COVID-19 death toll rises to 1,147 in India; cases 35,043
New Delhi: The death toll due to the novel coronavirus pandemic rose to 1,147 with 72 more fatalities and the number of cases climbed to 35,043 in the country on Friday, the Union Health Ministry said.
The active COVID-19 cases stood at 25,007, while 8,888 people have recovered, and one patient has migrated. The total number of 35,043 cases includes 111 foreign nationals, according to ministry data updated in the morning.
Seventy-two deaths were reported since Thursday evening, out of which 27 fatalities were from Maharashtra, 17 from Gujarat, 11 from West Bengal, seven each from Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, and three from Delhi.
Out of the total 1,147 deaths, Maharashtra tops the tally with 459 fatalities, followed by Gujarat with 214, Madhya Pradesh with 137, Delhi with 59, Rajasthan with 58, Uttar Pradesh with 39, West Bengal with 33 and Andhra Pradesh with 31.
The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) toll reached 27 in Tamil Nadu, 26 in Telengana, while Karantaka has reported 21 deaths.
Punjab has registered 19 fatalities so far, while the pathogen has claimed eight lives in Jammu and Kashmir, four in Kerala. Jharkhand and Haryana have recorded three deaths each.
Bihar has reported two deaths, while Meghalaya, Himachal Pradesh, Odisha and Assam have reported a fatality each, according to the ministry data.
The highest number of confirmed cases are from Maharashtra at 10,498 followed by Gujarat at 4,395, Delhi at 3,515, Madhya Pradesh at 2,660 infections.
Rajasthan has reported 2,584 infections, Tamil Nadu 2,323 and Uttar Pradesh at 2,203 cases. The COVID-19 cases has gone up to 1,403 in Andhra Pradesh and 1,038 in Telangana.
The number of confirmed cases has risen to 795 in West Bengal, 614 in Jammu and Kashmir, 565 in Karnataka, 497 in Kerala, 418 in Bihar and 357 in Punjab.
Haryana has reported 313 coronavirus cases, while Odisha has 142 cases. A total of 109 people have been infected with the deadly virus in Jharkhand and 57 in Uttarakhand.
Chandigarh has reported 56 cases, Assam has 42, while Himachal Pradesh and Chhattisgarh have registered 40 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 adding, "291 cases are being assigned to states for contact tracing."
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.
