-The Indian Express Satara: Despite five women accusing author and activist Laxman Mane of rape and sexual harassment, police in Satara say they are finding it difficult to get evidence and witnesses in their investigation. Mane, a Padma Shri and winner of the Sahitya Akademi award, continues to be on the run, police said. Three employees of Shardabai Pawar Ashram Shala, a Jakatwadi-based residential school for underprivileged children, on Sunday accused Mane of...

-The Hindu MADPAL (SOUTH CHHATTISGARH): The Chhattisgarh police have killed two activists of the Salwa Judum, a government-backed militia to take on Naxalites, which the Supreme Court declared illegal and unconstitutional. A couple of eyewitnesses told The Hindu that the villagers, of the Muria Gond tribe, were "killed in cold blood by the police." A magisterial inquiry has been ordered into the incident, which has angered the residents of several villages in Bijapur...

-The Indian Express Raipur: Bastar saw a major development recently with thousands of tribals joining a rally organised by the CPI and Aadivasi Mahasabha last fortnight. Demanding implementation of the Schedule VI of the Constitution in Bastar, tribals began their padyatra from Chhattisgarh’s southernmost tip in Konta on March 1 and ended it at the division headquarters on March 15. They said that the administration always ignored their requirements and the...

-The Indian Express With the CBI making its first arrests in the Ishrat Jahan case, Ujjwala Nayudu and Rahul Tripathi look at past investigations, all of which have punctured holes in the Gujarat Police’s Encounter theory When were Ishrat Jahan and three others killed? Was it in a police Encounter on June 15, 2004, as the Gujarat Police’s records show, or a day earlier, on the evening of June 14, as subsequent...

-The Hindu State’s women’s policy draft includes amendments in treatment of transgenders Pune: Women and children in Maharashtra will now have the freedom to use any surname of their choice, the government has said in the draft of the State’s women’s policy released here on Friday. In another first, the draft also includes policy changes for the treatment of transgenders. The government has sought suggestions and recommendations from the citizens for the next two...