Former prime minister Manmohan Singh takes oath as a member of the Rajya Sabha, at Parliament House in New Delhi

New Delhi: Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday took oath as a member of the Rajya Sabha. 

The oath was administered by Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu.

Top Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Ahmed Patel and Anand Sharma were among those who were present during the oath taking in the Chairman’s chamber.

Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and some BJP leaders were also present.

Singh, 86, has come back as a member of the Rajya Sabha from Rajasthan. He was elected unopposed as the BJP did not put up a candidate against him.

Singh returned to the Rajya Sabha after a brief gap since his retirement from the Upper House on June 14 this year.

He had earlier represented the state of Assam in Rajya Sabha for a long period.

Former BJP legislator Ajay Kumar Poeia

Mathura: Former BJP legislator Ajay Kumar Poeia’s elder son has been booked for allegedly killing his wife, police said on Thursday.

The case against the former MLA’s son has been registered at Kotwali police station in Mathura in Uttar Pradesh by his in-laws. Police said they will take action after conducting initial inquiry. Poeia had been an MLA from Govardhan (reserved) seat.

According to police, Poeia’s daughter-in-law Seema was found hanging from the ceiling fan of her room on Tuesday evening, but the door was open from outside.

At the time of the incident, Poeia and his wife Chandravati were not at home as they are recuperating at a private hospital after being injured in an accident. Other family members were at the residence when Seema is believed to have died, police said.

The family members are calling her death a suicide. But Seema’s mother and sisters have alleged she was killed.

Kotwali police station in-charge Awadhesh Pratap Singh said, “A murder case has been registered based on the postmortem report. Any action against husband will be taken after ascertaining his role in the case after investigation.”

A farmer shows a poster seeking customers for his kidney after a nationalised bank refused to lend him a loan to start a business, in Saharanpur.

Saharanpur (UP) Distressed over mounting debt, a 30-year-old farmer has put up posters here seeking buyers for one of his kidneys after government banks allegedly turned down his loan requests.

Ramkumar, a resident of Chattar Sali village here, claims to have completed a dairy farming course under the Centre’s Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY).

However, he said no government bank gave him a loan despite him having shown them the PMKVY certificate.

He told PTI Bhasha on Thursday that he borrowed money from his relatives to buy cattle and build a shed for the animals.

Now his relatives are pressuring him to return their money with interest, Ramkumar said.

He said he was left with no option but to sell his kidney to pay them back. So he decided to put up the posters seeking buyers.

Asked about it, Saharanpur Divisional Commissioner Sanjay Kumar said he had no knowledge of the matter.

“I have just learnt about it,

He said he will ensure a proper inquiry into the matter and only after that it will become clear why Ramkumar was denied loan by the banks.

New Delhi The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to examine the validity of a newly enacted law which makes the practice of instant divorce through triple talaq among Muslims a punishable offence entailing imprisonment of up to three years.

A bench of justices N V Ramana and Ajay Rastogi issued notice the Centre on a batch of petitions which has sought to declare The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Act 2019 as “unconstitutional” on grounds that it allegedly violates the provisions of the Constitution.

“We will examine this,” the bench told senior advocate Salman Khurshid, who was appearing for one of the petitioners.

Khurshid told the bench that there were many dimensions, including making the practice a punishable offence and jail term of up to three years, which was required to be examined by the top court.

Chidambaram, accompanied by the members of the investigation team, was brought to the CBI headquarters at around 10 Wednesday night, officials said.

NEW DELHI: Former Union finance minister P Chidambaram spent a quiet night in the CBI guest house on the ground floor of the agency headquarters after his dramatic arrest from his posh residence in the INX media corruption case, officials said on Thursday.

Chidambaram, 73, was kept in the suite 5 of the guest house, they said.

It is normal for the agency to keep high security arrested accused in the guest house to ensure proper security and monitoring, the officials said.

Chidambaram, accompanied by the members of the investigation team, was brought to the CBI headquarters at around 10 Wednesday night, they said.

After a thorough medical check-up by a doctor from the Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, he was taken to the room where he spent a quiet night, the officials said.

Mostly, they said, he remained silent except answering a few queries as and when questioned by the CBI officers.

His questioning will start at around 10 Thursday morning under DySP R Parthasarathy who is leading the probe in the alleged corruption in Rs 305 crore clearance given to INX media when he was the Union finance minister, the officials said.

The firm once promoted by Peter and Indrani Mukerjea, both in jail for murdering latter’s daughter Sheena Bora, had allegedly made payments to a firm linked to finance minister’s son Karti Chidambaram, the CBI has said in the FIR.

P Chidambaram has strongly denied the allegations, saying the payments were for consultancy and his son was in no way associated with that company.

Pallavi C.N

A woman and her husband managed to foil an armed robbery bid in broad daylight, after two miscreants entered a jewellery shop in the guise of customers and  tried to rob them .The incident took to rob them. The incident took place at samrat jeweles located in pal e Guttahalli 2nd Main Road, just a few hundred meters from vyalikaval police station on Wednesday afternoon. Ashish and his wife Rakhi, the shop owners were in the store when two men entered armed in the guise of customers and asked for the specific design of jewellery, when Rakhi took out to show it to the duo ,suddenly one of them pulled out a gun and fired at the ceiling. Rakhi immediately picked up the chair and threw it at the man and her husband also tried catching the robbers . Ashish screamed for help causing robbers to flee.Staffers of nearby shop joined, while another robber waiting for his accomplices outside,flee the spot.  Soon after the incident a FIR was registered in vyalikaval Police Station and the team led by Sanjeev Gowda, the Police Inspector , worked for different clues available and was successful in catching the four accused. 1. Balaji Ramesh Gayakwad S/o Ramesh Haridas Gayakwad, 25 years, silver ornament work, sholapur, Maharashtra.2. Balwan Singh S/o Jamvir Singh, 24 years, unemployed, R/o Bhimini, Hariyana.3. Shri ram Bishnoi S/o Jaurupa Ram, 26 years, steel wielding work, Dist Barmer, Rajasthan.4. Omprakash S/o Jora Ram, 27 years, steel grill works, Dist Jalore,Rajasthan.