Slain deputy superintendent of police Zia-ul-Haq's wife has demanded an outside state trial and hearing by a fast track court into her husband's murder, reports CNN-iBN.

In a letter addressed to the UP government, Parveen Azad has demanded that the probe should be done by a Delhi CBI team, which report directly to the court.

Read the full report here

A Nigerian Islamist militant group's claims to have killed seven foreign hostages it seized last month are credible, Western governments say.

The hostages -- from Italy, Britain, Greece and Lebanon -- were captured in a raid on a construction site in the northern state of Bauchi. In an online statement posted on Saturday, the militant group Ansaru said it had killed the captives, reports BBC.

Hindu groups based in the United Kingdom have called on the government to enforce stricter disclosure norms after it emerged that many restaurants serving Indian food in Scotland were using the wrong kind of meat.

In the wake of the Europe-wide horsemeat scandal that is still under investigation, it emerged that more than a third of Scottish curry restaurants could be using cheaper meat such as beef in dishes that claimed to be lamb.

"The issue does raise religious concerns as some Hindus who may eat meat would prefer not to consume beef as cows are considered sacred in our religion," said Anil Bhanot, managing director of Hindu Council UK.

"Hindus are predominantly vegetarian but our estimates are that two-thirds of Hindus based in the UK are meat eaters and it is important they know what is being served to them."

Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda today said he does not think boxer Vijender Singh has any involvement with the drug haul case in Punjab, stressing that law would take its own course.

The chief minister was asked to comment on the Olympic medalist's name cropping up in connection with the Rs 130 crore heroin haul in Punjab's Zirakpur recently.

Hooda told reporters, "I don't think that Vijender would have such involvement, but the law would take its own course."

The 27-year-old Vijender, a DSP with the Haryana police, has steadfastly denied involvement in the scandal.

A friend of South African Paralympian Oscar Pistorius says he is "on the verge of suicide" as he fights accusations of murdering his girlfriend, according to media reports in the UK.

Mike Azzie, a close friend of the troubled sports star, told a BBC documentary team the sportsman was a "broken man" after he was forced to sell his possessions to pay for his massive legal fees, reports news.com.au.

Read the full story here

Four minor Dalit sisters suffered serious burn injuries when an unidentified youth threw acid on them in the district. 

Four sisters aged between four and 16 years suffered burn injuries when an unidentified youth threw acid on them on Saturday night at Kotmara village, 25 km from Raigarh district headquarters, in Pusour area, Praphull Thakur, Additional Superintendent of Police told PTI. "They were admitted to Raigarh Metro Hospital. Three of them were stated to be out of danger," he said.

The condition of the fourth girl was still critical.

The special Anti-Corruption Bureau court has acquitted two security consultants, allegedly caught red-handed while taking bribe in the name of former

Anti-Terrorism Squad chief and the slain Indian Police Service officer Hemant Karare. The ACB had alleged that the two took bribes from those who wanted license for running private security agency. But the Special Judge V A Daulatabadkar last week acquitted Bramhaprakash Gupta and Sunil Vishwakarma for the lack of evidence and prosecution's failure to prove the case.

Expressing surprise over the dropping of India opener Virender Sehwag, former captain Sourav Ganguly reportedly told a Bengali television channel on Saturday that current team skipper MS Dhoni had a hand in the exclusion.

"I am surprised about the fact that sehwag has been dropped. Such a big decision can't happen without the captains consent. If a captain backs the likes of Laxman, Dravid, Sachin and Sehwag, then it becomes difficult for selectors to drop them. Dhoni definitely had a say on Sehwag's dropping," he told a private news channel in Kolkata on Saturday.

CNN-iBN reports: India's national boxing coach GS Sandhu came out in support of the Olympic medal winning boxer Vijender Singh amidst allegations against him in the Rs 130 crore drug haul, even as Ram Singh, another national-level boxer who is under investigation in the case, was expelled by Patiala's National Institute of Sports on Sunday.

The boxer is expected to give a statement in front of the media shortly. "Vijender never took any medicine without checking it first. He realises that he will undergo the dope test and he knows the risks. He has been training with us for the past 10 years and he has undergone tests regularly. When he was tested before Olympics, his tests came negative," Sandhu said.

After six years of being on the run, rape convict Bitti Mohanty, the son of a senior cop in Odisha, was arrested on Friday night by the Kerala police.

He has reportedly denied that he was being helped by his father, BB Mohanty, former director general of police of Odisha. However, investigations suggest that at least three close relatives were in constant touch with Bitti while he was hiding, reports NDTV.

Read the full report here

The girl, who was allegedly thrashed by Punjab policemen in full public view in the district when she sought action against some persons who teased her, today threatened to go on a hunger strike if the government did not dismiss the officials immediately.

"I am going on fast-unto-death from Tuesday if the Punjab government failed to deliver justice by dismissing errant policemen by Monday who in full public view had thrashed me mercilessly like an animal," the 22-year-old victim said. She alleged that her family is being pressured to withdraw complaint against the policemen.

Six months before he was shot dead in the constituency of politician Raja Bhaiya, senior police officer Zia-ul-Haque had prepared a list of cases against the MLA, reports NDTV.

Charges in the 47 cases listed against him include murder, conspiracy to murder and violations under the Gangster Act.

Read the full report here

Anti-apartheid icon and former South African President Nelson Mandela has spent a night in hospital after being admitted for a "scheduled medical check-up", less than three months after being treated for a lung infection and gallstones.

"There isn't an update. I just have to allow the doctors to advise me," presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj said a day after the 94-year-old leader was admitted to the hospital.

"Former president Nelson Mandela was admitted to hospital in Pretoria on March 9 for a scheduled medical check-up to manage the existing conditions in line with his age," presidential spokesman said in a statement.

DMK's T R Baalu and T KS Elangovan asked Mulayam Singh Yadav, Lalu Prasad, Sharad Yadav to attend TESO conference. Baalu spoke them in English after which Mulayam Singh nodded and said yes.

Lalu Prasad too got confused and said okay. But soon, AIADMK MP Dr V Maitreyan went to to the three Yadavs and conveyed in fluent Hindi that they should abstain from the TESO conference as 40,000 Tamils were killed in Sri Lanka. The trio Maitreyan that they would not attend. "Aap ne Hindi mein samjaayaa tabhi mazla samaj mei aaya," the Yadavs said.

For Maitreyan, the trick worked. "T R Baalu failed with English," Sharad Yadav.

Prohibitory orders have been clamped in a seven-km radius around the controversial Kundankulam Nuclear Power Plant as anti-nuclear activists have threatened to picket it on Monday.

Officials said a total of 4,000 policemen had been deployed around the plant and a close vigil would be kept on movement of persons.

A factory belonging to relatives of an Arjuna award winner was today searched by Punjab police in a village in Fatehgarh Sahib in the wake of recovery of 26 kg haul of heroin with a street value of Rs 130 crore.   

A senior police officer confirmed the raid and said two persons have been rounded up and were being interrogated. The officer said police is conducting raids to arrest Arjuna awardee wrestler Jagdish Bhola, a dismissed DSP of the Punjab police, who is kingpin of a gang recently busted by Fatehgarh Sahib police with the arrest of an NRI Anup Singh Kahlon.

Olympic bronze-medallist Vijender Singh is unlikely to be tested by the National Anti-Doping Agency despite claims by his sparring partner Ram Singh that the star boxer consumed small amounts of heroin.

Sources in the NADA told PTI that Vijender's case was a matter to be investigated by the police and the anti-doping agency has no role in this. "It's basically a police and narcotics case and the NADA is not in the scene," a top NADA source said.

The source said under the World Anti-Doping Agency Code, the NADA cannot conduct out-of-competition testing to detect consumption of heroin.

Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Foundation leader Yasin Malik has been detained at the Sringar airport, reports Times Now.

He is to be taken to his residence and placed under house arrest.

Malik, who is under attack for meeting terror outfit Lashker-e-Tayiba chief Hafeez Saeed in Pakistan, returned to India yesterday amid protests by Shiv Sena activists at the airport in New Delhi.
 

A team of the Rajasthan police is expected to arrive in Kannur on Monday to seek custody of rape case convict Bitti Mohanty, who was arrested after remaining absconding for seven years by jumping parole while serving a prison term in Rajasthan.

Jaipur Assistant Police Commissioner Biju George Joseph told a Malayalam television channel that a team of the Rajasthan police would reach Kannur with jail and production warrants. Bitti was sentenced to seven years imprisonment in 2006 for raping a 26-year-old German woman at Alwar.

TIMES NOW traces rape convict absconder Bitti Mohanty's 'mentor' in Andhra Pradesh, Rama Rao.

Rao, former headmaster, said he did not know Bitti Mohanty's real identity and that he was introduced to him under the alias Rajeev Rajan. He says he encouraged Bitti to take a bank test when he came there as a computer science and mathematics instructor.

Watch his interview here

Adding a new twist to the drug haul case, boxer Ram Singh has claimed that he and boxer Vijender Singh were in touch with drug peddler Anup Singh Kahlon since December 2012, according to a CNN-iBN.

Sources said Ram and Vijender met Kahlon and co-accused Rocky four to five times and took drugs six times.

Read the full report here

Reports our correspondent from New Delhi: President Pranab Mukherjee is now going tough with the government. His principle stand is that during the Parliament session and during his foreign visits is no file should be sent to him. No shuffle, no transfer of business rules or no change or modifications of portfolios, is what he has reportedly said.  

Insiders in the Prime Minister's Office were eager to get the approval of Pranab Mukherjee to give additional charge of textiles to Panapakkam Lakshmi because the Parliament in session and there no one to answer the textiles ministry's questions.

Mukherjee agreed but strictly conveyed to the PMO that in the future no more such requests should be made during the Parliament session. He signed the orders of  Lakshmi to get textiles late last night after his return from Bangladesh and not during his stay in Dhaka, where the file had reached him.

Boxer Ram Singh, who is under the scanner in the Rs 130-crore drug bust case, has been expelled from the National Institute of Sports, Patiala.

NIS director says that Olympian Vijender has recommended Ram Singh's candidature.

The decision of the NIS came after he admitted to have taken drugs.

Boxer Ram Singh has now admitted that both he and Olympic medallist Vijender Singh took drugs but thinking they were food supplements. "Vijender took drugs two or three times thinking that they were food supplements. When we found out they were drugs we were shocked and stopped taking them," Ram told CNN-IBN.

Raids were conducted in a Meerut factory in the Rs 130-crore drug haul case today.

Read the full story here

Rejecting suggestions that ministries are split over various provisions of the proposed anti-rape bill, Law Minister Ashwani Kumar has said proposals are brought before the Union cabinet after sufficient discussions.

He also said that there is no finality in law making and the government is open for persuasion when the proposed Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill, 2013 comes up for discussion in Parliament. He expressed confidence that the ordinance on crimes against women, which will be replaced by the proposed bill will not be allowed to lapse.

"There is almost no difference between the law ministry and the home ministry. The facts remains that we are giving to people of India a very important law and it needed reflection," Kumar told Karan Thapar on CNN-IBN's Devil's Advocate programme.

 The 10-member Central Bureau of Investigation team in Kunda, Uttar Pradesh has appealed to villagers to come forward as witnesses in its probe into the murder of senior police officer Zia-ul-Haque, who was shot dead on March 2, according to NDTV.

In a press release, the CBI, which has set up a camp office and a helpline number in Pratapgarh, has assured the villagers against any kind of harassment.

Read the full report on NDTV

About 50 people have been arrested in this eastern Pakistani city after a mob torched over 150 homes of the minority Christian community in search of an alleged blasphemer.

Police officials said they had arrested about 50 people who had been identified from video footage of the attack or named by the victims. Raids were being conducted for other wanted persons, they said.

Trouble began at Joseph Colony on Friday, when over 2,000 enraged Muslims surrounded the neighbourhood and pelted stones at the homes of Christians. The mob was led by Shafiq Ahmed, who claimed he was looking for a Christian named Savan Masih as he had allegedly committed blasphemy by insulting the Prophet Mohammed.

Some men found Masih's 65-year-old father Chaman Masih and assaulted him and then burnt his home. The mob dispersed after a police contingent was posted in the area and officials said they had registered an FIR against Masih under the blasphemy law.

After suspending visa on arrival for Pakistani senior citizens, India may put on hold the proposed group visa facility to the nationals of that country in the wake of the unease in bilateral ties following the killing of two Indian soldiers along the Line of Control.

The visa on arrival facility for senior citizens -- part of the new relaxed India-Pakistan visa agreement -- was put on hold by India hours before its operationalisation on January 15 following heightened tension along the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir.

NDTV reports: Sources in the Punjab police have said that boxer Vijender Singh experimented with drugs which he allegedly bought with his friend and national-level boxer Ram Singh from drug dealer Anup Singh Kahlon who was arrested on March 3.

Police says though Vijender will be questioned soon, they do not believe that he knew much about the international smuggling ring that the arrested dealer was allegedly a part of.

Read the full report on NDTV

Two people have been reportedly killed in a stampede at Lodheshwar temple in Barabanki, Uttar Pradesh, reports Press Trust of India.

The incident occurred this morning when 'kanwarias'(devotees of Lord Shiva) broke through the queue of devotees to offer water at Lodeshwar Mahadev Temple. This led to a stampede that left two persons dead, police said.

Ten people were injured in the incident and admitted to hospital.

Denied a visa to visit the United States, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi today took to video conferencing to address the Indian-American community, saying his idea of secularism is "India First".

Modi, who often faced questions over the killing of Muslims in the post-Godhra riots in 2002, did not refer to the controversial issue in his nearly an hour-long speech in Hindi.

"My definition of secularism is simple: 'India First'. Whatever you do, wherever you work, India should be the top priority for all its citizens," he said. "Country is above all religions and ideologies," he argued and asked people to follow the same.

Bitti Mohanty, rape convict on the run for 6 years, arrested

Revealed! Sabarmati jail tunnel 214 ft long not 26 ft 

Saina's All England dream over as she loses in semi-finals

Pak shocker! 3000-strong mob evicts Christians from colony