India

Patna, Aug 8 (PTI) Bihar Social Welfare Minister Manju Verma today handed over her resignation to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar amid uproar over sex scandal case in the Muzaffarpur shelter home.

Verma met the chief minister and handed over her resignation to him, sources in the Chief Minister's Office said here.

The minister has been in the eye of the storm after name of her husband surfaced in the case of sexual abuse of girls at state-funded Muzaffarpur shelter home.

Mumbai, Aug 8 (PTI) Actor Kangana Ranaut today said it is a sad state of affair that people in the country are being lynched in the name of cows, even as she stressed the need to protect the animal.

There have been several incidents of lynching in the country on suspicions of either cow smuggling or consuming beef.

7 Aug 2018; DW: In the past few years, the media industry in India has expanded tremendously. But at the same time, corporate and political influences on journalists have also increased. Murali Krishnan reports from New Delhi.

New Delhi, Aug 7; PTI:  The Supreme Court today expressed concern over incidents of rape in the country and said that women are being raped "left, right and centre".

A bench comprising Justices M B Lokur, Deepak Gupta and K M Joseph pulled up the Bihar government for funding an NGO which ran the shelter home in Muzaffarpur where girls were allegedly raped and sexually abused.

The bench referred to National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data and said that  every six hours, a woman is raped in India.

Lucknow, Aug 7; PTI: Uttar Pradesh minister Rita Bahuguna Joshi today admitted laxity by Deoria administration in shutting down the shelter home from where 24 girls were rescued, saying the district officials were aware about the closure order but allowed the facility to operate for more than a year.

The admission of laxity by the state women and child welfare minister came a day after Union minister Maneka Gandhi said she feared that there could be more cases of sexual abuse of minor girls at shelter homes.

New Delhi, Aug 7 (PTI) The Supreme Court today agreed to hear on August 13 the plea of a survivor of the Hapur lynching case, seeking a court-monitored SIT probe into the incident in which one person was killed allegedly on suspicion of being involved in cow slaughter.

The plea also sought cancellation of bail of the accused and transfer of case outside Uttar Pradesh.

Ghaziabad, Aug 7 (PTI) The police have arrested a man who allegedly raped and killed a five-year-old girl last week here, an official said.

The girl's body was found stuffed in a bag on the roof of a house in a locality here, police said.

The incident took place on August 2.

Senior Superintendent of Police Vaibhav Krishna said the girl was missing since Thursday and her father had lodged a missing report at the Khoda police station.

Deoria (UP), Aug 6, 2018; PTI:  Twenty-four girls were rescued from a shelter home here after allegation of their sexual exploitation came to light, police said today.

Girija Tripathi and her husband Mohan Tripathi, who operated the shelter home, and its superintendent Kanchanlata were arrested, they said.

This case comes close on the heels of alleged sexual abuse of young girls at a state-funded shelter home in Bihar's Muzaffarpur.

Raipur, Aug 6, 2018; PTI:  At least 15 Maoists were gunned down today in an encounter with security forces in a dense forest in Chhattisgarh's Sukma district, police said.

This was one of the biggest anti-Naxal operations in the history of Chhattisgarh, where 15 bodies of rebels were recovered in a single incident, state's Special Director General of Police (anti-Naxal operations) D M Awasthi told reporters here.

Two Naxals, including a woman who was injured the gunbattle, were also arrested from the encounter site.

New Delhi, Aug 6 (PTI) Judges of the Supreme Court today met Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra and lodged their protest over the Centre's decision to lower down the seniority of Justice K M Joseph, who is scheduled to take oath as apex court judge along with two others tomorrow.

Highly placed sources in the apex court said the judges, including Justices M B Lokur and Kurian Joseph, who are members of the collegium, met the CJI at the judges lounge during the tea before start of the day's working.