Indian Sub-continent

Chennai, Feb 6 (PTI) Vexed with the filing of numerous anticipatory bail pleas, the Madras High Court on Wednesday observed that the accused need not be arrested in all criminal cases at the stage of investigation and the probe can be carried out effectively without custodial interrogation.

Justice Anand Venkatesh made the observation while granting anticipatory bail to an accused in a matrimonial dispute case and asked the police to pull up their socks and show more quality and maturity in investigations.

Ahmedabad, Feb 6 (PTI) A BJP corporator in Surat was Wednesday caught allegedly taking a bribe of Rs 50,000 from a shop owner, the Gujarat Anti-Corruption Burea (ACB) said.

Apart from being the BJP corporator, the accused, Jayantilal Bhanderi, is also the vice chairman of drainage committee of the BJP-ruled Surat Municipal Corporation, the ACB said in a release.

New Delhi, Feb 6 (PTI) Congress leader Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law Robert Vadra Wednesday appeared before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with a money laundering probe case relating to alleged possession of illegal foreign assets.

Vadra's wife Priyanka Gandhi accompanied him, in a white Toyota Land Cruiser along with SPG personnel in tow, and dropped him outside the agency's office in Jamnagar House in central Delhi. She soon left in her convoy of vehicles.

KANPUR: A young girl was strangulated to death in Panki area. Her dead body was found in a field existing about 200-meters away from the house on Wednesday morning.   

New Delhi, Feb 5 (PTI) Dumping of sewage in water bodies is an offence, the National Green Tribunal said Tuesday while slapping a penalty of Rs 25 lakh on the Uttar Pradesh government for its failure to stop discharge of dirty water into Upper Ganga canal.

A bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel said adequate steps have not been taken for proper waste management and its treatment.

New Delhi, Feb 5 (PTI) The Delhi High Court Tuesday asked Haryana to remove the bunds that, according to the Delhi government, were blocking flow of clean water into the Yamuna and was leading to an increase in pollution levels in the national capital's water supply.

The direction by a bench of Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice V K Rao came after the Haryana government stated in an affidavit that it will remove the bunds.

New Delhi, Feb 5 (PTI) The Supreme Court Tuesday came down heavily on the Centre over the Assam National Register of Citizens (NRC) process and said it is hell bent on not allowing the work to continue.

The top court rapped Ministry of Home Affairs for its plea seeking to stall the NRC work for two weeks keeping in mind the role of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) in the election duty.

New Delhi, Feb 5 (PTI) The government's push to provide clean cooking fuel to every household has turned India into the world's second largest LPG consumer whose demand is projected to rise 34 per cent by 2025, Oil Secretary M M Kutty said Tuesday.

Speaking at the Asia LPG Summit here, he said active LPG consumers have grown at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15 per cent - from 14.8 crore in 2014-15 to 22.4 crore in 2017-18.

Chennai, Feb 5 (PTI) A 33-year-old man who posed as an official of the Prime Minister's Office here was arrested Tuesday and remanded to judicial custody along with his car driver who caused an accident, police said.

The fake claim of the imposter that he was an "Assistant Commissioner-Protocol," in the PMO was exposed after police grilled him following a mishap in the Madras High Court campus involving his car which hit a motorcycle and injured an advocate who was riding it, they said.

Lucknow, Feb 5 (PTI) The Uttar Pradesh government has constituted an Special Investigation Team to probe the circumstances that led to riots in Kanpur in 1984 following the assassination of then prime minister Indira Gandhi, an official release said Tuesday night.

The four-member SIT, to be headed by retired UP Director General of Police Atul, has been asked to submit its report within six months, the release said.