LIVE news updates: Court martial of Army Major Leetul Gogoi complete, says army

The court martial proceedings against Army Major Leetul Gogoi have been completed and he is likely to face reduction in seniority for fraternising with a local woman, Army sources said on Sunday.

Major Gogoi was in the centre of a controversy in 2017 when he created a human shield by tying a Kashmiri youth to the bonnet of his jeep to avoid attacks by stone pelting mobs during the discharge of duties in the Badgam district of Jammu and Kashmir.

Major Gogoi's driver, Sameer Malla, who facilitated the major's relationship with a local woman, also faced the court martial proceedings along with the officer.

The pilots' union of Jet Airways on Sunday postponed, till April 15, their decision to go on mass leave to protest non-payment of salaries.

The decision comes after Jet Airways on Saturday said it will soon pay the remaining December salaries to employees.

"The pilots have decided that time should be given to the new interim management till April 14 to clear salary dues in conjunction with interim funding, and charter a clear road map for the future of the company. The collective call of the pilots is hence deferred to April 15, 2019," the National Aviators Guild (NAG) told its members in a communication issued after its open-house meeting on Sunday.

Kidambi Srikanth's hopes of ending a long title drought came crashing after going down in straight games to former world champion Viktor Axelsen in the men's singles final of the Yonex-Sunrise India Open, on Sunday.

Srikanth, a 2015 winner, blew away two game points in the second game to lose 7-21 20-22 to Axelsen in the summit clash.

It was the Indian's first final in a BWF world tour event in 17 months. He last won a title at the 2017 French Open.

A fire broke out in a dumping yard in East Delhi's Ghazipur area Sunday, officials said.

According to the Fire Department, they received a call at around 3.45 PM and four fire tenders were rushed to the spot.

No casualty has been reported so far and they are trying to douse the fire, it said.

For the first time in the Lok Sabha elections in Mizoram, a woman, Lalthlamuani, 63, is trying her luck.

The fate of all six candidates, including independent aspirant Lalthlamuani, will be decided on April 11.

Though women voters outnumber men in the parliamentary constituency, it's the first time that a woman has joined the race to challenge the hegemony of men to represent the lone Mizoram seat in the Lok Sabha.

West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC Chief Mamata Banerjee arrives at Visakhapatnam, to attend Andhra Pradesh CM and TDP Chief N Chandrababu Naidu's public rally in the city today.

India's young wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant was on Sunday caught in the eye of a storm owing to an edited stump microphone clip from an IPL game which went viral on social media but was dismissed by the BCCI as "misconstrued".

The less-than-a-minute long clip was from Saturday night's match between Pant's Delhi Capitals and Kolkata Knight Riders.

It shows Pant, from behind the stumps, saying that "yeh to chauka hai" (this is a boundary) as KKR's Robin Uthappa took guard against Sandeep Lamichhane. Delhi won the match in Super Over after the scores were tied in the regulation overs.

Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Sunday assured his party would provide special category status to Andhra Pradesh if voted to power in the Lok Sabha elections and would carry out "surgical strike" on poverty.

He expressed 'surprise' that parties in the state were not 'aggressively' pushing Prime Minister Narendra Modi to grant the special category status, promised by the UPA when the state was bifurcated five years ago.

The Bharatiya Tribal Party will fight from 20 Lok Sabha seats spread across Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Union Territory Daman and Diu, its chief Chhotubhai Vasava said Sunday.

The BTP, which was founded on the eve of the 2017 Assembly polls in Gujarat, had managed to win two seats in the 182-member House.

Vasava won from Jhagadiya while his son Mahesh is the MLA from Dediapada.

The BTP also won the Sagwara and Chorasi Assembly seats in the 2018 Rajasthan polls.

The aircraft on a routine mission from Jodhpur has crashed in Godana near Sheoganj in Sirohi, reports ANI

Congress President Rahul Gandhi in Vijayawada,Andhra: It is not only a commitment made by Congress and Manmohan Singh ji, it's a commitment made by the country to Andhra Pradesh. It's our commitment that we'll give special status to Andhra Pradesh the moment we come to power in Delhi.

Congress President Rahul Gandhi in Vijayawada, Andhra said, “Mr Modi has been Prime Minister for 5 years and he has not fulfilled this commitment and frankly I am surprised that the parties in Andhra Pradesh aren't aggressively pushing for Mr Modi to give Andhra what it has been promised.”

As cyber threats from nation-state bad actors grow exponentially, India urgently requires to enhance the cyber capabilities of its armed forces, including the operationalisation of a Defence Cyber Agency, a new report has emphasised.

According to the comprehensive report titled "Credible Cyber Deterrence in Armed Forces of India" by the New Delhi-based Vivekananda International Foundation (VIF), the Indian armed forces must have modern means and capabilities for cyber exploitation, technical intelligence, cyber deception and launching of probing operations.

"The report identifies seven pillars for enhancing the cyber capabilities of the Indian armed forces, including operationalisation of a 'Defence Cyber Agency' as a stepping stone to develop cyber power within the designated time frame," said Arvind Gupta, Director, VIF.

Congress President Rahul Gandhi will be addressing a public rally from Andhra Pradesh shortly.

Courts have come to the rescue of lakhs of investors who face the prospect of losing their entire retirement savings parked in the toxic IL&FS bonds by their respective pension and provident fund trusts.

Sources said that the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) hearing petitions with respect to IL&FS resolution, has now asked the new management of the insolvent company to provide it details of PF and pension funds investment in individual "amber" entities.

The move, legal experts said, should be seen as the court's efforts to ensure that investments by pension and PF trusts is not lost in any resolution plan for IL&FS and that these get priority even when repayment start for "amber" grouped entities where firms are expected to meet only operational payment obligations.

Former Odisha Minister Raghunath Mohanty on Sunday resigned from the Biju Janata Dal (BJD).

Mohanty, who was also the party's Vice-President, tendered his resignation to Chief Minister BJD President Naveen Patnaik. He was an aspirant for the Basta Assembly constituency in Balasore.

"I am tendering my resignation from primary membership as well as Vice-President from the BJP, Odisha for personal reasons," Mohanty wrote in his resignation letter.

The Delhi Fire Service (DFS) is in a bad shape, with about 48 per cent of the posts in the fire fighting staff lying vacant, including over 50 per cent of fireman's posts.

According to data accessed through the Right to Information (RTI) Act, the total sanctioned posts of the Fire Fighting Staff is 3,312, out of that 1,583 posts are vacant.

"Of the five sanctioned post for Chief Fire Officer, three are vacant. The Department is functioning with only four Divisional Officers, in place of nine sanctioned," the RTI reply said.

AK Antony, Congress said, “Rahul ji has given his consent to contest from two seats, very happy to inform you that he will also contest from Wayanad in Kerala.”

A veteran security consultant who works for Amazon Founder and CEO Jeff Bezos has accused Saudi Arabia of hacking into Bezos' smartphone and alleging sharing personal information about his extra-marital affair to a media outlet.

The monarchy was "intent on harming Jeff Bezos" over The Washington Post (owned by Bezos) coverage of murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi, wrote Gavin de Becker in a first-person account published in The Daily Beast on Saturday.

"Our investigators and several experts concluded with high confidence that the Saudis had access to Bezos' phone, and gained private information," de Becker said.

An Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) trooper shot and killed himself with his service rifle in Jammu and Kashmir's Srinagar district on Sunday, police said.

The constable, identified as Ramphul Meena, shot himself inside a camp in Solina area of Srinagar city.

Eight years ago, when Saloni, a transgender, fell in love with Gulam Nabi Ansari and the couple continued their relationship, they faced opposition from their families and were ridiculed by people.

But, the couple's joy knew no bounds when they tied the knot at a mass wedding function held for transgenders in Chhattisgarh on Saturday.

"If you want something from the bottom of your heart, the entire universe conspires to get it for you," said 33-year -old Saloni, evoking a line from Shah Rukh Khan-starrer film "Om Shanti Om".

She was among 15 transgenders who got married at the function, said to be the first such event for the community in the country.

Mumbai Indians (MI) captain Rohit Sharma was fined after his team maintained a slow over-rate during their Indian Premier League (IPL) match against Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) in Mohali.

As it was his team's first offence of the season under the IPL's Code of Conduct relating to minimum over-rate offences, Rohit was fined ₹12 lakh on Saturday.

In the match, KL Rahul's laborious unbeaten 71, along with some notable top-order contributions, guided KXIP to a comfortable 8-wicket victory over MI.

Former Bihar minister Manju Verma who is out on bail in Muzaffarpur shelter home case seen on stage during Union Minister and NDA candidate Giriraj Singh's rally in Begusarai yesterday. Verma had been arrested under arms act linked to the Muzaffarpur case

Five people were killed and two others injured on Sunday in a road accident in Jammu and Kashmir's Rajouri district, police said.

A vehicle en route to Darhal town from Rajouri went out of the driver's control and plunged into a gorge at Dhandkote.

The countdown for the Monday morning launch of a new variant of the Indian rocket Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) carrying electronic intelligence satellite, Emisat for the Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO) began on Sunday, the Indian space agency said.

According to the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), the countdown began at 6.27 a.m. at the rocket port at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh.

Along with the Emisat, the rocket will carry 28 third-party satellites and also demonstrate its new technologies like three different orbits.

The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad on Saturday started a massive campaign in West Bengal to create awareness among the voters not to press the NOTA button in the electronic voting machines during the coming Lok Sabha polls.

The ABVP has planned street plays, graffiti, street corner meetings, as also a social media campaign to impress upon the voters that pressing the NOTA (None of the Above) button on the EVM amounted to wasting one's vote.

The campaign is part of a nationwide programme to reach the electors with three appeals.