Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Lokesh Kumar Sharma granted bail to Shukla after dismissing the judicial custody plea of police.

Police said Shukla had allegedly removed money and articles of Sreesanth from his hotel room in Mumbai after his arrest May 16.

Police had sought judicial custody of Shukla, saying interrogation and recoveries have been completed, and Shukla was no more required for interrogation.

The court said that prima facie, Shukla had committed an offence under Section 201 (causing disappearance of evidence) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), which is bailable.

The court said that there was no need to keep Shukla in custody, as there was no need to book him for cheating.

Delhi Police also claimed to have recovered Rs.5.5 lakh, at the instance of Shukla. Police claim the sum was part of the Rs.10 lakh allegedly paid in Mumbai to cricketer Sreesanth for spot-fixing in an IPL match.

Shukla has been charged under Section 201 and was taken to Mumbai for recovery of articles and money owned by Sreesanth, which he had hidden.

Like their previous matches this time too their bowlers delivered and restricted Kolkata Knightriders to 136. Amit Mishra, Karan Sharma, Dale Steyn have all been impressive. Chasing a modest total Sunrisers started off very well. Openers Parthiv Patel and Shikar Dhawan appeared to chase the total unbeaten with Sunrisers scoring 84 at the end of 11th over. But Shikar Dhawan unnecessarily attempted reverse sweep to be given lbw when the score was 89 in the 12th over.  Then the wickets fell in quick succession with Parthiv, Cameron White, Hanuma Vihari and Thissara Perera getting out. Sunrisers Hyderabad, which was placed well to finish the chase, fell into a tensed situation with 15 runs requiring from last 12 balls. But two consecutive sixes from Sammy has put a full stop to the high voltage drama and send viewers in the stands into a frenzy.

Sunrisers Hyderabad has received a stupendous support from the home crowd and they have acknowledged the support of fans and thanked them for the support by making a round in the stadium and players themselves giving some gifts to the viewers in the stadium.

The Indian cricket’s enfant terrible is right at front of every burning and newsy controversy in the field of cricket from his debutante days. Here is a year wise tracking of his antics.

2006: He was fined 30% of his match fee for “conduct contrary to the spirit of the game” after giving Hashim Amla a fiery send-off and also violating the ICC’s advertising logo policy by wearing a branded garment under his jersey during a Test in Johannesburg.

Ironically Sreesanth bowled India to victory in the Test and was declared Man of the Match!

2007: He was fined half of his match fee for shouldering England captain Michael Vaughan while walking back to his bowling mark in the second Test at Trent Bridge.
2008: In the inaugural edition of the IPL, Sreesanth was slapped by Harbhajan Singh after a match between his then franchise Kings XI Punjab and Mumbai Indians at Mohali. An investigation exonerated Sreesanth and banned Harbhajan for the rest of the tournament and for five ODIs.

2009: He was fined 60% of his match fee for abusing Mumbai’s Dhawal Kulkarni during the Irani Cup match between Rest of India and Mumbai in Nagpur. The BCCI severely reprimanded Sreesanth for that misdemeanour.

I2013: During the sixth edition of the IPL, Sreesanth once again raked up Slapgate by making a series of increasingly bizarre tweets.

He said Harbhajan was a ‘backstabbing person’ and claimed that Harbhajan never slapped him implying that what was done was much worse. Sreesanth also called for the video of the incident to be released.

2013: Sreesanth is arrested along with two Rajasthan Royals teammates for spot-fixing in IPL-6. This would seem to be the last nail in the mercurial speedster’s coffin. It is unlikely that this problem child will be given any more chances to create problems!

Ajmal Kasab executed

Ajmal Kasab, the only terrorist caught alive during the 26/11 attacks on Mumbai in 2008, was hanged at the Yerawada Jail in Pune at 7.30 am today. His mercy plea had been rejected by President Pranab Mukherjee on November 5.

After the petition was rejected by Rashtrapati Bhawan, the Lashkar-e-Toiba operative was shifted from his high-security Arthur Road Jail cell in Mumbai to the Pune jail.

Since his arrest in 2008, Kasab was kept in the bulletproof cell in Mumbai’s Arthur Road jail. He was sentenced to death by the Bombay High Court in October last year; he was convicted on charges ranging from treason to waging war against India. He then appealed to the Supreme Court, which ruled against him in August this year.

Kasab’s mercy petition was filed first with the Maharashtra Home Ministry, which rejected it in September, and forwarded it to the Union Home Ministry. Then in October, the Home Ministry recommended that President Pranab Mukherjee reject his plea.

166 people were killed in the 26/11 attacks in 2008, when 10 men from Pakistan sailed into Mumbai. They split into pairs, and spent 72 hours targeting the city’s landmarks. A hospital was attacked; so was a Jewish centre. Kasab was the only terrorist who was caught alive.

And to be doubly-sure that she was dead he and his lover poured petrol over her body and set it afire before throwing the body in a ditch alongside a highway. The police have arrested Vajinder Singh, who they said had an extramarital relationship with Renu and wanted to move his wife out of the way. Renu has also been arrested for allegedly being an accomplice to the crime.

The body of Suresh Kumari alias Pooja has been recovered from a deserted forest area in Hoshiarpur district on Thursday. Vajinder is a manager with a franchise of Nik & Bakers in Sector 35 and was having an affair with Renu for the past three years. Vajinder and Pooja were married for around six years.

The murder took place on July 13 and the father-in-law of the deceased, Balwinder Pal, lodged a missing person complaint on the same day at the Sector 19 police station in Chandigarh.

The needle of suspicion turned towards Vajinder when Prem Chand, brother of Pooja, reported to the police that Vajinder had an affair with another woman and he suspected that Vajinder killed his sister. Chandigarh SSP Nau Nihal Singh said after getting the complaint Vajinder was picked up for questioning and he broke down and confessed his crime.

Observing that anything beyond Taj Corridor scam was not subject matter of this court, the Apex Court said, ‘CBI should not have lodged DA case against Mayawati as there was no direction regarding it from this court. ‘Mayawati had filed a petition in May 2008 seeking quashing of the criminal proceedings against her in the DA case, lodged by the CBI over eight years ago. She had alleged it was an act of political vendetta against her.

A bench headed by P Sathasivam had reserved its judgment on May 1 after two-hour-long hearing during which the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister had accused the CBI of “fixing” the DA case against her, a charge refuted by the agency.

Mayawati had said the bench should direct the CBI to consider the aspect of order passed by the Income Tax Tribunal holding that her income was genuine and the order had also been upheld by the Delhi high court. The CBI had said there was “ample evidence” to show that she had amassed wealth disproportionate to her known sources of income.

Mayawati had claimed she had received the money as donations from party workers. Questioning Mayawati’s assets, the CBI had said her declared assets of Rs. one crore in 2003 had gone up to Rs. 50 crore in 2007. The CBI, in its last affidavit filed on September 13, 2011, had alleged there was a “criminal nexus” between Mayawati and her relatives and the disproportionate assets case against her cannot be closed on the basis of conclusions arrived at by the Income Tax Department.

The agency had rejected Mayawati’s stand that the DA case should come to an end after the income tax authorities accepted her income tax assessments.

This book was written by senior journalist Kuldip Nayar. In the soon-to-be released autography titled “Beyond the Lines” being brought out by Roli Books, the stalwart said the late Prime Minister had sat in a puja when the kar sevaks began pulling it down and rose only when it was over.

Referring to the demolition of Babri Masjid on December 6, 1992, he said ….

“My information was that Rao had connived at the demolition. He sat at puja when the kar sevaks began pulling down the mosque and rose only when the last stone had been removed. Madhu Limaye (late socialist leader) later told me that during the puja, Rao’s aide whispered in his ears that the masjid had been demolished. Within seconds, the puja was over”, he said in a chapter on “Narasimha Rao’s Government” in the book.

P V Narasimha Rao has faced the wrath of Congress leaders when Arjun Singh’s posthumous autobiography ‘A Grain of Sand in the Hourglass of Time’ mentioned that he had expressed anger at the suggestion that Sonia Gandhi should be made the Congress president after the death of Rajeev Gandhi. Now this startling revelation by renowned journalist Kuladip Nayar has embarrassed even the Congress leadership.

Nayar said that when there were riots in the wake of the demolition, Rao invited some senior journalists to his house and explained how his government made every arrangement to stop the demolition and complained that the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Kalyan Singh had betrayed him.

The journalist said when they have questioned how a small temple could have been erected overnight at the site when the Centre was at the helm of affairs having dismissed the Kalyan Singh government, PV has said he had attempted to send a contingent of CRPF by plane to Lucknow but they were unable to land because of bad weather.

Rao has also not explained the “inaction” of Central forces in Ayodhya, but assured him that the temple would not be there “for long”.Nayar has said that the late Prime Minister and his government would forever be responsible for the demolition of the Babri Masjid. He has charged PV of being conscious of the eventuality, but doing nothing to stop it.

However,  P V Ranga Rao, son of the late Prime Minister, has strongly dismissed the claim as “unbelievable and untenable”. He said there was no way his father could have done it and added that the late Prime Minister was in anguish when the Babri structure was demolished. Ranga Rao has claimed that his father loved Muslims for years and was their ardent supporter. “He told us many times that it should not have happened”, Rao said reacting to the reported claim of the late socialist leader Madhu Limaye.

Ranga Rao said “vested interests” were trying to tarnish the image of his father, who was no more to defend himself and regretted that an eminent journalist like Kuldip Nayar chose to make such a wild allegation.

The fact that Sheila Bhake had stabbed 21 times on Vaishali’s chest has now even shocked the cops and also the doctors who performed the post-mortem on the little girl at Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH). Vaishali’s blood-smeared body was discovered by Vaishali’s husband Atul who had returned with son Abhishek after having snacks at Sakkardara Chowk. She was found sipping a cheap beverage by the neighbours moments before her murder.

While the reason behind Vaishali’s murder has kept the cops guessing, several theories, including that of the human sacrifice to appease the so-called ‘godman’ for prosperity, were also explored by the investigating agencies. Hudkeshwar police also interrogated a ‘godman’ from Tajbagh, identified as Baba Sailani, whom Sheila visited frequently with son Abhishek. After the incident, police took Abhishek’s help to zero down on the self-styled ‘godman’.

Though nothing transpired from the interrogation of the ‘Baba’, it is now learnt that the forensic experts found a unique pattern of the woman’s stabbing while performing the post-mortem. “All the stabs were almost on the girl’s heart. There were multiple stabs within a circular area of merely 10 cm diameter. Many of these pierced the heart too. There were no other injuries apart from those on and near the heart,” said Dr Pradeep Dixit, deputy dean and head of the forensic department of GMCH, after consulting experts from his department. Dr H V Pathak conducted the post-mortem.

Dr Dixit, who termed the pattern of assault as unique, said that he had barely come across such an incident in his career as a forensic expert. “This is a perversion of the society and should be tackled. Even in a progressing society killings take place merely on the basis of blind faith,” he said.

Assistant police inspector Vinod Dighore said that his discussion with the forensic team indicated that Sheila may have been driven by disturbed phase of mind. “We had questioned the Baba but nothing came out. The baba said that he knew Sheila but never demanded money to bring good luck to her.

There is no evidence of the Baba’s involvement so far,” said Dighore. The Baba, it has come to fore, had gone to Kanpur when the incident took place. Several people, close to the family including the kin, claimed that Sheila was asked to bring Rs one lakh by the Baba and she was eager to sell the house for money.

“The wait was quite long. My own expectations also, I thought it should have happened earlier. God has planned everything in life, may be it was that way. One thing I’m proud of it is my mind, efforts and commitment. At that phase it was really really tough. I’m glad it has come this way,” said Sachin.

Does the expectation and hype our the 100th hundred bothered you? “I got my 99th hundred a year ago against South Africa. There is speculation that I didn’t go to West Indies because, I wanted to score my 100th hundred at Lords in England. I wish, I’m good enough to do all those things in my life. When you want to score a 100, you could score a 100? It doesn’t come that way in cricket. If that is the case, I would have changed lot of things in the past. I would have liked to score a hundred in every innings that I went out to bat,” said the Iconic cricketer.

“There were phases were I started thinking why all of them were only talking about 100th hundred. I know it was 100th hundred, but before that I also scored 99 hundreds. So, It was just frustrating because wherever I went, it was only about the 100th hundred. I have possible reached a stage were enough was enough,” he added.