Heavy overnight rains in Uttar Pradesh on Friday led to the deaths of at least 22 people, including nine labourers who were buried alive under the debris when an under-construction wall in the state capital collapsed on their huts.
Four weapons, including a rifle belonging to Ashish Mishra alias Monu Mishra, had been seized following the Lakhimpur violence. A pistol owned by Ankit Das, nephew of former Union minister Akhilesh Das, and a repeater gun, which was with Das' bodyguard Lateef Kale, were also among them.
The last two phases of the elections will be held on March 3 and 7.
inspector said a preliminary examination confirmed an injury on his chin while no other injury is visible.
The Samajwadi Party government went overboard in deploying nearly 10,000 policemen to patrol the streets of Ayodhya to prevent the VHP from carrying out its 84-kosi parikrama, reports Sharat Pradhan
In a sudden late Wednesday night development, the Election Commission gave marching orders to 22 district magistrates, 19 district police chiefs and three DIGs of police in Uttar Pradesh.
Tikait said the minister's son was seen by many people at the spot on the fateful day.
A bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde asked the petitioner to amend the petition and observed that they should approach the Allahabad high court for the relief.
The Supreme Court on Friday said it will allow journalist Siddique Kappan, who was detained on October 5 while he was en route to Hathras in Uttar Pradesh, to talk to his ailing mother via video conferencing.
'The Governor is pleased to appoint Justice High Court, Allahabad (retd) Pradeep Kumar Srivastava as a single-member Commission of enquiry with Headquarters at Lakhimpur Kheri'
But the Congress said its leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will attend the event.
The FIR claimed that police recovered pamphlets "Justice for Hathras victim", six mobiles and a laptop from them, and during the initial probe it was found that they were going to Hathras with an intention "to breach the peace" as part of a "conspiracy".
The postmortem report of the 45-year-old woman, whose body was found hanging from a tree in Bahraich on Wednesday, has "not confirmed rape", even as five policemen have been suspended in connection with the case.
There was heavy police deployment at most of the crossings in the district, around 150 km from Uttar Pradesh's capital city, Lucknow.
'Ask the chief minister to give in writing that the police must not do their job. We will back down and stop checking vehicles.' Days after DSP Shreshta Thakur confronted BJP workers, she was transferred.
Kappan was arrested on October 5, 2020 while he was on his way to Hathras, home to the 19-year-old Dalit woman who died after being allegedly gang-raped by four upper-caste men on September 14.
Police appointed an inspector general to probe into an unverified letter that surfaced on social media, purportedly written weeks before his death by Deputy Superintendent of Police Devendra Mishra. It had alleged links between the Chaubeypur station officer and the gangster.
Around 400 to 500 people gathered near the city Eidgah to protest against the amended Citizenship Act amid a bandh call, he said.
After covering several kilometres on foot along with their families, the labourers, who reached Charbagh bus station in Lucknow on Saturday and Sunday, said there was no point staying in Delhi as they have exhausted their funds and it would be better for them to return to their homes.
Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra Wednesday met the family members of farmers killed in the violence in Lakhimpur Kheri and promised them all assistance.
Farmers from Uttar Pradesh and neighbouring states on Tuesday offered 'antim ardas' -- the final prayers in the Sikh tradition -- for the protesters killed in the recent violence in Lakhimpur Kheri, with their leaders vowing to intensify the agitation against the Centre's new agri laws.
Journalist Siddique Kappan was arrested on October 5 while he was on his way to Hathras, home to the young Dalit woman who died after being allegedly gang-raped by four upper-caste men.
According to the FIR lodged on a complaint of Jagjit Singh, a native of Bahraich district, the episode was 'premeditated' for which the 'conspiracy was hatched' by the minister and his son.
Chaudhary, who took 13 hours to reach Lakhimpur Kheri from Delhi, several hours more than it would take to cover the 420 km-odd distance, also met the families of some of the farmer victims to learn their story of loss.
They had set from their homes in the remotest corners of Eastern Uttar Pradesh for a pilgrimage to the famous Ajmer 'dargah', but barely a few hours later many of them met their gruesome end as the bus in which they were travelling, caught fire after a collision with a truck loaded with sand in Bahraich, about 130 km from Lucknow, Friday evening.
Wasim, UP PFI head, was arrested for masterminding the violence, police said. 33 FIRs have been filed in Lucknow and 150 people have been arrested so far.
A local court in Bahraich, Uttar Pradesh, has directed the police to register a criminal case against five ministers (of the ruling Bahujan Samaj Party) and five other persons on account of their association with a monthly journal that carried an allegedly blasphemous article in its May issue.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Uttar Pradesh government to submit medical records of journalist Sidhique Kappan who was arrested last year on the way to Hathras where a young Dalit woman had died after being allegedly gang-raped.
The duo, who disembarked from the Swaraj Express at platform number eight of the crowded station, were about to get into an autorickshaw when they landed in police nets.
Earlier, the Uttar Pradesh government had told the bench that "shocking findings" have emerged in the investigation so far in the case in which Kappan was arrested on his way to Hathras.
The Uttar Pradesh government told the Supreme Court on Wednesday that "shocking findings" have emerged in the investigation so far in the case in which Kerala-based scribe Sidhique Kappan was arrested on his way to Hathras, where a young Dalit woman had died after allegedly being gang-raped, in October.
'Economic issues do not matter during elections; it is the emotional connect that helps swing votes.'
Uttar Pradesh government on Monday transferred 41 senior IPS officers, posting a senior superintendent of police in Firozabad, where two police constables have been shot dead by unidentified assailants leading to violent protests.
The incident has triggered outrage, prompting the authorities to swing into action.
"We are confined to health issue. It is in the interest of the state also that the accused gets better treatment," the bench comprising Justices Surya Kant and A S Bopanna observed.
At present, the state has 81 such courts. Of the new 218, 144 will be for rape cases, 74 for POCSO cases.
In an affidavit filed in the apex court, the state government has alleged that Kappan is the office secretary of Popular Front of India and was using a 'journalist cover' by showing identity card of a Kerela-based newspaper which was closed in 2018.
"We state that the most precious fundamental 'right to life' unconditionally embraces even an undertrial. The consideration made herein is keeping in view the peculiar facts and circumstances of this case.
Security is a worry but the Gujarat chief minister will continue is campaign ahead of the upcoming assembly elections.
With five rapes being reported over the past 36 hours from different corners of Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous state seemed to be turning into the country's 'rape province'. Sharat Pradhan reports
