Indian Sub-continent

Mumbai, May 10 (PTI) A special court here has granted bail to an elderly doctor from suburban Bandra, accused of molesting his neighbour's 14-year-old daughter.

Special POCSO judge S J Gharat recently granted bail to the 63-year-old doctor, Kumar Ram Kanuga, in connection with the incident that took place nearly a month ago.

According to the prosecution, the victim had gone to the house of the accused, who has been practising medicine for the last 35 years, to collect the keys to her residence, which her mother had kept with him.

Kolkata, May 10 (PTI) The high-pitched campaigning by different political parties for eight Lok Sabha constituencies going to the polls in the sixth phase on May 12 came to an end Friday evening.

Election in this phase will cover Jangal Mahal - the forested region of Bankura, West Midnapore, Jhargram and Purulia districts which used to be a Maoist hotbed during the erstwhile Left Front regime.

Patiala, May 10 (PTI) Hitting out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for targeting the Congress and the Gandhi family over the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Friday said what if someone linked the PM with the 2002 riots in Gujarat's Godhra.

"It is wrong of Modi to connect (former prime minister) Rajiv Gandhi with the anti-Sikh riots of 1984. What if someone starts linking Modi with Godhra," he told reporters here.

Singh said it did not behove the prime minister of the country to "stoop" to such levels for winning elections.

Bhubaneswar, May 10 (PTI) Over one million trees that once stood tall and provided green cover to the Odisha capital have been felled by the raging winds of Cyclone Fani, the uprooted trunks and bare branches testimony to the intensity of the storm that barrelled through the state last week.

The extremely severe cyclonic storm on May 3 did not result in major casualties but the environmental damage in the city is immense and it will take more than a decade to recover, officials said.

Mumbai, May 10 (PTI) Better asset quality and a 100 bps dip in credit cost helped the largest lender State Bank Friday report a net income of Rs 838 crore for the March quarter as against a net loss of Rs 7,718 crore a year ago, and also guide towards sunnier days.

For the full year to March, SBI, which controls a fourth of the nation's banking system, booked a net income of Rs 862 crore as against a net loss of Rs 6,547 crore. The management attributed the lower profit to the 100 percent provisions made for some key stressed accounts which are near the full resolution.

Mumbai, May 10 (PTI) State Bank, which leads the consortium of the lenders of Jet Airways Friday said they have received bids from Etihad Airways and a few unsolicited parties to take over the grounded airline.

The consortium of 26 lenders which now owns 51 percent in the airline, had invited expressions of interest between April 8 and 12 and had received four preliminary bids.

Friday was the last day to submit financial bids by the qualified bidders.

Kolkata, May 10 (PTI) BJP candidate for Diamond Harbour Lok Sabha constituency, Nilanjan Roy has been booked under the POCSO Act for allegedly sexually molesting one minor girl inside a house at Falta in West Bengal, police said Friday.

The West Bengal Commission for Protection of Child Rights (WBCPCR) sources said the body received a complaint from the alleged victim against the inactiveness of the state police in arresting the accused.

Mumbai, May 10 (PTI) The Tata Steel Group Friday said the proposed merger of its European operations with German's Thyssenkrupp has almost fallen through as they are not in a position to rework the remedy packages to assuage the concerns of the European Commission.

New Delhi/Jaipur, May 10 (PTI) IAF fighter jets on Friday intercepted a Georgian An-12 aircraft flying from Tbilisi to Delhi via Karachi and forced it to land at the Jaipur airport after the plane entered the Indian air space from an unscheduled point, officials said.

The crew members of the cargo aircraft, which entered Indian airspace at 3:15 PM, were questioned at Jaipur, they said, adding the investigation lasted several hours and the plane was being allowed to leave.

New Delhi, May 10 (PTI) The AAP Friday sent a notice to the BJP and its East Delhi Lok Sabha seat candidate Gautam Gambhir demanding an apology for the derogatory pamphlet allegedly circulated against Atishi Marlena, failing which "appropriate legal proceedings will be initiated".

Filed by advocate Mohammad Irsad, from the legal cell of the AAP, the notice termed the pamphlets "offending publication" and alleged that those were published by Gambhir and the BJP.