S P O T L I G H T

JASPAL BHATTI DETAINED
Mumbai, March 17
Noted satirist Jaspal Bhatti was today detained by the police, even as the stage was set for his streetplay lampooning corruption in arms deals in the wake of the tehelka.com expose. Bhatti, famous for his “Ulta-Pulta” series, was detained at the Juhu Beach by the Santa Cruz police station here, shortly before the play started. He set up a counter of arms and ammunition at the beach and fake guns, carbines and grenades, were displayed to lampoon corruption in defence deals. UNI

GEORGE BLAMES ISI
New Delhi, March 17
Former Defence Minister George Fernandes said today that he suspected the role of the ISI in the sensational disclosures made by tehelka.com regarding the role of middlemen in the defence deals and acknowledged that several ministers, politicians and officials were promoting various arms dealers in the country. “I am not very sure if they (ISI) were not behind this exercise” to demoralise the morale of Indian defence forces, he said in an interview to Star TV. He defended Mrs Jaya Jaitley, who had to step down as Samata party chief following her alleged role in the defence scam. UNI

HELD FROM MLA’s ROOM
Chennai, March 17
The city police has arrested a three-member gang of robbers from Bhuvanagiri MLA Abdul Nazar’s room in the MLA’s Hostel here in connection with the theft of Rs 4 lakh and some jewels from a couple yesterday. According to the police, the MLA, when questioned, said he was not familiar with the gang and that they were staying with his brother-in-law who had absconded with Rs 90,000 and another gang member. UNI