Indonesian Masters: HS Prannoy to lead Indian charge after Satwik-Chirag pulls out
Jakarta, Jan 22: Singles ace HS Prannoy will spearhead the Indian challenge at the Indonesian Masters Super 500 badminton tournament beginning here on Tuesday after the pull-out of crack doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Ran kireddy and Chirag Shetty.
Having finished runners-up in back-to-back tournaments of Malaysia Super 1000 and India Open Super 750, the reigning Asian Games champions have given the tournament a miss with an eye on their workload with a gruelling season ahead of them.
The duo's absence may have taken some sheen of the tournament, but world No. 9 Prannoy will look to keep the Indian flag high continuing his consistent run.
Prannoy is only seeded Indian player at No. 7 in the men's singles draw of 32 as he will begin his campaign against Loh Kean Yew of Singapore, against whom the Indian has a 4-1 win-loss record.
The world No. 11 Yew's solitary win against Prannoy was at the 2021 World Championships and since then the Indian has won twice in a row with the last coming in bronze-medal winning run at the last year's World Championship.
Besides the that coveted bronze medal, Prannoy won the Malaysia Masters and finished second in the Australian Open last year.
He has been at his consistent best and had a last-four after being ousted by eventual champion Yu Qi Shi of China in the Indian Open last week.
Before that, Prannoy made an opening round exit in the Malaysia Open Super 1000.
The other Indian, who will be in focus will be world No. 19 Lakshya Sen, looking to end his opening round jinx, when he is up against Weng Hong Yang of China.
The world No. 16 Chinese has a 3-2 win-loss ratio against the young Indian and goes into the match on the back of his Malaysia Open win less than two weeks back.
Since his Canada Open triumph last year, Sen has been on a downward spiral and has capped eight opening round exits in a row.
Last week, Sen lost to his Indian teammate Priyanshu Rajawat in the Indian Open as the former World No 8 will look to find his mojo.
World Bo. 25 Kidambi Srikanth is also in fray and will face Lee Zii Jia of Malaysia, while 30th ranked Rajawat will be up against Rasmus Gemke of Denmark.
In Chirag and Satwik's absence, MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila will be the lone Indians in fray in men's doubles as they will be up against Malaysia's Goh Sze Fei and Nur Izzuddin in the opening round.
No Indians will be fray in the women's doubles and mixed doubles events.
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Mere breakup not enough for abetment to suicide: Delhi HC
New Delhi (PTI): Merely breaking up may not amount to instigation for a case of abetment of suicide under the criminal law, the Delhi High Court has said.
Justice Manoj Jain made the observation while dealing with a bail plea by a man accused of abetting the suicide of his former partner, who hanged herself five days after his marriage to another woman.
Granting bail to the accused, the court observed that the instigation should be of such a nature that leaves the deceased with no option but to commit suicide.
It said only a trial would establish whether the deceased's "extreme step" was on account of provocation, instigation, "merely on account of her being hyper-sensitive girl" or for some other reason.
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In the present case, the court noted, there was no dying declaration, and the parties were in a relationship for around eight years, during which there was no complaint from the deceased.
The court observed there was a considerable time gap between the date when the parties stopped talking and the date of the suicide.
"Apparently, it seems to be a case of a broken relationship and quite possibly, the deceased, having come to know that the applicant has got married to someone else, has chosen to finish herself," the court said in the order passed on February 24.
"Though broken relationship and heartbreaks have become common these days, mere breaking-up of relationship may not per se constitute instigation so as to make it to be a case of abetment under Section 108 BNS (abetment of suicide)," the court order read.
According to the father of the deceased, his daughter had been trapped by the accused, who pressured her to convert to his religion for marriage, and it was under such pressure that his daughter committed suicide by hanging herself with a chunni in October 2025.
The accused was arrested in November 2025.
The court observed that, according to the woman's friends, she was upset, and they never claimed anything on conversion. The accused had stopped talking to her from February 2025 onwards, it said.
According to the order, the man was let out on bail on a personal bond and surety bond of Rs 25,000 each.
The accused submitted that the parties were in a cordial relationship for around eight years, but the woman's parents were against the relationship since they belonged to different religions.
He alleged that it was her parents who forced her to sever the relationship.
