'We were sure our appeal would succeed. We knew we could break down the evidence and show it was hollow.'
Ten people including three police commandos were killed on Thursday in two separate attacks by Maoists in Maharashtra and Bihar. The three commandos, who were jawans of C-60 Commando Force, lost their lives in a landmine blast triggered by Maoists in a forest area in Gadchiroli on Maharashtra border adjoining Chhattisgarh in the first major attack in the area in several months, local police control room sources said.
'Every report I filed for Rediff.com on the professor's incarceration, would leave me wondering for days, at the depth of the State's malevolence towards this disabled professor, and his equally deep capacity to tolerate it,' recalls Jyoti Punwani.' 'No country in the world would do what our country was doing to someone so helpless.'
Truck drivers protesting against a provision in the new penal law on hit-and-run road accidents, called off their strike in Nashik district of Maharashtra on Tuesday after the local authorities assured to look into their demands.
Saibaba, who was on bail till December 31, gave himself up to jail authorities on Friday night, prison sources said on Saturday.
'It was like an 'agni pariksha' for me. I had to go through a test by fire twice'
Maoists on Thursday killed 17 policemen when they ambushed a police patrol in the dense forests of Gadchiroli district in Maharashtra. The daring attack occurred when a police party of nearly 40 personnel came under heavy fire from 150-200 Maoists at approximately 1 pm near Laheri police station of the district, when it was returning after undertaking search operations, following an intelligence input that Maoists had assembled in the area.
The Nagpur bench of the Bombay high court on Tuesday refused bail to advocate Surendra Gadling in connection with a 2016 Surjagarh iron ore mine arson case, noting that prima facie the accusations against him are true.
'The wrong person had to spend a banvaas of 14 years on a wrong charge.'
The Naxalites carrying sophisticated weapons, including AK-47 rifles, targeted the two unarmed cops when they had just reported for duty at the mobile check-post on the inter-state border, an area that has witnessed a Maoist attack after a long time, they said.
Police claimed to have killed "five or six" naxalites, including a deputy commander, in an encounter in Gadchiroli district and recovered from their possession arms, ammunition and naxal literature.
The Maharashtra government, reeling under criticism over handling of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, has received another jolt with the widow of former Anti-Terrorism Squad chief Hemant Karkare saying the state police force is ill-equipped to fight terrorists.
The SC refused to stay a criminal contempt notice issued by the Bombay HC against author Arundhati Roy for an article questioning the incarceration of DU professor G N Saibaba.
The man, Avinash Waghmare, was drunk and made the call on Saturday to "teach a lesson" to the owner of the hotel for allegedly overcharging him for a bottle of water, a senior police officer said on Sunday.
Heavy rains over a span of few hours flooded many parts of Nagpur city, following which more than 400 people, including 70 students from a school for the speech and hearing-impaired, were rescued, said Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Saturday.
This is not the first time the Nagpur Jail authorities are being accused of negligence towards their inmates.
A special NIA court here on Wednesday denied interim bail to activist Anand Teltumbde, an accused in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case, to visit his nonagenarian mother in wake of the death of his brother Milind Teltumbde, a top Naxal leader, in an encounter with security forces last month.
Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Tuesday said that some leaders often seen at agitations are a part of the Barsu refinery protests and they have inputs that a group trying to create disruptions in the state is also playing a role there to defame the state government.
Naxal activities are not limited to only remote areas of eastern Maharashtra but `urban naxalisation' is being seen in big cities of the state, Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar claimed on Thursday.
Naxals looted six automatic weapons -- two AK-47s and as many INSAS and self loading rifles -- of the deceased personnel.
Jyoti Punwani reports on the strange case of Prashant Rahi, MTech, journalist, activist, now in solitary confinement in a Maharashtra prison.
Thirteen teams of the National Disaster Response Force and three of the State Disaster Response Force were deployed in vulnerable districts of the state, a disaster management department report said.
Maharashtra Police on Thursday questioned Delhi University professor G N Saibaba for his alleged links with Maoists, the second time in three months.
"You have been extremely unfair to the accused, especially looking at his medical condition. If material witnesses have been examined, then there is no point in putting him in jail," the bench said to the police.
A village sarpanch was shot dead by a group of armed Naxals in Sironcha taluqa, the police said on Wednesday.
Saying that prison inmates do not cease to be human beings and can't be deprived of the fundamental right to life, the Bombay High Court on Thursday directed the Maharashtra government to transfer alleged Maoist leader Nirmala Uppuganti from jail to a hospice for palliative care on account of her terminal cancer.
'After exiting jail, I thought some of my IIM-A classmates would contact me. None did.' 'The case indeed scared people, which perhaps was the objective of the State.'
A special National Investigation Agency court in Mumbai has allowed activist Anand Teltumbde, an accused in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case, to have a telephonic conversation with his mother for five minutes in the wake of the death of his brother Milind Teltumbde, a top Naxal leader, in an encounter with security forces last week.
'Naxals, when they encountered our commandos on Sunday morning, fired first.' 'We gave them warnings to surrender, but they continued firing.' 'Ultimately, our commandos responded in self-defence and that resulted in the death of 37 Naxals.'
'He did not do anything wrong. There was no crime and no evidence'
Of the 37 bodies recovered so far, 16 have been identified, police said, adding that the identified Naxals carried a combined reward of Rs 1.06 crore.
Two tribals were brutally murdered in full public glare and nearly a dozen others kidnapped by a group of Naxalites at a village near here in eastern Maharashtra today, police sources said.
The Bombay high court on Friday granted bail to scholar-activist Anand Teltumbde, arrested in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case.
Suspended Delhi University Professor G N Saibaba and five others were on Tuesday convicted by a sessions court for their links with the Maoists.
At least 15 Central Reserve Police Force personnel were on Tuesday killed in a landmine blast triggered by suspected Maoists in Pushtola district of Maharashtra. The troops were reportedly travelling in a bus and were going from Pushtola to Gatta for an operational duty when the blast took place, killing them on the spot, CRPF officials said. CRPF chief K Vijay Kumar is currently on a tour of Maharashtra and was in Gadchiroli area.
A day after a Naxal attack left 12 Central Reserve Police Force personnel dead and another 28 wounded in Gadchiroli, the Maharashtra government on Wednesday owed to give a "befitting reply" to the ultras and said the security forces will be equipped with best landmine detection technology.
The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear on Saturday Maharashtra's plea for a stay on the Bombay high court order acquitting G N Saibaba, after Solicitor General Tushar Mehta's persistent pitch that the acquittal was not on merit but for want of appropriate sanction to prosecute him under the anti-terror law UAPA.
He also said the Naxals were spreading in urban areas and were trying to mislead the people.
Naxalbari has some really good and unexpected twists and turns, observes Moumita Bhattacharjee.
Some of the letters exchanged between the arrested activists spoke of planning 'some big action' which would attract attention, Singh said.
