Religious freedom and related human rights in India are under ongoing threat, the US Commission for International Religious Freedom alleged on Tuesday in an unusual year-end update of the status of its assessment of religious freedom in the country.
Nine Lashkar-e-Tayiba cadres were on Thursday named in a charge sheet filed by National Investigation Agency in last year's terror attack case in Jammu and Kashmir's Udhampur.
Additional sessions judge Shailender Malik granted relief to Mohd Manan Dar in a case lodged under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and the IPC.
During the proceedings, counsel for Imam said, "From the impugned speech, there is nothing which per se causes any kind of religious animosity. We cannot lose sight of the context. What Sharjeel Imam says, in relation to CAA-NRC, is that in much as it affects one community directly, what kind of support is to be elicited from the majority community."
The chargesheet, spread over 1,000 pages, was filed before the Patiala House Court in June and the court took its cognisance last month. A supplementary was filed in July.
The Delhi Police, in a first information report (FIR) filed under anti-terror law Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) following allegations against news portal NewsClick, has alleged that a large amount of funds came from China in order to disrupt India's sovereignty and cause disaffection against the country.
Dabholkar (67), an anti-superstition crusader, was shot dead while on a morning walk on Omkareshwar Bridge here on August 20, 2013.
Maharashtra police on Tuesday raided the homes of prominent Left-wing activists in several states and arrested at least five of them for suspected Maoist links. Near simultaneous searches were carried out at the residences of prominent Telugu poet Varavara Rao in Hyderabad, activists Vernon Gonzalves and Arun Farreira in Mumbai, trade union activist Sudha Bhardwaj in Faridabad, and civil liberties activist Gautam Navalakha in New Delhi. Subsequently, Rao, Bhardwaj and Farreira were arrested. Although Navalakha was also arrested, the Delhi high court ordered police not to take him out of the national capital at least until Wednesday. According to unconfirmed reports, others whose residences were raided are Susan Abraham, Kranthi Tekula, Father Stan Swamy in Ranchi and Anand Teltumbde in Goa. The raids were carried out as part of a probe into the violence between Dalits and the upper caste Peshwas at Koregaon-Bhima village near Pune after an event called Elgar Parishad, or conclave, on December 31 last year. Here are their brief profiles:
The two persons who opened smoke canisters in the Lok Sabha chamber had smuggled them in cavities cut into the left sole of custom-made sports shoes supported by thick rubber layers, according to Delhi Police's FIR.
The situation in minority-dominated Lilong Chingjao area in Manipur's Thoubal district, where four villagers were gunned down by unidentified assailants, remained calm but tense on Tuesday as additional security forces were deployed, an official said.
In the first information report (FIR), the cyber crime branch of the Ahmedabad police said that people from across the country have received Pannun's threat via a pre-recorded voice message sent from a foreign number.
Separatist leader Mohammad Yasin Malik on Tuesday pleaded guilty to all the charges, including those under the stringent Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), before a Delhi court in a case related to alleged terrorism and secessionist activities that disturbed the Kashmir valley in 2017, court sources said.
The Jammu Police on Sunday averted a major terror attack and recovered an improvised explosive device (IED) which was targeted at a crowded area by an operative of terror outfit Lashkar-e-Tayiba (LeT).
The National Investigation Agency on Wednesday sought the death penalty for convicted Kashmiri separatist leader Yasin Malik, who had earlier pleaded guilty of all charges, including those under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, in a terror funding case, court sources said.
Student activists Devangana Kalita, Natasha Narwal and Asif Iqbal Tanha will remain in jail despite being granted bail by the high court here in the North East Delhi riots 'conspiracy' case as a lower court on Wednesday deferred its order on a plea for immediate release.
The spokesperson said Farhad Mohammad Sheikh, alias Babla, was arrested on Saturday evening.
The special court also directed the ATS to hand over the custody of all the five accused to the NIA and also granted their transit remand to the central investigation agency, said public prosecutor (ATS) Vijay Fargade.
The Opposition parties need to spell out how exactly they will protect the citizen from government excess, asserts T N Ninan.
A National Investigation Agency team, which reached the spot on Saturday evening, was also carrying out its investigation by visiting the spot, they said.
While most political parties have mostly stayed mum about the vicious anti-hate speeches -- reportedly calling for killing Muslims and former prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh -- made at the so-called 'Dharma Sansad' event in Haridwar from December 17-20 -- student organisations protested against the inflammatory and provocative speeches, calling for the immediate arrests of the accused.
The charge-sheet against Muneeb Hameed Bhat, Junaid Ahmad Mattoo and Umer Rashid Wani, all residents of Jammu and Kashmir's Kulgam district, was filed before a special NIA court in Jammu on Thursday.
NewsClick on Wednesday alleged in the Delhi high court that investigating agencies were abusing the process of law to subject it to criminal prosecution to create a "chilling effect".
The case is likely to be handed over to the NIA for probe after registration of a case under the stringent anti-terror law Unlawful Activities Prevention Act.
The court had earlier remanded the accused into the NIA custody until July 12, special public prosecutor TP Sharma said.
They are the first to be declared terrorists under the new anti-law, a home ministry official said.
The Punjab police is learnt to have detained a man from Tarn Taran district in connection with the explosion at the intelligence wing headquarters in Mohali, sources said on Wednesday.
In a major setback to the Mumbai police, a court here today dropped the charges under stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act against the 23 persons arrested for having links with terrorist group Indian Mujahideen.
Anand Teltumbde, an accused in the Elgar Parishad Maoist links case, has filed a writ petition in Bombay High Court seeking that a provision under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) to brand certain groups as a front for banned or terrorist organisations be quashed as it was bad in law.
The Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front chief, who was shifted to Tihar jail under police protection, was taken into preventive custody in February by the Jammu and Kashmir police and shifted to Jammu's Kot Balwal jail.
They were arrested by the National Invesitgation Agency in the Kanakamala IS terror plot case.
A special court at Dantewada in Chhattisgarh has acquitted tribal activist Soni Sori and three others in a case lodged against them in 2011 for alleged transfer of 'protection money' to Naxals.
The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on Friday the appeals of Delhi Police challenging the Delhi high court verdicts granting bail to three student activists in a case related to the last year's communal violence in north-east Delhi during protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).
The Popular Front of India (PFI), banned recently by the government for alleged terrorist links and spreading communal hatred, has a "well-structured and organised" presence in the Gulf countries for raising and mobilising funds, the Enforcement Directorate said on Monday after a local court took cognisance of its latest charge sheet filed against three PFI office-bearers.
Naik was booked by the Enforcement Directorate in 2016 based on a National Investigation Agency FIR that was registered under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act.
A special NIA court in Mumbai conducting trial in the 2008 Malegaon blast case on Tuesday directed all the seven accused, including BJP MP Pragya Singh Thakur and Lt Col Prasad Purohit, to appear before it on December 3.
The Assam police on Sunday arrested one of the key negotiators of the ULFA-nominated People's Consultative Group (PCG), Hiranya Saikia under the provisions of Unlawful Activities Prevention (UAP) Act, serving a lethal blow to the now dormant peace initiative.
A special court in Mumbai has directed poet-activist P Varavara Rao, an accused in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case who was recently granted bail on medical ground by the Supreme Court, to reside in Mumbai and not to leave the city without its permission.
The Nagpur bench of the Bombay high court on Tuesday refused bail to advocate Surendra Gadling in connection with a 2016 Surjagarh iron ore mine arson case, noting that prima facie the accusations against him are true.
Urging all farmers across India to send one member of their family at Delhi borders to participate in the protest, Swaraj India chief Yogendra Yadav on Friday said the agitation against the three farm laws is not over.
'He did not do anything wrong. There was no crime and no evidence'
