Live updates: Night curfew lifted in Nadia & Hooghly districts on November 12, 13

Many children are suspected to be stuck in a building as the children's ward of Bhopal's Kamla Nehru Hospital caught fire on Monday evening. Read more...

The owners of Max Corporate Services Sharat Pant and his wife Mallika, who are the main accused in the fake Covid testing scam during Haridwar Kumbh, were arrested from Noida in Uttar Pradesh on Monday. Based on a tip-off, the SIT probing the scam arrested the absconding couple from their residence in Sector 48, Noida when they had come there to collect some of their belongings, Haridwar SSP Yogendra Singh Rawat said.The accused violated the norms to get the contract for conducting Covid tests and entered fake data of tests that were never conducted into their records to get money from the government on the basis of forged bills, the SSP said.They produced false data claiming to have conducted Covid tests on 1,24,031 devotees and produced bills demanding a payment of more than Rs 4 crore from the government at the rate of Rs 354 per test, Rawat said. (PTI)

Telangana IT Minister KT Rama Rao on Monday said that Income Tax and ED raids were conducted on actor Sonu Sood by those who feared that he might take a political plunge."It happened to Sonu Sood also. While he is doing service to the people then there were IT and ED raids…they are worried and fearing that if Sonu Sood comes into politics they may suffer politically," said Rama Rao, who is also referred to as KTR.Addressing an event here after handing over awards to Covid-19 warriors, KTR told Sonu Sood that he need not get afraid of anyone adding "You are the real hero. You should not be deterred and worried about any such thing. We are all with you".KTR said Sonu Sood (in his speech) had mentioned about the four things "paap" throws at you (on those helping others).

Several people have been injured and houses set on fire during a clash between two groups over alleged encroachment of government land in Odisha's Puri district, an official said on Monday Tension was simmering between upper caste people and those belonging to the lower caste, who had migrated to Nathapur in the Brahmagiri area of Puri district a few months ago, the official said.Trouble erupted during a meeting on Sunday called by the two groups leading to the clash that saw bombs and stones being hurled by both sides, the official said.The locals have been claiming that those who came to the area from outside were building permanent houses on government land. (PTI)

Girish Tyagi, the elder son of former Uttar Pradesh minister Rajpal Tyagi and brother of BJP Muradnagar MLA Ajit Tyagi, surrendered in a court in Uttar Pradesh's Ghaziabad on Monday over a year after being named prime accused in the killing of his maternal uncle. The court of Chief Judicial Magistrate of Ghaziabad sent Girish to 14-day judicial custody. He is the main accused in the killing of his maternal uncle Naresh Tyagi, a government contractor, an official said.He reached the court to surrender with a flock of advocates along with his defence counsel Mohit Tyagi. Prior to this, his advocate had submitted an application twice in the lower court.Girish was on the run since the incident took place last year. (PTI)

Six youths have been arrested in connection with the brutal, public murder of a police officer's son on Diwali (November 4) in Karnataka's Kalaburgi district, the police said on Monday.The accused had hacked to death Abhishek, 25, son of police constable Chandrakanth, in full public view in filmy style after chasing him down near the Kalaburgi city bus stop.The incident had taken place in broad daylight and in front of hundreds of people, and was also caught in the CCTV camera of the bus stop. Later, the video of the incident had gone viral, sending shocking waves among people. (IANS)

Kerala Excise department personnel on Monday seized 1,067 litres of illicit liquor filled in branded bottles from a bar in nearby Kodencherry and arrested two persons in this connection, officials said. They said about 917 bottles of low-brand rum and brandy were seized from the bar.The rest of the unfilled liquor was stored in barrels, they said.Excise Deputy Commissioner Jayapalan told PTI that the officials raided the bar based on a specific input. (PTI)

Gujarat on Monday reported 29 new coronavirus cases, raising its infection tally to 8,26,764, while no fresh death due to the disease was registered in the state, the health department said. Also, 41 patients were discharged during the day, pushing the number of recovered cases in the state to 8,16,457, it said. The number of Covid-19 fatalities remained unchanged at 10,090 as no new death was reported, said the department in a release. (PTI)

A Punjab police SIT team on Monday grilled jailed Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh for more than seven hours in connection with a 2015 sacrilege case.During the questioning at Rohtak's Sunaria jail in Haryana, the jailed sect head was asked more than 100 questions by the Punjab police special investigation team (SIT) led by Inspector General of Police S P S Parmar."The questioning began at 10:30 AM and continued till 6 PM," Parmar told PTI over the phone.The SIT will now submit a report in this regard in the Punjab and Haryana High Court on November 12, he said.

Four CRPF jawans were killed and three others injured after their colleague opened fire at them in a camp of the paramilitary force in Chhattisgarh's Sukma district in the wee hours of Monday, a police official said. The incident took place at around 3.15 am in the camp of the 'C' company of Central Reserve Police Force's (CRPF) 50th battalion in Linganpalli village under Maraiguda police station of the area of the district, located nearly 400 km from the state capital Raipur, Inspector General of Police (Bastar range) Sundarraj P said. (PTI)

A two-and-a-half-year-old girl was allegedly abducted, sexually assaulted and then smothered to death in Gujarat's Surat city, police said on Monday, adding that a factory worker was detained in connection with the crime.The child, a daughter of migrant workers from Bihar, went missing from outside her house in the Pandesara area while playing on Diwali night on Thursday. Her body was found on Sunday near a factory, located about one km away from her house, according to police.A factory worker from Surat, who also hails from Bihar, was detained, said Surat Police Commissioner Ajay Tomar. (PTI)

A woman labourer was killed and 21 others injured on Monday when the vehicle carrying them overturned near Chakk Paatni village in Vidisha district of Madhya Pradesh, police said. The incident occurred after a tyre of the vehicle, a loading auto, burst and it overturned, Civil Lines police station in-charge Yogendra Dangi said.The deceased was identified as Ramkali Bai (32).The victims were on their way to Vidisha from Katni to work as farm labourers, he said. (PTI)

A Ph.D candidate, who has been on a hunger strike at the Mahatma Gandhi University in Kerala's Kottayam for over a week, on Monday ended her protest after a meeting with varsity officials and said all her demands were met. Deepa P Mohanan, a Dalit PhD candidate at the University, has been observing the protest since October 29, alleging that her doctoral studies have been delayed due to caste discrimination by certain officials of the varsity.Speaking to the media after the meeting, she claimed that Nandakumar, former director of the International and Inter University Centre for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (IIUCNN), who allegedly made some castiest remarks against her, has been ousted from the institute. (PTI)

Activists of the BJP clashed with the police in Kolkata on Monday after they were stopped from taking out a rally demanding a slash in taxes levied by the state on fuel prices.Several saffron camp workers and leaders were detained during the scuffle, a police officer said.The party later gave a seven-day ultimatum to the state to accept its demand.It threatened to launch a bigger movement next week, if the TMC government fails to do so. (PTI)

The Covid-19 tally in Madhya Pradesh rose to 7,92,910 on Monday with an addition of three fresh cases, while no new death due to the infection was reported in the state, a health department official said. The death toll remained unchanged at 10,524, the official added. The recovery count rose to 7,82,294 after 11 patients were discharged from hospitals, he said. The state is left with 92 active cases. (PTI)

A CBI court on Monday granted bail to Ashok Saikia, son of former Assam chief minister Hiteswar Saikia, who was arrested by the central investigating agency in connection with a case pertaining to the alleged default of a loan of over Rs 9 lakh 25 years ago.Saikia walked out of the court premises in Guwahati on getting the bail after spending a night in CBI custody.He has been asked to appear before the court of the CBI special judicial magistrate on Tuesday, his advocate added. (PTI)

At least seven persons have died in West Bengal due to malaria and dengue in recent times, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said on Monday. Out of the seven deaths, two were due to malaria and the rest because of dengue, she said."At this juncture (of season change) the people get afflicted by fever. There is nothing to be scared of. It's not that there are huge cases now, but we must take all precautionary measures against malaria and dengue," Banerjee said.She advised the people to keep their masks on while they are outside their houses and maintain Covid-19 protocol as the pandemic is yet to be over. (PTI)

Raising concerns over the 'severe' air quality of the national capital post-Diwali, Dr Ashok Seth, Chairman, Fortis Escorts Heart Institute on Monday said bad weather and pollution predisposes people to infections.Speaking to ANI, Dr Seth said, "There has been an increase in chest infections and bronchitis and hypersensitivity in people having cough and breathlessness. And those who already had lung disorders, their condition worsened and had to get admitted to the hospital. The second aspect is that there have been a lot of people who recovered from COVID and got damage to the lungs. The damage to the lungs has been mild, and they were actually carrying on their activities with mild breathlessness, but now this actually makes it much worse for them." (ANI)