Arun Janardhanan

What made the case significant was that the revolt of the 18 MLAs brought the Palaniswami government to a minority last year before the disqualification order.

The verdict will decide the fate of the government, and also script the political future of the united AIADMK faction led by Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami and his deputy, O Panneerselvam.

In a complaint, filed with the vigilance and anti-corruption director, DMK MP and party’s organising secretary R S Bharathi claimed that though the estimated cost for the four-lane Oddanchatran-Dharapuram-Avinashipalayam project was Rs 713 crore, it was increased to Rs 1,515 crore.

The Tamil Nadu government is all set to start the land acquisition for the Rs 10,000 crore highway, a pet project of both the Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari and Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami.

In his short career, Kaala director Pa Ranjith has been lauded as well as reviled for his perspective on caste.

On May 28, seven days after the police firing in Tuticorin, the Tamil Nadu government shut down the plant. On Friday, the state government transferred two deputy tahsildars deputed in the area who had signed orders for the police to open fire.

According to a senior police officer, S Pradeepa, who hailed from a Dalit family in Peruvalur village, consumed rat poison Monday evening after she realised that she could not crack the NEET exam again.

On May 9, the Madurai police arrested Tamil writer and journalist Soundarapandian, known by his pen name Sowba, after he reportedly confessed to having killed his “drug-addict” son Vipin Sowba, 27.

The high court bench dismissed a habeas corpus petition filed by the father of the girl, from Kerala’s Alappuzha, seeking direction to the police to produce his daughter from the “illegal” custody of her live-in partner.

The attack reportedly came after Dalits opposed sale of marijuana in the area by people from a neighbouring village, a CPM leader said.

Dressed in black, the MLAs sought the resignations of Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami and DGP T K Rajendran, and murder charges to be slapped on senior police officers involved in the incident.

Kevin P Joseph married Neenu Chacko in Kottayam Friday.

The sequence of events that started with a tense wedding at the sub-registrar’s office in Ettumanoor near Kottayam Friday had ended in a tragedy that shook the state.

In a notification released by principal secretary M Nasimuddin, the government directed the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board to seal the unit and close the plant permanently.

Anti Sterlite protests: In Tuticorin, such is the public anger that elected representatives have not been able to visit the families of those killed or speak freely in public.

About 3 km from Tuticorin city, the Sterlite Copper unit spread across 400 acres seemed abandoned on Thursday. More than 300 police personnel were deployed outside the gate and 150 private guards of the company were keeping vigil inside. The plant stopped operations nearly two months ago after the state Pollution Control Board denied them […]

The interim order by the bench of Justices M Sundar and Anita Sumanth came amid ongoing protests against the expansion plans of the plant and demands for its closure over pollution concerns.

Relatives of those killed Tuesday, meanwhile, refused to claim the bodies, saying they would do so only after the copper smelter was shut and murder charges registered against those involved in the firing.

Protests have been on since 1999 with residents demanding the closure of the Sterlite copper smelter. Word was awaited from the Madurai bench of the Madras High Court on a petition seeking closure of the plant.