QBullet: BJP Predicted to Win Guj; SC Order on Aadhaar Today

The Quint’s roundup of headlines from national dailies.

A total of 851 candidates are in the fray for the final leg of the Gujarat Assembly elections 2017.

(Photo: Erum Gour/The Quint)

1. Exit Polls Predict BJP's Big Win in Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s magic continues as every exit poll on Thursday predicted a BJP victory in both Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh. Though the final results of the keenly contested elections will be declared on 18 December, the exit polls have left the BJP jubilant, and Congress upset.

Almost all exit polls predicted more than 100 seats for the BJP in Gujarat where the party has been ruling for last two decades now. In Himachal Pradesh, where the electorate has chosen the Congress and BJP alternately in Assembly polls, the exit polls projected a clear majority for the saffron party, unseating the Congress.

According to News 24, which got most of its predictions right in the past, BJP is expected to win 135 seats in Gujarat and Congress is likely to bag 47 seats. As per their survey, the BJP is also winning Himachal, bagging 55 seats while 13 seats will go in Congress pocket.

(Source: Indian Express)

2. Supreme Court's Order on Mandatory Linking of Aadhaar Today

The Supreme Court will pronounce on Friday its order on several petitions seeking an interim stay on government directives making Aadhaar mandatory for various schemes and services.

A five-judge bench led by Chief Justice Dipak Misra concluded the hearing on Thursday during which attorney general KK Venugopal said the government has extended the deadline for linking the 12-digit unique identity number to various services from 31 December to 31 March, 2018.

On giving an extension to link mobile phone to Aadhaar, Venugopal said the government was willing to extend the deadline from 6 February 2018 subject to the court’s order.

The Centre has referred to an earlier SC verdict to make Aadhaar mandatory for mobile phones, saying the top court had directed it to verify all mobile connections through Aadhaar.

The government is pushing for wide use of the 12-digit Aadhaar which it says is necessary to plug leakages and corruption in various welfare schemes and for national security.

(Source: Hindustan Times)

3. Kerala Dalit Law Student's Rape-Murder: Convict Ameerul Islam Sentenced to Death

A local court in Kerala’s Ernakulam on Thursday sentenced a migrant worker from Assam to death for raping and killing a 29-year-old Dalit woman, a brutal crime that triggered widespread protests in the state.

While delivering the verdict, the trial court said it was one of the rarest of the rare cases and Ameerul Islam never deserved any sympathy. It observed that the accused did not show any remorse after committing the heinous crime and he was a big threat to society.

He was found guilty by the court on Tuesday.

Islam was also sentenced to 14 years in jail and fined of Rs 5 lakh under various sections of the Indian Penal Code. A translator informed him about the details of the verdict and he heard it without any expression.

The mother of the victim said she was happy with the verdict.

No other girl should undergo such a fate. Such heavy punishment will act as a strong deterrent in curbing mounting crime against women.

(Source: Hindustan Times)

4. Polls Over, Time for Bills: Triple Talaq, Law to Replace Medical Council of India

With polling in Gujarat state elections ending Thursday, the Union Cabinet will take up for approval on Friday a slew of bills including the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill which makes instant triple talaq a penal offence with a three-year imprisonment for the guilty.

A change in the Negotiable Instruments Act is also listed for Cabinet approval which, as reported by The Indian Express last April, tightens the screws on bouncing of cheques and other promissory notes by banning an offender from appealing a trial court’s order unless he deposits a certain sum of the disputed amount.

The Cabinet will consider the National Medical Commission Bill to replace the controversial Medical Council of India with a new commission to steer medical education in the country as well as the Trafficking of Persons (Prevention, Protection and Rehabilitation) Bill which treats a trafficked person who gets into prostitution as a victim rather than offender and proposes punishment of up to 14 years for traffickers.

(Source: Indian Express)

5. Indian Cricketers May Get 100% Salary Hike

Indian cricketers are set to get a huge hike, with the salaries of top players as well as domestic ones likely to double in the coming season.

The Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA) is working on a formula to add Rs 200 crore to the existing corpus of Rs 180 crore in this season to provision for the hike next season.

Sources told TOI on Thursday that CoA is close to working out the proportion to be given to the senior and junior teams.

This formula will be presented to BCCI’s general body for ratification. Indian captain Virat Kohli and coach Ravi Shastri had made a strong presentation demanding hikes for the players, which they feel is long overdue.

As per the present arrangement, 26 percent of BCCI's annual revenue is split three ways – 13 percent for international players, 10.6 percent for domestic cricketers and the rest for women and juniors. However, the allocation for different categories of cricketers is likely to change and a top player like Kohli, who made Rs 5.51 crore from 46 matches in 2017, could now earn more than Rs 10 crore per year in emoluments from BCCI.

(Source: The Times of India)

6. Parsi Trust Relaxes Entry Ban on Woman

On the Supreme Court's prodding for a progressive stand, the Valsad Zorastrian Trust on Friday agreed to let a Parsi woman into the 'tower of silence' to perform the last rites of her relatives. She was earlier barred from doing so because she had married outside the community.

Appearing for the trust, senior advocate Gopal Subramanium and counsel Percy Ghandy informed the court that pursuant to its 7 December suggestion, the Valsad Parsi panchayat decided to consult its high priest who in deference to the SC's wishes had agreed to permit Goolrokh M Gupta to perform all rituals involved in the last rites of her parents in the event of their passing away.

The trust will, on compassionate grounds, permit Goolrokh to attend the funeral prayers of her parents to be performed inside the prayer hall of the ‘Bungli’ of the tower of silence complex at Valsad. She will also be entitled to attend the death ceremonies four days later inside the prayer hall of the tower of silence.

(Source: The Times of India)

7. Killer Nurse Sedated Husband Before She, Lover Bludgeoned Him to Death

Police on Thursday arrested a 38-year-old man for killing his lover’s husband and then disfiguring his own face to impersonate as the husband.

When the Apollo Beach Nagarkurnool Police told Ajakole Rajesh that he was being arrested, he claimed he did it to please his lover, Swathi Reddy, and that he wanted to marry her.

Swathi, 34, was arrested by Nagarkurnool police in Telangana last Friday after she confessed to masterminding the plan to kill her husband so that she could marry Rajesh.

Investigation Officer Srinivas Rao said:

Swathi, a trained nurse, gave anesthesia to Sudhakar (Reddy, her husband) on 27 November. When he was unconscious, she and Rajesh bludgeoned him to death with an iron road. They disfigured his face and dumped the body at Nawabpet forest after partially burning it.

(Source: Indian Express)

8. Japanese National Drugged, Looted by Fake Tourist in Varanasi

A Japanese tourist Akihiro Tanaka was drugged and looted by a fake guide on Thursday. He has lodged an FIR with Sigra police.

According to Sigra police, Tanaka had reached Varanasi from Agra by bus on Thursday morning and later he reached Sarnath area. At Sarnath he met a youth who introduced himself as Rameez Khan and said that he is a tourist guide. After becoming familiar with Tanaka he took him to different sites in Sarnath and later the duo reached ghats along the river Ganga.

Tanaka informed the police that at the ghat Khan gave him soft drink to consume after which he lost his consciousness. After gaining consciousness he found himself in Shastrinagar of Sigra police station area while his bag containing visa, passport, 50,000 Japanese yen, Rs 2,000 and ATM cards of Japanese bank was missing. With the help of local natives he reached Sigra police station.

(Source: The Times of India)

9. Joyride in New Car Ends in Tragedy as Class 12 Boy Killed in Noida Crash

A spin in the new car of a friend ended in tragedy for three youths in Noida on Wednesday night, after the speeding vehicle hit a divider near Atta Underpass.

A Class 12 student of DPS Indirapuram was killed, while two of his friends from the same class sustained injuries in the accident that took place around 1.30am.

According to police, the car — a Ford Figo — hit the divider and toppled several times near Atta Underpass in Sector 18. The boys were rushed to district hospital in Noida’s Sector 30. 

Later in the night their parents shifted them to a private hospital in Ghaziabad, where one of the boys — Raghav Mehra — succumbed to his injuries. The other two injured, Rehan and Yavesh, all resident of Ghaziabad, were admitted to the Ghaziabad hospital with grievous injuries.

The car, police said, was badly damaged trapping its occupants in the wreck for nearly 15 minutes before being rescued by police and rushed to a hospital.

(Source: Hindustan Times)

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