India

Mumbai, Jan 14 (PTI) The Shiv Sena said Monday that the situation in Jammu and Kashmir has worsened under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's watch and claimed the BJP-led government at the Centre frittered away the massive 2014 poll mandate.

Modi talks about his "56-inch chest", but more Army jawans have shed blood in the militancy-hit state under his dispensation than previous governments, said the BJP's bickering ally.

Lucknow, Jan 14 (PTI) RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav Monday promised full support to the BSP-SP alliance in Uttar Pradesh for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, asserting that the move by the two regional parties to come together to fight the BJP has gone down well throughout the country.

Stating that the alliance will be hailed in the future, Tejashwi also said Uttar Pradesh and Bihar will decide who will come to power at the Centre after the general elections.

New Delhi, Jan 14 (PTI) The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to examine in detail "on the earliest possible date" a plea seeking a court-monitored CBI or SIT probe into incidents of alleged police encounters and killings in Uttar Pradesh.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi perused the materials on record and said the issues raised in the petition of People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) required "serious consideration" and fixed the hearing on February 12.

Imphal, Jan 14 (PTI) Protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill were held in parts of Manipur by Manipur Peoples Party (MPP) and six students' organisations on Monday.

The protestors, who took out processions and staged sit-ins in various districts, demanded to know the stand of the BJP-led state government on the contentious bill.

MPP president O Jugindro said the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, if passed in the Rajya Sabha, would reduce the population of indigenous people of the northeastern states, including Manipur, to "microscopic minority".

Mumbai, Jan 14 (PTI) In perhaps the biggest such online heist, a Mumbai-based Italian firm lost Rs 130 crore to suspected hackers who allegedly convinced its local managers that the money was needed for an acquisition, police said Monday.

The hackers sent emails to the head of the Indian subsidiary of the firm through an email account, which looked similar to that of the group CEO, a police official said.

Bulandshahr (UP), Jan 14 (PTI) The Bulandshahr district administration on Monday invoked the National Security Act (NSA) against seven people arrested in connection with the alleged cow slaughtering incident in Siyana tehsil last month, officials said.

Cattle carcasses were found strewn in the fields outside village Mahaw in Siyana on December 3 after which a mob went on the rampage, attacking the local Chingrawathi police post.

Inspector Subodh Kumar Singh, 44, and civilian Sumit Kumar, 20, of Chingrawathi village were killed of gunshot injuries in the ensuing violence.

Mumbai, Jan 13; PTI: Angry over delay in payments, farmers attacked offices of sugar factories in Satara, Sangli and Kolhapur districts of Maharashtra and set some of them ablaze, police said Sunday.

A group of protesters torched the office of Krishna Sugar Factory at Karad in Satara on Friday, a police official said.

Some important documents, computers and furniture were destroyed in the blaze, he said, adding that offences were registered against unidentified persons by the Karad rural police.

Kolkata, Jan 13; PTU: Gujarat independent MLA and Dalit leader Jignesh Mewani said Sunday that the Centre's move to provide 10 per cent quota to upper caste poor is a step towards realizing the RSS-BJP's agenda to remove caste-based reservations from the system.

President Ram Nath Kovind Saturday gave his assent to the constitutional provision to provide 10-per cent reservation in government jobs and education to economically backward section in the general category. The bill was passed by the Parliament on January 9.

Srinagar, Jan 13 :  Top Al-Badr commander Zeenat-ul-Islam was among the two Kashmiris killed by Indian security forces in Kulgam district of Jammu and Kashmir, police said Sunday.

The two Kashmiris killed in the Katpora encounter have been identified as Zeenat-ul-Islam and Shakeel Ahmad Dar.

According to J&K police, Islam had switched over to Al-Badr from Hizbul Mujahideen in November last year following consensus between the two outfits to strengthen the Al-Badr.

Rameswaram (TN), Jan 13 (PTI) At least 20 Tamil Nadu fishermen were arrested Sunday by the Sri Lankan Navy for fishing off Neduntheevu, sources said.

Eleven fishermen hailing from Pudukottai district and nine from Jegathapattinam were surrounded by the Lankan Navy for fishing in the Lankan waters early Sunday morning and were later taken to Karainagar for an interrogation, they said.

Their boats were impounded and the fishermen were later sent to jail, they added.