NEWS

The Uttar Pradesh government has withdrawn 77 cases related to the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots without giving any reason and these “may be examined by the High Court by exercising revisional jurisdiction”, recommended a report filed in Supreme Court on Tuesday.

The recommendation was part of the report on data relating to pending cases against legislators submitted by Senior Advocate Vijay Hansaria, who was appointed to assist the court as amicus curiae in the matter.

The report said the Standing Counsel for Uttar Pradesh informed that 510 cases relating to the riots were registered in five districts of Meerut zone against 6,869 accused. Chargesheet was filed in 175 of these cases and in 165 cases, final reports were submitted and 170 cases were expunged.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday met Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel and state health minister TS Singh Deo in a marathon session amid reports of a rift between them caused by a leadership tussle. The gathering, which included AICC general secretary in-charge organisation K C Venugopal and state in-charge P L Punia, met in the wake of Singh Deo's strong push to be made the CM by replacing Baghel.

However, Punia told reporters that the issue of leadership change was not discussed. All the leaders said they will abide by the decision of the leadership with indications that there may not be a change of guard yet.

BJP president JP Nadda and other party functionaries on Tuesday asked the Congress leadership to explain their stand on remarks made by their Punjab leaders about Kashmir and Pakistan which, the party said, reflected the opposition outfit's divisive and 'anti-India' approach.

In a series of tweets, Nadda said silence on the matter will be seen as "implicit support" to such objectionable remarks. "Recent comments by Punjab Congress leaders, who enjoy the patronage of the topmost state leadership as well as the high command in Delhi, are reprehensible. They are repeatedly making irresponsible statements that have grave implications on national security," the BJP chief said.

Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman told India Inc on Tuesday that there is a move to enable the industry to meet its funding needs from markets rather than banks. Among alternate financing measures, the government is looking at allowing insurance bonds instead of bank guarantees, a senior government official said.

In her first visit to Mumbai after the second wave of the pandemic, the finance minister addressed industry leaders at a Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) interaction on Tuesday evening. Later, she attended a dinner meeting with industry chiefs, including Tata Group chairman N Chandrasekaran.