India

Muzaffarnagar, Dec 19 (PTI) A POCSO court in Kairana has sentenced a man to life imprisonment for raping a 16-year-old girl in 2020.

Special Judge Mumtaz Ali also imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 on Azad alias Arvind on Saturday after holding him guilty under various sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

According to POCSO lawyer Pushpendra Malik, the crime took place in Shamli district on February 2, 2020.

Kolkata, Dec 19 (PTI) Three voters were injured, one of whom is in a serious condition, after bombs were lobbed in Sealdah area of Kolkata during the ongoing KMC elections on Sunday, police said.

One of the injured persons has lost his leg, while the other two are also undergoing treatment at the hospital, an officer said.

The incident took place around 11 AM in front of Taki School in ward number 36 during polling, he said, adding that the three persons are voters of the area.

Jaisalmer, Dec 19 (PTI) A BSF jawan was killed and four others were injured in a mortar explosion in the Kishangarh firing range in Rajasthan's Jaisalmer district on Sunday, police said.

The incident took place when BSF jawans of the 136 batallion had come to take part in a training exercise.

The deceased soldier was identified as Sandeep Singh, they said, adding the injured have been rushed to a hospital in Ramgarh.

Senior BSF and police officials have reached the spot to investigate the matter.

New Delhi/Mumbai, Dec 19 (PTI) India's Omicron COVID count rose to 145 on Sunday after a 45-year-old NRI and a teenage boy, who recently arrived in Gujarat from the United Kingdom, tested positive for the variant.

According to central and state officials, omicron cases have been detected in 11 states and union territories -- Maharashtra (48), Delhi (22), Rajasthan (17) and Karnataka (14), Telangana (20), Gujarat (9), Kerala (11), Andhra Pradesh (1), Chandigarh (1), Tamil Nadu (1) and West Bengal (1).

Lucknow, Dec 19 (PTI) Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Sunday accused Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath of getting his telephones tapped and listening to his talks every evening.

Yadav made the allegation while dubbing Adityanath as the most anupyogi' (useless) chief minister and seeking to counter Prime Minister Narendra Modi's poll formula UP+Yogi=Upyogi , aimed at asserting the utility of the Adityanath government for UP's growth.

Kanpur A lawyer Tarun Agarwal has been arrested in connection with the murder of advocate Gautam Dutt, who was shot dead during the elections of the Kanpur Bar Association (KBA) in the District Court campus here.

The firing took place on Friday evening outside the Shatabdi Gate on the district court campus after the cancellation of Bar association elections.

Advocate Dutt was shot in the stomach. He died during treatment later in the night in the Lala Lajpat Rai (LLR) hospital.

Kolkata, Dec 17 (PTI) The Calcutta High on Friday rejected an appeal by the BJP against a single bench order which directed that the state police - and not central forces - will provide security for the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) election on December 19.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice Prakash Shrivastava and Justice Rajarshi Bharadwaj directed that the State Election Commission (SEC), with the help of the state authorities, will take all possible measures to boost the confidence of voters.

New Delhi, Dec 18 (PTI) The government has received an undisclosed number of financial bids for sale of its stake in ailing helicopter operator Pawan Hans, moving the divestment process to the last stage.

"The financial bids for Pawan Hans disinvestment have been received by the transaction advisor. The process now moves to a concluding stage, DIPAM Secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey tweeted.

He, however, did not disclose the number of bidders.

Kanpur: The state government has assigned IIT Kanpur and FICCI to establish  the Artificial Intelligence and Innovation Driven Entrepreneurship Centre of Excellence (AIIDE-CoE) in NOIDA.

It will help nurture and incubate 250 startups from the AI/ML domain over a period of five years.

The centre will develop the startup ecosystem in Uttar Pradesh in the field of artificial intelligence and help bridge the gap between academia and industries.

Gurugram, Dec 17 (PTI) A heated exchange of words took place over offering 'namaz' in the open here on Friday with right wing activists asking those who arrived for the prayers to chant 'Bharat Mata Ki Jai'.

Several videos on the clash, which are said to be shot in Udyog Vihar, also show police arriving at the venue and holdings talks with the two groups.