The CBI arrested an assistant professor of the College of Agriculture, Pasighat, Arunachal Pradesh, for taking Rs 2.5 lakh bribe - Rs 1.95 lakh in May and Rs 55,000 now - for awarding contracts to a supplier at inflated rates, an official said.

Pavankumar Goudar was arrested on Wednesday for criminal conspiracy, demand of bribe/undue advantage by a public servant and charges related to bribing a public servant by a commercial organisation and abetment, said a CBI official.

At least 13 people were killed in lightning strikes in three districts of West Bengal on Thursday.

Of the 13 persons killed in the lightning-related mishaps, seven were from Bankura district, five from East Burdwan district, and one from West Midnapore district.

In Bankura, one person named Ziaul Haque Mollah, resident of Khiri village under Kotulpur police station, was working in the field when the lightning struck. Others present in the field rushed him to a local hospital, where doctors declared him dead.

In a breakthrough against rising cyber frauds, the Cyber Police Station of South-West Delhi has arrested two cyber criminals from Jharkhand for cheating a Delhi resident of Rs 10.64 lakh through a malicious mobile application (APK file).

The accused, identified as Shankar Dan (27) and Pradeep Kumar Dan (26), both residents of Dhanbad, Jharkhand, were arrested following extensive raids conducted across Jharkhand and West Bengal.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday arrested a long-time absconder, Bablu alias Ravindra Yadav, in connection with a Rs 1.18 crore bank fraud case registered in 2011.

The accused was apprehended from Gulawati in Bulandshahar district of Uttar Pradesh after evading arrest for nearly two years.

The case stems from a complaint filed by the Assistant General Manager of the State Bank of India, Meerut, which alleged that Nawal Kishore Gupta, then Branch Manager of Punjab National Bank (PNB), Sikandrabad, along with private individuals, had orchestrated a fraudulent scheme in 2011.

An assistant professor of the College of Agriculture, Pasighat, Arunachal Pradesh, has been booked by the CBI for taking Rs 1.95 lakh bribe for favouring a particular supplier and conspiring to award contracts for the supply of goods at inflated rates, an official said.

Pavankumar Goudar was booked on Wednesday for criminal conspiracy, demand of bribe/undue advantage by a public servant and charges related to bribing a public servant by a commercial organisation and abetment, said a CBI official.

At least five people were killed and several injured when a Himachal Road Transport Corporation (HRTC) bus rolled down the hill in Mandi district on Thursday, police said.

The bus with 30 passengers on board skidded off the road and rolled down into the ditch.

The injured were rushed to the Civil Hospital at Sarkaghat town, from where three in a critical condition were referred to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Bilaspur.

Superintendent of Police Sakshi Verma told the media that four -- two men and two women -- died on the spot. The injured were rushed to the Civil Hospital in Sarkaghat.

The cause of the accident is yet to be determined, and further investigation is underway.

Border Security Force (BSF) troopers on Thursday continued a search operation along the international border (IB) after suspected infiltration in the R.S. Pura sector of Jammu district.

BSF officials said the operation began late on Wednesday night and continued through the early hours of Thursday.

Troopers carried out coordinated searches in the forward villages, agricultural fields, and dense vegetation near the border fence.

"An infiltration alert was also issued across the R.S. Pura and Arnia sectors, prompting night patrolling and intensified surveillance measures. Additional personnel, dog squads and thermal imaging equipment to monitor any movement across the border," a BSF official said.

A general coach of Mahima Gosain Express derailed near Sambalpur City Railway station on Thursday morning, triggering panic among passengers.

According to initial reports, the incident occurred just minutes before the train was scheduled to arrive at Sambalpur City Station.

The train was on its scheduled route from Bhubaneswar to Sambalpur when the derailment occurred.

The East Coast Railway (ECoR) sources revealed that the rear trolley of a general coach next to the guard van of 20831 Shalimar-Sambalpur Express derailed near Sambalpur City Station.

A major accident was averted as the train was moving slowly.

In a shocking incident under Khajrana police station area of Indore, Madhya Pradesh, early Thursday morning, a mob, led primarily by women, reportedly assaulted a Sub-Inspector (SI) Suresh Bunkar.

A video of the incident went viral on various media platforms. The purported video shows a man, shirtless, being beaten by a group of people, including women.

The officer was reportedly dragged from a residence in Bunkar Khedi, beaten with sticks, and nearly stripped and tied to an electric pole before police intervention.

According to local reports, the sub-inspector reportedly had been visiting the home of a woman embroiled in a marital dispute.

Assam Police have beefed up security arrangements across the state ahead of Independence Day celebration as a precautionary measure, officials said on Thursday.

A senior police official said, "We have stepped up vigilance on national highways to avert any untoward incident."

Earlier in the month, ULFA-I claimed that its Eastern headquarters in Myanmar had been targeted by the Indian Army with drones in the early hours – a claim denied by the Army.

The proscribed outfit in a press statement claimed that in these cross-border strikes, their 19 cadres were killed and another 19 were injured.

The outlawed group ULFA-I tried to explode bombs at least 12 places in Guwahati during the celebration of Independence Day in the previous year. The explosions could not occur due to technical failure, and security forces later recovered the explosives.