An unidentified man opened fire at controversial Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) scholar Umar Khalid outside the Constitution Club here on Monday but he escaped unhurt, police said.

The attack took place around 2.30 p.m. when Khalid was at a tea stall with friends.

Deputy Commissioner of Police Madhur Verma quoted Khalid as saying that he was attacked and that somebody pounced on him and pushed him.

“Thereafter he tried to fire at Khalid. But the person couldn’t fire immediately,” Verma said. “People started chasing him. Thereafter, according to Khalid, the attacker fired in the air.”

Another police officer said a pistol was recovered from the spot.

Khalid went to the Constitution Club to attend a “United Against Hate” programme. Police said CCTV cameras were being scrutinised to identify the attackers.

Khalid was rusticated and fined by JNU last month after he along with two other students — Kanhaiya Kumar and Anirban Bhattacharya — were found guilty of raising anti-national slogans during a poetry-reading gathering inside the campus on February 9, 2016.

Delhi Police on Monday filed a charge sheet against Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, his deputy Manish Sisodia and 11 other Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLAs for allegedly assaulting Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash in February.

The charge sheet, filed in the Patiala House Court on the basis of investigation done on the complaint of Prakash, also names Amanatullah Khan, Prakash Jarwal, Nitin Tyagi, Rituraj Govind, Sanjeev Jha, Ajay Dutt, Rajesh Rishi, Rajesh Gupta, Madan Lal, Parveen Kumar and Dinesh Mohania.

“On February 20, a case was registered on the complaint of Prakash. After completion of the investigation and upon collection of evidence on record, a charge sheet has been filed in the court,” a Delhi Police official said.

The Chief Secretary had alleged that he was beaten up by AAP MLAs in the presence of Kejriwal at the Chief Minister’s residence here on the night of February 19, where he had been called for a late-night meeting.

A woman and her boyfriend along with his friend were arrested by the Soladevanahalli police for extorting money through the honey trap.

Arpitha B N (22), her 25-year-old boyfriend Pavan Kumar and his friend Siddhartha (45) are the arrested. According to a complaint filed by one of the victims the trio was taken into custody.

Arpitha used to lure the men on social media platforms with fake profile pictures. First, she would send friend requests to men and invite them over. Once they come to her place, she used to seduce them. Then his boyfriend and his friend would barge into the house as a police officer and as a news reporter in a pre-planned strategy and would go on to rob him.

The victims than would be threatened by framing in an immoral trafficking case and send them to jail. The trio has looted several victims, say police.

Their extortion bid came to light when one of the victims, a grocery shop owner informed the police.

In his complaint, the victim stated that the woman took groceries from him and promised to pay later. She invited him over on the pretext of making the payment. Pavan and Siddhartha barged into the house and robbed him of gold jewelry worth Rs 1.3 lac by threatening him. They also forced him to withdraw Rs 55,000 from an ATM on July 31. They later blackmailed him, saying they had clicked and filmed him during his intimate moments with Arpitha. They threatened to upload the photos and videos to social media if he didn’t pay up Rs 1 lac.

According to the police, the woman had married a relative five years ago but he had deserted her. After moving to Bengaluru, she befriended Pavan and the couple planned to extort men with the help of another accused Siddhartha, who posed as a policeman.

Police investigation showed that Arpitha had married a relative five years ago but her husband deserted her. She then moved to Bengaluru and befriended Pavan. The couple came up with the idea of honey trapping people to make a quick buck. Pavan roped in his friend, Siddhartha, who posed as a policeman.

A Bangladeshi national, working with Jamat-e-Islami foundation of Bangladesh, was arrested by troopers of the Border Security Forces (BSF) in Meghalaya, officials said on Thursday.

Md Jaharul Islam, 26, was arrested on Wednesday from the Zero Line of the India-Bangladesh border at Baghmara in South Garo Hills district.

During questioning, a BSF statement said, Islam revealed that he worked for Jamat-e-Islami foundation and wanted to become a Jihadi. He works for an international forum called SEBDA Children Denmark.

“Islam was not satisfied with the policy of Bangladesh’s ruling Awami League government. He revealed that he wanted to become Jihadi due to torture inflicted upon him by some Awami League members. He is a supporter of Bangladesh Nationalist Party,” the statement said.

Islam confessed that he knew that he would die but “will kill all ‘kafir’ (Non-believers) who do not respect Islam and the Holy Quran”.

A 23-year-old youth was allegedly pushed to death from the fourth floor of a lodge by his friend in VV Puram on Wednesday evening.

The deceased Ronak Choudhary is a native of Ahmedabad and was in the city to appear in a nursing exam.

A police officer from VV Puram said the incident took place in Trishal Lodge where they were staying. The accused, Royal Choudhary (23) has been arrested. He told the police that around 8.30 pm on Wednesday, he and Ronak had begun quarreling over a girl who was reportedly in love with Royal. In a fit of rage, Royal allegedly pushed Ronak off the fourth floor.

Preliminary investigations revealed that on August 2, around 30 students from Gujarat had come to the city to write a nursing exam. Ronak, Royal and a girl who was their classmate were staying in a room on the fourth floor. Their exams ended on Wednesday and they were planning to return to their native on Thursday. They were sitting in the balcony when the fight broke out between Ronak and Royal.

Meanwhile, the girl intervened to separate them. Ronak claimed that the girl was in love with him and warned Royel to stay away from her. The staff at the lodge were not aware of the fight. They alerted the police only after finding Ronak lying in a pool of blood.

The Supreme Court on Friday admitted a CBI plea against the acquittal of doctor-couple Rajesh Talwar and Nupur Talwar in the murder of their daughter Aarushi and domestic help Hemraj, and issued a notice to them.

A bench headed by Justice Ranjan Gogoi, while agreeing to hear the central probe agency’s plea against the dentist couple’s acquittal, sought a response from them.

It tagged the Central Bureau of Investigation plea with the petititon of Hemraj’s wife who also challenged the acquittal.

The CBI had approached the Supreme Court on October 12, 2017, against the Allahabad High Court order of acquittal.

The high court had acquitted the couple by giving them the benefit of doubt.

Aarushi, 14, and Hemraj, were found murdered at their Jal Vayu Vihar home in Noida on May 16, 2008.

The high court’s order came on an appeal by the Talwars against a Ghaziabad CBI court judgement that handed them life imprisonment on November 26, 2013.

After Aarushi was found murdered in her bedroom, Hemraj was initially considered a suspect. However, his body too, was discovered a day later in a pool of blood on the terrace of the house.

The high court, while acquitting the Talwar couple, had made comments on the CBI trial court presiding officer, saying he had adopted a “partial and parochial approach” in his 2013 judgment to convict the parents for the double murder.

The court had said that the trial court’s judgment was based on the “creation of fanciful reasoning” and “presuming facts with indomitable obstinacy and taking things for granted, and thus basing the conclusion on unfounded evidence”.

The Uttar Pradesh Police had accused Rajesh Talwar of killing his daughter in a fit of rage. Rajesh Talwar was arrested on May 23, 2008.

On May 31, 2008, the CBI tookover the case and initially absolved the parents but later held them responsible for the two murders.

On June 13, 2008, Rajesh Talwar’s compounder Krishna was arrested by the CBI. Ten days later, Raj Kumar, a servant of a doctor friend of the Talwars, and Vijay Mandal, the domestic help of the Talwars’ neighbour, were also arrested.

The three were later freed after no evidence was found against them.

The Jharkhand High Court on Friday extended the provisional bail of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) Chief Lalu Yadav till August 20.

According to a lawyer, the provisional bail period was ending on August 17 but Lalu Yadav’s lawyers moved the High Court seeking a further three-month extension. The next hearing will take place on August 17.

Lalu Yadav was granted six weeks provisional bail for treatment in May, which was later extended by the High Court.

He was in Ranchi’s Birsa Munda Central Jail after being convicted in December 2017 in a fodder scam case.

He was also convicted in two other cases in January and March 2018 and was awarded 14 years imprisonment.

In 2013, he was convicted in the first fodder scam case and sentenced to jail for five years.

The multi-million fodder scam had surfaced in the 1990s when Lalu Yadav was Bihar’s Chief Minister. At the directive of Patna High Court, the probe was handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation.

The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) has nabbed a right-wing activist of the Hindu Janjagran Samiti (HJS) and recovered some explosive materials from his home in Palghar early on Friday, an official said.

The activist has been identified as Vaibhav Raut. Earlier it was suspected that he was a Sanatan Sanstha activist, also a right-wing group.

The arrest followed an early morning raid in the Nala Sopara town. The ATS used a dog squad to swoop down on the Hindu group member.

The ATS has recovered some bomb-making material, including detonators, explosive powder and incriminating material during the raid at his home and shop in Bhandarali area of Nala Sopara.

The motives behind the explosives found with him are not clear and Raut has been taken from Palghar to Mumbai where he will be produced before a court later in the day.

Decrying the arrest of “a devout Hindu” as “Malegaon 2” the HJS has said Raut is an active Gau-Rakshak (Cow protector) of the Hindu Govansh Raksha Samiti.

“He used to participate in agitations and programmes for uniting Hindu organisations under the aegis of the HJS,” said Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh HJS Organiser Sunil Ghanvat.

However, he had not taken part in any programmes since the past few months, the HJS chief added.

“The incidents of needless harassment of Hindu orgnisations’ activists and implicating them in false cases are not new. It was amply proved through the Malegaon (2008 blasts) case and arrests of many innocent Sanatan Sanstha activists,” Ghanvat said.

He was referring to the arrests of several leading Hindu functioneries, including Sadhvi Pragnya Singh Thakur and others, during the investigations into the Malegaon blasts in a Muslim locality killing seven and injuring over 80.

Earlier on Friday, Raut’s lawyer Sanjeev Punhalekar had also informed the media that Raut was not a Sanatan Sanstha activist and his name was being deliberately linked to defame the organisation.

A man running a training centre and a hostel for hearing and speech impaired girls and women has been arrested on charges of rape and inappropriate behaviour, police said on Friday.

Accused Ashwani Sharma runs the training centre in Awadhpuri here, for which he gets government grants. He also runs a hostel ‘Kritarth’, where young women undergoing training are offered board and lodging facility.

The crime came to light when a speech and hearing impaired victim narrated her ordeal to her family, which lodged a complaint with Dhar and Indore police. A zero FIR was registered and sent to Awadhpuri police staion in Bhopal.

“One girl of Dhar and two of Indore too have lodged complaints against Ashwani, who has been arested. A probe is on,” Bhopal Inspector General of Police, Jaideep Prasad told IANS.

The victim from Dhar alleged that the accused raped her many times while she was staying at the hostel for nearly a year to train in stitching and embroidery.

A class two student of a New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) school in the upscale Gol Market area was allegedly raped by an electrician inside the institute’s premises, police said today.

The incident came to light when the girl narrated her ordeal to her parents after returning from school yesterday, a police official said.

The accused, identified as Ram Asre (37), has been working in the school for around a month and is a permanent electrician employed with the NDMC, the police said.

He has been arrested and a case has been registered against him under the relevant section of the IPC and under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, they said.