The office of the assistant stamp commissioner here today found Team Anna member Shanti Bhushan guilty of evading stamp duty in purchase of a bungalow in Allahabad’s posh Civil Lines, slapping him with a Rs 27 lakh fine and asking him to deposit Rs 1.32 crore in duty along with interest. Bhushan has been asked to pay the entire amount within a month. Bhushan said the order was “illegal”, and the stamp...

A Dantewada district court yesterday granted bail to D.V.C.S. Verma, the general manager of an Essar Steel plant, who was arrested last September in a case of alleged protection pay to Maoists. The court said investigators had not been able to provide any concrete evidence against the official. Chhattisgarh police had arrested Verma based on the statement of a local contractor, B.K. Lala, who was allegedly caught red-handed while paying Rs 15...

-PTI Ruling out any outside Regulation of the media, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday said the media in the country can itself take care of the 'ills' like paid news and urged it to reduce sensationalism in coverage. "I am very happy that the media of our country is by and large independent and alive... Ever since we have got independence, discussions have been going on in the country about the role...

The state government has been blamed for actively aiding and abetting the Adarsh housing society scam, in a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India, which was tabled in the legislative assembly on Friday. Accusing the state machinery of overlooking subversion of rules and Regulations by the society and granting unreasonable concessions, the CAG has termed the scam as a "failure in governance at all levels". Many officers,...

-Express News Service Branding the Adarsh scam a “classic example of the fence eating the crops” and “how a select and powerful elite could collude to subvert rules and Regulations for personal benefit” , the Comptroller and Auditor General has slammed the government and officials in its audit of the Adarsh Cooperative Housing Society. The report, that was tabled in the Assembly on Friday, called the entire Adarsh episode a remarkable case...