Category: India

Man accused of raping minor lynched in Ghaziabad

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A man accused of raping an eight-year-old girl was allegedly beaten to death by his neighbours in Loni, Ghaziabad, on Friday night. Police rushed both the accused – 24-year-old Jitendra – and the victim to the hospital. While the girl was admitted for treatment, doctors declared her alleged attacker dead on arrival. Police said Jitendra had gone to attend a religious ceremony in the neighbourhood with his wife around 12.30 pm on Friday. After dropping her off at the venue, he brought the girl back home with him and allegedly…

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For owning riding horse, a dalit youth killed in Gujarat

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A Dalit youth was allegedly killed in Bhavnagar district by upper caste men for owning and riding a horse, police said. Pradip Rathod (21) was killed on Thursday at Timbi village of Umrala taluka in Bhavnagar district and three suspects have been detained for questioning, A M Saiyad, Deputy Superintendent of Police of the Bhavnagar SC/ST Cell said. “We have detained three persons for questioning. We have also acquired some CCTV footage showing Pradip on his horse before his dead body was found. We are probing this case from different…

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US Scientists ‘Hack’ Indian electronic voting machines

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Scientists at a US university say they have developed a technique to hack into Indian electronic voting machines. After connecting a home-made device to a machine, University of Michigan researchers were able to change results by sending text messages from a mobile. Indian election officials say their machines are foolproof, and that it would be very difficult even to get hold of a machine to tamper with it. India uses about 1.4m electronic voting machines in each general election. ‘Dishonest totals’ A video posted on the internet by the researchers…

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Bathing in Ganga can expose people to high levels of faecal coliform bacteria

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Pollution levels were high centred around holy sites, where high population density and activities add to the pollution load, shows Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) data. A dip in the Ganga at Sangam, where the Yamuna meets it in Allahabad, could expose people to levels of the faecal coliform (FC) that are 5-13 times the permissible limit, official data from 2017 shows. This limit is unsafe for bathing. FC bacteria, such as E.coli, are found in excreta that contaminates water through untreated sewerage. The permissible limit for FC is 2,500…

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Is mosque integral to Islam? Query may delay Babri case

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Adjudication of the politically sensitive Ayodhya land dispute case will be delayed as the Supreme Court on Friday said it will first decide whether the apex court’s 1994 decision that a “mosque is not an essential part of Islam” needs to be re-examined by a Constitution bench. A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices Ashok Bhushan and S Abdul Nazeer said it would examine whether a five-judge bench was required to go into the question of whether a mosque was integral to Islam, but they turned down the…

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Mobile in hollow cardboard, Bluetooth in turban exposes Haryana Board

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The board chairman said he was surprised to see students from rural background adopting such innovative methods to cheat, but maintained that the authorities were always a step ahead. Cheating has always been common in Haryana board exams with friends and family members of students climbing multi-storey buildings to pass chits. But with higher security measures in place, candidates are trying to ensure they remain a step ahead of authorities. Several students using innovative ways to cheat in the ongoing board exams have been caught by officials, with the latest…

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Setback to BJP as Andhra Pradesh’s Telugu Desam Party quits the NDA

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Andhra Pradesh’s Telugu Desam Party (TDP) – which has 16 MPs – today quit the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) at the Centre a week after two of its representatives left the Narendra Modi government and a day after the YSR Congress moved a no-trust motion against the Modi government. The N Chandrababu Naidu-led TDP and the YSR Congress are extremely unhappy that the Centre has not given special status to Andhra Pradesh. The TDP pulling out of the NDA coalition hasn’t come as a complete surprise, considering two TDP…

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Supreme Court tells Swamy and activists to Keep away from Babri Masjid Case

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The Supreme Court on Wednesday ousted BJP leader Subramanian Swamy from being a part of the politically and communally sensitive case relating to the Hindu-Muslim ownership battle over the 2.77 acre Babri Masjid-Ram Janmabhoomi disputed plot. A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices Ashok Bhushan and S Abdul Nazeer also rejected intervention applications by 17 others along with the one filed by 32 eminent persons, including renowned filmmaker Shyam Benegal, actress Aparna Sen, columnist and writer Anil Dharker and social activist Teesta Setalvad who suggested that the disputed…

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New caste arithmetic hurts BJP, SP-BSP combine halts saffron run in UP

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The result shows that the combine, which stalled BJP’s march to victory in 1993, can play spoilsport in 2019. On the eve of the Lok Sabha bypoll results, United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chairperson Sonia Gandhi hosted a dinner in Delhi that was attended by leaders of two strong regional forces from Uttar Pradesh – Ram Gopal Yadav of the Samajwadi Party (SP) and Satish Chandra Mishra of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) – signalling that the stage was set for a joint onslaught against the dominant Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).…

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BSF Jawan loses seven days salary for referring to PM without ‘Shri’

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In a bizarre punishment, a Border Security Force (BSF) jawan who forgot to affix ‘honourable’ or ‘Shri’ while referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been penalised by the force, which called the mistake “disrespect” to the Prime Minister. The constable was handed down a seven-day pay cut. The incident took place on February 21 inside the BSF’s 15th Battalion headquarters in Mahatpur, Nadia (West Bengal), during the zero parade, a routine exercise to account for jawans’ daily activities. During the parade, constable Sanjeev Kumar used the word “Modi programme”…

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