people alive today who could be badly implicated by this information).

What is known is that, with the rise of Mikhail Gorbachev in the 1980s, the practice was (mostly) discontinued, leading to the release of many political prisoners. The year 1986 saw the release of 19 prisoners, followed by 64 in 1987. In 1988, it was announced that, of the 5.5 million Soviets listed on the psychiatric register, over 30% would be taken off the list. A year later the number was revised and shown to be closer to 10.2 million people registered at "psychoneurological dispensaries" — along with a whopping 335,200 hospital beds set aside.

And sadly, the practice has not gone completely out of favor in today's Russia, with some concerned that punitive psychiatry is making a comeback.

DisturbingThe Odisha illegal mining scam amounts to Rs. 59,203 crore and illegal iron and manganese ore amounting to 22.80 crore tonnes was extracted illegally from the state for almost a decade, the Shah Commission report has said. It has demanded a CBI investigation into the matter, warning that too many powerful people, businessmen from Odisha and outside the state, bureaucrats and politicians are involved.

The Hindu accessed more parts and contents of the report which the government has classified as secret and asked the Supreme Court not to put out. The paper had earlier also reported on the gross violations of laws recorded by the commission.

The report notes that the state police and other state authorities, which suddenly filed cases when the inquiry by Shah Commission became imminent, are