Rahul Mukerjea's two-day cross examination in early November left many questions unanswered even as new ones came to the fore in the Sheena Bora Murder Trial, reports Prasanna D Zore.
If Kasab's lawyer K P Pawar argued with vigour on Tuesday, then public prosecutor Ujwal Nikam was tenacious in seeking the highest possible punishment for the Pakistani terrorist. Nikam argued that it would be a travesty of justice if noose is not awarded to justice. Sheela Bhatt and Prasanna D Zore tracks Tuesday's court proceedings.
During Tuesday's hearings in the high-profile 26/11 case, key accused Ajmal Kasab's counsel K P Pawar went full throttle, steadfastly arguing why minimum punishment should be given for his client. Sheela Bhatt and Prasanna D Zore, who were in the court through the day, bring the dramatic day's proceedings alive.
'At the moment the anti-defection law works only in favour of Uddhav Thackeray's Shiv Sena, the original Shiv Sena.' 'The Eknath Shinde camp is at a disadvantage unless they merge with another political party.' 'Otherwise, they will not be saved (from being disqualified).'
Rediff.com's Prasanna D Zore assesses the mood of the voters ahead of the US mid-term elections on November 2
In the backdrop of the US mid-term elections slated for November 2, Rediff.com's Prasanna D Zore visits a small gathering of Muslims in Miami who despite feeling persecuted are fighting their battle in a peaceful way to break out of the stereotypes and prejudices that they experience in every day life post 9/11 America.
'The entire idea behind the serial bomb blasts was to strike fear in the minds of Indians.' 'I don't think the blasts were targeted to derail the Indian economy; the idea behind the blasts was retribution.'
Mantras from a successful professional on how young Indians can become more successful and employable.
Who's the real Abu Jindal aka Zabiuddin Ansari? This is one of the most disturbing questions that the residents of Beed and Gevrai towns, in the dusty cotton bowl of Beed district in Maharashtra, are trying to come to terms with ever since news broke out that intelligence agencies have identified one of the handlers from Pakistan, who spoke to the 26/11 terrorists at the Chabad House, as Syed Zabiuddin Syed Zakiuddin aka Abu Jindal.
Arch rivals India and Pakistan clash in the second semi-final of the World Cup on Wednesday. Prasanna D Zore tells us what's the match holds in front of a partisan Mohali crowd.
'Uddhavji has accepted now that the majority of his family wants to ally with the BJP, then we should think about it, but there are issues around how to go about it.'
'If you were to say today that the government should appoint judges to the high courts and Supreme Court, then I think that even those few good judges that we are getting today we would not get them.'
'We told the government that we won't dance to their tunes this time.'
Activists Arundhati Roy and Himanshu Kumar slam a newspaper report that Lingaram Kodopi, a tribal from Dantewada, is the mastermind behind last week's Maoist attacks in Bastar.
"She chose a path less trodden and turned it into a road paved with gold as far as her dance was concerned. There will never be another Sitara Devi," says her son, musician Ranjit Barot.
'Just to know him (Amitabh Bachchan) makes you a better artist,' revealed Amit Sadh on Instagram.
Two Israeli Jews take an emotional tour of the Chabad House, which was targetted by terrorists during the Novmeber 26, 2008 carnage, along with rediff.com journalists Prasanna D Zore and Abhishek Mande.
'Not just 12 MPs, but 22 former Shiv Sena MLAs as well as four MLAs who are still in Uddhav Thackeray's camp will be switching to our side gradually.'
'The consolidation of the Congress and NCP alliance does not provide any space for such splits,' feels Dr Rajeshwari Deshpande, a scholar on Maharashtra politics.
'This is a new Congress. Let the BJP be warned.'
It was not a one-way ride up though for the man who now could potentially become the BJP's national president over time.
From politics to fashion, the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party alliance remains intact. Prasanna D Zore reports
Fear and rage writ across their faces, the eyewitnesses who helped take the injured and the dead to hospitals after the German bakery blast in Pune, described their horrific experiences.
Dozens of young students have gone missing from Beed in the last eight years. While intelligence agencies fear that the youth have been brainwashed into the doctrine of terror in the wake of the communal carnage in Gujarat, anxious family members spend sleepless nights worrying over the safety of their missing sons.
Who's the real Abu Jindal aka Zabiuddin Ansari? This is one of the most disturbing questions that the residents of Beed and Gevrai towns, in the dusty cotton bowl of Beed district in Maharashtra, are trying to come to terms with ever since news broke out that intelligence agencies have identified one of the handlers from Pakistan, who spoke to the 26/11 terrorists at the Chabad House, as Syed Zabiuddin Syed Zakiuddin aka Abu Jindal.
'Those who looted the nation have fled the country.' 'Those with rooms full of cash have already converted their cash into gold and property.'
'We are planning load shedding in such a way that the entire state will not suffer.'
'There were no stretchers available immediately, so the people who gathered around tore down tarpaulin and cloth from adjoining shops and made them into makeshift stretchers to ferry the injured to the nearby Saifee Hospital.'
'Both of them want to cow down people who are daring them, demanding justice for the tribals and are not following their agendas in Chhattisgarh,' says Lingaram Kodopi, who the state police has branded a Maoist.
Will Raj Thackeray's Maharashtra Navnirman Sena make its mark in the forthcoming assembly election in the state?
On the final day of his two-day visit to India's financial capital, Congres vice president Rahul Gandhi tried to connect with Mumbaikars by raising the issue of high electricity bills en route his padyatra from National College, Bandra to Dharavi, Asia's largest slum colony.
Rajesh Laxman Pille, a Mumbai lad, aced his school-leaving exams writing with his leg. An inspiring story of how he surmounted challenges associated with being limbless and achieved success.
A year after November 26, 2008, as the clock struck 9.44 pm again, rediff.com correspondent Prasanna D Zore and photographer Sanjay Sawant spend some time at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus to find that nothing much has changed as far as securing the station is concerned.
The Bhopal gas tragedy of 1984 changed an entire generation of women in Bhopal to shed their social inhibitions and fight for a righteous cause. Despite opposition from a conservative society.
Rediff.com's Prasanna D Zore speaks to the survivors of the Bhopal gas tragedy, who recount their tales of horror after chief judicial magistrate Mohan P Tiwari gave his verdict on June 7, after a tortuous 25-year fight for justice.
How the the Border Security Force, the Coast Guard, the Navy and the marine police in Gujarat is maintaining a day-night vigil to protect India's western coast.
'This is not China. There is freedom of movement in Kashmir, even in Sikkim. I can go anywhere. But in the SEZs created in my own hinterland I can only enter if I have a pass issued by a civil servant who is appointed as the caretaker of that SEZ,' says Magsaysay Award winner Aruna Roy.
'The fact that she kept her faith in the power of doing good all through the thick and thin in her life, that she worked sincerely for the upliftment of the tribals, the downtrodden and the backwards, is one of the most inspirational aspects of her life.'
The former head commander of the Israeli Security Agency's Anti Terror Security School talks about Al Qaeda, dirty bombs, Chabad House and the 26/11 terror attacks.
Suspected Indian link to the 26/11 Mumbai carnage Syed Zabiuddin's family in Beed, Maharashtra, ostracised by its own people, is trying to come to terms with their son being labeled as a terror mastermind. In the second part of the terror trail, rediff.com's Prasanna D Zore travels to Beed, as he attempts to communicate with Zabiuddin's family.