Srilakshmi, the first woman IAS officer held on graft charges, wanted to continue as the CBI’s guest at a heritage mansion but was packed off to prison. The 52-year-old, whose three-day CBI remand had ended today, pleaded with the court to let her stay on at the CBI camp office in the palatial, Nizam-era Dilkhusha guesthouse. The court refused and the 1988 IAS topper was almost in tears as she arrived...
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Ishrat Jahan case: ‘Police handled post-encounter situation shoddily' by Manas Dasgupta
The report of the Gujarat High Court-appointed Special Investigation Team that probed the Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case, make it clear that the so-called “encounter specialists” of the Gujarat police handled the post-encounter situation very shoddily. Perhaps driven by over-confidence, or may be lack of experience then, the police did not bother much to cover their footprints and the blunders it left behind made it easy for the investigating officers to...
More »Musings on the media in the dock by Sashi Kumar
The fourth pillar of democracy would cease to be free if it is made accountable to one or more of the other pillars. Much of the media, says Justice Markandey Katju, the new Chairman of the Press Council of India, is of very poor intellectual level. That, even for a former judge, would be being judgmental — except that sections of the media concerned seem hell-bent on proving him right. Setting...
More »Hint of motive on funeral day by Alamgir Hossain & Suman K Shrivastava
Sister Valsa John may have incurred the wrath of a group of local criminals for seeking justice for a raped tribal girl and that may have been the immediate provocation for her brutal murder on Tuesday. According to a senior Pakur district official, Valsa had sought an appointment with Pakur deputy commissioner after the Amrapara police refused to lodge an FIR against the alleged rapists a couple of days back. Deputy commissioner...
More »PILs can't be based solely on RTI information: SC by Dhananjay Mahapatra
Information obtained under Right To Information Act is increasingly becoming the basis of public interest petitions seeking judicial redress of grievances. The Supreme Court on Monday disapproved of this modus operandi and said from now, it would not entertain PILs solely based on RTI information. "Petitioners banking on information obtained through RTI Act must approach the concerned ministry, bring the facts to its notice and demand justice. If the ministry does...
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