The Bombay High Court has granted bail to former Delhi University Professor Hany Babu in the Bhima Koregaon case. Babu spent more than five years in jail, after being arrested in July 2020 under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act.

The case pertains to violence that broke out near Pune on January 1, 2018, a day after a conclave called the Elgar Parishad was organised to mark the 200th anniversary of the battle of Bhima Koregaon.

The National Investigation Agency has alleged that the Elgar Parishad was part of a larger Maoist conspiracy to stoke caste violence, destabilise the Union government and assassinate Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It accused Babu of being a member of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist) and being involved in the alleged conspiracy to assassinate Modi.

Seven years on, the trial in the case is yet to begin. Read more.

The rupee has fallen to an all-time low of 90.4 against the United States dollar amid the continued outflow of foreign capital from the equity market. The Indian currency has come under pressure because of punitive tariffs by the United States and uncertainty about a trade deal between New Delhi and Washington.

The rupee had breached the 90-mark on Wednesday. It has fallen about 5% in 2025, putting it on track to record the sharpest decline in a year since 2022.

Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge alleged that the rupee was weakening because of the policies of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government. However, Chief Economic Advisor V Anantha Nageswaran said that he was “not losing sleep” as the fall in rupee’s value was not impacting inflation or exports. Read more.

The Supreme Court has issued directions to redress problems faced by booth-level officers during the special intensive revision of electoral rolls. It asked the state governments to deploy additional staff so that the working hours of the booth-level officers can be “proportionately reduced” to alleviate their hardship.

The revision exercise is underway in 12 states and Union Territories. At least eight suicides by booth-level officers and at least seven deaths have been reported in West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Kerala and Rajasthan.

The court said that if officers are overburdened with their routine and additional duties assigned by the Election Commission, state governments can take steps to “obviate such hardships”.

It added that when an employee has specific reasons to seek exemption from duties assigned by the poll panel, the state government should assess the request on a case-to-case basis and assign another employee in their place. Read more.

The United States has directed all foreign workers applying for H-1B visas and their dependents to keep their social media profiles public so be that they can be reviewed. In June, the Donald Trump administration issued similar directions for student visa applicants, stating that the government would conduct a “comprehensive and thorough vetting”, including of their online presence.

H-1B visas allow US companies to temporarily employ foreign workers in specialty occupations. Over the past few years, Indians have constituted the majority of H-1B visa holders. Indians comprised 72.3% of all H-1B visas issued by the US in the financial year 2022-’23.

The new rules will apply to new applicants and those requesting a renewal of their visas. Read more.

The Trinamool Congress has suspended Debra MLA Humayun Kabir after he said that he would “build a Babri Masjid” in Murshidabad district. The Babri Masjid in Ayodhya was demolished on December 6, 1992, by Hindutva extremists because they believed that it stood on the spot on which the deity Ram had been born. In January 2024, the Ram temple was inaugurated at the site in a ceremony led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Earlier this week, Kabir had announced that he intended to lay the foundation stone for a mosque modelled on the Babri Masjid in Beldanga on December 6.

Announcing the TMC’s decision to suspend Kabir, party leader Firhad Hakim said the legislator had already been warned several times before for his remarks. The party alleged that his comments were aimed at fuelling communal tensions and encouraged by the Bharatiya Janata Party. Read more.

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