News Breakfast @6

01. 500-Page Whatsapp Chats Between Arnab Goswami & Ex BARC CEO Leaked

In a major development in the Television Rating Point (TRP) scam, over 500-pages of Whatsapp chat messages between Republic TV CEO Arnab Goswami and Former Chief Executive Officer of Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) Partho Das Gupta have been allegedly leaked by the Mumbai police, several media outlets reported. The transcript begins in July 2019 and extends until mid-October the same year. It reveals damning information related to Goswami's proximity with the Prime Minister's office (PMO) and members of the ruling BJP government, his efforts to manipulate TRPs in his channel's favour and seek help from the government. Some of the chats also show Goswami assuring help from the PMO with relations to the TRPs.

02. 300-400 Terrorists Ready To Enter J&K, Says Army Chief

Army chief General MM Naravane, during a speech during the Army day parade on Friday, stated that around 300-400 trained terrorists camped along the Line Of Control (LoC) are ready to sneak into Jammu and Kashmir. Gen Naravane also said ceasefire violations by Pakistan has increased by over 44 percent, adding that in order to help terrorists sneak into Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan army provides them cover fire. The Army chief also informed that India's active operations and strong counter-infiltration grid not only inflicted heavy losses on the enemy but they contained infiltration attempts as well.

03. Farmers-Centre Meet: No Headway, Next Meet On Jan 19

The ninth round of talks between the Centre and the agitating farmers, who are protesting against the three farm laws, once again failed to find common ground on Friday. The next meeting is scheduled on January 19. For over 1 month, thousands of farmers have been protesting at various borders near the national capital demanding the repeal of the three farm laws and a legal guarantee for a Minimum Support Price (MSP) on crops. The government on the other hand remains adamant on their stance and has repeatedly refused their demands, leading to the nine rounds of talks.

04. CBI Arrests Actor Subhra Kundu In Rose Valley Chit Fund Case

Sleuths of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday arrested actor Subhra Kundu, wife of Rose Valley Group chairman Gautam Kundu, in Kolkata for her alleged involvement in a multi-crore chit fund scam – one of the biggest scams to have emerged from West Bengal. As per reports, the Rose Valley group was involved in allegedly cheating thousand of depositors, promising high returns on investments in its illegal schemes. Along with the CBI, Subhra Kundu had been wanted by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) as well.

05. Biswanath: Wild Buffalo Killed After Claiming 2 Lives

The buffalo who claimed two lives and injured three other persons have been killed by officials of the wildlife division in Biswanath district on Friday. A person identified as Sukur Ali was killed by the wild buffalo on Friday while it had previously killed a man identified as Jayanta Das on Thursday morning at Muttackgaon.An angry mob had also set the Biswanath Wildlife Division of the Department of Environment and Forest on fire yesterday for failing to take any action to control the buffalo.

06. Karnataka: 11 Dead, 5 Critical In Road Mishap

Eleven people including nine women were killed in a road accident near Itigatti village, in Karnataka's Dhardwad on Friday. The tempo-traveller the commuters were travelling in collided with a truck. Five people, including the truck driver, were injured in the mishap and are in a critical condition, police added. The injured have been shifted to the Karnataka Institute of Medical Sciences for treatment. All the travellers are women and hailed from Davanagere district, police said and were enroute Goa.

07. Suspected KLO Ultra Held In Kokrajhar

A suspected extremist of militant outfit Kamtapur Liberation Organisation (KLO) was arrested by the Kokrajhar police on Friday. As per initial reports, the police have suspected one Pradip Roy to be associated with the rebel organisation. In addition to Roy's arrest, a pistol, magazine and six active bullets were found.

08. PM Modi Lauds Efforts Of Soldiers On Army Day

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday greeted soldiers on the occasion of Army Day commending the efforts of the Indian Army towards the nation. In a tweet, he said Indian soldiers have made the country proud as he wished them on behalf of the people. He lauded that the Army is strong, brave and resolute. Army Day is celebrated to mark the first Indian general taking over the command of the Indian Army from a British officer in 1949.

09. Kumbh Mela: Over 7 Lakh Devotees Take Holy Dip In Ganga

An estimated seven lakh devotees took a holy dip in River Ganga in Haridwar marking the commencement of Kumbh Mela on Thursday, Uttarkhand government announced the numbers. Around 7,11,000 devotees performed rituals at Har ki Pairi, a statement from the government said. Meanwhile, the government also claimed that COVID-19 protocols were followed, and 974 persons were found violating the guidelines.

10. Adani Group Won 6 Airport Bids Despite Finance Min, NITI Aayog's Objections

In a major revelation, a news report of The Indian Express claimed it has accessed documents that stated Adani Group fetched bids for six airports in 2019 despite objections that were raised by the Ministry of Finance and NITI Aayog. The Adani Group won the deal to operate airports at Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Jaipur, Mangaluru, Guwahati and Thiruvananthapuram, and Guwahati for 50 years.The Indian Express said report also added that Adani Group signed another dealojn August 31 last year to operate the Mumbai Airport.

11. Diphu: Teacher's Body Found With Stabbed Marks

In a sensational incident, the dead body of a yoga teacher was recovered at Rangmong in Diphu on Friday morning. As per reports, the deceased youth was identified as one Tanmoy Das. He was working as a contractual yoga teacher in Kendriya Vidyalaya. Locals suspected that some unidentified man called him and allegedly killed him with a sharp weapon. It may be stated that he was staying in a rented house in Diphu. He belongs to Nagaon's Panigaon.

12. Assam: Two Massive Fire Incidents Reported

Amid the Magh Bihu celebration, a devastating fire took place at a market in Dhing in the wee hours of Friday. Seven shops, including the clothing store, the grocery store, the cosmetics shop, were completely gutted down in the fire. More than 50 lakh rupees of goods and properties were destroyed in the fire. The cause of the fire yet to be ascertained. Later fire-fighters arrived at the scene and put out the blaze. In a separate incident, a fire also took place at the Assam-Arunachal Pradesh border in Gahapur on Friday at around 3 pm. The fire destroyed the house of a man identified as Krishna Chhetri and livestock such as goats, ducks, and chickens were killed. The fire expanded massively due to a cylinder blast triggered by a short circuit.

13. 10 More Rohingyas From Myanmar Held

Ten more Rohingyas from Myanmar were detained on Thursday pushing the detention tally of the Myanmarese community to 45 in the last two months for illegally entering northeast India, an IANS report said. Northeast Frontier Railways's (NFR) Chief Public Relations Officer Subhanan Chanda was quoted saying in the report that,  "10 Rohingyas, including five children and two women, were detained in the New Delhi-bound Rajdhani Special train on Wednesday". Adding, "They were immediately de-boarded from the train at New Jalpaiguri station in West Bengal by the railway security personnel".

14. Google's Play Store Removes Over 100 Personal Loan Apps

Tech giant Google's PlayStore on Thursday removed as many as 118 unspecified loan apps. As per several media reports, hundreds of personal loan apps were evaluated by Google based on users' and government inputs. "We have reviewed hundreds of personal loan apps in India, based on flags submitted by users and government agencies. The apps that were found to violate our user safety policies were immediately removed from the Store. Apps that fail to do so will be removed without further notice," said Suzanne Frey, Google Vice-President for Product, Android Security, and Privacy said in a blog post.

15. Assam: 15 New COVID Cases, 1 Death

Assam recorded 15 new coronavirus related cases on Friday. The new cases were detected out of 8400 tests conducted with the positivity rate at 0.18 per cent. Meanwhile, a patient succumbed to the infection today.  The death tally of the state now stood at 0.49% with 1,065 cases. 42 cured patients were discharged, the National Health Mission (NHM) Assam tweeted. The recoveries have touched 2,12,745. The recovery rate of the state stood at 98.14 per cent.