Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena has ousted Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut as the leader of its parliamentary party and appointed Lok Sabha MP Gajanan Kirtikar as his successor. Shinde, in a letter, informed Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar of the decision. "I express my sincere gratitude to [CM Shinde]," Kirtikar said.

In 2013 Lily Thomas ruling, SC struck down Section 8(4) of RPA, that allowed convicted lawmakers to remain in office on grounds that appeals were filed within three months of conviction. Rahul Gandhi's 2-year jail term was suspended for 30 days to allow him to appeal. He may be at risk of disqualification as MP after conviction in defamation case.

Khalistan supporter Amritpal Singh was seen on CCTV camera leaving the home of a woman in Haryana who had sheltered him, on Monday. The footage shows Amritpal carrying an umbrella to hide his face. Baljeet Kaur, the woman who sheltered Amritpal Singh and his aide Papalpreet Singh at her house in Haryana's Kurukshetra, has been arrested.

A CCTV footage has surfaced online showing the area near the Haryana house where Waris Punjab De chief Amritpal Singh and his associate stayed after their escape from Punjab. Amritpal and his associate stayed with a woman, identified as Baljeet Kaur, on March 19 and left a day after. The woman was arrested by the police on Thursday.

Nine states have withdrawn general consent to the CBI to probe cases, Union Minister Jitendra Singh said on Thursday. The states include Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Kerala, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Punjab, Rajasthan, Telangana and West Bengal. According to the Delhi Special Police Establishment (DSPE) Act, the CBI needs consent from state governments for conducting investigations in its jurisdiction.

Cyberabad Police have unearthed a massive data breach in which details of 16.8 crore Indian citizens were leaked. The police have arrested seven people of a gang in Delhi. They were allegedly involved in the theft and sale of the sensitive data. The arrested accused were selling the data through a search engine company and similar platforms, police said.

Baljeet Kaur, the woman who has been arrested for sheltering Khalistan supporter Amritpal Singh and his aide Papalpreet Singh, is a resident of Shahabad in Kurukshetra, Haryana. She is allegedly a supporter of Amritpal Singh and provided him and Papalpreet shelter at her home. Police said that Kaur was in touch with Papalpreet Singh for the past two years.

Waris Punjab De chief Amritpal Singh focussed on young drug addicts and disgruntled ex-servicemen to help him develop a gang that could become a terrorist organisation, officials said on Thursday. Singh focussed on ex-servicemen so that they could impart training on how to handle weapons. Police claimed that seven of Singh's 16 guards had initially joined his drug rehab facility.

India is expected to be one of the nations most severely affected by water scarcity by the year 2050, a United Nations report has stated. "The global urban population facing water scarcity is projected to increase from 933 million in 2016 to 1.7-2.4 billion people in 2050," it added. The report was issued ahead of the UN 2023 Water Conference.

Punjab Police on Thursday discovered that Waris Punjab De chief Amritpal Singh made a firing range near his village in Amritsar's Jallupur Khera. Police also found pictures of Anandpur Khalsa Fauj (AKF), a militia allegedly being formed by him, practising the use of weapons along with other "incriminating material". The pictures were found in the device seized from Singh's gunman.

Narcotics worth ₹405.4 crore have been seized by police and Assam Rifles in two separate operations in Mizoram and Assam and two suspected drug peddlers have been arrested in this connection. Both the consignments were coming from Myanmar, according to police. As many as 39,04,000 Triprolidine HCL and Pseudoephedrine HCL tablets and 1.5 lakh Yaba tablets have been seized.

AAP MP Raghav Chadha on Thursday said that he will introduce a Bill seeking to decriminalise defamation in the Parliament. This comes on the day that former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi was convicted in a criminal defamation case over his "Modi surname" remark. "Criminal Defamation has become a tool to suppress the voice of the opposition," said Chadha.

A court in Uttar Pradesh's Varanasi rejected a plea seeking an FIR against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for his speech at the UK's Cambridge University. The plea was filed by BJP leader Shashank Shekhar Tripathi, as per Live Law. The court observed that Gandhi's remarks did not exceed the prescribed limits of the right to freedom of expression.

Union Minister Piyush Goyal on Thursday said that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi defies and disrespects every democratic institution, whether it is the Parliament or the judiciary. He added that Rahul should come out of his dynastic mindset and realise that no individual is bigger than the country. Gandhi was convicted in the 2019 defamation case over the 'Modi surname' remark.

AAP leader Saurabh Bharadwaj criticised the Centre over Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's conviction in a defamation case and said that PM Narendra Modi had also commented on the Nehru surname. "He (PM Modi) mocked the country's first Prime Minister. If two leaders make fun of each other's surnames and only one is punished, then that's not fair," Bharadwaj said.

TMC MPs visited the offices of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, ED and CBI, demanding the arrest of industrialist Gautam Adani. "Our MPs handed over signed caps in protest to the Finance Ministry, ED, and CBI officials," TMC said in a tweet. TMC MPs said that they weren't allowed to enter the CBI office premises and were videotaped without permission.

Drugs weighing 9,298 kg and valued at ₹1,235 crore seized by law enforcement agencies will be destroyed in the presence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Bengaluru on Friday. Shah will chair a regional conference on 'Drug Trafficking and National Security' that will be attended by representatives from five southern states and three Union Territories.

A 54-year-old peon working at an MCD-run school in Ghazipur has been arrested for gang-raping a Class 5 student along with his three accomplices, said police. As per the complaint, the accused took the 10-year-old to an unknown place from the school and sedated her with some unknown substance before raping her. The other suspects are yet to be arrested.

A real estate agent who was a witness in the 2008 Malegaon blast case was declared hostile. He told the court that he did not recollect giving any statement to the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS). According to the prosecution, he was the 30th witness to turn hostile so far. Notably, BJP MP Pragya Thakur is an accused in the case.

Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren said it seems like the "Father of Power" is trampling the "Mother of Democracy". It's difficult to comprehend whether we're in 'Amritkaal' (75 years of independence being observed by Centre) or 'Apaatkaal' (state of emergency), Soren said. "This country is passing through a strange period...They've put this country in hands of select few," he added.

A nine-year-old Dalit boy was beaten up by his teacher for drinking water from a pond in Uttar Pradesh's Jalaun district. On receiving the information, the boy's mother rushed to the school and questioned the teacher, following which she was allegedly threatened by the accused. The child's parents have lodged a complaint with the police.

Five Naxalites were arrested after a gunfight with security forces in Chhattisgarh's Sukma district on Thursday, police said. Based on a tip-off about the presence of Naxalites in Kottalendra in order to carry out a major attack on National Highway-30, a team was dispatched in the area, Sukma SP said. Four-five other Naxalites sustained injuries in the encounter, police added.

A 32-year-old woman died after she was allegedly given wrong injections by a quack in Uttar Pradesh's Etah, police said. "Sangita (deceased) was admitted to Suraj Clinic...owned by...Dr Suraj when she complained of stomach ache [on] Wednesday evening," police said, adding she died an hour after she was given the injections. The doctor allegedly escaped before police reached the hospital.

A family belonging to the Scheduled Caste was allegedly assaulted for playing DJ music during a wedding in Uttar Pradesh's Ayodhya. A video of the incident surfaced which showed a group of men attacking people with sticks. Several people were left injured in the incident, said Ayodhya Police. Two people have been arrested.