-The Hindu   The March 2000 encounter at Pathribal in Jammu and Kashmir that claimed the lives of seven civilians was nothing but a cold-blooded murder and no sanction was required to prosecute the Army personnel involved in the incident. This submission was made on Monday by senior counsel Ashok Bhan, who appeared for the CBI, before a Bench of Justices B.S. Chauhan and Swatanter Kumar in the Supreme Court. The Centre had asserted...

Even as Supreme Court says murderers in uniform not protected by AFSPA, Delhi rejects findings of police investigations against Army In the past four years alone, the Home Ministry has rejected at least 42 requests to sanction the prosecution of military personnel found by the police to have engaged in crimes such as murder, homicide and rape in Kashmir, data obtained by The Hindu reveal. Last week, two Supreme Court judges said...

The Madhya Pradesh government beefs up its saffron agenda with a “draconian” law. “IT is a contest between the two. The holy by-lanes of old Bhopal, which houses two of the largest mosques in Asia, the Taj-ul-Masjid and the Jama Masjid, were under attack from the holy cow,” said an activist of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), in a tone which he thought was in good humour, when asked about...

Questioning the extent to which the Army can claim blanket immunity under the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), the Supreme Court today said rape and murder committed by its personnel should be considered a “normal crime”, and that there is “no question of sanction” from the government before prosecution of offenders in such cases. Under AFSPA, prior approval is required before prosecution or any other legal action can be initiated...

It seeks statement fromthe Special Task Force chief The Supreme Court on Friday asked the Central Bureau of Investigation to answer certain questions relating to the 2000 Pathribal encounter case in Jammu and Kashmir initiated by it. The CBI has initiated a case against five Army officers involved in an alleged fake encounter since the Army did not take any action under the Army Act and also did not allow the criminal...