Here are the top headlines of the day:

  1. India advises citizens in Ukraine to leave temporarily: The Indian Embassy in Kiev advised students to follow its social media handles for updates. Air India will operate three special flights to Ukraine’s Boryspil International Airport on February 22, 24 and 26.
  2. Punjab sees 64.3% voter turnout, over 60% polling recorded in Uttar Pradesh till 5 pm: All 117 seats of Punjab and 59 constituencies of Uttar Pradesh went to polls on Sunday.
  3. India-China ties going through “very difficult phase”, says External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar: The foreign minister also said that the situation in the Indo-Pacific and the Transatlantic regions were not comparable. He said that both regions have “distinct challenges”.
  4. In Karnataka’s Shivamogga, 58 students allegedly suspended from college for not removing hijab: However, the deputy commissioner of the district claimed that the principal of the institution only threatened them but no suspension order has been issued.
  5. Eighteen police officials booked for alleged fake encounter after 17 years in Uttar Pradesh: In October 2004, the police had allegedly shot dead two persons named Dhanpal and Prahlad. A former superintendent of police, additional superintendent of police, three circle officers and in-charges of 10 police stations have been accused in the case.
  6. Former NCB officer Sameer Wankhede booked in Thane for alleged fraud in obtaining bar licence: An official of Maharashtra’s excise department has alleged that Wankhede got the licence in 1997, when he was still a minor.
  7. In 2008 Ahmedabad blasts case, three convicts claim approver testified against them out of jealousy, grudges: The convicts, all of them who have been sentenced to death, have made the allegations before the trial court against the approver, Ayaz Saiyed. On February 18, a special court in Gujarat sentenced 38 of the 49 convicts to death in the bomb blasts case.
  8. Hundreds protest death of student leader Anish Khan in Kolkata, clash with police: His family alleged that some people wearing police uniforms barged into their house and threw him from the three-storied building.
  9. Bombay HC refers to Hindi as ‘national language’ while rejecting bail, accused man moves SC: The Mumbai Police had arrested the man, Gangam Sudhir Kumar Reddy, in July 2019 after commercial quantity of cannabis was allegedly found in a vehicle he was travelling in. In his bail application, Reddy had claimed that the police informed him about the reasons for his arrest and about his statutory rights in Hindi, which he does not understand.
  10. Ukraine president calls on Vladimir Putin to hold meeting for resolving crisis: President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Western leaders of following a “policy of appeasement” towards Moscow and demanded new security guarantee for Ukraine.