Cops crack cafe racket

• MUMBAI: Police at Latur on Tuesday arrested eight persons after a raid on a coffee shop. Four of them were girls - all minor. Raids were conducted on Tuesday at two coffee shops by Damini squads - set up to probe crimes against women. "The coffee shop owner was also arrested for helping them. He had made small cubicles where indecent activities were going on. He charged Rs 400 per hour for each cubicle," said deputy superintendent of police, Latur, Shilvant Dhavale. PTI

Murderer dad

• KORBA: A court here sentenced a 29-year-old man to life imprisonment for killing his wife and two children in 2015. Additional district and sessions judge (Katghora), Thomas Ekka, on Tuesday pronounced Gayaram Kaushik guilty under IPC Section 302 (murder) while sentencing him to life imprisonment, public prosecutor Shekhar Ram said. PTI

Leader return

• THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: NCP leader A.K. Saseendran is set to return to public office, in the wake of a court's acquittal for sexual offence charges over which he was forced to resign last year. He will be administered the oath of office and secrecy by governor P. Sathasivam on Thursday at Raj Bhavan. He resigned early last year after a Malayali channel released an audio clipping of a purported conversation of him with a woman, which led to a controversy. PTI

Plea snub

• NEW DELHI: A Delhi court on Wednesday rejected the bail plea of Kashmiri separatist leader Shabir Shah in a 2007 laundering case related to alleged terror financing, citing an ongoing probe. This was his second attempt at securing relief. PTI

Bribe cuffs

• INDORE: Lokayukta police on Thursday nabbed an official of the Madhya Pradesh tribal welfare department for allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 11,000. PTI

Tremor panic

• JAIPUR: Panicked residents rushed out of buildings on Thursday when mild tremors shook parts of Rajasthan in the wake of a 6.2 magnitude earthquake that jolted the Afghanistan-Tajikistan border region. PTI

Graft cuffs on BSF officer

• NEW DELHI: The CBI has arrested a BSF commandant posted in south Bengal in a graft case for possessing an unaccounted-for amount of Rs 45 lakh - in cash - allegedly collected from smugglers operating along the Indo-Bangla border. CBI spokesperson R.K. Gaur said the accused, Jibu D. Mathew, was in charge of the 83 battalion at the south Bengal frontier. He was intercepted at 5.50pm on Tuesday at Alleppey railway station in Kerala.

DGMO appointed

• NEW DELHI: Lieutenant General Anil Chauhan has taken over as the new director-general of military operations of the Indian Army and will oversee operations of the army including the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir. He was earlier the commander of the Dimapur-based 3 Corps and has vast experience in counter-insurgency operations in the Northeast and Jammu and Kashmir. He will succeed A.K. Bhatt.

Harmony chain

• MANGALORE: Hundreds of people came together to form a human chain from the clock tower to Nehru Maidan here on Tuesday evening against communalism and divisive politics under the banner of “Souhardategagi Karnataka (Karnataka for harmony)”. PTI

Fire in warehouse

• RAJKOT: A fire broke out in a warehouse near Gondal town in Gujarat’s Rajkot district on Tuesday, gutting a huge stock of groundnut, an official said. An inquiry has been ordered to ascertain the cause of the fire. The warehouse owner claimed that nearly 2 lakh sacks of groundnut, each containing 35kg of seeds, were kept in the store. PTI

UK visa protest

• LONDON: Indian professionals joined other highly-skilled migrants at a protest opposite Downing Street against the UK government’s “unfair and inhumane” visa policies. The Highly Skilled Migrants group claims to represent over 600 doctors, engineers, IT professionals and teachers and has raised over £25,000 to challenge the UK Home Office in the courts. PTI

Worker found dead

• PHAGWARA: A 45-year-old factory worker, who was reported missing since Monday, was found dead on the Phagwara- Dosanjh-Mukandpur road, police said. PTI

Avalanche warning in J&K

• SRINAGAR: A government agency on Wednesday issued an avalanche warning in several districts of Jammu and Kashmir for next 24 hours, shortly after a 6.2 magnitude quake on the Afghanistan-Tajikistan border region jolted parts of north India. PTI

Boy rescued

• NEW DELHI: A 12-year-old boy, kidnapped on Monday while returning home from school here, has been rescued and two people have been arrested. One of them is an employee at the boy's father's factory, while the other is a former employee, police said. PTI