According to Gurjar, the incident took place late at night when she and her family were asleep inside their home in Madhya Pradesh’s Shivpuri district. Several unidentified men cut the fencing around the property and made their way inside the house, where they proceeded to lock the door to the room where the family was sleeping.

The Indian influencer claims that she and her husband realized something was wrong at around 4 am, when one of them woke up and noticed that the door was closed. They tried opening it, but it was locked, so they panicked and phoned some neighboring relatives to get them out of the room.

When they were finally free, Rachna and her husband found obvious signs of a burglary, including ravaged storage spaces, missing jewelry, cash, and even a carton of energy drinks. Police have launched an investigation, but the suspects have yet to be identified.

“They locked us inside the room and then committed the burglary. They took away gold, silver jewellery, cash, and a carton of energy drink, worth around Rs 8 lakh to Rs 10 lakh ($8,000 – $10,500). They also changed the angles of the CCTV cameras, possibly with a lathi (bamboo cane), so that their faces were not recorded,” Gurjar said.

The Police have launched an investigation into this case, and one of their main leads is Rachna Gurjar’s social media activity. She had recently recorded clips from inside her home, showing off her jewelry and wads of cash to her nearly 100,000 social media followers, and investigators believe this may have made her a target for burglars.

While the police are trying to identify the masked men seen in the CCTV footage captured by Rachna’s surveillance cameras, the incident has sparked a heated debate online regarding the risks of displaying wealth and home interiors on social media.

Maharaj belongs to a sect known as Khareshwari (“Standing Babas”), whose members take vows to remain standing as a sort of penance meant to clean their souls and bring them closer to the goddess Shiva. To complete their vows, the ascetic monks rely on ropes, swings, and specially-designed harnesses that keep them standing even when their legs give in.

Photos and clips of Daulat, aka Dulal Giri Ji Maharaj, show him resting on a hanging swing with severely swollen and blackened legs. The lack of movement and the constant standing – even while sleeping – have negatively impacted his circulation and general health, and many fear that his legs will need to be amputated long before he reaches his 12-year goal.

Most of Daulat’s needs are taken care of by volunteers at a local temple where he is fulfilling his extreme vow. They routinely apply ointments to his deformed legs, but that only helps so much. It’s unclear how he tends to his physiological needs, but some have suggested that he must constantly wear adult diapers. However, some clips show him moving around, so he hasn’t lost the ability to move around, which allows him to at least reach the toilet.

Doctors have warned that standing for prolonged periods of time causes venous pressure to rise, which initially results in swelling and pain, but can degenerate into life-threatening conditions like deep vein thrombosis.

“When standing still for a long time, the veins in the legs must fight gravity to send blood to the heart, but the lack of pumping action in the calf muscles causes blood to pool in the lower extremities,” one medical expert explained.

Daulat Giri Ji Maharaj’s extreme vow reminded us of another Indian ascetic monk, Amar Bharati, who has been keeping his right hand raised high above his head since 1973.

Smearing cake on people’s faces on their birthday is a well-known tradition, and while we’ve seen it go wrong on rare occasions, we can’t remember it ever being cited as a motive for murder. Well, at least until this month, anyway, because Indian media recently reported a man shooting three of his friends dead for playfully smearing cake on his face at his birthday party.

The unusual incident took place last Saturday, at a gym in the Khurja town district of Bulandshahr, where young Jeetu Saini was celebrating his birthday with some friends. When the cake was served, some of Jeetu’s pals smeared cake on his face as a joke, but the gesture was met with unexpected hostility by the birthday boy.

According to eyewitnesses, 33-year-old Jeetu got into a heated argument with Amardeep Saini, Manish Saini, and Akash Saini over having cake smeared on his face, before storming out of the gym, only to return with a group of men and a licensed gun.

Sanjay Saini, the brother of one of the victims, told reporters that Jeetu had called him on the night of the incident to complain that his brother had been disrespectful to him during his birthday party and that he had used foul language. Sanjay tried to calm him down, promising to handle the matter personally the following morning because he needed to attend a wedding, but he never had the chance to do that.

Upon returning to the gym, Jeetu Saini reportedly opened fire on the three men he had previously argued with, before anyone had any chance to react. During the panic that ensued, he and his accomplices fled the scene and are currently on the run from police.

“Late tonight, the Khurja Nagar police station received information that three young men had been shot. Police immediately arrived at the scene. The young men were admitted to the hospital in critical condition, where they were declared dead,” Antriksh Jain of the Khurja Nagar police station told the ANI news agency. “The reason revealed is that it was the birthday of one of the accused, during which the deceased put cake on his face. There was an altercation between them. This altercation led to this incident today.”

Over 15 people have been detained for questioning, but the main suspect, Jeetu Saini, is still on the loose

Earlier this month, clips of manual workers in an Indian garment factory started going viral online. They showed human workers operating sewing machines, but there was one thing off about them – they were all wearing head-mounted cameras.

Although no news outlet has been able to confirm it, the main theory regarding these head-mounted cameras is that they are designed to record the worker’s movements so that companies can use the footage to train AI-powered robots that will eventually replace them.

“First step, make humans work like robots, second step, make humans teach robots how to work like robots, third step, fire all humans and get robots to work,” one person wrote on X.

“They are digging their own graves,” someone else commented.

Since the cameras capture exactly what the worker sees — including hand movements, coordination, and task execution — it creates a rich dataset for machines to learn from,” India Today speculates. “Instead of relying on expensive motion-capture tools, companies could use this “human-eye view” to teach robots how to perform complex actions by simply observing and copying.”

Apart from the concerns regarding job losses on a massive scale, some have argued that, if the theory proves true, the way companies are going about it may have ethical implications, as many of the workers probably have no idea they are essentially rendering themselves obsolete.

Amit, a Class 4 student from Pitampur village in Uttar Pradesh, was bitten by a snake last Thursday. He immediately told his family what had happened, but instead of rushing him to a hospital, they decided to consult a witch doctor. He reportedly told the family to tie Amit to bamboo poles and keep his body submerged in the Ganges River, so that the holy water of the river could cure him.

Indian media reports that only after 12 hours, after noticing that Amit had become unconscious, the family finally decided to take him to a real doctor, but by that time, there was nothing to be done. Even after learning of Amit’s passing, they allegedly tried to throw his body into the Ganges, hoping for a miracle.

Dr. Shashank Chaudhary of the local health centre told reporters that he and his colleagues routinely conduct awareness-raising campaigns, urging people to come to the hospital immediately after getting bitten by snakes, as every minute counts.

Amit’s preventable death sparked outrage on social media, with many asking for his parents to face consequences for their negligence. At this time, it is unknown if the police plan on charging the family in this tragic case.

After discussing with the doctors, Vineeta’s husband learned that there was no hope that she would ever regain consciousness, as her brainstem reflexes were absent and her consciousness level was at 3 points on the Glasgow Coma Scale, compared to the 15 points of a fully awake person.

The woman’s family decided to have her discharched and began making funeral preparations. On February24th, as the ambulance was driving on the motorway near Hafizganj, it hit a large pothole, causing a powerful jerk. Vineeta’s husband immediately noticed that she had begun breathing normally right after the jolt, and her condition only improved from there.

Photo: Unsplash

After being taken back to the hospital, Vineeta Shukla baffled doctors who had previously given her no chance of recovery. She has since returned home, is awake and talking to her family members, who were preparing her last rights just a few days ago.

The jolt from hitting the pothole is credited for shocking Vineeta back into consciousness, but many on social media are pointing out that this is a one-in-a-million anomaly, a freak occurrence that doesn’t make up for the thousands of lives claimed by pothole-related accidents in India.

Between 2020 and 2024, potholes caused 9,438 deaths, and Vineeta’s miraculous recovery cannot make up for that.

Suraj stands accused of resorting to a shocking gesture to ensure his admission into medical school. Police suspect that he cut off his own foot and made it look like he was the victim of a violent assault just so he could get into medical school under the institution’s disability quota. Indian law mandates a 5% reservation for people with disabilities (PwDs) in government and government-aided higher education institutions, including medical colleges.

The young man’s actions came to light after his older brother, Akash Bhaskar, informed police that unidentified assailants had attacked his brother in Khalilpur village, leaving him unconscious with a severed foot. A case was registered, and police launched an investigation that ended up finding a lot of inconsistencies in Suraj Bhaskar’s story.

“The accused tried to mislead the investigation with a fabricated story, but his claims did not stand scrutiny during sustained questioning and examination of evidence,” a police spokesperson told journalists, adding that they had reasons to believe that Suraj had severed his own foot.

Police recovered a diary belonging to Suraj in which he had written, “I will become an MBBS doctor in 2026,” and obtained statements from his girlfriend about his obsession with getting into medical school. They also learned that he had tried to obtain disability-related documents a few months prior, but failed.

According to a medical report, Suraj’s foot had been cleanly cut off, most likely with a machine. The wound was too clean tohave been caused by a violent blade attack. The syringes found in a field near where Suraj was found also suggest that he had used anesthetics to numb his legs before performing the amputation.

“The victim repeatedly changed his statement and tried to mislead police,” a police officer said, adding that Suraj Bhaskar had been sent to a trauma centre for better treatment. His foot has yet to be recovered.

Although police are convinced that the 20-year-old man severed his foot himself in order to get into medical school without having to pass the NEET exam, his gesture is so shocking that no one really knows what legal actions can be taken against him. If his plan to get into medical school fails, having to go through the rest of his life on one foot is probably punishment enough.

Mangilal never asked people for anything; he just stood on his platform with his gaze fixed on the ground, which only made him more pitiful. But it turns out this was a carefully planned strategy that made him richer than most able-bodied people in the world.

After being taken in, given a shower, and provided with clean clothes, Mangilal was questioned by civil servants about his situation, and it turned out that he wasn’t as helpless as he appeared. He reportedly earned thousands of rupees per day begging and was lending money to shopkeepers in the Sarafa Bazaar at interest.

Subsequent checks revealed that he was not homeless, but actually owned three homes: a three-storey house, a second house, and a flat that was given to him by a government welfare programme. In addition, he owned two auto-rickshaws that he had rented out to others, and a car for which he had hired a driver on a salary of Rs 12,000 ($130).

Mangilal himself admitted that the oney he earns in Safara isn’t required for survival, but rather a source of funds for various investments. Officials are currently checking if the 50-year-old beggar has any bank accounts to his name as well. During the investigation, it was revealed that Mangilal’s family members were also involved in begging.

“I certainly go there, but don’t beg, it’s the people who put the money in my pocket or throw coins or notes on the wooden board,” Mangilal tried explaining, knowing that begging is illegal in Indore.

Interestingly, India is also home to the world’s richest beggar, a man whose fortune puts Magilal’s to shame.

According to the First Information Report (FIR) filed at Bisrakh police station, Lavika Gupta and Sanyam Jain were married on January 16, 2024. The wife claims that she was deceived at the time, with Jain and his family concealing various details about his physical appearance, education, and financial status.

Photo: Unsplash

“After the marriage, I also found that my husband had only passed Class 12, while his biodata showed that he had a BCom (Bachelor of Commerce) degree. He also lied that his income was Rs 18 lakh ($20,000). In this way, I was seriously defrauded.”

Gupta added that when she agreed to marry Sanyam, she was promised a man with “thick hair”, but she later learned that her spouse was bald and wearing a patch to conceal his lack of hair.

“The woman has also alleged that her husband assaulted her during a trip abroad and pressured her to bring marijuana from Thailand to India,” an officer from Bisrakh police station told journalists.

The people of Konchi, a village in India’s Bihar state, were shocked to learn about the sudden passing of Mohan Lal, a local 74-year-old former Air Force veteran. It was confusing to see a procession when most people didn’t even know he had died, but that didn’t stop people from joining the procession, mourning the poor man, and taking part in all the traditional rites. But what really stunned people was the moment when Mohan got up from his casket. They soon learned that the funeral was nothing but a twisted test thought up by the 74-year-old man to see how many people cared about him.

“After death, people carry the bier, but I wanted to witness it myself and know how much respect and affection people give me,” Mohan said asked when he was asked why he went through the trouble of staging the mock funeral.

Mohan asked some of his relatives to help him spread the word about his passing and had other people take him to the crematorium on a decorated bier to make the stunt believable. Hundreds of residents rushed to join the mourning ceremony, whhich pleased Mohal and reassured him of the community’s respect. To make locals forgive him for the mock funeral, Mohan Lal organized a big feast for everyone.