'The Supreme Court has now demonstrated its capacity to right its own wrongs, and to place the rule of law above all else.'
'She had the courage to not cow down before the entire law and order apparatus, to remain sane and human despite inhuman suffering meted out to her and her family.'
Tamil Nadu now has India's lowest fertility rate - lower than Australia, Finland and Belgium - second best infant mortality and maternal mortality rate; records among the lowest crime rates against women and children; and has more factories and provides more industrial employment than any other Indian state.
A Special Investigation Team (SIT), to be headed by a deputy inspector general (DIG) of Gujarat Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS), will probe the case against activist Teesta Setalvad and former Indian Police Service officers R B Sreekumar and Sanjiv Bhatt who have been accused of abusing the process of law by fabricating evidence to frame innocent people in connection with the 2002 Gujarat communal riots, a senior official said on Sunday.
Observing that the trial court conducted proceedings with a "predetermined notion of conviction", a division bench of Justices AS Supehia and Vimal K Vyas quashed the CBI court's order sentencing Solanki and the six others to life imprisonment.
The Supreme Court is scheduled to resume hearing on Thursday a clutch of petitions challenging the remission granted to all 11 convicts in the Bilkis Bano gang-rape case and murder of seven of her family members during the 2002 Gujarat riots.
The 'black paper', titled '10 saal anyay kaal' also alleged that issues such as rising prices, unemployment, subversion of institutions and farmers' 'distress' had plagued the country.
It was this report by then CID boss Geetha Johri that blew the lid off the role played by several police officers of Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh in Sohrabuddin's encounter
Vanzara was granted bail in the encounter case involving Jahan and three others in February last year on condition that he will not enter Gujarat.
"Law is supposed to be a noble profession," the Supreme Court observed on Thursday, and voiced surprise over how can one of the convicts in the Bilkis Bano gang-rape case and murder of her family members during the 2002 Gujarat riots practise law after his conviction, the remission of his sentence notwithstanding.
Rupani claimed that the state government had taken 'prompt action' in the incident as all the main culprits were arrested the next day.
There are some convicts who are "more privileged", the Supreme Court said on Thursday while hearing pleas challenging the grant of remissions to 11 convicts in the Bilkis Bano gangrape case and the murder of seven of her family members during the 2002 Gujarat riots.
The Supreme Court on Monday fixed August 7 for the start of the final hearing on a batch of pleas challenging the remission granted last year to all the 11 convicts in the Bilkis Bano gang-rape case and murder of seven of her family members during the 2002 Gujarat riots.
The counsel of social activist Teesta Setalvad on Thursday told a sessions court in Ahmedabad that affidavits which the prosecution claims are false were signed by witnesses and submitted in different courts in the past.
It is a general rule not to convict anybody until the body has been found, the court said.
'...It is important for you to take a stand.' 'It is a sin to remain silent when the basic structure of the Constitution is being attacked.'
This is in view of the central government's decision to repeal Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA).
"Our preliminary probe (has) revealed authorities had marked that limit with a white strip outside the booth,and the press conference was outside that limit," said a senior officer of the Detection of Crime Branch of Ahmedabad's police, which initiated the investigation on Thursday.
The Supreme Court will hear on March 27 a batch of pleas challenging the remission of sentence of 11 convicts in the Bilkis Bano gang-rape case that also involves the killing of seven members of her family during the 2002 Gujarat riots.
Additional metropolitan magistrate MV Chauhan committed the case to the sessions court in Ahmedabad for trial against Setalvad, former state director general of police RB Sreekumar and ex-Indian Police Service officer Sanjiv Bhatt.
Eleven persons from Muslim community killed in violence in Naroda Gam area of Ahmedabad during the bandh call given by right-wing organisations a day after the Godhra train burning incident.
The BJP has been blaming Congress MLA Alpesh Thakor and his outfit Gujarat Kshatriya-Thakor Sena for the outbreak of violence against Hindi-speaking people in the state.
AAP leader and Delhi minister Atishi made the allegations against the agency at a press conference and called the entire probe a "scam" in itself.
Darshan Solanki, who hailed from Ahmedabad in Gujarat and was a first-year student of B Tech (Chemical) course at the IITB, allegedly died by suicide by jumping off the seventh floor of a hostel building located on the campus on February 12.
Four pistols, 28 live cartridges, two vehicles and seven police uniforms were seized from their possession, they said, adding one of the vehicles recovered was reportedly stolen from Delhi.
The court on Wednesday said that no witnesses accused Pandey of murdering and kidnapping of the victims.
The Enforcement Directorate has filed its first charge sheet in connection with its money laundering probe against Chinese smartphone maker Vivo-India and some others, official sources said on Thursday. The prosecution complaint was filed before the court of Special Judge Kiran Gupta in New Delhi on Wednesday under the criminal sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act and Vivo-India has been named an accused apart from those arrested in this case, the sources told PTI. The judge posted the matter for consideration on December 13.
A court in Ahmedabad on Sunday remanded social activist Teesta Setalvad and former state director general of police R B Sreekumar in police custody till July 2 in a case of fabricating evidence to frame innocent persons in connection with the 2002 Gujarat riots.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday deferred till July 11 the hearing on a batch of pleas challenging the remission granted last year to all the 11 convicts in the case of gang rape of Bilkis Bano and murder of her family members during the 2002 post-Godhra riots.
Gujarat's first woman Chief Minister Anandi Patel on Tuesday announced a 33 per cent reservation for women in the state police force.
The Central Bureau of Investigation has arrested Gujarat police officer G L Singhal in connection with the alleged fake encounter of 19-year old student Ishrat Jahan by a team of Ahmedabad crime branch officers in 2004.
The 35-year-old spokesperson of the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC underwent a heart surgery recently and was on a private visit to Jaipur, sources said.
With the passing of the amendment Bill, Gujarat becomes the first state in the country to make cow slaughter punishable with life term. Cow slaughter has also been made a non-bailable offence.
In Kerala, 95 out of 135 MLAs, accounting for 70 per cent, have declared criminal cases against themselves.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to constitute a special bench to hear a plea against the remission of sentence of 11 convicts in the Bilkis Bano gangrape case, which also involves the killing of seven members of her family during the 2002 Gujarat riots.
The Cyber Crime Cell of the Crime Branch arrested Hetarth Gohil, who was one of the probables called by Deccan Chargers team in the Season 3 of IPL.
Three persons were on Wednesday arrested in connection with the murder of a journalist at a newspaper office in Gujarat's Junagadh district with a police probe finding that dispute over money led to the crime.
A bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and justices PS Narasimha and JB Pardiwala assured Bano, represented through her lawyer Shobha Gupta, that the new bench will be formed at the earliest.
Gujarat has witnessed a steady increase in cases of kidnapping and molestation by juveniles, with 472 such cases registered in 2007. In 2007, a total of 102 cases of rape, 52 murders, 422 accidental deaths and 83 suicide deaths were registered against juveniles in the state. Sociologists say the reason for rise in rape and molestation cases among teenagers has a lot to do with what they see around them.
A former investigating officer in the Sohrabuddin fake encounter case has alleged that ex-Director General of Police P C Pande and chief of Gujarat Crime Investigation Department O P Mathur 'systematically' and 'concertedly' tried to compromise fair and impartial investigation into the 2005 Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case.
