Man held for 'assaulting' woman pilgrim at Sabarimala

Agencies
November 7, 2018

Thiruvananthapuram, Nov 7: A 29-year old man was arrested on Wednesday in connection with the incident relating to the alleged assault of a woman pilgrim at the Lord Ayyappa Temple in Sabarimala, suspecting her to be of menstrual age.

Sooraj, hailing from Elanthur in Pathanamthitta district, was one of the main accused in the incident which took place Tuesday when the hill shrine was opened for the two-day-long "Chithira Atta Thirunal," a special ritual.

Hundreds of frenzied devotees had tried to attack and prevent the 52-year old woman, Lalitha Ravi, from offering prayers at the temple.

The man was arrested under non-bailable charges--IPC 308 (attempt to commit culpable homicide) and 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty), police said.

An investigation is on to nab the remaining accused, Pathanamthitta SP, T Narayanan, told PTI.

The man was arrested on the basis of digital evidence and photographs, he said.

Police had registered cases against 200 "identifiable" persons for trying to prevent Lalitha, who had come for the 'choorunu' (rice-giving) ceremony of her grandchild, from praying at the temple.

Clapping and chanting 'Ayyappa Saranam', a huge crowd of devotees surrounded Lalitha suspecting her to be of menstrual age, but police intervened and escorted her out.

The woman showed her Aadhaar card to them to prove that she did not belong to the "traditionally barred" age group of 10-50 years.

Police later escorted her to the shrine to offer prayers along with other women relatives.

It was the second time in the last three weeks that the doors of the hill temple opened after the Supreme Court had allowed entry of women of all age groups into Sabarimala.

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Agencies
March 3,2020

Panipat, Mar 3: A 22-year-old man was charred to death after he came in contact with a live electricity wire while posing for a TikTok video near the Matlaudha railway station here, police said on Tuesday.

The incident took place on Monday evening when Vikas, a resident of Dharamgarh village, climbed a pole over which the wire was passing and posed for the video, police said.

His three friends were standing below when the accident took place.

Vikas came in contact with the wire carrying 25,000 volts current and was burnt, police said.

Police have sent the body for a post-mortem and started investigation into the matter.

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News Network
February 3,2020

Mumbai, Feb 3: Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, whose party severed ties with the BJP after the state elections, on Monday said that if somebody breaks a promise, "pain and anger is obvious".

"No, I did not get any shock," Thackeray said in an interview with Shiv Sena mouthpiece Saamana while talking about forming an alliance with NCP and Congress, and becoming the Maharashtra Chief Minister.

"I am a son of Shiv Sena Pramukh (Balasaheb Thackeray), several people tried to give a shock to me but they didn't succeed. This is a field where you have to accept in the beginning that there will be a bit pushing and pulling," Thackeray said.

He added that accepting the Chief Minister's post was not a shock for him and neither was it his "dream at any point of time".

"But I can say one thing for sure that I had decided to go to any level to fulfil the promise which I made to Balasaheb Thackeray. I want to further clear it that me becoming Chief Minister is not the fulfilling of the promise made to Shiv Sena Pramukh but it's just a step towards that. I will fulfil every promise which I made to my father," Uddhav Thackeray said.

"There are several types of shock. Did people like it or not, it is the important part. I have spoken on this issue (alliance with NCP and Congress) several times and even people have understood this. Making promises and keeping them are two different things. If someone breaks a promise, pain and anger is obvious," he added.

The Chief Minister said that he does not know if BJP "has come out their shock till now or not."

"But I have to say if they had kept their promise what would have happened, what a big deal had I asked for? Did I ask for stars and moon? I only asked for what was decided before Lok Sabha polls, when we decided seat distribution," he said.

He further said, "Maharashtra and the country are watching (who betrayed/shocked whom), I don't need to say much on this."

Soon after the Assembly election results, Shiv Sena demanded rotation of the chief minister's post and equal power-sharing in the state government, which was rejected by then ally BJP. The weeks of political stalemate led to the imposition of President's rule on November 13.

Firm on its demands, Sena, the second-largest party in the state, did not hesitate to cobble up with the ideological opponents -- NCP and Congress -- and was given the chief minister's post.

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Agencies
January 25,2020

Jammu, Jan 25: People in Jammu and Kashmir expressed happiness over the restoration of mobile data services and internet access through fixed-line across the Union Territory on Saturday.

Speaking to ANI Jitendra Sharma, a resident of Jammu said, "The government has taken a good decision. People had been facing hardship for a long period and I think it will improve further."

"It is a big relief to people. People can finish their pending work. I hope that 4G services will also be resumed soon," said a resident of Kashmir.

The internet speed is restricted to 2G only.

"Access shall be limited only to whitelisted sites and not to any social media applications allowing peer to peer communication and virtual private network applications. Directions shall be effective from January 25 and will remain in force till January 31," the statement by the government read.

Earlier on January 15, 2G services were reinstated in Jammu, Samba, Kathua, and Udhampur for white-listed sites.

The Central government had suspended the internet in the region following the abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution on August 5 last year, which conferred special status to the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir, and its bifurcation into two Union Territories -- Ladakh, and Jammu and Kashmir.

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