News18.com Daybreak : Mystery Behind Sridevi's Death; Nirav Modi Case Follow-Up and Other Stories You May Have Missed

In a dramatic twist to the sudden death of Bollywood legend Sridevi, an autopsy report issued by authorities in Dubai said that she had died of “accidental drowning” in her hotel bathtub after losing consciousness. Meanwhile, there could be further delay in the return of her mortal remains with the Dubai police informing the Indian Embassy that another "clearance" was awaited before it could release the body.

In an effort to seize assets and recover dues from bank loan defaulters, the Centre is coming up with a new law—the Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill—to access and sell-off assets of Nirav Modi-type escapees. A special court will be set up to look into the matter of absconding corporate defaulters.

It took a while for Mohammad Irshad, a middle-aged man, to realise that the continuous roaring noise in his village Silikote, near the LoC, was that of gunshots. He had dismissed the first few shots like an everyday affair but when the firing continued and became intense, it dawned on him that perhaps the pre-ceasefire era had returned to torment the border villages of Uri. His fears soon turned true as villagers of seven LoC hamlets soon had to abandon their houses and take shelter in a school building in Uri’s main town and it’s already been five days since then.

A suspected cow smuggler was crushed to death under the wheels of a truck carrying bovines when he allegedly tried to flee the vehicle, which was being chased by police in Rajasthan's Alwar district.

Two students of IIT-Kharagpur have grabbed worldwide attention for their innovation in developing ‘Paper Battery’ from sewage bacteria and bioethanol green energy from bamboo shavings.

Senior Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Ashutosh and Member of Parliament Sanjay Singh met Delhi Police Commissioner Amulya Patnaik and demanded action against those involved in the assault on state cabinet minister Imran Hussain, Delhi Dialogue Commission (DDC) Vice-Chairman Ashish Khetan, along with others.

Days after claiming that the RSS could mobilize men faster than the Army, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat has courted another controversy after he said that a teen cadre activist was “martyred” while helping BSF during the 1971 India-Pakistan war. “Back in 1971, a 15-year-old tribal boy, studying in class XI, was asked by the personnel of Border Security Force to carry cartons of gunpowder to the forward post till the rest of the battalion arrived. History is a witness that the boy, who was also a Swayamsevak, was shot by an enemy bullet while helping the country during times of trouble,” Bhagwat said.

In what is a rare sight in Bihar, thousands of bystanders and guests queued up on the roads to watch a bride lead her ‘baraat’ from her house to the Danapur Army Marriage Hall, where her groom was waiting for her. The groom waited for the bride to proceed with the wedding rituals.

The Bhartiya Janata Party admitted that the man who was allegedly at the wheel of the SUV that crushed nine school children in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur district is a BJP leader.

BJP president Amit Shah hit out at Karnataka's Congress government for celebrating the birth anniversary of 18th century Mysore ruler Tipu Sultan instead of focusing on developing backward regions. Shah also asked the other backward classes (OBCs) to vote out the Siddaramaiah government in the upcoming elections.

What do Indians really want to hear? Is Rahul Gandhi actually being heard or is the impact of his words only limited to social media and news headlines? Is he moulding his politics on the lines of the Arvind Kejriwal of 2015-2017, picking noise over substance? Arvind Kejriwal borrowed a leaf from Narendra Modi’s social media playbook, and now so has Rahul Gandhi. From aggressive Twitter usage to puns and Pidi videos, Rahul has been grabbing eyeballs, but has failed to convert the interest into votes. Like Kejriwal in Punjab, Rahul suffered defeat in Gujarat. This, ironically, when the BJP seems to be slipping on the virtual platform where it had the first-mover advantage.

Bedatri D Choudhury, a resident of New York, who writes on films, watched English Vinglish (2012) last night. As Sridevi strutted around in her block printed cotton saris on the streets of Manhattan, she writes that she saw bits of her mother on-screen—flustered by the number of coffee options in a cafe, fumbling at the metro turnstile and clutching herself tight while trying to speak English to Americans in a strange city. “I remembered the scene from Mr India when she brings in boxes of samosas, chips and pastries into a room full of starving children; dressed in white, she looks around and ask, “Kya khayenge? chips, samosa…” then stops to lick her fingers and resumes, “...pastries?” and cried like I did when I first watched it. The bringer of chips, samosas, pastries and much laughter and beauty, is gone.”

More than 500 people, including many women and children have died in a week of bombardment of the Eastern Ghouta enclave near the Syrian capital, Damascus.