-PTI The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on Wednesday issued notices to Uttar Pradesh Police in connection with an alleged case of police atrocity in Allahabad. The Commission sought a report from Director General of Police (UP) and Senior Superintendent of Police (Allahabad) within four weeks. According to report, the NHRC spokesperson said, a constable gave a severe beating to a fruit vendor when he expressed his inability to pay a bribe of...

-The Indian Express The arc of history may finally be bending towards justice for the victims of communal violence that gripped Gujarat in 2002. Thirty-two people, including Maya Kodnani, formerly women and child development minister in the Narendra Modi government, and Babu Bajrangi, a Bajrang Dal leader, were convicted by a special court in Gujarat for their roles in the Naroda Patiya massacre in Ahmedabad. This is the first time, after exhaustive...

-The Hindu The conviction by a Gujarat court of BJP legislator Maya Kodnani and Bajrang Dal leader Babu Bajrangi along with 30 others for their role in the Naroda Patia massacre is the strongest judicial affirmation yet that large-scale communal violence is almost always a product of pre-meditated political planning and calculation. An estimated 95 Muslims, many of them hapless women and children, were hacked to death in Naroda, a minority...

-The Times of India KOLKATA: Call it fuel austerity. For the first time, the principal secretaries of 18 departments of the state government — including chief secretary Samar Ghosh — will tour five districts in a bus rather than hired cars. This will not only save a huge amount of fuel cost, the government won't have to pay for the accommodation of the drivers and other related expenses. The secretaries will not,...

-The Hindustan Times With security forces under pressure to ensure that civilians do not get caught in cross-fire in the Red Corridor, Maoists have started deploying members of the Jan Militia in plains clothes as human shields during attacks on the forces. Home Ministry officials said forces fighting naxals were being advised to account for this strategy in its operations. The naxal change in strategy comes after the June 28 encounter between...