The first District Development Council polls in Jammu and Kashmir had rivals, National Conference, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Peoples Conference, coming together on one platform, the Peoples Alliance for Gupkar Declaration. The six-party platform consolidated votes in nine out of 10 districts in the Kashmir Valley and three districts of the Pir Panjal valley and the Chenab valley in the Jammu region. The alliance has won 110 seats out of a total of 280 seats and the BJP, with 75 seats has emerged as the single largest party. The Gupkar alliance and the Congress are likely to have their chairmen in 12 to 13 districts in J&K, out of a total of 20, and the BJP could be leading five to six. Independent winners, 50 of them, will be able to swing some districts in favour of the BJP or the Alliance. The Alliance sees the poll results as a verdict against the reorganisation of J&K into two Union Territories and revocation of its special constitutional status on August
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The verdict of a special CBI court in Thiruvananthapuram sentencing to life a former Catholic vicar, Thomas Kottoor, and a nun, Sister Sephy, upon finding them guilty of murdering a 21-year-old novitiate, Abhaya, at a convent in Kottayam, marks a welcome outcome to a long and tortuous investigation and prosecution process. It spells a modicum of relief to the lone surviving kin of Abhaya, her brother, and to those who kept an unflinching faith in the justice system. It was in 1992 that Sr. Abhaya, a pre-degree student, was found dead in a well at the St. Pius X Convent hostel where she was an inmate. The police and the Crime Branch hurriedly concluded it as a case of suicide. But a people’s action council led by activist Jomon Puthenpurackal sought judicial intervention, which resulted in the CBI taking over the investigation in 1993. Despite a forensic report suggesting the possibility of homicide, the CBI found itself up against a wall for want of material evidence that was
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