Gangster-politician Mukhtar Ansari's alleged aide Sanjeev Maheshwari Jeeva was shot dead on Lucknow court premises on Wednesday, the police said.
At present, the state has 81 such courts. Of the new 218, 144 will be for rape cases, 74 for POCSO cases.
The bail plea of Ali Mohammad would come up for hearing on June 27 in the court of Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate, his lawyer V K Tyagi said.
According to the police, a Special Task Force team retaliated when the gangster, recently released from prison on bail, opened fire at them after being cornered. His car had crashed into a pole.
Stoking controversy, Bharatiya Janata Party Lok Sabha candidate and one of the members of Legislative Assembly booked in Muzaffarnagar riots cases Hukum Singh said on Thursday he would oppose riot refugees from voting in his constituency Kairana as they were living "illegally" on government land.
"The court of Additional Sessions Judge/First MP-MLA Court Durgesh also imposed a fine of Rs 5 lakh on Mukhtar and Rs 1 lakh on Afzal," ADGC Criminal Neeraj Srivastava said.
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.
With the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls scheduled for 2027, political experts are observing an increasing trend of temple-mosque disputes in the state, leading to heightened polarization. Recent bypolls saw the use of divisive slogans, and analysts believe this trend will intensify as the 2027 elections approach. The recent surge in claims about the existence of Hindu temples at the sites of mosques in various cities has fueled this polarization. The BJP-led government has been accused of promoting communal polarization, while opposition parties like the SP have criticized the ruling party's actions. The RSS chief has called for restraint in raising new temple-related disputes. Experts predict that communal polarization is likely to escalate in the coming days.
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.
The Supreme Court slammed the Uttar Pradesh government on Friday for not counselling students who were allegedly instructed by their school teacher to slap a Muslim boy for not doing his homework.
Ahsan Ullah Khan, the additional district and session judge of the MP-MLA court in Sonbhadra, also imposed a fine of Rs 10 lakh on Gond which would be used in the rape survivor's rehabilitation.
Two clerics from Harayana arrested last month for their suspected links to the Lashkar-e-Tayiba, and another operative, had allegedly visited the Muzaffarnagar relief camps in Uttar Pradesh and sought to recruit men to their module, a television news channel reported on Tuesday.
Controversial Hindutva leader Sadhvi Prachi on Tuesday termed Shah Rukh Khan as a "Pakistani agent", who should be sent to that country.
This has invited sharp reaction from the Opposition, with the Samajwadi Party saying that the BJP was afraid of its defeat in Milkipur due to which it moved the court for "stalling" polls on the assembly seat.
The state's education department told a bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Pankaj Mithal it was constituting a committee to consider the admission of the victim child to a private CBSE-affiliated school.
A school teacher was arrested on Thursday for inciting communal hatred after she allegedly ordered a Muslim student to slap a Hindu classmate for not answering a question, the police 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.
A Muzaffarnagar court on Wednesday issued warrants against a Bahujan Samaj Party MLA and his brother, accused of raping and forcefully confining 48 circus artists from Nepal. Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Sumit Chandra issued the bailable warrants against BSP MLA from Bulandshahar Mohammed Azim and his brother Mohammed Yunus.
The top court appointed the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai to suggest the mode and manner of counselling of the child and his classmates involved in the incident.
A group of the Muzaffarnagar riot victims have threatened to start an agitation if the police fails to arrest the accused by Sunday. The victims, who were more than hundred in number, threatened the district authorities to start an agitation at Palda village under Shapur police station here on Thursday.
Bahujan Samaj Party Member of Parliament Kadir Rana, two party legislators and former Uttar Pradesh minister Saeed-uz-Zama of the Congress are among 10 persons chargesheeted by the Special Investigation Team probing the Muzaffarnagar riots for provoking communal tension with inflammatory speeches during a Muslim community panchayat.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav hit out at the Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday over the Muzaffarnagar riots, accusing it of vitiating the atmosphere ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, and promised stern action against all those found guilty.
Voicing concern over the Muzaffarnagar violence, Rashtriya Lok Dal leader and Union Minister Ajit Singh on Tuesday said it may spread to other states and become unmanageable" if not controlled by "strict action".
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Bharatiya Janata Party Member of Legislative Assembly Sangeet Som, who was arrested for his alleged role in the Muzzafarnagar riots speeches, was on Tuesday detained under the stringent National Security Act.
Sharat Pradhan secures exclusive access to the Justice Vishnu Sahai report and discovers it blames two BJP MLAs, a former BSP MP and his cohorts, local intelligence officials and the media for the horrific Muzaffarnagar riots of 2013, but attributes no blame to the Samajwadi Party government in the state.
The Supreme Court said on Friday the developments that followed the unsavoury incident of slapping of a Muslim schoolboy by his classmates at the behest of their teacher in Uttar Pradesh were the result of the State not doing what was expected of it after the offence was committed.
The Congress accused Yogi Adityanath of withdrawing cases of heinous crimes such as rioting in Muzaffarnagar on religious lines.
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 case pertained to obstructing a public servant from performing his duty during a protest three years ago.
A controversy erupted on Monday over reported moves by the Uttar Pradesh government to withdraw cases against Muslim leaders in connection with Muzaffarnagar riots even as Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav said only some information has been sought and this did not mean cases were being dropped.
In a new twist to the Imrana case, another daughter-in-law of the accused, Ali Mohammed, has filed a defamation case against the rape victim.
A bailable warrant has been issued against Muzaffarnagar riot accused including Union Minister Sanjeev Baliyan, BJP MP Bhartendu Singh, party MLA Suresh Rana and Sadhvi Prachi by a local court in Muzaffarnagar for not appearing before it in a case of violating prohibitory orders and inciting communal tension by making speeches.
'The BJP is racing against its opponents by putting a chain on their legs.'
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.
"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.
The police had on Tuesday filed the final report in a local court, saying, "there is no evidence against him in the case," according to the prosecution.
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.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday granted protection from coercive action to AAP leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh in alleged hate speech cases lodged against him in UP.
Kumar was convicted and sentenced to life for the remainder of his life by the high court on December 17 in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots in Raj Nagar area.
It is rare for communal riots to spread to rural areas. The UP riot is the first time after the September 1969 Gujarat riots that a rural area have been affected. Electoral politics which divide society in majority/minority, going on since the early 1990s, is a major contributing factor to this heightened tension between communities, says Colonel (retd) Anil Athale in the first of a two part series.
