Akshita Kapoor

[ad_1] CHANDIGARH: Haryana government on Wednesday once again released Sirsa-based Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim, who is convicted of rape and murder, on 21 days' furlough.He is to return to jail on April 30. With this, in the 120 days from Jan 1 to April 30 this year, he would be out of jail for 51 days. In Jan, the state govt had released him on 30 days' parole. According to bail conditions, this time, Ram Rahim will stay at his Sirsa-based ashram. [ad_2] Source link

[ad_1] PUNE: The technical glitch plaguing passport servers nationwide continued for a second day on Wednesday, with applicants across major cities expressing frustration as appointments continued to be cancelled or delayed.Regional Passport Offices (RPOs) in Mumbai, Pune, Delhi, and other cities witnessed chaos as server issues that began Tuesday worsened, affecting numerous applicants who had scheduled appointments months in advance. "The server problem persisted even on Wednesday pan-India. We are trying to sort the issue as soon as possible, and everything should run smoothly soon," a senior passport official said."The PSK Pune-Ghorpadi office has not been operational since yesterday due to server issues. I had an appointment at 3.30pm but received no message or email informing me of any cancellation. I've been waiting since 12.30pm," said Mahsku Phadtare, an applicant who urgently needed to travel abroad for work. "Officials are […]

[ad_1] NEW DELHI: A multi-agency team comprising investigators from two intelligence agencies, besides the National Investigation Agency and a team of psychologists specialising in criminology, will begin the interrogation of Tahawwur Rana, one of the masterminds of the 2008 Mumbai attack, after he lands in Delhi on Thursday.Home minister Amit Shah, national security adviser Ajit Doval and foreign minister S Jaishankar held a meeting on Wednesday evening to review the security arrangements and course of action ahead of Rana's arrival.TOI was the first to report on Rana's dispatch. His custody was handed over to Indian sleuths in Los Angeles on Tuesday evening. The website of the US Federal Bureau of Prisons has updated the status against Rana's name saying he wasn't in their custody as of Tuesday. Rana's register number (22829-424) read: "Not in BOP custody as of 04/08/2025."A team […]

[ad_1] Srinagar: The heat generated over Union minority affairs minister Kiren Rijiju’s selfie with J&K CM Omar Abdullah and his father, Farooq Abdullah, has refused to die down, with PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti accusing the CM of cosying up to BJP and Omar reminding her of the ties with BJP to form a coalition govt.Mehbooba said Rijiju chose to visit Kashmir after the passage of Waqf Amendment Bill to signal to the “24 crore Muslims across India that their views hold little weight” and Omar facilitated it. “The visit set against the backdrop of Asia’s largest tulip garden felt like a public celebration of the community’s marginalisation and disempowerment,” she said.Omar has described it as a chance meeting and that Rijiju had requested a selfie. “Should I have refused him?” Omar asked.He said it was PDP which brought BJP to […]

[ad_1] NEW DELHI: As both day and night temperatures continued to remain high on Wednesday, Delhiites reeled under both heatwave and warm night conditions. The city experienced the warmest April night in three years, with the minimum temperature rising to 25.6 degrees Celsius, six degrees above normal, on Wednesday at base station Safdarjung. It was 22.4 degrees Celsius on Tuesday.However, heatwave conditions are likely to abate, with the city predicted to receive very light rain accompanied by thunderstorms and gusty winds on Thursday and Friday. With the city under the grip of a heatwave for the third consecutive day, the maximum temperature at Safdarjung was 40.5 degrees Celsius, five degrees above normal, on Wednesday against 41 degrees a day earlier. A heatwave was also recorded at Ayanagar (40.9), Palam (40.3) and Ridge (40.1)."Three stations met heatwave criteria on Monday, two […]

[ad_1] NEW DELHI: A Delhi court on Wednesday stayed an order for further probe against Delhi law minister Kapil Mishra for his alleged role in the 2020 Delhi riots until April 21. Special judge Kaveri Baweja stayed the order after Mishra moved the court with a plea against the magisterial court order. The court also issued notice to complainant Mohammad Ilyas, on whose plea the magistrate ordered an FIR, and asked him to respond by April 21."Let notice of the revision petition be issued to the respondents returnable on April 21. The record of the court of learned ACJM (additional chief judicial magistrate) be also requisitioned for the next date fixed. In the meantime, the operation of the impugned order shall remain stayed until the next date of hearing," the judge said.Delhi Police moved court against the order of additional […]

[ad_1] NEW DELHI: In a major embarrassment, Singapore Supreme Court has quashed an arbitral award against the special purpose vehicle (SPV) set up to manage dedicated freight corridors in India after finding that the tribunal headed by retired CJI Dipak Misra had copied 212 of 451 paragraphs from two earlier awards involving the same parties but on different issues.Though the tribunal also comprised MP HC ex-Chief Justice K K Lahoti and ex-CJ of J&K HC Gita Mittal, a Singapore SC bench led by Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon said since the other two were not part of the earlier awards, it couldn't be ascertained whether they were even aware of Misra's "copy-paste" job.The Singapore SC was firm that the copying compromised the integrity of the arbitration process and thus it did not adhere to the "principles of natural justice".The court said, […]

[ad_1] BENGALURU/KOPPAL: In an embarrassment to Congress govt in Karnataka, CM Siddaramaiah's economic adviser Basavaraj Rayareddi described the state as "No. 1 in corruption" at a meeting Tuesday."No matter who is in power, rampant corruption will take place and the Karnataka state is No. 1 in corruption," Rayareddi reportedly said at the meeting organised by Regional Imbalance Redressal Committee in Koppal.In a damage-control exercise Wednesday, Rayareddi said his comments were "misinterpreted" by the media. He claimed he merely highlighted poor quality in public works initiated by his and previous govts. "I addressed officials, stating the quality of govt projects is lacking in Kalyana Karnataka region... I questioned how... regional imbalance can be addressed. Therefore, I suggested the committee include my recommendation in its report to ensure high-quality work that leaves no room for corruption," the Yelburga MLA clarified.Rayareddi also added, […]

[ad_1] NEW DELHI: India has disallowed transshipment of cargo from Bangladesh to third countries, dealing a blow to Dhaka exporting apparel through air freighters, largely from Delhi.Global brands such as Zara, which use the route to meet their international need, will have to rework their sourcing strategy. The customs circular, issued Tuesday, said cargo that had already entered India would be allowed to be shipped out. Confirming the development that comes amid the strife in India-Bangladesh ties, MEA said the transshipment used to cause congestion at Indian airports and ports, but added the order won't hit Dhaka's exports to Nepal and Bhutan passing through India. tnnThe trans-shipment facility extended to Bangladesh had over a period of time resulted in significant congestion at our airports and ports. Logistical delays and higher costs were hindering our own exports and creating backlogs. The […]

[ad_1] NEW DELHI: Amid the ongoing bilateral trade talks with the US, India on Wednesday opted to remain an observer as China led the charge against the Trump administration over reciprocal tariffs, calling it bullying and a violation of global trade rules.But India, Mexico and Argentina were among a handful of countries that did not make an intervention during the deliberations of the Council for Trade in Goods at the WTO headquarters in Geneva.The European Union, Switzerland, Brazil, Japan, South Korea and Singapore were among those who were critical of the move on several counts, including the negative impact that the high tariffs will have on global trade and economy, especially poor and developing countries. India has chosen its words carefully and largely remained silent on the issue, and even blamed China for creating a situation that has forced the […]