Thursday, August 2, 2007, Chandigarh, India
Updated at 3:00 am (IST)

CBI reports to HC on dera chief
‘Concrete’ evidence in rape and murder cases
Chandigarh, August 1
Following five years of dillydallying, the final report by the CBI was today placed in a sealed cover before a division Bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court. The agency has levelled charges against Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh in all three cases handed over to it by the the High Court.

SC hints at reopening Mumbai riot cases
New Delhi, August 1
The Supreme Court today indicated that it would issue orders for reopening of 1993 Mumbai riot cases either not registered by the police deliberately or closed or not tried properly by applying the same parameters as adopted in the Gujarat carnage.

73 Convicted
’98 blasts: Madhani acquitted
Chennai, August 1
Nine years after a series of explosions rocked Coimbatore, a special court today convicted 73 persons including leaders of the outlawed fundamentalist organisation Al-Umma for killing 58 people and injuring more than 200. However, it acquitted the president of Kerala's People's Democratic Party Abdul Nasser Madhani.

Sensex falls below 15k: People watch a large screen displaying the stock index at the Bombay Stock Exchange building in Mumbai on Wednesday. India’s benchmark share index provisionally ended down 4.08 per cent on Wednesday, caught in a sell-off in global equity markets as worries about a credit crunch intensified. — Punit Paranjpe, Reuters (Details on Business page)

India: The Tasks Ahead
SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT
125TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATIONS,
INAUGURAL SESSION

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Baffled in Punjab
Poison deaths in jails
Chandigarh, August 1
A series of mysterious deaths has been occurring in jails in Punjab due to insecticide poisoning. Inmates in the jails --- undertrials or others --- have been dying with the Patiala-based chemical examiner detecting the presence of poison. The question being asked by a section of the authorities is whether these could be planned murders.

Punjab’s new house tax laws get SC nod
New Delhi, August 1
In a major financial relief to the Punjab government, the Supreme Court today upheld the validity of its amended laws on collection of house tax, which would percolate in the savings of crores of rupees to the state.

Crimes Against Nation’s Security
Menon panel moots separate authority
New Delhi, August 1
The Madhava Menon Committee on criminal justice system, which submitted its report to union home minister Shivraj Patil today, has suggested setting up of a separate authority at the national level to deal with crimes threatening the country’s security.

Don’t judge me by a few lines of chat: Haneef
Bangalore, August 1
Mohammed Haneef said today that it would be wrong to judge him on the basis of a few lines of a chat room conversation. He was reacting to the release of a conversation he had with his brother Shaoib in the aftermath of the Glasgow bombing.

He can still be charged: Oz

Indian doc wins job battle in UK
London, August 1
An NRI heart surgeon has won a five-year legal battle to get his job back, after being suspended by the National Health Service at a cost of £5 million. Dr Raj Mattu (47), chief cardiologist at the former Walsgrave Hospital in Coventry, was suspended from his job in February, 2002, after he blew the whistle on overcrowding at his heart attack recovery ward.

Mosquitoes test Munna’s Gandhigiri Mumbai, August 1 Actor Sanjay Dutt spent his first night as a convict clad in a rough jail uniform, hungry and battling mosquitoes. According to officials of Arthur Road Jail, Dutt was brought in on Tuesday evening after all formalities were completed. He was lodged inside Barrack No. 10 which houses some 30 inmates. Dasmunshi mushy “As minister in charge of matters relating to the film industry, I am concerned with the well-being of those working there. If one has no sympathy with Sanjay, there is something wrong with one’s heart”. Munna’s lawyers can’t yet move SC Cong distances itself from Sanjay Editorial: Wailing sentimentalists