Breaking News, June 26 | LIVE UPDATES

Hyderabad Customs undertook the destruction of various Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances totally weighing around 8946.26 kgs, which were seized by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence,  Hyderabad (DRI) and Hyderabad Customs on various counts. The destruction included 2655.94 Kgs of Cannabis(Ganja), 11 Kgs of Heroin, 409.39 Kgs of Alprazoalam and related materials, 142.932 Kgs of Ephedrine Hydrochloride and related materials, 74.92 Kgs of Ketamine Hydrochloride, 2.95 Kgs of Mephedrone, 53.983 Kgs of Methaqualone and 5595.14 Kgs of chemicals used for the clandestine manufacture of Ephedrine: Hyderabad Customs.

Comedian and YouTuber Devraj Patel of 'Dil Se Bura Lagta Hai' fame dies in Chhattisgarh road accident.

Telangana CM K Chandrasekhar Rao reaches Solapur on a two-day visit to Maharashtra.

BJP President JP Nadda and Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan meet Padma awardee Bhil artist Bhuri Bai in Bhopal.

I am really happy that such big leaders came to my home to meet me today. I also introduced my family to them: Padma awardee Bhuri Bai, Bhil artist, in Bhopal.

Preparations are underway in Bhopal for PM Modi's visit to the city tomorrow to flag off five Vande Bharat trains. The PM will also address BJP workers from Bhopal.

PM Narendra Modi to visit Madhya Pradesh on 27th June, to flag off five Vande Bharat trains

At around 10:30am, PM will reach Rani Kamalapati Railway Station and flag off five Vande Bharat trains-Bhopal (Rani Kamalapati)-Indore Vande Bharat Express; Bhopal (Rani Kamalapati)-Jabalpur Vande Bharat Express; Ranchi-Patna Vande Bharat Express; Dharwad-Bengaluru Vande Bharat Express and Goa (Madgaon)-Mumbai Vande BharatExpress. 

Occupying Jammu and Kashmir illegally does not make it Pakistan's locus standi. PoK was, is and will always be a part of India. At least three proposals to this intention have been passed. The Indian Parliament has passed a unanimous resolution regarding PoK. People living in PoK have been suffering a lot, and they will raise slogans and demand to merge with India: Defence Minister Rajnath Singh in Jammu.

Telangana: AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi reaches Nizamabad jail to meet 2 AIMIM Councillor and Workers of Bodhan, says "This case is false, they are being oppressed. The current government will have to bear the brunt of this in the elections... We will contest the next assembly elections in the state. How many seats will be contested? I will tell you at the time of the elections"

IAS officer Anurag Verma appointed as the new Punjab Chief Secretary.

Delhi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi arrives at the AICC office. 

Telangana Congress leaders to meet Rahul Gandhi. Former MP Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy and former Telangana minister Jupally Krishna Rao are expected to join Congress.

West Bengal | BJP wants to sell the country. Their double engines will soon vanish. They will lose their first engine in the Panchayat Elections of the state and the second engine in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections...We are trying to do a "Maha Jota" (larger alliance) against BJP and it will be done soon: CM Mamata Banerjee in Cooch Behar.

BJP national president J P Nadda on Monday hit out at the opposition parties in the country by terming their recent meeting in Patna as a "photo session" and said that if people wanted development instead of dynastic, appeasement and vote bank politics, they should support his party and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Nadda also lashed out at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi over his speech in the United Kingdom in March this year, saying he went to the country which had ruled over India for over 200 years and asked them to save democracy here while forgetting that his grandmother -- Indira Gandhi -- had jailed around 1.88 lakh people during emergency.

A 26-year-old woman, who was shot at by a man in his office last week, died during treatment at a hospital in Madhya Pradesh's Jabalpur city on Monday, police said. The incident had taken place when the woman had gone to meet the accused at his office on June 16, an official said. Following the incident, the Congress had claimed that the accused was a BJP functionary, but the saffron party had refuted the claim. The 26-year-old victim was undergoing treatment for the bullet injury at a hospital, where she died on Monday, Sanjeevni Nagar police station in-charge Kranti Barve said.

Power consumers in Delhi with monthly usage of over 200 units will have to pay more after an 8 per cent hike in the power purchase adjustment cost (PPAC), prompting Minister Atishi to allege that electricity is getting costlier in the city due to the Centre's "mismanagement". Atishi, the power minister in the city government, told reporters on Monday that the hike will not impact consumers whose electricity consumption is 200 units or below. There will be a 8 per cent hike in PPAC surcharge in power bills of those consumers who do not get subsidy, she said. "I just want to tell the consumers that only the Centre is responsible for this hike. It has forced the use of imported coal, which is 10 times costlier than domestic coal. This is despite no lack of coal mines or availability of coal in the country," she said.

At least 5 persons, including 2 BSF personnel, were injured when villagers attacked a border outpost in Meghalaya's East Khasi Hills district on Sunday night, officials said. The incident took place around 10pm at Umsyiem village near Dawki town, 100 km south of the state capital, when a mob attacked the outpost, officials said on Monday. BSF Meghalaya Frontier inspector general Pradip Kumar told PTI, “In the last few days, we seized a number of items meant to be smuggled to Bangladesh and identified the smugglers. Due to this, they led a mob to attack the outpost forcing the BSF to retaliate by firing in the air.” In a statement, the BSF said they seized clothes worth over Rs 2.7 lakh meant for smuggling.

A 60-year-old man and his son were killed when their motorcycle was allegedly hit by a car in the district's Banda area, police said on Monday. Shiv Mangal and his 35-year-old son Anuj Singh were travelling on their motorcycle when it was hit by the car, Superintendent of Police Ashok Kumar Meena said. Another person injured in the accident is undergoing treatment. The police are trying to nab the absconding driver.

Two minor siblings drowned in a pond in the district's Akhand Nagar area, police said on Monday. The incident occurred in the Sajampur Rajbhar village on Sunday. Muskan (8) and her six-year-old brother Veeru had gone to graze livestock when they decided to take a dip in a pond, they said. When they did not return home till late, their family members launched a search for them and found the children's clothes near the pond.

A 55-year-old man died of burn injuries after a gas stove and cylinder caught fire in a building in Mumbai's Goregaon area on Monday, officials said. The incident took place at around 8 am in a room of the two-storey 'Shree Ganesh Rahivasi Seva Mandal' building, they said. A fire tender was rushed to the spot to douse the blaze, a fire brigade official said. The fire was confined to the gas stove and cylinder, a civic official said. A man, identified as Harish Chavan, suffered burn injuries in the fire. He was rushed to a trauma care hospital where doctors declared him brought dead, the official said. The cause of the fire is not yet known.

A man has allegedly slit the throat of a person and tried to drink his blood, suspecting him of having an affair with his wife, in Chintamani taluk of this district, police said. Police, who got to know about the crime after coming across a video of the incident in circulation, arrested the accused on Sunday. The incident is said to have taken place on June 19, and the victim has survived the attack, police said. According to police, the accused, Vijay and the victim Maresh, were residents of the same locality. Vijay suspected Maresh of having an affair with his wife, and he along with his relative John Babu took the latter to an isolated spot at Siddappalli on June 19 on the pretext of some work. While confronting Maresh over an alleged affair with his wife, Vijay allegedly slit his throat and tried to drink the spilling blood, even as John Babu was recording the incident on a phone, police said. Maresh, after the duo left the spot, managed to reach the hospital for treatment, with the help of locals, police sources said.

Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge on Monday questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi's silence on the Manipur violence and said the first thing he should do is sack Chief Minister N Biren Singh if he is really concerned about the state. No amount of propaganda by the BJP government can cover up its abject failure in handling the Manipur situation, Kharge said. He said reports indicated Union Home Minister Amit Shah had finally spoken to Modi on the Manipur situation, and added, "For the last 55 days, Modi ji did not say a word on Manipur. Every Indian is waiting for him to speak." "If Modi ji is really concerned about Manipur, then the first thing he should do is to sack his chief minister," he said on Twitter.

The AAP government has bridged the gap between the rich and the poor in Delhi’s education system by improving government schools, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Monday, promising to redevelop all MCD schools in the next five to seven years. He was speaking after inaugurating Sarvodaya Co-ed school in Libaspur village. Its classrooms, labs, library and halls are far better than those in private schools of Delhi, he said. “Earlier, the condition of government schools in Delhi used to be terrible. Classes were held inside tents, ceilings of schools were broken. There were no toilets or facility even drinking water. Poor families were compelled to send their children to such schools but the AAP government bridged the gap between the rich and the poor in education in Delhi,” Kejriwal said.

Heroin worth over Rs 35 lakh was seized near the Myanmar border in Mizoram's Champhai district, Assam Rifles said in a statement on Monday. Acting on specific information, a joint operation was carried out at Zote village by Assam Rifles and Mizoram excise department personnel and they seized 51 grams of heroin on Saturday, it said. During the search operation in the village, the consignment worth Rs 35.77 lakh was hidden in a brown bag and the seized narcotics substance was handed over to the excise department in Champhai for further legal proceedings, the statement said.

A 94-year-old woman and a man aged 56 were found dead on Monday in the debris of a ground-plus-three storey building which collapsed in Ghatkopar area of Mumbai the previous day, a civic official said. A portion of the building located in Chittaranjan Nagar of Rajawadi Colony in suburban Ghatkopar collapsed at around 9.30 am on Sunday. Later, three persons were safely rescued and efforts were underway to bring out two persons trapped there, the official said. While removing the debris, fire personnel found two persons on Monday. They were rushed to a hospital where doctors declared them "brought dead," he said.

A 25-year-old man allegedly stabbed his friend to death in an inebriated state during a quarrel in Maharashtra's Thane district, police said on Monday. The incident took place in Pisavali area of Dombivili town on Sunday night, an official said. The two men were consuming alcohol, when they entered into a heated argument and the accused whipped out a knife and stabbed the victim Shailesh Shilvant (28) multiple times, inspector Suresh Madne of Manpada police station said.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday asserted that the Narendra Modi government will root out the menace of drugs from India and will not allow the smuggling of narcotics through the country. In a video message on the International Day Against Drug Abuse, Shah said the home ministry has adopted a zero-tolerance policy against narcotics and the results of this approach have started coming in. Shah said, "We have decided that we will not allow any kind of narcotics trade in India nor will we allow any drugs to be smuggled through India." He further said, "I fully believe that with coordinated efforts, we will be successful in rooting out the menace of drugs and achieve our goal of a drugs-free India. We will not rest until this fight against drugs is won."

Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired an important meeting in Delhi. 

Four persons were injured when a two-storey house collapsed on an adjacent structure in Mumbai's Ghatkopar area on Monday, civic officials said. The incident took place at around 8.30 am in a chawl (tenement) in Ramabai Ambedkar Colony of suburban Ghatkopar, they said. The house collapsed on an adjacent room, injuring four persons, who were immediately rushed to the nearby Rajawadi Hospital, the officials said. Doctors at the hospital informed the condition of all of them was stable. The city and its suburbs received moderate to heavy rains in the last 24 hours, as per civic officials.

The Supreme Court on Monday extended by four weeks the interim bail granted to former Mumbai Police officer Pradeep Sharma, who was arrested in connection with the Antilia bomb scare case and the killing of businessman Mansukh Hiran, in view of his wife's surgery. A vacation bench of Justices AS Bopanna and Prashant Kumar Mishra extended the relief to Sharma granted earlier this month after senior advocate Siddharth Dave, appearing for him, said his wife could not be operated upon as the doctor concerned was abroad.

A 32-year-old man was lynched allegedly a group of 'cow vigilantes' on suspicion of transporting beef in Maharashtra's Nashik district, police said on Monday. This is the second incident in Nashik in nearly two weeks of killing of a person by 'cow vigilantes'. The latest incident took place at around 5.30 pm on Saturday near Gambhirwadi on Ghoti-Sinnar Road in Igatpuri area of Nashik, located more than 150 km from Mumbai, an official said.

A 37-year-old man allegedly molested a minor girl on a running train in Goa, police said on Monday. The incident took place on Sunday when the train was heading from Lokmanya Tilak Terminus (LTT) in Mumbai to Kochuveli in Kerala following which the Goa Police's Konkan Railway wing arrested the accused, a senior police official said. The accused allegedly molested the girl on the running train near Pernem in North Goa, he said quoting a police complaint filed by the victim's mother.

A 45-year-old man has been arrested for allegedly trying to rape an eight-year-old girl in a village here, police said on Monday. Surendra Ram was arrested on a complaint of the girl's father in which he alleged that the accused tried to rape his daughter on Sunday evening, Deputy Superintendent of Police, Mohd Faheem Qureshi said. An FIR was lodged under the POCSO Act and relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code, he added.

Passengers flying through Kempegowda International Airport Bengaluru (BLR Airport) will now have a new way of experiencing the airport with the launch of 'BLR Pulse' – a personalised digital travel buddy to cater to their needs. Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL) — the operator of BLR Airport, in collaboration with GrayMatter Software Services, has created 'BLR Pulse', an omnichannel platform. "This app alleviates common pre-travel apprehensions like long security queues, wait times, etc. It allows passengers to navigate within the terminal buildings and take control of their journey at departures and arrivals by providing essential information about the airport in real-time," BIAL said in a statement on Monday. The interactive chatbot feature in the app enables a self-sufficient mode of finding answers to various questions, which will be further curated over time, it said.

Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh said that Union Home Minister Amit Shah has expressed concern over changing nature of violence in the northeastern state. The union home minister is reportedly concerned over the shifting of violence and civil unrest from peripheral areas to districts in the Imphal valley. "The changing nature of violence from the exchange of fire in the peripheral areas to the civil unrest in the valley districts has become a matter of concern for Amit Shah ji," the chief minister told reporters here after his return from New Delhi late on Sunday night.

A portion of plaster fell from the ceiling of a civic-run hospital in Maharashtra's Thane district, an official said on Monday. No one was injured in the incident which took place at around 11.30 pm on Sunday at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Hospital located in Kalwa area, Thane Municipal Corporation's disaster management cell chief Yasin Tadvi said. A portion of the ceiling plaster opposite the cardiac section fell down, the official said. A fire brigade team and personnel from the regional disaster management cell rushed to the spot and removed the remaining part of the plaster which was hanging in a dangerous condition, he said. Repairs at the site will be undertaken by authorities concerned, he added.

In a freak accident, an airport worker in the US State of Texas has died after being sucked into a passenger plane engine. The worker’s death occurred at about 10.25 pm (local time) as a Delta Air Lines flight which had just arrived in San Antonio, Texas from Los Angeles was taxiing to an arrival gate with one engine running when the worker was killed. The employee, who has not been named, was "ingested" into an engine at San Antonio International Airport in Texas on Friday, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said.

Two motorcyclists were killed after colliding head-on with a truck in the Cantonment area of this Uttar Pradesh district, police said on Monday. The accident occurred on Sunday evening when a truck approaching from Budaun collided with the motorcycle at the Ramganga trisection, Additional Superintendent of Police (City) Rahul Bhati said. Rakesh Kumar (24) and his neighbour Prashant (22) died on the spot, he said and added that the bodies have been sent for post-mortem. As the driver tried to flee in his truck, the vehicle hit and injured another motorcyclist, the officer said. Later, the truck driver was nabbed and his vehicle seized, the police said.

Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari has said new vehicles will be introduced that run entirely on ethanol.
Speaking at an event in Nagpur on Sunday, the minister recalled that he recently met the chairman of Mercedes Benz company which launched an electric vehicle. "He (the chairman) told me they would make electric vehicles only in future,” Gadkari said.

Australia's highest court on Monday dismissed Russia's application for an injunction that would have prevented Moscow's embassy being evicted from a site in the national capital Canberra. In dismissing the application, High Court Justice Jayne Jagot described Russia's challenge on constitutional grounds to a law terminating the lease as “weak” and “difficult to understand.”

The NIA is conducting searches in more than half a dozen places in four Jammu and Kashmir districts as part of an investigation in a terror-related case, officials said on Monday. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) is carrying out searches in the Bandipora, Kulgam, Pulwama and Shopian districts of the Valley, the officials said. 

Two persons accused of cow slaughter were arrested after an encounter with police, officials said on Sunday. A statement issued here by the Uttar Pradesh Police said one of the accused Sadab was injured in the encounter in Ghosipura village under the Kharkhauda police station area. He then was arrested along with his accomplice Aftab late Saturday night. A motorcycle, 450 kg meat, a country-made pistol, equipment used in cow slaughter along with some other items were recovered from them, police added in the statement.

A 34-year-old woman died of electrocution after accidentally coming in contact with a live wire at the New Delhi Railway Station complex on Sunday morning amid rainfall, police said. The incident has prompted the concerned authorities to conduct a safety audit of all-electric poles and electricity infrastructure to prevent any such incident in the future, they said. The incident took place near exit gate number 1 of the station when Sakshi Ahuja, the victim, along with her family was on her way to board a train to Chandigarh, they said. She was with her father, mother, brother, sister, and two children at the time of the incident.

The Uttar Pradesh government has received investment proposals worth about Rs 36 lakh crore that emerged out of a memorandum of understanding signed during the state's investor summit a year ago, chief minister Yogi Adityanath said on Sunday. During his speech at an inaugural function of the Rs 200 crore-robot manufacturing plant of Reliance group firm Addverb, the chief minister said for the first time, the state has received investment proposals for all 75 districts and a maximum number of proposals have come for Gautam Buddh Nagar district. The "second Global investor summit was organised in Lucknow in 2023. At this occasion, the MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) that we have signed, proposals worth Rs 36 lakh crore have been received," Adityanath said.

Ranchi Vande Bharat Express on Sunday successfully completed the third trial run, an official said. The commercial operation of the semi-high-speed train will start from June 28, the official said. Birendra Kumar, Chief Public Relation Officer (CPRO) of East Central Railway (ECR), Hajipur zone, said that the final and third trial run of the Express with eight coaches was done successfully from Patna to Ranchi. "It is now fit for inauguration on June 27 and commercial operation from June 28," Kumar said.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Sunday took a jibe at the Samajwadi Party joining a meeting of Opposition parties at Patna to forge unity against the BJP for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, saying the Akhilesh Yadav-led party is an "expert in Chipko Andolan". BJP leader Adityanath was addressing a public rally in Gautam Buddh Nagar's Noida during which he inaugurated over 124 development projects worth more than Rs 1,719 crore across Noida and Greater Noida.

Former prime minister Indira Gandhi imposed the Emergency to save her government and killed democracy and this "black day" can never be forgotten, BJP leader and former Himachal Pradesh chief minister Jai Ram Thakur said on Sunday. Speaking at a function organised in Kusumpti on the 48th anniversary of the Emergency, Thakur said thousands of opposition leaders were jailed, voice of people was muzzled and the media was censored during the period.

In a weird turn of events aboard the Vande Bharat Express on Sunday, a man boarded the train from the northern Kasaragod district of Kerala and then shut himself inside one of its washrooms refusing to come out from there, Railway officials said. He was brought out only after the train reached Shornur railway station here after breaking open the washroom door, officials said.