Delhi

New Delhi, Apr 16 (PTI) Two weeks before gangster-turned-politician Atiq Ahmad was shot dead while under police escort in Prayagraj, the Supreme Court had dismissed his plea seeking protection during his custody with the Uttar Pradesh Police in the Umesh Pal murder case.

Ahmad (60) and his brother Ashraf were shot dead at point-blank range by three men posing as journalists in the middle of a media interaction on Saturday night while police personnel were escorting them to a medical college for a checkup.

New Delhi, Apr 16 (PTI) A day after gangster-politician Atiq Ahmad and his brother Ashraf were shot dead under police escort, a plea was filed in the Supreme Court on Sunday seeking the constitution of an independent expert committee headed by a former apex court judge to probe the killings.

The plea, filed by advocate Vishal Tiwari, also sought an inquiry into the 183 encounters that have taken place in Uttar Pradesh since 2017.

New Delhi, Apr 16 (PTI) Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena on Sunday flagged "procedural lapses" in summoning a day-long session of the Delhi Assembly on April 17, drawing a sharp reaction from Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal who said he would want the LG to study the Constitution again.

This came on a day Kejriwal was questioned for about nine hours by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in connection with the Delhi excise policy case.

New Delhi, Apr 16 (PTI) Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday said the CBI asked him around 56 questions regarding the excise policy case and he answered them all.

"I want to say that the entire excise policy case is false. They do not have any evidence that the AAP is wrong. It's a result of dirty politics," he told reporters.

He was speaking to the media at his residence after around nine hours of questioning by the probe agency.

New Delhi, Apr 14 (PTI) The NCERT consulted 25 external experts and 16 CBSE teachers to carry out its syllabus rationalisation exercise as part of which portions on the Mughals, Mahatma Gandhi, his assassin Nathuram Godse, reference to Hindu extremists and the 2002 Gujarat riots among others were dropped from school textbooks, according to the Education Ministry.

New Delhi, Apr 14 (PTI) A Kisan Morcha leader of the Delhi BJP was shot dead in Dwarka's Bindapur area on Friday evening, police said.

An incident of firing was reported from Bindapur in which Surendra Matiala (60) died, they said.

According to police, Matiala was sitting inside his office when two unidentified men entered with arms and opened fire at him.

Washington, April 12 (PTI) Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday had a meeting with her counterpart from Saudi Arabia Mohammed Aljadaan during which they discussed the global debt crisis and strengthening of the multilateral development banks, an Indian initiative under its G-20 presidency.

"H.E. Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and I discussed the #G20 agenda, and the progress made," Aljadaan said in a tweet after the meeting held on the sidelines of the annual Spring Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank here.

New Delhi, Apr 11 (PTI) RJD leader and Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav Tuesday attacked the Centre after his questioning by the Enforcement Directorate in a money laundering case, saying all this will continue till the 2024 Lok Sabha polls as the BJP-led government was "afraid" of the election.

He was questioned for about nine hours at ED's office here in the money laundering case linked to the alleged land-for-jobs scam.

New Delhi, Apr 11 (PTI) India on Tuesday firmly rejected China's objection to Home Minister Amit Shah's visit to Arunachal Pradesh and asserted that the state "was, is and will" always remain an integral and inalienable part of India.

External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said objecting to such visits does not stand to reason and will not change the reality.

New Delhi, Apr 11 (PTI) German luxury car maker Mercedes-Benz on Tuesday reported record sales in India at 4,697 units during the first quarter of 2023, a 17 per cent growth over the year-ago period, with its top end vehicles priced above Rs 1 crore seeing accelerated growth.