The Enforcement Directorate (ED) conducted raids at multiple locations in Maharashtra and Gujarat as part of a money laundering investigation targeting a Malegaon-based trader suspected of misusing bank accounts to carry out transactions exceeding Rs 100 crore. The probe is linked to an FIR filed by Malegaon Police against Siraj Ahmed Harun Meman, who operates a tea and cold drinks agency, for allegedly misusing bank accounts for illegal transactions. The ED suspects the trader may have been using the funds to divert and route money for certain individuals by misusing the banking credentials of ordinary citizens. The possibility of electoral malpractice being involved is also under scrutiny.
A farmer's family in Gujarat's Amreli district has become the talk of the town after they held a grand burial event for their 'lucky' car.
A cold wave has intensified in most parts of north India, with temperatures in the Kashmir Valley dipping below freezing point. The national capital saw a brief respite from the bitter cold during the day, but cold conditions persisted in parts of Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh. The weather department has issued a yellow warning for cold wave, ground frost and dense fog for some places in Himachal Pradesh. There is a possibility of rain and snowfall in parts of northwest India later in the week.
A court in Surat on Thursday sentenced stalker Fenil Goyani to death for killing 21-year-old college student Grishma Vekariya in February this year, terming it as a "rarest of the rare" case.
Do we have enough trained oncologists and medical professionals in India to man these over 4,500 beds in the public sector?
The NCP also asked the Income Tax department and the Enforcement Directorate to find out the source of "black money" involved.
Following detailed questioning, journalist Mahesh Langa was arrested by the Crime Branch on Tuesday morning, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) Ajit Rajian said. "The central GST had found some suspicious transactions in bogus firms floated in the name of Mahesh Langa's wife and father using forged documents. Langa has been arrested for further investigation," he said.
And when in Gujarat, the CSK players were ready to feast on the state's delicacies -- dhokla and fafda, which no doubt the nation's premier Gujarati likes very much too!
The workers were inside the dyeing factory, located in Sachin industrial area, when the incident took place, Surat Municipal Corporation's in-charge chief fire officer Basant Pareek said.
A stay order could have paved the way for Gandhi's reinstatement as Member of Parliament (MP).
A passenger train was halted after it hit an old iron piece of rail placed vertically in the middle of a track by someone in a suspected sabotage attempt in Gujarat's Botad early on Wednesday, the police said.
Based on the technical surveillance, they were apprehended on April 16 from a temple premises at Mata No Madh near Bhuj town in Gujarat by joint teams of the Mumbai and Kutch police.
'This might prove to be a temporary gain for the BJP, but at a huge cost to the people of Gujarat and democracy in India.'
The AAP has made inroads into Gujarat's politics by winning 27 seats of Surat Municipal Corporation, one of the six cities where voting was held on Sunday.
Since he lives locally, Harish Patel is one of the luckier migrant workers in Surat - in that his employer was able to squeeze in a single shift for him at the weaving unit in Kamrej in Gujarat - unlike others who went home for Holi and other festivals just as the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic was waxing and ended up stranded in local lockdowns.
Across the nation, Lord Ganeshas large and small make their way to the sea, to lakes, ponds or man-made water bodies where the Visarjan ceremony takes place.
'There are 8-12 members living in the same accommodation. While in pre-lockdown days, since most were out on work, social tension among them was less because of limited interaction. But now, no food and livelihood, along with having to live in cramped conditions, is taking a toll on their mental health.'
Though exports to Hong Kong, a major destination for India's polished diamonds, have resumed, the industry is currently sitting on an inventory worth around $2.3 billion.
When the lockdown was lifted last year, Rasikbhai Kotadiya, who runs a powerloom unit in the Kim-Pipodara industrial area on the outskirts of Surat, was left with only four workers out of the 48 that he used to employ to run his 128 looms. Though the economy had been unlocked, his textile unit, and that of thousands of others, struggled to resume operations. By the last week of May, nearly 700,000 of Surat's 1.2-1.5 million migrant workers, left high and dry with no pay during the lockdown, had returned home. In Laskana, another textile weaving hub in Surat, the powerlooms were all but silent, with only 2,000 of the total 55,000 looms churning out grey cloth at a snail's pace.
Another trend: A preference for coloured diamonds among brides, who are pairing them with their groom's birthstone. So, along with yellow or white diamonds, they are choosing pink, green, blue sapphires, emeralds or red rubies.
In a veiled attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party, Shiv Sena member of Parliament Sanjay Raut on Tuesday claimed rebel leader Eknath Shinde was pressured to go against the Uddhav Thackeray-led party and also alleged that at least two MLAs accompanying the minister in Surat were beaten up by the police and goons under the BJP's "Operational Kamal".
In an unprecedented verdict, the top court said the criminal jurisprudence required courts to apply judicial mind to the facts of a case before granting police custody if it was "genuinely required".
NCP chief Sharad Pawar had reportedly expressed his displeasure to state Home Minister Dilip Walse-Patil, who is from the NCP, about the escape of Sena MLAs
After BJP candidate Mukesh Dalal's Surat win, Gujarat will see 25 Lok Sabha seats go to polls on May 7 with 266 candidates in the fray.
India's campaign in the Table Tennis men's singles event ends with Harmeet's exit
'Ajit Pawar is trying to sideline us; he is trying to be in the BJP's good books at our cost.'
'Domestic investors are opening up to the idea of high-growth Internet companies as a pool of value creation.' 'They like the execution that they see with Zepto, and for us, that is the most important factor.'
The government has also set targets for the next 25 years. We are working on the target of becoming a $5-10 trillion economy as well as taking exports to a record high, he said.
Nine persons were injured in a stampede after rush for boarding a train at Bandra railway station in Mumbai on Sunday morning, a civic official said.
The Congress on Tuesday alleged that its candidates in both Surat and Indore were threatened, intimidated and bulldozed into withdrawing their nominations, and asked why is Prime Minister Narendra Modi 'so nervous' and 'afraid' even in traditional Bharatiya Janata Party bastions.
When the Bharatiya Janata Party's Mukesh Dalal was declared elected unopposed to the Lok Sabha from Surat on Monday, he became the first candidate to achieve the feat from Gujarat since its formation 64 years ago though the erstwhile state of Saurashtra saw a similar instance in 1951.
Rain-related incidents claimed nine more lives in Gujarat, taking the death toll to 16 in two days, while another 8,500 people were relocated and rescued from flood-affected areas with rains continuing to lash some parts of the state for the fourth consecutive day on Wednesday, officials said.
Here are the number of seats won by parties in all states and Union Territories in the Lok Sabha elections.
Nearly 80 domestic and international flights received bomb threats in less than 24 hours that later turned out to be hoaxes, keeping thousands of passengers and security agencies on tenterhooks.
There was no confirmation from the district administration of reports that the fire was apparently caused by a rupture in the 36-inch Uran-Mumbai gas pipeline.
During Friday's hearing, the Congress leader replied 'I don't know' to most of the questions asked by the court on the basis of recent testimonies of two witnesses -- the then electoral officer of Kolar in Karnataka where Gandhi had made the speech, and a videographer appointed by the Election Commission to shoot that rally.
Huge television screens, flags, flashy lights and a 10,000-bike cavalcade. Prime Minister Narendra Modi's homecoming was nothing short of being spectacular.
Surat police commissioner Anupam Singh Gehlot identified the arrested accused as Maulvi Sohel Abubakr Timol (27), who worked at a thread factory as a manager and offered private tuition on Islam to Muslim children.
The Surat diamond industry is likely to face a loss of around Rs 8,000 crores in next two months as Hong Kong, which is a major export destination, has declared a state of emergency due to the coronavirus outbreak in China, say experts. Hong Kong is a major business hub for the Surat diamond industry, but schools and colleges have been closed there till the first week of March and even businesses are seeing a dip in view of the outbreak of the novel coronavirus.
'Rather than criticising the kind of candidates fielded by political parties from our living rooms, NOTA in a sense implores the electorate to say this by turning up in person at a polling booth to ensure their protest is registered.'