Here are the latest news headlines from India at 8 pm:

Sachin Pilot Lashes Out At 'conspiring With BJP' Claims

Hitting out at CM Gehlot's 'ineffective and useless' comment, former Deputy CM Sachin Pilot, on Monday, said that such baseless allegations were done solely to malign him. Claiming that there were attempts to stifle his legitimate concerns against the party leadership, he said that he will take strictest possible action against such an MLA - referring to CM Ashok Gehlot. Currently, Pilot and 18 MLAs have challenged the Speaker's disqualification notice against them at the Rajasthan High Court.

"I am saddened but not surprised to be at the receiving end of such baseless and vexatious allegations being leveled against me. This is done solely to malign me and to stifle the legitimate concerns that I had raised against the party leadership of the state, as a member and MLA of INC. This attempt further aims at defaming me and attack my credibility."

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Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh Likely To Join PM Modi In Ayodhya

Soon after the Prime Minister's Office finalised August 5 as the day for the 'Bhoomi Pujan' ceremony for the Ram Mandir at Ayodhya, sources have reported that several prominent leaders will be joining Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Uttar Pradesh for the ceremony which will reportedly be telecasted live. The prominent guest list includes Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Raksha Mantri Rajnath Singh, former BJP President LK Advani, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat and BJP leaders Uma Bharti and Murli Manohar Joshi. Sources have also reported that the guest list has been kept short due to the COVID-19 pandemic and only 12-15 VVIPs have been invited including the aforementioned leaders. 

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BJP Assails Rahul Gandhi For 'unrestrained Babbling'

Reacting to Rahul Gandhi's latest video on China's strategic game plan, BJP spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi took a sneer at the former, alleging him to be choking nations' interest. This comes at the backdrop of Rahul Gandhi's thoughts on the border conflict, where he underlined that India’s vulnerability has allowed China to increase tensions along the border. In a video shared on Twitter, the former Congress chief said that since 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s "mistakes and lack of discretion has weakened India", thus allowing its enemies to launch attacks.

Addressing a press conference, Trivedi took an apparent jibe at the Congress leader for not appearing as a positive, construction opposition in such dire times, adding that Rahul Gandhi has become accustomed to such unrestrained babbling.

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NASA Astronaut Sunita Williams On Space Sovereignty

Indian-American astronaut Sunita Williams said that it’s good to have competition in space missions because the mysteries haven’t been entirely solved and humans need a lot of different ideas to try it out and learn from each other. In a conversation with author and public speaker Srijan Pal Singh, at a webinar organised by Dr Kalam Memorial Lecture, Williams talked about various issues related to space missions.

While answering Republic World’s question on the issue of state sovereignty in space, Williams said that astronauts leave for space as humans representing the Earth and it doesn’t really matter from where they belong. 

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Tuticorin Custodial Deaths: Madurai Court Sends 3 Police Officers To 3-day CBI Custody

In a major development in the Tuticorin custodial deaths, Madurai District Court on Monday, sent three police personnel including Chelladurai, Samathurai and Veyilmuthu to three days in CBI custody. On July 9, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) reached Madurai to take over the probe into the death of the father-son duo in the Sathankulam police station on June 19.   The 7 member CBI team headed by SP Shukla is taking over from the Tamil Nadu CB-CID which has arrested 10 police personnel till date- which include -an inspector, two sub-inspectors of Sathankulam police station where the father-son duo was allegedly thrashed -and charged with murder, remanded to judicial custody.

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