The number of people who have died of the disease now stands at 82,066 with a case fatality rate of 1.63 per cent.

More than 39 lakh people stand cured with a recovery rate of 78.52 per cent. Almost 83,000 patients were discharged in the last 24 hours, bringing the total recoveries closer to the number of new cases. Only 20 per cent, or 9,95,933 cases, are active.

Maharashtra continues to be the worst affected State by the pandemic with a tally of 10.7 lakh cases as it continued to report more than 17,000 cases a day.

Close to half (48.8 per cent) of the active cases are concentrated in three states — Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Kerala and Telangana contribute close to a quarter (24.4 per cent) of the active cases, the ministry said.

The health ministry stressed that more than 70 per cent of the deaths occurred due to comorbidities.

Karnataka reported more than 8,200 new cases, most of them from its capital. Bengaluru now has more Covid cases than Mumbai, surpassed only by Delhi and Pune.

Delhi’s COVID-19 tally crossed to over 2.25 lakh after 4,263 fresh cases were reported on September 15. Thirty-six fatalities pushed the death count to 4,806, according to the latest bulletin issued by the Delhi health department.

According to a study (Johns Hopkins University data), India is the second worst-hit nation in terms of COVID-19 cases after the United States. It is in the third spot in fatalities after the US and Brazil.

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In an attempt to demolish the drug racket in Bengaluru, the city police have seized 1352 kilograms of marijuana. The city police, which is currently in a drug busting spree, also arrested four drug peddlers.

Following a tip-off, the Seshadripuram Police initially nabbed a peddler named Jnanasekhar who was selling marijuana in an autorickshaw near the VV Giri colony. This arrest took place on August 30 and upon interrogation, Jnanasekhar revealed more details about a drug ring responsible for smuggling marijuana in north Karnataka.

Later, police arrested three more people named Siddhunath, Naganath and Chandrakanth. Nagnath and Chandrakanth were arrested as they were trying to transport a shipment near the NH 50 Toll Gate. The huge stock of marijuana was hidden underground in a farm.

Investigation officers revealed that marijuana was being sent from Orissa to Telangana, and from Telangana to Karnataka.

“The drug peddlers used to go in vehicles to buy vegetables but instead transported marijuana in vegetable vans. They had dug a cave to hide the marijuana at a farmhouse in Kalaburgi. A total of 1.2 ton of marijuana from there and we also seized 150 kg of marijuana from the distributor in Vijayapura,” said M N Anucheth, DCP West in a recent statement.

Kamal Pant, Bengaluru City Police Commissioner revealed that the Bengaluru Central Division Police will be rewarded a cash prize of Rs.2 lakhs for their outstanding efforts to demolish the drug racket in the city.

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Rao has been in jail for about 22 months and had earlier approached the special NIA court, seeking bail on medical grounds and the prevailing COVID-19 situation.

On June 26, the NIA court rejected his plea on the ground that he has been booked under stringent provisions of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), following which he moved the high court.

The poet and nine other activists have been arrested in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case, which was initially probed by the Pune Police and later transferred to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in January 2020.

The case related to alleged inflammatory speeches made at the Elgar Parishad conclave held in Pune on December 31, 2017, which the police claimed triggered violence the next day near the Koregaon-Bhima war memorial.

The police have also claimed the conclave was organised by people with alleged Maoist links.

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