Maharashtra police on Tuesday raided the homes of prominent Left-wing activists in several states and arrested at least five of them for suspected Maoist links. Near simultaneous searches were carried out at the residences of prominent Telugu poet Varavara Rao in Hyderabad, activists Vernon Gonzalves and Arun Farreira in Mumbai, trade union activist Sudha Bhardwaj in Faridabad, and civil liberties activist Gautam Navalakha in New Delhi. Subsequently, Rao, Bhardwaj and Farreira were arrested. Although Navalakha was also arrested, the Delhi high court ordered police not to take him out of the national capital at least until Wednesday. According to unconfirmed reports, others whose residences were raided are Susan Abraham, Kranthi Tekula, Father Stan Swamy in Ranchi and Anand Teltumbde in Goa. The raids were carried out as part of a probe into the violence between Dalits and the upper caste Peshwas at Koregaon-Bhima village near Pune after an event called Elgar Parishad, or conclave, on December 31 last year. Here are their brief profiles:
Banerjee said she was doing so after consulting leaders of major opposition parties and following 'a favourable court order'.
'Whether or not Chandrashekhar Azad succeeds or fails electorally, he has already made democratic politics more accountable to Dalits.'
Even before Prime Minister Narendra Modi swept to power in 2014, Subramanian Swamy was agitating for Rajan's removal.
Extending support to agitating sanitation workers in the city, Rahul Gandhi on Friday attacked the Centre and the Delhi government.
The former Naval chief said that the idea of nationalism is not restricted only to the military and its men and that booking students under such a law was 'ridiculous'.
The sexual assault on a 3-and-half-year-old girl student at a school has been confirmed by doctors, as police on Wednesday intensified the probe into the horrific incident which evoked protest from parents.
Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia wondered why the MCDs were not seeking Rs 1,600 crore owed to them by Delhi Development Authority.
Prasanna Zore/ Rediff.com talk to members of the Patel community to find out why they are dissatisfied with the state of affairs.
'People are beaten at the slightest provocation, paraded completely naked and then tortured. Did you know the number of prison deaths is the highest in Maharashtra? The one year I was in jail, 98 prisoners died.' 'The judges did warn the jail authorities, but they didn't care. They even violated the high court's order regarding my treatment. One judge asked my lawyer: "Can I go and implement my orders there?"' Professor G N Saibaba, who is 90 per cent handicapped, speaks of his ordeal in a Nagpur jail after being arrested for protesting against the Centre's anti-Naxal and anti-Adivasi campaign.
The incident took place at Bhatindi on Saturday morning when the man, hailing from Mendhar in Poonch district, drove at a high speed and banged his car against the main gate, they said.
Railway Minister Mallikarjun Kharge announced an ex-gratia payment of Rs 5 lakh to the next of kin of those killed in the train mishap in Bihar's Khagaria district and ordered an inquiry into it.
How the Tamil Nadu police bungled the brutal gangrape of a differently-abled teenager and the family's fight for justice.
Scattered incidents of violence, including torching of buses and clashes, occurred and 1,600 people were arrested during the 12-hour bandh.
The two-day rally will be one of the largest congregations of farmers in Delhi, the AIKSCC has claimed.
In the absence of the over-arching 'Jaya charisma', EPS has to convince the AIADMK's traditional constituencies, including those in his western districts, that his leadership would stand up against the BJP-led Centre even in a post-poll scenario, a la Jayalalithaa, and would not yield as much as party founder MGR had done, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
A students-versus-vice chancellor battle has thrown the Madurai Kamaraj University into a flux, finds A Ganesh Nadar.
People poured their wrath on Mussoorie MLA Ganesh Joshi for showing cruelty to the animal.
Anti-nuclear activist S P Udayakumar, who has been called a threat to the economic security of India by the Intelligence Bureau, speaks to A Ganesh Nadar.
Security forces have been deployed in strength in sensitive and vulnerable areas to maintain law and order.
Kashmir was indeed in need of a messiah that summer; 70 per cent of its population aged below 31 were up in arms against the Indian State. Every nook and corner of the land brought forth stories of youngsters with crushed bodies and an unfaltering spirit.
Vaihayasi Pande Daniel reports on all the action that unfolded at the NIA court hearing the 2008 Malegaon blast case.
The coach of Brazil's national swimming team says China's Olympic champion Sun Yang tried to elbow and kick a female swimmer.
'Dalits are not going to vote for the BJP in 2019.'
The houses of a sitting and a former MLA, both Dalits, were set afire by a violent mob.
He is, at the closing of 2018, a man quite different from the Peter Mukerjea who entered judicial custody three-and-a-half years ago. He is a man not yet convicted of a crime, but already suffering for it, like the hundreds that enter these courts every day and the thousands Peter shares jail space with in a central Mumbai prison.
The Trinamool government, which cashed in on the Nandigram protests in West Bengal politics, has not yet given the Central Bureau of Investigation the sanction to prosecute five police officers involved in the 2007 police firing which killed 14 villagers.
While he has plenty of critics at home, Rajan is a favourite among foreign investors and has been credited for bringing inflation under control.
Situation in Jammu was "tense" on Friday as Sikh youth defied prohibitory orders and held protests in various areas as part of a three-day old agitation which is spreading and saw one more policeman being stabbed and his AK rifle taken away.
'If the missing people really had any contact with IS, it would be dangerous.' 'Majority of Muslims do not approve of this.'
Novak Djokovic reasserted his rule over the hard-courts of Melbourne Park
'The BJP should avoid escalating every local issue and minor provocation into a national crisis and claiming a 'holier than thou' monopoly on patriotism.' 'And the Opposition should avoid paying the government back in the same coin by crying wolf about intolerance at the slightest provocation.'
.jpg)
The buck for the Gandamal tragedy should not stop with the school-in-charge Meena Kumari. She is just the face of a deeper malaise in Bihar, says Apoorvanand.
Yoga has been an intrinsic part of Indian ethos for over 5,000 years. While India is champing at the bit ahead of International Yoga Day that falls on Jun 21, Swati Snigdha Suar lists out the ten most famous yoga gurus of the country:
Joining hands with his arch rival, Lalu Prasad Yadav, paid off for the Bihar chief minister
Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday targeted Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani and Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya over the suicide by a Dalit scholar saying the ministers and the vice chancellor have "not acted fairly" that forced him to take the extreme step.
The question being silently telegraphed around the court room was: When did this happen? Wasn't this trial about Indrani murdering her daughter to prevent her from marrying Rahul Mukerjea, her husband Peter Mukerjea's son from his first marriage?
Saudi club Al-Hilal have furiously demanded a formal probe into the appointment of the referees for the Asian Champions League final, which they lost 1-0 on aggregate to Australia's Western Sydney Wanderers last weekend.
More than the traditional Dravidian political rivalry that's now on display, it's boiling down to father-son one-upmanship within the DMK, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
'Bangladesh is a country of immensely organised terror outfits.' 'His murder has left a deep scar. Why, why, why, my mind asks me. How could this happen to my Avijit?' asks Professor Ajoy Roy.
