India Archive

Sergeant Surendra Kumar Moga belonged to Mahradasi village, situated in the Mandawa tehsil of Jhunjhunu district, Rajasthan—an area that holds a deep-rooted history of valour and service to the motherland. Growing up in a modest household shaped by discipline and integrity, Surendra was born to Smt Nanu Devi, who nurtured him with values deeply influenced by the selfless dedication of his father, a proud soldier of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF). His late father’s legacy became the torch that lit young Surendra’s journey toward serving the nation.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has made significant progress in a chilling case that reveals how terror recruitment and radicalisation were happening right under everyone’s nose—in the name of Arabic language education. Four individuals—Ahmed Ali, Jawahar Sathik, Raja Abdullah (also known as MAC Raja), and Sheik Dawood—have been arrested in what is now known as the Tamil Nadu radicalisation and recruitment case. This case is a direct offshoot of the horrifying Coimbatore car bomb blast.

It was just past midnight on 25th June 1975 when India, the world’s largest democracy, saw its foundations shaken by one of the most severe political clampdowns in its independent history. Then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, facing intense legal and political pressure after the Allahabad High Court declared her 1971 election victory invalid due to corrupt practices, took a step that would change the nation’s trajectory for 21 long months. Rather than accept the court's verdict, Indira Gandhi declared a national Emergency under Article 352 of the Constitution—effectively freezing democracy to cling to power.

The small town of Rampur in Uttar Pradesh was rocked by a crime so shocking it drew comparisons to the infamous Raja Raghuvanshi murder case in Indore, where a newlywed was killed by his wife and her lover during their honeymoon.

In a disturbing turn of events, the television industry has found itself caught in the crosshairs of an unfolding criminal drama. Acclaimed Bengali film producer Shyam Sunder Dey, whose illustrious career spans over 60 films, has made grave allegations of abduction, extortion, and coercion against popular television couple Puja Banerjee and Kunal Verma. What began as a business trip to Goa ended in a harrowing ordeal that has now triggered a full-blown police investigation.

By the early 1990s, Punjab was caught in the throes of a violent separatist insurgency. Khalistani terrorist groups waging a campaign for an independent Sikh homeland, Khalistan, routinely targeted civilians – especially Hindus – in an effort to terrorize the populace and undermine the Indian state. The year 1991 saw a sharp escalation in violence. Punjab had been under President’s Rule (direct central governance) since 1987, and elections were finally scheduled in June 1991 to restore a democratic government.

Even as ripples caused by the murder of Indore businessman Raja Raghuvanshi are yet to subside, another unsettling case has emerged from Maharashtra that’s pushing society into deeper introspection. In a cruel twist of fate, a 27-year-old woman in Sangli allegedly killed her husband just 18 days after their wedding — and that too, on Vat Purnima, a day when married women pray for the long life of their husbands. The horror of this act is not just in the brutality, but in its timing, its symbolism, and what it reveals about a growing pattern of domestic violence where the aggressor is not who society expects.

How could a man so deeply revered in the medical fraternity, a neurologist of unmatched skill, and the face of brain healthcare in Solapur, choose to end his own life? This question continues to haunt the minds of thousands in Maharashtra and beyond, after the shocking and heartbreaking news broke out that Dr. Shirish Padmakar Valsangkar, a respected neurologist and the founder of Valsangkar Hospital, also known as the S P Institute of Neurosciences, had died by suicide. The esteemed doctor, whose name had become synonymous with cutting-edge neurology in the region, reportedly shot himself in the head with his licensed revolver at his residence.

There are traitors who betray for ideology, and there are traitors who betray for money. Then there are those like Rabinder Singh, who "sold out the people of the country for personal luxury and comfort." He wasn’t just a minor cog in India’s intelligence machinery. He was a high-ranking officer in RAW — the Research and Analysis Wing, India’s most elite and secretive intelligence agency. And yet, he went down in history as "the biggest traitor in RAW."

In the sultry summer of July 2010, a fast-track court in Bengaluru delivered a verdict that sent shivers down the city’s spine: Shubha Shankaranarayan, a young law student with a promising future, was sentenced to life imprisonment for the cold-blooded murder of her fiancé, BV Girish. This was no ordinary crime; it was the infamous Ring Road Murder of 2003, a case that unraveled like a dark mystery novel, exposing a web of deceit, forbidden love, and a fatal decision that shattered three families. The city, unaccustomed to such sinister acts, was left reeling, haunted by the question: how could a moment of passion lead to such a gruesome end?