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Mumbai, Sep 6 (IANS) Actress Rashmika Mandana, who is set to make her Hindi film debut with the upcoming film 'Goodbye', was totally in awe of the puppy that features in the film. In fact, she had a friendly fight with her co-actor in the film, the veteran superstar Amitabh Bachchan, over who would take the puppy home after the film's wrap up.

Interestingly , the pup has a rather surprising name: Stupid, which is quite unusual for dogs who are known for their wit and intelligence.

Speaking to the media at the trailer launch event of the film, Rashmika said, "I was completely in love with Stupid. We would spend a huge part of the day in the company of Stupid."

Opening up on her friendly tiff with Big B, the actress further said, "I and Amitabh Bachchan sir had a little nokjhonk (tiff) over, who would take Stupid home. He wanted to take him to Jalsa but eventually, I kidnapped Stupid and brought it home."

Seems like the actress has no qualms about kidnapping the pupper, after all everything is fair in love and dogs are known to invoke the feeling of love and compassion to the highest degree.

'Goodbye', directed by Vikas Bahl, will debut in theatres on October 7.

--IANS
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Jammu, Sep 6 (IANS) The BSF gave a befitting reply after Pakistani rangers resorted to unprovoked ceasefire violation at the International Border in the Arnia sector of Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday, officials said.

"Today morning the alert BSF Jammu troops gave a befitting reply to the unprovoked firing by Pak rangers on a BSF patrolling party in Arnia Sector," said officials.

The Border Security Force (BSF) said that there was no loss or injury to any of its personnel.

There has been a relative calm on the borders following a renewed ceasefire agreement between the Indian and Pakistani sides last year. Though there have been some infiltration bids which were foiled and several cases of weapons droppings for terrorists using drones.

--IANS
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Prayagraj, Sep 6 (IANS) Taking serious note of frequent use of marriage certificates issued by the Arya Samaj societies, the Allahabad High Court has said that they are misusing beliefs in organising marriages without considering the genuineness of documents.

Hearing a habeas corpus petition, the court observed that Arya Samaj societies were issuing marriage certificates without proper solemnisation of marriages, and added that marriage could not be proved only on the basis of this certificate.

Justice Saurabh Shyam Shamshery said, "The court is flooded with marriage certificates issued by different Arya Samaj Societies which have been seriously questioned during different proceedings of this court as well as by other high courts. The institution has misused its beliefs in organising marriages without even considering the genuineness of documents."

The habeas corpus petition was filed by one Bhola Singh who had produced a certificate issued by Arya Samaj Mandir, Ghaziabad, to claim that he was legally married to "petitioner number 2".

"Since the marriage has not been registered, it cannot be deemed only on the basis of the said certificate that the two parties have married," the court observed in its decision.

"In the present case, the corpus is a major and an FIR has been lodged against the petitioner number 1 (husband) by the father of petitioner number 2 (wife), and investigation is undergoing. Therefore, there is no case of illegal detention," the court said.

--IANS
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New Delhi, Sep 6 (IANS) The row over the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy has got murkier with BJP releasing a "sting video" while alleging that the AAP government is hand in glove in the corruption.

BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra while playing the purported video alleged that "Kulvinder Marwah, the father of accused number 13 Sunny Marwah, admits that the money is being given to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his deputy Manish Sisodia".

"Why the commission to the dealers were increased from 2 per cent to 12 per cent, and why without cabinet approval Rs 144 crore were waived off without cabinet approval," Patra asked.

The BJP spokesperson alleged that "Kulvinder Marwah is heard saying that a commission of was fixed for liquor suppliers to be eligible for L-1 vendor category".

"Sunny Marwah is currently associated with six companies as director," Patra said.

Reacting on the "sting video", Sisodia said, "The BJP has been shouting for a long time that there has been a scam. The CBI searched and took out the transaction between the two companies. After they didn't find anything in my locker, they made a video by sitting in a car on the road. What type of sting operation is this, I too have such videos."

Sisodia claimed that a Deputy Legal advisor of the Anti-Corruption Branch of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) committed suicide two days ago because "he was pressurised to frame him in a false case".

"A CBI officer committed suicide two days earlier. It has come to know that the officer - Jitendra Kumar - was the Deputy Legal Advisor in the Anti-Corruption Branch of the CBI. He was looking after the legality of the fake FIR against me. He was being pressurised to approve the arrest by making a case against me in an illegal way," he said during the press conference.

"He could not take the mental pressure and died by suicide two days ago. This is really unfortunate, I am deeply hurt," Sisodia alleged.

The CBI in August had raided Sisodia's residence after it registered an FIR to investigate alleged irregularities in the formulation and execution of the Delhi Excise Policy.

The Deputy Chief Minister also hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying he only "thinks of destabilising governments in non-BJP states by poaching MLAs".

"I want to ask the Prime Minister three questions: Why is there so much pressure being put on the officers that they are forced to commit suicide? Whether the Centre's job is to run Operation Lotus only?... How many sacrifices will it take to crush the elected governments?," Sisodia said.

"It is very regrettable, my condolences to his family. I want to tell the Prime Minister that trap me. If you want to arrest, tell me where to come, I will come, but do not put any more pressure on such officers, it is ruining their life. When would you think of starting a school?," he asked.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) came down heavily on Sisodia for levelling the allegations.

The probe agency said that this is nothing but a mischievous attempt by Sisodia.

--IANS
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Chengdu, Sep 6 (IANS) Forty-six people have been killed in a 6.8-magnitude earthquake that jolted Luding County in southwest China's Sichuan Province on Monday, local authorities said at a press briefing.

As of 8:30 p.m. Monday, 16 people were missing and over 50 injured, said Wang Feng, deputy director of the Sichuan provincial emergency management department, Xinhua news agency reported.

Among the dead, 29 were from Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture which administers Luding County, and the other 17 were from Ya'an City.

The earthquake relief headquarters of Ganzi has activated the highest level of emergency response for the earthquake.

The 6.8-magnitude earthquake jolted Luding County at 12:52 p.m. Monday (Beijing Time), according to the China Earthquake Networks Center (CENC).

The epicenter was monitored at 29.59 degrees north latitude and 102.08 degrees east longitude, at a depth of 16 km, the CENC said.

The epicenter is 39 km away from the county seat of Luding and there are several villages within the 5-km range around the epicenter.

--IANS
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New Delhi, Sep 6 (IANS) The Supreme Court on Monday said the state and the Central governments cannot provide security to private hospitals and nursing homes, which operate like business enterprises, during the hearing of a plea seeking directions to provide security to doctors and healthcare workers, vulnerable to attacks by patients' relatives and others.

A bench of Justices S.K. Kaul and A.S. Oka said the private hospitals charge exorbitantly and they can take care of security issues on their own, and questioned the petitioner's counsel, how will government provide security for so many private hospitals and nursing homes?

Senior advocate Vijay Hansaria, representing the Delhi Medical Association, said the doctors and healthcare workers are vulnerable to attacks and emphasised on having a mechanism for their security.

The bench told Hansaria that in big cities, every lane would have a medical centre and how can it pass generic orders?

"You can't expect the government to put in place a security system for private players."

The bench sought details on complaints and representations made to the state governments as it were not included in the petition.

It observed that it is not possible for the apex court to micromanage the security and also it cannot pass directions to what kind of security should be given to the private hospitals.

The bench said the attack on doctors is unfortunate and whenever attack occurs, it is due to certain failure in system in place. It said providing security to a government hospital is again an executive decision and it is not for the court to enter into this arena.

It made it clear that it would not pass any direction to the government to provide security for private hospitals, since they are business enterprises.

Hansaria sought permission to amend the petition, which was allowed by the bench.

The DMA sought directions to ensure adequate security at hospitals and medical centres to prevent attacks on doctors and healthcare workers by relatives of patients and others. The plea was filed through advocate Sneha Kalita.

--IANS
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New Delhi, Sep 5 (IANS) Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Monday that Indias achievement of eclipsing the United Kingdom to become the fifth largest economy in the world is a pleasure of surpassing those who ruled over India for around 250 years, and which supersedes the "mere statistics of improved ranking".

Modi made these comments while interacting with teachers honoured with National Awards for Teachers.

Highlighting the appreciation received by the National Education Policy, the Prime Minister said that it is a step in the right direction.

Emphasising the need to go through the National Educational Policy more than once, he Agave the analogy of Mahatma Gandhi where he read the Bhagavad Gita again and again and each time he found a new meaning.

Modi stressed on the need to imbibe the National Educational Policy in such a way that the government document becomes the basis of the students' lives.

"Teachers played a major role in the formulation of the policy," he said, adding that teachers have a monumental role to play in the implementation of the National Educational Policy.

Addressing the gathering, the Prime Minister paid homage to former President of India Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, whose birthday is commemorated as Teachers Day across the country.

He also reminded the teachers that it is all the more important to be felicitated by the current President of India, Draupadi Murmu, who is also a teacher and has taught in far-flung places of Odisha.

--IANS
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New Delhi, Sep 5 (IANS) Delhi Lieutenant Governor V.K. Saxena has sent a legal notice to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and its leaders Atishi, Durgesh Pathak, Saurabh Bhardwaj, Sanjay Singh, Jasmine Shah and others for levelling 'false allegations' against him and spreading 'fake news' and a 'motivated propaganda' to malign his image.

These leaders of AAP had recently claimed that the L-G was involved in a scam during demonetisation in 2016 in a purported ‘scam' of Rs 1400 crore by KVIC under Saxena's chairmanship.

The legal notice reads, "It may be known, that the total Khadi sale across the country during 2016-17 was Rs 2146.60 crore as per KVIC Annual Report 2016-17. There were only 7 Department Store Outlets (DSOs) of KVIC, sale from which was Rs 173.58 crore during the entire year of 2016-17, while the remaining was sale done through independent Khadi Institution stores and franchisees. Out of sale of Rs 173.58 crore from these 7 DSOs during the year, Rs 99.35 crore was through retail sales and the remaining was through whole sale and government supplies.

"Since the period under demonetisation was from 9.11.2016 to 31.12.2016, therefore on a pro-rata basis, retails sales worth approximately only Rs 14.43 crore (actual may vary) took place through these 7 DSOs during the period of demonetisation. Hence, by any stretch of imagination, whatsoever, the figure of Rs 1400 crore is not only incompatible with real and unquestionable figures duly recorded in the books of accounts but also an incomprehensible mathematical impossibility even if one were to take into account, the actual sales of the entire year which amounted to just Rs 173.58 crore, from 7 DSOs. (All figures are from the KVIC Annual Report 2016-17, available on KVIC's Website)."

The notice said that the indulgence of AAP and its leaders in such a scandalous smear campaign against Saxena, is solely with the aim of deflecting and diverting attention of the people from the gross failure of the AAP Government in Delhi, their expose in the recently unearthed excise and classroom scam coupled with the appreciation gained by the Lt. Governor for the ‘extraordinary work done by him in the past three months serving as the LG of Delhi'.

--IANS
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Kolkata, Sep 5 (IANS) A division bench of the Calcutta High Court on Monday gave conditional permission to the three Congress MLAs from Jharkhand -- who were arrested in West Bengal with a huge amount of cash in July, to return to their native state.

The Calcutta High Court's division bench of Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice Bivas Pattanayak ruled that three MLAs -- Irfan Ansari from Jamtara, Rajesh Kacchap from Khijri (ST) and Naman Bixal Kongari from Kolebira (ST) will be allowed to go back to Jharkhand only to participate at any assembly session of the state.

However, before leaving West Bengal, these three MLAs will have to inform the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of state police, and also furnish a copy of the letter from Jharkhand assembly inviting them to participate in any session as supporting evidence.

The division bench also ruled that all the three MLAs will have to come back to Kolkata within 24 hours after their participation in any session of the Jharkhand assembly is over.

To recall, on the evening of July 30, 2022, the MLAs were caught with bags of bank notes at Ranihati in Howrah district of West Bengal. When the notes were counted, the total amount was found to be Rs 48 lakh.

These three MLAs were travelling in an SUV along with two other associates.

On the basis of intelligence inputs, the West Bengal police had apprehended them.

This SUV bore the board of Jamtara MLA of Jharkhand. It was reported that the three MLAs who were taken into police custody could not give clear information about the cash found in the vehicle.

After certain rounds of legal deliberations at the Calcutta High Court, the three MLAs were granted bail on August 17. However, the court barred them from leaving Kolkata till further orders.

Recently, the three MLAs again approached the Calcutta High Court's division bench of Justice Bagchi and Justice Pattanayak with a prayer for permission to be present at the Jharkhand assembly sessions.

On the basis of that, the High Court gave conditional approval to their appeal.

--IANS
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London, Sep 5 (IANS) UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss was on Monday announced the victor of the contest for the Conservative Party leader, defeating former Chancelllor of Exchequer Rishi Sunak, and paving the way for her to become the next Prime Minister.

Truss, who succeeds Boris Johnson, will be the third woman Prime Minister of the United Kingdom after Margaret Thatcher and Theresa May, all of from her Conservative Party.

Announcing the results, 1922 Committee chief, Sir Graham Brady said Truss won 81,326 votes, or over 57 per cent, compared to Sunak's 60,399 votes.

There was a turnout of 82.6 per cent of the over 170,000 registered party voters, he added.

In her brief address on the occasion, Truss thanked the party for "organising one of the longest job interviews in history", as well as her supporters.

She praised her rivals, particularly Sunak, saying that the campaign was "hard-fought" and showed "the depth and breadth of talent" in the party.

Truss pledged to follow through on her promises to voters, saying the Tory party needs to show it can deliver over the next two years, and that she has a "bold plan" to cut taxes and grow the UK economy.

On the rising energy bills, she says she will "deliver" when it comes to crisis by not only dealing with bills but also the long term supply issues.

--IANS
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