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One person was killed and several were injured after the Assam Police opened fire at protesters amid clashes at the site of an eviction drive in the Betbari area of Goalpara district. At least two police personnel were among the injured.

Authorities had cleared 140 hectares of land in the Paikan Reserve Forest on Saturday, displacing 1,080 families, most of whom were Muslims of Bengali origin. Since then, the displaced families have been living in tents and makeshift tarpaulin huts, which officials had asked them to dismantle. The clashes broke out on Thursday after authorities dug up the road that provided connectivity to the settlement.

Since the BJP came to power in Assam in 2016, seven persons – all of them Muslims – have been shot dead by the police during eviction drives. Read on.

How can Indian democracy allow the open oppression of Bengali-origin Muslims by Assam?

The Bangladesh government has clarified that the building being bulldozed in the Mymensingh district has no historical or family links to filmmaker Satyajit Ray. The country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that a “detailed inquiry” into archival records revealed that the land belongs to the government.

While the government noted that the road in front of the house – Harikishore Ray Road – is named after Satyajit Ray’s great-grandfather, it highlighted that the Ray family had sold the house they owned long ago and “thus no longer exists”.

Later, a multi-storied building was constructed there by the new owner. The structure being demolished was dilapidated, risky and unusable, the ministry added. Read on.

The Karnataka Police officers acted like “servants” of the Indian Premier League team Royal Challengers Bengaluru, the state government has told the High Court hearing the case about the stampede outside Bengaluru’s Chinnaswamy Stadium. Eleven persons were killed during the stampede on June 4.

The state government also told the court that the police officers had started making arrangements for the cricket team’s victory celebrations without ascertaining who had permitted the event. Further, the government claimed that the cricket team had submitted an application proposing a victory celebration even before the final match.

The government defended the suspension of Additional Commissioner of Police Vikash Kumar Vikash, accusing him of failing to do his duty and causing “public embarrassment”. Read on.

The Delhi High Court has quashed 16 first information reports registered against 70 Indians who had hosted foreign nationals participating in the Tablighi Jamaat congregation during the Covid-19 outbreak in 2020. They faced charges under the Indian Penal Code, the Epidemic Diseases Act, the Disaster Management Act and the Foreigners Act.

The religious congregation was held on March 9 and March 10 in 2020, in Delhi’s Nizamuddin area. On March 25 that year, a countrywide lockdown was imposed to combat the coronavirus outbreak. The congregation was blamed by some for several infections during the initial weeks of the lockdown.

The police alleged that the 70 persons had violated the nationwide lockdown by hosting foreign nationals between March 24 and March 30 that year. However, the court asked the police where the foreign nationals could have gone amid the sudden lockdown. Read on.

Months ahead of the Assembly elections, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has announced that up to 125 units of electricity will be provided free of charge to consumers in the state. The change will be applicable from the July bill.

Additionally, the Janata Dal (United) leader said that in the next three years, solar power plants will be installed on the rooftops of all domestic consumers or at nearby public places. The state government will bear the expense of installing the plants for extremely poor families.

In September, Opposition leader Tejashwi Yadav promised to make the consumption of up to 200 units of electricity free to consumers if his Rashtriya Janata Dal was voted to power. Bihar is expected to head to the Assembly polls in October or November. Read on.

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