When Chief Minister Omar Abdullah announced the withdrawal of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act from certain areas areas in Jammu and Kashmir, it was a political move with many objectives. The government, however, had to put the plan on hold. Though the Home Ministry has been in favour of a withdrawal, the plan came under severe criticism from the Army, which argued that a withdrawal, even if partial, would hamper...

Three years after he was arrested by CBI from a Mumbai hotel along with an arms dealer, Indian Revenue Service officer Ashutosh Verma was reinstated by the Income Tax Department. Last month, he was promoted as Joint Commissioner, Income Tax. In March 2008, Verma was arrested together with arms dealer Suresh Nanda, his son Sanjeev and Nanda’s chartered accountant Bipin Shah. The arrests were made after a surveillance unit of the CBI...

Five years after being picked up by police — and almost a year after Swami Aseemanand’s confession — nine Muslim youths accused in the 2006 Malegaon bombings have their best chance of getting bail. The National Commission for Minorities has asked the government to ensure that they are released at the earliest. NCM chairman Wajahat Habibullah recently wrote to the ministries of home and law, asking them to proactively intervene and...

-IANS   Even as the whole country seems gripped by Anna Hazare's crusade against corruption, one man who started it all in the 1990s, senior journalist Vineet Narain, is all but forgotten and the case itself has been refrigerated for good. Narain is still struggling with his unfinished agenda to seek justice in the hawala racket. The CBI Chargesheet is still there, but the case has virtually been closed for want of political...

A tiny road flanked by lush turmeric and maize fields veers off the state highway from Dharmapuri to Harur in Tamil Nadu towards Vachathi, a tribal village that has hungered for justice for nearly two decades after an irreparable tragedy destroyed its peace. Nineteen years ago, a large team of Tamil Nadu Police and officers from the forest and revenue departments swooped down on the village nestled in the foothills...