The fate of big-time film financier Bharat Shah, who has been incarcerated since early last year due to his alleged connections to the underworld, is to be decided on 2 April, the Supreme Court ruled yesterday.

A two-judge bench of the Supreme Court yesterday adjourned final hearing on Shah‘s bail plea after his counsel said he would be challenging the constitutionality of the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA), reports state. Shah is currently being held in custody under MCOCA.

Shah has already made four bail applications in the designated MCOCA court which were rejected. Four more applications in the Mumbai High Court were also rejected. It was following the series of denials that Shah moved a special leave petition (SLP) in the Apex Court in November last year.

The diamond jeweller was arrested in January last year. At that time the Mumbai police exposed his alleged connection with Pakistan-based gangster Chhota Shakeel in the making of the film Chori Chori Chupke Chupke.

Star India may be pulling out all the stops to make sure that its glam-reality show [V] Popstars makes it big but the same can‘t be said for the show‘s international rights holder. Sportsworld, which holds the worldwide rights to Popstars is up for sale.
The media group has announced its decision to sell itself after the company‘s board decided that selling all or part of the business was the only way to stave off bankruptcy. Industry sources claim that the company has already received feelers from other sports marketing and media companies, as well as from venture capital groups eager to grab the group‘s sports and entertainment rights.

Apart from Popstars, Sportsworld has the rights to several big sponsorship contracts, including the Toyota formula one team, the England cricket team and perimeter advertising at Premier League grounds. Industry analysts say that the global recession, followed by the downturn in the sponsorship market has hit Sportsworld badly, as the company allegedly overpaid for many of its sports rights.

Sportsworld‘s troubles became known last month when the company announced that it was postponing its results and issued its second profit warning in as many weeks. The company‘s share price nosedived as a result, from a high of almost five pounds to just three pence. The company has said it expects to announce its interim results by the end of this month, by which time it hopes to be in a position to announce a buyer. The company‘s downturn has come as a jolt to many, particularly as it had a few months ago claimed that its 2001 results ‘show an impressive 192 per cent growth in pre tax profits - in a climate of declining ad revenues‘.

The company has regional offices in London, Sydney, Melbourne, San Diego, Toronto, Dubai, Auckland, Bangalore and Bangkok with 400 staff employed in 20 offices spread over five continents.

For two months, the Indian government has dithered on the issue of a ban on the state-backed PTV. Within two days of the Gujarat riots, however, the state government has clamped down on the telecast of Pakistan TV, to prevent the spread of "misinformation".

Officials have been quoted as saying: "PTV is indulging in a gross disinformation campaign. Allowing the beaming of such programmes would be detrimental to the efforts to restore communal harmony." The channel has consequently been blacked out since Sunday to prevent any further biased news spreading in the strife-torn state.

The state government however has also not taken kindly to the Prannoy Roy-promoted NDTV‘s coverage of the situation and has responded with an arbitrary ban order on Star News from 2 March, using the state government‘s discretionary powers. The channel has been beaming images of violence on the streets of Gujarat, and commenting on the absence of police personnel in the most-affected areas. Terming it as "instigative" journalism, a piqued chief minister Narendra Modi reportedly told media, "A television channel has been showing inflammatory visuals and reporting inaccurately. According to a rule, no community should be named. One channel has been blatantly naming communities."

Roy has responded to the charges by saying: "As far as I know, all news channels and not just NDTV were asked to stop telecast on riots from Gujarat. However, that decision was never implemented and the telecast from there has been restored."

The chief minister has stuck to his guns maintaining that Star News has been showing provocative visuals and instigating people with reports of scant police presence on the streets of several cities in Gujarat.

It is still not clear though whether Modi‘s orders to ban Star News have been carried through.