India

Jaipur, Sep 10 (PTI) A man in Rajasthan's Bhilwara district got himself murdered so that his family members could claim Rs 50 lakh insurance he had bought and spend the rest of their life in comfort.

Balbir Kharol (38), a money lender, took the bizarre decision not because he was debt-ridden, but because he failed to recover money from people who had taken loans from him, according to police.

New Delhi, Sep 10 (PTI) Delhi University Professor Hany Babu, whose house was raided in connection with the 2017 Elgaar Parishad case for alleged Maoist links, alleged that police did not have a search warrant and they seized the phones of his daughter and wife, not allowing them to communicate with friends.

Babu, who has been teaching at DU's English Department for close to a decade, said the police took away laptops which contain his research.

Mumbai, Sep 10 (PTI) The Maharashtra government issued certificates of citizenship to 23 people originally hailing from Pakistan, a state government release informed.

It said these people had migrated to India several years ago and were living here on long-term visa.

Saharanpur, Sep 10 (PTI) A statue of BR Ambedkar was damaged at Ghunna village in Uttar Pradesh's Saharanpur district, police said on Tuesday.

They said the incident led to disenchantment in the Dalits when they noticed the damaged statue on Tuesday morning.

"People blocked a road in protest against the incident. Police reached the spot on getting information and requested them to lift the blockade. Amid this, a scuffle took place between police and the protesters," they said.

Gurgaon, Sep 10 (PTI) A 48-year-old government school teacher was arrested here for allegedly molesting girl students, police said on Tuesday.

"The teacher was arrested on Monday soon after the complaint against him was lodged at the Farukhnagar police station," said Gurgaon police PRO Subhash Bokan,

The accused was arrested from his residence in Gurgaon, he added.

Keonjhar, Sep 10 (PTI) A court here sentenced six men to 20-year jail term each for raping a minor girl four years ago.

Special POCSO court of Additional District Judge Loknath Sahu also imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 each on the six for convicts, stipulating an additional one-year imprisonment if they fail to pay the fine.

Public Prosecutor Ganesh Prasad Mohapatra said the case dated back to November 6, 2015, when the six raped the nine-year-old girl after finding her alone in her house in Sidingbasti area under Barbil police station limit.

New Delhi, Sep 10 (PTI) A 16-year-old girl was allegedly raped by two men on a vacant plot near ESI Hospital in West Delhi's Moti Nagar on Tuesday, police said.

The accused, identified as Ravi (25) and Ankit (24), residents of Basaidarapur, have been arrested, they said.

The incident took place on Monday. The accused approached her on the pretext of a job. They took her to the isolated spot and raped her, police said.

New Delhi, Sep 11 (PTI) Pramod Kumar Mishra has been appointed the new principal secretary to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, an official statement said on Wednesday.

He took over his new assignment on Wednesday, the statement said.

Mishra was the additional principal secretary to the prime minister and was holding the rank of a Cabinet minister.

Recently, Nripendra Misra had stepped down as the principal secretary to the prime minister. Modi had asked him to continue for two weeks.

New Delhi, Sep 11 (PTI) Former Cabinet Secretary P K Sinha has been appointed the principal advisor to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, an official order said on Wednesday.

Sinha was last month appointed as Officer on Special Duty (OSD) in the PMO.

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) has approved the appointment of P K Sinha, currently functioning as OSD in the Prime Minister's Office, as Principal Advisor to Prime Minister with effect from 11th September, 2019, according to the order.

Kanpur: "No greed for power, only desire of service to people," said Virendra Kumar Tiwari, UPCLDF Chairman on Tuesday afternoon at Bidhnu CHC inspection here on Tuesday. He stayed there for a few minutes in the middle of his journey break for Mahoba.

It was a surprise visit. Not only the staff was astounded but also the CHC superintendent Dr SP Yadav looked dazed at his visit to the community health centre. The doctor with a mark of respect offered his chair to the minister to sit. But he himself dragged another vacant chair to sit.