-The Indian Express Asian Games gold medalist Pinki Pramanik, arrested after a woman charged that the athlete was a male and had raped her, was granted bail by a court in North 24 Parganas district after spending 25 days in judicial custody on Tuesday. The bail was granted by the Barasat court to Pramanik, whose chromosome pattern test report to determine her gender was received by the SSKM Hospital on Monday. Pramanik was arrested on...

-The Hindu The Calcutta High Court on Friday directed the West Bengal government to submit an affidavit within two weeks in response to a petition on the issue of athlete Pinki Pramanik’s mistreatment by the police. Pramanik’s gender has come into question following allegations of rape against her. A Division Bench comprising Justices J. N. Patel and Justice Sambuddha Chakrabarti heard the matter. The court has also directed the State to produce...

-The Telegraph The latest statistics released by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) has revealed some disquieting data for Assam. According to the latest NCRB figures, the rate of violent crimes in Assam was the third highest in the country in 2011. Only Kerala and Delhi were ranked above Assam in first and second positions respectively. The NCRB in its report Crime in India 2011, released on June 31, has said that the...

-The Guardian  Use of Sodium Pentothal to secure confessions – classified by some as torture – still common in certain regions of India It is the sort of scene that belongs in a film noir, not a 21st-century democracy: an uncooperative suspect being injected with a dose of "truth serum" in an attempt to elicit a confession. But some detectives in India still swear by so-called narcoanalysis despite India's highest court ruling...

The railway ministry is helpless about the discomfort of railway passengers in reserved compartments who are outnumbered by passengers without tickets or with tickets meant for unreserved compartments   Last month, my friend’s daughter went on a trip to Corbett Park, which was organised by a Pune-based nature trail group. Although they had booked a Second Class (ordinary) reserved compartment, most of the 30-hour journey was spent in utter discomfort, with people...