Two CoBRA jawans were injured in a gun-battle between security forces and ultras in Chhattisgarh's insurgency-hit Sukma district today.        

The jawans received minor injuries in the firing that took place in the restive Karikunda forests of Bhejji region, Sukma Additional Superintendent of Police Neeraj Chandrakar said.  

A joint team of CoBRA's (Compact Battalion for Resolute Action), a specialised unit of CRPF, 208 battalion and district force was mobilised from Bhejji police station for an anti-Naxal operation in the interiors of south Bastar.        

When they reached Karikunda forests, around 500 kms away from Raipur, Naxals started indiscriminate firing. The rebels fled to the core forests, when jawans retaliated, the ASP said.

PTI: Yielding to long-pending "demand of Sikhs", Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda today announced a separate SGPC for his state, drawing flak from Amritsar-based SGPC and Akali Dal, which dubbed it as Congress "nefarious design to weaken" the community.    

At a function organised by Sikh leaders from Haryana at Kaithal, Hooda said a separate SGPC will be set up keeping in view the sentiments and aspirations of the Sikhs in his state and a law will be enacted to form the separate panel.     Hooda said that a bill to form a separate SGPC will be introduced in the monsoon session of Haryana Assembly commencing here from July 11 and the separate body would be set up as a legal entity.    

While the Haryana Sikh leaders spearheading the campaign for separate body welcomed Hooda's announcement as "historic", it evoked strong condemnation from Amritsar-based SGPC '" the apex religious body of the Sikhs -- with its chief Avtar Singh Makkar alleging that the move was Congress' "nefarious design" to "weaken" the community.   

Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, who is also chief patron of the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal, too was unsparing in his attack and blamed Congress for "meddling in the affairs of the Sikhs".

A correspondent in New Delhi reports: The ruling Bhasratiya Janata Party is all set to cheer up Tamil Nadu chief minister and AIADMK supremo J Jayalalithaa with passing a bill to abolish the upper house in in the monsoon session of Parliament.  

Jayalalitha wishes to abolish the Upper House of Tamil Nadu Legislative Council, and a bill for the same will be introduced in Lok Sabha on Monday. The bill was not passed during the UPA regime under the pressure of the Dravida Munnetra Kazahagam.  

But since the Karunanidhi-led party has been completely wiped out in the 2014 elections and with its minor presence in Rajya Sabha, the ruling BJP is all set to clear any opposition to the bill in a bid to woo Jayalalithaa.

Gujarat Governor Kamla Beniwal has been transferred and appointed as Governor of Mizoram for the remainder of her term, a Rashtrapati Bhavan press release stated on Sunday evening.

Similarly, Vakkom Purushothaman, presently Governor of Mizoram, has been transferred and appointed as Governor of Nagaland for the remainder of his term.

Rajasthan Governor Margaret Alva will discharge the functions of the governor of Gujarat, in addition to her own duties, until regular arrangements for the office of the Governor of Gujarat are made, the release stated.

Vakkom Purushothaman will continue to hold the additional charge of the office of the Governor of Tripura. The above appointments will take effect from the dates the incumbents assume charge of their respective offices, the release noted. 

Image: Governor Kamla Beniwal

PTI: Sister of fugitive underworld don Dawood Ibrahim died at a private hospital in South Mumbai today following a heart attack, police said.        

"Haseena Parkar, sister of Dawood Ibrahim, died today," Additional Commissioner of Police, Krishna Prakash, told PTI. Sources in the Mumbai police said that Parkar, 55, who was commonly known as Haseena Aapa, died at the Habib Hospital in Dongri.        

"After she complained of chest pain she was taken to the hospital at 2.30 pm. However, the doctors treating her declared her dead 45 minutes later. Doctors said that she died of a heart attack," another police official said.        

Her body was then taken to her residence in South Mumbai.       

According to police, Parkar had forayed into the underworld after the death of her husband Ismail Parkar, who had been shot dead by the Arun Gawali gang in 1991. She had some cases of extortion registered against her, they said.

Unidentified car-borne persons today fired outside a house in Vasant Vihar area where several Israelis, some of them working with Israel embassy, have been living.        

No Israeli national or any other person was injured in the firing which took place at around 1.45 am outside the house near DPS School in Vasant Vihar area of the South Delhi, a senior police officer.        

"A private security guard, who was on duty outside the school, saw a car from which an unidentified person opened fire and immediately fled the spot," the officer said.        

Police have recovered a plastic bullet from the spot, the officer said.        

After the incident, some officials of the Israel embassy visited the spot this afternoon and demanded sufficient security for their nationals.        

A case under Section 336 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) has been registered at Vasant Vihar police station, the  officer said, adding that further investigation is on.

The questioning of two former governors -- MK Narayanan and BV Wanchoo -- has led CBI's probe into the Rs 3,600-crore AgustaWestland VVIP helicopter deal to the role of the previous NDA regime as both have informed the agency that a decision to decrease the flying altitude was taken in principle in 2003, when it was in power.        

During the recording of his statement, Wanchoo informed CBI about a meeting held by top officials of the Prime Minister's Office in 2003 in which it was decided in principle to have a "realistic operational requirement" after consulting the elite Special Protection Group guarding the Prime Minister, official sources said in New Delhi.       

This was followed by a letter to Air Headquarters and Defence Ministry in November and December 2003 for having a relook at the purchase of VVIP helicopters and encourage competition, sources said mentioning details of Wanchoo's statement.        

For the first time, CBI examined the governors when they were in office. They were part of a March 1, 2005, meeting in which a decision was taken  to reduce "service ceiling" (the altitude at which a helicopter can fly) from 6,000 metres to 4,500 metres.        

While 63-year-old Wanchoo, who was chief of SPG from 2004 onwards, put in his papers on July 4 after he is believed to have received a call from Union Home Secretary Anil Goswami conveying the government's wish that he submit his resignation, 80-year-old Narayanan, who was the National Security Adviser till 2010, demitted office on June 30.        

An ABVP leader today tried to turn the heat of MPPEB's PMT scam on Congress general secretary Digvijaya Singh by alleging that one of the main accused was appointed by Singh in his capacity as Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister in 1995.        

"Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board scam's originator is Nitin Mohindra, who was appointed by Singh in 1995 in the MPPEB and who later gave him out-of-turn promotion in 1998," Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad national general secretary Vishnu Datt Sharma alleged at a press conference in Bhopal and also circulated a statement on the issue.        

"In 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2001 also PMT scam took place in the state whose originator was Mohindra, but Singh had overlooked it," Sharma further alleged.        

He demanded that it (irregularities during these mentioned years) should also be probed by the STF.        

Sharma also demanded an apology from Singh for dragging his name into the scam through a letter-petition in the Madhya Pradesh High Court, failing which he said he will file a defamation suit against the senior Congress leader.        

He alleged that in view of a number of legal experts representing Singh in various cases and also Mohindra and others accused in the MPPEB scam, a conspiracy was hatched by them to derail the STF investigations with an aim to save Mohindra and others in the scam.

Janata Dal-Secular chief and former Karnataka chief minister HD Kumaraswamy has allegedly demanded Rs 40 crore to nominate an MLC from the party, CNN IBN reports.  

The MLC aspirant has released audio clips of Kumaraswamy allegedly demanding the bribe.  

Kumaraswamy later told CNN IBN that he didn't take any bribe, wondering why this issue is being played up on media.   He told the channel that he was informed that the MLC aspirant had taken a loan from the party to contest elections.

PTI: Cyber crimes have cost India a whopping about Rs 24,630 crore ($ 4 billion) in 2013 alone as criminals used sophisticated means, says a Delhi high court-commissioned report.        

"Internet frauds alone have cost India a whopping $4 billion (about Rs 24,630 crore) in 2013 as cyber criminals are using more sophisticated means like ransomware and spear-phishing," the report said.        

The facts figure in a report submitted by Surinder S Rathi, additional district judge and OSD to Delhi Legal Service Authority, before the court in pursuance of a direction that a comprehensive study be conducted on various issues including the cost incurred in running the criminal justice system.        

The bench of justices Gita Mittal and J R Midha, which is yet to pronounce the quantum of sentence to three convicts including Vikas Yadav in the 2002 Nitish Katara murder case, had also asked DLSA to compute the cost incurred in the trial of this case, besides determining the compensation paying capacity of the convicts.        

However, the report gives no further details of cyber crime stalking the country. Dealing with other crimes in the chapter, of 'Cost of Criminal Justice System', the report, quoting from the National Crime Records Bureau data, said that in 2013, as many as 66.40 lakh criminal complaints were received by the police stations across the nation.

BBC: Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of Islamist militant group Isis, has called on Muslims to obey him, in his first video sermon. Baghdadi has been appointed caliph by the jihadist group, which has seized large swathes of Iraq and Syria. The video appears to have been filmed on Friday during a sermon at the al-Nouri Mosque in Mosul, northern Iraq.

It surfaced on Saturday amid reports that he had been killed or wounded in an Iraqi air raid. It was not clear when the attack was supposed to have taken place. In the sermon, at Mosul's most famous landmark, Baghdadi praised the establishment of the "Islamic state", which was declared by Isis last Sunday.

Experts say the reclusive militant leader has never appeared on video before, although there are photographs of him.