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Sentence knocks smiles off
Rao and Buta's faces

Former prime minister, P V Narasimha Rao, and his cabinet colleague Buta Singh smiled at the waiting photographers and reporters before they entered the high-security court room at Vigyan Bhawan, but within minutes they came out looking crest fallen with the sentence hanging on their head.

Singh, wearing a maroon turban, cream sherwani and white pyjama, was first to enter the courtroom at 1.40 pm with his relatives and a group of supporters. He looked around and smiled at the reporters.

Rao, who was dressed in a dhoti-kurta, entered the courtroom from the judge's chamber side with three security personnel just ten minutes before the proceedings started.

Rao was accompanied by V Rajeshwar Rao and Maninderjit Singh Bitta. Nationalist Congress Party leader Devendra Prasad Dwivedi was seated next to him.

But, the moment they were sentenced at 1405 hours, the smile vanished and disappointment was writ large on their faces.

Confusion broke out among 30-odd reporters, who were competing with each other to come out of the court room to reach for their mobile phones and wireless sets to pass on the information to their offices.

Rao and Singh after coming out were almost gheraoed by 100-odd waiting reporters to get their reaction. But both refused to comment.

PTI

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Crushed by a sentence

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