-The Economic Times The Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) has concluded in its final report that it would not amount to an offence even if Gujarat chief ministerNarendra Modi hypothetically did say something about 'allowing Hindus to vent their anger' in a meeting with top police officers after the Godhra carnage in 2002. That is an appalling conclusion. If Modi did actually make that statement, it patently cannot be called...

-The Hindu The Supreme Court's ruling on the requirement of previous sanction to prosecute soldiers accused of committing crimes may have clarified matters as far as the legal provisions of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act are concerned but for the families of the five innocent men who were killed in a fake encounter at Pathribal, Jammu and Kashmir, in March 2000, it is still not clear whether or not they...

On March 25, 2000, the Army and the Jammu and Kashmir police claimed to have made a breakthrough, killing five men they described as Lashkar-e-Toiba militants in what they called an encounter in Pathribal. These militants, the Army said, had been involved in the massacre of 35 Sikhs in Chittisinghpora five days earlier when then US President Bill Clinton was on his way to India for an official visit. The Army...

This month a group of Dalit (or Untouchables, as they were formerly labelled) students organised a Beef Festival in Osmania University of Hyderabad. It was the festival to assert their culinary rights in public and make a political statement of dietary habits of Dalits and Muslims – by cooking and eating beef Biryani on campus. About 2000 students participated and although it started out well, the festival was disrupted and students...

Relates to February 28, 2002 killing of duo, whose bodies were later thrown into a fire All the surviving 109 accused in the Umta rioting case, in which two persons were killed during the post-Godhra communal riots, have been granted conditional acquittals by the Visnagar court. Mohammad Abdul Sheikh, a retired teacher, and Abdul Mansuri, were killed and later their bodies thrown into a fire during communal violence in Umta village in...