-The Hindu Over 1,700 custodial deaths recorded between 2001 and 2018 nationwide; only 26 policemen convicted The recent death of a father-son duo from Tamil Nadu, allegedly due to custodial violence, has sparked anger across India. While calls for a fair probe are growing, data show that between 2001 and 2018, only 26 policemen were convicted of custodial violence despite 1,727 such deaths being recorded in India. As most such deaths were attributed...

-The Hindu There is a collective culpability in the social crime during the lockdown — of the dispossession of India’s working poor The traumatic months of the national lockdown lay bare many troubling truths about the profound estrangement of people of privilege from the working poor. They reveal a society in which the privileged are extraordinarily comfortable with inequality, and wanting in elementary empathy and solidarity. They confirm that the veneer of...

-The Hindu Despite being specialists, they are relegated to the margins The Central Board of Direct Taxation (CBDT), a wing of the Ministry of Finance, has initiated disciplinary proceedings against some Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officers for a report they submitted to the government recently. The officers are not corrupt, nor did they abuse any Minister or any functionary of the government. So, what was their crime? A group of 50 IRS officers...

-The Indian Express A few people are attempting novel ways of defrauding innocents using information and technology. Money is being siphoned off using fake accounts and exploiting vulnerabilities of various applications. The COVID-19 outbreak presents a global challenge not just for the medical fraternity and society, but for law enforcement agencies also. Cyber crime, like a pandemic, knows no state borders. A few people are attempting novel ways of defrauding innocents using...

-The Hindu Serious efforts must be made to deter sex selective abortion and infanticide Few things cast a long shadow on human failing as much as sex selection does. To choose on the basis of gender and eliminate new life if the gender is not ‘favourable’ can easily be among humanity’s worst moments. Last week’s case of infanticide in Tamil Nadu’s Usilampatti, historically notorious for its crude methods of killing female babies,...