A court here on Thursday asked the ED to file a status report in a case against Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) agent Anand Chauhan accused of investing Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh’s “tainted” money in LIC policies.

Special Judge Santosh Snehi Mann asked the Enforcement Directorate to file a status report in the case by January 22 and a supplementary charge sheet as soon as possible.

The court listed the matter for February 20 for commencing of arguments of charges in the case.

The ED had filed a charge sheet against Chauhan and accused him of investing Virbhadra Singh’s Rs 5.14 crore in LIC policies purchased in the name of the Chief Minister and his family members, including wife Pratibha Singh.

The ED booked him under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

A probe had allegedly found that Virbhadra Singh had accumulated assets worth Rs 6.03 crore in his name and in the name of his family members, which were disproportionate to his known sources of income, during his tenure as the Union Steel Minister from 2009 to 2011.

Director Neeraj Pandey, who is all set for his upcoming flick titled Aiyaary, took three long years to do extensive research on the film in order to live up to the expectations of fans.

Pandey has directed successful films like A Wednesday, Baby, Special 26 and MS Dhoni: An Untold Story to name a few, and the director is back with his next spy-thriller Aiyaary, starring Sidharth Malhotra and Manoj Bajpayee.

Aiyaary is one of Pandey’s most ambitious project, which is an action packed thriller and will narrate the story of a rogue agent going on war with the entire system including his mentor.

As per reports, The Baby director wanted to leave no stone unturned in order to achieve all the necessary required elements and went through an intense research to find the perfect storyline for the film which took him three years to flag off the film.

Aiyaary is now all set to release worldwide on February 9, 2018.

The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) has written to aviation security regulator BCAS to look into a sabotage angle in the Pawan Hans chopper crash that killed all the seven on board last Saturday.

The Eurocopter Dauphin N3 chopper with seven on board, including five senior ONGC officials and two pilots, crashed off the Mumbai coast minutes after it took off from the Juhu aerodrome for the state-owned oil and gas major’s installations in the Bombay High fields on January 13.

“We don’t want any angle in the crash to be left uncovered. While we are investigating the technical aspects of the crash, we also want the sabotage angle to be probed,” a top AAIB official told PTI on condition of anonymity today.

“Therefore, we’ve written to the BCAS (Bureau of Civil Aviation Security) director general seeking a separate probe whether there is any sabotage, along with our ongoing investigation,” the official said.
The AAIB, the apex accident probe body under the civil aviation ministry, has a mandate to investigate accidents and serious incidents involving aircraft. It began the probe soon after the Pawan Hans chopper crash was confirmed.

On the other hand, the BCAS is the country’s nodal aviation security body and would mainly look at whether security was compromised, leading to a possible sabotage.

The official also said AAIB chief Bir Singh Rai has also spoken to his BCAS counterpart Kumar Rajesh Chandra on the issue.

The Bombay High operated by the national energy major ONGC is the largest oil and gas fields in the country and Pawan Hans helicopters routinely ferry ONGC employees and officers to these oil installations that are situated 160 km from the city coastline.

Pawan Hans is a 51:49 joint venture between the central government and ONGC.

ONGC, Coast Guard and the Navy launched a massive joint search and rescue operations with helicopters and speedboats shortly after receiving the information about the chopper going down.
After three days of searches, all the seven bodies and the technically crucial voice data recorder of the helicopter were recovered.

The ONGC officials killed in the crash are P N Srinivasan, R Saravanan, V K Babu, Jose Antony and Pankaj Garg (all deputy general managers); while the pilots were Ramesh Ohatkar and V C Katoch.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Thursday met the Class 1 student who was allegedly stabbed by a senior girl at his school on 16 November.

The boy, Ritik, was found unconscious and lying in a pool of blood outside the bathroom at the second floor of his school. The six-year-old was immediately rushed to the Trauma Centre of King George Medical University (KGMC) where he is currently recuperating.

The incident happened in Brightland School in Triveni Nagar area of the city. As the news of the incident spread, worried parents gathered outside the school to protest.

At the hospital, Adityanath met the boy and enquired about his health from the doctors. He said that the guilty will be dealt with strictly under the law.

He also said that action will also be taken against those who are guilty of negligence.

The boy had on 17 January accused a ‘didi’ sporting boy-cut hair of beating and stabbing him in the bathroom. According to reports, the girl has been identified as an 11- or 12-year-old.

The police sent the hair of the girl found on the body of the child for DNA test. They have also arrested the principal of the school.

An FIR was registered on 17 January at the Aliganj police station against an unidentified student.

Though the school has CCTV cameras, there is none near the bathroom.

Britain said it would pay an extra 44.5 million (50 million euros, 62 million) to boost security around Calais following a demand for more money from President Emmanuel Macron ahead of a key summit on Thursday.

“This is about investing in and enhancing the security of the UK border,” a government spokeswoman said.

The funding will go towards fencing, CCTV and detection technology in the northern French port city as well as at other points along the Channel from which migrants regularly attempt to reach British shores by ferry or train.

The money would be on top of more than 100 million already paid by Britain following a border deal between the two countries that has now been renegotiated and is due to be signed on Thursday.

British and French leaders also aim to deepen cooperation in tackling terrorism at the meeting, as Britain tries to strengthen ties before leaving the European Union next year.

Macron, who is on his first official trip across the Channel, will meet May at an army base near the British capital.

In a piece of diplomatic theatre, Macron is expected to confirm that France will agree in principle to loan London the Bayeux Tapestry, the famed 941-year-old embroidery that recounts the Norman conquest of Britain in 1066.

“Today’s summit will underline that we remain committed to defending our people and upholding our values as liberal democracies in the face of any threat, whether at home or abroad,” May said in a statement ahead of the talks.

“Our friendship has always gone far beyond defence and security and the scope of today’s discussions represents its broad and unique nature,” she added.

The leaders are expected to focus on the sensitive issue of immigration.

Hundreds of people continue to camp out in the northern French town, hoping to stow away on trucks heading to Britain, a destination seen as an El Dorado by some migrants from Afghanistan and parts of Africa.

The two countries currently abide by the 15-year-old Treaty of Le Touquet, which permits immigration checks within each other’s borders.

A new treaty will be signed at Thursday’s summit to complement the 2003 deal, according to French officials.

The National Green Tribunal has directed the inspection of areas around a paper mill in Nainital after a plea alleged the release of toxic liquid and solid waste into the reserve forest near it.

A bench headed by acting Chairperson Justice U D Salvi ordered central and Uttarakhand pollution control boards to jointly inspect and collect soil and water samples from the areas around the Century Pulp and Paper mill and the adjacent Gaula river within a month.

The green panel also directed the paper unit to install Mark II hand pumps at the villages of Bindukhatta and Shantipuri along the Paha drain in Udham Singh Nagar district of Uttarakhand within two months.

Mark II is a human-powered pump designed to lift water from a depth of fifty metres or less.

“We direct Kamlesh Singh, scientist D from Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), who has been the part of the joint inspection team to point out the locations for installation of hand pumps to the Century Pulp and Paper Mill within a week.

“Respondent no 6 (Paper mill) is further directed to de- sludge the Paha nallah as suggested in remedial action plan and finish the work before onset of monsoon. Sludge removed shall be disposed of as per the advice of CPCB,” the bench said.

The NGT also directed the paper mill to submit a status report regarding the use of the treated effluents before March 16, the next date of hearing.

The tribunal had in 2016 directed the unit to pay Rs 30 lakh as environmental compensation for failing to manage pollution caused by effluents discharged from the mill.

It had also set up a team of senior scientists from the department of Environment Science, University of Jammu, CPCB and IIT Roorkee, to carry out survey and study of the area and the Gaula river to ascertain environmental degradation caused and suggest remedial measures for restoration of environment.

The NGT was hearing a plea of environmentalist Gauri Maulekhi, filed through advocate Rahul Choudhary, seeking directions to immediately stop discharge of harmful toxic effluents in the forest areas.

The Haryana Police on Thursday said the body of a 19-year-old youth, who was named in the FIR as the alleged abductor in the savage rape and murder case of a 15-year-old Dalit girl in Kurukshetra district, showed no sign of external or internal injuries.

The youth’s body was found on Tuesday night from the Bhakhra Canal at Budehra head near Jyotisar.

Police said on Thursday the post-mortem examination had been conducted by a board of doctors from the Bhagat Phool Singh Medical College in Sonepat.

“No external or internal injury was found on the body, according to the postmortem report. No fracture was also found in any part,” a senior police official of Kurukshetra police said over phone today.

However, he said final opinion about the exact cause of his death can be given after the chemical analysis of the viscera, which will be done at Forensic Sciences Laboratory at Madhuban in Karnal district.

The police officer said that videography of the postmortem was done.

To a question, he said at the moment police was investigating the case from all angles.

“At this moment we are not ruling out anything and all angles are being investigated,” he said when asked to comment on media reports that “honour killing” angle was also under the scanner of police.

“Our teams are at work. We have detained some people and are questioning them,” he said.

Kurukshetra Police had earlier said the body of the Class XII student was found in a decomposed condition and was identified by his parents from a tattoo on his arm.

Police had earlier launched a hunt to nab the accused who is alleged to have abducted the girl from Kurukshetra when she went to attend a tuition class.

Both the teenagers went to the same private school in their village in Kurukshetra, police said. The two had gone missing after they left separately for tuition classes last week.

The youth had been named as the alleged abductor in a complaint lodged by the girl’s family after the teenager had gone missing last week from her village in Kurukshetra after leaving home to attend a tuition class.

“On the complaint of the girl’s parents, we were treating the youth as a suspect for kidnapping,” Kurukshetra SP, Abhishek Garg had said yesterday.

The Class X girl student’s half-naked body was found on Saturday from near the bank of a canal in a village in Jind district after she had gone missing last Tuesday.

The girl’s family had alleged that local police did not immediately act upon the complaint lodged with them when the girl had gone missing.

The girl was brutally assaulted, her private parts mutilated and some of the vital organs ruptured, police had said earlier.

The incident triggered nationwide outrage, with the opposition Congress slamming the Khattar government over its alleged failure to ensure safety and security of women.

Alleging complete breakdown of law and order machinery, the Congress had demanded dismissal of the M L Khattar led BJP government and imposition of the President’s rule in the state.

The shocking incident came close on the heels of another incident last month, in which a six-year-old girl was brutally raped and killed in Haryana’s Uklana area in Hisar district.

B-town, the place of glamour and style, has given us some of the best actors over the years. Although, you might know your favourite stars very well but do you know who their siblings are?

Well, they might be not so popular in comparison to their siblings but they surely share a wonderful bond with them, which is admirable.

Let’s take a look at these lesser-known siblings of popular actors who are no less than their brothers or sisters:

Katrina Kaif-Isabelle Kaif

Isabelle Kaif is Katrina Kaif’s younger sister and an aspiring model who has got all eyes on her for various reasons. Isabelle is among some of the most popular Instagram personalities with more than 600k followers. The young model was also appointed as the brand ambassador for Lakme India. Isabelle has all the traits to be a Bollywood actor and her fans are wondering when this gorgeous model will debut on the big screen.

Ranbir Kapoor-Riddhima Kapoor

Ranbir Kapoor is considered as one of the most good looking actors of Bollywood. But do you know about his beautiful elder sister? Riddhima Kapoor Sahani has got the looks and style statement of a celebrity but to everyone’s surprise, Riddhima is far away from the world of glamour and prefers to keep a low profile. But the shutterbugs just can’t get enough of her and capture her beauty in the lens whenever she is seen on family outings.

Tiger Shroff-Krishna Shroff

Undoubtedly, Tiger Shroff is one of the fittest and hottest male actors today but his sister is no less. Krishna Shroff has not made a decision about her career but the young girl is already in news for her photos shared on the social media. From her beautiful photos to her family outings, Krishna has got quite a fair number of admirers who are in complete awe of her and floods the comments section with their appreciation for the youngest Shroff.

Sara Ali Khan-Ibrahim Ali Khan

Sara Ali Khan has got all eyes on her for her Bollywood debut in 2018 and her fans are keenly waiting for the young actor to arrive. Sara’s got the looks and charm from her parents but it seems like she had to share these traits with her brother, Ibrahim. Ibrahim is Saif Ali Khan and Amrita Singh’s second child and has become quite popular for his resemblance with his dad and photos shared on the social media. While Sara is gearing up for her debut, it’s yet to be known what this young heartthrob has planned for his future.

Yami Gautam-Surilie Gautam

Surilie is an actor, who has predominantly worked in the Punjabi industry, and is the younger sister of Yami Gautam. The beautiful sister duo resembles quite a lot, which leaves the fans wondering about who is more beautiful. But it’s not any type of competition between the sisters as they love twinning their outfits happily. It’ll be interesting to see Surilie’s arrival in Bollywood.

Taapsee Pannu-Shagun Pannu

Taapse Pannu’s younger sister, Shagun has raised all eyebrows with her beautiful photos and style statement and the social media just loves it whenever she’s seen with her elder sister. Shagun is four years younger to Taapsee and is yet to decide about her career but with such a beautiful face it won’t come as a surprise if we see her on the silver screen at any point of time in future.

Kriti Sanon-Nupur Sanon

Nupur Sanon has already more than 690k followers on her Instagram and even more likes on her photos. Kriti Sanon’s younger sister is often appreciated for her adorable photos and her cute face. Nupur’s photos with her elder sister grabs even more eyeballs as this beautiful sister duo’s photos are impossible to dislike. Nupur is currently pursuing a career in singing and if rumours are to be believed then she might go for acting as well.

The Supreme Court today decided to strike down the ban against Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s controversial film ‘Padmaavat’ in some states as the top court cleared the decks for the all-India release of the movie on January 25.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra also restrained any other state from issuing such notifications and orders prohibiting exhibition of the movie.

Veteran filmmaker Shyam Benegal hailed the Supreme Court’s decision of striking down the ban on Padmaavat, saying it is clearly the victory of freedom of expression in the country.

Benegal, who chaired a Ministry of Information and Broadcasting committee to propose ways to revamp the censor board, said that once the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) and the Supreme Court have given the movie a go-ahead, nothing can stop its release.

The Rajasthan, Gujarat and Haryana governments had banned the movie’s release in their states.

The Twitter parade also lauded the decision taken by the top court as the micro-blogging site was flooded with tweets in support of ‘Padmaavat’.

Here are some of the tweets:

Best news of the day which restores faith in our democracy : Supreme Court suspends ban imposed by 4 states on #Padmaavat, restrains other states from issuing similar orders.

— Ayushmann Khurrana (@ayushmannk) January 18, 2018

SC states censor approved #Padmaavat can’t be banned by states. Great decision. Every story can’t be told how bullies want it. Artists, just as anyone else, have freedom to express in India. The states involved should respect decision and curb bullies.

— Chetan Bhagat (@chetan_bhagat) January 18, 2018

27. Great decision by honourable Supreme Court by bringing on on stay on the ban of ‘PADMAAVAT’ now finally we would be able to se this epic saga on the tale of PADMAVATI.🙏#SupremeCourt #Padmaavat

— Sajal Sachdeva (@SachdevaSajal) January 18, 2018

Grt verdict by d Honorable SC, to watch or not to watch a movie must b left to d ppl.#Padmaavat

— Chetan Khatavkar (@ChetanK1007) January 18, 2018

@RanveerOfficial Congrats sweets! #Padmaavat ban is lifted in the states!!! Good things will only happen 😘🎉

— Neha ‘Nene’ Bhargava (@nehab01) January 18, 2018

Happiness is Padmavati release all over the India 🇮🇳😍😍#Padmaavat pic.x.com/tIsJAKLVBE

— Triaz Salim (@SalimTriaz) January 18, 2018

Delighted with #CJI Dipak Misra’s liberal order staying state bans on #Padmaavat. Those who oppose the film have 2 options: 1) Don’t watch it. 2) Protest against it peacefully. Period.

— Minhaz Merchant (@MinhazMerchant) January 18, 2018

CBFC on December 30 last year decided to grant a U/A certificate to the movie, subject to five modifications, including title change from “Padmavati” to “Padmavat”. The makers — Bhansali Productions and Viacom18 Motion Pictures — finally went with “Padmaavat”, and agreed to the other four points, maintaining that the movie glorifies Rajput pride, valour and honour.

However, Rajput outfit Shree Rajput Karni Sena has been adamant in its demand that the movie must not be screened.

Obese middle-aged men and women who undergo bariatric surgery for weight loss may have reduced their risk of death by 50 percent than those tackling their weight through diet and behavior alone, finds a study.

Weight loss is achieved by reducing the size of the stomach with a gastric band or through the removal of a portion of the stomach (sleeve gastrectomy or biliopancreatic diversion with duodenal switch) or by resecting and re-routing the small intestine to a small stomach pouch or (Roux-en-Y gastric bypass(RYGB)surgery).

The rate of death in individuals who did not have surgery was 2.3 percent compared to 1.3 percent in those who had surgery, the findings showed.

“We showed that a long-term effect of bariatric surgery is a longer life for obese patients. They had half the death rate, which is significant,” said Philip Greenland, Professor at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

For the study, published in the journal JAMA, the team compared 8,385 people who had the surgery (65 percent women and 35 percent men) to 25,155 who did not, with an average age of 46 with a body mass index (BMI) of 40.

Apart from weight loss, the surgery also lowered rates of new diabetes diagnoses, improved blood pressure, and a greater proportion of diabetic individuals going into remission.

“Bariatric surgery is an increasingly frequent treatment for severe obesity,” added Laura Rasmussen-Torvik, Assistant Professor at the varsity.

“It’s highly effective in promoting weight loss but also invasive and can lead to short- and long-term complications,” Rasmussen-Torvik said.

However, there are various concerns about complications such as malabsorption of nutrients including vitamin deficiency, anemia and protein deficiency.

The previous study, published in Bariatric Surgical Practice and Patient Care, showed that men who underwent RYGB surgery reported elevated levels of the estrogen hormone estradiol and deficiency in vitamin D, factors which could negatively impact semen and fertility.

The BJP government at the Centre has ended “appeasement and vote bank politics”, which was going on for years, Union Minority Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said on Thursday.

He was addressing a coordination meeting of minority welfare ministers of nine states including Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Uttrakahand, Jammu and Kashmir, Bihar and Delhi here.

“The BJP government has ended appeasement and vote bank politics, which had been continuing for last several years, and our policy is empowerment without appeasement and development with dignity of all sections of the society,” the minister said.

Naqvi said the Narendra Modi government was working with a commitment to “inclusive growth” which has ensured that all sections of the society, including minorities, are becoming an equal partner of the development process.

Also Read: Govt withdraws Haj subsidy; 1.75 lakh pilgrims to visit Saudi Arabia this year

“Due to the policy, minorities are also becoming an equal partner of the country’s development process. Participation of minorities in central government jobs, which was about 5 per cent in 2014, has gone up to 10 percent in 2017. In this year’s civil services exam, around 125 minority youths have been selected, out of which 52 are from Muslim community,” he said.

The conference was organised to take stock of various educational, skill development, scholarships schemes meant for minorities and get the state governments’ suggestions on ways to ensure these welfare schemes were implemented more effectively at the ground level and the benefits reached to all the needy people.

Naqvi said that most of the states have been working well on implementing the schemes for minority communities.

Over 280 inspecting authorities of the minority affairs ministry were working as “watchdog” of various development and welfare schemes, he added.

Kangana Ranaut and Hrithik Roshan’s controversy is known to everybody by now. The alleged couple never came face to face but still managed to slam each other. In their interviews, they kind of made sure to come clean but in the process, belittling the other.

Once again Kangana made a statement hinting at her alleged ‘silly ex’ Hrithik Roshan. Speaking to Bombay Times, Kangana Ranaut said, “There is only so much that you can control in life. When there are so many controversies around, you will be asked about them. Also, it gives me an opportunity to come clean on many issues and answer all the questions and doubts that people might have about me. Sometimes, I am asked questions that are very intimidating, but I make sure that I answer them. It makes me feel much closer to my viewers; I am answerable to them for my actions.”

ALSO READ: Hrithik Roshan to reunite with ex-wife Sussanne Khan?

Probably hinting at Hrithik she said, “I am not the kind of person who plans and picks one day to come clean and talk about everything. I could be talking about my craft or giving the audience a glimpse into my inner world —  I personally see every interaction that I have during interviews as an opportunity to come closer to my audience. As a public figure, why pretend to give an interview when you don’t want to talk or give one? Why pretend to go around in circles when you have no desire to let the audience enter your world? I don’t do that. I’d rather not be in that space.”

READ MORE: 5 controversies of Hrithik Roshan that you may have missed

Recently, both the actors attended the same event. Though they chose to ignore each other, it still made headlines.

Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Thursday met Congress President Rahul Gandhi at his residence here and discussed the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

“Had a long discussion on 2019 Lok Sabha polls with Congress President,” Captain Amarinder Singh told media after meeting Gandhi.

Besides the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the leaders also discussed the organisational structure of the party in Punjab.

Singh was accompanied by Punjab Congress in-charge Asha Kumari, senior party leader Harish Choudhary and state party chief Sunil Jakhar.

The Congress leader said: “The resignation of Rana Gurjeet Singh has been accepted by the Congress President and the expansion of Punjab Cabinet would take place after elections of Ludhiana Municipal Corporation.”

Rana Gurjit had recently tendered resignation amid ongoing sand mining row allegedly involving him.

Asked about the ceasefire violations by Pakistan, the Congress leader, who has also served as a Captain in Indian Army and was part of 1965 India-Pakistan war said, “I want, if one of our jawans (soldier) dies, then 10 of their’s must die.

“That is how I look at life,” he added.

Earlier in the day, a Border Security Force (BSF) trooper and a girl were killed in overnight shelling and firing by Pakistan Rangers on the international border in Jammu and Kashmir.

The incident took place in R.S. Pura sector in Jammu district.

BSF Head Constable Suresh Kumar and 14-year-old Sabity were injured in the shelling and firing and succumbed to their injuries in a hospital.

Fifty-two people were killed on Thursday when the bus they were travelling on caught fire in Kazakhstan, the central Asian nation’s emergency services ministry said in a statement.

“On January 18 at 10:30 am (0430 GMT), a bus caught fire … 55 passengers and two drivers were on board. Five people who managed to escape are receiving medical assistance. The rest died on the spot,” the ministry said, without elaborating on the cause of the blaze.

The bus driver said the passengers were Uzbek nationals while the vehicle was registered in Kazakhstan, emergency services ministry official Ruslan Imankulov told AFP.

He said the fire spread through the bus extremely quickly.

Video broadcast by Russian and Kazakh media showed black smoke and flames billowing from the vehicle on a flat stretch of road carving through a snowy steppe. A photograph taken later showed the vehicle completely charred.

The ministry named the vehicle as a Hungarian-made Ikarus. These buses are still widely used in ex-Soviet nations, even though they are often decades old.

The bus was headed from the Russian city of Samara on the Volga river to the town of Shymkent in southern Kazakhstan, the ministry said.

The tragedy, which struck in the area around the city of Aktobe, came less than three years after 16 people, including three children, died in the country when a minibus collided with a van on April 20, 2015.

Kannada film actor Kashinath, who became famous for his roles and his way of giving the Kannada film industry a different dimension, passed away on Thursday, January 18, 2018.

Kashinath, who was a senior film actor and director, was suffering from cancer and succumbed to his illness in the early hours of January 18.

According to reports, he was admitted to the Shankara Cancer Hospital on January 16 where two days later he breathed his last. His family consisting of his wife and two children were with him during his hard times in the hospital.

The actor was from Kundapur, Udupi district. Kashinath was a famous director and actor in the Kannada film industry and was known for his comedy roles and double meaning dialogues.

He was a god-father like figure to many Kannada actors and directors, including actor Upendra, and directors like V. Manohar and Sunil Kumar Desai.

His direction, production, and acting can be seen in many well-known films such as Anubhava, Anantana Avantara, Avale Nanna Hendthi and Hendathi Endhare Haygirabeku.

Kashinath acted and directed in over 43 movies and produced more than 10 Kannada films. One of his most recent movies was ’12 AM Madyaratri’ alongside his son Abhimanyu.

Commonwealth Championship silver medalist Parveen Rana waged a grim battle to help Veer Marathis to down Mumbai Maharathi 4-3 and record their first win in the Pro Wrestling League at Siri Fort Indoor complex in New Delhi on Wednesday.

In the battle between two Maharashtra teams the outcome was decided in the last match as both were tied 3-3, and in this all important match  Praveen Rana overpowered namesake  riot Praveen Dahiya of Mumbai Maharathi 6-4 to give the league debutantes their first victory.

Rana looked in great touch and warded off all attempts by his opponent to record his first win in this year’s edition.

Earlier, World Championship bronze medalist Levan Berianidze (Armenia) beat Satender Malik 5-0 in the super heavyweight category to make it 3-2 in favour of the Marathas.

However World Championship silver medalist Odunayo Adekouroye (Nigeria) promptly pulled off a stunning 5-1 victory over Rio Olympic bronze medalist Marwa Amri to level the scores and bring her team back into the contest.

Mumbai won the toss and decided to keep Shravan out of the equation, while Marathas used their card to block Seema Bisla.

Olympic champion  Russian Soslan Ramonov  got Maharathis off to a great start as he annihilated  Amit Dhankar 16-0 through technical superiority in the 65 kg competition.

Soslan was in his brutal best and did not even break a sweat as he sealed the bout within couple of minutes of the opening period.

In the second bout, skipper Vasilisa Marzaliuk ( Belarus) restored parity for Marathas after she staved off a stiff challenge from France’s Cynthia Vescan  2-1 in the 76 kg event.

It was an evenly poised battle and the results could have gone either ways but Vasilisa hung on by her skin to come out victorious.

World championship bronze medalist Georgi Keteov (Armenia) made it 2-1 in favour of Marathas after he picked up a convincing 5-0 victory over  Satyawart Kadian in the heavyweight category.

It was a pulsating contest with none of the wrestlers able to score a point in the opening period. However, after the breather Georgi used all his experience and broke through the defence of his opponent to end on the winning note.

Olympic bronze medalist Sakshi Malik registered a dominating victory over Ritu Malik Dalal to help Mumbai stay afloat in the tie.

Coming into the tie down 1-2, Maharathi’s icon player grappled with élan and brought her team back into the contest with 14-0 victory.