Uttar Pradesh

Ghaziabad, Dec 21 (PTI) Farmer protesting against the Centre's agriculture laws on Monday started a hunger strike and briefly blocked the Delhi-Ghaziabad road.

Superintendent of Police (City-II) Gyanendra Singh said farmers were persuaded to lift the blockade after which the National Highway-9 was opened to traffic.

On Monday, a group of 10 farmers initiated a hunger strike against the farm laws. They will be replaced by another group on Tuesday.

Fatehpur (UP), Dec 22 (PTI) A six-year-old girl was allegedly raped by a 50-year-old man in a village in Fatehpur district of Uttar Pradesh, police said on Tuesday.

The incident took place on Monday evening in the Lalauli area here, SHO Sandeep Tiwari said.

The accused, Ramu Tiwari, had fled the spot after villagers were alerted by the girl's cries for help but was later arrested, he said.

The girl was admitted to a hospital, and her condition was stated to be stable, he added.

Balrampur (UP), Dec 20 (PTI) Two people were arrested for allegedly raping a minor girl in Utraula Police Station area, an official said on Sunday.

According to the victim's mother, the accused took away her daughter on Thursday evening after luring her. They then raped her, police said.

However, the girl managed to escape and informed her family members after returning home, they said.

Based on the complaint, a case has been registered against the accused, police said, adding that both have been arrested and jailed.

Saharanpur (UP), Dec 20 (PTI) Police here arrested a ration depot operator for an "objectionable post" against Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on a WhatsApp group, an official said on Sunday.

Superintendent of Police (City) Vineet Bhatnagar told PTI that Mohammad Kamal had circulated an "objectionable post" against the chief minister a few days ago.

Lucknow, Dec 19 (PTI) The Uttar Pradesh government has approved over 19,000 posts of doctors to ensure availability of specialists in the health services, an official statement said on Saturday.

Of the 19,011 approved posts, 10,580 will be for MBBS doctors and 8,431 for specialists, it said.

Half of the specialist doctors will be recruited directly and the remaining posts will be filled up through promotion, the statement said.

Till now, in the absence of direct recruitment of specialist doctors, a large number of posts used to remain vacant.

Fatehpur (UP), Dec 19 (PTI) A local court here on Saturday sentenced a man to 10 years' imprisonment for raping a girl in 2018.

The court also imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 on the convict.

Judge Anubhav Dwivedi found accused Neeraj Paswan guilty of raping the girl on March 6, 2018, in a village under Asothar police station area, and sentenced him to 10 years' imprisonment. He also imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 on Paswan, district government advocate Sahdev Gupta said.

Allahabad (UP), Dec 19 (PTI) The Allahabad High Court has directed the Uttar Pradesh Police not to take any coercive action against a man booked under the recently promulgated Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Ordinance, 2020 for allegedly trying to marry a woman with intentions of converting her to other religion.

A division bench comprising Justice Pankaj Naqvi and Justice Vivek Agarwal was hearing a writ petition filed by Nadeem against whom an FIR was lodged at Mansoorpur police station in Muzaffarnagar.

Moradabad (UP), Dec 19 (PTI) Two brothers who were arrested earlier this month under the anti-conversion law were released on Saturday following an order by an Uttar Pradesh court.

The Muslim man and his brother were arrested on December 4 after they visited the registrar's office in Moradabad to record his marriage to a Hindu woman, whose family filed a complaint.

Banda (UP), Dec 18 (PTI) A 26-year-old woman was allegedly raped by her brother-in-law in a village here, following which the accused was arrested, police said on Friday.

The incident took place on Wednesday night when the woman was alone in her house, SHO of Bisanda police station Narendra Pratap Singh said.

The accused had also threatened to kill her two-and-a-half-year-old child if she told anyone about the incident, according to police.

Ballia (UP), Dec 18 (PTI) BJP MLA Surendra Singh has described the farmers' protest against three farm laws as a "sponsored sit-in of anti-national forces" and claimed that the movement has foreign funding.

He alleged that the foreign forces were fuelling the farmers' protest in the same way they were supporting the movement in Shaheen Bagh during anti-CAA protests.

"After seeing the farmers' movement, it appears that this is a sponsored agitation by anti-national forces and has foreign funding," Singh, a BJP MLA from Bairia constituency, claimed.