The special court that sentenced 31 people for burning 33 Muslims to death in Sardarpura, Gujarat, did not find enough evidence to support the prosecution’s conspiracy theory. This was one of the reasons the defence argued successfully for life sentences for its clients, held guilty of murder and rioting. Principal judge S C Srivasatava’s 1,024-page judgment explained why seven incidents from 2002 — some of which the prosecution cited in 2008...

-The Pioneer   The imprisonment of top CPI(M) leader MV Jayarajan for six months by the Kerala High Court the other day for calling two judges nincompoops has led to reopening of debates in the State on the limits of the Judiciary’s authority to use the sword of contempt of court provisions against those who criticize it and its verdicts. A large section of lawyers in Kerala now wants the judges to stop...

The Gujarat government had sacked an employee in connection with the riot case that led to 31 life terms yesterday — not the three among the accused but one who became a key prosecution witness. It was police constable Munsaf Khan, who had not only identified several key accused in the Sardarpura massacre of 33 Muslims but exposed the rioter-police collusion. Khan’s victimisation partly mirrors that of another whistleblower policeman, IPS officer...

The special court that sentenced 31 people for burning 33 Muslims to death in Sardarpura, Gujarat, did not find enough evidence to support the prosecution’s conspiracy theory. This was one of the reasons the defence argued successfully for life sentences for its clients, held guilty of murder and rioting. Principal judge S C Srivasatava’s 1,024-page judgment explained why seven incidents from 2002 — some of which the prosecution cited in 2008...

-PTI CBI is probing the role of two senior BJP politicians in the mysterious death of RTI activist Shehla Masood in Bhopal and a new team of the agency is camping there to further investigate the matter. Sources in the agency said the probe is being looked into by a new team after the Bhopal unit could not make any headway in the case. The sources said names of two senior BJP leaders...