THRISSUR l friday l January 29, 2021 l `7.00 l PAGES 16 l city EDITION CJI ticks off centre for not curbing hatred on tv The Supreme Court on Thursday slammed the Centre for not checking TV programmes which instigate or impact a community Reports can’t be used to incite violence Can’t control live tv shows, says govt Control over certain news is essential for the maintenance of law and order, said a bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde. It noted problem arises when reportage is used to incite violence. “Yesterday, you (govt) shut down internet and mobile because of farmers’ visit to Delhi. I don’t know what happened in the TV yesterday,” the court added ■ Such preventive measures are as important as providing ‘lathis’ to policemen, the bench observed ■ The SC made the comments while hearing a plea on media’s alleged biased reporting in the Tablighi Jamaat case ■ Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said govt can’t control live shows SC SAID GOVT CAN USE Cable TV Networks Act 1994 To control TV BROADCAST CHENNAI ■ MADURAI ■ VIJAYAWADA ■ BENGALURU ■ KOCHI ■ HYDERABAD ■ VISAKHAPATNAM ■ COIMBATORE ■ KOZHIKODE ■ THIRUVANANTHAPURAM ■ BELAGAVI ■ BHUBANESWAR ■ SHIVAMOgGA ■ MANGALURU ■ TIRUPATI ■ TIRUCHY ■ TIRUNELVELI ■ SAMBALPUR ■ HUBBALLI ■ DHARMAPURI ■ KOTTAYAM ■ KANNUR ■ VILLUPURAM ■ KOLLAM ■ WARANGAL ■ TADEPALLIGUDEM ■ NAGAPATTINAM ■ THRISSUR ■ KALABURAGI Centre starts dealing with agitators with iron hand Oppn to boycott Prez’s House address today @ New Delhi Lookout notices against accused farmers, passports to be seized; UP govt orders farmers to vacate Ghazipur protest site within 24 hrs G ayat h r i M an i / S i d d h an ta M i s h ra / Har p ree t B a j w a @ New Delhi Proceeding swiftly in the Republic Day violence case, the Delhi Police on Thursday issued 44 look-out circulars (LOC) against three dozen farm union leaders. They have been asked to join the probe by January 31 and directed to bring their passports along. Meanwhile, the Uttar Pradesh government started to clear the Ghazipur agitation site. LoCs are used by immigration officials to prevent accused persons from leaving the country. The process of seizure of passports has been initiated by the home ministry and is a major decision, officials said, ex- State ups Covid vigil, 25,000 cops deployed E x p re s s N e w s Ser v i c e @T’Puram Taking a serious note of the rising Covid-19 cases, the state government has decided to intensify vigil till February 10. Attributing the surge in positive cases to people lowering their guard against the virus in public places, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan directed the deployment of 25,000 police personnel to ensure Covid-appropriate behaviour among people. They will make sure that people wear masks and maintain social distancing at bus stands, railway stations, hospitals and shopping malls. “There has been an increase in Covid cases in the past few days. The test positivity rate has also climbed beyond 10 per cent. Though the spread has not increased to a level we witnessed previously the fact that , daily cases are more than recoveries calls for a total vigil,” ● More on P2 the CM said. plaining that all people who have been named by Delhi Police in the FIRs will not be carrying Indian passports till the matter is pending. Officials said the decision was taken on Thursday morning by Union Home Minister Amit Shah who has been holding a series of meeting with top officials of the Home Ministry and Delhi police since Tuesday when the large scale violence took place in the national capital during the farmers tractor rally. Shah has been continuously monitoring the situation in Delhi, a home ministry official said, adding that the minister is expected to chair a second meeting on Thursday night to review the law and order situation in the capital. Union Tourism Minister Prahlad Singh Patel on Thursday said that two brass finials on top of the minar were found missing after chaos ensued in the Red Fort complex but were later found in a damaged state. The case was transferred to Delhi police’s special cell to investigate “international angle” in the ensuing violence at Red Fort. Police has meanwhile invoked a criminal case under provisions of Unlawful Activities (prevention) Act (UAPA) and Sedition charges in the violence took place at Red Fort. Besides the LOCs, Delhi Police has issued notice to 20 other farmer unions leaders n connection with the violence that took place on Republic Day in the national capital. P9 Security personnel conducting a flag march at Ghazipur on the Uttar Pradesh-Delhi border where the farmers are protesting on Thursday | PTI FIRs against Tharoor, Sardesai, Vinod Jose Most farmers unaware of harmful details: Rahul Noida Police have registered an FIR against 8 people including Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, journalists Rajdeep Sardesai, Mrinal Pandey and Zafar Agha for allegedly stoking violence on Republic Day through social media by claiming that police bullets felled a tractor driver Kalpetta: Most farmers are not aware of the details of the three controversial farm laws and if they do, there would be a bigger agitation, said Congress national leader Rahul Gandhi while addressing the UDF convention at Kalpetta in Wayanad, his Lok Sabha constituency. P4 After break-in at uncle’s house, youth kills aide to divert probe A R U N M @Kochi A burglary. A marriage. And a murder. The sequence of events had the makings of a crime thriller with the police nabbing the four accused within 48-hours of a charred body being found near a railway track at Pulleppady in Kochi. It turned out that the mastermind of the theft-and-murder case — Dinoy Christo, 24, who was arrested along with three others on Thursday — set ablaze one of his accomplices to destroy the evidence of a big burglary at his uncle’s home a day before his sister’s marriage on January 1. The story begins on the evening of December 31 when Dinoy’s uncle and family were at his home in Thoppumpady, on the eve of his sister’s marriage. The five-member gang, including Dinoy, knowing that his relatives will not return till dawn, broke into his uncle’s home in Elamakkara and decamped with 127 sovereigns of gold ornaments. When the police arrived there to collect evidence after the theft, Dinoy the , nephew, was present at the burgled house, raising suspicion among the policemen. “From that time, he was under our scanner,” a police officer said. From the site, they managed to get the fingerprints of Joby , 19, one of the gang members, the officer added. Both Dinoy and Joby were asked to appear for inter ro g ation at 11am on Wednesday at the Elamakkara police station. Dinoy arrived at the station alone, around the same time Pulleppady residents reported to the Ernakulam Central station the finding of a charred body During interro. gation at the Elamakkara police station, Dinoy confessed to the crime, the ● More on P7 police said. Dinoy wore gloves during the burglary while Joby didn’t. Hence, Dinoy directed him to go into hiding but he didn’t obey. Dinoy murdered Joby to destroy the evidence in the burglary and prevent the probe from reaching him — A police officer Alappuzha bypass opened for traffic Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari and CM Pinarayi Vijayan inaugurated the bypass through videoconferencing on Thursday 6.8-km bypass project — envisaged in 1970s — connects Kommady and Kalarcode on NH66 2-lane bypass has a 4.8-km elevated highway L348 cr total project cost Vehicles move through the Alappuzha bypass which was thrown open to the public on Thursday. A stretch of the bypass on the NH66 passes by the Alappuzha beach offering a scenic view | Express | P4 The bypass is constructed in way that it will take just 10 minutes to reach Kalarcode from Kommady, which otherwise takes 30 minutes Another bizarre ruling on minor sex assault Su d h i r Sur ya w an s h i & Kanu Sar d a @ Mumbai / New Delhi The Bombay High Court has held that holding a child’s hands and unzipping pants do not fall under the definition of sexual assault under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act, 2012. A single judge bench of Justice Pushpa Ganediwala of the Nagpur bench of the Bombay HC delivered this judgment on January 15 while hearing a criminal appeal filed against the conviction and sentence gave to a 50-year-old man for molesting a five-year-old girl. Days later, another order from the same judge that interpreted sexual assault provisions under Pocso Act as only skin-to-skin contact with sexual intent, was stayed by the Supreme Court. Experts feel the move sets a dangerous precedent for defining sexual assault in court. Since the victim of the case was below 12 years, the sessions court said the act was ‘aggra- vated sexual assault’ punishable under Section 10 of Pocso. The perpetrator was sentenced to five years in prison and the judge imposed a fine of `25,000 with a default simple imprisonment for 6 months. The complaint was filed by the child’s mother, who said she saw the accused, Libnus Kujur, with his pants unzipped and holding her daughter’s hands. The mother also said the accused exposed his private parts and asked her to come to bed to sleep. Opposition is boycotting the Presidential address. Last year, they had assembled in front of A day before the start of the the Ambedkar statue on the budget session of Parliament, campus and read the preamble over a dozen Opposition par- of the Constitution to register ties decided to boycott the cus- their opposition to the Citizentomary President’s address to ship Amendment Act. a joint sitting of both the HousThe other parties that are es on Friday as a mark of soli- signatories to the joint statedarity with the farmers pro- ment are NCP, Shiv Sena, testing against the new farm AITC, DMK, JKNC, SP, RJD, laws. CPI(M), CPI, IUML, While 16 OpposiRSP, PDP, MDMK, All-party tion parties issued a meet on Sat Kerala Congress and joint statement anAIUDF. While Lok Sabha nouncing the boycott “The prime minisSpeaker Om Birla and demanding a ter and the BJP govwill meet floor probe into the Cenernment remain arleaders of all tre’s role in the viorogant, adamant and parties after the lence on Republic undemocratic in House is Day in Delhi, the their response... The adjourned on Aam Aadmi Party three farm laws are Friday, Prime and the Shiromani an assault on the Minister Narendra Akali Dal, a former rights of the states Modi will convene NDA ally too, decided , and violate the fedan all-party to skip the Presideneral spirit of the meeting on tial address. Constitution. Saturday As for the treasury “If not repealed, benches, the BJP has these laws will effecissued whip to members, ask- tively dismantle the edifice of ing them to stay put in the national food security that Capital. rests upon minimum support “We are issuing a statement price, government procurefrom 16 political parties that ment and the public distribuwe are boycotting President’s tion system,” the joint stateaddress,” announced Ghulam ment read. “We believe the Nabi Azad, Leader of Opposi- government has miserably tion in Rajya Sabha. This is the failed in handling the agitasecond time in a row that the tion,” Azad said. E x p re s s N e w s Ser v i c e The judge’s intrepretation of Pocso Act Justice Ganediwala’s order notes the definition of ‘sexual assault’ under Pocso Act says there has to be ‘physical contact with sexual intent without penetration’ Majestic tusker Mangalamkunnu Karnan dies, aged 65 The captive elephant was known for its majestic look, elegance and confidence at festival venues. P7