Writer-director Vinta Nanda, who has accused actor Alok Nath of raping her, submitted a complaint against the actor at a police station in Mumbai on Wednesday. Police said they were yet to register an FIR in the case. In a social media post last week, Nanda had alleged that the actor had raped her 19 years ago.


Nath had refuted the allegations and also filed a civil defamation suit against Nanda. A senior police official said Nanda submitted her complaint against Nath at Oshiwara police station. "She gave a written application and our inquiry is on," he added.


Meanwhile, Nanda in a statement said the police were "very cooperative" and a woman police sub-inspector recorded her statement. "It was not easy for me to give my statement as it is like reliving your pain," Nanda said.


Following Nanda's rape accusations, Nath had Monday filed a civil suit in a court here and sought Re 1 as damages for allegedly defaming him. Nath's wife Ashu had also recorded her statement before a magistrate in connection with her complaint against Nanda and sought that defamation proceedings be initiated against the writer-director.


She told the court that their (Nath and Ashu's) reputation has been damaged because of the allegations levelled by Nanda.


Nath and his wife, in their complaint, said, "Without commenting on anything about her (Nanda), the fact remains that all such occasions, such as the #MeToo campaign, are being encashed by way of utilising the social media for the purpose of either gaining some name and fame or for the purpose of defaming the reputation of a person."


Nanda had alleged that the actor had raped her 19 years ago. Although she did not name Nath in her social media post, she referred to him as the actor who is known as the "most Sanskari person" in the field of acting. Nath is known for playing characters endorsing 'moral values' in films such as "Maine Pyaar Kiya", "Hum Aapke Hain Koun!", "Hum Saath Saath Hain" and "Vivah". PTI

A total of 30 people have been arrested in Pamba since Tuesday in connection with protests against the entry of women of menstruating age inside the temple premises.


Nine people were arrested on Tuesday and 21 on Wednesday.At least 50 people, including former Travancore Devaswom Board president Prayar Gopalakrishnan, were taken into police custody in Pamba and Nilakkal for protesting against the entry of women.


Members of the Congress party also held a peaceful protest in Nilakkal.Madhavi, a 45-year-old woman along with her son from Andhra Pradesh, returned mid-way from her journey to the temple after facing protests.


It is for the first time that the temple will be opening for devotees after the Supreme Court that lifted all the restrictions on entry of women to the holy shrine. The temple, which opens at 5 pm today, will close on October 23. -- ANI

The Reserve Bank has refused to give an extension to Yes Bank MD and CEO Rana Kapoor and asked the bank to appoint a new chief by February 1, 2019, the private lender said Wednesday.


The Yes Bank board had sought at least a three-month extension for Kapoor from the RBI beyond January 31, 2019. "The Reserve Bank of India has reaffirmed that a successor to Shri Rana Kapoor, MD & CEO, YES Bank should be appointed by February 1, 2019," the lender said in a stock exchange filing.


The RBI had earlier curtailed the three-year term that the board had sought for Kapoor, also one of the promoters of the bank, to January 31, 2019, and asked the bank to find a replacement. Yes Bank shares dropped 6.85 per cent to close at Rs 231.75 apiece on BSE. -- PTI

National Commission for Women chief Rekha Sharma on MJ Akbar's resignation: We welcome the step. Women should be more courageous and take it to logical conclusion. They should take such cases to the court and believe in the law.


Not a single union minister except for Women and Child Development minister Maneka Gandhi has come out in support of the women who accused MJ Akbar of sexual harassment and molestation.


To bring you up to speed with the case, least 15 women journalists have openly come out with harassment allegations against Akbar.


Ghazala Wahab, wrote a detailed and searing account of her experience of working under Akbar at the Asian Age. She said that repeatedly molested her and harassed until she had no choice but to quit.


In fact, it was former Mint Lounge editor Priya Ramani who set the ball rolling on India's MeToo movement, by calling out Akbar in a tweet. Ramani had written about her experience in a Vogue India article in October 2017 where she said a 'celebrity editor' without naming him for his inappropriate behaviour with women journalists.


She also described how Akbar set up interviews with women journalists in hotel rooms "with drinks at hand". She then publicly identified Akbar as the central character of her article.

Suhasini Haidar @suhasinih
MoS MJ Akbar resigns. It took e days, and more than 20 women to come out and accuse him of sexual harassment, after he refused to step down on Sunday. Says he is resigning ahead of legal process for defamation case.


Sonia Faleiro @soniafaleiro  Congratulations women of India.


Maya Mirchandani @maya206  MJAkbar resigns. Cites legal battle that hes fighting in a personal capacity as the reason. I can name 20 other reasons- and they are all names of women who have accused him of sexual harassment and abuse. #MeToo #MeTooIndia


Shiv Aroor  @ShivAroor  MJ Akbars resignation a day after he was called on by NSA Ajit Doval. Of course, well never know if this had anything to do with MJ agreeing to step down today. (Grab via @PoulomiMSaha)


Nilanjana Roy  @nilanjanaroy  So much respect for @priyaramani and the 32 or more women who stood up so bravely. (He should drop that defamation suit, too.) + If your response to #MeToo has been "why didn't they speak earlier": it took days and the voices of over 30 women under tremendous pressure, to get one man to be even slightly accountable. (Not fully: the defamation suit is still on.)  Do you start to see how deep this goes?

MJ Akbar resigns as Minister of State (External Affairs). Akbar, issues a statement saying, "Since I have decided to seek justice in a court of law in my personal capacity, I deem  it appropriate to step down and challenge the false accusations levied against me in my personal capacity."


Akbar also thanked PM Modi and External Affairs minister Sushma Swaraj for giving him the opportunity to serve the country.


Akbar, who has been accused of sexual harassment by several women journalists, when he was an editor with the Asian Age and the Telegraph, has been under pressure to step down. Hours after returning from a trip to Africa, the Union minister issued a statement trashing the charges against him, saying accusations without evidence has become a "viral fever" among some sections and filed a defamation case against journalist Priya Ramani.


Ramani on Monday asserted that she was ready to fight the defamation  complaint and expressed disappointment over the minister's statement, saying it paid no heed to the "trauma and fear of the survivors". "I am ready to fight the allegations of defamation laid against me as truth and the absolute truth is my only defence," she had said.


Yesterday, over 20 women journalists, who worked with The Asian Age newspaper, came out in support Ramani. The journalists have urged the court to hear their testimonies against Akbar, claiming that some of them suffered sexual harassment by the minister and others have been a witness to it.

Filmmaker Vinta Nanda files a complaint at the Oshiwara police station against actor Alok Nath. She has mentioned the details of the sexual assault in the complaint and the Mumbai police has assured her that an FIR will be filed after a thorough investigation of the case. She said, "Now the due process has to be followed. The defamation notice was served to me post office hours last night and my lawyers have worked overnight. Right now they are in Dindoshi Court and are responding to it."

National Commission for Women takes cognizance of the attack on women journalists at Sabarimala. A meeting is underway at NCW office for further steps to be taken. 

Surrendering early gains completely, the benchmark Sensex Wednesday fell 383 points to end below the 35,000-mark in highly volatile trade, breaking three sessions of gains as investors booked profits amid caution ahead of Reliance Industries' second quarter earnings.


The flagship index swung nearly 880 points both ways on alternate bouts of buying and selling during the session. Sentiments also hurt by liquidity concerns that dragged down non-banking financial stocks.


Overall sentiment was cautious as investors were on a wait-and-watch mode ahead of financial results from Reliance Industries, to be released later in the day, brokers said.


After a gap up opening at 35,543.38 points, the Sensex advanced to hit a high of 35,605.43 points in early trade on the back of better-than-expected Q2 earnings posted by tech major Infosys on Tuesday.

KK Shailaja, Kerala Minister, gets it right: Speaking to news agency ANI, she said, "I can predict what is going on there (Sabarimala), I think it is intentional. It's dirty politics they (protesters) are playing. We can't say if they are actual devotees. Supreme Court's order is Constitutional and the govt is bound to implement it."


Some women journalists faced the ire of a section of protesters agitating against the Supreme Court order allowing entry of women of all age into the Sabariamala temple and their vehicles attacked Wednesday.


The women reporters of two national TV channels on their way to Pamba for news coverage were blocked by a violent crowd which was seen banging their cars while shouting they go back as a tense situation prevailed in the area. The journalists were forced to get out of the vehicles by the crowd of men, protesting against the apex court order lifting the ban on entry of women in the age group of 10-50 to enter the famous hill temple of Lord Ayyappa at nearby Sabarimala. Police intervened and escorted them to safety.


In another incident, a woman reporter of an English online media organisation was asked to get down from a state-owned KSRTC bus, one of the entry points to the hill shrine of Lord Ayyappa which opened for the first time Wednesday after the apex court order.


The crowd which virtually took control of the Nilackal area also hurled stones at vehicles, including the KSRTC buses on way to Pamba. Stones were also pelted at Police vehicles.

A Haryana court sentenced self-styled godman Rampal and his 13 followers to life imprisonment in a second case of murder Wednesday. The court of Additional District and Sessions Judge in Hisar sentenced Rampal, 67, and his followers in the case registered at Barwala police station in the district on November 19, 2014. They had been charged with murder, wrongful confinement of people and criminal conspiracy. A woman was found dead at Rampal's Ashram in Hisar district on November 19, 2014. Rampal was arrested the same day for murder and other charges were slapped on him. -- PTI

Here's a backgrounder on Rahul Easwar, the face of the protests on the entry of women devotees to Sabarimala.

Minutes after the Supreme Court ruled 4:1 in favour of allowing women's entry into the Sabarimala temple last month, Easwar, president of the Ayyappa Dharma Sena and one of the activists who backed the ban on the entry of women between the ages of 10 to 50 inside the shrine, said he would file a review petition against the verdict next week. Read the interview with Rediff.com's Syed Firdaus Ashraf here.

Anna Burns has become the first Northern Irish author to win the Man Booker prize, taking the 50,000 award for Milkman, her timely, Troubles-set novel about a young woman being sexually harassed by a powerful man, reports the Guardian.


The experimental novel, Burns's third, is narrated by an unnamed 18-year-old girl, known as "middle sister', who is being pursued by a much older paramilitary figure, the milkman. It is "incredibly original', according to the Booker's chair of judges, the philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah.


"None of us has ever read anything like this before,' said Appiah, announcing the win at a dinner at the Guildhall in London. 

Sabarimala update: Rahul Easwar, a social activist and president of the Ayyappa Dharma Sena and one of the activists who backed the ban on the entry of women, has been detained as a preventive measure at Pamba.  He is the son of the head priest of the Sabarimala shrine.


PTI also reports that senior minister, EP Jayarajan said that protertors would invite "Ayyappa dosham" (the wrath of Lord Ayyappa) for blocking devotees who go to Sabarimala after taking vrata (penance).He also said the ongoing agitation was "anti-people, anti-constitutional and anti-law". The government will give protection to devotees who are coming to offer worship at Sabarimala," he said in Thiruvananthapuram.


More than 50 people, including former Travancore Devaswom Board president Prayar Gopalakrishnan, were taken into custody in Nilakkal and Pamba for protesting against entry of women into Sabarimala temple.


Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has warned of "stern action' against those who prevent devotees from going to Sabarimala. "We will ensure security to all. Nobody will be allowed to take law into their hands. My government will not allow any violence in the name of Sabarimala," Vijayan said and ruled out any rethink of his government's decision against seeking a review of the Supreme Court order.


The Travancore Devaswom Board, which runs the hill-shrine, met the Tantri (head priest) family, the Pandalam royals and members of the Ayyappa Seva Sangam on Tuesday to reach a consensus on the issue and will further discuss it.

An angry mob protesting against the entry of women into Kerala's Sabarimala temple went on a rampage and attacked women and journalists covering the protests. Four women journalists from Republic TV, CNN News18, Aaj Tak and the News Minute were heckled, slapped and stones thrown at the vehicles they were travelling in.  

Pooja Prasanna of Republic TV, the News Minute's Saritha Balan and CNN-News18's reporter Radhika Ramaswamy were surrounded by angry protesters, who vanadlised the vehicle.The mob repeatedly beat against the windows as Radhika and her crew were trapped inside.


Around 50 people chanting Ayyappa slogans surrounded the vehicles the reporters were travelling in aggressively punched and banged the car's windshields and windows, in an attempt to break them. Republic TV sais their reporter's car's rear bumper and rear windshield were both broken in the attack.


The channel also reported that the journalist and the rest of the camera crew were attacked and slapped by the mob after they stepped out of the car.  The crew's equipment was also snatched by the protesters.


The News Minute's Saritha Balan was violently attacked in Nilakkal. CNN-News18's crew and reporter Radhika Ramaswamy surrounded by angry protesters, who vanadlised the vehicle.The mob repeatedly beat against the windows as Radhika and her crew were trapped inside.


Nilakkal, which is 20 kilometres from Sabarimala, is the only route to reach Pamba, a reason why protest groups camped here to ensure that women did not enter. The police removed the tent set up by the devotee group under the name of Sabarimala Samrakshana Samiti. Another protest tent set up by the Congress at Nilakkal has been left as it is.


IMAGE: Women protesters check Sabarimala bound vehicles at Nilakkal to ensure that no women in the age group between 10 and 50 are going to Lord Ayyappa temple in dense forests at Sabarimala. Photograph: PTI

Veteran actor Michael Caine has said casting couch was an open secret in Hollywood. The 85-year-old actor said though he knew about producers like Harvey Weinstein asking for sexual favours from aspiring starlets in return for a role, he did not know the extent of the problem.


"In Hollywood, we were all aware of the casting couch. It was almost a joke. We knew it existed. But my view of the casting couch was that a young lady went to do an audition, the producer said, 'Well you've got the part if you did this', she said 'I'm not doing that' and he said 'well you haven't got the part' and she left.


"I thought it was terribly unfair that a talented actress might not get a part because she wouldn't do something sexual with the producer. But it happened and there was nothing I could do about it. I was a nobody in Hollywood. I didn't have the power of the big producers. But I never thought there were any actual physical attacks," Caine told Radio Times magazine.


The "King of Thieves" actor said he believes Weinstein's scandal will serve as an example for others in the wake of the #MeToo juggernaut. "I did three pictures with him. Harvey was a single character in himself. But there is one great thing if it can be described like that, about Harvey and his behaviour. It's that actresses are safe now.


"No producer would dare to do anything sexually, because he knows he's going to wind up in court, which is exactly where Harvey is," he said.
-- PTI

Senior BJP leader Subramanian Swamy on Wednesday strongly endorsed women's entry into Kerala's Sabarimala Temple, asserting that it is wrong to go against the Supreme Court's verdict, which allowed the entry of women of menstruating age inside the temple premises.


Swamy said, "The Supreme Court has made a decision, but now you (protestors) are saying that it's our tradition. Triple Talaq is also a tradition in that way, everybody was applauding when it was abolished. The same Hindus have come on the streets now. It's a fight between Hindu Renaissance and Obscurantism. Renaissance says all Hindus are equal and caste system should be abolished. Because no Brahmin today is only intellectual, they're in the cinema, business as well. Where is it written that caste is from birth? Shastras can be amended."


Asserting his point, he added, "There is no such thing as God-given tradition. Tradition is what people have been saying for so many years. In our Hindu system, we have Vedas, Upanishads etc which are God-given messages. God directly has communicated with our sages who have documented it. Then there is a question of a code of behavior, for which there are 'Shastras' and now we have a constitution which is our Shastras. According to the constitution's Article 14, read with morality condition of Article 25, it is said that subject to morality worship is a fundamental right. Hence Supreme Court has given a verdict and now it should be implemented. This is the job of the state to implement it and if the state is incompetent it should ask for Centre's help." -- ANI

Sabarimala: Another woman from Alappuzha district of Keala, said to be in the below 50 years age group, who was on the way to Sabarimala armed with the Supreme Court order was stopped from proceeding at the Pathanamthitta bus terminal by passengers.


The passengers including women chanting Ayyappa mantra urged the woman, Liby, not to violate the centuries-old custom of the shrine where women in the menstruating age group are not allowed.


Liby said she would climb the hills and no one had the right to violate the freedom granted by the Supreme Court. The woman was later escorted out to the bus station by the police.


Madhavi, the woman from Andhra Pradesh, also in the below 50 years' age
group, who tried to climb the Sabarimala Hills to reach the Lord Ayyappa temple, returned to Pamba following protests by male devotees. She had trekked 200 metres towards the shrine but was forced to turn back after devotees against the SC order, intimidated them chanting the Ayyappa mantra as they walked by her side. 


Image: In Pamba, the final point before the Sabarimala shrine, police detain people protesting against the entry of women in the age group of 10-50.

Protesters force a 40-year-old woman, Madhavi and her family from Andhra Pradesh, to abandon their visit to the Lord Ayyappa temple in Sabarimala. Madhavi, accompanied by her parents and children, set off for the pilgrimage on the Swami Ayyapan road, but 10 minutes into their trek they had to abandon their plan due to protests and intimidation. They alleged the police did not offer protection and escort them to the shrine.


The Sabarimala Temple opened to the public for the first time since the Supreme Court allowed women of all ages to enter and offer prayers to the deity Lord Ayyappa.


Social activist Rahul Easwar on Wednesday said that the believers of the old age tradition will stage a peaceful protest to stop women from entering the temple premises.


Police have been deployed in large numbers in Nilackal, some 20 km away from the Sabarimala hilltop. A protesting group of devotees had been staging a sit-in chanting the Ayyappa mantra in the shelter in protest against the Supreme Court order permitting women of all age groups to enter the shrine.


The protesting people, who were less in numbers, ran from the spot when the police initiated action in the early hours Wednesday when they tried to block the buses from the key entry point to the temple.

Security forces allegedly thrashed some media personnel who were covering an encounter with militants in the city here, a journalist present at the spot said Wednesday.


Though the police refused to comment on the alleged incident, a PTI photojournalist present there gave a first-hand account. There were several media personnel who were covering the encounter when some police personnel asked them to leave, he said.


However, the media personnel stood their ground, leading to an altercation between 3-4 scribes and police, following which they allegedly thrashed three journalists.

The West Bengal government is using a citizen utility mobile phone app to help locate Durga puja revellers who get lost during pandal hopping and tackle the issue of human trafficking, West Bengal minister Shashi Panja has said.


The city police had last year launched the 'Bondhu' app to help people lodge grievances and alert cops at Lalbazar control room in case of any danger by pressing the panic button.


Several incidents have been reported in the past when people, visiting the city during Durga puja, were lost in the crowd and later spotted by the police, who helped them return to their families, she said.


"There are instances when people deliberately leave behind their children or old parents by taking advantage of the huge number of people visiting the pandals during Durga puja," the Minister of State for Women and Child Development and Social Welfare told PTI.


Unattended children are also vulnerable to fall in the trap of human traffickers during the festival, she said. "Keeping in mind that people do not get lost and fall prey to the human traffickers, we have decided to take help of the Bondhu app to help those lost in the crowd to reunite them with their families," Panja said.


In fact, after an understanding with the Kolkata Police, the department has arranged for eight decorated child-friendly vans in each of the eight divisions under the police jurisdiction, Panja said. -- PTI

A man in Aurangabad in Maharashtra has filed a complaint against a leading online retailer for allegedly sending him a piece of brick instead of a mobile handset that he ordered, police said Wednesday.


Gajanan Kharat told the police that on October 9, he placed an order for a mobile phone on the shopping site and also paid Rs 9,134 for it, Harsul police station inspector Manish Kalyankar said. Kharat subsequently received a message from the e-commerce company that the product would be delivered in a week's time. The man received a packet from the retailer last Sunday.


However, when he opened it, he allegedly found a piece of brick inside it instead of the mobile handset, Kalyankar said. The man then called up the courier delivery man, who told him that their responsibility was only to deliver the parcel and not to see what was inside it, he said. Kharat lodged a complaint Tuesday against the e-commerce company at the Harsul police station here. The police official said they have registered a case under IPC sections pertaining to cheating and are probing it. -- PTI

Saudi Arabia and Turkey should "reveal everything" they know about Jamal Khashoggi's disappearance, a top UN human rights official has said while demanding a "thorough and impartial" probe into the whereabouts of the dissident Saudi journalist.


Khashoggi, 60, is feared to have been killed inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. The incident has resulted in a global outrage, more so in the US as he lived there as a legal permanent resident and worked for 'The Washington Post'.


Khashoggi vanished on October 2 after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Turkish authorities suspect he was abducted and murdered by the Saudis. But Riyadh insists that the journalist, a known critic of Saudi King Salman, had left the building and that murder claims are "baseless".


UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet on Tuesday urged the Governments of Saudi Arabia and Turkey to "reveal everything they know" about the disappearance and a possible extra-judicial killing of the prominent journalist.


Bachelet urged the authorities of both the countries "to ensure that no further obstacles are placed in the way of a prompt, thorough, effective, impartial and transparent investigation". She welcomed the agreement that has allowed investigators to conduct an examination inside the consulate and possibly also at the residence of the Saudi Arabian Consul-General in Istanbul.  -- PTI

On October 8, the accusations reached the highest levels of the Indian government. In a devastating tweet that linked to an essay she'd written last year, the journalist Priya Ramani accused MJ Akbar, the junior minister for external affairs in Modi's government, of having sexually harassed her when he was a newspaper editor and she was a 23-year-old reporter. "[Y]ou were as talented a predator as you were a writer,' she wrote.


Sonia Faleiro on India's #MeToo movement. Do read

"Who is MJ Akbar? By the time I started as a reporter, MJ Akbar only came up in stories of women that involved his hotel room and their puzzlement. So his intellectual and professional legacy is not one that I have ever had to engage with. But I have been thinking of the imagery of his defence in the face of detailed and credible accusations of sexual harassment from 14 different women on record. "Lies do not have legs,' he said on 14 October, a day before filing a defamation suit against the most prominent of his accusers, journalist Priya Ramani. Lies do not have legs. A clever sentence meant to be the title of a noir movie or a newspaper headline. It's true, I think, that lies do not have legs. But courage does. Just witnessing acts of courage can make your leaden, cautious self, lift off briefly like the Banksy girl with a whole clutch of balloons."


Read Nisha Susan's column here.

Three militants were killed in an encounter with security forces in the city on Wednesday, prompting authorities to close down schools and snap internet services, an official said.


One police officer was also killed during the encounter which broke out in the Fateh Kadal area of Srinagar. Several paramilitary personnel have been injured.


Security forces had launched a cordon and search operation in Fateh Kadal area of the city following an information about the presence of militants there, he said.


A policeman was also injured during the encounter, a senior police officer said. The operation turned into an encounter after millitants opened fire on security forces.


The operation was going on till last reports came in. The district administration has closed all schools and educational institution in the city as a precautionary measure and internet services on moblie have also been snapped. -- PTI

Protests being held near Pamba base camp against entry of women in the age group 10-50 to Sabarimala Temple.


The chief of tribals living in the hills around Sabarimala, who is called as Mooppen, said considering menstruating women impure is a Dravidian custom and is associated with the worship of nature by the tribal people. "Lord Ayyappa is our God. Restrictions imposed on women of a certain age group from entering the shrine is part of our custom. Following the custom is very important for worshipping at the Lord Ayyappa temple situated in the dense forests. It should not be violated. Impure women should not be allowed in the Sabarimala temple. 

Tribals living in the hills around Sabarimala alleged that the government and the Travancore Devaswom Board were trying to demolish centuries-old customs by allowing entry of women in the 10-50 age group into the famous Sabarimala temple.


They claimed that restrictions imposed on women in the menstruating age group were part of a custom prevailing in tribal societies living in the forests in Kerala.


They also claimed several rights of the tribal communities over the Sabarimala temple and the places associated with the hill shrine were forcibly taken away from them by the authorities of the government and the Travancore Devaswom Board that manages the temple.


"The Devaswom Board has even taken control of tribal Gods and devasthanams in various hills around Sabarimala," said 70-year-old V K Narayanan, chief of the forest-dwellers in the Attathodu area. -- PTI

Tension runs high in Kerala's Nilackal, the main gateway to Sabarimala, this morning after the police used force to disperse devotees opposing the entry of girls and women of menstrual age into the hill shrine.


The police, deployed in large numbers in Nilackal, which is roughly 20 kilometres away from the Sabarimala hilltop, also removed a makeshift shelter erected by a protesting group Sabarimala Achara Samrakshana Samiti.


The protesting group of devotees had been staging a sit-in chanting Ayyappa mantra in the shelter in protest against the Supreme Court order permitting women of all age groups to enter the shrine.


Police have said they will not let anyone to block the movement of devotees to the shrine and warned against those who create hurdles. The police took strong action against protesters after some of them checked the vehicles heading to Pamba and prevented the women in the age group of 10 and 50 from entering the hill shrine.


A couple from Tamil Nadu, aged 45 and 40, on their way to Pamba, were forced to get off the KSRTC bus Monday night allegedly by some activists of the Sabarimala Achara Samrakshana Samiti. Although the couple had said that they would go only up to Pamba and not climb Sabarimala, the activists prevented them.


Around 500 police personnel, including women, have been deployed in Nilackal to ensure a safe passage to the pilgrims to the Lord Ayyappa temple.

Seven-year-old Zainab Ansari's rapist was executed by Pakistan in Lahore's Kot Lakhpat jail at 5:30 am (local time) on Wednesday.


The rapist, Imran Ali, was executed in the presence of Magistrate Adil Sarwar and Zainab's father Muhammad Amin. An ambulance also arrived at the spot, along with Ali's brother and two of his friends, Geo TV reported.


The jail authorities arranged a 45-minute meeting for the convict and his family on Tuesday, before the impending execution.


Ali was sentenced to 21 counts of death, three life sentences and 23 years in jail by an Anti-Terrorism Court in February after being nabbed by the police forces on January 23, according to ARY News.


Ali had confessed to raping nine girls, including Zainab Ansari, whose body was found from a garbage heap on January 9 after she went missing from her aunt's house on January 4. Autopsy reports indicated that the minor had been raped before being strangulated to death.


The minor's death sparked international outrage, as DNA tests confirmed Ali's role in the girl's rape and eventual death. A Joint Investigation Team was formed to nab the accused, who was taken into custody within the three-day time limit set by Pakistan's Supreme Court. -- ANI

The rupee strengthened by 6 paise to 73.42 against the US dollar in early trade on Wednesday on increased selling of the American currency by exporters and banks.


Forex dealers said weakness in the dollar against some currencies overseas and a higher opening of domestic equity markets gave some support to the rupee.


On Tuesday, the rupee had climbed 35 paise to close at nearly two-week high of 73.48 per dollar amid softening crude oil prices and easing concerns over the trade deficit. Meanwhile, the benchmark BSE Sensex jumped 391.18 points, or 1.03 per cent, to 35,553.66 in the opening trade. -- PTI