In a shocking incident, Lucknow Police on Wednesday arrested a 24-year-old man, identified as Arshad, for allegedly murdering his mother and four sisters over a family dispute.

The gruesome killings took place at Hotel Sharanjeet in the Thana Naka area of Uttar Pradesh's Lucknow on Wednesday, the first day of the new year.

The bodies of the victims, identified as Alia (9), Alshia (19), Aksa (16), Rahmeen (18), and their mother, Asma, were discovered by hotel authorities, who immediately alerted the local police.

Informing about the incident, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Central Raveena Tyagi said, "We received information from the Thana Naka area stating that five dead bodies were found in a room at Hotel Sharanjeet. The local police immediately arrived at the scene to investigate."

The Union Health Ministry on Tuesday said it has seized spurious drugs - including anti-cancer and anti-diabetic formulations - worth Rs 6.6 crore in Kolkata, and made one arrest in the case.

According to a Ministry of Health and Family Welfare statement, a joint investigation was conducted by the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO), East Zone, and the Drugs Control Directorate, West Bengal, at a wholesale premises in the city.

A man who had links to organised crime syndicates was shot dead in Sydney, police said on Monday.

Emergency services were called to a street in Canley Heights, 25 km west of central Sydney, at about 6:50 pm local time on Sunday after residents reported gunshots being fired.

Police in the state of New South Wales (NSW) said a man in his 30s was treated for gunshot wounds by paramedics but died at the scene.

The man, who was allegedly involved in 'illicit drug activity,' was shot outside his family residence, Detective Superintendent Danny Doherty said.

A short time after the shooting, emergency services were called to an abandoned car on fire in a neighbouring suburb, news agency reported quoting public broadcaster.

"Investigations into the incidents, which are believed to be linked, are underway," NSW Police said.

The Karnataka Police have arrested a gang of four individuals, led by the Manager of the Corporate Division at Axis Bank in Gujarat, for siphoning off crores of rupees by stealing sensitive data from a company, officials said on Saturday.

The Bengaluru East CEN police (Cybercrime, Economic Offences, Narcotics) apprehended the suspects and seized Rs 1.83 crore in cash, two mobile phones, and a fake Corporate Internet Banking (CIB) form, according to Bengaluru Police Commissioner B. Dayanand.

The investigation began after the Director of Dream Plug Pay Tech Solutions Private Limited (CRED) in Bengaluru filed a police complaint on November 15 with the CEN East police station. The complaint alleged the siphoning of Rs 21.51 crore from the company’s accounts and requested an investigation.

West Bengal Police on Saturday said that its sleuths have cracked a major inter-state fake railways’ job racket.

According to the cops, the racket has its roots in the industrial-cum-coal belt of Asansol in West Burdwan district.

The cops have arrested two persons, both original residents of Asansol, from Uttar Pradesh’s capital Lucknow and they were brought back to Asansol on transit remand on Saturday.

The arrested persons have been identified as Dinesh Kumar and Priti Arora a.k.a. Seema.

While Kumar is a resident of Durand Colony in Asansol, Seema’s residence is at Sukanta Pally also in Asansol.

The West Bengal police, including the Kolkata Police, are under increasing scrutiny following revelations of fake Indian passport rackets operating across the state. Questions have been raised about the role of police officers responsible for conducting routine verification processes, a critical step before the issuance of passports by regional passport offices.

Concerns have been raised about whether the police officers tasked with physical verification visited the residences of passport applicants. Allegedly, many officers bypassed this requirement, instead summoning applicants to the police station to complete the verification process -- a violation of the rules.

The issue gained prominence after a city court, presided over by the chief judicial magistrate, directed investigating officers to probe their colleagues in relevant police stations. These officers had been tasked with verifying the details of individuals who later obtained fake passports using fraudulent identities.

Around 100 infiltrators including 87 Bangladeshi nationals were arrested during the past five months at the Agartala railway station alone, while hundreds of other intruders from across the border were nabbed in different places of Tripura, officials said here on Friday.

After the unrest began in Bangladesh in July, especially after the fall of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League government on August 5, the infiltration into India's northeastern states increased to a large extent.

A senior official of the Government Railway Police (GRP) said that around 100 Bangladeshi nationals and Rohingyas were detained at the Agartala railway station between August 1 and December 24.

Besides the intruders, 28 Indian touts were also arrested for facilitating the infiltrators to cross the India-Bangladesh border illegally.

The Bangladeshi and the Rohingyas, after arrest, told the security personnel that they intended to go to Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and other places in India in search of jobs.

In a brazen act of daylight robbery, two bike-borne criminals looted Rs 14 lakh from a petrol pump employee in Ranchi’s Kathitand under the Ratu police station area.

The victim was on the way to deposit the cash at a State Bank of India branch when the incident occurred.

The shocking crime, which unfolded in a busy market area, has left residents alarmed about the deteriorating law and order situation in the state.

The employee, working for the Reliance Petrol Pump in Ratu, was carrying the day’s cash collections when he was intercepted by two criminals on a motorcycle. They snatched the bag of money and fled.

Despite the area being crowded, the audacious crime went unchallenged, leaving bystanders stunned.

In a shocking case, the Pune Police have arrested a 54-year-old man for the alleged kidnapping, rape and murder of two minor girls in the Rajgurunagar area of the city.

The man, identified as Ajay Das, is accused of committing the heinous double crime with the two siblings aged nine and eight before he absconded, said a police official.

The dual crime occurred on Wednesday when the two girls were playing outside their home around noon, but later suddenly ‘disappeared’.

The family, which was keeping an eye on them, started a frantic search in the vicinity but failed to trace them and finally in the evening lodged a complaint with the Khed Police Station.

The West Bengal Police on Wednesday arrested one more person in connection with the racket of arranging fake Indian passports for Bangladeshi infiltrators entering Indian territory through the state's porous borders, both land and coastal.

The arrested person, identified as Mokhtar Alam, was arrested from his residence at Duttapukur in North 24 Parganas district.

Several incriminating documents, including fake PAN cards and bank ATM cards, have been seized from his possession.

With Alam’s arrest, the total number of arrests in connection with the fake passport rackets from different pockets in the state during the last 10 days has increased to six.