A girl studying in Class 10 was detained by Murbad police in the district on Sunday for allegedly strangulating a neighbour’s two-year-old baby. The incident took place at Tulai village, said inspector Ajay Vasave of the local police.
Manishka (2 yrs old) went missing while playing near her house on Saturday evening following which local people along with the police launched a search in the area, he said.
Suspecting that the 16-year-old girl who lived nearby might be involved in the child’s disappearance, the police searched her house sometime after midnight and found the child’s body concealed in the house, he said.
The two-year-old girl had been apparently strangulated though the autopsy report was not yet available. The accused was scolded by the victim’s mother a few days ago and the girl wanted to take revenge which allegedly led her to commit the crime, the inspector said.
A case of murder under IPC section 302 has been registered.
Indian tennis player Ankita Raina on Sunday won her first singles title of the 2019 season and eighth overall after trampling top seed Arantxa Rus in straight sets in the final of the $25,000 event in Singapore.
Coming into the tournament after competing at the Australian Open Qualifiers, Ankita demolished world number 122 and the Dutch top seed 6-3, 6-2 in one hour and 23 minutes. Ankita toppled four seeded players in the tournament starting with Dutch eighth seed Lesley Kerkhove in the second round. The gritty 25-year-old followed that up with wins over second seed Uzbek Sabina Sharipova and third seed Conny Perrin from Switzerland.
The 50 points earned from the title triumph are likely to catapult Ankita to a career-high singles rank of 168 when the new WTA list is issued on Monday.
“I’ve been working on my serve for a long while now and I think it’s starting to help. I also feel there’s more power in the strokes. It definitely helped playing the Grand Slam as the first tournament of the year. It gave a lot of positivity and self belief,” Ankita told PTI from Singapore. “Even though I was a bit disappointed that I didn’t qualify for the Australian Open since I expected that but I was grateful that I had reached where once I used to imagine I would be playing.” It is Ankita’s fourth title at the USD 25k level and the others were at the $10,000 level.
Last year she won two titles Gwalior (25k) and Nonthaburi (25k). The Asian Games bronze medallist said the changes made to the circuit have made even the USD 25k tournaments much tougher. “This tournament, even though it was 25k event, was a tough competition as all the qualifying players from Melbourne were here and also the last (in entry) was 250th ranked. I played seeded players from the second round itself and saw a lot of things that I was working on with my coach (Hemant Bendre) a few days ago. “There were a few things that I needed to work on mentally which I am happy I could work with my coach as he was around before the tournament. He eventually left after the first round match due to other commitments back home. Also the things I am working for the last six months are paying off. In fact, we were working on it in the Australian open and will continue,” she added.
Ankita will play two more tournaments before gearing up for the Fed Cup, starting in the first week of February at Astana, Kazakhstan.
Indian women’s football team coach Maymol Rockey is confident of the squad’s success ahead of their first friendly match against Hong Kong. Rockey said that the match is a “space to test permutations and combinations in the team”.
“Every team presents its own challenges. Hong Kong is no different. In fact, they have some players who could hurt us if we are not on the top of our game. However, it does not matter to us if it is a friendly match or not, we will be going all out for a win,” AIFF quoted Maymol, as saying.
“We are looking to test our permutations and combinations in these matches. We will also experiment with our tactics,” she added.
Indian women’s team are playing four Friendlies – two against Hong Kong in Hong Kong, followed by two against Indonesia in Indonesia. The matches have been organised to help the team prepare in the best shape for the forthcoming Tokyo 2020 Olympic Qualifiers Round 2.
The coach said that such matches help giving players the much-needed experience and help them evolve.
“The biggest advantage of playing friendly matches is that it gives the players the much need match experience. Against an opponent like Hong Kong, it will only help evolve the players better,” she maintained.
For the players, the match aids to prove themselves on the pitch against a “strong opponent.” Indian defender Jabamani Tudu said, “The opposition will also be looking for a win, so will we. There is no doubt it will be a tough clash. The Friendly does not mean that we will sit back and relax. We will be gunning for a win.”
Another Indian defender Dalima Chibber said that the clash is an opportunity for them to test their skills and prove themselves.
“It is also an opportunity for us to prove ourselves and test our skills. We have been preparing hard for the Olympic Qualifiers Round 2, and the road starts with these matches. We will look to build our pedigree here as we approach the main tournament,” Chibber said.
India are slated to play their first friendly match against Hong Kong on January 21.
Surabhi Patwari of West Bengal and Manush Shah of Gujarat emerged individual champions in the Under-21 section in Table Tennis at the Khelo India Youth Games, which came to an end on Sunday.
In an all-West Bengal starrer, the U-21 girls’ singles final went down to the wire as Surabhi Patwari and Kaushani Nath showed exceptional skills.
The match was interestingly poised at three sets all, and the decider turned out to be cracker.
Surabhi finally overpowering Kaushani 16-14 in the decider to take the gold by a 4-3 margin, a media release said.
Prapti Sen from West Bengal and Shrushti Helengadi were awarded the bronze.
Gujarat’s Manush Shah faced stiff competition from Anirban Ghosh of West Bengal in the U-21 boys singles final.
The battle between left-handed Shah and right-handed Ghosh reached its zenith in the third game where Anirban had the last laugh winning 12-10.
Here too the match went down to the decider after six games, but Anirban was left stranded in the final set and lost 4-11.
Ronit Bhanja and Parth Virmani took the bronze, the release said.
West Bengal and Maharashtra emerged overall winners for the U-21 and U-17 categories in Table Tennis.
Gujarat and Maharashtra finished second and third in the U-21 category, while Madhya Pradesh were second and Delhi and Bengal shared third place in the U 17 category in the overall race.
Around 30 kg of ganja was seized in the district on Sunday and three people hailing from Tamil Nadu arrested in this connection, police said.
Acting on a tip-off, police intercepted the accused at Chavatidibbala village while they were transporting ganja weighing 30 kgs in gunny bags, from Visakhapatnam to Tamil Nadu via this district and arrested them.
Firing a fresh salvo at the BJP leadership and the Narendra Modi government at the Centre, disgruntled party leader Shatrughan Sinha on Sunday said the rally at Kolkata where he shared the stage with a host of opposition leaders was aimed at “saving Indian democracy from being ruined”.
The actor-turned-politician and Patna Sahib MP, who had rankled the party by his presence at the rally and speaking about “tanashahi” (dictatorship) prevailing under the leadership of Modi and Amit Shah as against “lokshahi” (democracy) that characterized the Atal-Advani era, sought to twist the knife with a couple of tweets.
“What an amazing gathering and what a mammoth audience that came together in Bengal in lakhsto listen to and support this spontaneous show of solidarity in favour of a change parivartan!” exclaimed Sinha in his first tweet about the public meet which was organized by West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee.
Leaders of 22 opposition parties came together at a mega rally on Saturday and declared they will put up a united fight to oust the Narendra Modi government which has “passed its expiry date”.
“Kudos to our sister, the great lady of Bengal, the fiery Mamata di, who needs to be roundly complimented for bringing together one of the largest congregations of the strongest and most influential political minds and leaders from all corners of the country on the same stage under a common cause of saving the Indian democracy from being ruined,” Sinha said in the second tweet.
Top leaders of anti-NDA parties in addition to former Union ministers Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie attacked the Modi government on issues like demonetization, faulty implementation of GST and the controversy surrounding the Rafale deal at the rally.
In the wake of the death of two BJP leaders in Madhya Pradesh recently, former chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan warned the Congress government in the state that if such incidents are not curbed, the BJP will “come out on the streets.” “Government is taking this lightly. There seems to be a larger conspiracy behind this (BJP leader killed in Mandsaur). I demand a CBI inquiry. BJP leader was killed in Barwani, I warn the government that they stop such incidents otherwise BJP will come out on streets,” Singh told ANI.
Continuing his tirade against the Kamal Nath government, Chouhan said law and order has collapsed in the state and criminals are now “fearless.” “Congress used to talk of change but what change is this? Murders have started here, there was one in Indore, then in Mandsaur where a BJP leader was killed, another BJP leader killed in Barwani. Criminals are fearless today. Law and order completely collapsed,” said Shivraj.
Manoj Thackeray, a BJP MLA from Barwani, was found dead in a field earlier on Sunday, less than a week after Mandsaur Municipal Corporation chairman Prahlad Bandhwar was shot dead.
Balwadi ASP said a blood-stained rock was found at the site where Thackeray’s body was found. “He (Manoj) had gone for his routine morning walk. A blood-stained rock has been found from the crime site. Speculation is that he was killed with that rock,” he told media here.
Meanwhile, BJP leader Kailash Vijayvargiya met the family of Bandhwar who was shot dead on January 17 in Mandsaur.
Bandhwar’s family, too, demanded a CBI investigation into the death of the BJP leader. A BJP leader, Manish Bairagi, has been arrested in Rajasthan’s Pratapgarh in connection with Prahlad’s demise.
Taking a dig at the Opposition’s show of unity during a rally in Kolkata, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on January 20 said their “mahagathbandhan” (grand alliance) was an alliance of corruption, negativity and instability.
The Opposition was staring at a defeat in forthcoming elections and looking for excuses ahead of their impending loss and thus are verifying electronic voting machines, Modi said, addressing BJP’s booth-level workers through video-conference.
Leaders from over a dozen opposition parties gathered in Kolkata on January 19 and vowed to put up a united fight in the coming Lok Sabha elections and oust Modi from power.
Several opposition leaders at the rally demanded the use of ballot papers instead of EVMs which they said were the source of “all sorts of malpractices”.
“The Opposition’s mahagathbandhan is an alliance of corruption, negativity and instability. The Opposition has ‘dhanshakti’ (money power), we have ‘janshakti’ (people’s power),” Modi said.
He also wished the ailing Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar a speedy recovery, and called him the “architect of modern Goa.”
The Mughalsarai MLA made the controversial remarks at a rally on Saturday while referring to the infamous incident when Mayawati was assaulted by Samajwadi Party workers in a Lucknow guest house in 1995. Former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati sold her dignity for power and joined hands with those who disrespected her. She is a blot on womankind. Cannot say if she can be counted among men or women, she is worse than a transgender person, Singh alleged.
Many allies, leaders and parties came forward condemning the remarks Singh made on Mayawati.
Union minister and Republican Party of India president Ramdas Athawale told media in Lucknow on Sunday that such personal comments should not be made.
Bahunjan Samaj Party (BSP) leader S C Misra said on Twitter that BJP leaders have lost their mental balance after the BSP-SP tie-up which, he said threatened to rock the ruling party’s boat.
SP chief Akhilesh Yadav also denounced the BJP MLA for using derogatory remarks against Mayawati.
The remark smacks of desperation and nervousness among BJP leaders and is an affront to all women. Earlier in the day, the National Commission for Women said that it would formally issue a notice to Singh seeking an explanation from her.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Jammu and Kashmir on February 3 to lay the foundation stone for and inaugurate various projects in all three regions of the state. Modi will lay the foundation stone for and inaugurate projects worth Rs 35,000 crore and Rs 9,000 crore in Jammu and Kashmir, respectively, during his visit, BJP general secretary Ram Madhav said on Sunday.
The prime minister is visiting the state next month and will visit Leh, Jammu and Srinagar. He will address a mega rally in Jammu in which over two lakh people are expected to turn up. Modi will lay the foundation stone for AIIMS, IIM, IIT, Jammu-Akhnoor road, Shahpur-Kandi road, Sunderbani college and IIMC in Jammu during his visit. The prime minister will also inaugurate an engineering college in Kathua and the Jammu ropeway project, Madhav told reporters here.
Responding to a question, the BJP general secretary said that we tried to take forward many projects being part of the previous government, like AIIMS. It was due to our efforts that we brought one AIIMS for Jammu even when in rest of the country only one AIIMS was given to each state.
Madhav alleged that several projects were delayed due to the Peoples Democratic Party – the BJP’s coalition partner in the erstwhile state government. We undertook many projects like this. However, the coalition partner used to slow down the process; otherwise it could have been done earlier. The BJP will continue its efforts to ensure all-round development in the three regions of the state.
The party was also making efforts to ensure reservation for the Pahari speaking people and divisional status for the region of Ladakh. We are making a demand to the governor administration to grant reservation to the Pahari people, who are mostly residing in Jammu and the divisional status to Ladakh before the prime minister’s visit to the state, he further added and asked party leaders and workers to work hard for to make Modi’s visit successful.
