A 35-YEAR-OLD man remarried his wife and also tied the knot with her cousin at the same wedding ceremony in a village in Madhya Pradesh’s Bhind district. The unusual ceremony became talk of the town after a video of the twin marriages solemnised on November 26 in village Gudawali went viral on social media. The man, Dilip aka Deepu Parihar (35), was already married to Vinita (28), the sarpanch of Gudawali, about 30 km from Bhind distric t Headquarters...

A “DRUNK” jawan allegedly shot dead two CRPF personnel, including an officer, and injured another at his camp in poll-bound Jharkhand, officials said on Tuesday, in the second incident of fratricide in the Central Armed Police Forces in less than a week. The incident took place at the ‘charlie’ company of the 226th battalion of the Central Reserve Police Force in Bokaro on Monday around 9.30 PM, they said...

DESPITE a boost in Opposition numbers in Rajya Sabha against the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, the BJP is confident that the proposed legislation will be passed by the House with a comfortable majority on Wednesday when it is scheduled to be taken up for discussion. Sources in the BJP-led NDA said they were sure of getting near 124-130 votes in the Upper House which has an effective strength of 240 members...

PRESIDENT Ram Nath Kovind on Tuesday flagged the recent incidents of violence against women in the country, saying such heinous crimes force people to think whether the society has lived up to the cherished universal vision of equal rights for all. In his address at an NHRC function at Vigyan Bhawan here to mark Human Rights Day, he said the ideal way to commemorate the occasion will be for the whole world to ‘introspect’ what more needs to be done to live up in letter and spirit to the ‘sacred text’ ..

A JAIL in Buxar district of Bihar, known for its expertise in manufacturing execution ropes, has been directed to keep 10 pieces ready by the end of this week, triggering speculations that these might be meant for the 2012 Nirbhaya case convicts. The Buxar jail, the only prison in the State having the required knowhow, received an instruction to the effect last week, though it was not known where these ropes -- strong with a short shelf-life -- would be dispatched. “We received instructions from the ..

LODHA Developers’ M P Lodha and family has been named India’s richest real estate entrepreneur with a wealth of Rs 31,960 crore followed by DLF’s Rajiv Singh and Embassy group founder Jitendra Virwani in the second and third position respectively, according to a report. Hurun Report and GROHE India on Monday released the third edition of ‘GROHE Hurun India Real Estate Rich List 2019’ – featuring the richest real estate entrepreneurs in India...

THE Telangana Government has constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the killing of four accused in the rape and murder of a woman veterinarian in “retaliatory” firing by police last week. A Government Order was issued in this regard on Sunday. “The cause and circumstances leading to the death of the four persons should be ascertained with reasons and establish truth and in view of the fact that the case requires sustained and focused investigation, a SIT is constituted to investigate ..

WHEN the first firefighters arrived at the site of the deadly blaze in north Delhi, they had no idea so many people were trapped in the four-storey building. The firefighters made their way through dense smoke and flames on the first floor when they overhead a distress call coming from the second, so they rushed to rescue the person, and realised many more were trapped and screaming for help. The incident turned out to be the biggest fire tragedy in the national capital since the Uphaar Cinema blaze ..

A DAY before a rape victim was set afire in Unnao by two of her alleged rapists and three others, a 30-year-old woman faced acid attack by four men in a village near here for refusing to withdraw her complaint of rape against them from court, police said on Saturday. The woman suffered 30 percent burns and is undergoing treatment at a Meerut hospital near here, they said...

UNION Home Minister Amit Shah has asserted the NDA Government’s resolve to amend the IPC and the CrPC to make them more conducive for the country, amid the debate on delay in criminal justice delivery system, especially in heinous crimes like rape. Shah’s statement came days after the Ministry of Home Affairs asked all State Governments to send their suggestions for undertaking a major overhaul and recasting of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) so that it will reflect ..

THE last rites of the 23-year-old Unnao rape victim, who succumbed to her burn injuries in Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital, were performed at her native village here on Sunday amidst tight security arrangements. She was laid to rest in the fields belonging to her family, where the mausoleum (mazaar) of her grandparents is situated...

Muzaffarpur Shelter Home Case: Forty four girls, many of them minor, were sexually assaulted and tortured in a shelter home in Muzaffarpur, Bihar. The Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) in a report brought the matter out in the public domain. The report was given to the Bihar Government in May, 2018. Former Bihar People’s Party MLA Brajesh Thakur was named as the prime accused. In August, the Supreme Court took cognisance and transferred the probe to CBI. In February this year, the cases were ..

A SEVEN-MEMBER NHRC team on Saturday visited the site where the men arrested on charge of gangrape-murder of a veterinarian were killed in an alleged encounter, while Telangana Police said that the four accused have been booked for “attacking” the cops who had accompanied them. The team from the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) visited Chattanpalli village, about 50 kms from here, where the alleged encounter took place...

TAMIL Nadu Governor Banwarilal Purohit on Saturday called upon the people to donate liberally to ex-servicemen and supplement the Government’s efforts in welfare activities for them. Addressing the State through the All India Radio and Doordarshan on the occasion of the Armed Forces Flag Day, he remembered the supreme sacrifice made by the personnel of the armed forces in protecting the country’s territorial integrity...

“SAVE me, I don’t want to die, I want to see them hang to death”. These are the last words of the 23-year-old rape victim from Uttar Pradesh’s Unnao district to her family members and doctors before she died on Friday late night in a Delhi hospital. She was declared dead at 11.40 p.m. after she could not survive cardiac arrest at Safdarjung Hospital. “She was in pain. She had been pleading to save her,” said a senior doctor from the hospital. The victim was air-lifted to Delhi from Lucknow and admitted ..

FINANCE Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday said the Government is working on more steps, including rationalisation of personal Income Tax rates, to revive the sagging economy. The GDP growth slowed down to more than six-year low of 4.5 per cent in the second quarter of the current fiscal from 5 per cent recorded in the first quarter. The Government has taken several measures during August and September to boost the economy, she said at the ‘HT Leadership Summit’ here. Besides, she said, the public ..

MUMBAIA 71-YEAR-OLD depositor of fraud- hit PMC Bank died of cardiac arrest at his residence here, his relative said on Friday. Pratap Jiandani suffered a cardiac arrest on Thursday afternoon at his residence in suburban Mulund, he said.Earlier, at least eight depositors, who had high quantum of money stuck with the bank, had died in the last couple of months, including one who committed suicide.   The relative said, Jiandani had an account in Punjab & Maharashtra Cooperative Bank ..

AYODHYATHE 27th anniversary of the Babri Masjid demolition on Friday remained a low-key affair with both Hindu and Muslim religious leaders downplaying the occasion amid tight security measures, less than a month after the Supreme Court’s verdict in the land dispute case. Police personnel stands guard during the tight security set-up on Babri Masjid demolition anniversary in Ayodhya on Friday. (ANI)  In the early hours of the day, life went on as normal in different parts of ..

NEW DELHITHE Ecuadorian Government has denied that it has granted asylum to self-styled Indian godman Nithyananda, wanted in India for alleged rape and abduction, or helped him purchase any land in the South American country.In a statement, the Embassy of Ecuador said the country had in fact denied Nithyananda’s request for asylum, and he left the country for Haiti.   The statement read: “The Embassy of Ecuador categorically denies the statement, wherever published, that ..

NEW DELHITHE Unnao rape survivor is critical and chances of her survival are less, doctors said on Friday, a day after she was set ablaze by four men accused of raping her.  “Her present condition is very critical. However, some vitals are functioning fine. But sometimes it deteriorates,” said Dr Sunil Gupta, Medical Superintendent (MS) of Safdarjung Hospital. “As she has suffered more than 90 percent of extensive burn injuries, chances of her survival are less. Our Head ..

NEW DELHITHE nation on Friday paid homage to the architect of Indian Constitution Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar on his 64th death anniversary. Since Ambedkar’s death on this day in 1956, ‘Mahaparinirvan’ Divas is observed every year to pay tributes to the Bharat Ratna awardee.  President Ram Nath Kovind, Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, LS Speaker Om Birla, ex-PM Manmohan Singh and others paying homage to Dr. B R Ambedkar on 64th Mahaparinirvan Divas ..

Two of the accused opened fire at cops after snatching their guns Police fired back in self-defence Killings were largely greeted with praise but also sparked concerns over extra-judicial executionsHYDERABADALL four accused in the rape and murder of a young veterinarian were shot dead by police on Friday during a pre-dawn exchange of fire near Hyderabad, a top police official said, as the killings were largely greeted with praise but also sparked concerns over extra-judicial executions.  Policeme..

PRESIDENT Ram Nath Kovind on Thursday said the demand for professional caregivers for the elderly is on the rise and Government healthcare institutions can consider developing short-term training courses for them. Kovind also asked States that are yet to implement the Ayushman Bharat programme to do so at the earliest. The President was speaking at an event to present the National Florence Nightingale Awards to 36 nurses for their meritorious services in the healthcare sector...

THE Home Ministry has sanctioned Rs 100 crore from the Nirbhaya fund to set up women help desks in police stations across the country. A Home Ministry statement said that the women help desks would focus on making police stations more women-friendly and approachable, as they would be the first and single point of contact for any woman walking into a police station...

Shameless, heartless, senseless cruelty coupled with criminality descended on humanity in Unnao Thursday morning when five butchers, including two of the accused, set ablaze a rape survivor who was on way to court. With 90% burns, the girl is battling for life as the cops arrested all the five criminals. The girl cried, shouted for help, and ran helter-skelter, with her body in flames, and collapsed. A frightened eye-witness placed a phone call to police and the girl herself talked to the cops...

PAGE after page, the names stack up: 629 girls and women from across Pakistan who were sold as brides to Chinese men and taken to China. The list, obtained by The Associated Press, was compiled by Pakistani investigators determined to break up trafficking networks exploiting the country’s poor and vulnerable. The list gives the most concrete figure yet for the number of women caught up in the trafficking schemes since 2018. But since the time it was put together in June, investigators’ aggressive ..

INDIAN Space Research Organisation Chairman K. Sivan has said that its own orbiter had located the crashed Vikram Lander on the lunar surface. However, “ISRO will not refute the claims made by the NASA,” he said, speaking to media on the sidelines of the sixth convocation of the Central university of Rajasthan in Ajmer on Tuesday...

THE Bidadi ashram of self-styled godman Swami Nithyananda, who is facing charges of illegal confinement of children and has been charge-sheeted in a rape case, is almost empty and the key people who handled the daily affairs are missing. It was at this ashram that the controversial godman’s first scandal broke out in 2010. A video of him in a compromising position with an actress went viral and he went into hibernation for almost eight years...

AT LEAST 18 Indians were among 23 people killed and over 130 injured in a horrific LPG tanker blast at a ceramic factory in Sudan, the Indian mission said here on Wednesday. Sixteen Indians were missing after the incident that happened at Seela Ceramic Factory in Bahri area in the Sudanese capital Khartoum on Tuesday. “As per latest reports, but so far not confirmed officially, 18 are dead,” the Indian Embassy said in a release. “Some of the missing may be in the list of dead which we are still to ..

A LEOPARD strayed into a residential area in Maharashtra’s Aurangabad district on Tuesday morning, triggering panic among people, officials said. The feline was trapped by forest officials after hectic efforts for about eight hours, he said. Some morning walkers spotted the big cat in the CIDCO N-1 area shortly after 6.30 am and alerted police and forest officials, he said...

STEPPING up his attack on the Congress and its allies over several issues including Article 370 and Ayodhya case, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said that the Opposition “deliberately” kept the matters stuck for a long time for “political interests”...

PARLIAMENT on Tuesday passed a Bill to provide the elite Special Protection Group (SPG) security only to the Prime Minister and for a restricted period to ex-PMs, with Home Minister Amit Shah rejecting the Opposition’s charge of political vendetta and asserting the Government was concerned about security of all 130 crore Indians and not just the Gandhi family. The Congress, which alleged that the law governing the SPG was being changed to target the Gandhi family and will imperil the life of its leaders, ..

The Navy’s long-term capability plan is to have three aircraft carriers so that two carrier battle groups are ready for deployment in the Indian Ocean Region round-the-clock. In a press conference on the eve of the Navy Day, the Navy Chief said the first indigenous aircraft carrier (IAC) will be fully operational by 2022 and it will have a fleet of MiG-29K aircraft...

SEEKING investment from global players, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday said the Government is open to further reforms for making India a more attractive investment destination. The Government has taken various steps, including reduction in Corporate Tax, she said at the India-Sweden Business Summit here. Without sharing details of future reforms, the Finance Minister said, “I only can invite and assure that the Government of India is committed for further reforms in various sectors ..

JUST a day after India observed the 11th anniversary of the 26/11 terror attacks which killed 166 people and injured over 300 others in Mumbai, Prime Minister Narendra Modi wrote a moving letter to the attack’s youngest survivor -- Moshe Tzvi Holtzberg from Israel, who was a toddler at the time of the tragedy. Moshe was two-years-old when his parents were gunned down by Pakistani terrorists at the Nariman House, also known as Chabad House, in Mumbai. The toddler was saved by his nanny, Sandra Samuels, ..