2014 Dubious Awards

Deserted tycoon of the year:  The Supreme Court ordered Subrata Roy to pay nearly three crore investors over Rs 22,000 crore. As Roy was entering the court, a lawyer threw black ink on his face. The court reminded his council Ram Jethmalani of how Roy had once said, “The Supreme Court can go to hell.”

Foot in mouth disease of the year: The country was left slack jawed when Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav said it was unfair to award the death penalty to rapists for their “mistakes”.

Golden ass of the year: Abdul Wahaf, a native of Trichy in Tamil Nadu, who was caught by Customs officials in RGI Airport while smuggling gold concealing in his rectum. He came from Singapore concealing five gold biscuits in his rectum and underwear worth Rs 14 lakh.

Quickgun Murugan of the year: P. Obulesu, a police constable, stole an AK 47 from  Greyhounds and fired to extort money from a businessman at KBR park.

Uber driver of the year: Cab driver Shiv Kumar Yadav raped a female passenger, who fell asleep in the cab, in the capital. The cab service faced flak of the entire nation for negligence.

Limpet of the year: Suspended BCCI president N. Srinivasan faces the arduous task of proving in court that he does not have a conflict of interest in the IPL spot fixing case as the owner of Chennai Super Kings. The India Cements MD is having a tougher time given the involvement of his son in law Gurunath Meiyappan

Pretty mess of the year: Actor Priety Zinta, who has accused industrialist Ness Wadia of molestation, alleged that he had thrown burning cigarettes at her and locked her up in a room even before May 30 when she filed a police complaint.

Heavyweight lifter of the year: ToI hit a new low when it copy pasted classified ads from DC. Classifieds are a marker of a paper’s popularity and ToI was desperately trying to position itself as popular. This is still the talk of the town.

Open manhole killer of the year: A senior citizen died after falling in an uncovered manhole at Himayatnagar. A woman, Satyaveni, 26, died after she was washed away in an overflowing nala at the Secunderabad Uppal bus stop. GHMC’s “open nala policy” had a lot to answer for in the year.