So concluded a day in court that saw a woman accused of murder don a fresh role of heroine of the moment. Even Bollywood couldn't have come up with such a curious twist.
Sources said the police found a blood-soaked message: 'Tired of her, catch and hang me', written on the floor of the flat near Deepali's body, with a smiley emoticon.
Karti was arrested on February 28 by the Central Bureau of Investigation on his return from the United Kingdom, and his 12-day judicial custody was to expire on Saturday in the case.
Without a moment of hesitation, Rai jumped up on his rickety wooden stool in the witness box. He then drew his legs close to his body and wrapped his arms around his knees and finally tucked his head into his knees demonstrating the fetal position.
Sanjeev Khanna stepped out of his usual sort of absent-minded personality to actively 'log into' the hearing, following the testimony alertly, at times standing up in the accused box to catch all of what was being said. His co-accused Peter Mukerjea and Indrani Mukerjea were less attentive, but were not switched off either.
The close-onto four years (since November 2015) Peter has spent in Arthur Road jail, central Mumbai, in judicial custody, have taken their toll, lending him a bit of a melancholy stoop, a laborious gait and a tired face, turning him prematurely into a much older man than his nearly 64 years. Vaihayasi Pande Daniel/Rediff.com reports from the Sheena Bora murder trial.
In the charge sheet, the agency said that prime accused in the high profile murder case, Indrani Mukerjea, was not happy with the love affair of Rahul and Sheena.
That answer, the strangest of all till date in this courtroom, set off a ripple of excitement, surprise and muted amusement among those present, including Accused No 1 Indrani Mukerjea.
In just 18 frames, the photograph of the dainty Sheena, with her winsome smile and starry eyes, dissolved, flesh falling off her facial bones, into what the CBI alleged was her corresponding yellowed, morose-looking skull with hollow, haunting eye sockets.
"There was no overdose, nor any poison. Her condition could have worsened as she had briefly stopped taking medicines and was suffering from weakness," said Inspector General of Prisons Bipin Kumar Singh.
'They (the government) want to tame everything.' 'The entire systems they are trying to change.'
The report said that NewsX will soon name a replacement for Sanghvi and that the 'separation' came about in an 'atmosphere of goodwill and amicability.'
Former Star TV CEO Peter Mukerjea promoted INX Media and INX News on Wednesday officially announced plans to launch a new television network.
A day after gory details of Sheena Bora murder case were revealed by police in court, her biological father on Tuesday came out in the open for the first time while skeletal remains purportedly of the 24-year-old unearthed in Raigad were sent to Forensic Science Laboratory in Mumbai.
'With folded hands, on humanitarian grounds, if she can get temporary bail on medical grounds so she can get treatment.' 'If she dies, the whole trial gets derailed.'
The proposed company could rope in former CEO of Star TV Peter Mukerjea and Mukesh Ambani.
With at least 50 new TV channels expected over the next six months, and much of the ad revenue cornered by the top few, a shakeout looks inevitable.
CBI's Special Crime Branch lodged a case in the designated court against Indrani, her former husband and Sanjay Khanna and former driver Shyamvar Pinturam Rai.
She continued to cry, harder, feebly dabbed her eyes with the handkerchief she had received, and declared painfully: "He is hurting my emotions!"
The Central Bureau of Investigation on Monday told a special court in Mumbai that Indrani Mukerjea, prime accused in the sensational Sheena Bora murder case, and her husband former media baron Peter Mukerjea were unhappy with the relationship between her daughter Sheena and Peter's son Rahul.
More noticeable than the hue of his shirt was his mast style in the witness box. He seemed to be reinventing the truth every few minutes. He yarned on and on, navigating his testimony further and further away from the facts, but he never lost his aplomb.
"For years I had been the cynosure of all eyes in my residential complex -- 'the lady with the full-time maid!'"
In his petition, Karti contended that the July 18 circular had been issued arbitrarily and without jurisdiction by the Foreigner Regional Registration Officer and The Bureau of Immigration under the Union home ministry at the behest of different agencies to prevent him from travelling abroad.
Sources say Ambani may be financing a part of the project in his individual capacity rather than through any of his group companies.
Over the weekend and Labour Day, a change seemed to have come over the former secretary and her memory had all but deserted her. Not unexpectedly, Kajal Sharma had lost much of her exactness. Her vocabulary had shrivelled to four or five words.
If Pasbola seemed like he was testing Rai on his high school physics, Rai on the other hand, had relocated himself to a classroom of philosophy, offering beautifully inexact answers, arrived at after deep thinking.
The state government has ordered a probe as to why the police had not filed a first information report or an Accidental Death Report when Sheena's body was first found at a forest in Pen taluka of Maharashtra's Raigad district on May 23, 2012.
Ganesh Dhene said there had only been two or three mango trees in the grove, from where he found the skeleton, which he specified had no flesh on it.
Seeing Indrani in court with her perpetually sunny demeanour and beaming face is sometimes as unreal an experience as making sense of court delays.
Indrani and Peter Mukerjea seemed more at ease on Wednesday, maybe with the INX Media interrogation over temporarily, chatting cheerfully and easily amongst themselves, and with former husband Sanjeev Khanna, at the back of the courtroom, in the accused enclosure.
Lawyer Amit Ghag got up to tell the judge that Shrikant Shivade -- Salman Khan and Peter Mukherjea's lawyer -- would take a morning flight from Jodhpur to Mumbai and would be in court by 3 pm on Friday to cross-examine Sub-Inspector Dalvi. For a moment, Judge Jagdale looks startled. "But isn't he caught up with that case in Jodhpur?" the judge asked.
Indrani exclaimed excitedly, her face lighting up like a little girl's: "I know him soo0o well." Sanjeev Khanna, Accused No 2, jokingly suggested to Badami: "Influencing the witness!" Badami retorted good humouredly: "She can't influence witnesses. She can only influence you and Peter."
Indrani is clearly in charge in her little corner. She is speaking rapidly to a not-very-tall, pot-bellied, balding man, whom she repeatedly, decisively, asks, "Have you understood?" The tone is that of a boss talking to an employee. The words "cheque" and "two lakhs" float by.
Dr Gupta handled Shivade's blows with quite some equanimity... So it was often only Shivade down in the mud pit, egging and enticing the doctor to join the fight, while Dr Gupta cautiously kept to the sidelines, barely stepping a toe into the mud.
Judge Jagdale halted Dr Gupta's testimony several times because he felt it had neither order nor direction. Tightly controlling his irritation, his lips compressed, the judge explained as patiently as he could: "What he has done in this case should come (out in his testimony) in a lucid manner. You eat chapati and then rice. You cannot eat half a chapati and then have rice and then eat half a chapati..." "He is not a witness of facts. He is an expert witness. Either he is not prepared. Or you are not prepared."
Successes and controversies have gone hand-in-hand for Maria.
'For Mallya, it seems 'the night is dark and full of terrors' and if you believe his lawyers, he's only looking for some sunshine,' says Veer Arjun Singh.
Dramatic minutes like the sentencing by a judge or a round of artful cross examination hog all the attention in a courtroom. But more noteworthy and infinitely more memorable are the human moments -- Like when a brother and sister hug before a judge. Or the steady support between a husband and a wife in court.
The chargesheet names 14 accused, including the Congress leader's son Karti Chidambaram, Peter Mukherjea and Indrani Mukerjea.
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