A Delhi court on Tuesday framed charges against former railway minister Pawan Kumar Bansal’s nephew Vijay Singla and nine others in the Rs. 10-crore cash-for-post railway bribery case.

Singla and nine others were today put on trial by a special court on charges of conspiracy and corruption.

Special CBI Judge Swarana Kanta Sharma framed charges against all the 10 accused under section 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC read with provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act. The accused did not plead guilty to the offences and claimed trial in the case.

“We do not plead guilty and claim trial,” the accused said after which the court posted the matter for August 25 for commencement of recording of prosecution evidence in the case.

Congress leader Bansal, who had to resign as Railway Minister in May last year after the case came to light, has been arrayed as a prosecution witness by the CBI.

Bansal, who had to resign from his post after the case had came into light, has been arrayed as a prosecution witness by the CBI.

During the last hearing, special CBI judge Swarana Kanta Sharma ordered framing of charges under section 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC and under various provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act against all the accused, including the then Member (Staff) of Railway Board Mahesh Kumar.

The court noted that CBI filed details regarding the trail of money that is the source of bribe amount as to how it was collected and the conspiracy within the conspiracy as to how accused Manjunath mobilised the bribe amount from various sources.

The probe agency has named as the accused Singla, Kumar, alleged middlemen Sandeep Goyal, Samir Sandhir, Sushil Daga, Ajay Garg, Rahul Yadav and businessman Manjunath and his aides MV Murli Krishan and Venugopal in its chargesheet filed July last year.

The court has found substantive evidence against Singla under section 9 of the Prevention of Corruption Act (taking gratification, for exercise of personal influence with public servant).

The probe agency had alleged that Singla had demanded Rs. 10 crore from Kumar for his appointment to the post of Member (Electrical) and it was decided between the accused that Rs 5 crore will be paid before the appointment and the rest will be paid after the job was done.

It had claimed that first tranche of around Rs. 90 lakh was given to Singla who was apprehended while accepting the money.

Stand-up comedian and actor Raju Srivastava on Tuesday opted out of contesting elections to Kanpur seat in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

Srivastava cited non-cooperation from the Samajwadi Party as the reason for his withdrawal from the poll fray.

I was spending almost five days a week in Kanpur, but if the city unit does not support me, I will have to return my ticket, said the actor.

He added that he is receiving love and admiration of people because of his comic timing. “So, it’s better I stick to that…I want to return my Lok Sabha ticket to SP and say thanks,” said Srivastava.

Srivastava was given the party ticket last year and had already started his election campaign.

While the SP leadership, including party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, apparently asked him to stay put he decided to quit.

A senior leader told that the party too was waiting for the comedian to call it a day as the contest on each seat had become important.

Srivastava, who was born in Kanpur, later shifted to Mumbai. Kanpur Lok Sabha constituency is presently represented by Union Minister and senior Congress leader Sriprakash Jaiswal.

A youth has been convicted of raping his 14-year-old lover by a Delhi court which said though the physical relations between them were “consensual”, he was guilty of the crime as the girl was a minor.

“The girl was only 14 years of age at that time and hence her consent to the sexual intercourse with the accused was totally immaterial,” said the court which, however, acquitted Surender Paswan of the charges of kidnapping the girl.

The court said she was neither lured by him nor was she forced to accompany him and taht she wilfully went with him as they were in love.

“It is evident that the prosecutrix (girl) was neither allured by the accused (Surender) to accompany him nor was forced or threatened by him to accompany him. Manifestly, the girl was in love with Surender and willingly accompanied him on December 18, 2000.

“This is also indicated by the fact that she had left her house at midnight i.e. In dead of night without informing her parents or anybody else at home. Therefore, the essentials ingredients of the offence under section 363 (kidnapping) IPC have not been established by the prosecution and the accused is liable to be acquitted of the same,” Additional Sessions Judge Virender Bhat said.

“It is also clear from the discussion that there had been sexual intercourse between Surender and the girl during the time she was with him and these were also consensual. But as noted herein-above, the girl was only 14 years of age at that time and hence her consent to the sexual intercourse with the accused was totally immaterial.

“Therefore, the sexual intercourse between Surender and the girl comes within the definition of offence of rape as provided under section 375 IPC and the accused is liable to be convicted for the said offence,” it added.

A Congress law-maker in Kerala has been accused of rape by the police in a case registered.

AP Abdullakutty, who represents Kannur in the state legislature, has been accused of sexually assaulting a woman in a hotel in Thiruvananthapuram.

She has also alleged that the politician, who is 46, threatened her against disclosing what had happened.

The Congress leader has denied the charges.  “I have several things to reveal myself.  I will do it at the right time. These are attempts made to defame me and the party for no reason,” he said.

The woman who has alleged rape is linked to a financial scandal that has dogged the Congress-led coalition government in the state over the last year.  The alleged scam involves a couple who duped companies into investing in solar power units that were never delivered.

A personal aide of Chief Minister Oommen Chandy was arrested in connection with the scam.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is organising a fund-raising dinner with its national president Arvind Kejriwal as host at a price of Rs. 10,000 per person on March 13 at a luxury hotel in Sadar in Nagpur.

The party is getting response for the event and the number of those likely to attend it could be between 150 and 200, AAP’s media coordinator and fund-raising dinner organiser Girish Nandgaonkar and spokesperson Prajakta Atul said. The registrations are going on and Nagpur Lok Sabha candidate Anjali Damania will also be present at the dinner.

“The dinner is basically for our donors and we will put up all names on our AAP Nagpur website,” a release from AAP said in Nagpur on Monday. Kejriwal will be arriving in the city on March 13 on a two-day tour of the region.

The former Delhi chief minister will be touring Chandrapur and Bhandara Lok Sabha constituencies and attend the dinner the same night with donors. On March 14, the AAP leader will be joining a road show in the city, party sources said.

In a bid to restore the lost confidence of widows, an organisation- Nature’s Care and Social Welfare Society, has decided to honour the men in Raipur who marry widows by sponsoring the couple’s honeymoon trip.

They announced, during an event in Raipur, that the couple would be given 4 days and 3 nights honeymoon package for free. The couple would be able to choose from 45 destinations around Asia.

The organisation has also offered to appeal to the state government for jobs, house among other things for the couple if they require any such help.

The director of the organisation DR Vineeta Pandey said, “This campaign is a step towards providing widows with their lost respect.”

Marriages which were fixed at the event will take place on the auspicious occasion of Akshay Tritiya which falls on May 2 this year, she added.

75 men and 55 women, some of them bearing children, attended the event held at Maharashtra Mandal in Choubey Colony. Men and women from various regions including Raipur, UP, MP, Maharashta, Gujarat, Odisha and Haryana also attended the event.

A 32-year-old man allegedly killed his wife for not adding tomatoes to his dish. The incident was reported from Lakshman Jhula area near Rishikesh.

Virender Singh Maratha (33) had a fight with his wife (30) on Sunday as she did not add tomatoes to the potato dish that she had cooked.

The report further added that the fight turned violent and Virender, the accused, repeatedly smashed his wife’s head against a wall.

Police said the accused Virender Singh Maratha works as a security guard at Bhootnath Temple and has been arrested on charges of murder.

The couple was married for the past 11 years and has two sons, Subodh (10) and Shivam (8).

Kashmir Valley was cut off from rest of the country due to heavy snowfall, as the arterial Srinagar-Jammu national highway remained closed while flights to the city airport here could not operate.

Heavy snowfall has been reported from across the Valley with Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir, also getting nearly one foot of snow since last night.

The snowfall has led to closure of the 294-km Srinagar-Jammu national highway, the only all weather road link between the valley and rest of the country, a traffic department official said.

He said the ongoing snowfall was hampering the road clearance operations.

An official of the airport authority of India said no flight has been able to arrive at Srinagar airport since this morning due to the snowfall.

“No flights have been cancelled so far but if it continues to snow, the chances of any flights arriving here are bleak,” he added.

The authorities closed the schools for two days while Kashmir University has postponed all the exams scheduled for the day.

The snowfall and rains since yesterday have affected normal life in the Valley as people preferred to stay indoors.

Many roads of the city including commercial hub of Lal Chowk and Exhibition crossing have been inundated and people are facing difficulty in moving around.

MeT department has forecast rain or snowfall in most parts of Kashmir over the next 24 hours.