Lucknow: Samajwadi Party leader Swami Prasad Maurya's asking on X how Goddess Lakshmi can have four hands has attracted sharp rebuke from many, including his own party, whose spokesperson asked him to "stop harming the party."

New Delhi: The government on Monday banned nine Meitei extremist groups and their associate organisations, which mostly operate in Manipur, for their anti-national activities, and launching fatal attacks on security forces.

Nine people, including four women, died of alleged asphyxiation in a major fire in a five-storey residential building in Nampally area here on Monday.

The Narcotics Control Bureau has busted an international drug syndicate and seized two kg of cocaine from a Zambian national in a hotel in Mumbai, an NCB official said on Monday.

People taken into custody for economic offences should not be handcuffed and clubbed with those arrested for heinous crimes such as rape and murder, a parliamentary committee has recommended.

The CBI has sought sanction from the Delhi LG to file a case against former Jail Minister Satyendar Jain for allegedly extorting crores of rupees from various "high profile prisoners", including alleged conman Sukesh Chandrashekar, to enable them to live comfortably in prison, officials said.

A gunbattle has erupted between the Kerala Police's specialised team Thunderbolt and Maoists in a forest area in this northern district, police said here on Monday.

A local Trinamool Congress leader was shot dead at Joynagar in West Bengal's South 24 Parganas district on Monday morning, prompting a group of people to lynch an alleged assailant, officials said.