Indian Sub-continent

New Delhi, Feb 14 (PTI) The Delhi High Court on Monday said a conviction for the offence of rape cannot be sustained in the absence of evidence when the version of the prosecutrix is ridden with contradictions and acquitted three persons in a 2012 gang rape case.

Justice Chandra Dhari Singh, who was dealing with a batch of appeals against the 2016 order of conviction by the trial court, however upheld the conviction of three others in the case in view of the medical evidence against them.

Kolkata, Feb 14 (PTI) Nine months after its landslide win in the West Bengal assembly polls, the Trinamool Congress on Monday reaffirmed its dominance among urban voters as it made a clean sweep in the elections to four municipal corporations.

The TMC retained control of Bidhannagar, Chandernagore and Asansol municipal corporations and wrested power in Siliguri from the CPI(M)-led Left Front.

Both the vote share and the number of seats for the TMC in these civic bodies were much higher than the last election held in 2015.

New Delhi, Feb 14 (PTI) The BJP on Monday urged the Election Commission to ban Punjab Congress president Navjot Singh Sidhu from campaigning in the ongoing assembly polls and register a criminal case against him and his party, alleging that he was promoting hatred and division in the society with his comments.

A BJP delegation, including Union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, met the EC with a memorandum and claimed that Sidhu had insulted Brahmins with a "derogatory" reference with an aim to divide Punjabis.

Bhubaneswar, Feb 14 (PTI) A sexagenarian who allegedly married 14 women in seven states in a span of 48 years was arrested in Bhubaneswar on Monday, police said.

It is also alleged that the man who hails from a village under Patkura police station in Odisha's Kendrapara district took money from these women before fleeing.

The arrested man, however, denied the charges.

Dehradun, Feb 14 (PTI) Over 65 per cent polling was recorded in Uttarakhand where voting to 70 assembly seats spread over 13 districts concluded peacefully, officials said here.

"Polling was held peacefully at the 11,697 polling booths across the state with 65.1 per cent of the electorate casting their votes till the close of polls," Chief Electoral Officer Saujanya who does not use a surname said.

This percentage of polling may be revised after tallying with the final data collected from polling parties, she said.

New Delhi, Feb 15 (PTI) Former Law Minister Ashwani Kumar on Tuesday resigned from the Congress, ending his 46-year-long association with the grand old party.

Kumar sent his resignation to Congress President Sonia Gandhi this morning, saying he can best serve national causes outside the party fold.

Shahjahanpur (UP), Feb 15 (PTI) A booth agent of the Samajwadi Party was allegedly shot dead on Tuesday by a rival group in a village here over a dispute during polling in Tilhar constituency, police said.

A villager was also seriously injured in the incident, they said.

Superintendent of Police (City) Sanjay Kumar said Samajwadi Party booth agent Sudhir Kumar (20) was shot dead in Vikrampur Chakora village on Tuesday morning when he was going to attend nature's call. A villager also sustained serious injuries in the firing and was admitted to the hospital.

Ranchi, Feb 15 (PTI) At least four people were killed and several others injured, including one seriously, in an accident involving six vehicles on NH 33 in Jharkhand's Ramgarh district on Tuesday, a senior official said.

The accident took place at Patel Chowk in Ramgarh police station area around noon, causing four deaths on the spot, he said.

NEW DELHI, Feb 14 (NNN-Bernama) — India imported 376,612 tonnes of palm oil from Malaysia in January, representing 68 per cent of its total imports of the commodity.

According to data released by the trade group Solvent Extractors’ Association of India today, the imports from Malaysia were made up of 296,548 tonnes of crude palm oil (CPO), 68,855 tonnes of refined, bleached and deodorised (RBD) palm olein and 11,209 tonnes of crude palm kernel oil (CPKO).

It said palm oil’s share in the country’s 1.25 million tonnes total edible oil imports last month was 44 per cent.

UDUPI, India, Feb 14 (Reuters) - Some schools reopened in the Indian state of Karnataka on Monday after closing last week when protests erupted over students being barred from wearing the hijab in class.

The issue, widely seen by India's Muslim minority community as a bid to sideline it by authorities in a Hindu-dominated nation, comes as Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) prepares for elections in key states.