India

New Delhi, Jan 9 (PTI) The Delhi Police has stopped near Shashtri Bhawan the march by students and members of civil society organisations towards the HRD Ministry.

Hundreds of demonstrators hit the streets on Thursday protesting the recent violence at JNU and demanding resignation of the varsity vice-chancellor.

CPI(M) leaders Sitaram Yechury, D Raja, Prakash Karat and Brinda Karat and LJD leader Sharad Yadav also joined the march.

New Delhi, Jan 9 (PTI) In a last ditch effort to escape the noose, Vinay Kumar Sharma, one of the four men sentenced to death in the Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case, filed a curative petition in the Supreme Court on Thursday.

A curative petition is the last legal remedy available to a convict.

On Tuesday, a Delhi court issued death warrants against Mukesh (32), Pawan Gupta (25), Vinay Sharma (26) and Akshay Kumar Singh (31) and said they will be hanged on January 22 at 7 am in Tihar jail.

Panna (MP), Jan 8 (PTI) A seven-year-old girl was allegedly raped by a 14-year-old boy at a village in Madhya Pradesh's Panna district on Wednesday, police said.

According to the complaint, the minor boy lured the girl to his house and raped her when no one was around, civil line police post (Kotwali police station) in-charge Shrikrishna Singh Mawai said.

The victim is undergoing treatment at a district hospital, Mawai said, adding that the police are on the look out for the boy who is at large.

Thanjavur(TN), Jan 7 (PTI) A 31-year-old man, who raped his minor daughter in the district, was handed four terms of life sentence by a courthere on Tuesday.

Mahila court judge Ezhilarasi sentenced Kumar to four terms of life imprisonment which should run continuouslywith a clear order that he should not be released from the prison till his death.

The judge also slapped a fine of Rs 4,500 on the convict.

Besides, he was sentenced to six months of imprisonment for threatening to kill his daughter.

New Delhi, Jan 7 (PTI) A delegation of ambassadors from 15-20 countries including those from the Gulf region are scheduled to visit Jammu and Kashmir soon to be briefed on the security situation in the union territory, officials said on Tuesday.

They also said that efforts were on to rope in some ambassadors from the P5 countries like the US, the UK, France and Russia but confirmation is awaited.

Allahabad (UP), Jan 7 (PTI) The Allahabad High Court has dismissed a petition on the action taken by the Uttar Pradesh government against those who were protesting over the contentious citizenship law.

A two-judge bench, comprising Justices Sudhir Agarwal and Rajeev Mishra, said the petitioner could not show that there was any infringement of legal or fundamental right of an individual or group by the government.

Allahabad, Jan 7 (PTI) The Allahabad High Court on Tuesday asked the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to investigate the allegations of police brutality on students of Aligarh Muslim University during protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.

Hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by one Mohammed Aman Khan of Allahabad, a division bench of Chief Justice Govind Mathur and Justice Vivek Varma directed the Commission to complete the process of inquiry expeditiously within one month.

Shahjahanpur (UP), Jan 7 (PTI) A district court here has transferred the trial of former Union minister Swami Chinmayanand, accused of sexually exploiting a law student, to a special court for MPs and MLAs.

The trial against the BJP leader, accused of rape by the student, has been going on at the chief judicial magistrate's court here.

He will appear before the special court in the district for the next hearing on January 20, his counsel Om Singh said.

Mumbai, Jan 7 (PTI) Former Maharashtra chief minister and senior BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis met with MNS chief Raj Thackeray in Prabhadevi area here on Tuesday.

The meeting between the two leaders lasted for nearly two hours, sources said.

However, what transpired during the meeting could not be known immediately.

Mumbai, Jan 8 (PTI) The Indian rupee tumbled 20 paise to 72.02 against the US dollar in opening trade on Wednesday as Mideast tensions flared up after Iran fired rockets at US military bases in Iraq.

Asian markets dived while oil prices firmed up after Iran fired more than a dozen ballistic missiles at two Iraqi bases with US personnel in retaliation to the killing of its top general Qassem Soleimani.