The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is likely to move the Calcutta high court on Wednesday against the West Bengal government for not handing over suspended Trinamool Congress leader Shajahan Sheikh's custody to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), a highly placed source said.
The Congress 'Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra', led by Rahul Gandhi, is scheduled to enter West Bengal from Assam on Thursday, amid political ripples within the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) in the state.
Guru Dutt took an overdose of pills twice, once even swallowing opium, calling out for Geeta Dutt even when he was not fully conscious. One suicide attempt, according to sister Lalita Lajmi, was definitely deliberate with Guru Dutt leaving a letter for brother Atma Ram asking him to take care of the production company, his wife and the kids. But she always wondered if the third attempt was actually suicide since there were no calls and no letters.
The TMC, in total, bagged 75.02 per cent of the votes cast, whereas the BJP got some 14.48 per cent votes, in the four assembly segments.
The National Human Rights Commission in a statement said the allegations raise a serious issue of violation of human rights and also restriction on the freedom of the press.
India's fresh restrictions on limiting access to Bangladeshi exports appear to be in response to Dhaka denying certain value-added items from the Northeast to enter that country through the land transit points.
The police on Friday claimed to have arrested 'a local Bharatiya Janata Party leader' along with 10 others on charges of running a sex racket in a hotel in West Bengal's Howrah district, while the state's main opposition party denied any association with the accused individuals.
As the final five phases of polls draw closer, rift among Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) partners, Congress-Left combine and the Trinamool Congress, which are fighting separately has intensified, triggering a fierce contest across half of the remaining 36 constituencies in West Bengal driven by local issues such as Sandeshkhali and the SSC scam.
The Congress failed to win even a single seat in the polls.
The matter was mentioned before a bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta by senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, appearing for the West Bengal government, seeking an urgent hearing.
'How did the governor screen my footage without my permission? He committed a new crime today'
Modi's visits in the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls come amid an intense political row involving the BJP and the state's ruling Trinamool Congress after several women in Sandeshkhali accused the regional party's strongman Shajahan Sheikh and his supporters of "land-grab and sexual assault".
Banerjee, who was seated in front beside the driver, was injured after her head hit the windscreen, he said.
Five people were killed, including 4 in the firing by Central Industrial Security Force personnel, during the fourth phase of polling
Local women with sticks and brooms in their hands took out processions in different areas of Sandeshkhali as the protests intensified on the second day on Friday.
The governor assured the "tortured" women, who tied rakhis on his wrist, all help to get justice.
A 22-year-old youth and a person with disability died, while at least 11 were injured, in separate rain-related incidents in the national capital on Wednesday evening. The incidents occurred amid sudden changes in weather in Delhi, as a rainy storm marked by hail wrecked havoc across the city, throwing traffic out of gear as far as Delhi-Noida, Delhi-Ghaziabad, and Delhi-Gurugram roads and uprooting several trees.
"The NIA categorically refuted allegations of mala fide in its Bhupatinagar blast case," an agency spokesperson said.
Counting of votes for the Lok Sabha elections has begun across states and Union Territories, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar told PTI.
BJP and RSS leaders are once again pushing to remove the words 'secular' and 'socialist' from the Constitution's Preamble, showing a deeper effort to change India's identity from a diverse, multi-religious republic to a Hindu-first nation, even though they don't have the numbers in Parliament to officially change the Constitution, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
After meeting party leaders in the area, Majumdar went straight to Sandeshkhali police station and later started a sit-in outside it.
The release of water from the Chungthang dam led to a sudden increase in water levels up to 15-20 feet high downstream, defence spokesperson Lt Col Mahendra Rawat said.
Heavy overnight rains severely affected parts of the city on Monday, leading to water-logged roads, inundated residential areas and traffic pile-up, as the city braces for more spells in the coming days.
Torrential rains pounded the tiny Himalayan state of Sikkim and the tea growing region of North Bengal, causing landslides that cut off National Highway-10, the main road linking Gangtok with the rest of the country.
The threshold for a heat wave is met when the maximum temperature of a weather station reaches at least 40 degrees Celsius in the plains, 37 degrees in coastal areas, and 30 degrees in hilly regions, and the departure from normal is at least 4.5 notches.
In a blunt message to the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha demand, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday ruled any division of West Bengal.
The Bangladesh Assistant High Commission in Tripura's capital Agartala on Tuesday announced the suspension of all visa and consular services with immediate effect until further notice because of 'security reasons', a day after the mission's premises was breached by a group of people protesting against the arrest of Hindu monk Chinmoy Krishna Das in Dhaka.
A voter turnout of 60.19 per cent was recorded till 5 pm in the third phase of Lok Sabha elections in 93 constituencies spread over 11 states and Union Territories on Tuesday with sporadic incidents of violence in West Bengal.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Suvendu Adhikari attributed the party's poor performance in Lok Sabha polls in West Bengal to lack of support from the minority community, asserting that 'Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas' was unnecessary and proposing instead 'Hum unke saath jo humare saath' (we are with those who are with us).
The sources said Bose briefed Shah about the prevailing situation and his assessment of the polls marred by violence that claimed 15 lives.
'Durga Puja is also a time to catch up on the gossip and when the girls of the family get together it's a beautiful feeling that is hard to describe.'
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday accused NIA officials of attacking villagers in Purba Medinipur district, the BJP hit back at her saying that the attack on the NIA officials is Sandeshkhalli 2.0 orchestrated by the state.
India's long-distance swimmers Elvis Ali Hazarika of Assam and West Bengal's Rimo Saha created history by becoming the first relay team from the country as well as Asia to cross the North Channel in Europe.
'If delimitation is not handled well by the Centre, the southern states are certainly going to challenge it.'
The 6 am to 6 pm shutdown call evoked a mixed response as the state government engaged its entire machinery to ensure that normal life remained unaffected.
Will the glamour quotient help boost the state's image?
The tea industry's cup of woes brimmeth - scanty rainfall and pest attacks have dragged down production in May, prices are lower than last year, and demand from some export markets is muted. Production in North Bengal - comprising the Dooars, Terai, and Darjeeling - is majorly affected; parts of Assam are also hit. Arijit Raha, secretary general, Indian Tea Association (ITA), said that the Tea Board numbers for April show a crop loss of about 9 per cent for North Bengal, compared to last year.
Shah said BJP worker's family had complained that his body had been taken away forcibly.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday asserted that Darjeeling Hills would remain part of West Bengal, even as a section of Gorkha Janmukti Morcha supporters raised slogans demanding a separate state, during the inauguration of the North Bengal Festival. "Let us remain together. Darjeeling is part of Bengal and we will remain together," Banerjee said.
Among the fatalities recorded on Friday, the maximum 17 were from Uttar Pradesh, 14 from Bihar, five from Odisha and four from Jharkhand, where officials said more than 1,300 people are hospitalised with heatstroke conditions.
