In what the CBI says could be the “tip of an iceberg”, the agency has found at least 1,100 cases of allegedly fraudulent refund checks issued by the Income Tax department that has resulted in the illegal withdrawal of more than Rs 6 crore over the last three months. The CBI has arrested two persons, including an accountant: Pankaj Kumar Gupta and Amit Kumar Sharma. Both, allegedly in league with IT...

Between March 10 and March 17 this year, troopers of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), the CRPF's special Combat Battalion for Resolute Action (CoBRA), and the Chhattisgarh Police's Special Task Force entered Abujmard: a 6,000 sq.km expanse of uncharted forest described, by some, as a liberated territory controlled by guerilla forces of the Communist Party of India (Maoist). Security forces have arrested 13 villagers suspected of belonging to the banned...

An ongoing hearing before a constitutional bench of the Supreme Court, looking into media coverage of sub-judice cases, has had its scope expanded to include coverage of criminal investigations and television shows containing sex and violence. The court intends to examine questions related to criminal investigations, including raids, questioning and arrests by police officials. If the court does rule adversely, then crime reporting may no longer be the same and late-night...

In a shocking incident, a “pradhan” (village panchayat chief) and his supporters allegedly stuffed human excreta into the mouth of a Dalit youth in Uttar Pradesh’s Lalitpur district. According to a complaint registered with the police, the culprits, residents of Mailwara Khurd village in the district, also thrashed the youth and threatened him with dire consequences if he dared to approach the police. Police sources said that the youth had approached Chaliraja,...

Maoist leader Kishan is dead but he has left behind a “ghost village” that even the new Bengal government has been unable to breathe back to life. The story of Salpatra, a village of mostly Muslim families near Jhargram town, is not one of usual black-and-white administrative inaction but of how acts of unspeakable brutality and an element of political mistrust can keep empty an entire village not more than 150km...