Amethi, April 30: BJP workers on Wednesday burnt an effigy of Leader of Opposition (LoP) in Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, as he arrived in Amethi. The effigy was burnt outside a guest house near Sanjay Gandhi Hospital.

Police were deployed in large numbers and managed to pacify the agitators before Gandhi’s arrival.

Rahul Gandhi reached Amethi on a one-day visit to inaugurate the open-heart surgery operation theatre at Sanjay Gandhi Hospital, which is managed by the Sanjay Gandhi Memorial Trust. Gandhi, a trustee of the hospital, was greeted by hundreds of supporters with garlands in Jais town during a brief stop.

On Tuesday, Gandhi visited his Raebareli constituency. He chaired a District Development Coordination and Monitoring Committee (DISHA) meeting at Bachat Bhawan, where he reviewed development projects and discussed plans with officials from 78 departments.

During the visit, Gandhi also inaugurated a solar power and EV charging facility, unveiled a statue of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose in Bachhrawan, and distributed 15 hand carts to needy residents. He also visited the rail coach factory in Lalganj and addressed party workers in the Sareni Assembly segment.

A political row also erupted in Raebareli after the BJP Yuva Morcha leaders put up posters targeting Gandhi over his push for a caste census. The posters, seen in Harchandpur, read: “You would divide using casteism, we will unite using nationalism. Please spare our Raebareli of caste-based politics.”

Rahul Gandhi won the 2024 Raebareli Lok Sabha seat by defeating BJP’s Dinesh Pratap Singh with a margin of 3.9 lakh votes and a 66.17 per cent vote share, reclaiming the Congress stronghold once held by his mother, Sonia Gandhi.

Gandhi, who won from Raebareli seat, held for a long time by his mother and former Congress President Sonia Gandhi, in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

Jammu, April 30: After resorting to unprovoked ceasefire violation on the Line of Control (LoC) consecutively for the last six days, Pakistani troops on Wednesday initiated unprovoked firing on the International Border (IB) in the Jammu district.

The Defence ministry spokesman said, “Further to the previous update about 29-30 April (Night), unprovoked small arms firing by Pakistan Army was also reported from their posts across the LoC in Baramulla and Kupwara districts, as well as across the International Border in the Pargwal Sector.”

“Indian Army troops responded appropriately,” the spokesman said.

The Pakistan Army had already initiated unprovoked firing on the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir on Wednesday for the sixth consecutive day as the Indian Army responded swiftly and proportionately.

The Defence Ministry spokesman said earlier today, “During the night of 29-30 April 2025, Pakistan Army posts initiated unprovoked small-arms fire across the LoC opposite the Naushera, Sunderbani and Akhnoor sectors in the Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir.”

“Indian Army troops responded swiftly and proportionately,” the spokesman said.

During April 28-29, the Pakistan Army resorted to unprovoked small arms firing across the LoC in areas opposite Kupwara and Baramulla districts, as well as the Akhnoor sector of Jammu district.

The officials said the Indian Army responded to the provocation in a measured and effective manner.

Tensions have mounted between the two countries after Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorists sponsored and aided by Pakistan killed 26 innocent civilians, including 25 tourists and a local, on April 22 in Baisaran meadow of Pahalgam.

The entire country was outraged by the cowardly act of terrorists, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in his first reaction to Pahalgam killings that the terrorists, their handlers and backers would he chased and hunted down to the ends of the earth.

PM Modi has given a free hand to the armed forces to decide on the timing, targets and the response to the Pahalgam terror attack.

The statement came after Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, Chief of Defence Services, and the three chiefs of the Army, Navy, and Air Force had a meeting with the PM.

J&K Lt Governor Manoj Sinha had a security review meeting with Army Chief General Upendra Dwivedi in Srinagar a few days ago.

The L-G asked the Army to use whatever force is required to hunt down the perpetrators of the Pahalgam terror attack. Meanwhile, to send a powerful message to terrorists, their overground workers (OGWs) and sympathisers, security forces continue to demolish the houses of terrorists.

Security forces have so far demolished the houses of 10 terrorists, who are reportedly still active in the Kashmir Valley.

On Monday, the J&K Assembly unanimously condemned the dastardly terrorist attack and passed a resolution on this.

Kolkata, April 29: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), on Tuesday, informed a special court in Kolkata that one of the prime accused in the West Bengal school job case, Sujay Krishna Bhadra, received Rs 75 crore from one particular middleman, Arun Hazra.

The money received by Bhadra, according to the CBI counsel, was collected by Hazra from “tainted” candidates who paid to secure school jobs.

Hazra, who is named as an accused in the charge sheet, appeared at the special court in the afternoon. The judge enquired about the actual charges against him.

Thereafter, the CBI counsel briefed the court on the amount of money that Hazra collected as a middleman from “tainted” candidates and handed over the money, amounting to Rs 75 crore, to Bhadra.

The CBI counsel also presented a summary of Hazra’s modus operandi to the court.

As per the CBI, Hazra, as a middleman, used to operate a chain of sub-agents. Their main task was to identify candidates willing to pay money for school jobs and, accordingly, collect the money from these candidates. Hazra collected amounts for the recruitment in all categories of teaching staff, namely primary, secondary, and higher secondary.

While the recruitment for primary teachers is done by the West Bengal Board of Primary Education (WBBPE), the same is done for secondary and higher secondary teachers by the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC).

Last month, CBI collected the handwriting specimens of Hazra to match them with the texts in some diaries, recovered by the investigating officials, which contain some details of the payments made by Hazra to Bhadra.

Similarly, handwriting specimens of six of Hazra’s sub-agents were also collected.

Earlier this month, the Supreme Court’s division bench of Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar had upheld an earlier order by a division bench of the Calcutta High Court cancelling 25,753 teaching (secondary and higher secondary) and non-teaching jobs in state-run schools.

The Supreme Court also accepted the observation of the Calcutta High Court that the entire panel had to be cancelled because of the failure of the state government and the commission to segregate the “genuine” candidates from the “tainted” ones.

Meanwhile, a detailed hearing in the case on irregularities in the recruitment of primary teachers in different state-run schools will resume at the Calcutta High Court’s new bench of Justice Tapabrata Chakraborty and Justice Reetobrata Kumar Mitra from May 7. The fate of around 32,000 primary teachers is at stake in the case.