S-S troops: (From top) Sushmita, Sidhu, Soren, Santosh and Manu Sharma

New Delhi, Dec. 20: Sushmita Sen should be worried. Her Land Cruiser case isn’t settled yet.

Navjyot Singh Sidhu has already paid the price. So have Shibu Soren and Santosh Singh. And not to forget rich kid Manu Sharma, who was sentenced today to life in prison in the Jessica Lal murder case.

So what’s the connection?

The letter S, say numerologists. They don’t believe in the rhyme One for sorrow, two for joy…. For them, it’s more likely “S for sorrow, two for more….”

No wonder, they say, Sidhu, Soren and Santosh are going through hard times.

Sidhu, of course, has been given time to appeal his sentence in a road rage case, but the last two are already in jail. All because of the two Ss in their names. Precisely why Sanjay Dutt has got away lightly.

While dozens celebrated the victory of “people power” in the wake of Sharma’s conviction, astrologers and numerologists have a different explanation for the recent spate of verdicts that have gone against the rich and the powerful.

Astrologer Arvind Kumar even goes as far as to say that Sharma would not have been convicted had his name been “different”.

And if you are wondering why Sharma, astrologers have a ready reply: throughout the court proceedings, his name was written as Siddharth Vashist alias Manu Sharma.

So, no ‘S-cape’.

Astrologers say in Indian numerology, the alphabet S is associated with the Sun, considered the most powerful force in nature. “That is why all these people escaped the law for so long. They were backed by the power of the Sun,” says Mumbai astrologer Sudhir Verma, a disciple of Bejan Daruwalla.

But the Sun can’t always pull its weight.

Astrologers blame the planet Saturn for crossing the path of the Sun over the past two months, blocking the “power” of the cosmic light giver and making the high-profile “two-S brigade” vulnerable.

Santosh, accused in the murder and rape of Priyadarshini Mattoo in 1996, was convicted on October 17, and later sentenced to death.

Soren, a former coal minister, is behind bars after a November 28 verdict found him guilty of the murder of his secretary.

Cricketer-turned-politician Sidhu’s one-liners on television came to an abrupt end on December 1, while Sharma was on Monday convicted of the 1999 murder of model Jessica Lal.

It’s not that all who have two Ss as initials are in for trouble. “The bad luck will only affect those already in trouble,” says Verma.

Young quickie S. Sreesanth, therefore, has the blessings of the Sun to torment the South African batsmen. But he shouldn’t stretch his fortune too far. One warning was the 30 per cent fine on his match fee for breach of conduct.

So keep your celebration to your team mates, young man, Saturn maybe watching.

As for Sanjay, who was acquitted of terror charges in the 1993 Bombay blasts case but found guilty under the much less severe arms act, the advice from astrologers is “Keep praying.”

Kumar says if the “unlucky” phase for those whose initials start with S doesn’t end quickly, the actor might face a lengthy sentence.

Asked when this “phase” gets over, the answers ranged from December 23 to early January.

So keep your fingers crossed, Sush, the Mumbai corporation could still demand its 20-lakh pound of flesh on your imported car.

And stay out of fresh trouble, Munnabhai. Just lage raho.