The role of police in the November 2007 bloodbath in Nandigram has come under the scanner with the CID looking where the Mamata Banerjee government thinks it will find the trigger behind the firing. The investigators are scanning police records to figure out how some officers allegedly took decisions to favour the ruling Left, even as they carry on with their probe on the role of CPM leaders like Lakshman Seth,...

-The Telegraph   TV pictures of a young woman being pulled by the hair and thrashed inside a police station have caused outrage in poll-bound Punjab and embarrassed the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal. Raj Kaur, 22, was beaten up by head constable Manjeet Singh at the Baretta police station, over 200km from Chandigarh, in Mansa district for allegedly stealing a gold chain. Someone filmed the assault on a cellphone camera. A district official alleged...

-Express News Service   The stay order issued by court over reserving 25 percent seats in schools for students from economically weaker sections (EWS) has delayed the implementation of the Act in the coming academic session. While the quota is mandated by the Right to Education (RTE) Act, there is no clarity on who will foot the bill. The ambiguity over fees is a major concern for private school managements. “The unaided...

-Economic and Political Weekly   The Reliance/Network18 deal should make us wake up to the impending threat to media plurality. Few are discussing it. India has just seen one of the biggest media deals, where the country’s leading industrial and business giant has bought into the largest network of news and current affairs TV channels. Yet, the fact that this could mark the beginning of a trend leading to private media being controlled...

The Supreme Court on Monday told the Army to not “play with the courts” and stop taking recourse to the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) to stall prosecution in the 2000 Pathribal encounter case in Jammu and Kashmir. The apex court asked the Army to come clean on whether they want to start court martial proceedings of eight officers accused of killing five persons in the encounter or let...