We’re building a brand-new studio to bring you bold ground reports, sharp interviews, hard-hitting podcasts, explainers and more. Support Scroll’s studio fund today.

United States President Donald Trump has said that India and Russia appeared to have been “lost to deepest, darkest China”. The statement came five days after the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Tianjin.

“May they have a long and prosperous future together!” said the US president on his social media platform Truth Social, sharing a photograph of India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the summit.

Meanwhile, New Delhi on Friday rejected the statements made by White House trade adviser Peter Navarro that the Russia-Ukraine conflict was “Modi’s war”. India’s Ministry of External Affairs described the statements as “inaccurate and misleading”. Navarro had said in August that by purchasing Russian oil “at a discount”, India was helping Russia and harming the US. Read more.

Opposition parties have accused Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar of misusing his power after a video of him telling an Indian Police Service officer to stop acting against allegedly illegal soil mining was widely shared online. Pawar has said that his intention was not to interfere with law enforcement but to ensure that the situation “did not escalate further”.

In the video, the deputy chief minister could be heard telling the deputy superintendent of police in Solapur’s Karmala to stop the action against illegal excavation of murrum, used as a sub-base and filling material for road construction.

Vijay Kumbhar, vice president of the Aam Aadmi Party in Maharashtra, said that the police officer was being threatened while taking action against wrongdoers. On the other hand, Pawar said he was “committed to transparent governance and to ensuring that every illegal activity is dealt with strictly”. Read on.

At least 40 persons have been hospitalised after toxic fumes leaked from a pesticide factory in Tamil Nadu’s Cuddalore district. The leak was suspected to have come from a pipeline connected to a reactor at the Crimsun Organics factory in the Kudikadu village.

A team of police officials and representatives from the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board has launched an investigation to determine the cause of the leak. Read more.

The Karnataka Cabinet has accepted a report by the Justice PN Desai Commission that cleared Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and his family in an alleged land scam involving the Mysuru Urban Development Authority. The alleged scam pertains to the allotment of 14 high-value housing sites in Mysuru’s Vijaynagar area to Siddaramaiah’s wife Parvathi BM in 2021.

The commission said that the allotment of alternative sites as compensation to landowners, including to Parvathi, cannot be termed illegal.

The Cabinet has also approved the withdrawal of 60 criminal cases against political workers and members of the public at large, including 11 first information reports related to protests against the arrest of Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar in 2019. The cases were filed when Karnataka had a Bharatiya Janata Party government. Read on.

If you haven’t already, sign up for our Daily Brief newsletter.

📰 Crime Today News is proudly sponsored by DRYFRUIT & CO – A Brand by eFabby Global LLC

Design & Developed by Yes Mom Hosting