The Gauhati High Court has directed the Assam government to pay Rs 2 lakh in compensation to the son of a Bengali-origin Muslim woman who was forced into Bangladesh. Jahanara Begum was declared a foreigner by a foreigners tribunal in 2019 and deported to Bangladesh in June.The High Court on Monday passed a similar order in the case of Mumtaz Begum, who had also been forced out into Bangladesh, directing the state to pay her Rs 2 lakh in compensation.These are the first instances in which the court has imposed costs on the state for forcing a person to Bangladesh in violation of deportation rules. Read on.In a first, Gauhati HC asks Assam government to pay Rs 2 lakh to woman pushed into Bangladesh, reports Rokibuz ZamanThe Bombay High Court refused to quash the criminal defamation case against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for remarks in which he referred to Prime Minister Narendra Modi as “choron ke sardar” or “leader of thieves”. Gandhi had been booked on a complaint by a Bharatiya Janata Party worker. The complainant contended that Gandhi’s remarks, made in September 2018 while he was speaking about the Rafale fighter jet deal, were directed at Modi and, by extension, at the BJP and its members. This lowered the reputation of the prime minister and the party, the BJP worker claimed. Gandhi had challenged the maintainability of the complaint and moved the High Court, arguing that the remarks did not name any political party or its members. Read on.The Supreme Court asked the Uttar Pradesh government whether detentions under the National Security Act can be made based on a confession made by persons accused in the matter while they are in police custody. The court was hearing a petition challenging the preventive detention of Mulla Afroz, the alleged organiser of the November 2024 Sambhal violence. Afroz had been arrested on the basis of a confession he made while he was in police custody. The National Security Act allows authorities to detain a person without trial for up to a year. Read on.The Gujarat High Court rejected a plea by religious leader Asumal Harpalani, also known as Asaram Bapu, seeking 20 days of temporary bail in a 2013 rape case. The 85-year-old is serving a life sentence after being convicted by a sessions court in Gujarat’s Gandhinagar for raping a minor at his ashram between 2001 and 2006.His counsel told the High Court that Asaram had already been arrested, chargesheeted and tried in the case, and that he was not seeking temporary bail on medical grounds. The state opposed the plea, arguing that Asaram had not given any independent reason for seeking temporary bail. Read on.After women staffers at the Eiffel Tower were removed from their workstations during a visit by a Hindu religious group, French politicians said that the country’s values about gender equality were not negotiable. The women had been removed during a visit by a delegation of the Hindu denomination Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha on Saturday.The Société d’exploitation de la Tour Eiffel, the company that manages the monument, said that the Hindu delegation had asked for the visit to be arranged to minimise “interactions with women”. The staff at the Eiffel Tower went on a brief strike to protest this on Monday. Jordan Bardella, the president of the far-right political party National Rally, said that the “degrading demand” allegedly made by BAPS should never have been met. Read on. If you haven’t already, sign up for our Daily Brief newsletter.