A US federal government commission has flagged the alleged worsening of religious freedom in India and called for it to be designated as a "Country of Particular Concern".
The former BJP MLA has been held guilty under IPC Section 188 (disobedience to orders duly promulgated by government officials) for violating CrPC Section 144 restrictions at Akhlaq's Bisahda village.
Sharing the list of objections, an official who did not wish to be quoted, said the bill was returned on Wednesday highlighting the mismatch between the Hindi and English versions of the Bill and the need to reconsider the definition of 'mob.'
The Maharashtra government has framed rules to prevent honour killings, 'khap panchayat' diktats, mob lynching as well as violence, and asked the director general of police to apprise personnel across the state force of their implementation, an official said on Friday.
The Maharashtra Assembly elections are taking place today, with the ruling BJP-led Mahayuti alliance seeking to retain power and the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) hoping for a comeback. The campaign saw prominent leaders like Narendra Modi, Amit Shah, Rahul Gandhi, and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra crisscrossing the state to garner votes. The Mahayuti is banking on popular schemes while the MVA focuses on issues like caste-based census and social justice. The elections have also seen a significant rise in the number of candidates and voters.
The pleas sought a CBI or a court-monitored Special Investigation Team probe in the incident that took place in the Palghar district in April 2020.
British author Samantha Harvey has won the 2024 Booker Prize for her 'ambitious and beautiful' Orbital, which becomes the first novel set in space to win the GBP 50,000 literary prize selected from a historic shortlist that was dominated by women this year.
As many as 35 personnel of Kasa police station in Palghar district in Maharashtra were on Tuesday transferred in connection with the mob lynching of two sadhus and their car driver on April 16.
At least 13 people, including the prime accused, have been arrested so far for allegedly lynching an All Assam Students' Union leader in Jorhat city, while the outfit on Tuesday vowed not to keep quiet until the culprits were given 'exemplary punishment.'
Anyone endangering sovereignty or integrity of India may get a maximum punishment of life imprisonment while those involved in mob lynching and rape of minor may be given the maximum punishment of death sentence.
Reacting sharply to Bhagwat's statement, Owaisi said Muslims, Dalits and even Hindus have been victims of incidents of mob lynching in the country.
The Supreme Court on Monday gave bail to ex-Union minister Ajay Mishra's son Ashish Mishra in the case related to the 2021 Lakhimpur Kheri violence that claimed eight lives, and restricted his movement to Delhi or Lucknow.
The way the Bahraich riot has played out should worry the BJP. The party has emboldened Hindu youngsters to such an extent that its MLAs feel the need to go to the police against their party members. Is this what the BJP wants, asks Jyoti Punwani.
Sri Lankan national Priyantha Kumara Diyawadana, who was lynched by a mob in Pakistan's Punjab province over allegations of blasphemy last week, was buried according to Buddhist and Catholic rites at Ganemulla, a suburb north of Colombo, on Wednesday.
Angry supporters of the hardline Islamist party Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) attacked a garment factory on Friday and lynched its general manager Diyawadana, who was in his 40s, before setting his body on fire over allegations of blasphemy.
The Punjab police on Friday arrested the caretaker of a Kapurthala gurdwara for the lynching of a man and he has been charged with murder, a senior official said on Friday.
Neeraj Das alias 'Kola Lora', the prime accused in the AASU leader lynching case, died on Wednesday after being hit by a police vehicle "as he was trying to escape police custody", a senior officer said.
Priyantha Kumara, who was in his 40s, was working as the general manager of a factory in Sialkot district, some 100 km from Lahore, a Punjab police official said.
He, however, said that there have been some 'false cases' of lynching at times that have been filed against some people. Addressing a book-release function in Ghaziabad, Bhagwat said the DNA of all Indians are the same.
Despite failing to secure a simple majority in Parliament, we will continue to see him on TV, newspapers, magazines, bill boards, vaccination certificates, railway stations, bus shelters, airports, sea ports, on the highway and on rural roads, sighs A Ganesh Nadar.
The body alleged that a religious colour is being given to their movement.
A 45-year-old priest was shot dead over a dispute regarding a mobile phone in Bihar's Darbhanga district on Thursday, following which one of the alleged assailants was lynched by locals and two others were arrested by the police.
In August last year, six men who were accused of lynching Khan were acquitted by a lower court in Alwar and this is the first conviction in the case.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said her government had to pass a legislation against such crimes as the Centre was unwilling to take the initiative.
About 100 people have been arrested in Sialkot after a mob of factory workers and others killed a Sri Lankan export manager of a factory and burnt his body.
A total of 201 persons were arrested in the infamous case, of which 57 have been granted bail.
On his part, BJP Lok Sabha MP Narayan Rane, himself no stranger to controversies, got into damage control mode and sought to calm frayed nerves, saying he has chided his son over the remarks.
The Kolkata-based actors, several of whom have worked with Shanto Khan in Bangladeshi film projects, however, did not want to comment on the reasons for the killing, saying those were internal matters of another country.
Anti-terrorism court Lahore Judge Natasha Nasim also handed down two-year rigorous imprisonment each to 72 accused persons, including nine juveniles.
'Mumbai's killings in January 1993 came at the tail end of two outbursts of vicious communal violence, whereas today, it's peacetime in a 'new India'.' 'At that time, the perpetrators warned onlookers to keep their mouths shut.' 'Today, the perpetrators take videos of their attacks, such is their confidence.' 'The mobs have succeeded in terrorising an entire community and indeed, all those dealing in the transport of cattle, whatever their religion,' says Jyoti Punwani.
Meanwhile, the man was cremated as no one came forward to claim the body.
A purported video of the incident that happened in Tarpal village falling under Saira police station area on Saturday also surfaced on social media, they said.
Some residents of village Nizampur claimed that the man disrespected the Nishan Sahib and tried to run away but was caught after a chase.
'Episodes of targeted attacks on Muslims established that for a section of people and, sadly, even officials of the State, the election results conveyed no lessons.' 'Opposition parties must not be hesitant in speaking out whenever the mob with tacit State support targets Muslims,' asserts Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, author of Narendra Modi: The Man, The Times.
A video of the incident, which took place on May 21, went viral on social media on Thursday.
Shah said the new laws would give priority to providing justice, unlike the colonial-era laws that gave primacy to penal action, and made reporting of crimes even easier by recognising e-FIR, Zero FIR and electronic or digital evidence.
'Across the country -- in Tamil Nadu, Jharkhand, Manipur, Delhi, Bihar, West Bengal -- men were lynched on suspicion of being thieves by ordinary people armed with rods and sticks.' 'But none of these lynchings made big news.' 'None of these lynchings were cow/beef-related.' 'The perpetrators were unknown people, not so-called gau rakshaks.' 'So why were these instances of mob violence considered less newsworthy than cow-related lynchings?' asks Jyoti Punwani.
The team probing the incident examined 808 suspects and 118 witnesses to collect strong evidence against the accused, the CID said in a release.
Pakistan wanted to be constitutionally communal, India wanted to be secular but is communalising itself. All three nations share a penal code, but they have amended their laws to enable the State to specifically target minorities, points out Aakar Patel.
Uttam Ghosh offers his take on the mob lynching that took place in Palghar, Maharashtra, on the night of April 16, 2020.