Live update: Excise dept’s ‘carelessness’ caused hooch tragedy says Harish Rawat

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley tweeted on Saturday after he got back from the US where he had been undergoing treatment. He wrote on Twitter, “Delighted to be back home”

Prime Minister Narendra Modi was shown black flags in at least two places in Guwahati on second consecutive day over citizenship bill.

Earlier on Friday, Members of the All Assam Students Union (AASU) showed black flags to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and shouted slogans against the Citizenship Bill as he travelled to Raj Bhavan from the airport after he arrived in the city. Slogans like 'Modi go back', 'Scrap Citizenship Amendment Bill', 'Joi Aai Asom' (Glory to Mother Assam) were raised.

“Which industrialist is funding this bribing bid? Which deal is funding this? Is this a result of some defence deal? PM Modi should answer these questions. Chowkidaar should answer who is the thief,” said Randeep Singh Surjewala

“Karnataka government has filed a case. But, the line goes straight to the doors of Amit Shah. This is not limited to a state anymore. This is about the country. So, this case should be probed thoroughly. CBI should probe this case,” said Surjewala.

The Andhra Pradesh government has hired two special trains to ferry people to New Delhi for Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu's protest against the Centre on February 11.

The General Administration Department has released ₹1.12 crore to hire the trains with 20 compartments each from the South Central Railway.

According to the orders issued by the Department, the trains from Ananthapur and Srikakulam will transport leaders of political parties, organisations, NGOs and associations to the national capital to enable them to participate in the one-day 'Deeksha' protest.

Separatist-called shutdown on Saturday in the Kashmir valley, marks the sixth death anniversary of Parliament-attack mastermind Afzal Guru, has paralysed life across the region.

Afzal Guru was executed in Delhi's Tihar Jail on this day in 2013.

While calling for the shutdown, the Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL), a separatist conglomerate headed by Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umer Farooq and Muhammad Yasin Malik, has reiterated their demand for handing over Afzal Guru's mortal remains to the family.

The CBI is all set to question the Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar in Shillong, Meghalaya on Saturday. He is being questioned for his alleged tampering of evidence in the Saradha chit fund scam.

Supreme Court directed the CBI to question the police commissioner at a neutral place to avoid political controversy.

The top court has made it clear that the CBI will not arrest Kumar, who arrived in Shillong on Friday with three senior officers of the Kolkata Police.

In view of rising cases of swine flu and deaths due to the disease in Gujarat and Punjab, the Union Health Ministry has sent two teams to assess the situation and assist the states in strengthening their response mechanism to contain the ailment.

Fifty-four deaths and 1,187 cases were reported in Gujarat till February 7, while 30 deaths and 301 cases were reported from Punjab, according to data by the Health Ministry.

"Two central teams have been sent to Gujarat and Punjab as they have reported large number of fatalities due to the H1N1 infection," said an official from the ministry.

Both teams comprise a microbiologist, an epidemiologist and a clinician.

Ninety-six deaths and 2,706 cases were reported in Rajasthan till February 7, the data stated.

The Shiv Sena on Saturday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi should answer whether the Rafale deal was meant to strengthen the Air Force or a financially-troubled industrialist.

The party's remarks came after a report in The Hindu newspaper on Friday claimed that the Defence Ministry had raised strong objections to "parallel discussions" conducted by the PMO during the negotiations over the ₹59,000 crore Rafale deal between India and France.

The Sena, in an editorial in its mouthpiece 'Saamana' said Modi gave a speech on "patriotism" in Parliament on Thursday and defended the deal. "But the very next day, the 'black page' (document) came out, which silenced those raising patriotic slogans and thumping benches in the House," it said.

The Sangam city is all set to host the third 'shaahi snaan' of the ongoing Kumbh on Basant Panchami, falling on Sunday, during which more than two crore devotees are expected to take a holy dip.

All the roads from the neighbouring districts led to Sangam city as devotees from different parts of the state and country arrived here to participate in the bath.

Kumbh Mela Adhikari Vijay Kiran Anand said on Saturday that more than two crore people from different walks of life are likely to arrive here to take a dip on the occasion of Basant Panchami on Sunday.

With the death of one more person on Saturday, the death toll in the Uttar Pradesh hooch tragedy has climbed to 36, officials said.

The victim, Ravindra from Kushinagar district, died on Saturday morning at a hospital where he was being treated for the past two days, said an official.

With this death, the toll in Kushinagar alone rose to 11.

Saharanpur District Magistrate Alok Pandey said, “There have been 46 postmortems so far out of which 36 deaths are clearly due to consumption of illicit liquor according to the doctors. Other cases are being ascertained.”

Apprehensive over political ramifications, the Maharashtra Police and local government officials forcibly broke a six-day long hunger strike by three daughters of poor farmers in Puntamba village, Ahmednagar district, on Saturday.

In a pre-dawn swoop, a police team raided the marquee where two of the three fasting girls, Nikita Jadhav, 20 and Poonam Jadhav, 19 were resting along with relatives and supporters, and whisked them off to Ahmednagar Civil Hospital.

By 3 am, the police team uprooted the marquee, banners and posters put up for the agitation after local officials claimed they were "illegally erected". The girls' protesting relatives and supporters were detained while onlookers were chased away.

Angered by the action, the Puntamba village observed a spontaneous shutdown -- the second in three days, demanding that the girls, including 19-year old Shubhangi Jadhav, who was bundled off to hospital on Friday, should be immediately released.

“FIRs have been registered at 3 police stations. A crackdown was done by a joint team last night. At least 30 people were arrested, 25 FIRs registered. More than 400 litres illicit liquor was seized. The crackdown will continue until this is completely finished”, said Saharanpur SSP

Twitter CEO and top officials have declined to appear before the Parliamentary Committee on IT that had summoned them over the issue of safeguarding citizens' rights on social media platforms, sources in the panel said on Saturday.

The Parliamentary Committee, headed by BJP MP Anurag Thakur, had issued a summon to Twitter via an official letter on February 1.

The CBI began questioning the Kolkata Police chief on Saturday at highly secured agency's office here in connection with chit fund scam cases, officials said.

Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar, his counsel Biswajit Deb and senior IPS officers Javed Shamim and Murlidhar Sharma arrived at the probe agency's office at 11 am, they said.

Kumar's counsel and the two IPS officers were asked to leave the CBI office within 30 minutes, they said

A day after the Supreme Court said BSP chief Mayawati may have to reimburse the public money spent on erecting her statues, she asked BJP leaders and the media not to "distort" the observation of the court.

The final hearing in the case against the former UP chief minister is on April 2.

"Humble request to the media please don't distort oral observation of the Honorable court. Sure to get justice in this matter also. Media and BJP leaders please stop kite flying," she said in a tweet.

A small section of people who try to foment communal violence in society should be isolated and the government will take stringent action against such elements, said state Home Minister M B Patil.

He was speaking after inaugurating a three-day Beary Mela organised by the Beary Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI).

Patil said while 99% of the population wanted to live in peace and harmony, 1% was creating trouble on communal lines. People who come forward to isolate such miscreants would get support from the government.

China on Saturday, February 9, "firmly opposed" Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Arunachal Pradesh, asserting that it has never recognised the sensitive border state and the Indian leadership should refrain from any action that may "complicate the boundary question.”

Prime Minister Modi on Saturday inaugurated and laid foundation stone of projects in Arunachal Pradesh worth over ₹4,000 crore and said his government was giving a lot of importance to improve connectivity in the border state.

The National Women's Party will contest on all 25 Lok Sabha seats in Rajasthan and field 13 women candidates in the upcoming general elections.

In the remaining seats, the National Women's Party (NWP) may even field male candidates, party president Shweta Shetty told reporters.

She said her party will contest on 283 seats in the country in the elections.

Former Uttarakhand chief minister Harish Rawat slammed the ruling BJP government over the hooch tragedy, saying the incident occurred due to "carelessness" of the state excise department.

Terming the compensation of ₹2 lakh announced by the Uttarakhand government for the families of those killed in the tragedy inadequate, Rawat said an amount of at least ₹5 lakh should have been given to them besides a job to one dependent member from each family.