In a dying declaration to the media, Balbir said he was injected with acid and petrol by police in Etah district,reportedly to extract a confession him.

Balbir and another accused Bani Khan were detained by police and two others in connection with a murder case. Balbir and Bani Khan were tortured by the police and later sent to jail.

When their health deteriorated they were admitted to hospital, then transferred to King George Medical College in Lucknow, but he did not survive.

Four police officers have been suspended including a Sub-Inspector. But the station officer named in Balbirs' declaration is still to face action.

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Bapi Joardar, 9, a 3rd grade student of the Nirdeshkhali Shishu Shiksha Kendra in South Parganas district did not do his lessons so his teacher Champa Mondal dashed his head against a wall.

The boy was admittted to a hospital in Canning, from where he was referred to a hospital in Kolkata, but he died that night.

Ms Mondal, in her early thirties, had been with the school for some 4 years. She has been arrested.

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Police officers of the government railway at Ujjain, forced a woman to strip on suspicion she may have stolen gold from fellow passengers in the general coach of a passenger train.

Five women passengers had allegedly complained to the railway police that their ornaments were stolen, after the train halted at Ujjain railway station. When they saw a youth accompanied the woman who was travelling with them the women held him accusing him of being the thief. The man said his sister's ornament was also missing.

The Railway police then asked the brother and sister to strip, and the woman had to remove her saree in the presence of upto 10 male cops. No stolen articles were found on them.

The Rail Police station in-charge denied the incident and claimed only the youth was frisked.

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Popat Koli abducted his two nieces, one a minor, to marry them off in a mass wedding ceremony against their will and that of their mother Kunwar Koli of Kutch, Gujarat, who tried to get her daughters back.

The ancient barter system called Sata Pata is a medieval practice still prevalant in some parts of Gujarat. Popat is forcing his nieces to marry into the family of a community leader promising him brides in exchange for his sons as the sex ratio in the community is severely lopsided because of female foeticide.

Oddly enough the mass wedding ceremony is likely to be attended by state ministers Purshottam Solanki and Liladhar Vaghela.

Mrs Kunwar also says Popat sent her daughters to a construction site as labourers and purloined their earnings. She has not seen her daughters for a year. She took refuge in the office of the Ahmedabad Women's Action Group with her two other daughters after being threatened. She was thrown out of her house by her husband for bearing only daughters, and 18 months ago Popat threw her out and took away the nieces.

The community leader in whose family the girls were to be married denies he knows where Popat and the girls are.

The Action Group have now called the minister of state for home to ensure the court's order to find the girls is not violated.

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A boy age 12, who was a student of Banga Manna High School of Bandwan near Purulia, was punished and beaten in class by his teacher for not being able to answer a question. The boy fell ill after he returned home and was rushed to hospital where he died.

A post mortem was conducted and showed the boy had bruise marks on his back, made by the stick his teacher had used. The family has now lodged a complaint against the teacher.

School authorities have not yet commented on the incident.

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