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A Gujarat court today sentenced 18 persons to life imprisonment and five others to 7 years in jail for burning alive 23 people at Ode village during the post-Godhra riots, holding that the offence did not fall in the ‘rarest of rare’ category.

The accused, who were convicted on Monday, a decade after the incident, escaped the noose as District and Sessions judge Poonam Singh held that since none of them had criminal antecedents they did not merit the ultimate penalty.

Sheila Dikshit as prime minister. How does it sound? Odd, alright. Dikshit as replacement for Manmohan Singh would sound much better. Singh has done little justice to the office of the prime minister and if he hangs around till 2014 general elections, he will be a huge liability for the UPA as well as the Congress. It is not clear whether the party has started looking for a different leader, but if it has, then Dikshit is not a bad bet.

Registration of marriages is to be made compulsory irrespective of religion – largely to prevent the harassment of women in divorce cases – under two bills approved by the cabinet on Thursday.

The bills, to amend the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969, and Anand Marriage Act, 1909, to enable registration of Sikh marriages, will be tabled when parliament’s budget session resumes April 24, Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal told reporters after a cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Another baby girl killed before she got a chance at life, another father unable to contain his disappointment at begetting a daughter, another mother mourning her child and her helplessness.

The sickeningly familiar story has been repeated once again in Bangalore with the death of three-month-old Afreen from burns and bites allegedly by her father.

It is the latest chapter in the sorry tale of women in India, where regressive practices and age-old traditions continue to sit uneasily with claims of progress and rising economic prowess.

Following the death of battered baby Afreen, Karnataka State Commission for Protection of Child Rights has called an urgent meeting with Women’s Commission and Minorities Commission to request the setting up of quick response teams to aid women like Afreen’s mother.

“I have convened a meeting with the Minorities and Women’s Commissions to suggest preventive measure in cases like Afreen’s. In tomorrow’s meeting, proposal to set up a quick response team to help such women will be put forth,” Nina Nayak, chairperson of Karnataka SCPCR, said.

Madhya Pradesh Congress leader Mr. Akbar Khan passed away at Silwani in Raisen district, about 100 kms from here, on April 9 afternoon following a massive heart attack.

Mr. Akbar, 54, is survived by his wife, two sons and two daughters. He was laid to rest in Bada Bagh grave yard on Tuesday morning. His Namaz-e-Janaza was led by Maulana Peer Mohammad Saeed Mujaddidi aka Peer Saeed Miyan, Rector of Darul Uloom, Taj-ul-Masajid, in the premises of the historic mosque. His funeral was largely attended by the elite of the town along with political leaders cutting across party line.

The legal runaround over the 2002 Gujarat riots continues, with no immediate end in sight. On Tuesday, barely minutes after a court in Ahmedabad made public the Special Investigation Team’s finding that it found no prosecutable evidence against Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi in the Gulberg Society killings, the petitioner, Zakia Jafri, said she would “fight it out”. Social activist Teesta Setalvad, who has been taking up the riots cases, too pledged to “fight to the finish”.

Hindus in Pakistan are feeling “angry and helpless” after being targeted in a spate of incidents, including abductions and forced conversion of girls, says a leading rights activist and a Hindu leader.

“The Hindu community is not afraid…rather they feel helpless and angry,” Zohra Yusuf, chairperson of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, told IANS on phone from Islamabad.

She said there is “forcible conversion of young Hindu women” and kidnapping for ransom in Balochistan and Sindh provinces.

A court in Ahmedabad on Tuesday, directed the Special Investigation Team (SIT) to give a copy of its final report on the 2002 Gulbarg society massacre to Zakia Jafri.

The court order said Jafri should be provided with a copy of the report within 30 days.

Jafri is the wife of former Congress MP Ehsaan Jafri, who was among 69 people burnt alive by a rioting mob on 28 February, 2002 at the Gulbarg Housing Society in Ahmedabad.

In her petition, Zakia has accused over 50 people including Chief Minister Narendra Modi of being involved in the post-Godhra riots.

How many times will the media give the ‘clean chit’ to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi? Indeed how many times will it announce ‘setback’ for him? Anything the courts pronounce in relation to many of the Gujarat riot cases is quickly interpreted either as ‘clean chit’ or ‘setback’ for him. Even Modi would be tired of it now.

The Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team has found no evidence against Chief Minister Narendra Modi and 57 others in the complaint filed against them by Zakia Jafri in the 2002 Gujarat riots, a Magisterial court said today.

The court also ordered that Zakia, widow of former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri, who was among those killed in the Gulburg society carnage, be given copies of all the related documents and reports within 30 days.