India

Galsi (WB), Apr 17 (PTI) A day after a purported audio tape -in which she is heard proposing a rally with the bodies of Cooch Behar firing victims- surfaced, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday alleged that her phone is being tapped and said she will order a CID probe into it.

Addressing an election rally here, she accused the BJP of being involved in the conspiracy as the saffron party "cannot match" the ruling Trinamool Congress' campaigning on development programmes.

(Reuters) --- Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday appealed to devotees to keep a key Hindu festival symbolic as the country reported more than 200,000 new COVID-19 infections for the third straight day.

India reported 234,692 COVID-19 infections over the last 24 hours, taking the total number of cases to nearly 14.5 million, second only to the United States. Deaths in the country from COVID-19 rose by 1,341 to 175,649.

New Delhi, Apr 17 (PTI) A record single-day rise of 234,692 cases and 1,341 fatalities have pushed India's COVID-19 tally to 14,526,609 and the death toll due to the viral disease to 175,649, the health ministry said on Saturday.

The number of active coronavirus cases in the country has surpassed the 16-lakh mark, the ministry's data updated at 8 am showed.

Kanpur: Nai Chungi crossing remains busy all the time but the crowd surges a little bit more during the evening. The devouts who fast flock to the place to buy water melon, grapes, bananas and other eatables too. The people living around the place get easy chance to get everything of their preference there. 

The traffic movement continues the whole day but the people's gathering to buy required items for Iftaar goes on for not more than one hour.

Erode (TN), Apr 16 (PTI): A Mahila Court here on Friday sentenced a head constable to five years rigorous imprisonment (RI) and fined him Rs 50,000 in a sexual harassment case involving a minor girl.

The prosecution case was that the nine-year-old girl of Sulure, Coimbatore district, was sleeping in a moving train when the policeman sexually harassed her.

The girl raised an alarm and her parents, along with co-passengers, got up and caught the head constable.

The incident happened on the night of September 1, 2018.

Mumbai, Apr 15 (PTI) American banking major Citibank on Thursday announced that it will exit from the consumer banking business in India as part of a global strategy.

The business comprises credit cards, retail banking, home loans and wealth management.

Lucknow, Apr 15 (PTI) Samajwadi Party supremo Akhilesh Yadav on Thursday painted a gloomy picture of the Covid situation in Uttar Pradesh saying dead bodies have been queueing up at crematoriums in the state and no treatment is available to the ailing ones.

Yadav, himself in-home quarantine after testing positive for the infection, alleged that the dismal Covid-19 situation in the state has arisen because of the BJP's "cheap mentality" and its "malice" of undoing the work done by his government.

New Delhi, Apr 15 (PTI) A Delhi court on Thursday granted bail to former JNU student Umar Khalid in a case related to the communal violence in northeast Delhi in February last year, saying that he cannot be made to incarcerate in jail for infinity.

Further, the court said the investigation in the case has been completed and the charge sheet has been filed and it is the case in which Khalid was not physically present at the scene of the crime on the date of the incident.

Chandigarh, Apr 15 (PTI) Former Haryana chief minister and senior Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Thursday accused the state's BJP-JJP government of failing on all fronts, from farmer's issues to the COVID-19 pandemic, and said its incompetence has been exposed.

The leader of opposition in the state also alleged delays in the entire process of wheat procurement, from lifting of purchased grains to payment to farmers.

Chandigarh, Apr 15 (PTI) Punjab Chief Secretary Vini Mahajan on Thursday issued instructions to the police and other departments to make foolproof arrangements for not allowing even a single grain of wheat from outside the state.

She said that enforcement teams should be deployed on inter-state borders to check the illegal trade.

She also directed to ensure the lifting of the crop within 72 hours after the procurement from the mandis and timely payment to farmers.