A 16-year-old girl and her 21-year-old boyfriend reportedly committed suicide by jumping off a hill in Samta Nagar area of Mumbai, officials said on Saturday.

A senior official of the Mumbai Police said that the deceased couple were neigbours who lived in Kandivali East Janupada area. The man—identified as Akash Jhate (21) worked as a housekeeper, while the girl, 16, who was a student—had fallen in love and wanted to get married.

However, their families opposed the match, leading to the couple taking such a drastic measure, he said.

According to an official statement by the Mumbai Police, a call was received from Janupada Mine in Samta Nagar police station at around 12:30 pm on Friday afternoon informing that two bodies were lying there.

A team of officer of Samta Nagar police reached the scene of the incident to take stock of the incident and recovered the bodies of the couple, the statement said, adding that the bodies were sent for post-mortem examination.

Giving details, it said that the girl had gone to bed at her house the previous night, according to her parents. But the parents found her missing from her room in the morning.

The family search for the minor girl but were unable to locate and subsequently informed the cops at the Samta Nagar Police Station following which a case of abduction was registered against the girl’s boyfriend on the basis of their complaint, the statement said.

Accordingly, an investigation was launched into the incident by the police and it was revealed that the minor girl had left her house with her boyfriend in the morning, it said, adding that the man had sent a text message to his family from his mobile phone saying: “I am leaving and will never return.”

An official said that a case has been registered in this regard and further investigation is ongoing.

The Supreme Court will hear a slew of pleas in favour legalizing gay marriages in the country on Monday, according to the cause list posted on the top court’s website.

A bench comprising of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and justices PS Narasimha and JB Pardiwala is scheduled to hear requests seeking legal validation of same-sex marriages. On January 6, the apex court had transferred and clubbed to itself, all such pleas pending in different high courts, including the Delhi High Court.

In its January 6 order, it had asked Advocate Arundhati Katju—representing the petitioners—and the Central government’s counsel, to prepare together a common compilation of the written submissions, documents and precedents on which reliance would be placed during the course of the hearing.

The petitioners’ counsel had requested the Supreme Court bench to transfer all such cases itself for an authoritative pronouncement on the issue and that the Centre can file its response in the top court.

Earlier, on January 3, the Supreme Court had said it would hear on January 6 the pleas seeking a transfer of petitions for recognition of same-sex marriages pending before the high courts to the top court.

The Supreme Court had in December last year sought the Centre’s response to two pleas seeking a transfer of the petitions pending in the Delhi High Court for directions to recognize same-sex marriages to itself.

Earlier on November 25 last year, the top court had sought the Centre’s response to separate pleas moved by two gay couples seeking enforcement of their right to marry and a direction to the authorities concerned to register their marriages under the Special Marriage Act.

A bench headed by CJI Chandrachud, who was also part of the Constitution bench that decriminalised consensual gay sex in its 2018 landmark judgement, issued a notice to the Centre in November last year, besides seeking Attorney General R Venkataramani’s assistance in dealing with the pleas.

The petitions have sought a direction that the right to marry a person of one’s choice be extended to LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer) people as part of their fundamental right. One petition seeks a reinterpretation of the Special Marriage Act, 1954 in a gender-neutral manner where a person is not discriminated against due to his sexual orientation.

On September 2018, a five-judge Constitution bench of the Supreme Court, issued a landmark judgement wherein it decriminalized consensual gay sex among adults. It struck down a part of the British-era penal law under Article 377, on grounds that it violated the constitutional right to equality and dignity.

In its pathbreaking judgement, the apex court ruled that

section 377 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) that criminalised consensual gay sex was “irrational, indefensible and manifestly arbitrary”. The top court had said that the 158-year-old law had become an “odious weapon” to harass the LGBTQ community by subjecting its members to discrimination and unequal treatment.

A shocking story has come to light Telangana’s McDonalds where a huge rat running around inside the McDonalds outlet led to the rodent biting a minor. As per the reports, rat bit an 8-year-old who was eating his meal. The incident reportedly transpired at Hotel SPG Grand premises in Kompally.

It was reported that the father of the child who got bit lodged a complaint against the food outlet.

In the video, a usual state of affairs inside can be seen, however, things take an awry turn as a huge rat can be seen running around inside the premises. The feral rat can be seen going under a table where the child was having his meal and climbing up the childs legs.

The video shows the guardian of the child swiftly jumping in to remove the rat away from the child. The McDonalds staff can also be seen complacently watching as the incident unravels.

See video here:

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As per the reports, the eight-year-old child suffered from rat bites due to the whole scenario with the rat at the McDonalds food outlet. The father of the victim had filled an FIR against the franchise.

The farther in his FIR wrote that franchises like McDonalds are supposed to ensure a safe environment for children and highlighted the lack of it.

Twitter reactions

After the video went viral, many users came forward to add their take on the incident as one user wrote and slammed the franchise on hygiene by questioning if customers are unsafe at a place where one comes for food, what hygiene they are maintaining for food that we eat.

One user also wrote and said that the poor eight year old boy is traumatised, highlighting the mental toll it might take on the child after being attacked by a rodent.

One user also wrote and said that multimillionaires running such unhygienic businesses in India are just interested in lucracy and often neglect on service & poor attitude towards Indian Citizens. The user also highlighted the stark contrast in food outlets of a particular franchise based on their location.