At least eight people were killed and 17 others wounded after a suicide bomber blew himself up near a government ministry office in Kabul on Sunday, authorities said.

“The preliminary findings show that seven civilians and the bomber were killed on the spot and 17 people injured in the blast,” Xinhua quoted an official as saying.

“A terrorist detonated his explosive belt near the building of the Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development in Dar-ul-Aman locality, Police District 6 of the city,” Hashmat Stanikzai, spokesman of Kabul police, tweeted earlier.

The attack took place when the ministry’s employees were leaving the building for home after work.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack so far.

The capital city with a population of nearly 5 million has been hit by series of terror attacks over the past couple of years.

One June 11 this year, 17 employees of the same ministry were killed and over 30 others wounded in a similar attack in Dar-ul-Aman.

The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear an anticipatory bail plea of one of the Malankara Orthodox Church priests who is on the run after facing charges of sexual abuse of a parishioner.

A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justice A.M. Khanwilkar and Justice D.Y. Chandrachud posted Sony (Abraham) Varghese’s plea hearing for Tuesday.

Another accused, Father Jaice K. George — currently stationed in Delhi — will file a petition on Monday.

Varghese has challenged the order of the Kerala High Court which had denied three priests including him, anticipatory bail.

A woman, who regularly visited the Malankara Orthodox Church, has accused five priests of sexually abusing her for a decade. Her husband has complained that she was subjected to sexual overtures by five priests.

Initially, it was only one priest who first exploited the woman. When she sought help from another priest, he too threatened her and shared her contact with a fellow priest and she was eventually victimised by five of them.

One priest, however, escaped action as the victim mentioned only four names.

The National Commission for Women is monitoring the case.

Punjab Police on Saturday killed a gangster and arrested two of his accomplices in Himachal Pradesh’s Bilaspur district after a brief encounter.

However, two others managed to flee from the encounter spot in Naina Devi, famous for a hilltop Hindu shrine.

“A team of Punjab Police was chasing five gangsters, who snatched a car from Sohana in Mohali (in Punjab). As the police signaled the criminals to stop their vehicle, one of them fired at the police. The police retaliated and fired back. One of the criminals died in the process,” Bilaspur Superintendent of Police Ashok Kumar told IANS.

The dead criminal was identified as Sunny Masih of Gurdaspur in Punjab, he said. Two identified as Amanpreet and Goldy were arrested, while the hunt is on for the remaining two.

Mohali Senior Superintendent of Police Kuldeep Singh Chahal and senior police officials reached the encounter spot.

As per the police, several cases of extortion have been registered against the criminals in Punjab.

The encounter spot, some 130 km from the state capital, is located close to Punjab.

(IANS)

The Supreme Court on Monday reaffirmed its verdict upholding the death sentence to four convicts who gang-raped and murdered Nirbhaya.

Dismissing the plea for the recall of the May 5, 2017 verdict upholding the death sentence, Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justice R. Banumathi and Justice Ashok Bhushan said that the petition lacked grounds for a review.

Pronouncing the judgment, Justice Bhushan said the review petition must show an error resulting in a miscarriage of justice. He said none of the petitions by the convicts pointed out to an error leading to miscarriage of justice.

A young professional, Nirbhaya, as she came to be known, was brutally sexually assaulted in a moving bus by five men — one of whom committed suicide in prison — on December 16, 2012.

The crime triggered nationwide outrage. Nirbhaya died in a Singapore hospital.

The court also said that the hearing on the appeals against the Delhi High Court judgment confirming the death sentence lasted 38 days as the lawyers for the four convicts were given full opportunity to state their case.

Veteran actor Mithun Chakraborty’s son Mahaakshay aka Mimoh has been accused of rape and cheating by a Bhojpuri starlet. The woman even alleged that when she became pregnant, Mahaakshay had given her some medicine which led to an abortion.

She filed the complaint alleging that the actor had cheated and raped her after being in physical relation with her for around four years on the pretext of marriage. She claimed that Mimoh’s mother veteran actress Yogita Bali had threatened her of dire consequences if she continued the relationship. The complainant also said in the court that she moved to Delhi from Mumbai as she feared for her life in view of threats made by Bali and her son.

According to PTI, Mahaakshay and Yogita Bali were granted anticipatory bail by the Delhi court. Special Judge Ashutosh Kumar granted the relief to Chakraborty’s wife Yogita Bali and their son Mahaakshay saying they have deep roots in society and are not likely to abscond.

However, Mahaakshay’s wedding was cancelled. The accused was set to marry in Udhagamandalam (Ooty) in Nilgiris district of Tamil Nadu but after the arrival of a police team to investigate the case, the marriage was cancelled and the bride’s family left the place, police told PTI. Mahaakshay’s wedding was scheduled to take place on July 7, 2018.

Meanwhile, the complainant alleged that Mahaakshay he had physical relations with her for around four years after promising her marriage. The court had said that prima facie there are sufficient grounds for registration of an FIR against Bali and Mahaakshay and to proceed further in accordance with the law.

The woman alleged in her complaint that when she became pregnant, Mahaakshay had given her some medicine which led to an abortion.

Embattled Indian tycoon Vijay Mallya said on Sunday he will comply fully with court enforcement officers seeking to seize his British assets, but there was not much for them to take as his family’s lavish residences were not in his name.

India wants to extradite the 62-year-old former liquor baron from Britain to face charges of fraud as a group of Indian banks seek to recover more than $1 billion of loans granted to his defunct Kingfisher Airlines.

A verdict is expected by early September, with July 31 the final date for closing oral submissions and appeals likely whatever the outcome.

Speaking to Reuters at the British Formula One Grand Prix, where he is principal and co-owner of the Force India team, Mallya said he would hand over British assets held in his name. But a luxury country residence belonged to his children and a house in London belonged to his mother, making them untouchable.

“I have given the UK court on affidavit a statement of my UK assets. Which, pursuant to the freezing order, they are entitled to take and hand over to the banks,” he said. “There are a few cars, a few items of jewelry and I said ‘OK, fine. You don’t have to bother to come to my house to seize them. I’ll physically hand them over. Tell me the time, date and place.’“

“There’s no question of being homeless because at the end of the day, they are entitled to take my assets in my name declared on oath to the court. They can’t go one step beyond,” he said.

‘Fugitive economic offender’

Mallya said a super-yacht he used for entertaining at races in Monaco and Abu Dhabi, which was recently sold at auction in Malta after a dispute over unpaid crew wages, was not his problem either.

“I have not owned the Indian Empress boat for more than seven years now,” he said. It had belonged to “a Middle Eastern gentleman”, whose name he would not disclose, in a deal that gave Mallya use of it for one month a year, he said.

Mallya has been in Britain since he left India in March 2016, unable to travel after his passport was revoked, so the annual British Grand Prix is the only race he has been able to attend since then.

The Indian government’s Enforcement Directorate, which fights financial crimes, is seeking to declare him a “fugitive economic offender” and to confiscate 125 billion rupees worth of his assets.

Mallya has denied the charges, decried a “political witchhunt” and has said he is seeking to sell assets worth about 139 billion rupees to repay creditors.

“I think the overriding consideration that everybody seems to be missing is that I have put $2 billion worth of assets in front of the Karnataka high court which is more than sufficient to repay the banks and indeed everybody else,” he said.

“So the question of attaching assets either in the UK or whatever should notarise.”

Mallya repeated recent complaints on Twitter that Indian criminal enforcement agencies had frozen assets in India so he could not sell them, while banks continued to tot up interest.

He said the enforcement directorate had also attached assets inherited from his father, including properties acquired in the 1920s, under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

“How can those be proceeds of crime? This is the injustice that is happening,” he said.

The former billionaire, at one time dubbed the ‘King of Good Times’ and a former member of the upper house of the Indian parliament, bridled at being branded a ‘fugitive’.

“I was always a resident of England and a non-resident of India. So where else do I come back to? So where’s the running away concept? It’s just become too political,” he said.

“And now in an (Indian) election year, I guess what they want to do is bring me back and hang me on the holy cross and hope to get more votes.”

The Punjab State Women’s Commission on Friday said over 30,000 legal cases pertaining to Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) from the state abandoning their wives are pending for disposal and urged the Centre to enact deterrent laws to curb the menace.

Commission Chairperson Manisha Gulati met Union External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj in New Delhi and raised the issue of the plight of such women who had “suffered due to betrayals and exploitation by NRI grooms”.

Gulati said the Minister assured her of necessary action. “More than 30,000 legal cases are pending in Punjab alone, in which NRIs presumably abandoned their wives. These exploited women need help immediately.

“If the preliminary inquiry in India reveals that the NRI concerned is within the ambit of conviction, then his extradition process be initiated immediately and his passport confiscated till he compensates his aggrieved wife.

“This bold decision will help save many lives in India, particularly in Punjab, and alert other NRIs who want to twist the law for their vested interest without fearing for its consequences,” Gulati said.

Punjab has tens of thousands of NRIs settled in other countries, especially in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Australia.

“The present and previous governments passed laws to protect women from exploitation by NRI grooms but somehow this exploitation hasn’t been curtailed,” the commission chief pointed out.

A 26-year-old Indian student from Telangana was shot dead inside a restaurant here in the US state of Missouri by a suspected robber.

Sharath Koppu, who was pursuing his Master’s degree from the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UKMC), was shot on Friday evening at J’s Fish and Chicken Market where he was working as a part-time employee, The Kansas City Star newspaper reported.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Sunday condoled the death, saying: “We will follow this up with the police and provide all assistance to the family.”

The Kansas City Police has released a brief video of the suspect inside the restaurant moments before the shooting and asked for people’s assistance in identifying him.

The suspect pulled out a gun and shot Koppu on his back. He died after being taken to a hospital.

Koppu, who was a software engineer, came to the US in January.

Meanwhile, the Telangana government on Sunday announced that it was making arrangements to bring Koppu’s body back to Hyderabad within two days.

The state’s Minister for NRI Affairs K.T. Rama Rao along with his cabinet colleagues Kadiam Srihari and T. Srinivas Yadav visited Koppu’s house.

The state government was in touch the Ministry of External Affairs and the Indian Embassy in the US, according to Rao.

The UKMC also issued a statement condoling Koppu’s death.

“We offer our sincere sympathies to Sharath’s family and friends in the wake of this senseless tragedy,” the statement said.

UMKC Chancellor C. Mauli Agrawal offered his condolences.

“Sharath and I share an Indian heritage, but all of us at UMKC share in the grief such tragedies bring,” Agrawal said on Saturday evening.

The incident comes a year after another Hyderabad techie, Srinivas Kuchibhotla, 32, was killed in a race-triggered attack at a bar also in Kansas City on February 22, 2017.

In May, former US Navy veteran Adam Purinton admitted that he fatally shot Kuchibhotla saying that he targeted the victim because of his “actual and perceived race, colour, religion and national origin”.

A business person from the city stands captured for dodging payments of Goods and Services Tax (GST) to the degree of Rs 15 crore. To the extent Karnataka is concerned, this happens to be the first ever capture under GST provision.

Authorities of GST commissioner, city south zone, directed the raid and arrest the businessman on Friday. He happens to be the managing director of an automobile industry working at Bommasandra here. On being presented before the magistrate, he was released of a bond vowing to make payment of the whole due under GST within two weeks.

The centerboard of taxes has been observing payment of GST since its implementation. Subsequent to finding that an automobile industry had immense tax dues, the authorities had started to nearly screen the turnover, tax collection, payment etc. Since GST was implemented, the experts have been observing installment of GST and giving careful consideration to those situations where dues are heavy. Top authorities in the office said that they keep on keeping a watch on GST payment and will make solid strides for recovery wherever the concerned default in making payment.

Dreaded gangster Munna Bajrangi was shot dead inside a high-security prison in Uttar Pradesh’s Baghpat early on Monday, police said. A judicial probe has been ordered.

The 51-year-old criminal was shot ten times and his body was then dumped into a gutter inside the prison premises, a police officer said.

He was shifted to the Baghpat prison from Jhansi jail late on Sunday for a hearing in a district court.

Bajrangi, whose writ ran large and wide in the eastern part of the state for some three decades, was shifted for hearing in an extortion case filed two years back by former Baghpat legislator Lokesh Dixit.

He was kept in a solitary cell. There were other dreaded mobsters like Vicky Sunehda, Sunil Rathi, also lodged in the same jail.

Bajrangi’s family feared for his life and only 10 days back his wife Seema had requested the judge not to transfer her husband to Baghpat but conduct the hearing through video conferencing.

She alleged that the Special Task Force (STF) of the state police was trying to get Bajrangi eliminated.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath ordered the suspension of four prison officials, including the jailor, deputy jailer, following the incident.

He assured that stringent action will be taken against those found guilty.

Bajrangi was arrested from Mumbai’s Malad area by the Delhi Police on October 29, 2009 and has been languishing in jails ever since.

He was an accused in the murder of senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Ram Chandra Singh and legislator Krishnanand Rai besides being accused of many murders, and extortions.