Akshita Kapoor

[ad_1] Bareilly: In "one of the most horrific sexual crimes" in recent times, an 11-year-old deaf and mute Dalit girl from UP's Rampur who was raped by unidentified accused, was found on Wednesday with multiple injuries on her body, including cigarette burn marks on her private parts and bite marks. Later in the day, police arrested a suspect, allegedly from the same village, and initiated interrogation procedures against him.The girl, whose father is a marginal farmer from a village in the district, went missing on Tuesday evening after going to relieve herself in a field. On Wednesday, a man from the village found her lying unconscious in a field around 500m from her home, half-naked, with her face swollen, and promptly informed her family.Dr Anju Singh, who conducted the girl's medical examination, told TOI, "This is a clear case of […]

[ad_1] NEW DELHI: At a time when language has become politicised, with incidents of people being attacked in several states for not speaking the local language, Supreme Court has said India's linguistic diversity should be celebrated and it should not cause divisions. It said language was not related to any religion and Urdu was as much an Indian language as Hindi and Marathi, reports Amit Anand Choudhary. SC upheld use of Urdu, along with Marathi, on a signboard of Patur municipal council in Maharashtra's Akola district.T he court said there was a misconception that Urdu was alien to India and observed that it was “pitiable” to consider Hindi as the language of Hindus and Urdu of Muslims, a ploy used by the colonial powers to divide the country. “The prejudice against Urdu stems from the misconception that Urdu is alien […]

[ad_1] The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom in a landmark judgement ruled on Wednesday that the term “woman” in the Equality Act 2010 refers strictly to biological females, and not transgender women. The unanimous verdict by five judges is expected to have widespread implications for single-sex services such as domestic violence shelters, hospital wards, and sports facilities.“The unanimous decision of this court is that the terms ‘woman’ and ‘sex’ in the Equality Act 2010 refer to biological women and biological sex,” said Deputy President of the Supreme Court, Justice Patrick Hodge. “We counsel against reading this judgment as a triumph of one or more groups in our society at the expense of another. It is not.”The ruling marks a significant setback for transgender rights campaigners and has reignited public debate over the legal interpretation of sex and gender. Legal […]

[ad_1] US president Donald Trump launched a scathing attack on the American judiciary after a federal judge halted his administration’s plan to cancel legal protections for over half a million migrants. In a lengthy post on Truth Social, Trump accused the courts of being politically biased and obstructing his agenda. Posting on Truth Social, Trump wrote: “Can you believe it? A Judge ruled against us on 530,000 illegal migrants (that Joe Biden flew over the border in his program to transport illegals into the country by airplane) saying that they can’t be looked at as a group, but that each case has to be tried individually. Based on the court system, that would take approximately 100 years. What is going on with our courts? They are totally out of control. They seem to hate ‘Trump’ so much, that anything goes!” […]

[ad_1] Chandigarh: "I never died." Surinder Singh, an Army soldier from Himachal Pradesh's Kangra announced, stunning officials and family alike when he walked into a Pathankot courtroom in Punjab after vanishing 16 years ago — a disappearance driven by a dowry case.Declared dead in Army records by his wife who started receiving his family pension as a widow, Singh surrendered before the court a few months ago seeking to reclaim his identity.Singh had allegedly fled due to harassment following dowry-related charges filed by his wife, Meena Kumari, a resident of Gho village in Pathankot."I was depressed. My wife had slapped a case of dowry harassment against me and my parents. She used to insult me at my place of posting and treated me so badly that I decided to renounce the world," Singh told TOI. "I stayed at railway stations […]

[ad_1] GURGAON: Businessman Robert Vadra appeared before Enforcement Directorate (ED) for the second consecutive day on Wednesday in connection with a money laundering probe into a 2008 land deal in Gurgaon between his company Skylight Hospitality and DLF.Vadra, who reiterated to the media that he was a political target, was accompanied by wife Priyanka Gandhi, the Congress general secretary and MP from Wayanad.Before going in for the second round of questioning, Vadra, referring to the Gandhi family, told reporters "hum kisi se darte nahin (we are not scared of anyone). "I will never call myself a soft target. If you (Centre) harass me or put pressure on me, I will rise stronger. We speak for the people, and that's why we are being targeted. We are not afraid of anyone. We will keep fighting for the people. Whether Rahul Gandhi […]

[ad_1] AICC leaders Abhishek Singhvi and Jairam Ramesh NEW DELHI: Calling ED's National Herald case a "political hit job scripted by BJP", Congress Wednesday said there is not a whiff of a crime of any sort as Young India is a not-for-profit company, with no money or property transfer. It said the case is a ploy of PM Modi to divert focus from difficult questions like unemployment, falling growth and social unrest. Congress said the probe agency should answer why it never proceeds against a BJP or NDA functionary, and that "selective justice is political thuggery".AICC leaders Abhishek Singhvi and Jairam Ramesh, taking postshots at the top BJP duo, said, "There is no crime under any law, PMLA, Companies Act, etc. The only crime is that 'two persons' with a criminal mindset are running a fake narrative." They added, "Because […]

[ad_1] NEW DELHI: Dismissing Congress's charge of vendetta after Enforcement Directorate (ED) chargesheeted Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi in the National Herald case, BJP on Wednesday said no one had the "licence to loot".Senior party functionary Ravi Shankar Prasad said the law would take its own course under the Modi govt and probe agencies would not be fazed by the Congress's "threats".Prasad asked Congress to reply to the allegations against the Gandhis instead of offering a political reaction, noting that the opposition party found no relief from the judiciary in its pleas against the investigation.He said the main charge against the Gandhis was that as 76% shareholders of Young Indian company, they had "misappropriated" real-estate worth thousands of crores owned by Associated Journals Limited, which owned the National Herald newspaper.Prasad said Congress had the right to hold 'dharnas' (to protest […]

[ad_1] KOCHI: Kerala HC issued Wednesday notices to chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan, his daughter T Veena, and others in a PIL seeking a CBI inquiry into alleged financial dealings between Cochin Minerals and Rutile Ltd and Veena’s firm Exalogic Solutions Pvt Ltd. The next hearing is scheduled for May 27. Before admitting the petition, the HC division bench of judges Amit Rawal and P M Manoj directed the central government to submit in a sealed cover a list of people named in the interim settlement board's order under the Income Tax department related to the transactions involving Cochin Minerals and Rutile Ltd (CMRL). The plea was filed by senior journalist M R Ajayan, who also sought an inquiry into alleged political connections between the companies and CM Pinarayi Vijayan. Ajayan's plea relies on findings by the interim settlement board, which […]

[ad_1] Teachers have the onerous task of inculcating values. They have the task of creating and maintaining a pristine atmosphere around a student so as to nurture creativity. It would be naive to accept such qualities from persons obtaining employment by dubious means," observed Calcutta high court while setting aside the recruitment process for teaching and non-teaching staff in West Bengal. The HC judgment was upheld by Supreme Court on April 3.The two judgments affected almost 25,000 people recruited for government-aided educational institutes by West Bengal School Selection Commission (WBSSC) through a process, which started in 2016 but went on up to 2020. The process, the two courts ruled, was so "unashamedly" manipulative that the teachers it produced should have no business to get anywhere near a young student. Of the 25,000 recruitments, more than 18,000 were for teaching staff […]