NEW DELHI: Amid reports of being apprehended with 25 kg gold smuggled in from Dubai to Mumbai, the lone Afghan woman diplomat in India, Zakia Wardak, resigned from her position on Saturday. However, Wardak, who was Afghanistans Consul General in Mumbai, attributed her resignation to defamation and personal attacks. It is with great regret that I announce my decision to step down from my role at the consulate and Embassy of Afghanistan in Mumbai effective May 5th, said Wardak on Saturday. She wen

KOLKATA: The Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Saturday released a video via social media, alleging that the incidents in Sandheshkhali were a BJP conspiracy to malign West Bengal before the Lok Sabha polls. In the purported video, a man who identifies himself as the BJP mandal president in Sandeshkhali is heard saying that Suvendu Adhikari, the leader of the opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, is behind the whole conspiracy. The man in the video alleges that Adhikari directed him and other BJP le

Guwahati: Miscreants have carried out a series of petrol bomb attacks in Meghalaya's capital Shillong over the past two weeks sending the police into a tizzy. The attacks were perpetrated mostly at night, targeting police stations and government properties. In one incident, the miscreants had hurled a petrol bomb at the residence of Deputy Chief Minister Sniawbhalang Dhar. In all these attacks, nobody was injured. The police said they were conducting a probe to identify the culprits and nab them

JD(S) leader HD Revanna was detained by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) of Karnataka police in Bengaluru on Saturday. The arrest came subsequent to a court's refusal of his anticipatory bail request in connection with a kidnapping case registered at the KR Nagar police station in Mysuru. Revanna was apprehended by SIT officials at the Padmanabhanagar residence of his father and former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda. His arrest comes after a Special Court for People's Representatives in Bengalur

AHMEDABAD: Addressing a public rally in Vansda of Valsad Lok Sabha constituency, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said, Sonia Gandhi tried to launch and relaunch Rahul Gandhi a number of times but failed in all attempts. Why should you vote for a person who is unfit to lead? In the last 10 days, Shah has addressed three public rallies in tribal areas during his campaign in the state, the first in Panchmahal district. Vansda falls in the Dang district of South Gujarat and is dominated by tribals. Ea

AHMEDABAD: Saturday in Gujarat saw Priyanka Gandhi question why Prime Minister Narendra Modi was not contesting the Lok Sabha elections from Gujarat. While addressing voters in Lakhani village of Banaskantha district, the Congress general secretary said, He (Modi) claims he has done a lot of development for the state. If so, he should represent the state in the Lok Sabha. Why is he (then) not contesting from Gujarat? Banaskantha constituency, where Priyanka made the remarks, has come under the s

KOLKATA: Kolkata Police have constituted an inquiry team to probe a woman employee's allegation of sexual molestation by Governor C V Ananda Bose, a senior officer said on Saturday. The team as part of its investigation will speak to probable witnesses over the next few days and has requested the Raj Bhavan to share the CCTV footage, the officer said. Under Article 361 of the Constitution, no criminal proceedings can be instituted against a Governor during his term in office. We have formed an i

NEW DELHI: Former Delhi Congress president Arvinder Singh Lovely joined the BJP on Saturday along with a few other leaders, including former city government minister Raj Kumar Chauhan and former MLAs Neeraj Basoya and Naseeb Singh. All the former Congress leaders slammed the opposition party's alliance with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Delhi for the Lok Sabha polls as they joined the BJP in the presence of Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri and party general secretary Vinod Tawde. Lovely hailed t

NEW DELHI: India is not xenophobic, the country's foreign minister has insisted, after comments by US President Joe Biden suggesting the South Asian nation and fellow ally Japan were struggling economically because they rejected immigrants. Biden, who is seeking reelection against Republican rival Donald Trump in November, made the remarks at a campaign fundraising event in Washington this week. Foreign minister S. Jaishankar told a media roundtable Friday that Biden's comments did not match Ind

The name Hamida Banu is probably unheard of to folks like you and I but in the world of sports, she stands out as the first woman wrestler in India. On Saturday, Google paid tribute to her through a doodle illustrated by Bangalore-based artist Divya Negi. The artist depicts the wrestler in a pink, polka-dotted ensemble, holding her hands in a fighting position and surrounded by flora and fauna. Diving more into the date's significance, it was on this day in 1954 when Hamida Banu defeated famed w

Shaken by surgical strikes, Pak leaders now praying Cong shehzada' becomes India's PM

NEW DELHI: India's agricultural sector is blooming with modern day innovation and technology at an accelerated pace and the country is striving to achieve the 'Viksit' tag by 2047. Speaking at a national conference titled Innovate, Protect, Prosper: Role of Intellectual Property Protection in taking India's Seed Sector to the Next Level, organised by the Federation of Seed Industry of India (FSII), several experts dwelt upon other subsidiary aspects of related subjects, which now merit attention

DEHRADUN: Five people were killed in a road accident after a vehicle fell down into a deep gorge near Chunakhal on the Mussoorie-Dehradun road at around 5 am on Saturday. Four of the victims are identified to be engineering students while a fellow woman passenger survived the fall with minor injuries. Speaking to The New Indian Express, Fire Station Officer Dheeraj Singh Tadiyal said, On receiving the information of the incident at around 5:30 a.m., we rushed to the accident scene with the polic

KOLKATA: The Kolkata Police inquiry team constituted to investigate a woman employee's allegation of sexual molestation by Governor CV Ananda Bose, will speak to the witnesses over the next few days, a senior officer said on Saturday. The investigators, she said have already requested the Raj Bhavan to share the CCTV footage. We have formed an inquiry team which will be speaking to some probable witnesses over the next few days in this matter. We have also requested the Raj Bhavan to share the C

NEW DELHI: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has written to Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, urging him to extend all possible help to the victims of JD(S) leader Prajwal Revanna's exploits. In a letter to Siddaramaiah, Gandhi condemned the actions of Revanna, an MP from the southern state, and accused him of enjoying immunity with the blessings of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah. In a veiled attack on Modi, the Congress leader said he has never come across a seni

RAIPUR: The Election Commission of India (ECI) pioneering initiative to facilitate home voting, introduced for the first time, in the parliamentary polls for elderly citizens and Persons with Disabilities (PwDs) didn't find many takers in Chhattisgarh. The ECIs plan was intended to make the electoral process all-inclusive and accessible by enabling voting convenient for eligible citizens about 85 years of age and PwDs with 40 percent benchmark disability, giving them an opportunity and a privile

NEW DELHI: The Congress on Saturday claimed that the Centre owed Jharkhand lakhs of crores of rupees in coal royalties and central scheme benefits, and alleged that the Modi government dished out a step-motherly treatment to the state. Congress general secretary posed questions to the prime minister ahead of his rally in Palamu, Jharkhand. Why is the PM not releasing 1.36 lakh crores due to Jharkhand? Why is the PM denying 8 lakh people of Jharkhand the homes they were promised? What happened to

NEW DELHI: Aiming to attarct more international tourists during summer and at the same time decongest the overcrowded hill stations in the country, the Ministry of Tourism is all set to launch a social media campaignCool Summer of India. With this, the Ministry is seeking to promote the country as an all season tourist destination. The ministry in consultation with the state governments and union territory (UT) administrations has picked about 50 destinations. These destinations will be featured

LUCKNOW: Ending weeks of speculation, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi filed his nomination papers for the general elections from his familys bastion Rae Bareli in the presence of his mother and former Rae Bareli MP Sonia Gandhi, sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, and party chief Mallikarjun Kharge on Friday. This newspaper was the first to report on the buzz about Rahul entering the fray from Rae Bareli (April 30 edition). With Rahul opting for Rae Bareli, the party gave the Amethi ticket to family fait

CHHATRAPATI SAMBHAJINAGAR: A 3-year-old child was killed and five were injured after a fire broke out in a house in Maharashtra's Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, an official said on Saturday. The incident took place around 8.30 pm on Friday at Sharif Colony in the Kiradpura area of the city. Forensic teams deployed by the police are investigating the case, he said. There were seven adults and two to three children in the house. Prima facie, it looks like the fire started due to a cylinder blast, the

MUMBAI : Union minister Amit Shah on Friday hit out at the INDIA bloc for its failure to put up a prime ministerial candidate in the Lok Sabha polls. Shah was campaigning for the BJP candidates in Sangali and Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg constituencies. He said several leaders were vying against each other for the PMs post. INDIA bloc is planning to make each leader the PM from among the alliance partners, if they come to power. The PMs post is not a shop that anyone can represent by taking turns, Shah

RAIPUR : Korba Lok Sabha constituency is a keenly watched contest that evidently turned into a prestige battle for both the women candidates in the poll fray, BJPs Saroj Pandey (56), a Rajya Sabha member pitted against the sitting Congress MP Jyotsna Mahant (70). The constituency, which came into existence in 2009 following delimitation, has turned high profile where Union home minister Amit Shah and Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi addressed poll rallies in the past three days. The co

NEW DELHI: India and Indonesia on Friday vowed to expand overall bilateral defence ties, especially in areas of maritime security and industrial engagement for production of military equipment. Various aspects of defence and strategic relations between the two countries figured at the seventh India-Indonesia Joint Defence Cooperation Committee (JDCC) meeting that took place in Delhi. The meeting was co-chaired by Defence Secretary Giridhar Aramane and secretary general of the Indonesia ministry

NEW DELHI: Iran has said it released all the crew members of Portuguese-flagged cargo vessel MSC Aries that had 17 Indians among its 25 crews. Iranian Foreign Minister Amir Abdollahian mentioned the release of the crew of the ship during a phone conversation with his Estonian counterpart Margus Tsahkna on Friday, according to an Iranian readout. Ann Tessa Joseph, the sole woman cadet among the 17 Indian crew members of the Israeli-linked container vessel was released days after the tanker was se

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi, if re-elected, is likely to embark on his first overseas trip within days of his swearing-in to Italy and Switzerland. The Lok Sabha elections results will be out on June 4, and if PM Modi is re-elected, he would take his oath as PM within a week, following which he could embark on these trips. PM Modi received a personal invitation from his Italian counterpart, Giorgia Meloni over the phone last week to attend the G7 Summit in Italy. PM Modi thanked PM

NEW DELHI: More and more Indians are arming themselves with skilling and up skilling courses under the National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme to secure better jobs, with the program witnessing a 26 percent jump in enrollment in 2023-24 compared to the previous year, officials said Friday. The scheme, launched in 2016, saw an enrollment of 35,333 people in 2018-19. In 2023-24, the figure reached 931,406. In 2022-23, the total number of apprentices registered was 738,704. Maharashtra registered

DEHRADUN: Three of the five people seriously injured in a fire in Syunrakot Van Panchayat area of Almora in Uttarakhands Kumaon region have succumbed to burn injuries, even as the state grapples with wildfires. Two people lost their lives in a forest fire on Thursday, and a woman who suffered burn injuries succumbed to her injuries while undergoing treatment at Sushila Tiwari Forest Hospital in Haldwani on Friday. It is worth mentioning that a group of Nepali labourers were involved in extractin

NEW DELHI: Russian chess great Garry Kasparov hoped that his little joke on Indian politics does not pass for advocacy or expertise after his cheeky social media post on Congress MP Rahul Gandhi's love for the game went viral. Within hours of asking Gandhi to first win Rae Bareli before challenging for the top, the 61-year-old said it was just a joke and should be seen as one. I very much hope my little joke does not pass for advocacy or expertise in Indian politics! But as an 'all-seeing monste

SRINAGAR: Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister and National Conference vice-president Omar Abdullah, who is contesting Lok Sabha polls from Baramulla parliamentary seat in north Kashmir, is a lakhpati (millionaire) but has no house, land, cars or any other immovable assets of his own. His only source of income is the pension he receives as an ex-MLA and former Member of Parliament. In the poll affidavit, Omar, who served as Jammu & Kashmir chief minister from 2009-14, has movable assets worth

Canadian police on Friday arrested members of an alleged hit squad that they believe was ordered by the Indian government to kill Khalistani separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Vancouver last year, according to local media reports. Canadian broadcaster CBC said the three men are facing first-degree murder and conspiracy charges. They are accused of being shooters, drivers and spotters on the day Nijjar was killed, in an incident that ignited a high-profile diplomatic spat between Ottawa and New D

HYDERABAD: Union Home Minister Amit Shah and the BJP's Hyderabad Lok Sabha candidate Madhavi Latha have been charged by city police on Friday for allegedly involving minors in a recent election campaign. Other accused persons in the case include T Yaman Singh, senior BJP leader G Kishan Reddy and MLA T Raja Singh. In a complaint to the Telangana Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) vice president Niranjan Reddy alleged that on May 1, during a BJP rally from

The Telangana Police announced the closure of its inquiry into the tragic demise of University of Hyderabad (UoH) student Rohith Vemula , claiming that he was not a Dalit and alluded that his death by suicide had been driven by apprehensions about his eal identity being revealed. Following their investigation into his death, the Cyberabad police filed a closure report with a local court, claiming that Rohith was not a member of the Scheduled Caste and that he was aware of it. According to the p

GUWAHATI: Friday (May 3) marked one year since the outbreak of Manipurs ethnic conflict between Meiteis and Kuki-Zo tribals. According to the last official count, the violence left 219 people dead and over 60,000 displaced. An estimated 50,000 of the displaced are still lodged in various relief camps. The state continues to remain ethnically partitioned Meiteis confined to the Imphal Valley and the Kuki-Zo tribals holed up in the hills. Both sides are armed and gunfights are raging. The animosi

NEW DELHI: The Delhi Police on Friday arrested a Congress member for allegedly uploading and circulating a fake video of Union Home Minister Amit Shah, an official said here. Arun Reddy handles the 'Spirit of Congress' account on 'X', the official said. Congress leader Manickam Tagore on Friday said it has been over 24 hours that Delhi Police detained Arun Reddy without disclosing any information or the FIR. We demand the immediate release of Arun. This authoritarian misuse of power by the regim

THANE: THANE: Former Congress leader Sanjay Nirupam, along with his family, joined the Shiv Sena led by Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Friday. The former Mumbai MP had left the undivided Shiv Sena nearly two decades ago. Nirupam joined Congress in 2005 and was appointed as general secretary of the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee. He won the Mumbai North Lok Sabha seat in the 2009 elections, defeating BJP veteran Ram Naik by a narrow margin in a keenly fought contest. 'Tremend

GUWAHATI: Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Friday claimed that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will win in Pakistan if elections are held there but in India, victory will be of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Sarma had lashed out at Rahul Gandhi and his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Thursday as well, calling them irrelevant in Assam and past the expiry date. Rahul Gandhi is very popular in Pakistan and if elections are held there and he contests those, he will win by a huge margin, there

NEW DELHI: More and more Indians are arming themselves with skilling and upskilling courses under the National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme (NAPS) to get better jobs, with the programme witnessing a 26 per cent jump in enrollment in 2023-24 as compared to the previous year, officials said Friday. The scheme, launched in 2016, saw an enrollment of 35,333 people in 2018-19. In 2023-24, the figure touched 931,406. In 2022-23, the total number of apprentices registered was 738,704. Maharashtra re

KOLKATA: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has asked the West Bengal BJP unit to create a separate legal cell to provide help to genuine teachers and candidates who have lost jobs due to the School Service Commission (SSC) scam. While addressing an election rally at Burdwan-Durgapur, PM Modi said that although he wants those involved in corruption by the TMC to be punished, he does not want the innocent to suffer. The corruption that the TMC has done in Bengal regarding the school recruitment is sham

BENGALURU: Karnataka Home Minister Dr G Parameshwara on Friday said a second notice has been served to JD(S) MLA and former minister H D Revanna in connection with the cases of molestation and abduction registered against him. H D Revanna is the son of former prime minister and JD(S) patriarch H D Deve Gowda. Revanna's son and JD(S) Hassan MP Prajwal Revanna is also facing rape and molestation cases after a huge cache of explicit videos and photos allegedly involving him went viral. Prajwal is t

Heat wave conditions are likely to continue over East India till May 5 and over south Peninsular India till May 6 and abate thereafter. Meanwhile, heavy to very heavy rainfall spell accompanied with thunderstorms and gusty winds very likely over Northeast India on May 5 and 6, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said. On Thursday, the highest maximum temperature of 46.2C was reported at Nandyal (Rayalaseema) over the country. On the same day, maximum temperatures were in the range of 43-46

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday told the Enforcement Directorate that it would consider hearing arguments on the interim bail plea of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in the excise policy-linked money laundering case on account of the Lok Sabha elections in Delhi. A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta told Additional Solicitor General SV Raju, appearing for the ED, that the hearing on Kejriwal's plea against arrest is likely to take time and therefore, the court was consideri

MUMBAI: The post mortem report of Anuj Thapan, an accused in the April 14 firing incident outside the Bandra house of actor Salman Khan, confirmed he died of hanging as there are ligature marks on the neck and signs of asphyxia, a Mumbai police official said on Friday. Thapan, who was held from Punjab along with his associate Sonu Bishnoi on April 26 and is accused of supplying firearms and bullets for the firing incident, was found dead in the lock-up of the Crime Branch in the commissionerate

RANCHI: The Jharkhand High Court on Friday denied the petition filed by jailed former Chief Minister Hemant Soren seeking provisional bail for attending shraddha ritual of his uncle who passed away on last Saturday. The Court, however, allowed Soren to attend the last rites of his uncle for few hours under police custody. Refusing to grant him provisional bail, the court gave strict instructions that while attending the ritual to be held on May 6, Hemant Soren will not talk to the media nor hold

KOLKATA: West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee on Friday lashed out at Governor C V Ananda Bose for his alleged misconduct with a woman employee of Raj Bhavan. Speaking at a public rally in Purba Bardhaman district, Banerjee said my heart bleeds for the woman molested at Raj Bhavan and termed it a shame. Yesterday, a young woman who worked at Raj Bhavan came out and spoke against the Governor's harassment. Yesterday, the tears of the woman broke my heart. I ha

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday stayed an order of the Punjab and Haryana High Court to open the road outside the residence of Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann to public, after taking into record the Advocate General (AG) of Punjab's submission thatin recent years unfortunately, there was resurgence of terrorism and grenades being thrown at the intelligence building. A two-judge Bench of the top court, led by Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Dipankar Datta, issued notice to the Union

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday filed his nomination papers from Uttar Pradesh's Rae Bareli seat for the Lok Sabha elections. Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra accompanied Rahul Gandhi as he filed papers. Rae Bareli seat is considered traditional pocket borough of the Gandhi-Nehru family as its members have represented the seat for several decades. Besides Rae Bareli, Rahul Gandhi has contested Lok Sabha election from Keralas Wayanad as well. Gand

NEW DELHI: Delhi High Court issued notice to the ED and CBI after hearing APP leader and former Delhi's deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia's plea seeking bail in the Delhi Excise Policy case on Friday. Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma asked the ED and CBI to file their respective replies to Sisodia's plea and fixed the matter for further hearing till May 8. The court also allowed Sisodia to meet his ailing wife once a week under the police custody at his residence. The ED said it has no objection

BARDHAMAN: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday asserted that Congress' tally in the Lok Sabha polls will be an all-time low, as he mocked its leader Rahul Gandhi's decision to contest from Uttar Pradesh's Rae Bareli seat, sensing defeat at Wayanad where he is a sitting MP. Addressing a rally in the Bardhaman-Durgapur Lok Sabha seat, Modi said that if Congress is voted to power, it would snatch quotas meant for the Scheduled Caste, Dalits and OBCs and give those to its jihadi vote bank to purs

NEW DELHI: Former Delhi University Professor Hany Babu, an accused in the 2018 Bhima Koregaon violence case, on Friday withdrew his bail plea from the Supreme Court citing a change in circumstances in the case. The SC took this into record and allowed his plea. Babu's lawyer told the top court's two-judge bench, led by Justice Bela M Trivedi and Justice Pankaj Mithal, that he would move the High Court afresh seeking bail in the case. Babu had moved the Supreme Court, filing an appeal, after his

NEW DELHI: Delhi University's associate professor Hany Babu on Friday withdrew from the Supreme Court his plea seeking bail in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case. A bench of Justices Bela Trivedi and Pankaj Mithal took note of the submission of of the lawyer appearing for Babu, who said five other co-accused have been granted bail in the case. The counsel for the petitioner states that there is a change in the circumstance and would not like to press the present petition and approach the high