India beat England by 150 runs in the fifth T20I at Mumbai, win T20I series 4-1
Mumbai, Feb 2 (PTI): India crushed England by 150 runs in the fifth and final T20I to take the series 4-1 with opener Abhishek Sharma scoring a blazing century, which was followed by a collective effort from the bowlers at the Wankhede Stadium here on Sunday.
Asked to bat first, a fired-up Abhishek unleashed seven boundaries and 13 sixes en route to 135 (54 balls) as he scored the second-fastest T20I century by an Indian batter off 37 balls to help the hosts amass 247 for 9.
Indian bowlers Mohammed Shami (3/25), Varun Chakravarthy (2/25), Shivam Dube (2/11) and Abhishek Sharma (2/3) then stifled the England batters, managing to dismiss them for 97 runs with 9.3 overs to spare.
Abhishek missed equalling Rohit Sharma's record of being the fastest Indian to score a T20I ton by just two balls. Rohit had hit a 35-ball T20I century for India against Sri Lanka in 2017.
Abhishek also scored a 17-ball half-century, which was the second fastest by an India, when he hit Jamie Overton for a massive six in the fifth over.
He also shared a 115-run second-wicket partnership with Tilak Varma (24).
Brief Scores:
India 247 for 9 in 20 overs (Abhishek Sharma 135, Tilak Varma 24, Shivam Dube 30; Brydon Carse 3/38, Mark Wood 2/32).
England 97 all out in 10.3 overs (Phil Salt 55; Mohammed Shami 3/25, Varun Chakravarthy 2/25, Shivam Dube 2/11, Abhishek Sharma 2/3).
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Delhi court sentences Haryana gangster Vikas Gulia, associate to life imprisonment
New Delhi (PTI): A Delhi court has sentenced Haryana gangster Vikas Gulia and his associate to life imprisonment under MCOCA provisions, but refused the death penalty saying the offences did not fall under the category of 'rarest of the rare cases'.
Additional Sessions Judge Vandana Jain sentenced Gulia and Dhirpal alias Kana to rigorous imprisonment for life under Section 3 (punishment for organised crime) of the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA).
In an order dated December 13, the judge said, "Death sentence can only be awarded in 'rarest of the rare cases' wherein the murder is committed in an extremely inhumane, barbarous, grotesque or dastardly manner as to arouse umbrage of the community at large."
The judge said that on weighing the aggravating and mitigating circumstances, it could be concluded that the present case did not fall under the category, and so, the death penalty could not be imposed upon the convicts.
"Thus, both the convicts are sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for life and to pay a fine of Rs 3 lakh each, for committing the offence under Section 3 of MCOCA," she said.
The public prosecutor, seeking the death penalty for both the accused, submitted that they were involved in several unlawful activities while they were on bail in other cases.
He argued that the accused had shown no respect for the law and acted without any fear of legal consequences, and therefore did not deserve any leniency from the court.
The court noted that both convicts were involved in offences of murder, attempt to murder, extortion, robbery, house trespass, and criminal intimidation. Besides, they had misused the liberty of interim bail granted to them by absconding.
It said, "The terror of the convicts was such that it created fear psychosis in the mind of the general public, and they lost complete faith in the law enforcement agencies and chose to accede to the illegal demands of convicts. Despite suffering losses, they could not gather the courage to depose against them."
The court noted that Gulia was involved in at least 18 criminal cases, while Dhirpal had links to 10 serious offences.
It underlined that MCOCA had been enacted "keeping in view the fact that organised crime had come up as a serious threat to society, as it knew no territorial boundaries and is fuelled by illegal wealth generated by committing the offence of extortion, contract killings, kidnapping for ransom, collection of protection money, murder, etc."
Both accused persons had been convicted on December 10 in a case registered at Najafgarh police station. The police filed a chargesheet under Section 3 (punishment for organised crime) and 4 (punishment for possessing unaccountable wealth on behalf of member of organised crime syndicate) of MCOCA.
