'Talwar' ki Dhaar

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A senior officer of CBI actually felt the 'dhar' of being the neighbour of the 'famous' Talwars. The officer was locked out of her house as media teams surrounded the Azad Apartment residence of Dr Rajesh and Dr Nupur Talwar on Wednesday evening. A CBI team came looking for Nupur and this officer who is quite friendly with the press couldn't go home, for the fear of being besieged by the waiting media. The team went about their job wearing the now famous "CBI Jacket'. Now we had never seen a CBI team especially one that was going to arrest a fugitive, sport such identification. In fact for the very reason perhaps CBI officials are plain clothed and not uniformed. The team itself, we are told, wasn't very comfortable wearing the blue half jacket with CBI written in bold on it, but the team's boss thought they would look....

Witness protection or decimation?

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How often have you seen a road accident...or an eve teasing incident or any crime in your surrounding? How often have you taken the pain to go to police about it? Most of us stay away, for who will take the pain of becoming a witness and going to court? Who will take leave from work and run after lawyers day in and day out? Imagine then a man who not only risked exposing a 1.76 crore rupees (CAG estimate subject to debate) scam but who is also facing the ignominy of being a witness! In the 2G court room these days, Aseervatham Achary is in the witness box. Surrounded by at least 17 lawyers representing 17 accussed. Facing the greatest criminal law brains Majid Memon and Ram Jethmalani! Jeered, mocked at by the defence camp trying to break his confidence..Achary so far has....

2G: Wives shop while husbands are in jail

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'Ab to these guys have gone in, let's go have coffee..and then we can shop at Saket Select City Walk' You would notice nothing out of place in this conversation till you're told that the protagonists in this conversation are wives of the 2G scam accused, and when they say 'have gone in', they are referring to the corporate executives and their husbands going inside the Patiala House Court lock-up to be ferried to Tihar Jail. The world at large may think that the CBI and the judicial system is finally bringing to book the 2G accused but the mood in the court room throws up a slightly different picture. All family members arrive in court every day. It's their chance to spend some time with their husbands/fathers etc outside the restrictions of the jail. But for two Mumbai based corporate executives the court proceeding seem....

IGI - T3 a thing of beauty! And hopefully a joy forever

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Morning newspapers had screamed how the brand new T3 was going through its fair share of hiccups. Photos splashed across front pages warned me... not enough chairs in yet, so passengers are sprawled across the floor. So I was both excited and apprehensive when a morning beep on my cell phone announced that my flight to Nepal will now take off from terminal 3 and not 2. The check in to the swanky glass building was a breeze and one look at the duty free section and I was ready to make good use of the 2 hours I had before my flight took off...But...BUT... that would have to wait, I was reminded by my camera person...We had to "declare" the camera and the other paraphernalia at the customs first-except that no one knew where the new customs counter was! Not the CISF guys on duty, not the airline....

From the land of the Mundas

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From the moment you step into Jharkahnd's capital Ranchi..the Munda aura surrounds you....the airport is called Birsa Munda airport...you see Birsa's statue at every 'chowk' and most government schools...universities are named after him....but these days its another Munda who is dominating the mindspace of the people around Ranchi...Kundan pahan...a 28-yea-old Munda from the same region where Birsa lived a century ago....Born in a peasant family in Jharkhand's Tamad block, around 70 kilometres from Ranchi, Kundan leads the CPI (Maoists) Platoon 39, a guerrilla squad that carries out killings, abduction, loot and extortion. Birsa a 25-year-old died in 1900 in a Ranchi jail..after waging a single handed war against the Britishers for their agricultural exploitation of the tribals in the Chaibasa..palamu..and Ranchi region....Kundan Pahan also claims to be waging a war against exploitation..this time by the Indian government....but his popular perception is no where even close to the reverence that....

The enigma called Charles Sobhraj

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Two days back when I opened the morning newspaper, faces of three handcuffed men stared back at me. Ordinary faces and routine crime except that the caption below the photograph caught my attention immediately. These men had looted people, conned them. Ordinary? But they claimed there inspiration was Charles Sobhraj. It so happened that I had met Charles at the Sundhara central jail of Kathmandu just a few days back and was still marvelling at the way he can influence people when I saw the article. When I first saw Charles it was like an anti-climax -- the man who walked into the visiting gallery to meet me just didn't fit the image i had of the bikini killer. The trademark baseball cap was missing, he looked as nervous as any prisoner would when the lawyer told him about the latest development in his case. But then as the....