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The Election Commission ( EC) has issued a show cause notice to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) for violating the Model Code of Conduct.

The notice was reportedly issued on Saturday after Delhi BJP chief Satish Upadhyay complained about the AAP’s posters depicting his party’s chief ministerial candidate Kiran Bedi without her permission.

The AAP has been asked to submit its reply by Monday, failing which the poll panel would take action against it.

Kiran Bedi had earlier sent a legal notice to her rival Kejriwal for using her images in AAP’s posters without her permission.

A local court today awarded life imprisonment to a teacher for raping a 14-year-old student in a school in the year 2013.

Valsad district and sessions court Magistrate B G Doshi convicted the teacher Kiran Lalu Patel under Protection of Children against Sexual Offences act (POCSO), 2012 and IPC section 376 (rape) and sentenced him to life imprisonment.

The court also slapped a fine of Rs 25,000 on him, failing which, he will have to remain in jail for six more months.

Shahid Kapoor won the Filmfare award for Best Actor (Male) for his performance in the film “Haider”, while Kangna Ranaut received the Best Actor (Female) award for “Queen”, at the 60th Britannia Filmfare Awards ceremony here Saturday.

Rajat Kapoor’s critically acclaimed film “Ankhon Dekhi” won the Best Film (Critics) award. The prize for the Best Male Actor (Critics) went to Sanjay Mishra for “Ankhon Dekhi” and the Best Female Actor (Critics) award was given to Alia Bhatt for her performance in “Highway”.

TV actor Gautam Gulati was tonight crowned the winner of the eighth season of reality TV show ‘Bigg Boss- Halla Bol’ as he beat four other contestants in the grand finale after his stay in the house for 132 days.

The show, initially hosted by Bollywood superstar Salman Khan, was extended for a month with director Farah Khan taking over the duties of the host. Farah handed the trophy and Rs 50 lakh as prize money to Gautam.

Four more people died of swine flu in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh Saturday, officials said.

While three people died at the government-run Gandhi Hospital here, one woman succumbed at Ongole in Prakasam district of Andhra Pradesh.

With this, the toll in Telangana rose to 27 and in neighboring state to three this month.

Three people including two women died at Gandhi Hospital, which is the state nodal centre for swine flu in Telangana. The deceased include a 35-year-old pregnant woman.

Doctors said 35 people including 12 children are undergoing treatment at the hospital.

TRS senior leader and incharge of Hyderabad Parliamentary constituency Rashid Shareef has stated that the TRS Government has begun the process of eradicating crime from the Old City of Hyderabad.

The City Police have rescued about 350 child labourers, mostly from Bihar, who were working in hazardous industries.

“So far about 350 children have been rescued and we are in the process of finding out if some more children are forced to work as child labourers,” City Police Commissioner M Mahender Reddy said while addressing a press conference here on Saturday. He said arrangements were being made to send back the children to Bihar in special trains. Presently, the rescued children have been kept in a hostel and the government is taking care of them.

Wanting to join the terror group Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), a 19-year-old woman from the city who was residing in Qatar had flown to Turkey from there, but changed her mind and came to her parents here, police said today.

The incident took place around two months back, police said.

Information is that one lady hailing from Hyderabad city, who has been staying in Qatar for the past 10 years happened to get influenced by another lady residing in her apartment.

Courts in the Saudi Arabian capital of Riyadh have sentenced more than 65 men to prison terms ranging from two days to three months for their refusal to implement court rulings in favour of their former wives, the ministry of justice said.

The rulings said that the men either refused to pay alimony or prevented children from visiting their mothers, the Arab News reported citing the ministry Saturday.

Some men were jailed for delay in applying for official documents for their sons and daughters in accordance with the law, it said.

A man was arrested in Bihar’s Madhubani district Saturday for allegedly raping a three-year-old girl and then hanging her naked from a tree, police said.

This shocking incident occurred at a village near Keoti in Madhubani, about 200km from here.

The victim suffered serious injuries in her private parts and is battling for her life in Darbhanga Medical College and Hospital, a family member said.

According to police, the victim along with her mother Thursday visited a private nursing home near their village to inquire about her grandmother, who was undergoing treatment there.

The CBI Saturday arrested former union minister and Congress leader Matang Sinh in the multi-crore rupee Saradha chit fund scam.

Sinh, a former minister of state for parliamentary affairs in the P.V. Narasimha Rao government (1991-96), was arrested after several hours of grilling.

“Matang Sinh has been arrested in the Saradha reality case on charges of criminal conspiracy, cheating and misappropriation of funds,” said a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) official.

BJP’s Chief Ministerial candidate Kiran Bedi today filed a police complaint against AAP leader Kumar Viswas alleging that he made sexist comments against her even as her party took the issue to the Election Commission, seeking prompt action.

Viswas strongly denied the allegations that he made remarks against Bedi and said he will quit politics if she can prove the same.

In what may have been a unique moment, Women’s Mosque of America opened its doors on Friday in central Los Angeles where Edina Lekovic delivered a sermon, a role traditionally reserved for Muslim men.

As a sister in a pink head scarf crosses the beige floor and approaches the dais, some 150 women seated on the floor watched her intently.

“We have the right and responsibility to our faith,” Lekovic told the women. Lekovic, an activist with California’s Muslim
Public Affairs Council, then joined the women in kneeling in prayer in the direction of Mecca, the holiest city in Islam.

Voicing apprehension about discrepancies in Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs), the Aam Aadmi Party on Saturday approached the Election Commission seeking to know what should the voters do in such a scenario. Party leaders Arvind Kejriwal and Ashutosh met Election Commission officials to know what is the procedure if a voter finds such a discrepancy in an EVM.

In a case of alleged honour killing, a teenage girl was hanged to death allegedly by her parents for falling in love with a boy outside their community.

The incident happened a couple of weeks ago came to light on Friday after the police took into custody Sriramulu and Parvathamma, the parents of the victim.

BJP’s Chief Ministerial candidate Kiran Bedi today filed a police complaint against AAP’s Kumar Vishwas, accusing him of making sexist comments against her while her party approached the Election Commission on the issue.

However, Vishwas has denied the allegations and said he will quit politics if she can prove the same.

Bedi alleged that the AAP leader made the “derogatory sexist” remarks against her at a recent election rally.

“What kind of security and dignity can women expect from AAP’s leadership that itself has blatant sexist and perverse mindsets?,” Bedi said in a tweet.

In a shocking incident, a panchayat in Bihar has ordered one of its members accused of raping a Mahadalit woman to pay her Rs.41,000 and asked the victim to not report the incident, police said Saturday.

The incident occurred in a panchayat under Kodha police station in Katihar district.

But the accused, a local muscleman, refused to pay the money. When she protested about his refusal to pay amount, the accused set her husband on fire injuring him badly, said a police official Sunil Kumar.

Once again the Uttar Pradesh Health department has risked the lives of several women.

In a bid to set a record, Dr. Lalit Yadav, allegedly performed around 73 botch-up operations in just 4 hours without the availability of proper arrangements and without any team of proficient doctors she performed the operation.

She not even hesitates to show such inhuman behaviour and forced the women to move out of the health centre and asked them to lie down under the open sky.

The father of the slain witness in the sexual assault case against self-styled godman Asaram has demanded a CBI inquiry into his son’s murder.

Naresh Gupta has sought an inquiry into the murder of his son Akhil alleging that it was not the result of any local enmity and was directly linked with Asaram’s bail rejection by the High Court earlier this month.

He further alleged that Asaram’s daughter Bharti may be behind the murder as she is out of jail. Gupta also sought increased protection for his family because his son’s wife is also a witness in the case.

An unsual song ‘Manushya tu bada mahaan hai’ rang out from FD High School in the Muslim-dominated Juhapura area in Ahmedabad rural district.

On Friday, as part of a new mandatory morning ritual, the students were singing the song which is closely linked to the RSS.

As reported in The Indian Express, the initiative begin to happen together with a state-wide painting competition on “Mahatma Gandhi and Cleanliness” to mark Gandhi’s 67th death anniversary.

Retired Supreme Court Justice and former Press Council Chairperson Markandey Katju pummeled on social media on Friday after he tweeted that Shazia Ilmi was much more beautiful than Kiran Bedi.

Katju regards Ilmi more beautiful than party’s chief ministerial candidate Kiran Bedi and had she been the BJP’s CM face, the party would without doubt have won the Delhi elections.

“I regard Shazia Ilmi much more beautiful than Kiran Bedi. If Shazia had been made their C.M. candidate BJP wud have definitely won the Delhi,” tweeted Katju.

In a scathing attack on AAP, Union Minister Smriti Irani today asked the people of Delhi not to let the party, which has “now itself become a problem” make a “backdoor entry” in the upcoming election,

“You people must show the same enthusiasm as you had shown during the Lok Sabha elections and give us a full majority to make the government in Delhi…Do not allow the Aam Aadmi Party to a make a backdoor entry this time,” Irani said.

She was making an apparent reference to the AAP government formed with the support of Congress in December 2013, which lasted for 49 days.

Six “Janata Parivar” parties will certainly merge soon as there is no hurdle, former Bihar chief ministers Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad announced Friday.

In the wake of reports of unlikely merger of the Janata Dal-United and the Rashtriya Janata Dal ahead of the assembly polls in Bihar later this year, both JD-U leader Nitish Kumar and RJD chief Lalu Prasad said merger was certain.

“Merger is certain, it will take place,” Nitish Kumar told the media in Bihar’s Aurangabad district. He said the “Janata Parivar” would again become one and a united force.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang today promised to firmly back Pakistan in its efforts to safeguard its sovereignty, independence and integrity of its territories.

Li said that China would continue to work on expanding friendly exchanges and cooperation with Pakistan at all levels and in various areas.

Li’s remarks came in the backdrop of a meeting with Pakistan’s National Assembly Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq in Zhongnanhai, the headquarters of the Chinese government.

Li spoke highly about the relationship and friendship between China and Pakistan.

A powerful blast killed nearly 50 people, including children, during Friday prayers at a packed minority Shia mosque in Pakistan’s Sindh province, the deadliest sectarian attack to hit the country in recent times.

The explosion, carried out by Jundullah, a splinter group of Taliban, brought down the roof of Imambargah Maula Karballa in Lakhi Dar area of Shikarpur – around 470 kilometres north of here – and buried worshippers.