Polling for the fourth phase of Uttar Pradesh assembly election covering 56 seats spread over 11 districts would be held on that would decide the fate of three ministers, 32 sitting MLAs and 12 former ministers.
Rahul Gandhi on Monday met the teenaged girl, who was allegedly raped by a Bahujan Samaj Party MLA, in her village in Banda district of Uttar Pradesh and assured her of all possible help after the victim claimed that she was getting threats from the legislator's henchmen.
In a frontal attack on the ruling Bahujan Samaj Party, the Congress on Saturday pointedly blamed the Mayawati government for the prevailing backwardness and poverty in Bundelkhand area.
Besides, the government would also undertake and promote steps for water conservation and curbing extraction of underground water, which is depleting the water table and is a matter of concern, the minister said.
A day after the apex court ordered a CBI inquiry into alleged rape of a girl by Banda Bahujan Samaj Party MLA, Mayawati government in Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday recommended handing over to the agency the sensational Lakhimpur case in which body of a 14-year-old girl was found hanging from a tree in a police station.
The warden of Banda district jail Shahnaz Begum, the lone jail staffer who had spoken out against rape accused Bahujan Samaj Party Member of Legislative Assembly Purshottam Naresh Dwiwedi during the Crime Branch-Criminal Investigation Department probe, has alleged that she was getting death threats from her seniors."I have been getting death threats from seniors, including the jailor and deputy jailor. I have also been removed from ail duty," alleged Begum.
The alleged gang-rape and illegal confinement of a minor girl by ruling Bahujan Samaj Party Member of Legislative Assembly Purshottam Naresh Dwivedi in Banda district did cast its shadow on the mega celebrations organised to mark the 55th birthday of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati in Lucknow on Saturday.While the entire BSP machinery was busy with Mayawati's birthday celebrations, the Allahabad high court sprung a surprise.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati on Saturday said the hearing of the Banda rape case will be held in a fast-track court and the state government will take action against policemen involved in 'harassing' the victim on whom theft charges were slapped as part of an apparent 'conspiracy'. "The charges of theft on the girl appeared to be part of a conspiracy of the member of legislative assembly to hide his misdeed (rape)," Mayawati said.
Rape accused Bahujan Samaj Party Member of Legislative Assembly Purshottam Naresh Dwivedi has threatened to take revenge on opposition parties, accusing them of implicating him in a false case. Dwivedi, 48, who represents Naraini seat in Uttar Pradesh assembly, was on the run after orders for his arrest were issued on Thursday in connection with the alleged criminal assault on the 17-year-old girl. The MLA was later sent to 14 days of judicial remand.
A preliminary inquiry by the Crime Branch-Crime Investigation Department into the Banda rape case has found that Bahujan Samaj Party legislator Purushottam Naresh Dwiwedi had raped the teenager and framed her in a false theft case, official sources said on Tuesday. "The CB-CID, which was asked to probe the matter by Chief Minister Mayawati, has completed a preliminary inquiry and is ready with its report," a senior official said.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and Bahujan Samaj Party president Mayawati on Sunday ordered suspension of her party MLA Purshottam Narain Dwivedi for his alleged involvement in the gang rape of a minor girl in a village of Banda district, abut 180 kilometers from Lucknow.
The Uttar Pradesh's Congress unit on Friday asked Chief Minister Mayawati to arrest a Bahujan Samaj Party member of Legislative Assembly and his associates for allegedly raping a girl belonging to the backward class and falsely implicating her in a theft case. "A most backward minor girl was raped by BSP MLA Purshottam Narain Dwivedi and his associates in Banda and she was later lodged in the jail on charges of stealing the legislator's licensed pistol and Rs 5000," said Cong
Claiming that Bahujan Samaj Party legislator Purshottam Naresh Dwiwedi was 'physically unable' to commit rape, his wife Asha on Thursday demanded DNA and medical test to prove his involvement in the assault on a Dalit teenager in Banda.
There will be total of 51 seats going to polls spread across 7 states in the fifth phase.
Ruling Bahujan Samaj Party MLA Purshottam Naresh Dwivedi, charged of raping a minor OBC girl in his constituency, was finally arrested in Banda, about 180 km from Lucknow, on Thursday evening.
A local court in Banda on Friday extended the judicial remand alleged rapist MLA Purshottam Naresh Dwivedi by 14 days.
Residents of Mohib Banda, Shahzad's ancestral village in Pubbi area of Khyber-Pakhtoonkhwa province, said members of the 30-year-old's family believed he had been implicated in a "false" case.
With situation in the old city area of Hyderabad remaining tense after communal clashes, the Andhra Pradesh government said on Monday that additional forces, including nearly 1000 paramilitary personnel despatched by the Centre, were being deployed to restore peace in the trouble-hit areas.
Surprised with the appointment of South African Eric Simons as India's bowling consultant, former Pakistan captain Wasim Akram on Wednesday questioned BCCI's decision and expressed doubts whether the Protea could give a facelift to their bowling department.
As the extensive manhunt for the killers of police constable in old city of Hyderabad over the last two days has failed to progress, in an extraordinary move, City Police commissioner A K Khan has announced a cash reward of Rs 5 lakh for any useful information about the assailants.
The survey conducted jointly by Association for Democratic Reforms and UP Election Watch to study impact of demonetisation on poll expenses said, "Demonetisation will have no impact in the campaigning or the poll expense."
Malawi, making their first African Nations Cup appearance for 26 years and only their second overall, stunned World Cup qualifiers Algeria 3-0 in their opening Group A match on Monday.
Announcing this at a hurriedly called press conference in Mumbai, senior Sena leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut, accompanied by state BJP president Raosaheb Danve-Patil, said the two parties will contest these elections together.
Parts of the country are reeling under severe heat wave conditions, resulting in temperatures soaring in the 40s. In fact, Banda in Uttar Pradesh recorded the highest temperature of 47 degree Celsius on Monday. India is really feeling the heat and these images prove it...
Siddiqui, who hails from Banda, was earlier removed as the party in-charge of Uttar Pradesh and was appointed as the MP unit in-charge after the assembly poll debacle.
A bomb disguised as a toy outside a girls' primary school exploded when children picked it up to play, killing 13 of them and wounding over 40 others in restive northwestern Pakistan's Dir district.
Bharatiya Janata Party member of Legislative Assembly Suresh Rana, who was arrested for his alleged role in fanning communal violence in Muzaffarnagar, was booked on Thursday under the National Security Act.
The Bachchans perform last rites in Uttar Pradesh.
Maoists killed three policemen and looted their sophisticated weapons whereas five others are still missing with weapons in Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh, a top police officer said.
Technicians and officials of global diamond major DeBeers and the Directorate of Geology and Mining have been surprised to find a piece of diamond at one of the bore pit in the bed of the Vaghin river near Kalinjer Fort in Banda district. The Uttar Pradesh government has started getting results from its two-year-old "Diamond Exploration" project. Multi-national firm DeBeers is already conducting preliminary survey of the region
The tremor, reports said, was centered about 620 km south-southeast of Banda Aceh.
While Hema Raman won the prize for the Asia region, Zambian Ellen Banda-Aaku's 'Sozi's Box' won the overall prize.
Why was it so easy for students to get a college degree? asks Geetanjali Krishna.
The office was established a few years back following discovery of high-grade uranium in the area.
Seismologists draw parallels to the quakes that hit the Pacific region, extending from Peru to Banda Sea in the east of Indonesian islands.
A UNI correspondent, who visited Dal Lake on the first day of the Chilakalan, witnessed parts of the famed lake frozen.
The military was preparing to dig mass graves on Wednesday on Indonesia's battered Sumatra Island, where the vice-president estimated the death toll from an earthquake and tsunamis could rise to 40,000.
An earthquake struck off the coast in eastern Indonesia on Tuesday, seismologists said. \n\n
