From the Newsroom: Stan Swamy denied bail in Koregaon-Bhima case

In your evening news brief, Stan Swamy denied bail; Param Bir Singh accused of shielding people with underworld links, and AstraZeneca says advanced trial data from a US study on its Covid-19 vaccine shows it is 79% effective.

Here is the top news of March 22, 2021:

A suspended inspector of Mumbai Police has alleged that former city police commissioner Param Bir Singh had tried to shield some people having underworld links from law when he was DG of the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB).

The policeman also alleged that Singh's aide had demanded a bribe of Rs 2 crore to reinstate him into the police force.

AstraZeneca says advanced trial data from a US study on its Covid-19 vaccine shows it is 79 per cent effective.

The US study comprised 30,000 volunteers, 20,000 of whom were given the vaccine while the rest got dummy shots. The results were announced Monday.

A special NIA court here on Monday rejected the bail plea filed by tribal rights activist Stan Swamy, arrested in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case.

Additional sessions court judge Judge DE Kothalikar rejected bail pleas of 83-year-old Swamy on merits as well as well as on medical grounds.

Swamy, a Jesuit priest and activist, was arrested from Ranchi in October, 2020, and has since been lodged at the Taloja Central Jail in Navi Mumbai

Source: PTI/AP