RJD president Lalu Prasad escaped unhurt when a portion of the dais at his election meeting caved in due to overloading in Madhuvan Maidan in Bihar’s Arwal district.

Due to overcrowding at the dais, a portion of it caved in and many RJD workers fell down, eyewitnesses and the police said. Mr. Prasad was at another side of the wooden dais.

Later, excess people were evicted from the dais and the table was also removed to ease load on the platform. Mr. Prasad later addressed the public meeting at the same venue, about 12 km from Arwal town.

Mr. Prasad came to address the election meeting in support of RJD candidate from Arwal Ravindra Singh when the mishap took place.
Nobody suffered any major injury in the mishap, Station House Officer of Town Police station Kanhiah Singh said.

The RJD chief later jokingly said, “Nothing bad happens to good person like me, but those who have committed some wrong are punished.”

Mr. Prasad has been on a whirlwind tour of the state addressing on an average 7-8 election meetings to drum up support for ‘Grand Alliance’ in the Bihar elections.

An 85-year-old woman has complained of being tortured with searing tongs and stripped after being branded as a witch in Rajasthan’s Bihara village, over 260 km from here, police said.

The incident occurred on Sunday in Bhilwara district.

“The woman, Chau Bai, met additional superintendent of police of the area on Monday and told him about the incident. Police have launched an investigation into it,” a police official said on Tuesday.

The woman, a mother of two daughters, in her complaint alleged that on Sunday about 14-16 people from her village branded her as a witch and tortured her with searing hot tongs. “I was beaten with iron chains,” she alleged.

Bai, who was later admitted to Mahatma Gandhi Hospital in Bhilwara, alleged the villagers targeted her to grab her property and wanted to force her out of the village.

“On Sunday some villagers brought a witch doctor. They (the villagers) dragged me forcibly by my hair to my veranda (porch). The witch doctor poured a liquor like substance on my body. I was beaten up and stripped naked and later they threw me into a nali (drain),” she said.

The Rajasthan Prevention of Witch Hunting Act 2015, which is in force in the state, says that forcing a woman, after branding her as a witch, to drink or eat any inedible substance or any obnoxious substance or parade her naked or with scanty clothes or with painted face or body or committing any similar acts derogatory to human dignity or displacing her from her house or other property is punishable with rigorous imprisonment for a term not less than three years but which may be extended to seven years or served with a fine not less than Rs. 50,000 or both.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Tuesday arrested Bank of Baroda AGM and Forex branch head in Delhi in connection with the Rs 6,000 crore illegal remittances case.

Separately, four middlemen have also been arrested by the Enforcement Directorate(ED). The bank had filed a complaint after internal probe found huge transactions through 59 companies to Hong Kong for imports that never happened.

The agency on Sunday conducted searches at locations and started questioning of some of the suspects.

CBI sources said most of the 59 account holder companies, which had allegedly sent these remittances in the garb of payments for suspected non-existent imports, have given wrong addresses.

The FIR alleged that “59 current account holders and unknown bank officials conspired to send overseas remittances, mostly to Hong Kong, of foreign exchange worth approximately Rs 6,000 crores in illegal and irregular manner in violation of established banking norms under the garb of payments towards suspected non-existent imports”.

The bank had carried out an internal probe after an audit red flagged nearly 8,000 transactions done from its Ashok Vihar branch, the CBI sources said.

Eight Nigerians were arrested from Delhi for allegedly cheating a city-based woman of Rs 5.4 lakh on the pretext of one of them promising to marry her, Cyberabad police said on Tuesday.

The cyber crime team of Cyberabad Police arrested prime accused Udunna Chukwuma Collions, Adevayo Olabanji and six others in connection with the case.

The woman lodged a complaint with police in August 2015 stating that she had registered her details with ‘Simply Marry’ matrimonial website.

In February 2014, she got a marriage proposal from a member of the same portal by name Garry Philles. Both of them exchanged their email IDs and they discussed about themselves and their families, police said.

The prime accused Udunna, posing as Garry, told the complainant that he was employed as a civil consultant with Delhi Metro and needed to return to Florida, US, after his contract gets over in March this year, a release from Cyberabad Police said.

“The accused showed genuine interest in meeting her and her parents and offered to come to Hyderabad before leaving for the US and to settle the marriage proposal,” police said.

In the meanwhile, the woman went to UK in April 2015 and asked Garry to meet her there, though he did not meet her. They finally decided to meet in India after the woman returned in June.

However, Garry called her and informed that he came to India but was detained by Customs officers on his return for carrying huge cash, gift articles and other valuables.

“The prime accused contacted the victim over phone and made her believe that if she did not pay the money, a case will be registered against him and also her,” police said.

Another accused Adevayo contacted the victim posing as a RBI officer and allegedly made her to deposit Rs 5.4 lakh into
the bank accounts provided by the remaining accused.

BJP MP Satyapal Singh on Tuesday kicked up a row with his remarks calling Dadri lynching a “small incident”, evoking strong reactions from Opposition parties, which said it was a reflection of the party’s “polarisation” strategy.

“As far as a small incident like Dadri is concerned, our country’s democratic atmosphere is fully competent to handle. Our country is full competent to handle such incidents,” said Singh.

The BJP MP from Baghpat also said Government needs to take a view on the plight of Muslims as well as followers of other religion.

Reacting sharply to Singh’s comments on Dadri, Congress spokesperson Ajoy Kumar said it is a reflection of what the BJP was trying to do.

“I am absolutely dismayed at the remarks of the BJP MP, who was also a former Police Commissioner of Mumbai,” he said, alleging that such remarks reflect the “strategy” of BJP to “usurp” power by “polarising” communities.

SP leader Rajiv Rai demanded an apology from the BJP and alleged that it was aiming at “communal polarisation”, which would be seen more as Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections scheduled in 2017 comes closer.

He wondered if Dadri is a minor incident, what else is a big incident. “They should apologise. I am disgusted that this statement comes from an MP, who was a former police commissioner.”

50-year-old Iqlakh was dragged out of his home by a 200-strong mob and beaten to death after a public announcement from the local temple that the family had slaughtered a calf and eaten its meat in Uttar Pradesh’s Bishada village in Dadri.