'The Indian armed forces not only ensure protection of human rights of our own people but also of adversaries and deal with Prisoners of War as per the Geneva Conventions'
A five-judge bench of the Calcutta High Court on Friday appointed its former chief justice Manjula Chellur to "overview" the functioning of a Special Investigation Team (SIT) that has been formed to probe allegations of post-poll violence, other than rape and murder.
The United Progressive Alliance government and the Opposition seem to be heading for yet another showdown on the subject of key appointments -- this time over National Investigation Agency director S C Sinha being named as a member of the National Human Rights Commission
The SIT told a bench comprising Justices Madan B Lokur and U U Lalit that they have registered 42 cases and investigations were going on in accordance with the court's direction.
The CBI has carried out searches at 15 locations in connection with the case related to attempt to murder of Dharma Mandal who suffered serious injuries after his family was attacked on May 14 night at their home in Nadia district's Chapra.
'Why potentially anybody, not only Muslims and Dalits, can be subjected to custodial death?'
In a big relief to the Police, the Delhi High Court today refused to direct a judicial probe into the controversial Batla House encounter here, in which two suspected terrorists and a police officer were killed, by accepting the NHRC report giving a clean chit to the cops.
'When you start delving deeper into these disappearances, you have to face the question: Was it a policy at the State level?' 'It surely couldn't have been random officers acting on their own.' 'Was it planned? What does it mean if the State allows its police to become lawless and act with impunity?' 'Perhaps the NHRC, for the 21 years that it has been seized of the matter, avoided these questions.'
In a year of the Yogi Adityanath regime in Uttar Pradesh, the state has witnessed 1,500 police encounter in which 58 criminals have been killed. On July 2, the Supreme Court sought a reply from the UP government on the issue of police encounter killings after advocate Sanjay Parekh appearing for the People's Union for Civil Liberties pointed out that gross human rights violations were being carried out through these killings under the Adityanath rule. Speaking to Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff.com, PUCL's advocate Sanjay Parekh said that police encounters are not permissible in a democracy.
Senior counsel Mihir Desai, who represented Swamy in the high court, said that although the activist was dead and there existed no question of him being granted bail any more, the high court need not consider the late priest's appeals seeking bail abated.
'Fear is not created by those who are defending minorities and Dalits.' 'Fear is being created by the actions of political leaders like Yogi Adityanath and police forces.' 'The kind of hate statements that are being made to which there is silence from the prime minister's side.'
'The Tamil Nadu government should ask Andhra Pradesh to speed up the investigation.'
Use of social media or the Internet by Navlakha could prove to be dangerous, NIA counsel, additional solicitor general Anil Singh, said while opposing the septuagenarian activist's plea that he be kept under house arrest.
A bench headed by CJI asked the petitioner to approach the high court.
Till late Sunday night, the 84-year-old Jesuit priest was on ventilator support, the senior counsel told PTI. Swamy has been undergoing treatment at the Holy Family Hospital in Mumbai, following a court order on May 28.
Two gangsters involved in the killing of singer Sidhu Moosewala were eliminated in an encounter by the Punjab police in Amritsar on Wednesday, an officer said.
The court said 'the public order situation in Manipur is, at best, an internal disturbance and there is no threat to the security of the country or a part thereof either by war or an external aggression or an armed rebellion'.
It says P C Sharma had 'connived' with the NDA government on the Babri Masjid demolition case as well as on the investigation into the Tehelka expose.
The NHRC counsel told this to a SC bench, which was hearing amicus curiae Harish Salve's plea for transfer of trials of cases to 14 serious cases of massacre outside Gujarat.
Even as Central Bureau of Investigation probes the Ishrat Jahan and Sadiq Jamal alleged fake encounter cases, at least 555 such alleged extra judicial killings have been reported in the country, including 138 in Uttar Pradesh, in the last four years.
They have been asked to verify the list of 346 families handed over by the local MP who have allegedly migrated, he said.
Atul Sengar, the brother of BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar was arrested after the Lucknow Director General of Police issued the arrest warrant against him.
Abhishek drowned on Friday while on a picnic at Dassam falls, about 40 km from Ranchi, with two other BIT students, including Union Railway Minister Lalu Prasad's daughter Ragini.
'One police officer told me that trials take forever, conviction rates are low.' 'So one way to judge states' performance on handling crime is through the 'recovery rate' of their police.' 'The fastest way to get recovery is by torturing the accused.'
The court was hearing a PIL seeking probe and compensation in the alleged 1,528 extra-judicial killings in Manipur from 2000 to 2012 by security forces and police.
NHRC chairman J S Verma cited the example of Gujarat saying that many incidents of violations were prevented there due to the timely intervention of the commission.
Three men, who survived the April 6 'encounter' in the Seshachalam forests, give crucial evidence to the National Human Rights Commission on how their friends and family members were wrongly detained and later shot dead.
'This was expected. Did you really expect a SIT formed by the Andhra government to find their cops guilty? It was a farce from the beginning.'
'The rhetoric of the right wing is creating such a situation. They are inspiring youngsters to such action by their speeches.'
The bench also asked the DIG to file a status report of the progress made in the investigation in these cases.
A proposal of the Women and Child Development Ministry to give greater powers to the National Commission of Women has faced legal hurdles as the law ministry has raised queries on the move.
The National Human Rights Commission sought a report from the Tamil Nadu government.
The court left it to the CBI to take a call on whether those chargesheeted need to be arrested or not.
Professor ON Singh said he was "taking moral responsibility" of the recent incidents of molestation and violence inside the premises of the university.
The commissioner said the police suspected the four accused may be involved in similar such offences.
The murder charges capped dramatic developments both in the court and outside where a woman head constable witness to the happenings told a Magisterial probe that the two traders were thrashed an entire night by the other police personnel at Sathankulam station where they were detained over alleged lockdown violations late last month.
His family found an old man on a bed soaked through with urine at the J J Hospital. The man whose name drew thousands to public meetings was requesting anyone who cared to listen to change his bedsheets. But there was no one to do so.
The girl was leaving school on Wednesday when the accused, Ram Asre (37) allegedly took her to a pump room in the school premises and forced himself on her.
Judge Jagdale halted Dr Gupta's testimony several times because he felt it had neither order nor direction. Tightly controlling his irritation, his lips compressed, the judge explained as patiently as he could: "What he has done in this case should come (out in his testimony) in a lucid manner. You eat chapati and then rice. You cannot eat half a chapati and then have rice and then eat half a chapati..." "He is not a witness of facts. He is an expert witness. Either he is not prepared. Or you are not prepared."
A Delhi court on Wednesday allowed the Delhi Police to conduct lie-detector test on three "suspects" in the Sunanda Pushkar murder case.
