India

New Delhi, Mar 2 (PTI) The Delhi Police on Tuesday afternoon closed the Ghazipur border again, hours after it reopened a portion of NH-9 for traffic movement, officials said.

The stretch was closed since January 26 when violence broke out during the farmers' tractor parade in the national capital on Republic Day.

The one side of the road which goes towards Ghaziabad from Delhi was opened for traffic in the morning.

Ahmedabad, Mar 2 (PTI) In view of the Congress' debacle in the elections to local bodies in Gujarat, state unit president Amit Chavda and Leader of Opposition Paresh Dhanani resigned from their posts on Tuesday.

Chavda said people had raised doubts about EVMs and all these things should be probed.

A party spokesperson said it was now up to the top brass of the Congress to decide the future course of action.

New Delhi, Mar 2 (PTI) Terming the Emergency that was imposed by former prime minister Indira Gandhi a "mistake", Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday said what happened during that period was "wrong", but it was fundamentally different from the current scenario as the Congress at no point attempted to capture the country's institutional framework.

Ahmedabad, Mar 2(PTI) Days after winning 27 seats in the elections to Surat Municipal Corporation in Gujarat, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Tuesday emerged victors in 42 seats in rural and semi-urban pockets of the state.

Results of Sunday's polls in 81 municipalities, 31 district panchayats and 231 taluka panchayats were declared on Tuesday, and the AAP, as per the State Election Commission, won 31 seats in taluka panchayats, nine in municipalities and two district panchayat seats.

Banda (UP), Mar 3 (PTI) An elderly man has been arrested for allegedly raping an eight-year-old Dalit girl in a village here, police said on Wednesday.

The incident took place in the Baberu area in Banda district in Uttar Pradesh around 6 pm on Tuesday when the girl was playing near her house.

The accused, identified as Jagdish Pal, 70, was arrested later, Circle Officer Siyaram said, adding the girl has been sent for medical examination.

According to the police, the girl has a vision problem and cannot see clearly.

Srinagar, Mar 3 (PTI) An Army officer allegedly shot himself dead at an Army depot in Khonmoh area of Jammu and Kashmir on Wednesday, officials said here.

Lieutenant Colonel Sudeep Bhagat, who was posted at the depot, died on the spot, they said.

It was not immediately known why the officer took such an extreme step.

Lucknow, Mar 3 (PTI) The son of BJP MP Kaushal Kishore was shot at in Lucknow on early Wednesday, but the police claimed that he had staged the attack on him by his brother-in-law to implicate some persons.

Ayush (30), the son of the BJP MP from Mohanlalganj constituency, was shot at in the Madiaon area around 2 am.

He was rushed to a hospital from where he was discharged after first-aid.

Bulandshahr (UP), Mar 3 (PTI) A 22-year-old man was arrested on Wednesday for allegedly killing a minor girl after a failed rape attempt, police said, adding that the victim's body was exhumed from his house.

The accused, identified as Harendra, was arrested from Shimla, Himachal Pradesh.

The body of the 12-year-old girl was exhumed from a pit in his house on Tuesday, days after it was buried.

New Delhi, Mar 3 (PTI) The AAP on Wednesday won four of the five civic wards in Delhi in a bypoll, with Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal asserting that people were desperate to bring the party to power in the three municipal corporations in the national capital.

The AAP, however, suffered a shock defeat in the minority-dominated Chauhan Bangar ward, where Chaudhary Zubair Ahmad of the Congress defeated the party's candidate Mohammad Ishraq Khan by a whopping margin of 10,642 votes.

New Delhi, Mar 2 (PTI) India's exports marginally declined 0.25 per cent to USD 27.67 billion in February while imports grew by 6.98 per cent to USD 40.55 billion during the month, according to provisional data released by the commerce ministry on Tuesday.

The trade deficit widened to USD 12.88 billion in February as compared to USD 10.16 billion in the year-ago period, the ministry said in a statement.