-The Hindu     The killings of Mahendra Karma and his colleagues call not for retributive violence but for a deeper reflection on the discontent among the tribals of central India and their dispossession In the summer of 2006, I had a long conversation with Mahendra Karma, the Chhattisgarh Congress leader who was killed in a terror attack by the Naxalites last week. I was not alone - with me were five other members...

-PTI The Home Ministry has sought opinion of the state governments on the move to protect a threatened witness or any person involved in the justice system The government is mulling to introduce a witness protection programme based on best international models for guaranteeing anonymity to those who depose in courts against powerful accused in criminal cases. The Home Ministry has sought opinion of the state governments on the move to protect a...

-PTI The Supreme Court has held that a life convict cannot claim to have a right to be released after spending 14 years behind the bars. A bench of P Sathasivam and J S Khehar said that life imprisonment means imprisonment for whole life and only the President and the Governors can remit the sentence and allow the convict to be released. The bench, however, said that in those cases the government should...

-The Indian Express Kanpur: Vijai Kumari got bail in 1994. But it took two decades for her to leave Lucknow women's jail, as son Kanhaiya, born in prison, raised money for a lawyer and a bond Vijai Kumari named her son Kanhaiya, after Lord Krishna. It was on the suggestion of a doctor-like in the mythology about the Hindu god, he was born in jail. For the next two decades, as...

-The Hindu Kolkata: The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has taken suo motu cognisance of the death of a class III student at Basanti in West Bengal's South 24 Parganas district and sought a report from the State government. Bapi Joardar (10), a student of Nirdeshkhali Notunpara Sishu Siksha Kendra, died at the State-run SSKM hospital Friday morning after his schoolteacher allegedly banged his head against the wall...