Gujarat

Ahmedabad, May 2 (PTI) Food and beverages giant PepsiCo India said Thursday it will withdraw the cases it has filed against potato farmers in Gujarat for allegedly growing a variety of the tuber for which the company claims Plant Variety Protection (PVP) rights.

PepsiCo in April sued a few farmers for cultivating a potato variety grown exclusively for its popular Lay's potato chips, leading to an outcry and protests.

Ahmedabad, May 2 (PTI) A special CBI court here Thursday discharged former police officers D G Vanzara and N K Amin in the Ishrat Jahan alleged fake encounter case.

Vanzara and Amin had filed discharge applications in the court after the Gujarat government refused to grant sanctions to the CBI to prosecute the two former police officers.

Special CBI court judge J K Pandya said that since the government has not sanctioned their prosecution, their discharge pleas are allowed and proceedings against them will be dropped in the case.

Ahmedabad, Apr 26 (PTI) Food and beverages giant PepsiCo Friday offered to settle lawsuits against four farmers who it has dragged to court for allegedly illegally growing a variety of potatoes "registered" by the company.

Nine farmers from Sabarkantha and Aravalli districts are being sued by PepsiCo for allegedly growing a variety of potatoes for which it has claimed Plant Variety Protection (PVP) rights.

Surat, Apr 26 (PTI) A sessions court here Friday convicted Narayan Sai, son of jailed self-styled godman Asaram Bapu, in a rape case filed against him by a former woman devotee in 2013.

The sentence will be pronounced on April 30.

Besides Sai (47), who is lodged at Lajpore Jail here since 2013, the court held four of his aides, including two women, guilty of various offences.

Vadodara, Apr 26 (PTI) A special court for POCSO cases at Bharuch in Gujarat has sentenced a man to life imprisonment till death for raping a hearing-and-speech impaired girl.

Ashok Vasava, 34, was convicted under IPC section 376 (rape) as well as under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act Thursday.

Public prosecutor R J Desai said Vasava, father of three children, raped an 11-year-old girl who was deaf and mute at Jhagadiya in Bharuch district on December 6, 2016, when she stepped out of her house to answer nature's call.

Bhuj, Apr 27 (PTI) A Pakistani national was apprehended from Kutch district of Gujarat for illegally entering India, the Border Security Force (BSF) has said.

A BSF team held the man at 3.30 am on Friday, as soon as he sneaked into India, it said.

"The man, identified as Tajgi Meghwal (28), a Pakistani Hindu, was apprehended from the Indo-Pak border near the border out post (BOP) called 'Jairaj' in Kutch district," the BSF said in a statement issued on Friday night.

AHMEDABAD, India, April 23 (Xinhua) -- Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi cast his vote in Ahmedabad city of western state Gujarat on Tuesday, which saw the third phase of the ongoing parliamentary elections.

Modi cast his vote in the Gandhinagar parliamentary constituency, where the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)'s President Amit Shah is one of the candidates.

Ahmedabad, Apr 20 (PTI) As many as 58 out of total 370 candidates in the fray from all the 26 Lok Sabha seats in Gujarat have various criminal cases registered against them, as per Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR) analysis.

Among them, 34 nominees are facing serious offences including the charges of murder and attempt to murder under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

Dahod, Apr 16 (PTI) A video has surfaced on social media purportedly showing a Gujarat BJP MLA telling electors Prime Minister Narendra Modi has installed cameras in polling booths to find out who was not voting for party candidates.

The MLA, Ramesh Katara, allegedly made the remarks while addressing a small campaign rally in support of BJP's Lok Sabha candidate from Dahod, Jasvantsinh Bhabhor, in a village near here two days ago.

Ahmedabad, Apr 16 (PTI) A special court here is likely to pass an order on April 29 on the applications of former police officers D G Vanzara and N K Amin seeking quashing of proceedings against them in the Ishrat Jahan alleged fake encounter case.

The arguments by the lawyers of the two officers and advocate Vrinda Grover who appeared for Ishrat's mother Shamima Kauser concluded Tuesday before special judge for CBI cases J K Pandya.

Kauser has opposed the applications. The Gujarat government has denied sanction for the prosecution of Vanzara and Amin.