Sharjah, Jan 15: Indian football team head coach Stephen Constantine has stepped down after the team's shock 0-1 defeat to Bahrain which led to its exit from the showpiece Asian Cup.

The All India Football Federation, in its official twitter handle, said that the 56-year-old Constantine has resigned.

"Mr. @StephenConstan has announced his resignation as the Head Coach of the Indian National Team. We haven't received any official communication from him yet but we accept his decision & thank him for his contribution to #Indianfootball: Mr. Kushal Das, General Secretary, AIFF," the tweet said.

His contract was to end on January 31.

Constantine's resignation came after India crashed out of the showpiece Asian Cup under dramatic circumstances here Monday.

India were on the verge of booking its maiden knockout round berth as the final Group A match was 0-0 till the 90th minute when Bahrain earned a penalty which the West Asian team converted to win the game under dramatic circumstances.

India needed just a draw to qualify for the Round of 16 but the defeat meant that it finished at the bottom of the four-team Group A to crash out of the tournament.

The Anglo-Cypriot coach took over the reigns of the team in 2015 for an initial two-year tenure. He was given one-year contract extension twice.

It was his second stint as India coach after serving as coach in 2002-05.

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Bengaluru (PTI): The Karnataka High Court on Monday extended the interim relief given to Bollywood actor Ranveer Singh till March 9, in a case related to mimicking a character from the movie, 'Kantara Chapter-1', and allegedly mocking a deity.

The actor had approached the High Court seeking the quashing of the FIR against him for mimicking Rishab Shetty's role as 'Chavunda' deity in the movie.

While mimicking, Singh had called the deity a "ghost". The actor was asked to appear before the court in person on Monday.

Appearing on behalf of the actor, his counsel Sajjan Poovayya said Singh was stuck in London and was unable to reach Bengaluru due to the conflict in West Asia.

The complainant, who is a lawyer, alleged that his religious sentiments were hurt by calling the deity a ghost. On the directions of a local Court, the police registered a case against the actor.

The High Court on February 24 granted interim relief to the actor with directions to the police not to take any coercive steps against him.