A confidential report by a Supreme Court-appointed lawyer has contradicted the special investigation team’s (SIT) findings on two crucial aspects to decide the role of Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi and top police officials in the 2002 Gulbarg Society massacre case. Raju Ramachandran, amicus curiae (friend of the court), has in his report found “no clinching evidence” to dispute the presence of suspended IPS officer Sanjeev Bhatt at Modi’s Residence...

In the past week the media has been reporting that the SIT has filed a closure report that gives a “clean chit” to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on the grounds that there is no prosecutable evidence against him. However, Tehelka has now scooped amicus curiae Raju Ramachandran’s explosive confidential report that had told the Supreme Court that Modi should be chargesheeted and prosecuted for serious criminal offences like promoting religious...

Liquor baron Ponty Chadha’s mercurial rise is all ‘Maya’ A reclusive liquor baron may seem like an anomaly in these never-ending good times. But Gurdeep Singh Chadha—better known by the moniker Ponty Chadha—fits the bill. Often called “Mayawati’s financier”, the 57-year-old Ponty has been making large (if silent) waves for the political patronage he enjoys in Uttar Pradesh. Any bottle of liquor sold in India’s most populous state goes through his...

The Gujarat Congress Legislature Party has launched a scathing attack on R.K. Raghavan, chairman of the Supreme Court–appointed Special Investigation Team, probing some of the gruesome 2002 Gujarat communal riot massacres. The Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, Shaktisinh Gohil, said his party took strong exception to the style of functioning of Mr. Raghavan, who he alleged “blatantly tried to protect Mr. Modi and other accused.” The CLP meeting was held...

—PTI A woman cannot be denied her right to Residence in the house of her in-laws or husband under the law against domestic violence on mere allegation that she is having an extra-marital affair, a Delhi court has observed. “Simply because the petition for divorce is filed against the spouse and the husband alleges that his wife has relations with another person, the wife does not become disentitled to right of Residence,...