Three new cases of coronavirus have been detected in Maharashtra’s Thane district, taking its infection tally to 7,47,397, a health official said on Thursday.
The latest infections were reported on Wednesday, he said.
There are currently 11 active COVID-19 cases in the district, which comes under the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, he said.
The death toll in the district stood at 11,969 and the recovery count at 7,36,180, he added.
The police have retrieved around 250 to 300 pages of chats from Sheezan’s phone from June to December but have not found anything objectionable in the text chats apart from regular conversations about food and well-being.
Reliable sources have revealed that a day before Tunisha committed suicide, her mother, Vanita Sharma, visited the sets at Naigaon and warned Sheezan Khan to stay away from her daughter.
Vanita’s statement to police revealed that Tunisha’s break-up with Sheezan a few days back had upset her so much that she had a panic attack on December 16, for which she was admitted to Lotus Hospital in Kandivali.
Following the release of former Maharashtra Home minister Anil Deshmukh in a money laundering case, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar said that he will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and home minister Amit Shah to prevent anyone going through a similar situation in the future.
The Uttar Pradesh government on Thursday moved the Supreme Court challenging the Allahabad High Court order quashing its draft notification on the urban local body elections and directing the state to hold the polls without reservation for the Other Backward Classes.
The state government, in its appeal against the December 27 order, has said that the high court cannot quash the December 5 draft notification which had provided reservation of seats in the urban body polls for the OBC apart from those for the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and women.
The appeal, filed through advocate on record Ruchira Goel for the state, said Other Backward Classes are the constitutionally protected section and the high court erred in quashing the draft notification.
The Lucknow bench of the high court had ordered that the state government should notify the polls “immediately” as the term of several municipalities would end by January 31.
Multiple regions of Ukraine, including its capital, faced a massive Russian missile attack on Thursday, the biggest wave of strikes in weeks targeting power stations and other critical infrastructure during freezing weather. Air raid sirens rang out across the country.
Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said Russia launched over 120 missiles.
There were no immediate reports of any deaths.
Russia dispatched explosive drones to selected regions overnight before broadening the barrage with “air and sea-based cruise missiles launched from strategic aircraft and ships” in the morning, the Ukrainian air force reported.
The widespread attack was the latest in a series of Russian strikes on power and water supplies that have increased the Ukrainian population’s suffering. Moscow has launched such attacks on a weekly basis since October, while its ground forces struggle to advance.
On Thursday, air defence systems were activated in the capital Kyiv to fend off strikes, according to the regional administration. Sounds of explosions were heard in the city.
At least three people were wounded and hospitalised, including a 14-year-old girl, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.
He warned of power outages in the capital, asking people to stockpile water and to charge their electronic devices.
After more than 10 months of fighting, Russia and Ukraine are locked in a grinding battle of attrition.
The Ukrainian military has reclaimed swaths of Russian-occupied territory in the country’s northeast and south, and continues to resist persistent Russian attempts to seize all of the industrial Donbas region.
At the same time, Moscow has methodically targeted Ukrainian power facilities and other key infrastructure in a bid to weaken the country’s resolve and force it to negotiate on Russian terms.
While the Ukrainian military reported success in shooting down incoming Russian missiles and explosive drones after earlier attacks, some still reached their targets. Most cities have gone without heat, internet service and electricity for hours or days at a time.
Anastasia, a medic who took shelter on Thursday at a central Kyiv subway station and gave only her first name, said she was tired of the war. “We don’t know how long the war will last. It’s hard to be afraid every day and put your life on hold,” she said.
Numerous explosions also took place in Kharkiv, which is located in eastern Ukraine and the country’s second-largest city, and in the city of Lviv near the border with Poland, according to their mayors.
About 90 per cent of Lviv was without electricity, Mayor Andriy Sadovyi wrote on Telegram. Trams and trolley buses were not working, and residents might experience water interruptions, he said.
Ukrainian authorities in several regions said some incoming Russian missiles were intercepted.
The governor of southern Ukraine’s Mykolaiv province, Vitaliy Kim, said five missiles were shot down over the Black Sea.
The Ukrainian military’s command North said two were downed over the Sumy region, located on the border with Russia in the country’s northeast.
Fragments from downed Russian missiles damaged two private buildings in the Darnytskyi district of Kyiv, the city administration said.
An industrial facility and a playground in neighbourhoods located across the Dnieper River also were damaged, city officials said.
No casualties were immediately reported.
As the latest wave of Russian strikes began on Thursday, authorities in the Dnipro, Odesa and Kryvyi Rih regions said they switched off electricity to minimize the damage to critical infrastructure facilities if they were hit.
Earlier this month, the United States agreed to give a Patriot missile battery to Ukraine to boost the country’s defense.
The US and other allies also pledged to provide energy-related equipment to help Ukraine withstand the attacks on its infrastructure.
Podolyak, an adviser to Zelenskyy, said that Russia was aiming to “destroy critical infrastructure and kill civilians en masse”. “We’re waiting for further proposals from ‘peacekeepers’ about peaceful settlement,’ security guarantees for RF’ and undesirability of provocations,” Podolyak wrote on Twitter, a sarcastic reference to statements from some in the West who urged Ukraine to seek a political settlement of the conflict.
29.12.22. 120+ missiles over ?? launched by the "evil Russian world" to destroy critical infrastructure & kill civilians en masse. We’re waiting for further proposals from "peacekeepers" about "peaceful settlement", "security guarantees for RF" & undesirability of provocations.
— Михайло Подоляк (@Podolyak_M) December 29, 2022
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Monday that his nation wants a “peace” summit within two months at the United Nations with Secretary-General António Guterres as mediator.
Kuleba said Russia must face a war-crimes tribunal before his country directly talks with Moscow.
He said, however, that other nations should feel free to engage with the Russians. Commenting on the summit proposal on Thursday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova dismissed it as “delirious” and “hollow,” describing the proposal as a “publicity stunt by Washington that tries to cast the Kyiv regime as a peacemaker”. “It’s an attempt to give a semblance of legitimacy to a meaningless discussion that will not be followed by any concrete steps,” Zakharova said during a briefing. Russian officials have said that any peace plan can only proceed from Kyiv’s recognition of Russia’s sovereignty over the regions it illegally annexed from Ukraine in September.
Uddhav Thackeray, who heads one of the Shiv Sena factions, on Thursday targeted Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde leading the party’s rival camp, saying that those who do not have courage to build anything resort to stealing and capturing.
His statement comes a day after both the Sena factions faced off at the party’s office in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) headquarters in south Mumbai. The clash led to tension for about an hour before the police intervened.
Talking to reporters at the Maharashtra legislature complex here, Thackeray said the government is yet to give a proper response on the supplementary demands of Rs 52,000 crore, incentives for Vidarbha and farmers hit due to unseasonal rains.
“Those who don’t have the courage to build anything steal and capture,” Thackeray said.
“They have an inferiority complex and then they steal others’ parties and offices,” he added.
The confrontation at the BMC took place after Shinde faction MP Rahul Shewale, former civic body’s standing committee chairman Yashwant Jadhav and former corporator Sheetal Mhatre, all belonging to the Shinde-led Balasahebanchi Shiv Sena, entered the party office on Wednesday evening.
Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) faction’s former corporators, including Ashish Chemburkar and Sachin Padwal objected to their presence, leading to heated exchanges, sources said.
Supporters of Hindu Jagran Manch burnt an effigy of senior Congress leader Salman Khurshid and lodged its protest against remarks made by him on likening party leader Rahul Gandhi to Lord Ram.
The activists of Hindu Jagran Manch under the leadership of convenor Pradeep Saxena on Wednesday gathered at Sabzi Mandi Road Jawahar Nagar and burnt the effigy of Khurshid. The manch activists also staged a protest and raised slogans against the Khurshid.
Farrukhabad had been the Lok Sabha constituency of Salman Khurshid. Recently, Khurshid likened Rahul Gandhi to Lord Ram and described him as ”superhuman” and a ”yogi doing tapasya” lauding the former party chief for his Bharat Jodo Yatra which led to sharp criticism from the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Talking to reporters in Moradabad on Monday, Khurshid, who is the state coordinator of the yatra, had stated: ”Rahul Gandhi is superhuman. While we are freezing in the cold and wearing jackets, he is going out in a T-shirt (for the Bharat Jodo Yatra). He is like a yogi, he has called himself so, doing his ‘tapasya’ (penance) with focus”.
Drawing a parallel with Lord Ram and his brother Bharat, Khurshid had said: ”Lord Ram’s ‘khadau’ (wooden slipper) goes very far. Sometimes when Ram ji is not able to reach, Bharat takes his ‘khadau’ and goes to places. Like that, we have carried the ‘khadau’ in Uttar Pradesh”.
”Now that ‘khadau’ has reached Uttar Pradesh. Ram ji will also come, this is our belief,” Khurshid had said while responding to a question about the Gandhi-led yatra not passing through Uttar Pradesh till now,” he said
A special CBI court here on Thursday sent former ICICI Bank CEO and MD Chanda Kochhar, her husband Deepak Kochhar and Videocon group founder Venugopal Dhoot to 14-day judicial custody in connection with a loan fraud case.
The Kochhars were arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) last Friday.
Dhoot was arrested on Monday. The three were produced before special judge S H Gwalani at the end of their earlier remand on Thursday.
The CBI, represented by special public prosecutor A Limosin, did not seek their custody further.
The court then sent all three accused to judicial custody till January 10, 2023. The CBI had named the Kochhars and Dhoot, along with companies Nupower Renewables (NRL) managed by Deepak Kochhar, Supreme Energy Private Limited (SEPL), Videocon International Electronics Ltd (VIEL) and Videocon Industries Limited, as accused in its FIR registered in 2019 under Indian Penal Code sections related to criminal conspiracy and the Prevention of Corruption Act.
The CBI has alleged that ICICI Bank had sanctioned credit facilities to the tune of Rs 3,250 crore to companies of the Videocon Group promoted by Dhoot in violation of the Banking Regulation Act, RBI guidelines, and credit policy of the bank.
According to the CBI, a sanctioning committee headed by Chanda Kochhar in 2009 approved a term loan of Rs 300 crore to VIEL in contravention of the rules and policies of the bank by abusing her official position as a public servant.
The day after the loan was disbursed, Dhoot transferred Rs 64 crore to NRL from VIEL through SEPL.
“Full” security arrangements were made for Rahul Gandhi in accordance with laid down guidelines but he himself ”violated” the security protocols, government officials said Thursday, a day after the Congress alleged security breaches during the ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ in the national capital.
The Congress on Wednesday wrote to Home Minister Amit Shah, alleging security breaches during the Yatra in the city and demanded immediate steps to ensure the security of Gandhi and others taking part in the march.
“The security arrangements have been fully made for Rahul Gandhi as per the guidelines,” the officials said. Dismissing the allegations, the officials said the security arrangements made for the protectee works fine when the protectee himself adheres to the laid down security guidelines.
However, the officials alleged that on several occasions, violations of laid down guidelines on the part of Rahul Gandhi have been observed and this fact has been communicated to him from time to time.
For instance, since 2020, there have been 113 ”violations” observed and duly communicated, the officials said.
Besides, the officials said during the Delhi leg of the Bharat Jodo Yatra, Gandhi ”violated” security guidelines and the CRPF, which provides his inner cordon of the Z-plus category security, will be taking up this matter separately.
During the travel of the protectee, the required security arrangements are made by the CRPF in coordination with the state police and the security agencies in accordance with guidelines.
Advisories based on threat assessment have been issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs to all stakeholders concerned including the state governments.
An Advance Security Liaison (ASL) is also undertaken for every visit, the officials said.
For the Delhi leg of the Bharat Jodo Yatra on December 24, the ASL involving all stakeholders was conducted on December 22 and all security protocol have been strictly followed, they said.
The Delhi Police has informed that sufficient deployment of security personnel was made for it, they said.
AICC general secretary K C Venugopal had said in the letter to Shah that ”The government should not indulge in vindictive politics and ensure the safety and security of the Congress leaders”.
Citing instances of ”miscreants” entering the yatra camp site illegally, Venugopal had alleged that they were Haryana’s intelligence security personnel, who interrogated people who took part in the yatra.
”The security of the yatra was compromised on multiple occasions following its entry into Delhi on Saturday. Delhi Police completely failed to control the surging crowds and maintain a perimeter around Rahul Gandhi, who has ”Z+ Security”, he alleged.
The situation was so severe that Congress workers and ‘Bharat yatris’ walking with Gandhi had to form a security perimeter, he said and claimed that ”Delhi Police remained mute spectators”.
Venugopal also sought improved security for the yatra as it is set to enter the sensitive states of Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir.
The Kanyakumari to Kashmir yatra will resume on January 3, 2023, after taking a nine-day break in Delhi.
Seven Telugu Desam Party workers lost their lives after a scuffle broke out between party workers during a public meeting being held by party leader N Chandrababu Naidu in Kandukuru of Andhra Pradesh’s Nellore on Wednesday, police said.
The injured people were admitted to the nearby hospital.
“7 people have lost their lives, injured admitted to hospital,” police said.
Following the incident, Naidu announced financial assistance of Rs 10 lakhs each to the families of the deceased.
Naidu also said that the children of those deceased in the incident will be educated in NTR Trust educational institutions.
