The Manipur Police have arrested the fifth accused in connection with the video that surfaced on July 19 showing two women being paraded naked by a mob in the strife-torn State. The accused has been identified as a 19-year-old.
As the chorus of protests against the sexual assault of two women in Manipur grew louder, the arrested men were remanded in 11-day police custody on July 21 while the house of another suspect was set on fire by angry locals in the second such incident in connection with the case.
Meanwhile, Meitei people living and working in Mizoram started exiting the northeastern State on July 22 following an alleged diktat by an organisation of former extremists to leave for their “own safety”.
Officials of airline agencies operating flights to and from Lengpui, the airport near Mizoram’s capital Aizawl, said about 60 people took flights to Imphal’s Tulihal airport. An unspecified number of Meitei people are said to have left Aizawl and other parts of Mizoram by buses and taxis.
In New Delhi, MPs of various opposition parties have planned a protest on July 24 near Mahatma Gandhi’s statue in Parliament to press for the Prime Minister’s statement on Manipur.
Sources said leaders of the INDIA alliance parties will meet in the chamber of Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge and will discuss their further strategy in Parliament.
Also, the Opposition wants a debate allowing all parties to speak without any time restrictions and has been holding protests on the issue since the Monsoon Session started.
Delhi High Court refuses to interfere with exemption granted to wrestlers Vinesh Phogat, Bajrang Punia
Delhi High Court on July 22 refused to interfere with the exemption granted to wrestlers Vinesh Phogat and Bajrang Punia from Asian Games trials.
A petition was filed by Under-20 World Champion Antim Panghal and Under-23 Asian Champion Sujeet Kalkal in the Court against the direct entry handed to Vinesh Phogat and Bajrang Punia.
Phogat (53kg) and Punia (65kg) were given direct entry for the Asian Games by the Indian Olympic Association’s ad hoc committee on July 18, while other wrestlers will have to earn their places in the Indian squad through selection trials.
Both were at the forefront of the wrestlers’ protest demanding the arrest of outgoing WFI chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh for the alleged sexual harassment of seven women grapplers.
Monsoon rains | Cloudburst triggers flash floods in Ladakh; orange alert for 5 districts in Maharashtra
The IMD issued an orange alert for heavy to very heavy rainfall in isolated areas in Palghar, Thane, Raigad, Ratnagiri, and Sindhudurg districts for July 23. The weather department has also issued a yellow alert for heavy rainfall in isolated places in Mumbai.
Earlier in the day, with heavy rains lashing Maharashtra’s Yavatmal, a Mi-17 V5 helicopter was inducted from Nagpur to evacuate 40 people who were stranded due to floods.
Up north, a fresh batch of over 3,000 Amarnath pilgrims left a base camp for Kashmir but their convoy was briefly stopped in Ramban following landslides at two places along the Jammu-Srinagar highway, officials said. Landslides due to rains were reported from Mehar and Dalwas areas along the 270-km highway but after removal of debris traffic movement was restored, officials said.
A cloudburst triggered flash floods in the Union Territory of Ladakh, causing debris to flow into the main market area and throwing life out of gear, but no loss of life was reported, officials said.
Meanwhile, in Delhi, a surge in discharge from the Hathnikund Barrage into the Yamuna following heavy rain in parts of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh is expected to increase the water level of the river and impact relief and rehabilitation work in the flood-affected low-lying areas of the capital, officials said on the day.
The river water level, which has been hovering around the danger mark of 205.33m for the last few days, dropped below the threshold again on the day’s morning.
The Central Water Commission’s data showed that the water level dropped to 205.16m at 4 p.m. and it may drop further before the impact of rain in upper catchment areas becomes clear.
Raigad landslide | Death toll rises to 25; 83 people yet to be traced
Search and rescue teams on July 22 recovered three bodies from the debris at the landslide-affected Irshalwadi village in Maharashtra’s Raigad district, taking the death toll in the tragedy to 25, an official said.
“Bodies of two women and a man were recovered from the landslide site in Irshalwadi on Saturday,” a NDRF official said.
With this, the death toll in the landslide tragedy has gone up to 25, he said, adding that the search and rescue work is still underway as 83 persons are yet to be traced.
The deceased women were identified as 32-year-old Mahi Madhu Tirkat, Aashi Pandurang (around 50 years). The male deceased was identified as Kishan Tirkat, 27, officials said.
At least 17 of 48 houses in the village, located on a hill slope, were fully or partially buried under the landslide debris.
As per the Raigad district disaster management office, of 229 village residents, 22 were dead, 10 were injured, 111 were safe and 86 persons were yet to be traced.
Of the six victims whose bodies were pulled out on July 21, three were men and three women. Four children, aged between six months to four years, are among the deceased, officials said.
In the wake of the landslide incident, the Maharashtra Government decided to shift residents of all landslide-prone areas in the State to safer locations, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde told the State Legislative Assembly on July 21. Irshalwadi hamlet was not on the list of landslide-prone areas, he said.
BJP, Trinamool trade charges over assault on women in West Bengal
A fresh controversy erupted with the BJP leadership in West Bengal and New Delhi on July 22 alleging that two women were stripped and assaulted in Malda district earlier in the week.
Amit Malviya, the head of BJP’s I-T cell posted a video of the alleged incident on social media and targeted Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee over the incident. According to Malviya the incident took place on the morning of July 19 in Pakua Hat area of Bamangola Police Station, Malda.
State’s Minister for Women and Child Development Sashi Panja said that the police have taken suo motu cognisance of the incident and a case has been registered. Dr. Panja said the incident was of a case of theft inside a market and that the BJP was trying to give a political colour.
Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting Anurag Thakur, while speaking about atrocities against women in Opposition ruled states Bihar and Rajasthan, said that the BJP president had sent a delegation of women MPs to West Bengal who were shaken up after visiting the State. He also added that the response of the Minister Sashi Panja points that the State government does not consider the incident at Malda as a crime.
Union Minister for Women and Child Development Smriti Irani raised the incident at Malda and said the Congress party was silent on the issue as it is into an understanding with the Trinamool Congress.
The CPI(M) and Congress leadership of the State also called the incident at Malda “unfortunate” and sought action from the State government. Another West Bengal Minister and senior Trinamool Congress leader Sovandeb Chattopadhyay said that the BJP leadership is trying to compare the situation in Manipur with that of West Bengal which was ‘laughable’.
The incident comes close to an allegation by the BJP leadership that a party’s woman candidate was disrobed and paraded at Panchla in Howrah district for daring to contest the panchayat elections held on July 8.
West Bengal Director General of Police Manoj Malaviya on July 21 said that there was no evidence indicating any such incident at Panchla.
Drone attack in Crimea prompts evacuation, brief bridge closure
A Ukrainian drone hit an ammunition depot in central Crimea on July 21, sparking an explosion, less than a week after a pre-dawn strike on a key bridge linking the peninsula to Russia prompted Moscow to exit a landmark grain export deal and pound Ukraine’s seaports with drones and missiles.
Sergey Aksyonov, the Kremlin-appointed head of the territory that Moscow illegally annexed from Ukraine in 2014, said in a Telegram post that there were no immediate reports of casualties but that authorities were evacuating civilians within a five-kilometer radius of the blast site.
The Ukrainian military appeared to confirm it had launched the drone strike, claiming through its press service that it had destroyed an oil depot and Russian arms warehouses in the Krasnohvardiiske area, although without specifying what weapons were used.
Social media posts had earlier in the day referenced unconfirmed reports of “several” drones targeting an oil depot and airstrip, as well as a loud blast resembling the sound of detonating shells.
The Russian company operating the Kerch bridge announced that it was temporarily halting all traffic without giving reasons. Traffic was later allowed to resume.
Also in the day, Ukrainian authorities reported that Russian attacks on 11 regions over the previous day killed at least eight civilians and wounded others, as fierce fighting continues in Kyiv’s attempts to dislodge Russian forces from territory they have occupied.
In Brief:
Star Indian pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty entered the final of Korea Open super 500 badminton tournament with a thrilling straight-game win over world number two Chinese pair of Liang Wei Keng and Wang Chang in Yeosu on July 22. The world number three Indian pair notched up a 21-15 24-22 win over the second seeded Chinese in a 40-minute duel at the Jinnam stadium. It was Satwik and Chirag’s first win over the Chinese pair following two earlier defeats. Satwik and Chirag will be up against either top seeds Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Rian Ardianto of Indonesia or Korea’s Kang Min Hyuk and Seo Seung Jae in the summit clash.
Evening Wrap will return tomorrow.
