Bhojpuri actress Akanksha Dubey's death: Singer Samar Singh arrested from Ghaziabad
Ghaziabad (PTI): The Uttar Pradesh Police has arrested singer Samar Singh, an accused in the death of popular Bhojpuri actress Akanksha Dubey, from here, officials said on Friday.
A look-out notice had been issued against Singh and another man after Dubey was found dead in a hotel room in Sarnath around a fortnight ago.
Singh was hiding in a housing society in the Nandgram area of Ghaziabad -- the western Uttar Pradesh district bordering Delhi.
He was held late on Thursday night in a joint operation by the local police and their visiting counterparts from Varanasi, a senior officer said.
"A team from the Sarnath police station of the Varanasi Commissionerate had come to Ghaziabad late Thursday night. They sought the help of Ghaziabad police in nabbing Samar Singh from the Charms Castle (housing) society," Deputy Commissioner of Police (Ghaziabad City) Nipun Agarwal said.
"The accused is being presented in a Ghaziabad court for transit remand by the Varanasi police team," the DCP said on Friday morning.
Akanksha Dubey, a popular Bhojpuri actress, was found dead inside a hotel room in Varanasi on March 26. The 25-year-old actress was found hanging from the fan by a piece of cloth. Dubey, a resident of Bhadohi district, had gone to Varanasi to film a movie and was staying in the hotel.
Lawyer Shashak Shekhar Tripathi, who has taken up the case for the actress' mother Madhu Dubey, has raised a question mark on the post-mortem report and said that he was seeking the advice of medical experts and based on it preparing questions for the police.
Tripathi had on Wednesday demanded a probe by the CBI or CB-CID into the matter. In a letter to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, he alleged that the 25-year-old actress' death was not by suicide, rather she was killed by some people in the hotel room.
He also alleged that Akansha's body was "forcibly cremated" despite her mother's insistence that the cremation should happen only after the post-mortem report arrives.
Many known people in the Bhojpuri industry were exploiting Dubey and were not paying her for her work, the lawyer had alleged.
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SC to hear on Aug 14 plea for restoring Jammu & Kashmir statehood
New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court would on Thursday hear a plea for the restoration of statehood to Jammu and Kashmir.
A bench of Chief Justice of India B R Gavai and Justice K Vinod Chandran is likely to hear the matter, according to the causelist.
On December 11, 2023, the Supreme Court unanimously upheld the revocation of Article 370, even as it ordered that assembly elections be held in Jammu and Kashmir by September 2024 and its statehood be restored "at the earliest".
Last year, a plea was filed in the top court seeking directions to the Centre for the restoration of statehood to Jammu and Kashmir within two months.
The application was filed by Zahoor Ahmad Bhat, an academician, and Khurshaid Ahmad Malik, a socio-political activist.
"It is submitted that the delay in the restoration of statehood would cause serious reduction of democratically elected government in Jammu and Kashmir, causing a grave violation of the idea of federalism which forms part of the basic structure of the Constitution of India," the application said.
The assembly elections and the Lok Sabha polls were conducted peacefully in Jammu and Kashmir without any incident of violence, disturbance or any security concerns being reported, it said.
"Therefore, there is no impediment of security concerns, violence or any other disturbances which would hinder or prevent the grant/restoration of the status of statehood to Jammu and Kashmir as had been assured by the Union of India in the present proceedings," the plea said.
The non-restoration of the status of statehood of Jammu and Kashmir, the plea said, would result in a lesser form of elected democratic government to the state, particularly given legislative assembly results were declared on October 8, 2024.
Despite the apex court's directions for the restoration of statehood to Jammu and Kashmir "at the earliest and as soon as possible", no steps have been taken by the Centre to provide any timeline for the implementation of such directions, it claimed.
"Jammu and Kashmir is being operated as a Union Territory for a period of almost five years now, which has caused many impediments and grave losses to the development of Jammu and Kashmir and has affected the democratic rights of its citizens," the plea added.
In its December 2023 verdict, the apex court held that Article 370, which was incorporated in the Indian Constitution in 1949 to grant special status to Jammu and Kashmir, was a temporary provision. The President of India was empowered to revoke the measure in the absence of the Constituent Assembly of the erstwhile state whose term expired in 1957, the court said.
