Vikram Varma is an Indian advocate based in Goa who is originally from New Delhi. He achieved prominence in representing highly publicized cases by the news media, mostly involving foreigners, such as the Scarlett Keeling case. The Keeling case started when some local authorities tried to cover up the death of a 15-year-old British girl as a drowning accident. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]
The Russian Consulate appointed Varma as their advocate in Goa. [6] [7]
On 4 December 2011, the Russian Government used one of Varma's premises as a polling booth for its national elections. As this was the first time that voting facilities were provided to Russians in India outside of its embassy, it was widely reported by the Indian media such as Times of India and DNA. [8]
Rahul Rajiv Gandhi is an Indian politician. A member of the Indian National Congress (INC), he is currently serving as the 12th Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha and as the member of the Lok Sabha for Rae Bareli, Uttar Pradesh, since June 2024. He previously represented the constituency of Wayanad, Kerala, from 2019 to 2024, and Amethi, Uttar Pradesh, from 2004 to 2019. Gandhi served as the party president of the Indian National Congress from December 2017 to July 2019 and is the chairperson of the Indian Youth Congress, the National Students Union of India, and a trustee of the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation and Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust. He is a member of the Nehru–Gandhi political family.
Theresa Mary May, Baroness May of Maidenhead,, is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2016 to 2019. She previously served as Home Secretary from 2010 to 2016. She was Member of Parliament (MP) for Maidenhead from 1997 to 2024, and has been a member of the House of Lords since August 2024. May is the second female British prime minister, after Margaret Thatcher, and the first woman to have held two of the Great Offices of State. Ideologically, May is a one-nation conservative.
Sir David Michael Davis is a British Conservative Party politician serving as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Goole and Pocklington. He was previously the MP for Haltemprice and Howden and, before that, for Boothferry, where he was first elected in 1987. He served as Shadow Home Secretary from 2003 to 2008 and Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union from 2016 to 2018. Davis was sworn of the Privy Council in the 1997 New Year Honours, having previously been Minister of State for Europe from 1994 to 1997.
Shatrughan Prasad Sinha is an Indian actor and politician. He is a Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha from Asansol constituency as a member of All India Trinamool Congress (TMC). Earlier he was elected as Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha from Patna Sahib. He was also a Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha during 1996–2002 and 2002–2008. He was a Union Cabinet Minister of Health and Family Welfare and Shipping in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government. He was a member of standing committee on transport, tourism and culture and member of consultative committee in ministry of external affairs and overseas Indian affairs from 2014 to 2019. In 2016, his biography, Anything but Khamosh, was released.
Penmetsa Ram Gopal Varma, often referred to by his initials RGV, is an Indian film director, screenwriter and producer, known for his works in Telugu cinema in addition to Hindi, Kannada language films, and television. Varma has directed films across multiple genres, including parallel cinema and docudrama noted for their gritty realism, technical finesse, and craft. Regarded as one of the pioneers of new age Indian cinema, he was featured in the BBC World series Bollywood Bosses in 2004. In 2006, Grady Hendrix of Film Comment, published by the Film at Lincoln Center cited Varma as "Bombay's Most Successful Maverick" for his works on experimental films.
Raj Shrikant Thackeray is an Indian politician and the founding chairperson of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), a regional political party. He is the nephew of ShivSena Founder Balasaheb Thackeray.
Save Indian Family Foundation (SIFF) is a men's rights group in India. It is a registered, non-funded, non-profit, non-governmental organization (NGO) and works with various like-minded NGOs in India.
The Ipswich serial murders, commonly known as the work of the Suffolk Strangler, took place between 30 October and 10 December 2006, during which time the bodies of five murdered sex workers were discovered at different locations near Ipswich, Suffolk, England. Their bodies were discovered naked but there were no signs of sexual assault. Two of the victims, Anneli Alderton and Paula Clennell, were confirmed to have been killed by asphyxiation. A cause of death for the other victims, Gemma Adams, Tania Nicol and Annette Nicholls, was not established.
Narendra Achyut Dabholkar was an Indian physician, social activist, rationalist and author from Maharashtra, India. In 1989 he founded and became president of the Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti. Triggered by his assassination in 2013, the pending Anti-Superstition and Black Magic Ordinance was promulgated in the state of Maharashtra, four days later. In 2014, he was posthumously awarded the Padma Shri for social work.
An extrajudicial killing is the deliberate killing of a person without the lawful authority granted by a judicial proceeding. It typically refers to government authorities, whether lawfully or unlawfully, targeting specific people for death, which in authoritarian regimes often involves political, trade union, dissident, religious and social figures. The term is typically used in situations that imply the human rights of the victims have been violated; deaths caused by legal police actions or legal warfighting on a battlefield are generally not included, even though military and police forces are often used for killings seen by critics as illegitimate. The label "extrajudicial killing" has also been applied to organized, lethal enforcement of extralegal social norms by non-government actors, including lynchings and honor killings.
The World's End Murders is the colloquial name given to the murder of two girls, Christine Eadie, 17, and Helen Scott, 17, in Edinburgh, in October 1977. The case is so named because both victims were last seen alive leaving The World's End pub in Edinburgh's Old Town. The only person to stand trial accused of the murders, Angus Robertson Sinclair, was acquitted in 2007 in controversial circumstances. Following the amendment of the law of double jeopardy, which would have prevented his retrial, Sinclair was retried in October 2014 and convicted of both murders on 14 November 2014. He was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 37 years, the longest sentence by a Scottish court, meaning he would have been 106 years old when he was eligible for a potential release on parole. He died at HM Prison Glenochil aged 73 on 11 March 2019. Coincidentally, he died on the same day the BBC's Crimewatch Roadshow programme profiled the murders.
Yeduguri Sandinti Jagan Mohan Reddy, also known mononymously as Jagan, is an Indian politician, currently serving as the Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) representing Pulivendula Assembly constituency in the Andhra Pradesh Legislative assembly. He served as the 17th Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh from 2019 to 2024, and is the current president of the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP). He is also the son of Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy.
Goa is a 2010 Indian Tamil-language romantic comedy film written by Sampath Ravi and directed by Venkat Prabhu in his third directorial project. Starring his regular cast consisting of Jai, Vaibhav, and Premji along with Aravind Akash, Sampath Raj, Piaa Bajpai, Sneha, and the debutant Australian model Melanie Marie in other roles, the film is the first production of Soundarya Rajinikanth's Ocher Picture Productions. Actors Silambarasan Rajendar, Nayantara and Prasanna make guest appearances in the film, which features music composed by Yuvan Shankar Raja, whilst cinematography is handled by Sakthi Saravanan and the film is edited by K. L. Praveen and N. B. Srikanth.
Social Democratic Party of India, popularly known as SDPI, is a radical Islamist, fundamentalist Indian political party founded on 21 June 2009 in New Delhi. It is the political wing of the Islamist organization Popular Front of India (PFI).
Ujjwal Nikam is an Indian special public prosecutor who has worked on prominent murder and terrorism cases. He helped prosecute suspects in the 1993 Bombay bombings, the Gulshan Kumar murder case, the Pramod Mahajan murder case, and the 2008 Mumbai attacks. He was also the special public prosecutor in the 2013 Mumbai gang rape case, 2016 Kopardi rape and murder case. Ujjwal Nikam argued on behalf of the state during the 26/11 Mumbai attack trial.
Events from 2010 in England
The elections in 2012 were scheduled for seven Vidhan Sabhas and several local elections were also conducted. The 14th presidential election to elect the 13th president of the republic was also held in 2012. The tenure of the legislative assemblies of Goa, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Manipur, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand were to expire during the year. The Election Commission of India issued the dates for the elections in Manipur, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Goa to take place in the first quarter of the year. Whereas the elections were held in Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat in the last quarter of the year.
Events from 2004 in England
Rape is the fourth most common crime against women in India. According to the 2021 annual report of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), 31,677 rape cases were registered across the country, or an average of 86 cases daily, a rise from 2020 with 28,046 cases, while in 2019, 32,033 cases were registered. Of the total 31,677 rape cases, 28,147 of the rapes were committed by persons known to the victim. The share of victims who were minors or below 18 – the legal age of consent – stood at 10%.
Jay Mala was an Indian journalist, politician, advocate and social activist. She was a senior advocate of the Supreme Court of India, who filed over 600 cases and won each one, including a 1985 landmark case where she sued the State of Jammu and Kashmir changing tort law in India. Mala was co-founder of the Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party (JKNPP) in 1982. On 7 May 2022 she became Chairperson of the Panthers Party Working Committee, and was de facto president of Panthers Party from 31 May 2022 to 4 April 2023.