Bengal BJP leader arrested for posting fake video
Kolkata, July 13 (IANS): A BJP leader was arrested on Wednesday by West Bengal police’s Criminal Investigation Department for allegedly uploading a fake video on social networking site Facebook. Tarun Sengupta, the party’s Information Technology cell secretary of Asanol district, was taken into custody on the charge of posting the video on his Facebook claiming it showed devotees of monkey god Hanuman being beaten up by the police on April 11 on the occasion of Hanuman Jayanti in Birbhum district, CID sources said. The police filed a case against Sengupta on April 25 and arrested him on Wednesday in Paschim Bardhaman.
Crackdown on spurious liquor in UP, 3,727 arrested
Lucknow, July 13 (IANS): A state-wide drive against manufacturers of illicit liquor in Uttar Pradesh has led to the arrest of 3,727 people, an official said on Thursday. The drive was launched on the instructions of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath after the deaths of about a dozen people in a hooch tragedy in Azamgarh. In Azamgarh alone, more than 60 FIRs have been registered and 46 people have been arrested, an official told IANS. A total of 223 persons across Uttar Pradesh have been sent to jail in the drive, which began on July 8. The Chief Minister has announced an ex gratia of Rs 2 lakh each to the victims of the hooch tragedy.
Heavy rains pound Uttarakhand
Dehradun, July 13 (IANS): Heavy rains continued to pound Uttarakhand for the second consecutive day on Thursday leading to chaos and disruption of normal life. Schools and colleges in many places including state capital Dehradun and Haridwar remained closed as roads were blocked due to landslides and low lying areas remained water logged. The route to the annual Chaar Dhaam Yatra in Badrinath and Yamunotri was blocked and pilgrims have been asked to stay put at safe places like Gaurikund and Soneprayag, en route to the Kedarnath shrine, an official said. In Chamoli district alone more than 50 roads are blocked. Due to a cloud burst, the Dehradun-Saharanpur road caved in leading to a complete halt of all vehicular traffic on this route.
SGPC asks centre of exempt free kitchen from GST
Amritsar, July 13 (PTI): Shiromani Gurudwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) president Kirpal Singh Badungar has urged the Union finance minister to exempt free kitchens in the Golden Temple and other Sikh shrines from the purview of Goods and Services Tax (GST). Badungar, in a missive, has urged Jaitley that religious cum spiritual places being managed by the SGPC including the Golden Temple at Amritsar, Takhat Kesgarh located at Anandpur Sahib, Takhat Damdama Sahib located at Talwandi Sabo where foot fall was in excess of a lakh per day should be exempted from GST for buying food items for langar.
No waste dumping within 500 metres of Ganga: NGT
The National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Thursday ordered that there can be no landfill sites or garbage dumping within half-a-kilometre area of the Ganga between Haridwar in Uttarakhand and Unnao in Uttar Pradesh. The bench also announced a penalty of Rs 50,000 on anyone dumping waste near the river. During the hearing of a petition regarding the cleaning and rejuvenation of the Ganga, NGT Chairperson Swatanter Kumar said a huge amount of money had been spent on cleaning the river but desired results were not visible.
After over a week a schoolgirl was raped to death in Himachal Pradesh, police on Thursday said it had arrested all the six accused involved in the crime. Goyal said it was a blind rape-murder case. The accused, aged between 19 and 42 years, included two Nepalese and two from Uttarakhand. Most were farm labourers and had settled in Kotkhai area. He said 84 people were rounded up and 28 calls were recorded at the crime spot. The 16-year-old girl was offered lift in a vehicle by the accused on July 4 when she was returning home from school. On the way, the accused raped and murdered her at a nearby forest. Her body was found two days later. The police said the prime accused had developed familiarity with the victim as he offered her lift two times earlier.
A teenage girl was held in captivity for 15 days and allegedly raped by two men, police said today. The incident took place on June 25 when the 16-year-old girl was alone at home and the two men allegedly abducted her, Superintendent of Police Surendra Pratap Singh said. She was allegedly raped and held captive for nearly a fortnight before she managed to flee and return home on July 10. An FIR was registered yesterday and the police is probing the matter. No arrests have been made so far.
