Breaking News, May 16 | HIGHLIGHTS

Delhi Police on Tuesday urged people to help identifying the man who was allegedly seen masturbating in a metro train, the video of which went viral on social media. "This man was performing obscene act in Delhi metro and he is now wanted in FIR NO.02/23 PS IGIA metro. Please inform SHO IGIA metro on 8750871326 or 1511 (control room) or 112 (police helpline). Identity of the informer will be kept confidential," the Delhi Metro Police said in a tweet. The video, circulated widely on social media, purportedly showed the man indulging in the obscene act while travelling in the metro. Police took suo motu action and a case under section 294 (obscene acts and songs) of the Indian Penal Code was registered in this regard.

The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) has seized 3,535 grams of gold worth Rs 2.23 crore from two Indian passengers who had returned from Dubai at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport here, an official said. The duo, who arrived from Dubai on Monday, were part of a syndicate involved in the smuggling of substantial quantities of gold on a daily basis, he said. Gold in the form of paste was found concealed in four plastic pouches in their luggage, the official said. The accused were arrested and further probe was on, he said.

Two men were arrested for allegedly smuggling cattle in Karauli district of Rajasthan on Tuesday, police said. The accused were identified as Shakir Mev and Mukeem Qureshi, residents of Haryana, they said. Following a tip-off, a truck was intercepted in the Hindaun area. Four cows and eight calves and bulls were rescued from the truck, which was headed to Haryana. The carcass of a calf was also recovered from the vehicle, Superintendent of Police (SP) Narayan Togas said. A countrymade pistol and three live cartridges were also recovered from the accused, the police said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will on Friday embark on a six-day visit to Japan, Papua New Guinea and Australia to attend three key multilateral summits including that of the Group of Seven (G7) and the Quad, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) announced on Tuesday. In the first leg of his trip, Modi will visit the Japanese city of Hiroshima from May 19 to 21 for the annual summit of the G7 advanced economies in which he is expected to speak on challenges facing the globe including food, fertiliser and energy security. From Japan, Modi will travel to Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea where he will host the third summit of the Forum for India-Pacific Islands Cooperation (FIPIC) on May 22 jointly with Prime Minister James Marape.

The death toll in the hooch tragedy in Tamil Nadu's Villupuram and Chengalpattu districts increased to 21 on Tuesday, as the probe into the matter was transferred to the Crime Branch CID. The cases pertaining to the deaths due to consumption of spurious liquor was transferred to the CB- CID by DGP C Sylendra Babu following instructions from Chief Minister M K Stalin. Police claimed the deaths occurred due to consumption of methanol and not hooch. State Leader of Opposition and AIADMK chief K Palaniswami launched a scathing attack on the ruling DMK over the hooch deaths and demanded Stalin's resignation as CM. 

Pakistan's National Assembly on Tuesday unanimously passed a bill which recommends up to six months imprisonment or Rs one million fine or both for individuals found guilty of insulting the parliament. The Contempt of Majlis-e-Shoora (Parliament) Bill was moved by Chairman Standing Committee on Rules of Procedure and Privileges, Rana Muhammad Qaim Noon. It provides that the National Assembly Speaker or Chairman of the Senate can refer such matters to a special Contempt Committee to determine if a person should be charged with contempt. Within 30 days of the Act's commencement, the Speaker will establish a Contempt Committee consisting of twenty-four members with equal representation from two houses of the parliament.

Former Uttar Pradesh minister Harishankar Tiwari died on Tuesday evening here after prolonged illness. He was 90. His son Vinay Shankar Tiwari said his father had many health issues, including heart disease, and he was under medical treatment at their home in the Jatashankar area. Harishankar Tiwari was born at Barhalganj town and he represented Chillupar seat in the Uttar Pradesh assembly from 1985 to 2002 for six times. He was a founding member of the Loktantrik Congress party and was a cabinet minister from 1997 to 2007 in Kalyan Singh, Ram Prakash Gupta, Rajnath Singh, Mayawati and Mulayam Singh Yadav-led governments.

Four people, including two brothers, drowned in two separate incidents in Rajasthan's Barmer and Bikaner districts on Tuesday, police said. Brothers Kishor (16) and Praveen (14) were playing near an artificial pond in a field in Barmer when one of them slipped and fell in it. The other tried to save him but both drowned, police said. The bodies were handed over to the family after post-mortem, they said. In another incident, Ramnivas Jat (20) and Sunil Jat (17) of Gopalsar village in Bikaner drowned while installing a booster pump in a water tank. One of them slipped and fell inside the tank and the other tried to save him, but both drowned, police said.

In a bid to encourage sportspersons, the Himachal Pradesh government will host rural olympics which could see participation of up to 40,000 youths, including 20,000 women, state Youth Services and Sports Minister Vikramaditya Singh said here on Tuesday. The games, likely to start in September, will have a special focus on the state's traditional games, he added. "A policy would be framed for regulating the adventure sports such as river rafting and paragliding, due to which fatalities have been reported in the past. These mishaps bring a bad name to the state and the sports promoters," Singh said at a press conference after a meeting with representatives from various sports bodies of the state.

A doctor was booked for allegedly raping his 36-year-old patient who had come to him for treatment at a guest house in the Sector 40 area here, police said on Tuesday. According to the complaint filed by the woman, she went to consult one doctor named Rakesh following days of poor health. She got to know about him through a friend of hers.

An eight-year-old girl was allegedly strangled to death by a boy for resisting his rape attempt in Rajasthan's Bhilwara district, police said on Tuesday. The body of the girl was found in an cattle shed on Monday, they said. According to the complaint lodged by the girl's mother, the accused allegedly tried to rape his daughter and strangled her to death when she resisted, police said. A case of murder, kidnapping and attempt to rape has been registered in connection with the incident, they said. The accused (17) is absconding and efforts are on to nab him, police said. The body was handed over to the victim's relatives after postmortem on Tuesday, they said.

Out of 19.44 crore rural households in the country, 12 crore have been provided with tap water connections under the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM), official data showed. However, less than 50 per cent of the rural households in nine states and union territories, including Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, have received tap water connections so far. The lowest coverage was noted in Lakshadweep at zero per cent, the data suggested. Under the mission, the Centre aims to install tap water connections in all rural households by 2024. Tap water supply has been given to 9,06,846 schools, 9,39,909 Anganwadi centres and 3,87,148 lakh gram panchayat offices and community health centres (CHCs).

Mumbai Police on Tuesday claimed to have busted a gang of house burglars with the arrest of two men from Uttar Pradesh and another from Delhi. The trio had broken into a house in suburban Vikhroli in March when the owner and his wife were visiting a physiotherapist and decamped with gold jewellery, said an official here. Initially, the probe led police up a blind alley as they could not get any clues. But eventually the investigators zeroed in on the accused with the help of an informer and technical inputs, the official said.

A total of 164 equipment and items identified under the import restrictions as part of the 'positive indigenisation list' has been indigenised by December 2022, the defence ministry said on Tuesday. It put the annual import substitution values of the items at Rs 814 crore. The defence ministry has issued four lists so far comprising components and subsystems which were to to be procured from domestic industry after a ban on their import kicks in under a staggered time-line spanning till December 2028. The first list was brought out in December 2021, second one in March 2022, third in August 2022 and fourth one with 928 items was issued on May 14.

Corrupt politicians without leadership qualities, policies, and right intentions will not be able to defeat the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections as people want to see Narendra Modi become the prime minister again, Union minister Anurag Thakur said on Tuesday. Thakur was responding to West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee's remarks that her party will support the Congress where it is strong in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. It was the first time that Banerjee cleared the air on TMC's stand on a possible strategy for opposition unity in the electoral battle ahead.

A special court in Pune on Tuesday remanded DRDO scientist Dr Pradeep Kurulkar, arrested on charges of providing confidential information to a Pakistani agent, in judicial custody till May 29. Kurulkar, a director at one of the Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO) labs in Pune, was arrested by the Maharashtra police's Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) on May 3. During the hearing, Kurulkar requested for some medicines, as he has a problem of high blood sugar, and home food. The court permitted that he be given medicines, but refused his request for food to be delivered from his home.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday listed for the second week of July a plea by jailed former Maharashtra minister and NCP leader Nawab Malik against a Bombay High Court order putting off the hearing on his bail plea in a money laundering case lodged by the Enforcement Directorate. A bench of justices Sanjiv Khanna and M M Sundresh also requested the high court to take up his bail application for hearing. Malik has approached the apex court aggrieved by the Bombay High Court's May 2 order adjourning his plea seeking bail to June 6 due to the non-availability of an Additional Solicitor General (ASG) who is representing the ED.

Union Minister and senior BJP leader received a death threat via phone call at his Delhi residence. The police have been informed about the same an investigation is underway. The sources on Monday informed that Gadkari received a death threat last evening. 

"Union minister Nitin Gadkari received a death threat via phone call at his Delhi residence last evening. The minister's office informed Delhi Police about the same and the matter is under investigation by police now," Sources said. 

A man was shot dead by three people following a dispute here, police said on Tuesday. According to the family members of the victim, on Monday night the three accused, including one Gulfan, came to 18-year-old Tanveer’s house in Mahuar village and took him with them, Kotwali SHO Satyendra Singh said. The trio shot the victim after taking him to an isolated place, he said.

A foetus has been found abandoned between the compound walls of two buildings in Maharashtra's Thane district, police said. A passer-by on Monday evening spotted the foetus, around six months old, at Sagaon village in the Dombivli area, a police spokesperson said. 

A truck fell off a bridge and caught fire here on Tuesday, leaving the driver dead, police said. The incident occurred in Shivdaspura area when the truck was going towards Ajmer road. 

Rajasthan minister Mahesh Joshi on Tuesday slammed Congress leaders who have mounted an attack on the Gehlot government, saying it was surprising and disappointing that some responsible people were making allegations of corruption against the government. Congress MLA from Didwana, Chetan Dudi also hit out at those lashing out against the government.

Days after the gruesome murder of a woman doctor by a patient at a hospital in Kerala, a man turned violent and allegedly tried to attack a male doctor at a state-run medical college in Kochi, police said. Twenty-four-year-old Doyal, a native of Vattekunnam in nearby Edapally, was arrested late on Monday night following the incident, Kalamassery police said.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to hear in July a plea of several Gujarat judicial officers whose promotions were stayed by it. A bench headed by Justice M R Shah, now retired, on May 12 had stayed the promotion of 68 Gujarat lower judicial officers, including Surat Chief Judicial Magistrate Harish Hasmukhbhai Varma who had convicted Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in a defamation case.

Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Tuesday ordered setting up of a Special Investigation Team (SIT) for a probe into the alleged attempt by a group of people from a different religion to force their way into the famous Trimbakeshwar temple in Nashik. Security guards at the Trimbakeshwar temple had thwarted the group's attempt on Saturday night, a temple trust official said.

Officials of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday held searches at the premises of film production company Lyca, police sources said. Searches were being held in different locations in the city, sources said without divulging details. There was no immediate response from the production company regarding the raids.

The government has appointed Ravneet Kaur as the Chairperson of the Competition Commission of India (CCI), according to an official order. There has been no full-time Chairperson for the competition regulator since Ashok Kumar Gupta demitted office in October 2022. CCI Member Sangeeta Verma has been acting as the Chairperson since October last year.

The Bhiwandi Nizampur Municipal Corporation (BNMC) in Maharashtra's Thane district on Tuesday said people planning to go on Haj pilgrimage should have completed their COVID-19 vaccination, or else they will not be given vaccines against other diseases. A BNMC release said the Haj pilgrims from Bhiwandi will be inoculated at the civic vaccination centres in the town.

Strong winds swept across Delhi on Tuesday morning, raising dust and affecting air quality as well as reducing visibility to 1,000 metres, the India Meteorological Department said. Meteorologists have attributed the dusty conditions to a combination of intense heat in northwest India over the past five days, parched soil due to the absence of rainfall and strong winds that have persisted since midnight.

The Congress has claimed that the BJP is "disgraceful" when it loses elections and accused the rival party of making "mischievous attempts" to disturb social harmony, asserting that the "factories manufacturing hate are hyperactive". The strong criticism of the Congress came  after the BJP attacked it citing the comments of Karnataka Waqf Board chief Shafi Sadi demanding that the grand old party appoint a Muslim deputy chief minister in the state.

Delhi Chief Secretary Naresh Kumar has convened a meeting of the Civil Services Board (CSB) today to consider the AAP government's directions to transfer officers, including Services Secretary Ashish More. It will be the first meeting of the CSB after a Supreme Court judgment placed the control of bureaucrats working with the Delhi government (excluding those related to police, public order, and land) under the elected government.

More than three months after a doctor from Veraval town in Gujarat’s Gir Somnath district died allegedly by suicide, police have registered a case against BJP MP Rajesh Chudasama and his father on charges of abetment to suicide and criminal intimidation, an official said. A first information report (FIR) under Indian Penal Code sections 306 (abetment to suicide) and 506-2 (criminal intimidation) was registered on Monday against Junagadh Lok Sabha member Chudasama and his father Naranbhai, Veraval city police station's inspector S M Israni said.

Five medical students were injured in a scuffle which broke out between two groups over 'The Kerala Story' movie at the hostel of Government Medical College in Jammu, officials said. The incident sparked a protest with students demanding inquiry and action against those involved.