Top Stories on 8th December in a capsule

Gujarat 1st Phase Assembly elections begins

Gujarat goes to the polls today for the first phase of the assembly election being held in 89 seats of Saurashtra and South Gujarat regions. A total of 977 candidates are contesting in the first phase of Gujarat election for 182 seats, of which roughly only 5 percent are women candidates. There are 24,689 polling stations for 212.31 lakh voters in Phase I.

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Nithari killing case: Death penalty for Pandher and Koli

Calling it a “rarest of rare” case, in which the accused showed “animal-like tendencies”, a CBI court in Ghaziabad Friday awarded death penalty to businessman Moninder Singh Pandher and his domestic help Surinder Koli in connection with the rape and murder of 25-year-old Anjali Sarkar. This is the ninth of the 16 Nithari killing cases in which court judgments have been pronounced so far.

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Won't reply to BJP's abuses - Rahul Gandhi 

Congress president-to-be Rahul Gandhi has said his party would not imitate BJP leaders who "abuse" him, and asserted that he would fight over the issues which affect the people of poll-bound Gujarat.
Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi campaigned in central Gujarat including the tribal-dominated district of Chhota Udepur which go to the polls on December 14. "We will respect the post of prime minister, will continue to fight on issues, will talk about development of Gujarat, and will work for you wholeheartedly," he added. 

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SC to examine law on adultery which punished only men

The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to examine the constitutional validity of a colonial-era law on adultery which punishes only the man even though the woman, with whom he has had consensual sex, may be an equal partner. The top court also said if the husband gives consent for sexual intercourse between his wife and another man, then it nullifies the offence of adultery and turns the woman into a commodity, which goes against the principle of gender justice and the constitutional mandate of right to equality.

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BJP releases manifesto for Gujarat polls 24 hours before 1st phase

After much delay, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday released its manifesto for the Gujarat elections with less than 24 hours to go for the first phase of polls. Post the manifesto release, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley who was flanked by senior leaders of the party has claimed that Gujarat is the only state that has double-digit growth rate of 10 per cent. The party also clarified that the manifesto does not violate the model code of conduct since it doesn't display photograph of any candidates that are contesting tomorrow. Voting for phase one of the 89 assembly constituencies will be held on December 9. The second phase of voting will be held on December 14.

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Date extended for linking Aadhaar with PAN till March 31st 2018

The Central Board of Direct Taxes on Friday extended the deadline for mandatory linking of PAN with Aadhaar by three months to March 31, 2018. This is the third extension given by the government to individuals to link the Permanent Account Number (PAN) with the biometric ID. The deadline for Aadhaar linkage for bank accounts is currently December 31, 2017 and for linkage of mobile phone numbers remains February 6th, 2018.

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Max Hospital license cancelled for wrongly declaring new-born dead

The Delhi government on Friday cancelled the license of the Shalimar Bagh branch of Max Hospital almost a week after a new born was wrongly declared dead by two of its doctors. The decision was taken after the two doctors of the Super Speciality Hospital were found guilty and suspended post a preliminary investigation by the hospital. On November 30, one of the new born twin babies was falsely declared dead, but was later found to be alive by the family. The hospital had allegedly packed the babies in a plastic bag and handed them over to the parents after declaring the twins dead. However, parents and family realised that one of their kids was alive while they were carrying the twins for cremation.

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Pande becomes first Indian to win Gold at World Para Swimming Championship

Visually impaired swimmer Kanchanmala Pande created history by becoming the first Indian to clinch a gold medal at the World Para Swimming Championship in Mexico on Thursday. Pande, a Reserve Bank of India (RBI) employee, emerged triumphant in the 200- meter medley event in S-11 category. Earlier this year, she had to beg for survival during the Para Swimming Championships in Germany after the Government failed to sanction money for her tour. Despite all the hassles, the athlete from Nagpur district in Maharashtra went on to bag a silver medal at the event that earned her the pass to the World Championships.

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Wildfire destroys mobile homes in California

A wildfire that has been raging for the past four days in Southern California continued to spread havoc on Friday as it destroyed at least dozens of homes and forcing lakhs of families to evacuate and scorching an entire building at a winery. According to a rough estimate, the fire has forced 190,000 people out of their homes and destroyed the tightly packed Rancho Monserate Country Club community in the small city of Fallbrook. The Lilac Fire has left three people and two firefighters injured who have all been hospitalized and are in stable condition.

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