Despite heavy security arrangements, no witness turned up on Wednesday to depose before Justice Basudev Panigrahi Commission probing the 2007 communal riots in Orissa's Kandhamal district.
The central government on Wednesday got a helicopter to conduct surveillance in the riot-hit areas of Orissa as the Christian community expressed apprehension of violence during Christmas. Union Home Minister P Chidambaram spoke to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and asked him to take necessary steps for protecting the lives and property of the people.
Sixteen persons arrested in connection with the killing of an Orrisa State Armed Police constable and setting fire to a police station in state's Kandhamal district during communal riots last year, were acquitted by a local court in Phulbani due to lack of evidence.
A fast track court in Orissa convicted 13 people for arson and other crimes in cases of rioting in Orissa's Kandhamal district in 2008 and sent them to five years of imprisonment on Saturday, even as it let off 17 others for lack of evidence.
The male-female turnout gap was wide in Bihar and Jharkhand. While in Bihar, the male turnout was 52.42 percent, the female turnout was 61.58 percent.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday demanded tabling of the interim report of the judicial commission on Kandhamal violence in Orissa assembly even as the Christian community said there was no need of such a report at this stage.
Fresh arson broke out in riot-ravaged Kandhamal district on Monday after a lull of three weeks as eight houses of a particular community were set ablaze at villages. Miscreants set ablaze the houses though the police confirmed only one incident at Sujeli village under G Udaygiri police station area.
A report of the National People's Tribunal on the 2008 riots in Kandhamal, Orissa, is out. The report that runs into 197 pages points out that the brutality of the violence falls within the definition of 'torture' under international law, particularly the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
However, if there is any one aspect that is pan-Indian in all the incidents related to Hindu-Christian clashes it is religious conversions. Even in Kandhamal district, one of the major factors fuelling tensions is the conversion campaign of the evangelical groups. It is noteworthy that in a state like Orissa which enacted anti-conversion laws as back as in 1967, the Christian population in Kandhamal district alone has grown from 6 per cent in 1970 to 27 per cent in 2001
A fast track court on Monday sentenced 15 people to rigorous imprisonment for three years for their involvement in rioting and house burning incidents during the Kandhamal riot in 2008.
Sitting Bharatiya Janata Party Member of Legislative Assembly Manoj Pradhan was on Thursday sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for six years by a fast track court for a murder during the 2008 communal riots in Orissa's Kandhamal district. Fast track court-II judge C R Das convicted Pradhan for the murder of Bikram Nayak, a Christian from Budedipada of Tiangia village under Raikia police station limits on August 26, 2008.
The situation in Orissa's Kandhamal district, which was hit by communal riots 3 years ago, has vastly changed and central forces have been withdrawn from there, the Centre told the Supreme Court on Monday. "The situation has vastly changed," Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium told the apex court which is monitoring the situation in the district ever since it was affected by the riots following the killing of Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati.
Kandhamal district in Orissa had witnessed widespread violence after the murder of Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati and four of his aides at his ashram on August 23, 2008.
Five months after a Catholic nun was allegedly gangraped in Kandhamal, the Orissa police filed a chargesheet on Thursday in the case on the eve of the expiry of stipulated time frame of 120 days.
A person was killed and three injured in a bomb explosion at a rehabilitation centre in Kandhamal district today, the police said.
The Missionaries of Charity has been assured by the Orissa government of strong measures being taken in troubled Kandhamal district, its Superior General, Sister Nirmala said on Tuesday.
The Orissa government on Thursday informed the Supreme Court that the situation in Kandhamal district of Orissa, where violence broke out following the murder of Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Swami Laxmananad Saraswati on August 24, has considerably improved.According to the affidavit of the state government, VHP leader Praveen Togadia was not permitted to take out a procession with the ashes of the slain Swami on September 7. There has been no fresh violence.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed the Orissa government to place its report, relating to steps taken to protect the lives of people belonging to the Christian community in riot-hit Kandhamal district, by Thursday.The apex court also asked the state government to submit an affidavit on whether permission was granted to Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Praveen Togadia for his proposed yatra, carrying the ashes of slain leader Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati.
Appearing before Justice Basudev Panigrahi Commission of Enquiry, two top officials of the state government on Wednesday said that 2007 communal riot in Odisha's Kandhamal district was 'pre-planned.'
In the first conviction ten months after riots rocked the Kandhamal district in Orissa, a tribal leader has been sentenced to two years' imprisonment by a local court in Phulbani on charge of setting ablaze a house of a man belonging to a minority community.
The trial of a case involving rape of a Christian nun allegedly by religious fanatics during the 2008 Kandhamal riots in Orissa was stayed on Monday by the Supreme Court on a plea by the victim challenging the prosecution's failure to cross-examine a sub-divisional magistrate.
Serial blasts rocked relief camps in the riot-hit Kandhamal district triggering panic among the inmates living in those shelters since violence erupted in the area, but no casualty was reported. The bombs, suspected to be hand-made ones of low intensity, went off in Nuagaon, Mahasinghi village and Baliguda town at 7 pm, 8 pm and 9 pm respectively on Sunday night, the police said on Monday.
Seven persons have been sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for two years by two fast-track courts in Phulbani for their involvement in the communal riots in Kandhamal district in 2008.Twenty one others were acquitted by the fast track courts, which disposed off five cases of rioting, violence and house burning in the aftermath of the killing of Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Laxmanananda Saraswati in August, 2008.
A fast track court acquitted Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Manoj Pradhan, on Thursday, due to lack of evidence in one of the five cases against him during last year's communal violence in Orissa's Kandhamal district.
According to the latest assessment, 800 houses were damaged in the violence since December 24 with 580 families, including 336 below the poverty line, affected.
Over 60 per cent voter turnout was recorded on Monday in 49 constituencies in six states and two Union territories in the fifth phase of Lok Sabha elections, with Baramulla in Jammu and Kashmir recording its highest-ever voting percentage.
The Supreme Court has set aside the bail granted to Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Manoj Kumar Pradhan, sentenced to seven years RI for his role in communal riots in Orissa's Kandhamal district where members of the Christian community were targeted.
Demanding immediate withdrawal of the permission given to a diplomatic delegation from European Union to visit Orissa's riot-hit Kandhamal, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad on Sunday said the trip could trigger fresh tension in the district."The proposed visit of the EU delegation should be cancelled forthwith and the Orissa government must withdraw the permission granted for the purpose," said VHP state secretary Gouri Kumar Rath.
Eight persons, including a Maoist leader, were sentenced to rigorous life imprisonment on Thursday by a court in Kandhamal district for the murder of senior Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Laxmanananda Saraswati and four others in 2008 that triggered communal violence leaving 37 dead.
A local court on Wednesday sentenced eight persons to four-year rigorous imprisonment,while acquitting six others, including a BJP legislator, in a case of setting ablaze houses during last year's communal violence in Kandhamal district of Orissa.
Talks on pre-poll alliance were being held between the ruling Biju Janata Dal and the opposition BJP for the past few days.
'Even if they try to silence us, even if they kill so many of us, we won't give up.' 'We won't give up doing the good work we are doing for society.' 'Because we love this country.'
Three battalions of the Border Security Force comprising more than 3,000 personnel will move across the border from Odisha to Chhattisgarh and an equal number of Indo-Tibetan Border Police units will further move into the Naxal stronghold of Abujhmad as part of a strategy to intensify anti-Maoist operations in their last bastions, official sources said.
The investigating agency has also collected the burnt remnants of Antov and Bidenov from a cremation ground near Rayagada, according to an official statement.
'Somebody strong is playing a game behind the violence in Manipur.' 'It is a pre-planned attack on churches, Christian organisations and Christians.'
This is the second death of Russian lawmakers within a week in the same Odisha hotel.
Both the incidents occurred in Maoist affected Kandhamal district where the red rebels have asked the people to boycott the elections.
'It is very likely to move nearly northwards for next few hour and recurve slowly north-northeastwards along Narsapur, Yanam, Kakinada, Tuni and Visakhapatnam coasts during noon to evening on Wednesday and emerge into west central Bay of Bengal off North Andhra Pradesh coasts by night,' the India Meteorological Department said in its national bulletin.
The cyclonic storm is likely to move nearly westwards and cross north Andhra Pradesh-south Odisha coasts between Kalingapatnam and Gopalpur around Sunday evening, the Cyclone Warning Division of the IMD said.
The mercury in Delhi, which recorded its hottest day of the year so far at 45.6 degrees Celsius on Sunday, came down to 42.4 degrees Celsius, according to the India meteorological department.
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