Coronavirus outbreak: Chinese passenger vomits on Air India flight, admitted to Pune hospital

A Chinese man was on Friday admitted to a hospital in Pune for possible exposure to novel coronavirus after he vomited on an Air India flight. The Pune-bound flight from Delhi was delayed by over four hours in that route because of the incident.

Vodafone Idea network down in Bengaluru, optical fibre cables suspected to be damaged

Several Vodafone Idea users suffered network problems in Bengaluru on Friday. It is suspected that optical fibre cables may have been damaged in the city. The company announced on Twitter that it was a “temporary issue” and that teams have been deployed to “ensure seamless network connectivity”.

Jaipur: Kashmiri teenager dies after fight with colleague, accused charged with murder

A Kashmiri teenager was killed in a fight with a colleague in the city of Jaipur in Rajasthan on Wednesday night, the police said. Ghulam Mohideen Khan, who is believed to be 17 years old, used to work for the catering arm of an event management company.

Pune college cancels Tushar Gandhi’s lecture after threat from Hindutva outfit

A college in the city of Pune in Maharashtra has cancelled a lecture by Mahatma Gandhi’s great-grandson and writer Tushar Gandhi after it received a threat letter from a fringe Hindutva outfit calld Patitpavan Sanstha. Gandhi shared the news on Thursday night, tweeting: “The goli maaro gang in action.”

‘Some talk of beating me with sticks, but blessings of India’s mothers save me’: PM Modi in Assam

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday took a jibe at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for saying youth will “beat him with sticks” for the lack of jobs. Speaking in Assam at an event to celebrate the signing of the Bodo settlement agreement, Modi said that despite such remarks against him, he would be saved by the blessings of the mothers of India.

‘Death of Gandhi’ painting used on cover of Kerala Budget speech document

Kerala’s Left Democratic Front government on Friday used artist Tom Vattakuzhy’s “Death of Gandhi” painting on the cover of its Budget document. Last year was celebrated as the 150th birth anniversary of the freedom struggle leader.

IRS officers get notices for not making Republic Day cards for soldiers, says report

Several officials of the Indian Revenue Service last month received showcause notices from their national training academy in Maharashtra’s Nagpur city for failing to make handmade cards for soldiers on the occasion of Republic Day, ThePrint reported on Friday.

2012 Delhi gangrape: Centre’s plea to hang convicts separately to be heard in SC on Tuesday

The Supreme Court on Friday said it will hear the Centre’s plea to separately execute the four death-row convicts in the 2012 gangrape-and-murder case on February 11. A bench headed by Justice R Banumathi dismissed Solicitor General Tushar Mehta’s request to issue a notice to the convicts. Mehta argued that the “nation’s patience is being tested” and this would lead to further delay in the case.

Budget Session: Lok Sabha adjourned twice after uproar over Rahul Gandhi’s jibe at PM Modi

The Lok Sabha was adjourned two times on Friday after Bharatiya Janata Party members vociferously protested against a comment that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi made about Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The House will resume proceedings at 2 pm.

Shaheen Bagh: SC defers pleas to remove protestors until after Delhi elections, hearing on Monday

The Supreme Court on Friday postponed the hearings on the pleas related to the anti-Citizenship Act protests in Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh locality till February 10 in light of the Assembly elections scheduled on Saturday, Bar and Bench reported. “We understand there is some difficulty, but we will be in a better position to take it up on Monday [February 10],” the court said.

Bhima Koregaon: Reject NIA plea to transfer case to Mumbai, defence lawyers urge Pune court

Defence counsels in the Bhima Koregaon-Elgar Parishad case have urged a special court in Pune to reject the National Investigation Agency’s application to transfer all the court documents and seized materials to an NIA special court in Mumbai, The Indian Express reported on Friday. The lawyers argued that the special court in Pune was not competent to hear the NIA application, which should be filed in the Bombay High Court.

Six Maharashtra universities illegally increased staff wages, led to Rs 700-crore loss, claims state

Non-teaching staff at six universities in Maharashtra were allegedly disbursed more than Rs 700 crore fraudulently, the state government told the Bombay High Court on Thursday, according to the Hindustan Times. The universities raised the pay scale of several non-teaching posts after fraudulently getting approvals around 2014, Advocate General Ashutosh Kumbhakoni told the bench of Justices SC Dharmadhikari and RI Chagla.

J&K: Opposition criticises Centre’s PSA move, says ‘testing patience’ of Kashmiris

Several political parties on Friday criticised the invocation of the Public Safety Act to keep several Kashmiri politicians, including two former Jammu and Kashmir chief ministers Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti, under detention, reported PTI. The reactions came a day after the politicians were booked under the Act as their detention under Section 107 (security for keeping the peace in other cases) of the Indian Penal Code is coming to an end.

Delhi: Former OSD to Manish Sisodia arrested by CBI for bribery, deputy CM hails action

Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Friday called for the strictest punishment for a bureaucrat who earlier worked with him and was arrested on bribery charges on Thursday night. Gopal Krishna Madhav, the bureaucrat arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation, was earlier an officer on special duty to Sisodia, and is now a Goods and Services Tax inspector.

Hindu outfit leader’s shooting: Four, including wife, arrested for allegedly conspiring the murder

Four people were arrested on Thursday for allegedly murdering the leader of right-wing outfit Vishwa Hindu Mahasabha in Uttar Pradesh’s Lucknow city, PTI reported, citing police officials. Ranjeet Bachchan was shot dead when he was out for a walk around 5.30 am on Sunday near the state’s legislature complex.

Former J&K CMs Mehbooba Mufti, Omar Abdullah and other leaders charged under Public Safety Act

Former Jammu and Kashmir chief ministers Mehbooba Mufti and Omar Abdullah, who have been in preventive detention since August when the erstwhile state’s special status was scrapped, were charged under the Public Safety Act on Thursday. These leaders are in detention for six month now since the Centre amended Article 370 of the Constitution on August 5 to abrogate the special status, and bifurcated it into the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.

Mumbai Uber driver takes passenger to police for talking about anti-CAA protests

An Uber driver in Mumbai took a passenger to the police late on Wednesday night after he heard him talk about the protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act. Bappadittya Sarkar, a 23-year-old poet from Jaipur, told Scroll.in that officials from the Santacruz West police station questioned him for over two hours before finally letting him go.

Madhya Pradesh lynching: BJP leader arrested for allegedly provoking mob that killed a farmer

The Madhya Pradesh Police on Thursday arrested a Bharatiya Janata Party leader for allegedly provoking a mob that killed a farmer, and injured five others in Dhar district the day before, The Indian Express reported. The police have arrested three others, and are looking for the other accused, said Superintendent of Police AK Singh.

Shaheen Bagh shooting was carefully planned, gunman is misleading probe, Delhi Police tell court

The Delhi Police on Thursday told a court that the February 1 shooting in the city’s Shaheen Bagh locality was a “well-thought-out” incident, and added that the gunman needs to be interrogated to ascertain if he was part of any “political conspiracy”.