Ranji Trophy: Delhi, Mumbai, Karnataka clubbed in same group; Bengal, Haryana get easy draw
New Delhi, (PTI): Heavyweights Mumbai, Karnataka and Delhi have been clubbed in virtual "group of Death" in the Ranji Trophy, which will start from January 5 next year.
Along with the multiple time Ranji champions are Hyderabad, Maharashtra and Uttarakhand in the Elite group C.
Defending champions Saurashtra are clubbed with Tamil Nadu, Railways, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand and Goa in Elite group D.
Last year's runners-up Bengal has a relatively easy group (Elite B) with Vidarbha, Haryana, Kerala, Tripura and Rajasthan.
Another interesting group will be Elite group A that has Gujarat, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Services and Assam.
The Elite E group has Andhra, Uttar Pradesh, Baroda, Odisha, Chattisgarh and Pondicherry.
The Plate group will comprise Chandigarh, Meghalya, Bihar, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh.
The six cities where matches will be played are Mumbai (Elite A), Bengaluru (Elite B), Kolkata (Elite C), Ahmedabad (Elite D), Trivandrum (Elite E) and Chennai (Plate).
There will be a five-day quarantine for teams ahead of each game.
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Excise scam: Delhi court discharges former CM Kejriwal, Sisodia, K Kavitha and 20 others
New Delhi (PTI): In a massive relief to the AAP's top leadership, a Delhi court on Friday discharged former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, his ex-deputy Manish Sisodia and 21 others in the politically charged liquor policy case by refusing to take cognisance of the CBI chargesheet against them.
Among the 21 people given a clean chit in the case is Telangana Jagruthi president K Kavitha.
Special Judge Jitendra Singh rapped the CBI for lapses in the investigation, saying that there was no cogent evidence against Kejriwal and there was no prima facie case against Sisodia and the other accused.
The CBI has been probing alleged corruption in the formulation and execution of the erstwhile AAP government's now-scrapped excise policy.
ALSO READ: Delhi court discharges Kejriwal, Sisodia in excise corruption case, rejects CBI chargesheet
Underscoring "some misleading averments", the judge said in his strongly worded statement that the voluminous chargesheet had several lacunas not corroborated by evidence or witnesses.
"... The chargesheet suffers from internal contradictions, striking at the root of conspiracy theory," he said.
He said that in the absence of any evidence, the allegations against Kejriwal could not be sustained and that the former chief minister was implicated without any cogent evidence.
This, the judge said, was inconsistent with the rule of law.
Regarding Sisodia, the judge said there was no material on record showing his involvement, nor was any recovery made from him.
The court underlined its finding of the absence of an overarching conspiracy or criminal intent in the excise policy while observing that the federal agency's case did not withstand judicial scrutiny, especially when the CBI sought to construct a narrative of conspiracy onmere conjecture.
It also rapped the agency for building its case through approver statements.
"If such conduct is allowed, it would be a grave violation of the Constitutional principles. The conduct where an accused is granted pardon and then made an approver, his statements used to fill the gaps in the investigation/narrative and make additional people accused is wrong," the court said.
The other accused discharged are Kuldeep Singh, Narender Singh, Vijay Nair, Abhishek Boinpally, Arun Ramchandra Pillai, Mootha Goutam, Sameer Mahendru, Amandeep Singh Dhall, Arjun Pandey, Butchibabu Gornatla, Rakesh Joshi, Damodar Prasad Sharma, Prince Kumar, Chanpreet Singh Rayat, Arvind Kumar Singh, Durgesh Pathak, Amit Arora, Vinod Chauhan, Ashish Mathur, and P Sarath Chadra Reddy.
