Beyond the headlines in Pune

Trapped man 

If there is one person who will start walking the stairs instead of using the lifts, it will be special public prosecutor Ujwal Nikam. The lawyer, who has pleaded many cases successfully — including the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts and the 9/11 Mumbai terrorist attack — on behalf of the state government, was recently trapped in a lift at the Pune district court. Nikam and his security guard were stuck in the basement of the building. Several agonising minutes later, a special branch police constable used the spare keys to the lift door to rescue the lawyer. After stepping out of the lift, Nikam gave one long look at the contraption before walking away; almost suggesting that he would never use this lift again.

‘Not Singham, say Dabangg’ 

The controversial former rural superintendent of police, Sandip Karnik, who sought a transfer to Mumbai after the infamous police firing on farmers in Maval taluka, was a man always in the news. He had made the front pages for treating 150 of his officers to the Bollywood flick, Singham, based on a police officer’s life. The ripples of Karnik’s short stint in Pune are still being felt on the ground.

During the recent Ganesh immersion ceremonies, one of the crime reporters complimented a junior police officer by saying, “Sir, you look like Dabangg’s Salman Khan.”  The flattered officer quickly pointed to his senior next to him and said that he was Dabangg. The cheeky, crime reporter said, “No sir, he is not Dabangg, he is Singham.” The alarmed senior officer quickly responded by saying, “Please don’t say Singham, lest I get transferred!”

Scourge of paid news

The phenomenon of paid news seems to have seeped into the psyche of some people. Several political candidates are now assuming that journalists calling them before elections are doing so only for paid news. Our political reporter got a taste of this when he called a candidate for an interview appointment. The candidate blatantly asked him, “How much would I have to pay for the news?” Our colleague had to convince the candidate that he was not after money, but just an interview!

Games politicians play 

Politicians can be childish, and how. At the recent Congress meet held in Chinchwad (Pune), chaired by the chief minister, the Pimpri-Chinchwad Congress unit president and the local women’s wing members were at loggerheads over the appointment of the women wing president. The president, therefore, deliberately kept the women’s group at arm’s length, allotting them the last row. There were stickers affixed on each chair. However, the peeved women’s group actually tore out the stickers and replaced them with their names and occupied the front rows, just behind the CM. If that was not all, the women’s group even went up to the podium to present the CM with a sword. This resulted in a war of words between the unit president and the women’s group after the event. However, sensing the presence of the media, the unit president quickly issued a statement stating that all was well between the two groups.

Politics, the last resort 

One of our reporter colleagues was surprised to see that a long-time college friend had actually chucked a private sector job and joined politics as a worker in the Congress party. According to our colleague, his friend, now in his 40s, was always changing jobs and could never stick to one job for long.  Apparently, the friend had been a real estate agent, reiki master, stockbroker, wine exporter and a spiritualist. Asked why it was politics now, the friend said, “If you do not succeed in anything in life, politics is the best option. There is big money to be made very easily.”