Cn Heard

No show
City’s residents have been puzzled about the lack of any big banner movie release in the last two weeks. Well,the trend is going to continue for better part of April and movie buffs can blame it to the frenzy of the Indian Premier League. Cinema industry is astute enough to know that people prefer spending their evening watching myriad leagues take on each other. The data certainly points towards this. Some IPL matches have had viewership of 42 million (in India alone),the majority of the audience is in the 15-35 years old and those who think that the game’s dominant following comprises men of all ages should know that 38 per cent of the audience is constituted by women.

Preity bad!
Punjab’s IPL team continues to disappoint. Contrary to the some people’s opinion,the locals in Chandigarh aren’t shedding tears over it. In fact,many of them were supporting Rajasthan Royals and Kolkata Knight Riders in the last two matches at the PCA Stadium. Kings XI’s co-owner Ness Wadia has been forthright in pointing that to cultivate loyalty on the basis of region is difficult when teams themselves are motley group of players from various regions. Wadia’s perspicacity apart,a lot of jocular SMSes are doing rounds about the team. Veer defeats Zara,was the popular one on Saturday night when Shahrukh Khan’s team defeated Preity Zinta’s. A more wicked one read- Preity’s famous hugs aren’t leading to any victories. Perhaps,it is time for some hard slaps.

One click please!
A Deputy Superintendent of Chandigarh Police,though was acting quite tough with media and excited fans to keep them at bay from the IPL teams and Bollywood actor Vivek Oberoi at Hotel Mountview. But later in the day,while the teams and the actor were leaving the hotel,he could not resist his temptation to get clicked with the Bollywood star. At last,he requested the media lensmen to click him once with the actor…

Where did the money go?
Even after interrogating the seven police personnel of the Special Task Force and its chief Ashok Sheoran,an ASP rank officer,for nearly two weeks,neither the Haryana Police,nor the state’s premier investigating agency Crime Branch,could even recover the ‘extorted’ amount of money — Rs. 4.6 lakh from the possession of the accused. The eight members of the STF including its head Ashok Sheoran were arrested on March 16 on charges of extorting money from people and committing dacoity. Sheoran’s close aide was also nabbed,but the police have yet failed to recover the money. The way Haryana Police had been hitting the headlines for all the wrong reasons,with the latest being STF embarassment,it appears that the state police chief – the head of this ‘notorious’ family need to crack whip to discipline the members of so-called disciplined force. The inefficiency of the state police,particularly in STF case investigation,is a typical example of what happens,when police interrogates police.