Trains were set afire and blocked, and public vehicles attacked as protests over 'Agnipath' swept across several places in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi and Jammu on Thursday amid partisan political voices in favour and against the new recruitment scheme for the defence forces that has set off a firestorm.
Chief Ministers of both states announced Rs 4 lakh ex gratia to the next kin of the deceased.
The incident is believed to be the fallout of a business feud.
At least seven persons, including a women, died after consuming illicit liquor in Bihar's Bhojpur district, while three other were admitted to a government hospital in critical condition, the police said on Friday.
The bandh called by contractual teachers in Bihar on Thursday affected normal life and hit train services, while 1000 protestors were arrested as opposition parties continued to pillory the Nitish Kumar government in both Houses of legislature for the lathi-charge on teachers.
The owner of the bus, in which a 23-year-old woman was gangraped and brutally assaulted, was arrested in Delhi on Wednesday for allegedly submitting false documents for registration of his vehicles, said the police. Dinesh Yadav, the owner, has been placed under arrest, a senior police official said.
The actor-turned-politician whose criticism of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has grown progressively sharper, didn't figure on the BJP's list of candidates for the Lok Sabha polls.
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar -- who had visited the town on Tuesday and issued elaborate instructions to tackle the situation -- is scheduled to hold a high-level meeting in Gaya later in the day.
Police attached property of absconding Rajballabh Yadav, a MLA of the ruling RJD who is accused of raping a minor girl and failed to surrender in the court, police said.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Wednesday hit back at Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi for questioning his developmental claims and manner of implementing social welfare works.
In 2014 Lok Sabha polls, where it was introduced for the first time in any parliamentary election, around 60 lakh voters had opted for the NOTA option -- equalling about 1.1 per cent of the total votes polled during those elections across 543 seats.
An FIR has been lodged against five policemen on Monday in the alleged custodial death of a youth that triggered violent protest by angry people in Nawada district in Bihar, officials said.
During the clash, which took place on Sunday night in Shahbad area, people indulged in stone-pelting, firing and arson. Later it spread to some other areas of the city and some persons set fire to a vegetable market in Sahmatganj and some shops in Jogi Nawada area, officials said
'Unlike Andhra Pradesh or Tamil Nadu, there is no opportunity for workers to earn a livelihood in Bihar.'
An eight-year-old girl was killed and 12 people were injured, five seriously, in a bomb blast at Kazirganj Bazar in Bihar's Nawada district on Tuesday.
Here are some of the big political leaders' who await their fate on Monday.
Guidelines have been issued by the Commission for safe conduct of the electoral exercise in the midst of the raging COVID-19 pandemic. These guidelines include lowering the maximum number of voters for a polling booth from 1,600 to 1,000, staggering the polling hours and extending postal ballot facility to those above 80.
"... the wind is blowing in favour of BJP, even stronger than 2014. That's why opposition parties are clutching each other's hands to save themselves from being blown away."
West Bengal had witnessed violence and arson from December 13 to 17 during protests against the new citizenship law.
Nearly 300 persons were arrested in the anti-cheating operations across Bihar, even as Chief Minister Nitish Kumar admitted that reports of rampant use of unfair means in the ongoing matriculation examination had sullied the image of the state.
The RJD leader, who is the Mahagathbandhan's chief ministerial face, said that if voted to power, providing jobs to unemployed youth would be his topmost priority.
Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi once again broke through the Special Protection Group security cordon and interacted with family members of a vendor in a hut before his election rally at a ground in Jehanabad, Bihar.
At least nine policemen including officer in charge of a police station were killed on Monday when suspected Naxalites attacked them in Bihar's Nawada district, police sources said.
Police said some "unsubstantiated reports" of tension in southeast and west districts were circulated on social media.
The 10 policemen, who were ambushed by Maoists in a remote Bihar village on Monday, flouted standard guidelines issued by the district administration, government officials said on Tuesday."We had asked the police department not to participate in functions in remote villages and not accept any request to become the chief guest of any function there. It is one of the basic and standard warnings that we give to the policemen," Nawada District Magistrate Yogendra Bhakt said.
The RJD suspended Yadav from the party a day after his arrest warrant was issued.
'I don't think I can go back home before the lockdown is lifted because Nitishji has said he will not allow students from Kota to return.'
Several criminal politicians have been convicted in Bihar thanks to the speedy trial process started by the Nitish Kumar government.
Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and her senior party leaders today faced the wrath of the Delhi Chief Electoral Office for alleged violation of model code of conduct at an election campaign.
Additional District and Sessions Judge (First Class) Bipin Bihari rejected the petition of the Nawada Lok Sabha candidate of the saffron party.
Inspector General of Police (Operation) S K Bhardwaj told PTI that the encounter between the police and the naxalites lasted for over an hour in which over 200 rounds were fired from both the sides in which six naxalites and two policemen, including an assistant sub-inspector and a CRPF constable, were injured.
In a major explosives haul in Bihar, the police on Saturday seized 6,000 kg of gelatine in Nawada district from a truck bound for Naxalite-hit districts in the state and arrested seven persons.
Two Central Reserve Police Force jawans were killed and three others injured when Maoists triggered an explosive, when they were on way to a polling station in Jamui parliamentary constituency of Bihar early morning, the police said.
In the eye of storm over recovery of Rs 1.14 crore, $600 and ornaments purportedly stolen from his flat, Bharatiya Janata Party member of Parliament Giriaj Singh on Saturday recorded his statement with police claiming the money belonged to his businessman cousin.
'I set out really early because it gets very hot.' 'The soles of my feet burn by the time I have finished going house to house on foot.'
A group of female AIDS patients were not allowed to meet Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar at his much publicised janata darbar on Tuesday. "We were stopped at the gate by policemen following instruction from officials in charge of the janata darbar because we are suffering from AIDS," said Kamla Sinha.
Bharatiya Janata Party leader Giriraj Singh on Wednesday again courted controversy by saying that all terrorists belong to a "particular community".
'He has attacked our enemies in their own backyard.'
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday pitched for communal harmony and brotherhood in the country, saying Hindus and Muslims should work together to fight the common enemy of poverty and ignore "irresponsible" statements made by politicians, even if he himself makes any.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Investor Information - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances