Brother killed India ex-minister

The brother of a senior leader of India’s main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party has been found guilty of killing him last year.
A court in the western city of Mumbai said Praveen Mahajan had shot and killed his brother Pramod Mahajan, a former federal minister.
Mr Mahajan is likely to be sentenced on Tuesday, reports say.
Pramod Mahajan [...]

Thieves cut off Hindu sadhu’s ‘holy leg’

By Omer Farooq
BBC News, Hyderabad
Police in southern India are hunting for two men who attacked a Hindu holy man, cut off his right leg and then made off with it.
The 80-year-old holy man, Yanadi Kondaiah, claimed to have healing powers in the leg.
He is now recovering from his ordeal in hospital in the city of [...]

Hindu gods get summons from court

By Amarnath Tewary,Patna
A judge in India has summoned two Hindu gods, Ram and Hanuman, to help resolve a property dispute.
Judge Sunil Kumar Singh in the eastern state of Jharkhand has issued adverts in newspapers asking the gods to “appear before the court personally”.
The gods have been asked to appear before the court on Tuesday, after [...]

Untouchables’ left behind in booming nation

DALLIPUR, India — The hip young Indians working inside this country’s multinational call centers have one thing in common: Almost all hail from India’s upper and middle castes, elites in this highly stratified society.
India may be booming, but not for those who occupy the lowest rung of society. The Dalits, once known as untouchables, continue [...]

The false pride of the National Human Rights Commission of India

Indians take pride in several issues ranging from democracy to unity in diversity. Most of this “pride speech” is often by India’s middle class and neo-rich that are sometimes completely disconnected from reality. The government and its various agencies often reflect similar pride.
The government of India has spared no venue to boast about itself whenever [...]

India needs 124 years for clearing pending cases in its courts

Backlog of cases has become a big problem for the judiciary — from the Supreme Court to the subordinate courts. At the current speed, the lower courts, may take 124 years for clearing 2.5 lakh cases.
In the last seven years, the disposal rate has [...]

Judicial nepotism rampant in India

In the first step in the fight against judicial nepotism, the Law Ministry wrote to the Bar Council of India last month asking it to ensure that lawyers don’t appear in cases before judges who are close relatives. However, it appears to have ignored the wider problem of what is called Son Stroke or Uncle [...]

Caste system is racial discrimination: UN rights panel

GENEVA: UN Human Rights Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) has controverted India’s stand at its recent Geneva hearings that the caste system is not racial discrimination based on descent.
In its concluding observations, CERD, which consists of reputed international experts in international law, academics, sociologists and diplomacy, arrived at the conclusion that India’s [...]

How Indians cheat their own Country?

Mauritius as a Tax Haven
Mauritius-based front companies of foreign speculators evade paying taxes in India amounting to thousands of crores of rupees with the help of loopholes in a bilateral agreement on double taxation, with the connivance of the Indian government.
THE logic of a liberal economic regime can result in apparent paradoxes. Mauritius, a [...]