News18.com Daybreak : Asaram's Life Imprisonment, Illegal Drug Trials in Rajasthan and Other Stories You May Have Missed

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Self-styled godman Asaram was sentenced to life imprisonment by a Jodhpur court for raping a teenage girl in his ashram five years ago. Asaram broke down on hearing the verdict, which was read out by Special judge Madhusudan Sharma in the Jodhpur Central Jail, where the 77-year-old has been kept for over four years. 

In a breakthrough in the sensational Kothkai rape and murder case in Shimla, the Central Bureau of Investigation has submitted its 12-page status report in which it claimed to have zeroed in on the suspect by tracing his lineage through DNA fingerprint.

The official death toll in the recent encounters between security forces and Naxals in Maharashtra's Gadchiroli district has risen to 39 after bodies of two more Naxals were fished out of the Indravati River. Maharashtra police have called the subsequent encounters on Sunday and Monday as the ‘most successful’ encounter by any force in Dandakaranya — the liberated zone comprising of Naxal affected districts in Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra.

Over a dozen people were used as guinea pigs for a drug being developed by a pharmaceutical company at a private hospital in Rajasthan. Twelve people from village Digaria were offered the potentially harmful drug for free in April. Three of them backed out on seeing the delirious state of those who had consumed the drug. But those who tried it are still suffering from the side effects.

Coming down strongly against sexual criminals, a Mahila Court in Tamil Nadu sentenced a 50-year-old man to four consecutive terms of life imprisonment for raping and impregnating his teenage daughter two years ago. The sentence effectively means that the accused would spend his lifetime in prison.

Just two days after Congress and six other parties moved an impeachment motion against CJI Dipak Misra, two senior judges of the Supreme Court, Justices Ranjan Gogoi and MB Lokur, have written to the CJI, urging him to hold a full court to discuss the institutional issues plaguing the higher judiciary. The impeachment notice against the CJI was shot down by Chairman of Rajya Sabha Venkaiah Naidu saying opposition MPs were "unsure" of their own case and that their notice was based on "suspicion and conjectures".

Ghulam Nabi Patel, who had been a political butterfly of sorts, was disowned by both Congress and People’s Democratic Party after being killed by Hizbul Mujahideen terrorists on Wednesday. He spent four decades of his life in politics but his contribution was not even acknowledged by the party for which he put his life on the line.

On a talk show, Actor Hank Azaria, who voices the character of the infamous Apu in "The Simpsons", said he is willing to stop voicing the character following a controversy surrounding the shows racial stereotyping. He said that his ‘eyes had been opened’ and that it was important to voice the feelings of Indians and South Asians in the US who may have been offended by ‘Apu’.

After spending more than seven months in jail, Dr Kafeel Khan, prime accused in the death of dozens of children at the BRD Medical College in Gorakhpur last year, was granted bail by the Allahabad High Court on Wednesday. Dr Kafeel’s family had applied for bail on six different times in the past seven months.

Two prime accused in the sensational Kathua gangrape and murder case, Sanjhi Ram and Vishal Jangotra have sought transfer of probe to the Central Bureau of Investigation besides seeking to be impleaded as parties in the petition filed by the father of the victim. They have also sought the SC, opposing the plea of the victim's father seeking transfer of trial outside the state, preferably to Chandigarh.

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The appointment of former foreign secretary S Jaishankar as president of global corporate affairs in Tata Sons, the closely-held holding company that controls the salt-to-software business empire, is bound to raise eyebrows, whispers and sighs across the chattering chambers of Lutyens' Delhi.

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Malpani hospital in Jaipur has admitted to bringing villagers to the hospital carrying out clinical trial without consent. During the investigation by Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO), hospital authorities accepted that three patients were given drugs meant to treat osteoarthritis. None of the villagers were aware of the experimentation being carried out on them.