Expressing shock over awarding of life sentence to rights activist Binayak Sen on charges of sedition, over 80 intellectuals including Noam Chomsky today demanded that his appeal be heard "expeditiously" with "enlightened reason" and sought his immediate release on bail. They claimed that Sen never resorted to violence or incited anyone else to do so. On the contrary, as a doctor and a human rights activist he stood up in defence...

Maoist leader was himself charged with sedition only as an after-thought Narayan Sanyal is a 74-year-old man with white hair parted to one side and fibromatosis in both hands. His arrest memo notes that he wears dentures, has spots on his body and smokes cigarettes. “My health is not going well, arthritis is a new thing catching up, age is telling,” he writes in a letter addressed to a ‘Dear...

Two months after the Commonwealth Games (CWG) ended amid allegations of major financial wrongdoings, the CBI Friday rAided Organising Committee chairman Suresh Kalmadi's homes in New Delhi and Pune and the Games office here. The Central Bureau of Investigation sAid teams of officers searched Kalmadi's residences and that of an Aide also in Pune. 'The rAids began early morning today. A total of four locations were rAided in Delhi and Pune. We...

In an almost identical case, the accused was given a total of 11 years in jail A couple of years for Union Carbide bosses and a life sentence for Sen: Arundhati Roy Scandalous, says Justice Rajinder Sachar As a crush of lawyers, reporters and policemen awaited the sentencing of Dr. Binayak Sen, Pijush Guha, and Narayan Sanyal on the ground floor of the Raipur Sessions Court, an almost identical case was under way...

Former Congress parliament member Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy Wednesday continued his 48-hour hunger strike, demanding the Andhra Pradesh government to come to the rescue of farmers who lost their crops in the recent unseasonal rains. For the second day, the son of late chief minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy remained seated with his supporters on the huge dais on the bank of Krishna river. Thousands of farmers and his supporters have joined in the...