Top stories on 10th July in a capsule

AG Venugopal recuses from Sec 377 case hearing

Attorney General (AG) KK Venugopal on Tuesday evening recused himself from the ongoing hearing of Section 377 case of the criminalising homosexuality in the Supreme Court, citing ‘difference of opinion with the Central government.’ The AG who was representing the government’s anti-homosexuality stand in the top court said, “The problem is this that I had appeared in the petition for curative. I am told the government's stance is different, therefore I can't appear,” according to news agency ANI. The five judge constitution bench of Supreme Court on Tuesday heard the petitions moved against an earlier verdict that had scrapped Delhi High Court’s order decriminalising homosexual, consensual sex in Naz foundation case.
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20 injured on South Africa plane crash, no casualties

At least 20 people were injured in South Africa’s Pretoria city on Tuesday after a ‘small’ plane crash occurred, the police department described. The plane was identified as a Dutch cargo MAC Martin's Air Charter owned by Air France-KLM, according to Express, UK. Describing the scene as smoke across the entire area and the wreckage, paramedics on the spot stated that they are dealing with multiple injured passengers, but luckily there were no casualties. The plane, is being believed was going towards the Wonderboom Airport, in close proximity. The cause of the accident is not known as of now.
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Jharkhand govt orders probe at Christian missionary accused of selling babies

The Jharkhand government on Tuesday decided to launch an investigation on the alleged case of Christian missionary body, Missionaries of Charity run by Mother Teresa nuns selling orphaned babies for money. The Chief Minister Raghubir Das led Cabinet, as per News18 held a high-level meeting and directed the Jharkhand State Child Protection Commission (JSCPC) to investigate the matter. The issue arose after a nun and staff of Nirmal Hriday, a missionaries of charity shelter home was caught selling a baby to a UP couple and were arrested for the same. As per police investigation it was also found that the home had no record of 280 babies sheltered by them.

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Andhra Pradesh ranks first in ‘Ease of Doing Business’

The state of Andhra Pradesh yet again came first in the ‘Ease of Doing Business’ list rankings, formulated by the World bank and Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) on Tuesday. This has been the second time in a row fo the southern state to achieve the feat. The report that credits Indian states and union territories on the basis of 12 ‘reform areas’ or parameters like construction permit, labour regulation, environmental registration, access to information, land availability,’ among others, gave the state 98.42 points, followed by Telangana and Haryana on the second and third spot. The states of Arunachal Pradesh, Lakshadweep and Meghalaya were ranked among the bottom three.

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Congress member files complaint against Nawazuddin Siddiqui for 'abusing' Rajiv Gandhi

Actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui landed in fresh controversy on Tuesday the Congress party expressed their displeasure over the actor’s character in the recently released Netflix series, “Sacred Games’ for his comments over former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. As per news reports a member of West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee, Rajeev Sinha filed a complaint in Girish Park police station against the actor, citing ‘abusing our late Prime Minister Shri Rajiv Gandhi and calling him Fattu.’ The complaint also went on to allege the same charges on Netflix, the producers of the show and other members under the IT Act and IPC. The show, based on a novel by Vikram Chandra is a cop-criminal drama in the backdrop of national politics and also starts Bollywood actors Saif Ali Khan and Radhika Apte.

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Mumbai Rains Update: Air India flight overshoots runway, passengers rescued from stranded train

The city of Mumbai and other areas of Maharashtra on Tuesday continued to be under the spell of heavy rains as flood-like situation prevailed in several places, bringing normal life to a standstill. An Air India Express flight coming from Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh slipped on the Mumbai Domestic airport runway ended up overshooting the runway. No casualties were reported and passengers were safely evacuated. In Virar district, passengers of the Nalasopara to Vadodara Express train were rescued by the National Disaster Response Force(NDRF) and Coast Guard after being stranded since 4 am in the morning, as heavy rains blocked the railway route. According to a commuter’s statement reported by The Quint, the Air Conditioners stopped working for 6-7 hours, and electricity and water supply was also been cut off in the train. “About 35 members of NDRF have reached Nallasopara to help WR to provide relief to the passengers & carry out other relief/rescue measures,” the Western Railways department mentioned on its Twitter handle.

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Award extra marks to students who gave NEET in Tamil: HC to CBSE

The Madras High Court on Tuesday ordered the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) to award 196 marks to every student who gave their National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test papers in Tamil language, owing to the translation mistakes that was featured in at least 49 questions. The court took the decision after the petitioner, Communist Party of India (Marxist) MP MP TK Rangarajan had charged the allegations. “The court has asked for four grace marks to be given per mistranslated question which is 196 marks for 49 questions,” Rangarajan was quoted by news website News Minute. The court further gave CBSE two weeks of time to revise the rankings as per the new marks. The move will benefit at least 24,000 students who appeared for the exams this year.

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Rajinikanth’s wife to face trial for fraud: SC

The Supreme court on Tuesday ordered that superstar Rajinikanth’s wife, Latha Rajinikanth, will have to face trial in a cheating case. Rajinikanth’s wife is one of the directors of Mediaone Global Entertainment Ltd. which took a loan of Rs 14.90 crore from Bengaluru-based Ad-Bureau Advertising. The loan was taken to finish the post-production work of  Tamil movie ‘Kochadaiiyaan’ starring Rajinikanth and Deepika Padukone. The movie was directed by the Tamil superstar’s younger daughter Soundarya. The court had decided to postpone the decision until July 10 and had stated: “We had kept the matter pending (on February 20) because you had said that you will pay the amount.”

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Rape case filed against another Kerala priest 

A case of rape has been filed against yet another priest of a church in Kerala, police confirmed on Tuesday. Binu George, a priest of Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church, was alleged to have raped the parishioner in Alappuzha district four years ago. The woman claimed that the priest assaulted her when she approached him for help to settle a family matter in 2014. The woman had informed the church authorities and was promised she would not face any more harassment in the future. However, when the priest continued to approach her and spread "baseless gossip", the woman decided to go to the police.
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Abducted RJD leader’s beheaded body found in Bihar

The mutilated body of a local RJD leader was recovered from Nalanda district of Bihar late on Monday evening, police said on Tuesday. Nawada town police station SHO Anjani Kumar said that the deceased identified as Kailash Paswan was kidnapped on July 6 and later killed by unidentified people. A report in a local daily quoted Paswan’s relatives as saying that he was taken away by Chhotu Gupta of Buchchi village purportedly for a panchayat meeting, following which he did not return to his house. They said they made all attempts to locate the leader but could not find him. Police are investigating the matter from all angles, the police officer said adding that no one has been arrested so far in the case. The deceased's relatives have pointed fingers on Paswan's neighbor Kiran Devi, who runs an NGO and claims to be the second wife of Paswan.
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