Dera Chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim's Release Before Punjab Polls Challenged
NDTV
The petitioner said the order of furlough is "unwarranted, illegal, untenable", and urged the high court to stay the order that allowed his release.
The release of Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh - serving life imprisonment for the murder of his manager, another for the murder of a journalist, as well as another one in a rape case - before the Punjab assembly elections has been challenged in the Punjab and Haryana High Court.
The petitioner said the order of furlough is "unwarranted, illegal, untenable", and urged the high court to stay the order that allowed his release.
"The release of Gurmit Ram Rahim during Punjab Assembly elections can affect the peace of state of Punjab and impact elections adversely. More so, there is no legitimate worthy legal right and legitimate basis for furlough to be granted to Gurmit Ram Rahim. The orders granting furlough of Gurmit Ram Rahim deserves to be summoned and quashed/set aside and in the meanwhile the order granting furlough to Gurmit Ram Rahim deserves to be stayed," said the petitioner.
Dera followers, and particularly those of Ram Rahim Singh, are influential in Punjab's Malwa region, with their votes seen as key in deciding parliamentary and legislative elections. The Malwa region has 69 constituencies - over half of the Punjab Assembly's 117 seats.
Shilpa Shetty was booked on a complaint alleging that she had used a casteist word in a 2013 TV interview in which actor Salman Khan was also present.
The Mahayuti, or the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), is forecast to win 178-200 seats in the 288-seat assembly, according to an exit poll by Axis My India
Police said the hair dryer had arrived inside a parcel that the victim, Basavarajeshwari Yarnal, had picked up on behalf of her neighbour, Sasikala.
Madhya Pradesh has recorded 11,382 cases of stubble burning this year, the highest in the country, surpassing Punjab's 9,655 cases
Voting for the 288 seats in the Maharashtra Assembly - the last major election this year - took place in a single phase on Wednesday; the majority mark is 145.
The AAP surprised many by releasing an early-bird first list of 11 candidates - of whom three are recent joinees from the Congress and three from the BJP - for next year's Delhi Assembly election.
The builder said he got a video call from a man wearing a police uniform who claimed to be an officer from the Narcotics Control Bureau.
This tragedy is not an isolated incident, but emblematic of the broader devastation wrought by the ongoing conflict in Manipur
Senior police officer Dinesh P told the media that Katyal misused his contacts at St Stephen's and the connections he made during his stint in corporate affairs to drop names