Dressed as cockroach, activist creates stir with ‘Save Yamuna’ call
Mathura, May 23: The Cockroach Janta Party, a satirical digital outfit that came up last week and took social media by storm, seems to have found an ardent follower in Mathura-based activist Deepak Sharma, who has created a stir in the temple town by dressing as the pest to draw attention to pollution in the Yamuna river. On Saturday, Sharma was seen in the same costume, this time inside a drain near the Bihar Ghat in Vrindavan, raising his voice to highlight the plight of the polluted river. (PTI)
3 girls drown in stepwell
Raisen (MP), May 23: Three minor girls, including two sisters, drowned while bathing in a stepwell in Madhya Pradesh’s Raisen district on Saturday, police said. Another girl accompanying them survived and alerted family members about the incident, they said. Sub-inspector Virendra Vishwakarma, in charge of the Garhi police outpost, said four girls had gone to bathe in the stepwell. One of the girls slipped into deep water and started drowning. Two other girls tried to save her, but all three drowned, he said. (PTI)
Minor siblings charred to death in house fire
Sidhi (MP), May 23: Three minor siblings, including two sisters, were charred to death in a massive fire that broke out in a kachcha house in Madhya Pradesh’s Sidhi district on Saturday afternoon, police said. An official said a short circuit is believed to have sparked the fire. ‘The fire spread rapidly through the mud structure, trapping the children inside the house, which was locked from the outside,’ he added. (PTI)
Court sentences 25 B’deshi natls for illegal stay
Tiruppur, May 23: The district and sessions court here has sentenced a total of 25 Bangladesh nationals to two years of rigorous imprisonment for illegally staying in the state without valid travel or identity documents. Palladam police, acting on a tip-off in June 2025, raided the Karaipudur area and detained the group. Police investigation revealed that none held valid passports, visas or Indian residency permits, and they had Bangladeshi national identity cards. (PTI)
UP Cong chief booked over ‘abusive’ remarks against PM
Mahoba/Lucknow (UP), May 23: Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Ajay Rai was booked for allegedly making objectionable remarks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a programme in Mahoba district, police said on Saturday. Rai has maintained that a purported video showing him making the alleged remarks is “AI-generated.” The FIR was lodged at Kotwali Nagar police station on Saturday on the complaint of Neeraj Rawat, a BJP worker. According to the complaint, Rai attended a programme organised on May 22 in Samad Nagar locality by former Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee secretary Brijraj Ahirwar. Rawat alleged that Rai arrived with a convoy of 15-16 vehicles and 25-30 supporters, causing obstruction on a public road and affecting normal movement in the area. (PTI)
