New Delhi: Union minister Kiren Rijiju has said that minorities are enjoying absolute freedom and protection in India because of the Hindu majority, and asserted that the country is safest for minorities.

Gwalior: A police sub-inspector was taken off field duty after he allegedly dragged a man atop the bonnet of a high-end car for about 200 metres before he fell off the vehicle in Gwalior city of Madhya Pradesh, officials said on Saturday.

Kochi: The Lakshadweep administration is considering the acquisition of Bitra, one of the inhabited islands in the archipelago, for defence purposes.

New Delhi: Communist Party of India (CPI) Rajya Sabha MP P. Sandosh Kumar has written to Union Home Minister Amit Shah seeking a thorough and independent probe by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) into a series of disturbing incidents in and around Dharmasthala, Karnataka. The letter, dated July 19, points to what the MP described as “a disturbing and systematic pattern of crimes—primarily targeting women, often silenced through coercion, and concealed with frightening impunity.”

Some broken pieces of stone carvings, apparently parts of some ancient columns, were found during excavation at a construction site in Maharashtra's Thane city, prompting the authorities to order a probe.

A 15-year-old girl was set on fire by unidentified persons in Odisha's Puri district on Saturday, officials said.

In a rare act of coordinated protest, Muslim Qureshi butchers across Maharashtra have indefinitely halted their trade in bovine meat, citing a decade of violence and harassment by self-proclaimed “gau rakshaks”. The boycott, which began in Nagpur and has since spread statewide, is expected to severely impact rural farmers and the meat economy.

A second-year student of a private university in Greater Noida hanged herself in her hostel room, police said.