Based on the orders of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), the Puducherry government has paid Rs. 3 lakh to the wife of an undertrial prisoner – Silvaraj alias Siva – who died on August 15, 2009 in the Central prison at Kalapet (Puducherry) when he was assaulted by five inmates. The NHRC, after considering various reports, including the post-mortem and conclusions of magisterial inquiry, found that Silvaraj was admitted to...

-The Times of India Instead of creating happiness in the lives of farmers in adjacent villages, Adani power corporation has rendered them landless as their agricultural land is forcibly acquired by the district administration for requirement of the thermal power company. Once affluent, these farmers have now come below poverty line. Adani Thermal Power Corporation has acquired agricultural land in and around it's thermal power plant near Tiroda (Gondia). The state government gave...

Taking serious note of the incident where an RTI applicant, Sanjay Bhalika, was asked to pay Rs 1.3 lakh as photocopying charges for an RTI reply by an Adharwadi Jail official, the state inspector-general of police (prisons) has directed officials to inquire into the matter.  A source said two senior officers from the jail administration would look into Bhalika's allegation. The inquiry was ordered following media reports on the incident.  Speaking to...

A bidi-smoking petty contractor who suddenly bought two Boleros and a former newspaper hawker who zipped about Chhattisgarh’s jungles in a Toyota may hold the key to a question bugging the custodians of national security. What the police want to know is: are business houses paying off the Maoists to be able to operate deep inside central India’s mineral-rich guerrilla zones? Chhattisgarh police say that when contractor B.K. Lala’s bank account suddenly...

Number of girls who disappeared from Bengal last year — 3,000. Over 5,000 children went missing in 2010. But the state doesn’t seem to be bothered. “During an inquiry we found that Bengal is yet to set up anti-trafficking cells in districts to evolve a foolproof mechanism for combating trafficking. The Police administration does not seem concerned even though trafficking of girls is on the rise,” said a CBI official attached to...