Notorious Surat bomber Tiger Hanif who is wanted in India after a double bombing that killed an eight-year-old schoolgirl and injured 38 in 1993, has been enjoying a life of impunity for the last 14 years under the alias of Mohammed Patel.

Scotland Yard had traced him to Bolton, Lancashire, where he had been working as a greengrocer leading to his detention in February and subsequent remand in custody.

But a British High Court judge hearing his case has decided to grant conditional bail to the cold-blooded killer as he awaits extradition much to the consternation of the police.

Hanif will face up to 20 years in an Indian jail for his crimes, and has been on the Interpol's 'Most Wanted' list with his photograph being circulated widely.

He is said to have altered his appearance to enter Britain using a fake identity under which he was initially refused asylum in the country but later granted a passport.

"The extradition might not happen," The Sun quoted Hanif's friend, as saying.

Hanif''s solicitor claims he could be tortured in India. He is due back in court in London next month.

In the 1993 attacks a bomb exploded near a school and a grenade was lobbed at a train. Police think they were to avenge the destruction of a mosque by Hindu extremists.
 

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Over a dozen people were injured as Srinagar was rocked by protests over alleged blasphemous sketches against Islam on Saturday.
 
Heavy police and paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) reinforcements were moved in after trouble erupted as news about a blasphemous sketch on some garments against Islam spread fast here on Saturday morning.

"The garments in question have been seized and the sketches do not have any similarity to any Muslim place of worship," a police officer said.  
 

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Goa Tourism minister Francisco "Mickey" Pacheco, resigned on Saturday following protests over the mysterious death of his alleged female companion.

Nadia Torrado, 27, had  consumed rat poison last month and been shifted to Jupiter Hospital in Thane. She needed a liver transplant and was shifted to Chennai where she passed away. The NCP legislator who handles tourism and ports in Goa, is reported to have accompanied her to Chennai. Female activists in Goa have been demanding accountability on the minister's part for Torrado's death. Pacheco's first wife Sarah had accused him of bigamy. Pacheco is now married to businesswoman Viola Fernandez. Torrado is reportedly his companion.
 

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An Indian woman and an 18-month-old child, believed to be her daughter, were found dead in Tauranga city of New Zealand, a media report said on Monday.

The 32-year-old woman's body was discovered in a house in the suburb of Otumoetai on Sunday, while the body of the girl was found on Monday, the New Zealand Herald reported.

Meanwhile, a 23-year-old Indian was arrested in this connection and was remanded in custody till Thursday by a local court, the report said.

The baby has been identified as Anna Sangha, while the woman has yet to be named. Police are investigating a double homicide.

"The house was initially searched, mindful of preserving the integrity of the evidence in the crime scene," the paper quoted senior police officer Mike Clement as saying.

A family member, believed to be the husband of the dead woman, is currently travelling back to New Zealand, the paper said.

The bodies would be taken to Auckland for post-mortem examination, the police said.
 

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Ten people died and thousands were left homeless as tropical cyclone Phet brought heavy rain and flooding to Pakistan's coast, officials said on Monday.

The chief port of Karachi was spared the brunt of the cyclone, which made landfall 80 km to the south at Thatta district late Sunday.

Qamaruz Zaman Chaudhry, the head of Pakistan's Meteorological Department, said low-lying areas of Thatta's coast bore the brunt of the storm with waves up to five metres high.

At least 10 people were electrocuted in Karachi where heavy rains disrupted power transmission. Dozens were admitted to hospitals with injuries from rain-related accidents, said Mohammed Younus, a spokesman for the private Edhi Rescue Service.

Several flights were cancelled or delayed at Karachi international airport.

About 20,000 people were stranded in Gawadar, a port city in the south-western province of Balochistan, where 350 mm of rain fell within 24 hours.

"Our people are carrying out rescue and relief activities round the clock," district official Pasand Khan Buledi said.
 

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For the second time in 10 days, a major disaster was averted at the airport in Mumbai when an alert Air Traffic Control (ATC) asked a Kingfisher flight to do a go-around as it was about to land after a SpiceJet plane got stuck on the runway.

About 270 persons including the crew members were on both the planes when the incident happened last night.

A SpiceJet flight SG 206 (Mumbai-Chennai) with 109 passengers and three infants on board was about to take-off from runway 27 at around 2100 hours last night when it developed a technical snag, a week after a similar incident here.

This was around the same time a Kingfisher Airlines flight from New Delhi was in the process of landing on the same runway.

However, the ATC, just in the nick of time, asked the pilot of the Kingfisher plane to do a go-around till the runway was cleared for landing, thereby preventing a mishap.

"Shortly before the Kingfisher Airline flight IT 318 was to land at Mumbai Airport, the ATC requested the captain of the flight to do a go-around. The Captain immediately complied with the ATC instruction and was revectored a fresh approach," the spokesperson said.

The aircraft, which was coming from Delhi with 147 passengers and eight crew, landed at Mumbai Airport shortly thereafter, he said.

A SpiceJet spokesperson said that the commander of the aircraft just followed the ATC instructions. "SpiceJet followed all instructions of the ATC and so did the Kingfisher Airline," the spokesperson said.

A DGCA source said that as per allowed ATC norms, the SpiceJet flight abandoned take-off on runway 27 due to a technical snag and vacated via number N4 and went back to bay.

"Kingfisher flight Delhi-Mumbai was advised to go-around and landed after the runway was cleared," the source said.

On May 27, a major disaster was averted at the airport here as a Jet Airways plane was asked to abort landing at the last minute after an IndiGo aircraft entered the runway.

Raajneeti, writer-director Prakash Jha’s sprawling portrait of a political family, is a mixed bag. The film has moments of ferocious power and just as many flaws.

The narrative has a propulsive movement in the first half but becomes dramatically inert in the second. Jha, who has fought elections in Bihar himself, creates a real sense of the machinations and sordid deals that fuel politics but then hobbles it with outlandish twists and some decidedly ‘filmy’ moments – like a ridiculous love-making scene that is triggered because the characters get wet in the rain.

Apparently getting soaked in Bollywood still equals sex. And, as almost all the female characters in this film find out, having sex even one time, still equals babies.

The performances are strong—especially Ranbir Kapoor, Arjun Rampal and Nana Patekar—but the characters are largely one-note.

There has been much hype about Katrina Kaif learning lengthy Hindi dialogue for the film. She’s clearly worked hard but her luminous looks rather than acting are still her trump card.

Raajneeti is a film with ambition and scale but it works in fits and spurts. Jha’s political epic is too busy and bumpy and never quite fulfils the potential inherent in the story.

Raajneeti sources as much from The Godfather as it does from the Mahabharata. So we have sets of cousins whose rivalry spills into the open as soon as the head of the family suffers a stroke.

The film begins with a back-story of Sooraj Kumar, the Karna-like figure played by Ajay Devgn. Abandoned at birth, Sooraj is adopted by a Dalit family.

In quick succession, so many characters are introduced that Jha uses a voice-over to explain who is connected to whom and what the political affiliations are. It takes a good 15 minutes to take in the details and place the characters but the story-telling is engaging and soon you’re caught up with this Machiavellian family in which the plotting begins even as the father is still being treated by doctors. As the stakes get higher, the moves get bloodier.

Eventually, Samar Pratap, the Michael Corleone figure played by Ranbir Kapoor, the young brother who is working on a PhD on Victorian poetry, gets sucked into the murderous struggle for power.

Until here, Jha and his co-writer Anjum Rajabali tell the story with assurance and flair. But then the momentum dips and the intrigues become less and less interesting. Critically, Samar’s conversion to a ruthless murderer isn’t convincing. One minute he’s the student and the next, he, like everyone else is trigger-happy with bombs and guns.

Jha even borrows The Godfather’s famous severed horse-head scene.

Only here, a politician wakes up to find his male lover’s throat slit. Sadly, the gut-wrenching twist, when Kunti reveals to Karna that he is her son and therefore warring with his own brothers, is not done very effectively.

For the true power and emotion of that moment, watch Shyam Benegal’s Kalyug, in which the Mahabharata is transported to a business milieu. Shashi Kapoor who plays the Karna figure crumples slowly as he becomes aware of his own tragedy.

In its second hour, Raajneeti lets go of logic. We know that politics is an amoral, brutal cesspool but even so, leading politicians themselves murdering their rivals on a street in broad daylight is a bit of a stretch.

In a climactic shoot-out, we even have a perverted version of the Gita sermon in which the Krishna figure, played by Nana Patekar, insists on cold-blooded murder. Come on, finish them, he says.

Of course there is no one to root for in this gallery of rogues but more troublesome is the specious morality of the film. After a few feeble apologies, Samar Pratap finds a semblance of redemption.

Eventually then, Raajneeti is as exhausting as it is compelling.

Jun 4, 2010,

DELHI: Union minister Sharad Pawar on Friday dismissed reports of his family's involvement in the City Corporation's failed bid for the Pune IPL team, saying the construction company's Managing Director made the attempt in his individual capacity.

Amid reports alleging Pawar family's shareholding in the company, which ultimately lost the bid to the Sahara Group, Pawar said, "I have stated earlier also that neither I nor any of my family members were involved in any IPL team or the bidding process and I reiterate that statement."

The Pawar family reportedly has a sizeable shareholding in the Pune-based company but the former BCCI President insisted that the company's Managing Director Aniruddha Deshpande was given permission by its Board of Directors to get involved in the bid in an individual capacity.

"We were not involved at all in the bidding process. Even in the report, Mr Deshpande has made his position absolutely clear," the ICC President-elect told reporters.

"In City Corporation's board meeting on the 16th and 17th of that month, the board took a unanimous decision not (to get) involved. (But) the managing director was eager to get associated with the bidding process, so he was allowed in his individual capacity," he said without specifying the month in which the meeting took place.

"In (the Board's) resolution, it was made absolutely clear that there is no direct or indirect involvement of any shareholder other then Mr Deshpande personally," he said.

Pawar rubbished suggestions of any underhand dealing in the bidding process, saying if he had used his influence, the company wouldn't have lost to Sahara.

"Mr Deshpande, Maharashtra Cricket Association and Akruti of Mumbai collectively tried to get this bid but they did not succeed. Neither Mr Deshpande nor his colleagues succeeded in getting IPL teams. The effort was made, that is correct ... but they didn't get the bid," he said.

"I was somebody in that organisation. Had I used any influence, do you think it would have lost the bid?" he asked.

Pawar reiterated that the IPL is clean and there is nothing murky about the ownership patterns and financial transactions in the league.

"There is no corruption. The government agencies are inquiring. Anyone who has done anything wrong will be punished. Investigating agencies will take care of it," he said.

4 hurt in accident as cops tie arrested man's hands and ask him to drive them to police station

An arrested man's hands were tied with a rope and he was told to get behind the wheel of a car that he admitted he had stolen. The result was an accident involving three cars and at least two bikes on Jangali Maharaj Road, and four people injured.

 
The vehicle damaged in the accident on Jangali Maharaj Road.
 
Rajendra Shivaji Babar (40), the man asked by the police to drive to the Kothrud police station as they sat in the car, has 60 housebreakings to his name in police records.

"Why did the police allow a history-sheeter to drive a stolen car while his hands were still tied with a rope?" said one of the injured, requesting anonymity.

Babar, a resident of Wai in Satara, and his accomplice Appalal Alisaheb Padu (25) were being taken from the Shivajinagar court to the Kothrud police station. They had been taken to the court because Babar had confessed to having parked a stolen car there.

Asked to drive the car with his hands tied, Babar drove fast, and when he took a sharp left turn, his vehicle rammed into three cars and at least two bikes, injuring four people.

One of the injured was Devidas Dolare (25) who collects money at the J M road parking lot. Babar was caught by a mob of people near Sambhaji Park, but three constables named Rajage, Sayyad, and Jagtap immediately stepped in and took charge of the situation. Babar and Padu were then driven to the Deccan police station.

Three of the four injured in the accident said the police were only interested in not letting Babar escape and did not pay any attention to the injured. Babar's vehicle hit a Maruti Zen and a bike, which came under the Zen's front wheels. Injured biker Azar Nur Jamal Shiekh (20) said, "The cops did not ask me about my injuries."

Azar's bike also hit another bike, and its rider Sudhi Dattatray Nimbalkar fell down.  The Zen hit a parked car and IDBI manager Chandrashekhar Dhondopant Kulkarni
 

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He may be Indian television's first superhero -- Shaktimaan -- who brought baddies to task, but in real life Mukesh Khanna has little choice but to turn to the police for protection. After getting a life-threatening call, the actor filed a complaint at the Samata Nagar police station last night.

On Wednesday at 7.15 pm, Khanna received a call at his office in Thakur Complex. The call was answered by his manager Ramesh Pandya.

According to the complaint, as soon as Pandya answered the phone, the caller started hurling abuses. "The caller then asked for Khanna, but when I informed that he was not in office, the caller threatened to kill him on June 5. He used foul language," said Pandya in his complaint to the cops.

Pandya informed Khanna about the call immediately, but it was only last night that they approached the police.  
 
Bhausaheb Ahir, assistant police inspector, Samta Nagar police station, said, "We have received the threat and abuse complaint. We will provide Khanna with security and have also spoken to MTNL to trace the number from where the call was made, as the actor's office phone did not have caller ID."
 

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