Indian Sub-continent

Jamnagar, June 20;  IANS/GANASHAKTI: A Gujarat court on Thursday sentenced sacked IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt to life imprisonment in a three-decade-old custodial death case, finding him guilty of murder.

Jamnagar District and Sessions Court Judge D.M. Vyas also awarded similar penalty to police constable Pravinsinh Jhala.

The verdict came after the Supreme Court last week rejected Bhatt's application seeking fresh examination of witnesses in the case, contending that this was key to arrive at a proper judgment.

Bijapur, Jun 19 (PTI) A Samajwadi Party (SP) leader was abducted and killed by Naxals in Chhattisgarh's Bijapur district, police said on Wednesday.

Santosh Punem, who was also a contractor, was abducted by ultras late Tuesday evening from his construction site in Marimalla village where he had gone to supervise some road- related work, Superintendent of Police Divyang Patel said.

Some locals spotted his body lying in a pool of blood at the nearby Marimalla hills on Wednesday morning and informed the police.

New Delhi, Jun 19 (PTI) The Congress will skip the all-party meeting convened by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the 'one nation, one election' issue as it is opposed to the idea of holding simultaneous Lok Sabha and assembly elections, sources said on Wednesday.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the party's top leaders in the Parliament after consultations with various other parties.

Leaders of a number of other parties have already decided to skip the meeting as a majority of them are opposed to the idea.

Muzaffarnagar, Jun 19 (PTI) Three teenagers, who had together gone for a bath in a canal here, have gone missing in Uttar Pradesh's Kandhla town in Shamli district, police said Wednesday.

The trio had gone for a bath in the canal on Monday but when they did not return home till Tuesday morning, their parents informed police, SHO Sanjiv Kumar said.

The three youths have been identified as Bilal (15), Sajid (14) and Aslem (13), he said.

A case was registered and a search operation was underway to find the three teenagers, he added.

Hyderabad, Jun 19 (PTI) An admirer of Donald Trump's "strong leadership" and "bold attitude" in Telangana has erected a six-foot-tall statue of the US president at his home and worships him like a "god".

As tensions over trade-related issues heat up between India and the US, Bussa Krishna, a 32-year-old farmer from Konne village in Jangaon district, unveiled the Trump statue and applied 'tilak' and garlanded it before performing "Abhishekam" and "Aarti" by chanting "Jai Jai Trump."

Warangal (T'gana), Jun 19 (PTI) A nine-month-old girl died after a man apparently gagged her following an alleged rape bid here on Wednesday, police said.

The accused, aged around 28, took the baby in the wee hours while she was asleep alongside her parents on the terrace of their house and sexually assaulted her, a senior police officer told PTI.

The man, who stays in the same neighbourhood as that of the victim, seems to have gagged her when she started crying, resulting in her death, the officer said.

Panaji, Jun 19 (PTI) Goa and Oman will revive their ties dating back to the Portuguese era through archives as a part of the Central government's initiative to foster relations between the two countries, an official said here Wednesday.

Officials of the National Records and Archives Authority, Sultanate of Oman, are in Goa to interact with various government agencies, including state Archives and Archaeology department, as a part of understanding between both the governments.

Barmer, Jun 19 (PTI) Nineteen Pakistani migrants living in Rajasthan's Barmer for the past several decades were granted Indian citizenship on Wednesday, an official said.

Certificates of Indian citizenship were handed out to them at an event held at the district collectorate.

The state government has granted Indian citizenship to 19 Pak migrants who have been living in Barmer district for more than a decade, District Collector Himanshu Gupta said.

He, along with Additional District Collector Rakesh Kumar Sharma, handed out the certificates to the migrants.

Sikar (R'than), Jun 19 (PTI) Two men have been booked for allegedly raping a minor girl in Rajasthan's Sikar district nearly three months back, police said on Wednesday.

The incident came to light when the girl complained of stomach ache and she was taken to a doctor, who told the family that she was pregnant, local police station incharge Ramkishan Yadav said.

Mumbai, Jun 19 (PTI) The Maharashtra government will increase the existing number of MBBS seats by 2000 from the next year to accommodate more students, the Legislative Council was told Wednesday.

Medical Education Minister Girish Mahajan also told the Upper House that the government was in the process to hike seats for post-graduate medical courses.

He was responding to a calling attention raised by NCP's Hemant Takle.