Two Union Ministers visited the family of a 23-year-old woman in Kothamangalam who allegedly took her own life due to harassment by her lover. The family is demanding an NIA probe into the incident, alleging forced religious conversion.
A special NIA court in Chhattisgarh's Bilaspur district has reserved its order on a bail application filed by three persons, including two nuns from Kerala, arrested on charges of human trafficking and forced religious conversion.
Ahead of the Maha Kumbh, a senior cleric has written to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath expressing fears that mass conversions of Muslims will take place during the event, while other community leaders have flagged the alleged demand raised by some Hindu seers' body to keep Muslims out of the mega gathering.
Justice Rohit Rajan Agarwal made the observation while rejecting the bail application of one Kailash, who is accused of being involved in the religious conversion of several people from a village here.
'The nuns were subjected to abusive language and all types of mental torture.'
The Chhattisgarh State Women Commission has directed the Director General of Police to file FIRs based on complaints from three women who allege assault and molestation by Bajrang Dal workers. The women were initially involved in a human trafficking and forced conversion case.
'Dating someone during divorce proceedings is legally permissible as long as it does not involve provable physical intimacy,' says lawyer Navaneet Kumar.
The Chhattisgarh high court has disposed of two petitions seeking the removal of hoardings prohibiting entry to pastors and 'converted Christians' in eight villages, holding that they were installed to prevent forced conversions through allurement or fraudulent means and cannot be termed as unconstitutional.
A bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice JB Pardiwala also issued notice to the Uttar Pradesh government on the appeal filed by Mathew Samuel and others challenging an order of the Allahabad high court which refused to quash the proceedings in the FIR filed against them by the state police.
At present, such a law has been enacted in just eight states to stop illegal conversion while the problem is nationwide, he added.
Astrologer Chirag Daruwalla, who is following in the footsteps of his famed astrologer father, the late Bejan Daruwalla, helps you navigate the Naya Saal.
The arrest of two Catholic nuns from Kerala in Chhattisgarh on charges of human trafficking and forced religious conversion has ignited a political controversy, with opposition parties criticizing the arrest and the Chief Minister defending the police action.
Right now, the most important thing is clarity -- for you and for her, advises rediffGURU Kanchan Rai.
'The implementation of the judgment has largely been left to the discretion of the very executive authorities it sought to restrain.'
The face-off between Trinamool Congress MP Kalyan Banerjee and West Bengal Governor C V Ananda Bose intensified further on Wednesday after the politician lodged a counter-complaint against the state's Constitutional head at the Hare Street Police Station within 24 hours of the latter having filed a first information report (FIR) against the former at the same PS.
India has slammed Pakistan at a UN debate by drawing attention to the heinous crimes of gross sexual violence against women in erstwhile East Pakistan in 1971, adding the pattern continues with impunity to this day.
'They should be given a strong message that they are not the ones who decide the rule of the land, and they are not the ones who decide what justice is.'
In May, 40 Rohingyas were blindfolded and flown to the Andaman and Nicobar islands and then thrown into the sea and made to swim to an island in Myanmar. And after the Pahalgam attack, at least 300 Muslims were 'pushed back' to Bangladesh from Assam.
A 30-year-old woman with three children converted to Hinduism and married a 12th-grade student in a temple ceremony in Uttar Pradesh's Amroha district. The woman, previously known as Shabnam, has been married twice before and has no living parents. Police are reviewing the circumstances surrounding the marriage, but no legal complaints have been filed so far. The woman's previous husband was left disabled after a road accident and she obtained a divorce last week. Her new husband's father supports the marriage and wishes the couple happiness.
The Deepa Thoon controversy, if not allowed to die a natural death, could take the election focus away from the anti-incumbency impacting the DMK and into the secular space. Stalin would love to have it that way, all over again, after the three past elections, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
Justice Renu Agarwal made the observation while rejecting a Hindu-Muslim couple's plea for police protection.
The Kerala BJP has contradicted the Chhattisgarh Chief Minister's justification of the arrest of two Keralite Catholic nuns, stating they were not involved in human trafficking or forced conversion attempts and promising to help them.
He had ordered probe into the allegations against the private school that it made students wear hijab-like headscarves, Chouhan told reporters in Morena.
An additional chief judicial magistrate sent the accused to nine days of police remand on Monday.
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Sunday took note of religious conversions, saying that an anti-conversion law should be made to stop such acts.
Alleging that the NGO allows its name to be used "at the behest of some selected political interest", the Union of India told the top court that it is guilty of collecting huge funds by exploiting the agonies of riot-affected people.
FCRA registration will also be cancelled if any NGO is not utilising foreign funding as per the aims and objectives of the NGO or if it has not uploaded the annual returns, the ministry said.
Terming religious conversion a silent invasion, Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Monday said the menace of conversion should not be allowed to grow in society.
The incident took place on Saturday, when the four people were allegedly propagating Christianity at a house in Kolar.
Nurses at a Mumbai hospital allegedly threw books critical of religion at an official who gifted them, claiming the books hurt their religious sentiments. A video of the incident has gone viral.
More than 150 daily wage employees of Chanderi Municipality in Madhya Pradesh's Ashoknagar district have threatened to renounce the "Sanatan Dharma" and embrace some other religion en masse after Diwali to protest their removal from service.
A victim of alleged human trafficking and forceful conversion in Chhattisgarh claims she was coerced by Bajrang Dal activists to give a false statement. She also alleges police did not record her statement properly and that the arrested nuns are innocent.
A prominent Islamic shrine in Bareilly has issued a decree banning religious conversion by force or allurement, endorsing Uttar Pradesh's recent ordinance aimed at curbing inter-faith marriages as an alleged ploy for conversion.
BJP state chief Rajeev Chandrasekhar stated that the arrest of two nuns in Chhattisgarh was due to a 'misunderstanding' and that they will be released on bail soon. He met with Archbishop of Trichur Andrews Thazhath to brief him that the Prime Minister and Union Home Minister have assured the nuns would be released on bail.
The top court granted the relief to the accused noting that he was in custody since May 21, 2023, and the charge sheet has been submitted on July 19, 2023.
'His campaign reached into every community, every constituency, with a unifying platform of affordability.' 'Zohran began by listening to Trump supporters and brought many of them to his side because they too care about affordability.' 'Care for the poor is a tenet of every faith; this is the best platform to unite us.'
The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to entertain a petition seeking a direction to the Centre to take steps to curb fraudulent religious conversions in the country.
A plea has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, particularly before parliamentary, state assembly and local body elections. The court has agreed to hear a batch of petitions challenging the Election Commission's decision to undertake special intensive revision of electoral rolls in Bihar.
The 'Karnataka Protection of Right to Freedom of Religion Bill' was passed by the Legislative Assembly in December last.
India has previously rejected the US state department's annual human rights report on the country, saying they continue to be based on "misinformation and flawed understanding".
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