India

Ahmedabad, Nov 24 (PTI) A special CBI court on Tuesday discharged two policemen accused in the 2003 Sadiq Jamal alleged fake encounter case, after observing there wasn't sufficient ground to proceed against them.

Bhavnagar resident Sadiq, who police claimed was a Lashkar-e Toiba operative out to kill then chief minister Narendra Modi and other BJP leaders, was killed in Naroda locality of city's outskirts on January 13, 2003.

Hyderabad, Nov 24 (PTI) TRS working president K T Rama Rao on Tuesday flayed BJP for releasing a 'charge sheet' against the party, saying it should instead be against the NDA government for its 'failures' on the economic front and not helping Telangana.

Rao, son of Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, said the 'charge sheet' released by Union Minister Prakash Javadekar on November 22 had described the state government as 'TRS-MIM' government when the reality was it was being run by TRS alone.

"It is a TRS government in this state. There are no partners for us.

Jammu, Nov 24 (PTI) A delegation of the US embassy in Delhi met National Conference provincial president Devender Singh Rana here Tuesday and discussed issues of common interest, the party said.

Minister counsellor for political affairs in the United States embassy Graham Mayer and senior political advisor A Sukesh interacted with Rana on a varied range of subjects like environment, tourism, academics and sharing of knowledge and ideas aimed at promoting universal brotherhood, amity and tranquillity between the communities, a party release said.

Mumbai, Nov 24 (PTI) Former Union minister Jaisingrao Gaikwad Patil on Tuesday joined the NCP in the presence of its president Sharad Pawar at the party's office here a few days after he quit the BJP.

Deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar and NCP ministers such as Jayant Patil, Anil Deshmukh, Dhananjay Munde, Nawab Malik were present on the occasion.

Patna, Nov 25 (PTI) BJP MLA Vijay Kumar Sinha was on Wednesday elected as Speaker of the Bihar assembly by a majority vote.

Sinha, who was the candidate of the ruling NDA, got 126 votes as against 114 polled in favour of RJDs Awadh Bihari Chaudhary who was fielded by the opposition Grand Alliance.

The voting was marred by rumpus caused by opposition members who protested presence of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on the floor of the House on the ground that he was a member of the legislative council.

Thiruvananthapuram, Nov 24 (PTI) Kerala Chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Tuesday strongly defended the KIIFB projects, which have recently came under the scanner of the Enforcement Directorate, and said the Board was necessary for the development of the state and none of the projects will be stopped.

"The Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB) is an institution for the development of the state and any attempts to destroy it will be strongly opposed.

People did not elect this government to stand idle in the face of challenges," Vijayan said.

Ranchi, Nov 24(PTI) The CBI on Tuesday submitted its written opposition to RJD chief Lalu Prasads bail plea in Jharkhand High Court in the fodder scam case related to Dumka treasury saying that he has not served a single days sentence in connection with it.

Lalu Prasad's lawyers claimed that he has completed half of his sentence in judicial custody in the case.

Prasad, the former Bihar chief minister, was sentenced on March 24, 2018 to 14-years rigorous imprisonment by CBI special judge Shivpal Singh in the Dumka treasury embezzlement case of fodder scam.

New Delhi, Nov 25 (PTI) Twitter will relaunch its account verification process early next year, whereby active and authentic user accounts can sport the 'blue verified badge'.

Twitter had paused its public verification programme three years ago, after getting feedback that it felt arbitrary and confusing to many people.

"A year later, we deprioritised this work further to focus on protecting the integrity of the public conversation around critical moments like the 2020 US election," Twitter said in a blog post.

Jaipur, Nov 24 (PTI) In a shocking incident, a 21-year-old man allegedly raped his friend's mother in Alwar district of Rajasthan, police said on Tuesday.

The 58-year-old victim was alone in her house when the accused committed the crime on Sunday, Sunil Jangid, SHO, Shahjahanpur (Bhiwadi) said.

The accused, Vikas Jat, used to visit his friend's house frequently. His friend had gone to attend a function when he went to his house and allegedly raped his mother, he said.

The accused was arrested on Monday, the SHO added.

New Delhi, Nov 24 (PTI) At a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday said the high severity of the third wave of COVID-19 in the national capital is due to many factors, pollution being an important one, sources said

Kejriwal told the prime minister that Delhi saw the peak of 8,600 coronavirus cases on November 10 during the third wave and since then, the number of cases as well as the positivity rate are steadily decreasing, the sources said