Here are the top 5 news updates of May 4, 2022:
Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray today said that playing Hanuman Chalisa outside mosques will continue till the time the government acts and address the issue in accordance with the Supreme Court guidelines on loudspeakers. "As far as I know, there are over 1,140 mosques in Mumbai. Out of these, 135 mosques played azaan at 5am violating the guidelines. We want peace in the state. I want to ask the police you are taking action only against our workers. My point is that all illegal loudspeakers should be removed from mosques, until they are removed we will continue our agitation," Raj Thackeray said addressing a press briefing. "I have to see what Supreme Court is doing if the government is not following its order," he added.
A special court today granted bail to independent legislator couple MP Navneet Rana and MLA Ravi Rana arrested in connection with the Hanuman Chalisa recital row. Among bail conditions is that they must not address media on the subject and be available for investigation upon a 24-hour notice by the police. Claiming bail the Ranas had said in their common bail application that their arrests were made under pressure and due to political vendetta. The prosecution had opposed relief to them and said that they had used the hymn as a weapon and intended to disturb the law and order situation.
As many as 141 people have been arrested so far in connection with communal clashes over the hoisting of a flag before Eid in Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot's constituency Jodhpur where a curfew continued for the second consecutive day today. The situation is under control and no fresh incident of violence has been reported, police said. Nearly 1,000 police personnel have been deployed to maintain law and order. Earlier, the authorities issued orders imposing a curfew till Wednesday midnight besides suspending mobile internet services. Tensions broke out the night intervening Monday and Tuesday over putting up of Islamic flags on the Jalori gate circle, which led to stone pelting.
The Delhi High Court has directed micro-blogging website Twitter to take down five more 'defamatory tweets' posted by American historian Audrey Truschke against historian and V.D. Savarkar biographer Vikram Sampath on plagiarism allegations related to the biographical book. "In my view, the tweets with regard to the subject matter of the present application are defamatory in nature and there is a link posted in the said tweets to the very same letters, the publication of which was injuncted by this Court vide orders dated 18th February 2022 and 24th February 2022," said Justice Amit Bansal in the order dated May 2. The petition filed by Sampath contended that despite ad interim injunction passed by this Court, the defendant continues to post defamatory material against him on Twitter.
Equity markets fell sharply in late afternoon trade today, with the Sensex and Nifty diving over 2 per cent each after the RBI in a surprise move hiked the benchmark lending rate to 4.40 per cent to contain inflation. The 30-share BSE benchmark tumbled 1,306.96 points or 2.29 per cent to settle at 55,669.03. During the day, it plummeted 1,474.39 points or 2.58 per cent to 55,501.60. The NSE Nifty tanked 391.50 points or 2.29 per cent to finish at 16,677.60. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) increased the benchmark lending rate by 40 basis points to 4.40 per cent in a bid to contain inflation, which has remained stubbornly above the target zone of 6 per cent for the last three months.
