The stakes are significant for the BJP in this round as the party had in 2019 won an overwhelming majority of these seats, including all in Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, that will go to polls on May 7.
Alt News co-founder Mohammad Zubair was released from Tihar on Wednesday night, hours after being granted interim bail by the Supreme Court in all FIRs lodged in Uttar Pradesh against him for alleged hate speech, prison officials said.
"If you get employment, you will watch Reels for half an hour and work for 12 hours," the Congress leader said.
In a broad daylight shooting, two undertrials were killed by three unidentified armed men in the district court premises in Hathras in Uttar Pradesh on Saturday, sparking a gun battle with the police, which shot dead the trio. The duo was brought to the district court for recording of evidence. "At around 12.15 pm, when the undertrials were being taken back to the jail from the court, they were attacked by three unidentified gunmen who opened indiscriminate fire."
The Supreme Court on Monday said it would hear on July 20 a plea by Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair, seeking to quash FIRs lodged against him in Uttar Pradesh for allegedly outraging religious feelings, and directed that no precipitative steps be taken against him in the meantime.
Taking to the Twitter on Friday, Adityanath said, 'Total destruction of those who even think of harming the self-respect of women in UP is inevitable.' 'They will get such a punishment that will set an example for future. The UP government is committed to the safety and development of mothers and daughters,' he said, adding that this is his government's 'resolve and promise'.
Kerala-based journalist Siddique Kappan, who was recently granted bail by the Supreme Court, will continue to remain in a jail in Lucknow as a case being probed by the Enforcement Directorate against him is still pending, officials of the prison department said.
The Uttar Pradesh police on Tuesday constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) for a "transparent" and expeditious probe into cases lodged against Alt News co-founder Mohammad Zubair in various districts of the state, a senior official said.
'What the UP administration wanted was political mileage, and they also had the silent approval from the central government.'
The persons nabbed have been identified as Perwez Ahmed, Mohd Ilias and Abdul Muqeet (arrested from Delhi) and Shafeeque Payeth who was taken into custody by the ED from Kerala.
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.
Even as the Uttar Pradesh police arrested a journalist and three other people in Mathura while they were on their way to Hathras, home to a Dalit woman who died after being allegedly gang-raped, the Kerala Union of Working Journalists (KUWJ) has filed a habeas corpus petition in the top court against the arrest of the journalist, Sidhique Kappan.
Officials said PFI has been under the radar of security agencies for its alleged role in violent protests in different parts of the country.
During a session titled 'Sustaining Democracy; Nurturing Democracy', he claimed that tightening the already stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) in a way that kept people like Siddique Kappan in jail for two years without bail is one of the many ways the current dispensation has 'managed to depart from the democratic spirit of the Constitution'.
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.
According to a National Crime Records Bureau report, a total of 356 cases of sedition -- as defined under section 124A of the IPC -- were registered and 548 people arrested between 2015 and 2020, out of which only six were convicted.
Zubair through his counsel submitted that this is an age of social media where news travels faster than lightning and the job of someone who is debunking false information may draw the ire of others but "the law cannot be weaponisd against him.
'This government puts poor people behind bars, demonises women after their death, puts out the call records of deceased raped victims and robs her of her dignity.'
'The arrest of Kappan, the charge sheet and the way he is being treated show that they view journalism as a criminal activity.'
The raids, as per official sources, began at 3:30 am and involved as many as 300 NIA officials from across its various offices.
The police officials, who have been working to establish the identity of the Twitter handle @balajikijaiin operating under the name 'Hanuman Bhakt,' did not disclose the businessman's name.
'It is not the chief minister who would have rung up and told the local police station to botch up the case.' 'No chief minister or chief secretary or DGP would like a case like this happening in their state.'
CJI Lalit concurred with the minority view of Justice S Ravindra Bhat who held the EWS quota as "unconstitutional" for excluding poor among SCs, STs and OBCs.
'The DM is the ultimate authority in such situations.' 'The CM could not have directed anybody to cordon off the family and restrict them from meeting the family.'
'Just think of this innocent man who had to suffer so much.' 'Who will compensate for the physical and mental torture Kappan had to go through in the last two years though he has not done any crime?'
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.
'How many more months and years will we have to wait for truth to win?' 'Will anyone give us back the months and years we have lost waiting for that 'one day'?'
'The advocate tells me not to worry as truth will prevail one day.' 'I don't know... I am losing all hope...'
Gag orders have a "chilling effect" on the freedom of speech, the apex court said while refusing to accept the submission of the counsel representing Uttar Pradesh that Zubair be barred from tweeting when he is on bail.
Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair on Thursday moved the Supreme Court seeking the quashing of six FIR lodged against him in several districts of Uttar Pradesh.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday granted bail to Alt News Co-founder Mohammad Zubair in all first information reports (FIRs) lodged in Uttar Pradesh against him concerning his alleged derogatory tweets.
Suspended Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson Nupur Sharma, in the eye of a storm over her remarks against Prophet Muhammad, Monday sought time to appear before the Maharashtra police to record her statement, while more than 300 people have been arrested in Uttar Pradesh in a crackdown on protesters who indulged in violence after the Friday prayers on June 10.
"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.
UP accounted for 14.7 per cent of all registered crimes against women in 2019. The state also recorded the highest number of cases against Dalit women.
"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.
'When Arnab Goswami's arrest became a talking point, the case of my husband who was arrested much earlier, was totally ignored.' 'When so many people spoke in support of Goswami, they were silent on a journalist named Siddique Kappan'
'So why didn't the police make it very clear that this is the line of investigation, this is what we are doing.' 'Nobody knows what kind of report was done.' 'Was she checked for (sexual assault)?'
Opposition parties on Monday lashed out at the Bharatiya Janata Party government in Uttar Pradesh for not allowing their leaders to visit Lakhimpur Kheri after eight people died in violence there during an anti farm law protest, alleging it was an attempt to cover up and demanding the sacking of Union Minister Ajay Mishra and the arrest of his son, who have been named in an FIR.
A class 9 student was allegedly raped on April 4 in Hanskhali in West Bengal's Nadia district during a birthday party at the house of the prime accused, a local Trinamool Congress leader's son.
A provisional order under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act has been issued by the federal probe agency as part of which a total of 33 bank accounts of the two organisations have been attached.
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