civic agencies with the help of police had conducted a demolition drive in the central Delhi area.

A demonstration by farmers here in Rajasthan demanding seven hours of uninterrupted electricity supply and power connections entered its fifth day on Monday, with three rounds of talks between them and Discom officials on the issues remaining inconclusive. The farmers' 'mahapadav' at the Jodhpur power distribution company (Discom) began on Thursday.

Five security guards were assaulted and a weighbridge of DVC coal mines in Jharkhand's Latehar district was set on fire by a Maoist faction on Monday, police said. The incident happened around 2 am in the Tubed DVC coal mines area under the Latehar Police Station limits, around 110 km from the state capital Ranchi. Jharkhand Lal Tiger (JLT), a Maoist faction, took responsibility for the incident by leaving a pamphlet there, Latehar Police Station in-charge Ashutosh Kumar said.

Former US president Donald Trump has once again raised the issue of high taxes in India on certain American products, in particular the iconic Harley-Davidson motorcycles, and has threatened to slap reciprocal tax if he is voted to power in the 2024 presidential elections. During his first term as the US president, Trump described India as a “tariff king” and in May 2019, terminated India’s preferential market access -- Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) -- to the United States alleging India has not given the United States “equitable and reasonable access to its markets.” The 77-year-old former president, who is facing a series of court cases and indictments, is leading the Republican presidential primaries and accounts for more than half of the GOP votes according to major national polls.

A 13-year-old boy, who was part of a group of 'kanwariyas', was killed after being hit by a truck here in Uttar Pradesh, police said on Monday. The accident took place late Sunday night in an area under the Sandana police station. The group of Shiva devotees were going to the Siddheshwar temple to perform 'jalabhishek' of Lord Shiva after taking water from Naimisharanya, police said. Raja, a resident of Sidhauli, died on the spot, police said, adding that the truck driver left his vehicle and fled.

The ISRO on Monday released images of Lunar far side area captured by the Lander Hazard Detection and Avoidance Camera (LHDAC). This camera that assists in locating a safe landing area -- without boulders or deep trenches -- during the descent is developed by Ahmedabad-based Space Applications Centre (SAC), a major research and development centre of ISRO. According to the space agency, to achieve the mission objectives of Chandrayaan-3, several advanced technologies are present in the Lander such as LHDAC.

The BJP has announced that its MLC Hari Sahani will be the leader of the opposition in the Bihar legislative council. The announcement was made at the BJP state headquarters by the party's Bihar unit chief Samrat Choudhary on Sunday, in the presence of senior leaders like Union minister Nityanand Rai and leader of the opposition in the assembly Vijay Kumar Sinha.

The BSF and the Punjab Police apprehended two Pakistani smugglers from along the international border in Ferozepur and seized 29 kilograms of heroin from them on Monday, an official said. One of the smugglers suffered a bullet injury after Border Security Force (BSF) personnel opened fire at them sensing threat, the official said.

Noida: One man died and six others were injured while they were installing street light poles on the road in Noida Sector 24. Injured were discharged from a hospital after giving first aid. Necessary action is being taken, said Noida police.

President Droupadi Murmu will arrive on a three-day visit to Goa on Tuesday during which she will address members of the legislative assembly and also participate in the Goa University's convocation ceremony, a government official said. On Tuesday, she will lay a wreath at the Martyr's Memorial at Azad Maidan in state capital Panaji and also attend a civic reception in the Raj Bhavan, the official said.

The CBI has registered two cases related to the killing of Sengbath Marak allegedly by police in an encounter in a village in Meghalaya in March 2015, officials said on Sunday. The central agency took over the case on the orders of the Meghalaya High Court. The high court in May this year had ordered an investigation into the encounter case in which police allegedly killed Sengbath on March 4, 2015 in the village of Oragitok where it had reached on getting information about the presence of Garo National Liberation Army (GNLA) militants in a school.

Seven people were killed and 28 injured when a bus carrying pilgrims from Gujarat fell into a gorge in Uttarkashi district of Uttarakhand on Sunday. The bus with 35 people on board was returning from Gangotri. The accident occurred when the driver lost control of the bus at Gangnani. Uttarkashi Superintendent of Police Arpan Yaduvanshi told PTI over phone that the accident took place around 4.15 pm on the Rishikesh-Gangotri National Highway in Bhatwadi tehsil. He said seven pilgrims, all residents of Bhavnagar district in Gujarat, died on the spot. 

Ten people, including five employees of the forest department, were trapped at the Kol Dam Hydel Project in Himachal Pradesh's Mandi district on Sunday, officials said. "The situation is not life threatening and the trapped people would be rescued soon," Mandi Deputy Commissioner Arindam Chaudhary said.

The special task force (STF) of Odisha Police has arrested a man believed to be the mastermind behindseveral cases of cheating and impersonation, officials said on Sunday. The accused has been identified as Kanhu Charan Pradhan, a resident of Khurda district, they said. Pradhan and his associates used to allegedly dupe people and extort money, claiming to be RTI activists, the officials said.

Police in Pakistan on Sunday arrested six members of the minority Ahmadi community for allegedly posing themselves as Muslims. According to a Pakistani Constitutional amendment in 1974, Ahmadis were declared to be non-Muslims. The Jamaat-e-Ahmadiyya Pakistan protested the arrest of members of the minority community, saying the radical Islamists Tehreek Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) activists were at the forefront in inciting the area people against the innocent Ahmadis and getting the FIR registered against them.

The construction of the sanctum sanctorum of Ayodhya's Ram Temple is ready and Ram Lalla will be consecrated between January 16 and 24 after Makar Sankranti, a top official of the temple trust said on Sunday. The consecration of Ram Lalla will be carried out after the construction of the first floor of the temple, Ram Mandir Teerth Kshetra Trust general secretary Champat Rai said.

Union Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat on Sunday said his "three generations" have nothing to do with the alleged Sanjeevani Credit Cooperative Society scam, a day after Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot questioned the BJP leader's innocence in the matter. Gehlot has repeatedly accused Shekhawat, who is an MP from Jodhpur, of being involved in the scam in which a large number of investors were duped of crores of rupees.

The Madhya Pradesh BJP's working committee on Sunday held a meeting in Gwalior to draw its strategy for the year-end assembly polls in the state, wherein a resolution was passed urging party workers to highlight among voters the past Congress governments' "misrule" and saffron party-led dispensations' achievements. Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who spoke at the day-long meeting, set the target of winning more than 150 out of the total 230 seats in the state.

An encounter broke out between security forces and militants in Pulwama district of Jammu and Kashmir on Sunday, police said.  "Encounter has started in Larrow-Parigam area of #Pulwama. Police & Security Forces are on the job. Details shall follow," Kashmir Zone Police said on X (formerly Twitter). There were no reports of any casualty on either side.

Thirteen people have so far been arrested in connection with the death of a first-year undergraduate student of Jadavpur University. On Sunday, a city court remanded a former student of varsity, the 13th arrest in the case, to police custody till August 24. Police have slapped a case under Section 353 (use of criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty) of the IPC against the accused, the state prosecutor told reporters.

Goa Aam Aadmi Party MLA Venzy Viegas on Sunday said the Pramod Sawant government must comply with the Bombay High Court order of July to earmark Mhadei wildlife sanctuary and surrounding areas as a tiger reserve. He said the decision would save Mhadei and Goa adding that he had mooted the idea of a tiger reserve in January but it was rejected by the ruling party MLAs in the Assembly.

 A senior official of the Delhi government's Women and Child Development department has been booked for allegedly raping his friend's minor daughter several times and impregnating her, police said on Sunday. The girl was staying with the accused - a deputy director in the WCD department - and his family at their house after her father passed away on October 1, 2020.

Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis left for Japan on Sunday evening after being invited as a state guest by the government there. During his five day tour of Japan, Fadnavis will attend meetings and take part in investment talks in order to attract FDI to Maharashtra, officials said. Fadnavis, who is accompanied by officials from the state industries department and MMRDA, will visit the country's famed bullet train and Tokyo Metro operations, they added.