Naini Central Jail, Allahabad. Shankar lifted his bloodshot eyes at the nervous young woman sitting across him. Nandini Rawat squirmed uncomfortably on the wooden bench against his unflinching gaze. She was just a junior lawyer representing the bigwig public prosecutor Yusuf Khan, who sent her on this unwanted and thankless job of negotiating with a hardcore criminal like Shankar. As if he would ever agree to a plea bargain!! More than the hard surface of the wooden bench she was sitting on, it was the lack of privacy to talk to her client in the big hall of Naini Central Jail that was making her uncomfortable. And Shankar's attitude was making things worse. He hasn't uttered a single word except saying NO to her first suggestion of a plea bargain. Since then, it had just been

