Row over Amit Shah's landing at yet-to-be-opened Kannur airport

New Delhi, Apr 14: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday requested young scientists of the country to come forward and take the lead in developing a vaccine for novel coronavirus which has claimed over one lakhs lives worldwide.

"While India has limited resources today. I have a special request for India's young scientists. They should come forward and take a lead in developing a vaccine for coronavirus for the welfare of the world, for the welfare of the human race," the Prime Minister said in the address to the nation.

He said that if people continue to be patient and follow rules then the country will be able to defeat even a pandemic like coronavirus.
Prime Minister Modi also announced that the country will remain under lockdown till May 3 to contain COVID-19 cases. The 21-day lockdown, which was announced by the Prime Minister last month, was slated to end today.

However, he indicated at easing of lockdown restrictions in places where there are no hotspots after April 20.

"Till 20th April, all districts, localities, states will be closely monitored, as to how strictly they are implementing norms. The states which will not let hotspots increase, they could be allowed to let some important activities resume, but with certain conditions," Modi said.

Odisha, Punjab, Maharashtra, Telangana, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry have already announced the extension of lockdown.

India's total number of coronavirus positive cases has climbed to 10,363 including 8,988 active cases, 1,035 cured/discharged/migrated and 339 deaths, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said today.

Mumbai, Jan 17: A 68-year-old convict of the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case, Jalees Ansari, went missing on Thursday morning while being on parole, officials said.

Ansari, a resident of Mominpura in Agripada here who is serving a life term, is suspected to be involved in many bomb blast cases across the country, an official said.

He was on parole for 21 days from the Ajmer Central Prison, Rajasthan, and was expected to surrender before prison authorities on Friday, he said.

During the parole period, he was ordered to visit the Agripada Police Station everyday between 10.30 am and 12 pm to mark his attendance, he said.

However, Ansari did not visit the police station on Thursday during the designated time, the official said.

In the afternoon, his 35-year-old son Jaid Ansari approached the police station with a complaint about his “missing” father, he said.

According to the complaint, Jalees Ansari woke up in the early hoursand told family members he is going to offer namaz, but did not return home.

On his complaint, the Agripada Police registered a missing case, he said.

The Crime Branch of the Mumbai Police and the Maharashtra ATS have launched a massive manhunt to trace him, he said.

Jalees, who is known as Doctor Bomb, was allegedly connected with terror outfits like SIMI and Indian Mujahidin and taught terror groups how to make bombs, he said.

He was also questioned by the NIA in 2011 in connection with the 2008 bomb blast in Mumbai, he said.

New Delhi, Feb 5: Delhi High Court on Wednesday stated that that death warrant of all convicts in the Nirbhaya gangrape and murder case should be executed together.

The Delhi prison rules do not state whether when the mercy petition of one convict is pending, the execution of the other convicts can take place and from the trial court to Supreme Court all convicts have been held by a common order and a common judgment, Justice Suresh Kumar Kait observed while passing the order.

High Court dismissed the Central government and Tihar Jail authorities plea challenging the Patiala House court's order, which stayed the execution of the four convicts in the case. It also observed that the convicts indulged in a heinous offence of a bone-chilling rape and murder of a girl and that criminal appeals by all convicts were dismissed by the courts.

Moreover, the court observed that the review petitions were filed after long wait and convicts are taking shelter of Article 21 which is available to them till their last breath.

A single-judge bench of Justice Suresh Kumar Kait had on Sunday kept the order reserved in the matter after special hearing of two days.

Earlier, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing on behalf of the Centre, alleged that the convicts were deliberately delaying the execution, adding that any delay in death sentence will have a dehumanising effect on the convicts.

A Delhi court last week stayed till further orders the execution of the four convicts -- Akshay Thakur, Mukesh Singh, Pawan Gupta, and Vinay Sharma -- which was earlier scheduled to take place on February 1.

The case pertains to the gang-rape and brutal murder of a 23-year-old paramedical student in a moving bus on the night of December 16, 2012, by six people, including a juvenile, in Delhi. The woman had died at a Singapore hospital a few days later.

One of the five adults accused, Ram Singh, had allegedly committed suicide in the Tihar Jail during the trial of the case.