Bijnor (UP): A 13-year-old girl allegedly strangled her two younger sisters to death as her father was worried about having five children, police said on Friday.

Late on Thursday night around 12:30 am, an information was received at Noorpur police station about bodies of two girls found in a house in village Gauhawar Jait, Superintendent of Police Neeraj Kumar Jadaun said.

When the police reached the house, they found Ritu (7) and Pavitra (5) lying on the floor, he said, adding that spot investigation did not reveal any signs of forced entry.

Sahdev and Savita lived in the house with their five children.

Savita’s two eldest daughters, the 13-year-old and a 9-year-old, were from her first husband, Pukhraj. The two deceased girls and their 1.5-year-old brother were from her second husband, Sahdev.

SP Jadaun said that during initial questioning, the 13-year-old said that two unknown people entered their house and strangled her sisters.

However, she later confessed to strangling them to death with a scarf as her father was worried because of the size of the family, he said.

The bodies of the victims have been sent for post-mortem and the minor accused girl is being interrogated, the police said.

New Delhi: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s aide Bibhav Kumar on Friday filed a police complaint against AAP MP Swati Maliwal, alleging she breached the security of the CM’s residence to gain unauthorised entry on May 13 and created a ruckus there, the party said.

It also said that when Kumar tried to stop her she hurled abuses at him.

In his complaint filed via an e-mail to the Civil Lines Police Station SHO, Kumar said now she is trying to falsely implicate him by alleging that he assaulted her at the chief minister’s residence when she had gone to meet Kejriwal.

Kumar has also sent a copy of his complaint to the Deputy Commissioner of Police (North).

In a statement, the AAP said Kumar has said in his complaint that Maliwal breached the security of the CM’s residence, gained access forcibly and unauthorisedly, and created a ruckus there.

When Kumar tried to stop her, she hurled abuses at him with the intent to physically assault him, according to the complaint.

Kumar also said in the complaint that Maliwal is now trying to falsely implicate him so as to create undue pressure on him.

Maliwal has already filed an FIR against Kumar alleging that he assaulted her when she had gone to meet Kejriwal at his official residence on May 13.

Kumar in his complaint said Maliwal barged into Kejriwal’s residence on May 13 by telling security personnel that she was a Rajya Sabha MP.

“Despite requests by security officers to wait until he gets the details of her appointment verified, she forcibly entered the CM’s residence despite the objections,” Kumar said in his complaint.

The complaint stated that she trespassed despite repeated objections by security personnel and CM office staff.

It was claimed in the complaint that at 9:22 am when Kumar entered the main building of the CM’s residence, he found Maliwal sitting in the drawing room.

“Kumar approached Maliwal and politely requested her to follow the proper procedure for meeting the chief minister. To this, Maliwal started screaming and shouting at Kumar, and hurled abuses. She said: ‘tumhari himmat kaise hui…ek MP ko rokne ki….tumhari aukat kya hai? (How dare you to stop an MP)’,” the complaint stated.

Maliwal ignored the requests and started walking from the drawing room towards the inner parts of the residence, Kumar said in his complaint.

Kumar claimed that she intended to harm Kejriwal and he strongly “objected”. Maliwal became angry and sat on a sofa and called the police control room. She started levelling false allegations, the complainant said.

Kumar said that when he requested Maliwal to leave the CM’s residence, she said “Main tujhe dekh lungi…main tujhe aese joothe case mei fasaungi ki tujhe zindagi bhar jail mei sadah dungi ….(I will trap you in a false case and you will spend your whole life in prison)”.

He said he called security officers in the main building and they too requested her to leave. She left the premises at 9.35 am, the complaint said.

Kumar has alleged that Maliwal trespassed, breached security of the CM’s residence, prevented government officers from discharging their duty and assaulted him. Therefore, she is liable for action as per the law, he said.

Kumar said, “You (SHO) are requested to take appropriate legal action against Maliwal. Since it is election time, all of this may have been done at the behest of the BJP and it is therefore, requested that her call records, chats and interactions with BJP leaders should also be investigated.”

Gurugram: At least nine people were burnt alive and 15 injured when a moving bus caught fire near Tauru in Haryana’s Nuh district in the early hours of Saturday, police said.

The incident occurred around 2 am on the Kundli-Manesar-Palwal (KMP) Expressway. The bus was carrying around 60 people, all residents of Punjab’s Hoshiarpur and Ludhiana, who were returning from pilgrim towns of Mathura and Vrindavan. All of them are relatives, police said.

“Nine people — six women and three men — were killed in the accident. Fifteen people were injured and have been hospitalised. All the injured are stable,” said Inspector Jitendra Kumar, Station House Officer, Sadar Tauru.

“The cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained. A probe is underway,” he said.

A local resident said that after noticing the fire, some people chased the bus on a motorcycle and asked the driver to stop. The locals also informed the police and fire department.

Washington: There are not too many more vibrant democracies in the world than India, the White House has said, applauding the people of India for exercising their right to vote.

White House National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby was responding to a question on the ongoing Indian elections in which more than 969 million people are exercising their right to franchise at one million polling stations to elect 545 Members of Parliament from thousands of candidates representing as many as 2,660 registered political parties.

The voting will conclude on June 1. The votes will be counted and the results will be declared on June 4.

“Not too many more vibrant democracies in the world than India. And we applaud the Indian people for exercising, you know, their ability to vote, and to have a voice in their future government. And we wish them well throughout the process, of course,” Kirby told reporters at a news conference here.

Responding to another question, Kirby said the India-US relationship has strengthened under Prime Minister Narendra Modi in particular during the last three years of the Biden administration.

“Our relationship with India is extremely close and getting closer,” he said.

“You saw it on a State Visit (last June). We launched all kinds of new initiatives, working on critical emerging technologies together, and bolstering and expanding the relevance of the Indo-Pacific quad, of course, which India is a part of. And then, just the people-to-people exchanges, and the military that we share with India,” Kirby said.

It’s a very vibrant, very active partnership, he said.

“We are grateful for Prime Minister Modi’s leadership,” said the senior White House official.

When asked if President Joe Biden believes that India and Japan are xenophobic countries, he replied in the negative and said the president was making a broader point.

“I mean, the president was making a broader point here about the vibrancy of our own democracy, here in the United States, and how inclusive and participatory it is,” Kirby said.

Biden earlier this month had called Japan and India “xenophobic”, grouping them with Russia and China as countries that “don’t want immigrants”.

Indian cricketer Shreyas Iyer sparked a social media frenzy after briefly following and then unfollowing popular YouTuber Dhruv Rathee on Instagram.

According to reports, Shreyas Iyer was following Dhruv Rathee on Instagram till around 10 pm on Tuesday evening. This was noticed by users and a screenshot of Iyer’s profile, showing Rathee among those he followed, was taken. The user who captured the screenshot tagged both Iyer and Rathee in a post made around 10:30 pm, which quickly went viral trigerring hate campaign against Iyer from right-wing social media users.

“I took a screenshot from Shreyas Iyer’s Instagram profile at around 10 pm in which Shreyas Iyer was following Dhruv Rathee. I posted this after 10:30 am by tagging Shreyas Iyer and Dhruv Rathi, the post went viral in a few hours. Then when I woke up in the morning, I saw that Shreyas Iyer, who was earlier following 599 people, is now following only 597 people. He had unfollowed Dhruv Rathi,” one user wrote on X (formerly known as Twitter).

Dhruv Rathee is known for his informative videos on a wide range of social, political, and environmental topics, primarily in Hindi. His content often critiques the policies and actions of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which has garnered him both a large following and significant criticism.

Supporters of the BJP, in particular, have been vocal in their opposition to Rathee, often questioning his perspectives due to his residence in Germany.

As of now, neither Shreyas Iyer nor Dhruv Rathee has commented publicly on the matter. However, the incident remains a talking point among their respective followers and the general public. Kuldeep Yadav, another Indian cricketer is also following Dhruv Rathee on Instagram. 

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to entertain a Tamil Nadu-based farmer leader’s plea for an extension of deadline for filing nomination papers to contest from Varanasi Lok Sabha seat where Prime Minister Narendra Modi is in the fray, decrying the petition as “publicity interest litigation”.

The prime minister filed his nomination papers from Varanasi parliamentary constituency on May 14, the last day for filing the papers, as a BJP candidate. The polling will take place on June 1.

“You want to withdraw, we can allow you to withdraw. If you want us to dismiss, we can dismiss it. These are all Publicity Interest Litigation,” a bench comprising justices Vikram Nath and Satish Chandra Sharma said.

Lawyer S Mahendran, appearing for P Ayyakannu, a native of Trichy in Tamil Nadu and President of the National South Indian River Interlinking Agriculturist Association, claimed that Ayyakannu was de-boarded from the Varanasi-bound train on May 10 by the railway security personnel when he was on his way to file nomination from the seat.

He said that even the prime minister filed his nomination papers on the last day and urged the court to ask the poll panel to extend the time for the same.

During the brief hearing, the bench asked as to why Ayyakannu wanted to contest from Varanasi and said the whole purpose of the petition seemed to get publicity.