Author: Indmedia

The court concluded that the prosecution had established that the accused had taken the minor from her legal guardian without consent and had subjected her to penetrative sexual assault Ghaziabad: A minor’s consent has no legal bearing, a special Pocso court observed while sentencing a man to 10 years’ rigorous imprisonment for abduction and penetrative sexual assault of a 16-year-old girl in 2021.Special additional sessions judge Poonam-II convicted the accused on Monday under sections 363 (kidnapping), 366 (kidnapping for illicit sexual intercourse or marriage) and 376 (rape) of IPC, and Section 4 of the Pocso Act.The court awarded 10 years’…

Experts said firms were likely to cite factors like weather, storage conditions, sowing practices, soil quality and sampling procedures to argue that poor germination was not caused by seed quality Pune: Seed firms facing action over complaints of poor soybean seed germination are gearing up for crucial hearings next week, with the state agriculture department granting them additional time to submit explanations after several companies claimed of not receiving tehsil-level panchnama (field inspection ) reports.Twenty firms, including Maharashtra State Seeds Corporation Limited (Mahabeej), are under scrutiny following nearly 20,000 complaints, largely from Vidarbha and Marathwada. The department has already filed…

Panaji: The Centre sent at six-member team of officers from the cabinet secretariat and NITI Aayog to take stock of Goa’s progress under phase-II of the compliance reduction and deregulation exercise. The exercise was launched in Jan with the objective of further reducing the compliance burden towards ease of doing business and ease of living.Inland waterways authority of India chairperson Sunil Paliwal, who heads the taskforce for Goa, met with Goan industrialists and govt officials to discuss some of the challenges that Goa has identified regarding the identified priority areas.The priority areas are deregulation of land use, simplified construction approvals,…

Minister Barinder Kumar Goyal in Punjab Vidhan Sabha on Monday Chandigarh: Punjab water resources minister Barinder Kumar Goyal on Monday informed the Vidhan Sabha that the state government has undertaken extensive measures to strengthen flood protection infrastructure along vulnerable stretches of the Beas and Sutlej rivers to safeguard villages, agricultural land and lives in flood-prone areas.Replying to Calling Attention Notices moved by independent MLA Rana Inder Partap Singh and MLA Rajneesh Kumar Dahiya, Goyal said the government had adopted a technically driven approach to identify, prioritise and strengthen vulnerable locations along the two rivers.Responding to concerns regarding vulnerable stretches of…

Lucknow: Eleven youths were allegedly duped of Rs 33 lakh after being promised jobs in the Food Corporation of India (FCI) by two men who posed as recruiters.The accused allegedly collected Rs 3 lakh per candidate, conducted a fake medical examination and interview in Gonda, and later issued forged joining letters and gate passes. According to an FIR lodged at Dhanpatganj police station, complainant Girja Shankar alleged that Lucknow residents Jaiprakash Yadav and Dilip Kumar Mishra lured candidates with assurances of direct recruitment in FCI. The victims paid the money through cash and online transactions between 2020 and 2022.The fraud…

Arvind Panagariya, chancellor of Nalanda University and chairman of the 16th Finance Commission, at the launch of Nalanda Shodha Vihara in Rajgir on Monday Patna: Arvind Panagariya, chancellor of Nalanda University and chairman of the 16th Finance Commission, inaugurated the Nalanda Shodha Vihara on the university campus at Rajgir on Monday, bringing its six research centres under one roof.The new hub is aimed at strengthening coordination among scholars and providing a common space for academic inquiry. The university said the facility would help consolidate its research ecosystem.After the inauguration, a special lecture and interaction session was held at Vishwamitralaya Auditorium.…

Jaipur: The technical committee of State Wetland Authority, Rajasthan, has recommended the notification of three wetlands under the Wetlands (Conservation and Management) Rules, 2017. The sites include Talab-e-Shahi in Dholpur, Jaseri Talab in Jaisalmer and Shivsagar Shiwar Talab in Sawai Madhopur. The committee found the proposals compliant with the rules.Additionally, District Environment Committee, Dholpur, has proposed to designate the Ramsagar-Talab Shahi wetland complex as a Ramsar site. An official stated, “A review meeting of the technical committee was held under the chairmanship of Vijai N, Secy, DoE&CC. Now the proposals will be forwarded to the CM, head of the wetland…

Nagpur: The Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court has directed the vice-chancellor of Dr Panjabrao Deshmukh Krishi Vidyapeeth (PDKV) to decide within eight weeks on a long-pending proposal by Vidarbha City Club Pvt Ltd seeking a lease of nearly 52 acres of land at Kachipura (Mouza Lendra).A division bench of Justices Anil Kilor and Raj Wakode passed the order on Aug 6 while disposing of a petition filed by club director Harish Shakya through counsel Anup Gilda.According to the petition, the company submitted a proposal on Sept 9, 2019, seeking allotment of the land, claiming the project would benefit farmers…

Rajkot: Ten days after two men allegedly robbed Rs 19 lakh from Prime Enterprise, an angadia firm in Rajkot, city crime branch arrested two suspects. However, the two primary perpetrators who allegedly executed the robbery remain on the run, police said on Monday.The accused allegedly used end-to-end encrypted mobile apps that provide a virtual number for communication to execute the robbery to avoid tracing by police.The arrested individuals are Ramzanali alias Raju Sheikh, (32), from West Bengal and Pravin Khajiyo, (28), from Uttar Pradesh. Meanwhile, multi-state manhunts have been launched to track down the absconding prime accused — Asu and…

Ranchi: Higher and technical education minister Sudivya Kumar on Monday accused BJP of hijacking the students’ agitation “through the backdoor” for political mileage, leading to the collapse of the dialogue process. He, however, said the state govt remained open to talks and had acted proactively on the protesters’ demands.Replying in the assembly to a question on talks between the govt and protesting students, Kumar said the groups had largely agreed to the govt’s proposals after three rounds of discussions. “However, some were allegedly misled into going ahead with the Vidhan Sabha march. BJP will largely be responsible if any untoward…