India

Kochi, July 19 (PTI): A case has been registered against a Malayalam film producer for allegedly sexually assaulting a woman, police said on Sunday.

Alwyn Antony had sexually abused the 22-year-old woman last year after promising her roles in his movies, the police said.

The accused is absconding, they said.

New Delhi, Jul 19 (PTI) The Congress has absolute majority in the Rajasthan assembly, the party asserted on Sunday, a day ahead of a Rajasthan High Court hearing on its rebel MLAs' petitions challenging disqualification notices by the speaker.

Sources in the Congress also did not rule out the possibility that an assembly session could be convened, even as party chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala saying it is the prerogative of the state cabinet and the chief minister, and "they will decide appropriately".

Karimganj, Jul 19 (PTI) Three suspected Bangladeshi cattle lifters were killed by a mob at a tea estate in Assam's Karimganj district, police said on Sunday.

A group of cattle thieves crossed the Indo-Bangladesh border and entered the Bogrijan Tea Estate Patharkandi Police Station area, about 1.5 km away from the border, on Saturday night. They attempted to steal cattle from the shed of a tea garden labourer, they said.

Mumbai, Jul 20 (PTI) Phone tapping is an "assault" on personal freedom and bringing down a democratically-elected government using money amounts to "treachery" with the Constitution, the Shiv Sena said on Monday referring to the Rajasthan political crisis.

It needs to be decided which one of these is a bigger crime, an editorial in Shiv Sena mouthpiece 'Saamana' said, claiming the Rajasthan telephone tapping episode has "exposed" many.

New Delhi, Jul 20 (PTI) India saw a record single-day jump of 40,425 COVID-19 cases, pushing its tally past the 11-lakh mark on Monday, while the total number of recoveries crossed 7 lakh, according to the Union Health Ministry data.

The death toll due to the disease rose to 27,497 with 681 fatalities reported in one day.

NEW DELHI, July 19 (NNN-UNI) – India’s federal health ministry, this morning said, 543 new deaths due to COVID-19 and 38,902 more cases were reported, during the past 24 hours across the country, taking the number of deaths to 26,816 and total cases to 1,077,618.

This is the highest single-day spike in terms of new COVID-19 cases in the country so far.

According to ministry officials, so far, 677,423 people have been discharged from hospitals after showing improvement.

“The number of active cases in the country right now is 373,379,” reads the information.

New Delhi, Jul 19 (PTI) Three of the 10 most valued companies added a total of Rs 98,622.89 crore to their market valuation last week, led by stellar gains in IT major Infosys.

Seven companies from the coveted list witnessed a decline in their market valuation last week, but their cumulative loss of Rs 37,701.1 crore was less than the total gain made by three firms -- Reliance Industries Limited, Hindustan Unilever Limited and Infosys.

New Delhi, Jul 19 (PTI) The financial condition of Hindustan Copper is in "dire straits" primarily due to the dismal performance of the PSU in 2019-20, a top company official said while asking the employees to brace up for tough times ahead.

The Chairman and Managing Director of the PSU, Arun Kumar Shukla, in an article published in the house journal of Hindustan Copper, exhorted company employees to focus on making up for the production shortfall in 2020-21 for the survival of the PSU.

New Delhi, Jul 19 (PTI) Amid the political firestorm in Rajasthan following Sachin Pilot's rebellion, senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal on Sunday called for amending the anti-defection law to ban all defectors from holding public office for five years and fighting the next election.

Sibal also said that the "antibodies" against the "virus of corrupt means" to topple elected governments lie in amending the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution (anti-defection law).

Srinagar, Jul 18 (PTI) The Jammu and Kashmir Apni Party (JKAP) led by former finance minister Syed Altaf Bukhari on Saturday demanded the restoration of statehood for the union territory and domicile rights over land and jobs for its people.