On September 11, 2002, when a militant, clad in a burka, shot dead the then Jammu and Kashmir home minister Mushtaq Ahmed Lone and made a daring escape, it seemed like a scene straight out of an implausible Bollywood film. But the script today has turned stranger still. The arrest of sho Ghulam Rasool Wani and constable Abdul Ahad of Sogam police station in the Kupwara district has revealed a sinister militant-policemen nexus that had thrived for three years and was responsible for many killings, including Lone's, in the insurgency-hit state. Wani was caught with a militant while on a reconnaissance mission ahead of a suicide attack on the Lalpora police station also in Kupwara.

TOUGH TALK: Singh (right) at a press conference

The revelation has also unnerved the politicians in the state who are provided security cover by the police. Even as the police is not willing to let on more information about this militant-police nexus, fearing a dent in the image of the force, S.D. Singh Jamwal, SSP, Kupwara, says the entire force cannot be blamed: "After all, it is people from our force who broke this network." The episode could not come at a worse time for the Mufti Mohammed Sayeed Government. The disclosure of the police-terrorist nexus has rocked the state on the eve of President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam's June 26 visit. Ironically, the President was due to honour meritorious policemen for their service in the restive region, but this expose has dampened the celebratory mood of the force.

— Izhar Wani

A Judge in the Docks

ALL ABLAZE: An effigy burns in a Kerala college

In the city of Nawabs, the busting of a flesh racket isn't sensational news. But when the kingpin turns out to be a suspended civil judge, shockwaves are inevitable. Last week, the Lucknow police unearthed a sex racket run by R.P. Mishra, the judge. The police recovered porn material and a diary from his house that revealed the names of call girls and clients who included top bureaucrats, policemen and businessmen.

SSP Vijay Kumar, who handled the operation, disclosed that several hoteliers and their staff were partners in the crime. Mishra's modus operandi was to eye girls who worked for private companies, offer them double their salaries to work for him and push them into the flesh trade. Investigations are expected to reveal more powerful names.

— Subhash Mishra

The Bay of Bengal Triangle

What lies beneath the Sandheads, a 72-km stretch of sea and sandflats in the Bay of Bengal? A graveyard of ships. Last week, after the Caribbean ship MV Fortune Carrier sank in the area regarded as a tricky manouevre by seafarers, shipping circles in West Bengal are a concerned lot. In the past six years, six ships have sunk in the region. The bottom of the Sandheads is layered with some 60 wrecks-most of which the Kolkata Port Trust (KOPT) hasn't cleaned up as pulling out a vessel costs up to Rs 40 crore. The KOPT is on shaky international ground on this, with foreign ships making up more than 80 per cent of the traffic and cargo. But port officials smell something fishy: many of the recent mishaps involved ships over 20 years old which, if they sank, would fetch the owners a neat $35 million in insurance. "There is a game plan here," says A.K. Chanda, kopt chairman, with no doubt a sinking feeling.

— Labonita Ghosh

DIED: Jankidas Mehra, 93, veteran actor of Hindi cinema, of cardiac failure in Mumbai. Mehra had acted in more than 1,000 films since the silent era.

APPOINTED: Imraan Khan, 19, whose roots stretch to Surat in Gujarat, as captain of the South African U -19 cricket team.

RECOMMENDED: By Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati, a CBI inquiry into the murder of Lucknow poetess Madhumita Shukla.

WON: Shantipada Gon Chowdhury, West Bengal-based technocrat, the Green Oscar, for his project on solar energy.

SKNIGHTED: Sushantha Kumar Bhattacharyya, India-born director of the Warwick Manufacturing Group, University of Warwick, in Britain.