It is becoming more and more apparent that Shyamvar Rai is like an onion. And a pretty pungent one at that. As layer after layer of his life gets peeled off, in full view of the court, new layers of his character are exposed.
As the fire at a Bhandup mall which claimed the lives of nine COVID-19 patients admitted at the hospital in the same building was finally doused on Saturday, a case has been registered against HDIL promoter Rakesh Wadhawan and five others for 'culpable homicide'.
If an FIR had been registered by the Pen police -- instead of a mere entry in the station diary -- an investigation could have taken place and the body might have been identified as Sheena's, leading to the case being cracked much earlier.
Aaditya, son of Shiv Sena president and Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, dubbed the searches by the I-T department on Kanal as 'invasion by Delhi' ahead of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections.
A 22-year-old man was on Thursday sentenced to death by a local court for raping and murdering an eight-year-old girl.
The plea said that Gandhi's statements had hurt the sentiments of prime minister's supporters.
Without naming Waze's accomplice, the National Investigation Agency said certain "incriminating material" was also taken out by someone from the joint locker of Waze and his aide, who is a suspect in the case, from a bank located in Versova area in Mumbai.
NCP president Sharad Pawar said Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray will decide the fate of Home Minister Anil Deshmukh, who is facing corruption allegations by former Mumbai police chief Param Bir Singh.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Devendra Fadnavis on Sunday said Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar was trying to save the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in view of allegations of corruption levelled by former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh against state Home Minister Anil Deshmukh.
Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh resigned on Monday after the Bombay high court ordered a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into the allegations of extortion against him by former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh.
However, another senior cop and accused Pradeep Suryawanshi who was leading the encounter team was convicted for murder of Ram Narayan Gupta, a suspected aide of gangster Chhota Rajan. Twenty others, including 13 policemen, were also convicted for various charges
The gangster's wife, Richa Dubey, their son and maid were kept at a mahila police station in Kanpur after being brought from their Krishna Nagar residence in Lucknow for questioning, a police official said in Kanpur.
RSS ideologue M G Vaidya asked Congress vice president to clarify in what sense, he thinks, were Mahatma Gandhi's assassins associated with the organisation.
'Ram Sir was a creator of law. He has his stamp on every leading judgment in criminal law.'
Why had the CBI decided to have Waghmare tell the court the tale surrounding this odd trip to Kolkata made for even odder reasons, close to a year-and-a-half after Sheena's murder? To show the kind of person Indrani was? And that the murder of her daughter was not a heat of the moment crime, given Indrani was capable of other odd, suspicious, premeditated acts like this?
'Can we slip through the cracks in the alliance and use the situation to our advantage?'
The youths had earlier objected to being disciplined by the policeman Niteen Dondu Dagale.
'After Indrani's arrest did you go to the police and say I did this kind of forgery?'
'What this incident must do is provide a renewed impetus to urgently bring in police reforms; changes that will ensure that political patronage and extraneous pressure are reduced to a minimum and allow the police to function independently and honestly,' argues Vivek Gumaste.
When the hearings resume January 3, you wonder how many things will change and how many things will remain forever the same, as the Sheena Bora trial moves ahead.
'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.'
Maruti Warke's basic understanding illustrated how far outside the system most less privileged Indians are -- simple, innocent people barely but admirably eking out an existence, with almost no knowledge of their surroundings or owning even the basic smarts to go about life. The same people who instinctively and often astutely vote governments into and out of office in New Delhi without knowing the entire reality of this country. The folks who are actually the essence of India.
Shyamvar Pinturam Rai and Pradeep Waghmare. Both erstwhile employees of Peter and Indrani Mukerjea. In the witness stand on Monday, Waghmare came across as a cheerful, straightforward man who is attempting to clamber his way towards prosperity. In the witness stand on Friday, Rai shed his customary jauntiness and broke down weeping, begging forgiveness from CBI Special Judge Jayendra Chandrasen Jagdale.
As the weeks go by in this trial, it has emerged that Shyamvar Rai is that rare species of driver whose knowledge of distances, directions and routes surprisingly would not even fill the back of a postage stamp.
Lawyer: 'Did YOU not ever feel scared?' Shyamvar Rai: 'I am a driver, I said okay. Madam said it is your job...'
When it came to his cross examination by Sanjeev Khanna's lawyer Niranjan Mundargi, Imtiaz Shaikh appeared to be afflicted by that peculiar gap-in-one's-memory or Choosy Memory Syndrome with his recall of other dates in his life, except those directly related with the murder, shaky or non-existent.
The protesters blocked roads in several areas of Mumbai, forced shops to shut down.
It might have been the season of Basant Panchami, but for Pasbola it was definitely Halloween as he set about scaring the wits out of Rangwala, his tone growing harsher.
'I am an old man. 64 years... Never used influence.' 'I am not a politician or a criminal. What influence?' 'Retired. I could not protect myself even (from fabricated charges)?' 'Have no money now either.' 'I don't want to die in custody in disrepute.'
In the 25 odd days that he has appeared before CBI Special Judge Jayendra Chandrasen Jagdale, you have experienced the entire range of emotions just observing him. Everything from pity to irritation. To bafflement. And shock. You have scoured his face, gazed into his eyes, watched his expressions and body language, searching vigilantly for motives. And come away no wiser. Who is Shyamvar Rai? Does anybody know?
In the witness box, on bald embarrassing display, was not just Sub-Inspector Ganesh Dalvi, but the entire system of police investigation too.
Tuesday was the last that Courtroom 51 saw of Shyamvar Rai, accused No 3 and approver in the Sheena Bora murder trial. True to form, Rai's final hours in the witness box were rather acrimonious. His cross-examination at several points turned downright ugly.
As Peter sits outside the court with his sister, Indrani walks in with a request. It has been three months since Peter has started speaking to Indrani again, after a long silence of two years.
The attempts to unearth the document started getting more and more frantic. The clerks began to flip pages of files full of documents, some hand written, some bearing thick seals or multiple stamps, some in Hindi, some in Marathi. Several junior lawyers joined in, perusing different files and dockets. But in spite of the best of efforts the document was not to be found.
The lesson Waghmare sternly received on Monday from CBI Investigating Officer K K Singh and CBI Prosecutor Bharat Badami about the way a witness must answer questions from the defence seemed to have had only a marginal effect on him. On Tuesday the timid former office boy still chose, unpredictably and remarkably, to answer many a question in the manner of his choosing. He told the room categorically that he had asked Indrani's former secretary Kajal Sharma not to forge Sheena Bora's signature on her resignation letter.
Singh and Badami subsequently took Waghmare to a corner of the corridor outside, where others have no access, and gave him a lecture. The conversation was largely inaudible, except for a phrase here or there. The thrust was unmistakable. Waghmare had to learn not to give such detailed answers to the defence.
Throughout, Mekhail spoke calmly, with hardly an inflection making even the barest attempt to hijack his tone. His tone was so empty it made his narrative all the more touching. And ugly and grey, as the monsoon sky beyond the window.
Trepidation made its home firmly on his face on Thursday, announcing its presence with lines of anxiety and the repeated jumpy widening of his eyes.
It turned out that Indrani, who was wearing the Navratri Day 2 green, was fasting for the festival. That caused the impish CBI prosecutor Badami to ask her police detail, "looking for salvation?".
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.
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