In an early morning drama at the Aluva town police station in Kerala, a self-styled godman, threatening to commit suicide, fired two shots from his pistol and injured himself and a police officer. In the melee, several mediapersons were injured. Himaval, a self-styled astrologer and influential power-broker who claims to be close to top State politicians, had been arrested and let off on bail by Kochi police only on Friday on charges of trespassing into a newspaper office.
All that happened in India in the past week, in photos.
Efforts are underway to nab the alleged mastermind Pulsar Suni and another accused V P Vigeesh.
The migrants were ferried to their villages in sanitised buses arranged by the Jharkhand government to take them home after preliminary medical screening at the station, officials said.
In a new twist to the burning of a Tamil Nadu state-owned bus near Kochi in September 2005, Soofiya Madani, wife of Peoples Democratic Party leader Abdul Nasser Madani, was on Friday listed as an accused in the case, even as the Kerala high court declined to grant anticipatory bail to her. Assistant Commissioner of Police P M Varghese, who is heading the investigation in the case, filed a report in the Aluva Judicial First Class magistrate court today.
Investigations revealed that Nadir had created obscene profiles of lady teachers and posted them on Orkut, Google's social networking website, with fake photographs, along with their phone numbers.
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has said the gang members involved in the crime have been identified and they will be arrested very soon.
A noted South Indian film actress was harassed for two hours allegedly by a gang of five men, who forced their way into her car before fleeing at a busy area in Kochi.
'We used to enjoy looking at the serene Periyar river every day, flowing quietly and calmly.' 'How everything changed in a day!' 'The quiet Periyar became angry, aggressive, ferocious terrifying everyone in its way.' 'I have not seen this kind of rain fury in my entire life.'
Panic-struck relatives are also sharing the location of their near and dear ones trapped in various places using Google maps.
Villages are flooded, roads have washed away and railway tracks have submerged under the rising waters.
The incident is said to have occurred in the wee hours when a huge mound of earth fell on the 'row houses' and two children and five women were among the deceased, most of whom were plantation workers from neighbouring Tamil Nadu.
Nine people died and several others were reported missing as a string of landslips triggered by heavy downpour battered Idukki and adjoining districts of Kerala on Monday.
"On August 16 night, just as we reached an abandoned government hospital for rest after four days of non-stop work, the local police officer, villagers and NDRF (National Disaster Response Force) officials came to us, asking to save the life of a woman who had just given birth," he said.
The court had on November 25 convicted five SIMI activists and acquitted 11 others in the case relating to a 'secret' meeting of the banned outfit at Pannayikulam near Aluva in 2006.
