Top stories on 13 April in a capsule

Two Kashmir BJP ministers resign over Kathua rape case

Two ministers of the Jammu and Kashmir cabinet, who had allegedly extended their support for the accused in the gang rape and murder of the 8-year-old victim girl child of Kathua, submitted their resignation on Friday with public and party pressure mounting on them. Industries Minister Chandra Prakash Ganga and Forest Minister Lal Singh had attended rallies by the right wing organization, Hindu Ekata Manch in March that asserted the accused being targeted over their religion. The resignations comes at a time when the PDP, ruling state party is mulling over their alliance with BJP, after national party was publicly criticized for observing silence over the rape case.
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EC Panel reveals Karnataka election dates were not leaked

Almost 19 days after the dates of the Karnataka elections were alleged to be leaked, the Election Commission on Friday called the entire episode a case of ‘mere speculation’ which was avoidable. On March 27, while Chief Election Commissioner OP Rawat was announcing the dates of the Karnataka polls on press conference, some TV channels and political figures posted ran the word dates of the elections minutes before. BJP IT chief Amit Malviya was controversially accused of the same. “Presentation of news item by TV channels and tweets by political party leaders regarding the dates, just as the commission was making the announcement, was avoidable,” Rawat said.

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CBI arrests UP BJP minister accused of raping minor

Uttar Pradesh  BJP MLA Kuldeep Sengar accused of raping a minor and ordering murder of her father in Unnao, was arrested by CBI officials on Friday evening after Allahabad High Court ordered his 'immediate' custody earlier in the day. Ruling judgment on the case the court ordered had slammed the state government for the slow investigation in the case. A bench comprising Chief Justice DB Bhosale and Justice Suneet Kumar ordered the CBI to file a progress report by May 2, asserting that the court will oversee the investigations from now on. The judgment in its ruling has expressed it ‘disturbing’ that the law and order system and its officials "were directly in connection and under the influence" of Sengar. 

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21 year old IIT Delhi student commits suicide

A 21 year old student of IIT Delhi committed suicide in his Vasant Vihar hostel, by hanging from a ceiling fan on Friday morning. The deceased identified as Gopal Maloo from West Bengal, was a first year student pursuing a course in Chemistry. Some media reports said police recovered a suicide note in Bengali suggesting Maloo faced abuse as a child and had attempted suicide on April 10 by consuming sleeping pills, but was saved by immediate treatment. Media reports also mentioned that Maloo was receiving counselling, under his brother’s knowledge. Earlier on April 5 an IIT Bombay student killed herself over exam pressure, while in March one in IIT Roorkee took his life.

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CWG 2018: Mary Kom wins India's 1st gold in boxing, total tally rises to 43 medals

Mary Kom won her first Commonwealth Games gold medal with a unanimous 4-0 victory over Northern Ireland's 21-year-old boxer, Kristina O'Hara on Saturday. India got off to a great start on Friday as Tejaswini Sawant clinched gold in women’s 50m rifle 3 positions with Anjum Moudgill coming second to claim silver at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast. Later, Anish Bhanwala won the men’s 25m rapid fire pistol gold as boxer Naman Tanwar lost his men’s 91 kg semi-final to settle for a bronze. Grapplers Bajrang Punia (gold), Pooja Dhanda, Mausam Khatri (both silver) and Divya Kakran (bronze) then added to the tally by winning three more medals in wrestling. Boxers Mohammed Hussamuddin and Manoj Kumar won bronze. Manika Batra and Mouma Das settled for silver after losing the women’s doubles table tennis final.

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Pak SC bans Nawaz Sharif from contesting elections for life

The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Friday declared former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif banned from participating in elections and holding a public office, for a lifetime. The order has come as a huge blow for the ousted PM as he had decided to run his party, Pakistan Muslim League- Nawaz (PML-N) for elections next year. The five-judge bench headed by Justice Umar Ata Bandial announced the judgment for ‘permanent’ period, clarifying that it had not declared the time period in the July ruling. Sharif was disqualified as the PM last year after he was charged with corruption, revealed by the controversial Panama Papers. If the charges are proven, Sharif can face up to 21 years in jail.

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Bitcoins worth 19 crores stolen from an Indian company

In probably the biggest Bitcoin thefts in India, around 438 Bitcoins worth over Rs 19 crores were stolen from India’s Bitcoin exchange company Coinsecure. This comes just days after the RBI banned banks and financial institutions to trade in the cryptocurrency. The theft was exposed when the company’s customers complained that they could not access and trade in bitcoin for the last few days. The company is suspecting an inside job, as the user funds are kept in the company wallet, the keys to which are only held by 3 top officers in the company. When inspecting the customer’s complaints, the company found out that all the money saved in the company’s wallet have vanished. The Police then found that the keys of the wallet were exposed online for 12 hours and are now checking if a malware function led to the hack.
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MP farmers dump tomatoes on road to protest drop in pricing

Angry about the prices of tomatoes dropping down to just 50 paise per kilo,, farmers in Madhya Pradesh are throwing away crates full of tomatoes on roads. The farmers are unhappy about not getting fair prices for their produce. One such farmer from Sehore district alleged that he had spent 3,320 rupees for 100 crates of tomatoes, but earned only 680 rupees out of them. With tomatoes now costing only 50 paise per kilo, the farmers are unable to make a profitable bargain. An increase in production and more number of producers in the market has caused this abundant supply in the markets, making the prices fall. Lack of cold storage facilities has also contributed to the farmer’s unrest.

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Petitioner in Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case dead 

One of the main petitioners in the Gujarat fake encounter case, that killed Ishrat Jahan, Gopinath Pillai,was killed in a road accident in Kerala on Friday. Pillai was the father of Pranesh Pillai alias Javed Sheikh who was killed in the encounter along with Ishrat Jahan and two others in 2004. Pillai was in Kochi on Wednesday for a medical check-up when his Maruti car reportedly braked suddenly and was hit by a truck. The car was wrecked and Pillai, 77, was rushed to hospital with multiple wounds. He succumbed to his injuries on Friday morning. Ishrat Jahan, a 19-year-old college student, Pranesh and the two others were shot dead near Ahmedabad in June 2004. The police officers from Gujarat who led the operation had claimed that all the four dead were Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists who had planned to assassinate Narendra Modi, who was the then Chief Minister of Gujarat.

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