From The Newsroom: SC approves CBI probe into Sushant Singh Rajput case; Pranab Mukherjee's health condition declines

In your evening news brief, From The Newsroom, Supreme Court approves CBI probe into Sushant Singh Rajput case; the health condition of former President Pranab Mukherjee declines as he develops traits of lung infection and Truecaller says that it identified 29.7 billion spam calls and 8.5 billion spam SMS for its users in India last year.

Hi, this is Ahmed Shariff and you are listening to, From The Newsroom— your daily evening news catch up show from Deccan Herald.

Here are the top news of today, Wednesday: August 19, 2020:

The health condition of former President Pranab Mukherjee declined and he developed traits of lung infection according to the latest hospital statement on Wednesday.

Mukherjee remains on ventilatory support and is currently being managed by a team of specialists.

"There has been a decline in the medical condition of Hon’ble Shri Pranab Mukherjee as he has developed features of lung infection. He continues to be on ventilatory support and is currently being managed by a team of specialists. He continues to be on ventilatory support and is currently being managed by a team of specialist," the Army Hospital statement said.

Earlier in the day the former President's son, Abhijit Mukherjee Tweeted that his father was showing signs of improvement.

Caller identification app Truecaller on Wednesday said it identified 29.7 billion spam calls and 8.5 billion spam SMS for its users in India last year.

The Swedish company has also rolled out a new spam activity indicator for Android phone users that will give detailed statistics on the spammer.

"Truecaller has become indispensable in the lives of 240 million (monthly) global active users... In 2019 alone, we identified 29.7 billion spam calls and 8.5 billion spam SMS for our users in India," Truecaller said in a statement.

Truecaller has over 170 million monthly active users in India.

The company, in a previous report, had said India had ranked fifth in 2019 in terms of number of spam calls received by users per month, and eighth position in terms of spam SMS.

Talking about the latest feature, Truecaller on Wednesday said it has rolled out the Spam Activity Indicator for Android users to build upon its core proposition of making communication safer and more efficient for everyone.

In a sign of the growing political prominence of Hindus in America, the Trump and Biden campaigns are wooing this small religious minority community like never before.

induism is the fourth largest faith in the US, representing approximately one per cent of the US population in 2016.

While the Trump campaign promises that re-electing President Donald Trump will “reduce obstacles to religious freedoms” for Hindus in America, the rival Biden campaign on Tuesday said former vice president Joe Biden has made outreach to the Hindu faith community a priority. For the first time in an American presidential election, the Trump Campaign on August 14 announced the formation of the “Hindu Voices for Trump.”

Two days later, prominent Hindu leader Neelima Gonuguntla participated in an interfaith service to kick off the Democratic National Convention, which the Biden campaign said was another sign of the growing political prominence of Hindus in America.

The details of the new coalition of the Trump Campaign to woo the Hindu-American community in the US is expected to be announced during the Republican National Convention next week.

“Hindus for Trump honours contributions by millions of Americans of Hindu faith,” said the campaign which has taken a lead ahead of the Biden campaign.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday accorded its approval to the ongoing CBI probe into a case related to death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput in Mumbai on June 14, saying "a fair, competent and impartial investigation is the need of the hour."

A single judge bench of Justice Hrishikesh Roy said, Rajput was a talented actor in the Mumbai film world and died well before his full potential could be realised. His family, friends and admirers are keenly waiting the outcome of the investigation so that all the speculations floating around can be put to rest.

In order to "ensure public confidence" in the investigation and to do complete justice, the court used its plenary power under Article 142 of the Constitution to accord approval for the ongoing CBI investigation.

It said this would ensure "a measure of justice for the complainant, (Sushant's father K K Singh) who lost his only son" and for actor Rhea Chakraborty, live in partner of the deceased as well.

"For her too, it will be the desired justice as she herself called for a CBI investigation," the court pointed out.

The dissemination of facts through unbiased investigation would certainly result in justice for the innocents, who might be the target of vilification campaign, the court said, in an allusion to speculation in social media on role of an important functionary in the case.

The court held the Bihar government's recommendation to the CBI probe into an FIR lodged with the Patna police by the actor's father on July 25, was "lawful".

The court directed the CBI to investigate any new case, if registered, on the death of the actor and the surrounding circumstances.

For the dozing passengers of the bus, it all appeared to be taken straight from a Bollywood action thriller.

Three persons stormed into the bus at around eleven in the night, overpowered the driver and informed the passengers that they were taking control of the vehicle. The passengers were assured that no harm would come to them and that they would be sent to their respective destinations.

The 'hijackers' did what they had promised.

It, however, later turned out that the 'hijackers' were in fact agents of a finance company, which had given loan to the bus owner, and that they had 'seized' the vehicle as the owner had failed to pay the installments.

The bus, which began its journey from Gurugram in Haryana to Pnna in Madhya Pradesh on Tuesday with 34 passengers, was taken over by the agents of the finance company near Agra around 11 in the night.

The bus was taken to Jhansi, where the passengers disembarked and boarded another bus to their destinations, police sources said.

As a search was launched, the bus was found in the Balrai area in Etawah district, about 250 kilometres from here, on Wednesday morning, sources said.

Sources said that the owner of the bus, a resident of Gwalior town in Madhya Pradesh, had died on Tuesday from Covid-19. The family members denied that they had not paid the installments.

Police said that all the passengers had reached their destinations safely. A case was lodged against the finance company and the investigations were on.

India's antitrust watchdog has dismissed a case against Facebook's WhatsApp, saying the company has not abused its dominant position to expand in the country's digital payments market, according to an official order.

A case in March alleged that WhatsApp was bundling its digital payment facility - WhatsApp Pay - within its messaging app for which it already has a large user base. The case alleged WhatsApp was abusing its position by forcing its payments feature on to its existing users.

In a 41-page official order made public late on Tuesday, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) said it did not find any contravention of antitrust laws, adding the company's "actual conduct is yet to manifest in the market" as it has not fully launched the service yet.

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