LIVE: BJP MLAs Protest in Bengal Assembly Over CAG Report

The Mumbai Police on Tuesday launched a probe after a boat from Kuwait with three persons on board arrived at the Gateway of India, an official said.

Prima facie, nothing suspicious was found on the boat.

The trio hail from Tamil Nadu. The boat has been checked after it was anchored at the Gateway of India, he said.

Further investigation is underway, the official added.

Notably, ten Pakistani terrorists who launched the terror strike in Mumbai in November 2008 had arrived from the sea route. 

Chhattisgarh Food and Civil Supply Minister Dayaldas Baghel on Tuesday said a committee of the state Assembly will probe the alleged irregularities in fair price shops under Public Distribution System (PDS) that were unearthed during the previous Congress government.

Talking to reporters in the Assembly premises, the minister said irregularities were found in operation of these ration shops during the previous Bhupesh Baghel government (2018-23).

He said ration stocks worth Rs 216 crore were found short and now the matter will be investigated afresh by a committee of legislators.

During Question Hour in the Assembly earlier in the day, Dharamlal Kaushik, Ajay Chandrakar and Rajesh Munat (all BJP) raised the issue and demanded a probe into it.

 36-year-old woman was allegedly raped here by a man after he offered her a lift from outside a beauty parlour and took her to his house, police said on Tuesday.

The accused, who is an acquaintance of the woman, has been arrested, they added.

The incident occurred on Sunday when the woman was standing outside a beauty parlour in the Masuri area and was allegedly offered a lift by the accused, identified as Ankur Chowdhary (38), DCP (Rural) Vivek Chandra Yadav said.

Chowdhary took the woman to his rented accommodation where he allegedly raped her, Yadav said.

In her complaint, the victim also alleged that Chowdhary snatched her ear rings and took away her mobile phone so that she could not call the police or her kin, the DCP said.

The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) on Tuesday seized 975 kg ganja valued at over Rs 1.95 crore from a truck near Nagpur city and arrested the driver, an official said.

The DRI team found 478 packets of ganja concealed beneath a consignment of vermicompost in the truck.

The driver was arrested and booked under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, as per an official release.

With the Lok Sabha passing a bill that seeks to deal sternly with malpractices in competitive exams, former Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot on Tuesday said the central and state governments should coordinate and strictly implement it once it becomes a law.

The Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Bill, 2024, also has provisions for a maximum jail term of 10 years and a fine up to Rs 1 crore. "It was our long standing demand that the Government of India should make a strict law on paper leaks, on which a bill has now been introduced in the Parliament," Gehlot, a senior Congress leader, posted on 'X'.

He said that "we made a law in Rajasthan providing life imprisonment and a fine of Rs 10 crore on paper leak". Now, the central government is making a law to impose 10 years imprisonment and a fine of Rs 1 crore, Gehlot said.

He said, "The Government of India and all the state governments should coordinate and strictly implement the law against paper leaks so that justice can be ensured to the youth." 

 The Chhattisgarh Police has announced a reward of Rs 25,000 to anyone who provides vital information about Mahadev betting app promoter Sourabh Chandrakar, who is also being investigated by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on money laundering charges.

Chandrakar along with co-promoter of the app, Ravi Uppal, were recently detained in Dubai on the basis of an Interpol red notice issued at the behest of the ED. The agency is trying to get them deported or extradited from the UAE to India.

The businessman, who hails from Bhilai town in Durg district, is wanted in several cases of gambling and cheating lodged at different police stations of the district, police said.

"Inspector general of police (Durg range) has announced a cash reward of Rs 25,000 for inputs leading to the arrest of Chandrakar. The identity of the informer will be kept secret," Durg Superintendent of Police (SP) Jitendra Shukla said.

Earlier, the Durg SP had announced a cash reward of Rs 10,000.

The Durg police had also issued a look out notice for arresting Chandrakar, he said and added that the move to announce the cash reward will strengthen the case against the accused.

Chandrakar and Uppal are stated to be the main promoters of the Mahadev app. They are accused of running illegal online betting and gaming.

The ED has alleged in its charge-sheet that Chandrakar got married at Ras Al Khaimah, UAE, in February last year and about Rs 200 crore "in cash" was spent for this event.

 The special children court in Odisha’s Nayagarh district on Tuesday awarded 20 years of rigorous imprisonment to a juvenile for being involved in the rape and murder case of a five-year-old girl in 2020.

The additional district and sessions judge court which is designated as the children's court held the accused guilty.

The court convicted him on the charge of kidnapping, rape, murder and destroying evidence.

The five-year-old girl had gone missing on July 14, 2020, while playing outside her house in her village.

The Lok Sabha on Tuesday passed two Bills to modify the lists of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in Jammu and Kashmir.

The Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order (Amendment) Bill, 2024, adds Valmiki community as a synonym of Chura, Balmiki, Bhangi, and Mehtar communities in the list of Scheduled Castes in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.

The Bill seeks to amend the Constitution (Jammu and Kashmir) Scheduled Castes Order of 1956, which lists the castes deemed to be Scheduled Castes in the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.

Replying to a debate on the Bill, Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment Virendra Kumar said there is equality in Jammu and Kashmir after the scrapping of Article 370 of the Constitution, which accorded special status to the erstwhile state.

Father of a tourist from Tamil Nadu announced a reward of Rs 1 crore to anyone who finds his son who has been missing since an accident in Himachal Pradesh's Kinnaur district, officials said on Tuesday.

The car he was travelling in plunged into Satluj river near Pangi Nallah on Sunday. The driver was killed in the incident while one tourist was injured and the other was still missing, they said.

Vetri Duraisamy was one of two tourists from Tamil Nadu who fell 200 metres down into the river after the driver lost control over the vehicle, they said.

"I have received a WhatsApp message from the missing tourist Vetri's father Saidai Duraisamy, a former mayor of Chennai. He has announced a reward of Rs 1 crore to anyone who finds his son. His trusted people have also contacted me in this regard," Kinnaur Deputy Commissioner Amit Kumar Sharma told the PTI on Tuesday.

The BJP's Jharkhand unit on Tuesday released a video clip claiming that arrested former chief minister Hemant Soren does own a piece of land, which the ED accused him of illegally acquiring.

The claim was made a day after Soren challenged the BJP in the Jharkhand assembly to prove corruption charges against him, asserting that if the accusations were proved, he would quit politics.

Soren was arrested by the ED on January 31 after a marathon seven-hour interrogation in connection with a money laundering case linked to an alleged land fraud. The 48-year-old JMM executive president resigned as the chief minister before the arrest.

In the 58-second video clip released by the opposition BJP, a man, identifying himself Santosh Munda, is seen saying that the piece of land at Bargain in Ranchi district belongs to Hemant Soren.

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Sanjay Singh has been allowed for the second time to go to Parliament in police custody and take oath as a Rajya Sabha MP. He will go to the Parliament on February 8 or February 9

On the UCC bill in Uttarakhand Assembly, AIUDF president and MP says, "India is a colourful garden. However beautiful a garden is, if it has just one flower, you will not be able to look at it for long. In India, people of all faiths, culture live. That is our beauty...If anything is done against nature, it won't continue for long...State Assemblies have to bring something shiny when the government becomes a failure. Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma too does this from time to time...They want to please PM Modi as they want to continue as the CM for some time. This Bill should be dumped in the dustbin."

The Haryana government is set to enact a law to regulate the functioning of private coaching institutes, addressing issues like misleading advertisements and rising stress among students. The state government had put a draft of the Haryana Coaching Institutes (Control and Regulation) Bill, 2024 in the public domain last month, seeking feedback from stakeholders and the public in this regard. The Bill is likely to be tabled in the upcoming budget session starting from February 20, sources said. 

Six persons were killed and 60 others injured after a major fire broke out in a firecrackers factory in Harda town of Madhya Pradesh on Tuesday, an official said. A number of people were also feared trapped in and around the unit, he said. Some videos of the incident surfaced on social media showing the fire with intermittent explosions taking place at the site and people running to save themselves.

The Congress on Tuesday staged a protest demanding a case against Chandigarh Mayoral Elections’ presiding officer over alleged vote tampering. 

Siddaramaiah has urged several BJP leaders including FM Nirmala Sitharaman, Rajeev Chandrashekar to participate in ‘Chalo Delhi’ protest. Siddaramaiah has written a letter to MPs including Nirmala Sitharaman, Rajeev Chandrashekar, HD Devegowda, Tejasvi Surya and Mallikarjun Kharge to participate in the protest against the alleged financial atrocities committed by the Central Government on Karnataka scheduled tomorrow at Jantar Mantar, Delhi.

Arunachal Pradesh CM Pema Khandu along with his cabinet colleagues offered prayers at Ram temple in Ayodhya on Tuesday. 

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami tabled the Uniform Civil Code Uttarakhand 2024 Bill in the State Assembly on Tuesday, February 6. The Uttarakhand cabinet approved the final draft of the Uniform Civil Code on February  4, paving the way for tabling the bill in the assembly during the ongoing special session which began on February 5. The session of the Assembly has been convened especially to pass the legislation on the UCC and make it an Act.

Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah will lead the ‘Chalo Delhi’ protest at Jantar Mantar tomorrow. The protest will be held to condemn the financial tyranny of the central government. “Tomorrow at 11 am at Jantar Mantar, Delhi, we will raise our voice against the discrimination in the fair tax share and grant distribution of Kannadigas,” Siddaramaiah tweeted on Tuesday. 

The DMK will participate in the protest called by the Kerala govt against Centre’s interference in financial management of state govts, in Delhi on February 8.
 

Trees and houses were seen covered in blanket of snow as Ramban receives fresh snowfall on Tuesday.

A 30-year-old man was stabbed to death by an unidentified person in west Delhi’s Punjabi Bagh area, police said on Tuesday. According to the police, the incident occurred on the intervening night of Sunday and Monday and a team rushed to the spot after getting a PCR call. The victim, Mangolpuri resident Monu, was rushed to a nearby hospital where he succumbed during treatment, a senior police officer said.

PM Narendra Modi on Tuesday inaugurated the India Energy Week 2024 in Goa. 

PM Narendra Modi arrived in Goa on Tuesday and inaugurated ONGC Sea Survival Centre at Betul village. 

On ED raids, AAP leader and Delhi Minister Atishi says, "ED raids are going on against AAP leaders and people associated with AAP. Raids are underway at the residence of AAP Treasurer and MP ND Gupta, Arvind Kejriwal's PA and others. BJP agencies want to suppress our party through central agencies but I want to tell them that we will not be afraid..."

Patna, Bihar: RJD MP Manoj Jha said, "...If he (PM Modi) is saying that BJP will get 370 (seats in Lok Sabha elections) and NDA will be 400 plus...Does this mean the EVM is set?...When you specify the exact numbers, doubts arise..."

The Enforcement Directorate on Tuesday searched premises of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's personal secretary Bibhav Kumar and some persons connected to the Aam Aadmi Party as part of a money laundering probe, official sources said. About 10 premises in the national capital are being covered as part of the raids, they said.

Security has been tightened outside the Uttarakhand Assembly in Dehradun on Tuesday. The bill on Uniform Civil Code (UCC) will be presented in the House today, followed by a debate on it.

TDP leaders staged a protest against Andhra Pradesh CM Jagan Mohan Reddy outside state assembly, in Amravati on Tuesday.

Congress Lok Sabha MP Manish Tewari has moved an adjournment motion in the Lower House seeking a discussion on the border situation with China on Tuesday. The MP from Sri Anandpur Sahib constituency sought suspension of Zero Hour, Question Hour, and other businesses of the day.

• SC to hear plea seeking comprehensive guidelines for search and seizure of digital devices by the investigating agencies.
• SC to hear plea of NIA against Gautam Navlakha in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case.
• SC to hear plea pertaining to Indian Olympic Association (IOA).

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate India Energy Week 2024 in Goa on Tuesday and also dedicate to the nation the permanent campus of the National Institute of Technology (NIT) apart from laying foundation stones for various projects costing more than Rs 1,330 crore. Modi will also address Viksit Bharat, Viksit Goa 2047 programme. The PM will inaugurate the ONGC Sea Survival Centre at Betul village in South Goa in the morning and inaugurate India Energy Week. He will participate in the Viksit Bharat, Viksit Goa 2047 programme at Fatorda in the afternoon, as per a release issued by the Prime Minister's Office.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah will move Jammu and Kashmir Local Bodies Laws (Amendment) Bill in Lok Sabha today. 

The Jammu- Srinagar National Highway, popularly known as NH44, will remain closed for traffic on Tuesday, February 6, as widening work is being carried out in several places in the Ramban district. The highway has been closed for traffic at Kishtwari Pathar and Dhalwas in Ramban district for 24 hours. 

Uttarakhand CM Pushkar Singh Dhami will present the Uniform Civil Code Uttarakhand 2024 Bill in the State Assembly on Tuesday.
 

A final-year MBBS student was found hanging from the ceiling fan of her hostel room in the Maulana Azad Medical College here on Monday, police said. The information about the incident was received at 1.30 pm, following which a team reached the spot and recovered the body, they said. "We have taken custody of the body and sent it for autopsy. No suicide note was found," a senior police officer said. The deceased's friends and family members are being questioned to ascertain the reason behind the alleged suicide, the officer said. The student's name is not being disclosed to respect the privacy of his family, the officer added.