Azam Khan, a senior minister in Uttar Pradesh, said he will not apologise for an alleged hate speech that led to him being banned from campaigning by the Election Commission.

“I have not committed a crime,” Mr. Khan said. The 55-year-old is a prominent Muslim face of the state’s ruling Samajwadi Party.

Earlier this month, the Election Commission made rallies and public meetings off-limits for Mr. Khan and Amit Shah, a top aide of the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi who is running his campaign in Uttar Pradesh. Both were accused of making speeches designed to incite tension between Hindus and Muslims in Uttar Pradesh, which elects 80 parliamentarians.

The ban on Mr. Shah was lifted last evening after the Election Commission said the BJP leader had conceded his fault and in writing vowed not to use “abusive or derogatory language.”

The Samajwadi Party suggested that the commission had not treated Mr. Shah and Mr. Khan equally. “When Azam Khan defends his action, how can the ban on his campaign be lifted?” asked an Election Commission source. “We can examine that once he accepts our authority and orders,” said the source.

Muslims account for nearly 20 per cent of the population of UP. In September last year, Hindu-Muslim riots, allegedly fuelled by inflammatory speeches by leaders from a cross-section of parties, left nearly 60 people dead in Muzaffarnagar in the western part of the state. Nearly 60,000 people were displaced.

The BJP, under prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, is expected to win the maximum seats in the national election -voting, spread across nine phases, ends on May 12; results will be declared on May 16.

Three students have died after a motorcycle accident on campus at Delhi’s famous Jawaharlal Nehru University.

The students, all male hostellers, were riding a bike which collided first with a divider on the road and then a tree, said the police.

One died immediately, while the other two died after being moved to hospital, the police said.

The students were in their mid-20s and were studying Korean at the university.

A bike is worshipped by devotees in a temple called ‘Om Banna’s Bullet Baba Mandir’ near Pali district in Jodhpur, that is named after a boy called Om Singh Rathore. The motorcycle is a 350cc Royal Enfield Bullet.

Anybody who crosses the temple should stop by and worship and offer ‘prasad’, otherwise its believed the person will meet with an accident and die. People offer flowers, incense sticks, camphor and even liquor bottles.

For the past twenty years, the temple is being maintained by a girl called Poonam, who is now considered to be Bullet Mandir’s priest.

The mystery of Om Singh Rathore dates back to 1991. He was driving his bullet and died in a road accident. The police took the bike with them. The next day, they again found the bike at the same spot where Om had died.

Police would take the bike, but the next morning they would find the bike at the accident spot. The news spread far and wide and people started believing that it was Om’s spirit who was behind the mischief.

As their blind faith grew, they gathered and started worshipping the bike.

In no time, a temple was built in Om’s name, which now is famously known as Om Banna’s Bullet Baba Mandir. The temple was constructed at the same place where he had died. The bike and Om’s photo were placed inside and ever since, devotees, particularly bike riders bow their heads in honor of temple and leave an offering whenever they pass by it.

The opposition PDP in Jammu and Kashmir has blamed union minister Farooq Abdullah for the killing of a sarpanch, or village head, by militants on Thursday.

Three suspected terrorists shot dead PDP activist and sarpanch Amin Pandit in Awantipore in South Kashmir on Thursday night. Pandit was taken away at gunpoint from outside his home and killed.

The PDP alleged that the killing was linked to a controversial statement made by Farooq Abdullah a few hours before, about using violence against the opposition party if he had the backing of militants.

“Why not? If I could resort to. I don’t have the guns, the bombs…I don’t have anything. I am going to attack them with a bloody thumb, that is called the vote,” the National Conference leader said. He was reportedly speaking in connection with an attack on National Conference youth leader Yawar Massodi on Sunday, which he has blamed on the PDP.

PDP president Mehbooba Mufti has asked the Election Commission to take action against Mr Abdullah.

“The Election Commission should go through the inflammatory statement of Farooq Abdullah. He says I would have attacked PDP leaders if I had bombs and guns. It was followed by violence on the ground,” Ms Mufti said.

Several militant groups have called for a boycott of the national election in Jammu and Kashmir, which has six parliamentary seats.

A local court rejected the bail plea of three persons accused of killing two brothers during the riots here last year.

District sessions judge Vijay Laxmi rejected bail plea of Sehdev, Ajit Singh and Amardeep, accused of killing brothers Shahid and Nawab on September 9 last year, during communal riots that hit the district, said district government council Dushyant Tyagi.

The duo had gone to fetch milk for their shop at Matheri village in the district where they were attacked by the rioters, Tyagi said.

Deceased’s father Akhtar Hasan had loged a complaint with police against six people.

The Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing into the riots had also confirmed their involvement in the crime.