The CBI is beginning to tighten the noose around Amit Shah, the former Gujarat home minister and a close aide of chief minister Narendra Modi. Highly-placed CBI sources have revealed that controversial senior Gujarat police official D.G. Vanzara, who is currently under suspension, has told CBI interrogators that Mr Shah had personally cleared and supervised high-profile alleged fake encounters of Sohrabuddin Sheikh, Tulsiram Prajapati and Ishrat Jahan.

A Mumbai-based bookie fixed an IPL match for `6 crore after striking deals with four players of Sunrisers Hyderabad, according to a statement by this bookie that has been included by the Mumbai police crime branch in its chargesheet filed on Saturday.

There are just 80 days left for the bill on Telangana to be brought before Parliament. There is just the Winter Session of Parliament intervening before the May 2014 polls and doubts are being expressed about whether the formalities can be completed in this time-frame.

Bowing to his conscience, solicitor-general Mohan Parasaran has withdrawn from pleading the Centre’s petition before the Supreme Court for the implementation of the Sethusamudram Shipping Channel Project. While his reason on the record is that his father K. Parasaran, eminent lawyer and former attorney-general, is appe-aring for one of the petitioners arguing against the Sethu project, there is a strong second reason too — Mr Parasaran’s devotion to Lord Ram.

Narendra Modi was on Sunday again at the receiving end of Congress leader Digvijay Singh, who dubbed the BJP’s PM candidate as “Feku Modi” giving “fake” figures of growth, wondering whether a “leopard can change its spots”.

The regional Asom Gana Parishad president and two-time chief minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta has joined hands with Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief and former Andhra Pradesh chief minister N. Chandrababu Naidu to form an independent forum of regional political parties which will be maintaining a “safe distance” from pro-Congress regional forces, like Janata Dal United and Rashtriya Janata Dal in Bihar.

Praising the Atal Advani’s NDA government, BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi challenged UPA leaders to submit a performance report on nine-years of rule.

With the BJP desperately searching for new friends, TDP leader N. Chandrababu Naidu on Sunday kept all guessing, while not ruling out return to the NDA fold.

I was inside Nakumatt for my rounds on Saturday. Around midday, I heard bullets being fired at the entrance of the mall. As the customers rushed inside, I quickly moved to the entrance of the supermarket to check if it was a robbery, but realised after 10 minutes that they were terrorists, as they were killing everyone who came in front of them.

The Navi Mumbai police has pointed to a few lapses in the security escort given to Afzal Usmani, who escaped from the sessions court on Friday afternoon. Police sources said the escort party failed to place an officer at the end of the queue that escorts the accused, which would have allowed the officer to monitor the movements.