PTI.

Mumbai: Actor Vinod Khanna’s mortal remains have been set on pyre on Thursday. He passed away in a Mumbai hospital reportedly due to cancer. He was 70. Khanna was hospitalized after he complained of “severe dehydration” and was suffering from Bladder Cancer.

His funeral took place at a crematorium in Worli, Mumbai, in the evening which was attended by a number of his contemporaries, including Amitabh Bachchan, Rishi Kapoor, Ranjit and many others.

Here are some pictures from his funeral:

Mumbai: Akshay Khanna, Abhishek Bachchan and Randeep Hooda at #VinodKhanna 's funeral in Worli pic.twitter.com/d7BFHVH75s

— ANI (@ANI_news) April 27, 2017

Mumbai: Amitabh Bachchan and Abhishek Bachchan at #VinodKhanna 's funeral pic.twitter.com/4uZGRwiZ68

— ANI (@ANI_news) April 27, 2017

Mumbai: Subhash Ghai,Dia Mirza,Randhir Kapoor and Praful Patel at #VinodKhanna 's funeral pic.twitter.com/5z8wZysK41

— ANI (@ANI_news) April 27, 2017

New Delhi: Congress President Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law Robert Vadra made an “illegal profit” of over Rs 50 crore from a 2008 land deal without investing a penny, according to a panel that probed suspect Haryana land deals. The Economic Times citing unnamed people familiar with the S.N. Dhingra commission report said the committee had probed transactions between Onkareshwar Properties and Vadra-owned Skylight Hospitality and subsequently between Skylight and developer DLF. The Dhingra commission investigated over 20 properties said to have been purchased by Vadra and his companies, said the paper.

The panel has observed an alleged collusion between dealers and the then Congress government of Bhupinder Singh Hooda, aimed at benefiting Vadra’s Skylight. The commission was set up by the Manohar Lal Khattar’s BJP government in May 2015 to look into the grant of licences for change in land use in four villages of Gurgaon, including the licence granted to Skylight.

The Economic Times said the Vadra-owned hospitality firm had bought land from Onkareshwar Properties.

In response to the paper, Vadra’s lawyer said the company or his client had “committed no wrong and no laws were violated.” Priyanka Gandhi Vadra in a statement on Thursday said the agricultural land bought by her in in Amipur village of Faridabad district or other property acquired by her had “no links to finances of her husband, his Skylight Hospitality or reality major DLF”.

She said the land was purchased for Rs 15 lakh through cheque, which comes to Rs 3 lakh per acre. The statement said the funds for the purchase came from rental income of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra from property inherited by her from her grandmother Indira Gandhi.

The commission has observed that while reviewing the land transferred to Vadra’s company, the sale deed was executed in favour of Skylight for zero payment. The land was then sold to DLF at a much higher price after the change in land use, resulting in the Rs 50.5-crore profit.

“Other properties may have been bought with such funds and this needed to be investigated,” the commission’s report is said to have concluded, according to the paper.

The report was submitted on August 31 last year. The government sent it to the Supreme Court in a sealed cover last week after a bench asked for it in connection with a pending petition on land deals.

Former Chief Minister Hooda had moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court seeking to stop “an English business daily” from publishing the news report “on the basis of the probe report”.

“It will result in irreparable loss to the petitioner (Hooda), hence the newspaper be made as party and restrained from publishing contents of the report,” Hooda said in an application that he withdrew later.

(IANS)

New Delhi: A survey conducted by a private think tank has ranked Karnataka India’s most corrupt state. Its findings were announced on Thursday.

The CMS-India Corruption Study said more than 33% of households in the state believe the state government is “not at all committed” to reducing graft.

Among the households surveyed, 77% said they had to pay bribes for public services, signalling an increase of corruption in the state.

Karnataka had emerged less corrupt, with 57% reporting bribe-giving, in a similar study in 2005.

Bihar was then dubbed the most corrupt state with a score of 74%.

The findings are part of a report prepared by the Delhi-based Centre for Media Studies, on the basis of detailed surveys conducted in urban and rural areas of 20 states from October to November 2016 and January this year.

Overall, the report said, there was a “definite decline” in both perception and experience of citizens when it came to corruption in public services. While 43% felt the level of corruption in public services had increased over the past year, the corresponding number was 73% in 2005.

According to the report, bribes paid by households across the country added up to about Rs 6,350 crore this time, as against Rs 20,500 crore in 2005.

However, almost all households, across 20 states, had no option but to pay when they were asked for bribes by public servants, the survey said.

On an average, a household in India pays about Rs 1,840 in bribes in a year.

Regional problem

In its league, Karnataka has for company neighbours Andhra Pradesh (74%), Tamil Nadu (68%) and Maharashtra (57%).

If Karnataka is ranked the worst on “experiencing corruption in public services”, Himachal Pradesh earned laurels with just 3% households saying they had to pay bribes. Kerala (4%) and Chhattisgarh (13%) were also among the least corrupt.

In terms of perception of rising corruption, Odisha (68%), followed by Karnataka (65%), Jharkhand (59%), Bihar (59%) and Chhattisgarh (56%) emerged on the top.

(Agencies)

After at least 25 CRPF personnel were killed in ambush, Maoists based in the Bastar region of Chhattisgarh have claimed responsibility for the attack in an audio message.

Claiming the responsibility for the deadly attack, Maoist said that the attack was a response to ‘rape of tribal women’ and ‘murder of villagers’, reported news18.com.

Vikalp, who identified himself as a spokesperson of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist) hailed the attack by the outfit’s military arm People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army (PLGA) in the 16-minute audio clip.

“Our ‘fight’ was not with the paramilitary personnel, said Vikalp speaking in Hindi. The outfit also warned central forces against standing in the way of “revolution”, saying attack was in retaliation to Operation Green Hunt launched by the government against Naxals.

The report said that the spokesperson also appealed to them and to the police personnel to leave the forces, which he said were targeting activists and journalists.

“In 2016, the government killed nine of our people in Chhattisgarh and 21 in Odisha. The ambush is a reaction to these killings and sexual violence against our women,” Vikalp is heard saying in the clip.

The 25 CRPF jawans who were killed in a deadly Naxal ambush in Chhattisgarh’s Sukma, were having lunch when a hail of bullets and grenades hit them fatally.

A party of about 36 troops, out of the total 99, came under the first assault after they had ventured out from Burkapal to sanitise and provide protection to a 5.5-km long road construction work connecting Chitagufa in the said district

According to officer, a huge assortment of 22 smart arms, including 13 AK series assault rifles and 5 INSAS rifles, 3,420 live rounds of various rifles, 75 magazines of AK rifles, 31 of INSAS, 67 live UBGL rounds, 22 bullet proof jackets, two binoculars, five wireless sets and a deep search metal detector were also looted by Naxals.

(Agencies)

Mumbai: The city civil and sessions court convicted model Preeti Jain to three years in jail and levied a fine of Rs10,000 for plotting to murder film-maker Madhur Bhandarkar, against whom she had earlier registered a rape case.

Bhandarkar reacted to the verdict with a tweet: “Some things are better left unsaid! Some things are better left as they are. Life moves on, so have I.”

The court sentenced two of her associates – Naresh Pardeshi and Shivram Das – to three years on charges of conspiracy, aiding and abetting crime. Two other aides from Uttar Pradesh were acquitted for lack of evidence.

Soon after the court’s decision, Jain sought suspension of sentence.

It was alleged Jain approached Pardeshi to eliminate Bhandarkar in 2005, almost a year after she filed a rape case against the filmmaker, and allegedly paid Rs75,000 for the job. However, as the task was not completed, she asked for her money back. The issue reached Gawli, who then sent his men to alert the police.

After a week-long probe, the police registered a case on September 10, 2005. Pardesi was arrested the same day and Jain was picked up while she was on her way to the Versova police station.

The police later arrested Pardeshi’s friend Shivram Das, who was allegedly helped him arrange for weapons and shooters.

The trial first began in the fast-track court in Sewree, but was later transferred to the sessions court.

(Agencies)

Bengaluru: Kaveri, a 6-year-old child, who fell into a 400-foot-deep borewell in Athani Taluk of Belagavi district in Karnataka on Saturday evening was declared dead on Monday after being taken out by the rescue team. The 48-hour-long massive operation to rescue Kaveri ended in tragedy with rescuers retrieving the girl’s lifeless body from the 20-foot deep open borewell where she had been trapped midway.

The incident happened at Jhunjarawadi village in Athani taluk of the district when Kaveri was playing with her friends near the dry borewell, which was left open and fell into it.

According to officials, the girl was stuck at around 20 ft. in the 400-ft. open borewell and they had locked her arm with a rope to prevent her from slipping further down.

The news came as huge shock to the family of Kaveri and villagers who had been waiting with bated breath since Saturday night hoping to see rescuers pull the child out alive.

This is not the first time that a child falling into an uncovered borewell in India. Due to the negligence on the part of authorities, several children have fallen into deep open borewells.

Borewells are often illegally dug up to extract water in areas where the water tables are depleting.

(Agencies)