With the Central Bureau of Investigation holding as "fake" the 2004 encounter of Ishrat Jahan in Gujarat, the Congress on Wednesday launched a scathing attack on Narendra Modi saying "truth speaks for itself from the rooftop" and claimed that the chief minister's role in such encounters will also be exposed.
Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab, the lone terrorist arrested for his involvement in the Mumbai terror strikes, was on Monday remanded to police custody till February 13 for murdering the captain of a Gujarat-based fishing vessel. Kasab, whose police custody in the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus firing case ended today, has been booked in 12 cases by the city police and is in judicial custody in five other cases. When asked by the magistrate, Kasab said he had no complaints.
'How can one bring jihad into a relationship? How can one be restricted on the grounds of religion in marital things?'
RJD leader Devendra Prasad Yadav demanded that a CBI investigation be initiated and a case of murder be registered against Narendra Modi.
The Supreme Court on Monday modified its order and exempted Bharatiya Janata Party General Secretary and Gujarat Member of Legislative Assembly Amit Shah from appearing on alternate Saturdays before the Central Bureau of Investigation in connection with the Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter case.
'When you have a village which is controlled by the BJP, who are the people likely to perpetrate the attack?'
Purists may balk at this level of public discourse, but no one can deny its ability to marshal opinion.
Barack Obama is "very excited" that he will be the first United States President to be honoured as the chief guest at India's Republic Day celebrations, Secretary of State John Kerry said on Sunday.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday courted controversy after he retweeted a music director's contentious tweet taking potshots at Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
'The operation was planned in a manner so as not to alert the terrorists.' 'Every precaution was taken to keep it low-key so as not to alert the terrorists and surprise them and arrest them.'
Uttam Ghosh offers his take on the unfortunate tragedy where our brave soldiers die every week to prevent more lethal attacks on the nation.
Those arrested have been booked under IPC section 302 (murder) and the sections pertaining to rioting.
Amidst barbs flying back and forth, Rediff.com's Aslam Hunani lists all that you need to know about the fourth phase of the UP assembly elections, which will take place on February 23.
The wife of Moulana Nasirrudin, who is in the custody of the Gujarat police in connection with the Haren Pandya murder case, has written to the Andhra Pradesh high court seeking to produce her son Jabir before the court. In a letter written to the Andhra Pradesh high court, Tasneem has stated that her son has been missing since the past two days.
The old city of Hyderabad was tense on Wednesday after a police team comprising nearly 50 persons raided the house of Moulana Nasiruddin, who is in custody of the Gujarat police, allegedly for the murder of former Home Minister Haren Pandya.
Amid reports that her appointment as secretary in-charge of Punjab has left the Congress embarrassed, Kumari met Sonia and accused the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Aam Aadmi Party and the Shiromani Akali Dal of unnecessarily making an issue out of a 'non-issue'.
Eleven persons were sentenced to life imprisonment by a special court in Mumbai on Monday for their involvement in the Bilkis Bano gang-rape and murders that took place during the communal violence in Gujarat in 2002. The twelfth convict in the case, Somabhai Gori, a police official who was found guilty for shielding the offenders, has been sentenced to three years' rigorous imprisonment. On January 18, the court convicted the 12 and acquitted seven for lack of evidence.
'The BJP's constitution promises allegiance to India's secularism and socialism.' 'This is the oath that it makes all its members sign,' observes Aakar Patel.
Haren Pandya's wife said the CBI neither recorded her side of the story nor asked her to appear before the POTA court.
Special police teams have been formed to trace the assailants who hacked to death Bharatiya Janata Party's Tamil Nadu unit general secretary V Ramesh, even as a state-wide bandh has been called by the party on July 22 to protest the murder.
'There is a discomfort among many of us at the fact that the Republic is not more Hindu than it could or should be.' 'This discomfort is producing laws such as the one we now have in Gujarat,' says Aakar Patel.
Pleading for maximum punishment, the prosecution said capital punishment could be considered by the court or the convicts be sent to jail and ordered to remain there till their last breath.
Amin was not part of the Gujarat Anti-Terrorist Squad that was involved in the fake encounter of Sheikh in November 2005 as he was then with the Ahmeabad Crime Branch.
In what could spell more trouble for BJP leader Amit Shah, the Central Bureau of Investigation has, along with the charge sheet in Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case, submitted a pen drive containing telephonic talk allegedly between an accused police officer and the former Gujarat Minister of State for Home.
'Like in cricket, M S Dhoni was the captain and Virat Kohli played under him.' 'Then Dhoni played under Kohli.' 'Now imagine, having a second switch.' 'That is the analogy here, and I find no other example in Indian politics, or even world politics.'
The arrests were made in connection with the death of one Soharrubudin Sheikh, who was allegedly killed in a gun battle on November 26, 2005 during a joint operation by Gujarat's Anti-Terrorist Squad and Rajasthan Police.
The IB says that Hamza was the man behind the murder of Gujarat Home Minister Haren Pandya in 2003.
Ramesh says that since the attitude of the Narendra Modi government is deliberately provocative and confrontational, it should not expect cooperation from the Congress.
He said the "countdown has begun for Narendra Modi," citing the results of Rajasthan by-polls in which the ruling BJP faced an embarrassing defeat at the hands of the Congress which won two Lok Sabha seats and one assembly segment.
What does one deduce from this silence? That the minorities in the BJP era have been muted, perhaps even coercively, asks Sajad Ahmad Dar.
He was, however, released after producing a personal bond as he has already got an anticipatory bail from a local court, the CID official said.
'Nandigram is as much a blot on India in the new millennium as Gujarat 2002. Both massacres are similar. Very similar.'
'There are many serious crimes in which powerful and fake babas have been involved in... The states where this is prevalent are Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and even Delhi,' CPI-M General Secretary Prakash Karat tells Neeta Kolhatkar.
The CID has detained certain policemen of the ranks of Inspector, Sub-inspector and Constable, who were members of the team that tracked Sohrabuddin all the way from Hyderabad and then were part of the encounter near Ahmedabad.
'It would be a folly on our part to believe that the KKK or its Indian version exists only as some dedicated organisation. Rather, the Indian KKK, much like the American counterpart, exists as a fragmented and amorphous collection of independent groups and individuals,' says Shehzad Poonawalla.
"I have decided to return the award. The minorities in the country are feeling unsafe and threatened. They feel their future is bleak," Khayal said.
Patel quota agitation leader Hardik Patel has again postponed his 'reverse Dandi March', scheduled for Sunday, to September 15, claiming that he has been invited by a Cabinet minister for a meeting with the state chief minister on the issue.
Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan on Thursday invited rebel Bharatiya Janata Party leader Jaswant Singh to join his party saying that its doors were open for him.
The Central Bureau of Investigation on Tuesday questioned former Gujarat Minister of State for Home Praful Patel in the 2004 Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case, sources in the central agency said in Ahmedabad.
'Extravagant new promises can buy him time, but far from solving the problem, they compound the risk.' 'His main alternative is to stress not aspirations, but resentments.' 'He has already de-emphasised aspirational appeals: Nothing has been heard for over two years of the coming of achhe din,' points out James Manor.
