Why were two tribals and the Essar group framed by the Chhattisgarh police? Why are Soni Sori and Linga Kodopi being systematically silenced? This chilling story of one family reveals more about India's Naxal crisis than any official document can. AS I sit to write this, at 12.20 pm on 4 October 2011, an SMS pops up on my phone: “Soni Sori has been arrested by the Delhi Crime Branch.” The...

-The Hindu   The former Director-General of Police of Gujarat, Julio Francis Ribeiro, on Thursday condemned the arrest of suspended Gujarat cadre IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt, who took on Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi for his alleged role in the 2002 post-Godhra riots. “I condemn the action of the Modi government arresting him and doing something unconscionable which is not within the limits of morality,” Mr. Ribeiro told a press conference organised by...

-The Economic Times   The Supreme Court on Wednesday sought to know if the Centre and the CBI were on the same page on the prosecution of the 2G scam accused, given law minister Salman Khurshid's reported statement that investor sentiment would be hurt if courts ordered the arrests of business persons.  A bench of Justices GS Singhvi and HL Dattu said the statement implied that the SC wanted to keep businessmen in...

PALNAR/SAMELI (DANTEWADA): They sat watching cartoons on TV a day after their mother was arrested in faraway Delhi on charges of acting as a conduit/courier for Maoists.  While adivasi school teacher Soni Sori faces police interrogation in Chhattisgarh for her role in an alleged pay off by Essar group to Maoists, her children, Muskaan (12), Deependera (10) and Amrita (6) are at their uncle Ramdev's house in Palnar village for a...

Shri Ram Sena activist held for brutal assault Senior lawyer and Team Anna member Prashant Bhushan was violently attacked by activists of the Shri Ram Sena and a previously unknown outfit, Bhagat Singh Kranti Sena, in his chamber located opposite the heavily guarded Supreme Court premises on Bhagwan Dass Road here on Wednesday. The organisations claimed that the assault was in retaliation for his recent statement on Jammu and Kashmir, purportedly...