Shiney Ahuja gets judicial custody till July 2

In a relief of sorts for Bollywood actor Shiney Ahuja who is facing a rape charge, a Mumbai court Thursday did not extend his police custody and sent him to judicial custody till July 2.
Shiney was arrested Sunday after his teenaged housemaid complained to police that he had raped her. His police custody ended Thursday.

Making a plea for extending his police custody, the police lawyer said it was necessary to carry out further investigations and to prevent the accused from tampering with evidence or influencing witnesses.

However, Shiney's lawyer Shrikant Shivade argued that since the investigations were almost completed, there was no need for his further police custody.

Accepting the defendant's contention, the magistrate of the Andheri court sent him to judicial custody.

Shivade later told mediapersons that he would appeal against the court order and seek bail for the accused actor.

The lawyer clarified that Shiney has not made any confession of rape as speculated in a section of the media.

The actor's wife Anupam, who was present in the court, expressed her satisfaction with the court ruling and said: 'Shiney's one step closer home.'

Anupam had put up a spirited defence of her husband Wednesday, telling the media that Shiney was being framed in the rape case as he is a celebrity and a soft target. She, however, declined to name who was behind the frame-up.

Under judicial custody, the actor will be lodged in the high-security Arthur Road Jail in south Mumbai.

The jail also houses Pakistani terrorist Mohammed Ajmal Amir alias Kasab and the Special Court where the Mumbai terror attacks trial is being held by Special Judge M.L. Tahilyani.

The Oshiwara police late Sunday picked up Shiney from his Versova home after his maid lodged the rape complaint.

Later, the investigators searched Shiney's house and sent him and the victim for medical and DNA tests.

The complainant-victim hails from Kokbaan village in the coastal Konkan region of western Maharashtra, and lived in Vasai suburb of neighbouring Thane district. She commuted daily by train from Vasai to Andheri to work at Shiney's residence for the past one year.

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Movie Review : Ek: The Power of One

Ek: The Power of One (Drama)
Cast: Bobby Deol, Nana Patekar, Shriya Sharan
Direction: Sangeeth Sivan
Duration: 2 hours 10 minutes Critic's Rating:**

Someone's suddenly woken up, pulled this out of the cans and peddled it as brand new cinema. Sad. The ruse doesn't work. For the viewer immediately sees through the stale plot and narration and wonders why Bobby Deol would do something he's done before: sleepwalk through a role as an assassin who suddenly gives up his trigger-happy ways for a change of heart and role. Actually, he wasn't too bad in films like Baadal and Bichoo, which showcased his bleeding heart once the bullets had all been fired. But here, he simply chooses to do a ramp walk through the rough and tumble of a mercenary's life, complete with designer glares, guns and goth make-up.

Nandu, the man from nowhere, is hired by a CM aspirant to fake-out an assassination and help garner the sympathy votes. But the killing turns out to be real and before you can say whodunit, Nandu is on the run, ending up in distant Hoshiyarpur. He enters a pucca Punjabi household as their long-lost son and begins on his arduous journey of remorse and redemption, with the large extended family gorging him with sarson ka saag and sermons. Of course, he gets enough time to flex his muscles here too, as there are a whole bunch of bad farmers ready to usurp his adopted dadaji's land. But bone-crunching is relatively easy for our crook-turned-saviour compared to the nosey investigations of the CBI officer (Nana Patekar) who is determined to nab the politician's killer.

It's Nana Patekar's tapori act as the hard nosed cop which actually saves the day for this dismal film which keeps drifting into schmaltzy family business, whenever the action revs up. Watch it only if you want to see what old-fashioned Bollywood looked like, before the smart new wave swept away the cobwebs.

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Deepika sizzles on ramp

It’s a model arrangement – with so many models making the jump to films,the Bollywood showstopper at designers’ shows already knows the ropes.

And Deepika Padukone, who walked the ramp for Tarun Tahiliani at the Delhi fashion Week, was in her element. The looker was a natural on the ramp, and she felt at home on it, too. “Delhi is the hub of fashion and where I started modelling,” she said.

So, has a lot changed since her days as a model? “The scene backstage was almost the same. The only new thing was the many international faces, which is encouraging,” she says.

Deepika is now based in Mumbai, but she’s all for Delhi designers. “The clothes that they make are wearable and very creative,” she says. Maybe that’s why she’s coming back to walk the ramp again this week – at the Wills Lifestyle India fashion Week, for Ranna Gill and Rina Dhaka, and she says she’s going to catch up with friends in Delhi.

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