NIRVHYA CASE: Dec 16 gangrape convicts won’t be hanged tomorrow. Just 12 hours before the four men who raped a 23-year-old in 2012 were to be led to the gallows at Tihar, a Delhi court on Friday stayed the black warrant for their execution. This was the second time that their execution was put off by the judge. This time, the judge did not issue a fresh warrant for their execution.
THREE TERRORIST KILLED: Three men, suspected to be Jaish-e-Mohammed operatives, were killed in the gunfight that followed when a constable started searching the vehicle. Police said truck driver Samir Dar was trying to ferry armed terrorists to Srinagar from Dayalachak in Hiranagar area of Kathua district. Samir Dar, the driver of the truck that was intercepted near Jammu on Friday, is the Pulwama suicide bomber’s cousin, a senior Jammu and Kashmir police officer said. Samir Dar was among the three persons caught after the truck was intercepted at Ban toll plaza and searched.
ONLINE LOTTERY BAN: The Punjab government on Friday decided to ban all types of online lottery schemes in the state, an official spokesperson said. The ban, under Section 5 of the Lotteries (Regulation) Act 1998, would not only check illegal lottery business but also give a boost to the state’s tax and non-tax revenue, the spokesperson said after a Cabinet meeting here.
CAA: Calling on NDA leaders to back the Citizenship (Amendment) Act strongly in Parliament, Prime Minister Narendra Modi Friday insisted that his government has no reason to feel defensive about the new legislation. After a meeting convened for the Budget Session in the national capital, a BJP ally told news agency PTI that the Prime Minister called on his government to aggressively take on the opposition’s charge that the amended citizenship law discriminated against Muslims and said that minorities are as much “ours as other citizens are”.
SPECIAL OBSERVER: The Election Commission on Friday appointed retired IPS Mrinal Kanti Das as a special police observer to oversee the deployment and other security-related issues ahead of the Delhi Assembly elections. The appointment came a day after a youth fired at a protest against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act near Jamia Millia Islamia in Delhi, leaving one student injured.
SUPREME COURT: The Supreme Court Friday refused to entertain a plea seeking removal of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for allegedly “openly desecrating” the office and the Constitution in suggesting that a “foreign entity” was required to ascertain neutrality on the issue of Citizenship (Amendment) Act and the National Register of Citizens (NRC). A bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde, however, granted the petitioner permission to withdraw the plea with the liberty to approach the Calcutta High Court on the issue.
GANGA YATRA: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath Friday said his government will make the river Ganges a confluence of economy and faith. Adityanath was speaking here at an event to mark the end of the five-day “Ganga Yatra”‘ organised by the state government to raise awareness about the river.
AMU: With students of Aligarh Muslim University continuing their protests despite repeated appeals by Vice-Chancellor Prof Tariq Mansoor to resume classes and take exams, the university administration may have no option but to shut the campus down for a period of time. Amid the heavy security arrangements, including the deployment of the Rapid Action Force (RAF) on campus, the student groups are now seeking withdrawal of “false cases” against those who participated in protests against the amended citizenship act on December 15.
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