COVID-19 death toll rises to 1,074 in country; cases climb to 33,050: Health ministry
New Delhi: The death toll due to the novel coronavirus pandemic rose to 1,074 after 66 more fatalities and the number of cases climbed to 33,050 in the country on Thursday, according to the Union Health Ministry.
The number of active COVID-19 cases stood at 23,651, while 8,324 people have recovered and one patient has migrated. The total number of cases include 111 foreign nationals, the ministry said.
Out of the 66 deaths reported since Wednesday evening, 32 were from Maharashtra, 16 from Gujarat, 10 from Madhya Pradesh, three from Uttar Pradesh, two each from Tamil Nadu and Delhi, and one from Karnataka.
Maharashtra now tops the tally with 432 fatalities, followed by Gujarat at 197, Madhya Pradesh at 129, Delhi at 56, Rajasthan at 51, Uttar Pradesh at 39 and Andhra Pradesh at 31.
The toll reached 27 in Tamil Nadu, 26 in Telengana, 22 in West Bengal while Karnataka has reported 21 deaths and Punjab 19.
The pathogen has claimed eight lives in Jammu and Kashmir, four in Kerala, while Jharkhand and Haryana have recorded three COVID-19 deaths each.
Bihar has reported two deaths, while Meghalaya, Himachal Pradesh, Odisha and Assam have reported a fatality each, according to the ministry data.
According to the ministry data updated in the morning, the highest number of confirmed cases in the country are from Maharashtra with 9,915 infections, followed by Gujarat with 4,082, Delhi with 3,439, Madhya Pradesh with 2,561.
Rajasthan has 2,438 cases, Tamil Nadu has 2,162 and Uttar Pradesh has 2,134 cases. The COVID-19 cases has gone up to 1,332 in Andhra Pradesh and 1,012 in Telangana.
The number of infections has risen to 758 in West Bengal, 581 in Jammu and Kashmir, 535 in Karnataka, 495 in Kerala, 392 in Bihar and 357 in Punjab.
Haryana has reported 310 coronavirus cases, while Odisha has 125. A total 107 people have been infected with the virus in Jharkhand and 55 in Uttarakhand.
Chandigarh have reported 56 cases, Himachal Pradesh has 40 while Assam and Chhattisgarh have registered 38 infections each so far.
Andaman and Nicobar Islands has 33 COVID-19 cases, while Ladakh has reported 22 infections so far.
Meghalaya has reported 12 cases, Puducherry has eight cases, while Goa has seven COVID-19 cases. Manipur and Tripura have two cases each, while Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh have reported a case each.
"Our figures are being reconciled with the ICMR," the ministry said on its website. States wise distribution is subject to further verification and reconciliation, it said.
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Court can reject anticipatory bail but cannot direct accused to surrender: SC
New Delhi (PTI): A court can reject anticipatory bail of an accused but it has no jurisdiction to direct him to surrender before the trial court, the Supreme Court has said.
A bench of Justices J B Pardiwala and Ujjal Bhuyan made the observation while hearing a plea filed by a man accused of cheating and forgery.
"If the court wants to reject the anticipatory bail, it may do so, but the court has no jurisdiction to say that the petitioner should now surrender," the bench said.
The Jharkhand High Court had rejected anticipatory bail plea of the accused and asked him to surrender and seek regular bail.
In this case, a complaint had been filed before a magistrate alleging offences under Sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 420 (cheating), 467 (forgery of valuable security), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (using forged document) and 120B read with 34 of the IPC, in connection with a land dispute.
The high court had dismissed the second anticipatory bail application of the accused on the ground that no new circumstances were shown.
It had relied on its earlier order rejecting his first anticipatory bail plea, in which the court directed the petitioner to surrender before the trial court and seek regular bail in terms of the decision in Satender Kumar Antil v. CBI.
The top court said such a direction was wholly without jurisdiction and said that if a court chooses to reject anticipatory bail, it may do so, but it cannot compel the accused to surrender.
