Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader and the tribal face of the party, Vishnu Deo Sai, on Wednesday took oath as the chief minister of Chhattisgarh, 10 days after the saffron party returned to power after a gap of five years by unseating Congress in the assembly elections.
Voting for 10 constituencies was held from 7 am to 3 pm in 10 seats and from 8 am to 5 pm in the rest 10 segments under a thick security blanket of police and paramilitary personnel in the Naxalite-hit Bastar division.
Qadri Javed Azad and Makwana Kumar are on a 2,000 km expedition from Porbandar to Pahalgam to spread the message of peace, unity and Operation Sindoor.
Nambala Keshav Rao alias Basavaraju, the powerful general secretary of Communist Party of India-Maoist killed in an encounter along with 26 others on Wednesday, had masterminded several major attacks on security forces in Chhattisgarh and his death is a big blow to the armed movement, said officials.
Chandrakar along with another promoter of the app, Ravi Uppal was detained and put under "house arrest" in that country late last year following the ED's request for issuance of a Red Notice (RN) against them.
The Maharashtra government plans to introduce a stringent anti-conversion law in the winter session of the legislature, with provisions stricter than those in other states.
The troops of 209 Commando Battalion for Resolute Action (CoBRA) conducted the operation in which eight Naxals were killed and an AK series rifle, three INSAS rifles, a self-loading rifle (SLR), eight country-made guns and a pistol were seized, the officials said.
Heavy rainfall across North India leads to fatalities, structural damage, travel disruptions, and school closures. Eastern states brace for more rain.
The two tribal dominated divisions of Surguja and Bastar having 26 assembly seats that contributed hugely to the Congress' landslide victory in Chhattisgarh in 2018 have swung to the Bharatiya Janata Party this time.
In another sign of a rift between the Central Reserve Police Force and the Chhattisgarh police over the handling of Naxal problem, the central force's Special Director General Vijay Raman has slammed the state police chief Vishwaranjan for not "listening".
The forest department has launched an investigation into the reported death of 18 to 19 monkeys in a village in Chhattisgarh's Bemetara district and recovered four rotten carcasses, a senior official said.
A Maoist camp was busted and a cache of ammunition and explosive material recovered from the forests of Katulbharora in Chhattisgarh, police said on Friday.
A 45-year-old man in Chhattisgarh's Raipur allegedly killed his 70-year-old mother after she refused to give him Rs 200 to buy a dog. The accused, Pradeep Dewangan, also injured his wife during the attack. Police are searching for the accused and have registered a murder case.
In a major Naxal attack, 27 Central Reserve Police Force personnel were on Tuesday shot dead and seven injured in an ambush in a remote area of Chhattisgarh's Narayanpur district.
In a major breakthrough, the Chhattisgarh police arrested six Naxals including an alleged deputy commander who were involved in blowing up a bus recently in which 32 people were killed.
Due to the success of the operation, the entire Korchi-Tipagad and Chatgaon-Kasansur Dalams of Maoists have been wiped out, they claimed.
The stage is set for a direct contest between NDA nominee C P Radhakrishnan and joint opposition candidate B Sudershan Reddy for the vice-presidential election. The BJP-led alliance has a clear edge in the poll necessitated due to the sudden resignation of Jagdeep Dhankhar.
The skirmish took place in the forest near Mangnar village under Barsur police station limits, he said.
Notably, the husband of Dipika Jogi on Monday claimed in Durg that she was held captive by her employer in Oman.
A 'fake' cardiologist, Narendra Yadav alias Narendra John Camm, and a Bilaspur hospital have been booked for culpable homicide over the death of former Chhattisgarh assembly speaker Rajendra Prasad Shukla 19 years ago. Yadav, who was arrested over the death of seven patients after botched surgeries at a hospital in Damoh, Madhya Pradesh, had operated on Shukla at the private facility in Bilaspur, following which the ex-speaker died in 2006. Yadav's degree has been found to be fake, and his registration with the Indian Medical Council/Chhattisgarh Medical Council has not been traced. Police are investigating the case.
A CoBRA commando of the CRPF, who was fatally shot by a Maoist sniper while establishing a new base in Chhattisgarh, was posthumously awarded the Shaurya Chakra, India's third highest peacetime gallantry medal. Constable Pawan Kumar and Constable Devan C, both from the 201 CoBRA battalion, were recognized for their bravery and courage in the face of a Naxal attack. In addition to the two posthumous awards, five other CRPF personnel received the Shaurya Chakra for their roles in two separate operations against Naxals.
The incident took place in the morning under Jagargunda police station area when a team of the CRPF's 165th battalion was out on an anti-Maoist operation, a police official said.
Singh was booked under IPC sections 124-A (sedition) and 153-A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc) of the IPC at Raipur's City Kotwali police station late on Thursday night, Raipur Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Ajay Yadav said.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Saturday conducted a massive search operation at 15 locations in eight states across the country in a Pakistan-linked espionage case.
A cache of weapons was recovered from the encounter site
The impact of the explosion led to the collapse of walls and roof of the room where the music system was kept.
Seeking to make inroads in Chhattisgarh, Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday announced 10 'guarantees' for the upcoming assembly polls in the Congress-ruled state including free electricity, monthly 'samman rashi' for women and Rs 3,000 monthly allowance for the unemployed.
A total of 939 service medals, including 189 for gallantry, was announced by the Union government on Tuesday for personnel of various central and state police forces on the eve of Republic Day.
The size of the scam is about Rs 15,000 crore, as per the first information report (FIR) registered by the police in the case.
Maoists have admitted that 28 cadres, including their top leader Basavaraju, were killed in an encounter with security forces in Chhattisgarh's Bastar region last week. The Naxals also claimed that some of their cadres had surrendered to police and provided information that led to the operation. Police have recovered a large cache of weapons, including an AK-47 looted by Basavaraju from security forces in a 2010 ambush.
Seven members of the family were boating in a river near Chhui Khadan village, about 110 km from Raipur, on Friday evening when the boat capsized, police said.
The personnel belonging to the CRPF's elite Commando Battalion for Resolute Action unit, the District Reserve Guard and the Special Task Force were involved in the operation.
The Indo-Tibetan Border Police has established an operational base in the Kutul area in Chhattisgarh's Narayanpur district.
States like Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Gujarat, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh had on Friday announced similar incentives.
A ruling Bharatiya Janata Party leader was on Monday shot dead by Naxalites in Katekalyan region of the Maoist-hit Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh, police said.
The Bharatiya Janata Party will ensure the swearing-in ceremony of the new Chhattisgarh cabinet under Vishnu Deo Sai on Wednesday will be a 'historic' event which will be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP leaders and chief ministers, state chief Arun Sao said.
Police have so far arrested 11 people on charges of rioting and murder in connection with the clash.
Security forces killed at least 26 Naxalites in a fierce exchange in Bijapur district of Chhattisgarh, while four more were gunned down in Kanker district, the state's Deputy Chief Minister Vijay Sharma said on Friday. The encounter, which occurred on Thursday, took place while the Naxalites were gathered for a Tactical Counter Offensive Campaign (TCOC) meeting, a period observed between March and June. The Deputy CM hailed the operation as a major achievement against the Naxals.
The Enforcement Directorate on Monday raided the premises of former Chhattisgarh chief minister and senior Congress leader Bhupesh Baghel as part of a money laundering investigation against his son in the alleged liquor scam case and seized about Rs 30 lakh apart from some documents, official sources said.
'Both of them want to cow down people who are daring them, demanding justice for the tribals and are not following their agendas in Chhattisgarh,' says Lingaram Kodopi, who the state police has branded a Maoist.