A senior officer in Chhattisgarh Police admitted Tuesday that two tribal men killed on suspicion of being maoists were most probably innocent civilians.A day after policemen got a pat for supposedly displaying heroism, a preliminary inquiry has showed that the deceased were local civilians, probably killed in cross-firing.The incident took place early Monday on the outskirts of Jagdalpur town, headquarters of the restive Bastar region.Preliminary investigation indicates that Mahru, 40,...

Heavy security bandobast is in place for the third phase of panchayat elections which will take place tomorrow in 61 blocks of 20 districts, with many of the areas considered rebel strongholds.This phase covers as many as 999 panchayats where 40,471 candidates are in the fray for 12,011 posts of gram panchayat members, mukhiyas, panchayat samiti members and zilla parishad members. The electorate strength is over 32.58 lakh.“Polling parties have...

Chhattisgarh special prosecutor TC Pandya on Friday claimed that civil rights activist Dr Binayak Sen's wife Ilina was in correspondence with the ISI — a huge gaffe. For, the ISI she had links with was the Indian Social Institute, not the Pakistani intelligence agency. Pandya was deposing in a local sessions court and said that Sen had dealings not just with local maoist networks but also international terrorist groups as well. He...

Nearly four years after the celebrated doctor and activist Binayak Sen was arrested on charges of aiding the banned Communist Party of India (maoist) and conspiring to overthrow the Indian state, the prosecution began its final arguments.The State of Chhattisgarh sought to prove that Piyush Guha, Binayak Sen and Narayan Sanyal had actively conspired to assist the urban operations of the CPI (maoist), a guerrilla party committed to the overthrow...

Polling for the second phase of panchayat elections began in Jharkhand on Monday morning amid tight security arrangements, an official in Ranchi said. The elections began at 7 am and voters were seen queueing at the polling booths despite the boycott call by maoists. More than 700 companies ofparamilitary troopers and state police have been deployed and three helicopters are doing air surveillance to ensure peaceful polling, the official said.In...