Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has expressed his condolences on the passing away of Justice Verma:   "A man of vast understanding and knowledge of Law,' the PMO has tweeted.  

 

"He was respected for his pathbreaking judgements, his deep sensitivity to the concerns of the common man and commitment to public good,' he said.   "I will miss him very much for his generous advice and guidance on matters of public importance,' the PM added.

An 18-year-old girl was allegedly kidnapped and raped by two youths in vadodara district, police said today. The victim was kidnapped by the accused, identified as Mahendrasinh and Khuman Parmar, on the night of April 14 when she was on her way to relieve herself in a field at Pratappura village, police sub-inspector N K Goswami said.        

 

"The girl was then taken to another village the next day by the accused and was raped again," he said, adding that the duo dropped her in Pratappura village on April 18 and threatened her with dire consequences if she disclosed the matter.        

 

Police said the victim has named eight persons, including two women, for abetting the crime in her complaint. The victim's father had filed a complaint of kidnapping on April 15. Goswami said no arrests have been made in the case as they are verifying her complaint.

BBC: The surviving suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings has been charged in his hospital bed, US media reports. The complaint against Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was sealed, so details of the charges are not known, local channel WCVB said.

 

A White House spokesman said Mr Tsarnaev would not be treated as an "enemy combatant", as suggested by some Republican members of Congress. "We will prosecute this terrorist through our civilian system of justice," Jay Carney said.

Justice Sharan Verma, who headed the anti-rape panel, passed away on Monday. He suffered from a multiple organ failure. In the aftermath of the Delhi gang rape, Justice Verma was appointed chairperson of a three member commission to suggest changes required in existing laws to provide better security to women in India.

In a fresh salvo ahead of Rahul Gandhi's visit to Madhya Pradesh, ruling BJP today said the Congress Vice-President pales in comparison to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi. 

Delhi has witnessed a surge in crime against women this year with rape cases recording 158 per cent rise while molestation and eve-teasing incidents went up by 600 and over 700 per cent, respectively. 

 Traders and shopkeepers in Maharashtra today started an indefinite strike against the newly-introduced Local Body Tax (LBT) which replaces octroi. "We do not mind paying taxes for local development but what was the need to create more hassles by introducing the local bodies tax? 

Indicted in the draft JPC report, former Telecom Minister A Raja today hit back maintaining that "every major decision", including entry fee and non auction of spectrum, was taken after consulting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and P Chidambaram and Pranab Mukherjee . 

Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi will commence his campaign trail in poll-bound Karnataka from Tuesday.

 

Rahul Gandhi will address a public meeting at Sindhanur in Raichur district at 12:00 hours, followed by similar meetings at Bagalkot's Ilkar and Bijapur at 13:20 hours and 14:40 hours, respectively.

Vicky Nanjappa reports from Bangalore: Hitting out at L K Advani, Karnataka Janatha Paksha spokesperson Dhananjay Kumar has alleged that the senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader and others had received funds from former chief minister B S Yeddyurappa.  

 

Addressing a press conference at Bangalore on Monday, Kumar said that these leaders including Advani took money from Yeddyurappa assuring him that they would let him continue as chief minister of Karnataka. He said that national leaders had constantly threatened Yeddyurappa of taking him down as CM.

 

They said that his name figures in the illegal mining report and it was in this pretext that several national leaders including Advani took 'several 100 crores of money'.When asked to substantiate his claim, Kumar said that he would release documents at an appropriate time.

Arunoday Mukharji: Protestors at AIIMS blocking half entrance for patients. Cops w/ folded hands asking them go to back. Where do we draw the line?

A waxwork of Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar has been unveiled at Sydney Cricket Ground, the scene of some of the Little Master's greatest innings, but there's something amiss. Read more

Over three-and-a-half years after receiving draft papers for the proposed IPO of Sahara Prime City Ltd, Sebi has formally closed this file as the company failed to submit clarifications sought by the market regulator.


Sebi closed the file on the Rs 3,450-crore IPO proposal last week without any go-ahead for public issue, after various clarifications sought from merchant bankers for the share sale remained pending for months together. Sebi had received the draft prospectus for the Initial Public Offer (IPO) on September 30, 2009 through merchant banker, Enam Securities Private Limited.


In its weekly update on status of IPO proposals, SEBI today said "The file (has been) closed" on Sahara Prime City offer. Till last week's status update, Sebi was "awaiting clarifications".


It was after the receipt of the Draft Red Herring Prospectus (DRHP) for Sahara Prime City's IPO that Sebi started receiving numerous complaints against Sahara group and the subsequent investigations led to the high-profile order from the regulator against two Sahara firms.

The run up to Pakistan's elections have taken a bloody turn, with a spate of attacks targeting candidates and campaign rallies.The violence threatens to tilt the political landscape in favor of more conservative parties ahead of historic elections in May. The upcoming election will mark the first democratic transition of power from one civilian government to another. Read

A non-bailable arrest warrant was today issued by a city court against Sanjay Dutt for failing to appear in a case of alleged threat to a film producer after which the actor gave himself up and secured bail.


The warrant was issued by Andheri Metropolitan Magistrate's court as Dutt failed to appear twice before it in response to summonses in the case filed by producer Shakeel Noorani, who has alleged he received threat calls at the behest of the actor.


However, Dutt promptly appeared before the Magistrate in the afternoon along with his lawyer Rizwan Merchant and sought bail. The court granted him bail for Rs 10,000 and fixed the matter for hearing on May 3.

It's curtains down for Sahara Prime City's Rs 3,450 crore IPO proposal; Market regulator Sebi formally closes file.

In the midst of SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav's campaign for a third front to fight the next Lok Sabha polls, UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav today met Jayalalithaa.


Though he declined to respond to questions after a 30-minute meeting with Jayalalithaa, at an event here earlier in the day, Yadav made a strong pitch for a 'third force' at the national level.


"Yes, there should be a third force. We, Samajwadi Party believe that there should be a third force at the National level", he told reporters on his maiden visit to the city after taking over as UP Chief Minister in March last year.


His visit comes against the backdrop of his father intensifying efforts to forge an alternative to the BJP and the Congress ahead of the 2014 elections.

Top cop Neeraj Kumar refutes Arvind Kejriwal's charges that he has links with arms dealer Abhishek Verma. The Delhi police commissioner says these are allegations by accused in cases he had investigated during his tenure in the CBI. 

And it goes on. A class 9 student has been allegedly raped in a school classroom in Shirur village near Pune. A 20-year-old has been accused of the rape. Details awaited.

Indian Army soldiers will have their DNA profile stored in a data bank under a project launched by the Armed Forces Medical Services that will facilitate identification of bodies during any operation, attack or mishap.


Defence Minister A K Antony in a written reply in the Lok Sabha today said a pilot project is in progress at Armed Forces Medical College, Pune to conduct DNA profile of soldiers and develop necessary protocol for identifying them from their body tissues. The strength of the Indian Army is around 1.1 million.

"The objectives of the project are to devise a protocol for collection, preservation and transportation of blood samples of the soldiers, maintain absolute accuracy in personal information and tagging of specimen and to devise protocol for procedure for identifying service personnel from any fragment of body tissue," he said.

Arvind Kejriwal of AAP releases documents tries to establish a connect between Delhi police chief Neeraj Kumar and arms dealer Abhishek Verma. 

He says the Aam Aadmi Party will form a women's protection group called the Mahila Suraksha Dal. 

Aam Aadmi Party convenor Arvind Kejriwal calls for the resignation of home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde and Delhi police chief Neeraj Kumar. "People in Delhi have lost faith in the police," said Kejriwal. 

Assam rape: The mother of the nine-year old girl who was raped and murdered, has claimed that her daughter's throat was slit with a knife and was left to die.


"They claimed they were nearby residents. Then, they closed my mouth and threw me aside, and dragged my girl off. Within a fraction of a second, they were not to be seen. After sometime, a few people came and said, that an unidentified body was left near the lake and the neck was slit. Then, we rushed to the spot and recovered her. She was in a terrible state and was bleeding," she said.

Earlier, the victim, who lives in Karimganj, had gone to pay a visit to her grandfather in Pechachora village, when two unidentified persons with covered faces abducted her.

The BJP today sharpened its attack on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh with party leader Yashwant Sinha holding him "personally responsible" for "failure" of his government on all important issues, including excesses against women in Delhi.


"Why pick up one Minister or one Chairman of a Committee, I hold the Prime Minister personally responsible for all that is happening in Delhi in terms of excesses against women and failure on all important issues," senior party leader Yashwant Sinha said.


He was asked to comment on the alleged role of Law Minister Ashwani Kumar in the coal allocation case probe. "Why blame the Law Minister. The Prime Minister's Office intervened. There are e-mails between the PMO and the CBI," Sinha said.

The Opposition Left Front today described West Bengal government's mulling an ordinance to take over the property of chit fund company Saradha Group as a 'ploy'.


"The proposal of bringing an ordinance is a ploy to buy more time to bail out Saradha chairman Sudipto Sen," Left Front chairman Biman Bose said.


"Bringing an ordinance is a time consuming process, longer the government takes to bring an ordinance, more the time Sudipto gets," said Bose.


The arrest of Sen has been ordered by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. Taking a dig at Trinamool Congress general secretary Mukul Roy, who has promised that the government and party will take action against guilty partymen, he said, "I want to ask him about his views on the violence in Presidency University and involvement of Trinamool Congress councillor Mohamed Iqbal in the killing of a police officer."

Taken at face value it was an innocent enough remark, encouraging friends to explore 'a belief system to apply to day-to-day life to attain peacefulness'. But when Peaches Geldof chose to share her 'religious' convictions with her 148,000 followers on Twitter, it lifted the lid on a much more sinister world than first impressions would suggest. Read more

On the Daily Mail: How doctor's daughter became the Muslim convert widow of Boston bomber: Terrorist husband 'brainwashed' her and she gave up her dreams of college to have his baby at 21. Read more

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee has blamed the centre for the fallout of the Saradha Group, a chit fund company. She said that the TMC was not aware that it was a chit fund organisation, nor was it aware of the scam. The group is accused of duping investors of crores. She said law and order in her state was being questioned and her integrity is being questioned.

Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha MP Kunal Ghosh had said that Mamata Banerjee and her party had no link with the chit fund company Saradha Group, which has closed shop failing to repay hundreds of depositors' money.

"The Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress have no link with Saradha Group. All allegations are baseless," Ghosh, who was the CEO of the group's media unit, said. The owner Sudipta Sen is believed to be close to the TMC and is still on the run.

There has been a mushrooming of ponzi schemes in the State during the last ight to ten years. A number of such schemes were seen collecting thousands of crores from hapless investors by promising them elusive returns. The Saradha Group alone is estimated to have mopped up over Rs 20,000 crore under such schemes.

Meanwhile, a public interest litigation was filed in the Calcutta High Court on Monday seeking a CBI investigation into the chit fund companies operating in the State.

Left parties today lashed out at the government for providing armed commando cover to top corporate leader Mukesh Ambani, saying the common people have been left in the lurch as gruesome incidents of rape keep happening.


"It is unprecedented that at a time when such ghastly and gruesome incidents of rape are taking place and people are demanding more security, Z-plus category of security is given to a top corporate leader like Ambani and the commoners left in the lurch," senior CPI(M) leader Basudeb Acharia said.


In the same vein, veteran CPI leader A B Bardhan said at a time when the "police force is unable to provide security to its citizens, ensure safety for women, and even 4 or 5-year- old girl children are raped under their very nose, the government has ordered Z-plus security for the country's richest corporate tycoon Mukesh Ambani and even protection for his sprawling residential building Antilia.

Also read: Mukesh Ambani 'to pay' for security

22 Years after Kunan and Poshpora, rethinking Kashmir. Read Abhijit Dutta's piece on Kafila

The New Yorker on the Boston bombers: The Brothers Tsarnaev. Read

The editorial on the Telegraph today: The rape and torture of a five-year-old girl in Delhi has swung the country back to the state of fierce indignation, grief and horror of a few months ago when a young woman was raped and so tortured by a group of men in a moving bus that it resulted in her death. Nothing has changed since then; if anything, things appear to have gotten worse. What are these things? One of the most remarkable -- and shocking '" features of both the rapes is the level of physical torture. Read more

In the General Ward at AIIMS, lies another five-year-old girl, who was also raped. She has no family inquiring after her. Read the story on NDTV.

Neeraj Kumar tells the media, "I am prepared to resign a thousand times if that will solve the problem of depravity in people who commit rape. If a reporter commits a mistake, does the editor resign for it?" asks the police commissioner.

Neeraj Kumar says his resignation will not put an end to these crimes. "How will my resignation help? We hope to complete the process in 72 hours and take exemplary action," he said. "If my resigning will prevent such acts, I will resign. Is it humanly possible for a policeman to stop a rape like this?"

Delhi police commissioner Neeraj Kumar to address the media now. Neeraj Kumar talks about the arrest of the second accused in the rape of a five-year-old girl in Delhi. He says the ACP who slapped a woman protestor will be subjected to a government inquiry and has been suspended. He admits there was a shortfall in the reaction of the staff at the police station where the parents registered the complaint. "The cops who allegedly offered a bribe to the parents will be identified, when the father is free to do so since he is busy at the hospital. The cops will then be suspended. We will take exemplary action on the erring police officers," says Neeraj Kumar. 

BSP leader Mayawati and the opposition unified in Parliament to say that the government must rise above politics and ensure heinous crimes like the rape of a five-year-old girl does not take place again. Mayawati and CPI (M) Politburo member Brinda Karat said that the death sentence must be awarded in these cases. Karat said that she strongly believes that police commissioner Neeraj Kumar must resign. "If the police commissioner takes responsibility it will send out a strong signal," she said.

In the wake of the Bangalore blast, Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde today pushed for setting up the NCTC to strengthen intelligence gathering. Making a statement in the Lok Sabha on the blast outside BJP office in Bangalore, Shinde said the Home Ministry was also working towards putting in place an explosive tracking system.


"We also need to strengthen the intelligence set up of the states. We have been advising the states on this, but we have not seen much progress," he said.


Shinde said the government was also trying to strengthen human intelligence component of intelligence agencies, which is expected to start yielding results.

Tamerlan Tsernaev's best friend was among the victims in the bloody 2011 homicide. Surprise 'Tam' skipped the funeral. Read

Tamerlan Tsarnaev, one of the brothers involved in the Boston bombing Marathon, left the country recently and returned a radically different man, according to a friend.

The friend, who asked to remain anonymous, said Tsarnaev, 26, had disappeared for a while and when he returned, he was noticeably more religious.According to the New York Daily News, he also appeared to be influencing his younger brother, Dzhokhar, in that direction, too.

One of the two Chechen-origin Boston bombings suspects, arrested after a massive manhunt, had tweeted a picture of a car with a licence plate that read 'Terrorista #1', a month before the attack.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev 19, tweeted a picture of a BMW 330XI bearing personal front plate on March 15. The photo showed the BMW parked next to a Chevy as if the two cars were about to race. A caption read, "Place your bets". The license plate is not official. It's a novelty plate that could be bought in a gift shop.

The almost-forgotten Boston Marathon bombings and thereafter...

The first image the nation saw of the two brothers may serve as more than a pivotal clue to investigators in the Boston Marathon bombings. It is, perhaps, a snapshot of their relationship: One leads, the other follows. That's how some friends remember the Tsarnaev brothers: At 26, Tamerlan was seven years older than his brother Dzhokhar, who followed his big brother around like a puppy. Read

The government is likely to convene an all-party meeting soon on the ambitious Food Security Bill before it is taken up in Parliament. "We are planning to convene an all-party meeting before taking up for further proceedings. It is likely to be held in a day or two," a Minister, who did not want to be identified, said. The National Food Security Bill gives the right to food to around 67 percent of India's 1.2 billion population.

Update on the rape of a five-year-old: Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde in a statement to Parliament has said that an enquiry has been ordered to determine if police officials initially refused to help search for the child, and then offered a bribe to her parents to buy their silence when she was found three days after she was kidnapped.

He also said that rapes happen elsewhere in the country too and it was not Delhi centric. He said he had noted lapses in the system and the ACP who has slapped the woman protestor has been suspended.

The case was filed by Shakeel Noorani. There has been a long-standing dispute between Dutt and producer Shakeel Noorani over alleged losses incurred due to the actor abandoning a film. Noorani launched Jaan Ki Baazi in 2002.


He claimed that halfway through the film, Dutt cancelled the shoot and refused to respond to his calls. "He never returned the Rs 50 lakh my client paid him," claimed his lawyer Niraj Gupta.


Noorani filed a case with the Indian Motion Picture's Producers Association (IMPAA), which directed Dutt to pay the producer more than Rs 2 crore for the losses incurred. Noorani moved the Bombay high court praying for the execution of the order.

Just in: A Mumbai court has issued a non-bailable warrant against actor Sanjay Dutt in a case where he did not complete a film.  

Dutt, who recently won a month's extension to surrender, has now moved the Supreme Court (SC) by way of a review petition against its March 21 judgement upholding his conviction under the Arms Act and sentencing him to five years in jail.

A Delhi-based legal team prepared and filed the petition on Friday. It may be heard next week before the same bench. The SC had not interfered with the TADA court's guilty verdict against Dutt for possession of arms before the March 12, 1993, Mumbai serial blasts.

He was held guilty only under the Arms Act for possessing an automatic rifle in a notified area, but was acquitted under the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act, which had also been invoked against him. More

Only a handful of women took part in a protest calling for action on women's safety on Sunday evening, outside the Delhi hospital where a five-year-old rape victim is recovering from her injuries.


Many of the roughly 100 protesters, most of them men, gathered outside the state-run All India Institute of Medical Sciences, said they thought it was too dangerous for women to join the protests.  "Women are frightened or afraid to come here because the police pick on them,' said Faiz Khan, 32, a professor of political science at Sarguja University in Chhattisgarh state. Read

Delhi police commissioner Neeraj Kumar is expected to brief the media at 3 pm today. He has met Lt governor Tejinder Khanna to assess the current situation even as anti-rape protests erupt in the capital. 

Proceedings in the Lok Sabha were adjourned till 2 p.m. on Monday, while the Rajya Sabha adjourned deliberations till 12.30 p.m., after a relentless opposition sought to corner the UPA-II Government on a number of issues, including the coal allocation scam, the 2G spectrum allocation scam and the gang rape of a five-year-old girl in Delhi.


The Opposition appears determined to corner the government over what they term as the "deliberate leak" of the JPC draft report on the 2G scam and the reported vetting by the Law Ministry of the CBI report on coalgate.


A political storm has already broken out with an agitated opposition alleging that the report on 2G is a "cover up" and has been prepared to give a clean chit to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister P Chidambaram.Political temperatures are high with former Telecom Minister A Raja claiming that all decisions on the 2G spectrum issue were taken in consultation with the Prime Minister and BJP accusing Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) Chairman PC Chacko of trying to save the government.

Protesters gathered at Delhi Police Headquarters for the third day today demanding removal of Commissioner Neeraj Kumar and justice for the five-year-old rape victim even as police put up barricades to prevent December-like protests near Parliament where traffic was disrupted.


Three Metro stations -- Race Course Road, Central Secretariat and Udyog Bhavan -- close to Parliament, India Gate and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's residence were closed for public anticipating anti-rape protests.


The measures came against the backdrop of re-convening of the Budget session today. However, in the morning hours, AIIMS did not witness any protest like in the past three days.

Kunanposhpora mass rape case should be reopened, opines noted human rights lawyer Vrinda Grover who has been named as one of the 100 most influential people in the world by influential American weekly news magazine TIME. Talking to Rising Kashmir over phone from New Delhi, Grover said most people in India were unaware about the mass rape of women in Kashmir allegedly by troops of the Indian Army. Read

And it goes on...

A four-year-old was allegedly raped by a 18-year-old boy at Jaitpur village under Tamia tehsil in Chhindwara, MP, leaving her seriously injured, police said today. The victim's family alleged that the police were initially reluctant to file as rape case.


A nine-year old girl was allegedly gangraped by two unidentified persons in Assam's Cachar district, police said today. The nine-year old from Karimganj had gone to visit her grandfather in Pechachora village under Kallain police station of Katigora sub-division when she was kidnapped by two unidentified persons, with their faces covered, last evening, the sources said. The girl was taken to a house and gang-raped before being abandoned in the tea garden outside the house.

The house arrest of former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf Friday reveals more about his political failings than Pakistan's shortcomings as a place for political rehabilitation, according to analysts.


"Musharraf's return to Pakistan was a plain miscalculation,' said Ayaz Amir, a newspaper columnist and incumbent lawmaker from the main opposition Pakistan Muslim League-N party. Read

The Delhi High Court today dismissed a plea of two accused in the December 16 gang-rape case that the FIR and subsequent proceedings against them be quashed. Justice Pratibha Rani also upheld the order of a special court by which the plea of accused Mukesh and Akshay Singh against day-to-day trial was rejected.


In their petition, they had sought quashing of FIR on the ground that police manipulated it as the original complaint was silent about the names of the accused persons. The special fast track court's March 28 order dismissing their plea for conducting proceedings on alternate days instead of on day-to-day basis was also challenged by them.


They had wanted proceedings to be held on alternate days so that their counsel can seek instructions on cross-examining witnesses. The trial court had dismissed their plea, saying "such pleas are made to delay the proceedings."

Pic: Children protest the rape of a five-year-old girl in Delhi

A helicopter carrying at least six Turkish engineers and two foreign pilots made an emergency landing in a Taliban-controlled area of eastern Afghanistan, officials said on Monday, and it was possible they were being held by insurgents. Read

The Indian media's continued use of the euphemism "eve-teasing' when covering cases of sexual harassment has to end."Euphemism' is of Greek origin and refers to the use of good words to prevent bad luck. It's an agreeable term for a disagreeable act. Read

Anti-rape underwear, a fashionable vest that can jolt molesters out of their wits or a watch-like device fitted to give abusers an electric shock - students from various colleges and schools in the country are channeling their outrage and anger over sexual attacks on women in the country through several futuristic innovations.

Externally, it looks like a nightgown, ordinarily worn by women or teenage girls, but the garment is literally a power packed GPS and sensor-enabled device capable of temporarily incapacitating assaulters off their feet by triggering an 3800 kV electric shock at the press of button by the wearer.

"It was the pain of every women, which triggered the idea. All the more, it was hatred against molesters and eve- teasers which led to this design," says Manisha Mohan the inventor of the "anti-rape underwear" and what she calls 'SHE' or Society Harnessing Equipment. Apart from administering a powerful shock to the assaulter the garment is also devised to send an alert to the police when the sensors are activated.

The Lok Sabha has been adjourned till 2 pm. 

The TMC said today that it would not allow Parliament to function unless those responsible for the incident were arrested.

Meanwhile, the Rajya Sabha has been adjourned till 12.30 pm over the Coalgate. Lok Sabha is struggling to continue. Meira Kumar has made a statement on the Delhi rape.

Five people, including the SFI general secretary Ritabrata Bhattacharjee, have been arrested for the attack on West Bengal finance minister Amit Mitra and the heckling of West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee outside the Planning Commission office in New Delhi on April 9. Bhattacharjee had earlier apologized for the manhandling of Amit Mitra in Delhi on April 9, but said his organisation was not involved in it.

It's been four months since agitated citizens exploded in anger against sexual violence directed at women, since the Prime Minister said the Delhi gang rape victim's death last December would not be in vain and the nation took a collective vow to repudiate the medieval social attitudes and patriarchal prejudices that give rise to and sanction violence against women. Read the editorial on the Hindu

'Stopping rape' isn't possible unless we change the way we tackle and think about ordinary violence. Read

Waiting for a strong leader: there's revolution in the air. Read the piece on the Hindu. 

Just in: India will take every step to protect its interests: Defence Minister A K Antony on reported Chinese incursions in Ladakh.

The second man allegedly involved in the brutal rape of a five-year-old girl in Delhi a week ago was arrested from Bihar in the wee hours of Monday even as police are verifying whether the claims made by the first accused are true.


Pradeep, who was named by first accused Manoj Kumar, was apprehended from Barahiya village in Bihar's Lakhisarai late last night, Bihar Director General of Police Abhayanand said.

A Delhi Police team with the help of Bihar Police Special Task Force arrested Pradeep from his maternal uncle's residence, where he was hiding, the DGP said.

"He will be brought to the national capital on Monday after getting a transit remand from Darbhanga court," Delhi Police Commissioner Neeraj Kumar told PTI.

Manoj, who was arrested on Saturday from Muzaffarpur in Bihar, had told police during interrogation that one of his friends was also involved in the crime.

The girl was raped on April 15 in a building in east Delhi's Gandhinagar locality where the victim and accused Manoj lived and she was rescued 40 hours later on April 17.

Manoj had fled from the house thinking that the girl was dead.

Pradeep's arrest came after investigators on Monday launched a hunt following protests demanding the removal of the Police Commissioner.

Sources said Manoj told his interrogators that on April 15, his friend Pradeep had come to his house and they had consumed alcohol.

Manoj claimed that Pradeep insisted on bringing a girl to the house and he went out and lured the girl with a chocolate, sources said. Manoj also told police that he did not sexually assault the girl, they said.

He had also claimed that they fled from the house after strangulating her to avoid being identified later and thought that she was dead, they said.

A group of up to nine foreign nationals have been abducted by insurgents in eastern Afghanistan, reports say.

The group were taken after the helicopter in which they were travelling made a forced landing in Azra district in Logar province.

The district is known to be a Taliban-controlled area and the Taliban have told the BBC they have the group.The aircraft seems to have been forced to make a hard landing in bad weather, and was soon surrounded by insurgents.The United Nations said the helicopter was not one of theirs.It was said to be white, like many that fly supply missions across Afghanistan.-- BBC.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav will meet Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalitha at  2 pm in Chennai today. Speculation is rife over the meeting of the non-Congress chief ministers. A conclave is also being organised in Lucknow by the Samajwadi Party in June to fight discriminatory political packages and to ensure the UPA's survival. SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav has also sent a special message to Jayalalitha through Akhilesh. Stay with us for what that message holds.

And so it begins. The Lok Sabha has been adjourned till noon. The reasons: Attack on Mamata, Coalgate, rapes.

Protesters on Sunday gathered outside Police Headquarters and the All India Institute of Medical Sciences for the second day to express solidarity with the five-year-old girl who was raped by her neighbour and demanded the resignation of Commissioner Neeraj Kumar.


Though not in high numbers, the protesters of Aam Aadmi Party shouted slogans against Kumar and Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit.


On Saturday, there were protests at PHQ, AIIMS, Gandhinagar Police station and residences of Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde.


The girl was locked in his ground floor rented accommodation in east Delhi's Gandhi Nagar by her neighbour Kumar (22) on April 15 and brutally raped her before fleeing thinking that the girl is dead. The Delhi Police is investigating whether a second person was involved in the rape of a five-year-old girl, who is undergoing treatment at AIIMS. She also contracted infection from foreign objects inserted in her body -- three candles and a bottle of oil.

Dr DK Sharma from AIIMS, gives and update on the the five-year-old rape victim. "The girl is doing well. She is now on liquid and semi-solid diet. The wounds are healing, but hasn't healed completely. Reconstruction surgery is needed and will take place later. Counselling is not required right now, because the child is possibly too small to realise what happened to her. Her infection, fever has subsided," he says. 

Earlier in the day, PM Dr Manmohan Singh said he was confident that financial business would be transacted satisfactorily.

Home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde is likely to make a statement in Parliament on the brutal rape of the five-year-old girl in Delhi, which led to widespread protests over the weekend. 

Parliament reconvenes today for the second half of the budget session. BJP gives suspension of Question Hour over the CBI report on Coalgate. The DMK moves privilege notice against P C Chacko for allegedly leaking draft JPC report on 2G, says a party leader. The AIADMK and CPI also give notice for suspension of of Question Hour.

DzhokharTsarnaev, the younger of the two Chechen brothers suspected of the Boston Marathon blasts, probably killed his elder brother Tamerlan by running over his SUV over hDzhokharTsarnaev, the younger of the two Chechen brothers suspected of the Boston Marathon blasts, probably killed his elder brother Tamerlan by running over his SUV over him while fleeing, police said.


Dzhokhar, 19, who was arrested on Friday after days of manhunt, is in serious condition in a Boston hospital. His elder brother, Tamerlan, 26, the alleged mastermind of the Boston marathon bombing died a day earlier during a police exchange fire. im while fleeing, police said.


Dzhokhar, 19, who was arrested on Friday after days of manhunt, is in serious condition in a Boston hospital. His elder brother, Tamerlan, 26, the alleged mastermind of the Boston marathon bombing died a day earlier during a police exchange fire.