-The Guardian  Use of Sodium Pentothal to secure confessions – classified by some as torture – still common in certain regions of India It is the sort of scene that belongs in a film noir, not a 21st-century democracy: an uncooperative suspect being injected with a dose of "truth serum" in an attempt to elicit a confession. But some detectives in India still swear by so-called narcoanalysis despite India's highest court ruling...

Prisoners of Jharkhand — a majority of them tribals — who are facing charges of waging war against the state may have reason to believe that they are no less equal before the law than the free man. Jharkhand High Court has constituted a committee headed by Justice D.N. Patel to monitor the trial of persons alleged to be members of banned outfits such as CPI(Maoist) and PLFI and speed up...

The speed and determination with which the Tamil Nadu government has been slapping its citizens right, left and centre with colonial-era laws, it would seem as if a full-fledged war of independence is raging in the fishing villages of Idinthakarai and Kudankulam along the coast of Tamil Nadu. According to findings by a team led senior journalist Sam Rajappa, in just four months between September (when the protest movement against the...

-The Economic Times   An embarrassing goof-up by the Delhi Police saw a Delhi court to discharge top CPI(Maoist) leader Kobad Ghandy on Tuesday of charges under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), even as it framed charges against him under IPC provisions relating to cheating, forgery and impersonation. The failure of the Delhi Police to get mandatory clearance from a UAPA review committee constituted by the relevant sanctioning authority - the Delhi...

-PTI A Delhi court today put on trial top Naxal leader Kobad Gandhy for alleged cheating, forgery and impersonation while discharging him on charges under stringent anti-terror law.  Paving the way for the trial, Additional Sessions Judge Pawan Kumar Jain framed charges against 65-year-old Gandhy under various provisions of the IPC relating to cheating, forgery and impersonation in the case in which he is accused of trying to set up a base...