-AP The microfinance industry pursued a path of rapid business growth in recent years; two investigations now link it to debtor suicides   First they were stripped of their utensils, furniture, mobile phones, television sets, ration cards and heirloom gold jewellery. Then, some of them drank pesticide. One woman threw herself into a pond. Another jumped into a well with her children. Sometimes, the debt collectors watched nearby. More than 200 poor, debt-ridden residents of...

-The Indian Express The Lokayukta police today filed an FIR against former Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa in connection with an alleged case of cheating in a land allotment scam. A case of cheating and criminal conspiracy has been registered against him in the Karnataka Housing Board (KHB) sites allotment scam, Lokayukta police sources said. FIR was filed against the senior BJP leader under sections 420 (Cheating), 120 (b) (Criminal conspiracy) and...

Raising questions of credibility and independence, the state police today did not seek custody of the four Trinamool Congress supporters named in the FIR for the murders of a former CPM MLA and a CPM district committee member. This despite the fact that they were Booked under Sections 302 and 304 of IPC. The judge had to grant “judicial custody” to the four accused. Senior police officials said that the norm...

The Supreme Court today described the midnight crackdown on Baba Ramdev’s supporters at Ramlila Maidan last summer as a glaring example of the “trust deficit” between the government and the people, and blamed both the police and the Baba for neglecting the common man caught in the brick-batting between them.   The people who were “rudely” woken up at the maidan became the “ultimate sufferers” of the showdown in the dark between...

At a time when the Congress-led UPA government has been battling with Team Anna over a comprehensive anti-corruption legislation, the Central Information Commission (CIC) has taken on the government and the judiciary over the transparency issue saying not even a single public authority has been following disclosure norms.  Even six years after the implementation of the Right to Information Act 2005, the final appellate authority for the legislation feels that the...