THIRUVANANTHAPURAM l tuesday l February 16, 2021 l `7.00 l PAGES 20 l LATE city EDITION Wholesale Price Index for jan touches 2.03% An uptick in demand for manufactured items after resumption in economic activities in September last pushing prices up, say data manufactured items inflation at 5.13% Analysts expect big WPI jump in fy21 Inflation in manufactured items, accounting for 65% weight in WPI, stood at 5.13% compared to 4.24% in Dec. This grouping comprises 22 bands, of which 18 like furniture, motor vehicles, machinery saw prices rising. Data show prices of food items dropped in Jan at (-) 2.8% while prices of nonfood articles rose by 4.16%. Together, they account for 20% weight in WPI ■ ■ Fuel and power index (15% weight) contracted 4.78% in January Analysts say a deeper disinflation in primary food articles helped cushion the impact of the sharp rise in core inflation, but warned headline WPI inflation will record large upticks over the course of the next few months and hover around 5-5.5 per cent in FY2021 4.06% Jan’s retail inflation based on the cpi. A drop of 0.53% over december 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 Toolkit heat on 2 more activists Protesters march on knees, Police say Nikita & Disha edited doc created by Shantanu, were in contact with Khalistani outfit G ayathri M ani and S u dhir S u r yawanshi @ New Delhi/Mumbai Even as the arrest of Bengaluru student-activist Disha Ravi in connection with Greta Thunberg toolkit case has sparked an outrage, Delhi Police are searching for two other persons, Mumbai-based lawyer Nikita Jacob and environment activist Shantanu Muluk, against whom non-bailable warrants have been obtained. The two moved Bombay High Court for transit anticipatory bail on Monday, a day after a 5-day bail for Kappan to see ailing mother E xpress N ews S ervice @New Delhi THE Supreme Court on Monday granted a five-day interim bail to Kerala journalist Siddique Kappan to meet his ailing mother. Kappan was arrested in October last year while he was on his way to Hathras to report on the alleged gangrape and death of a Dalit woman. A bench headed by Chief Justice of India S A Bobde noted that his 90-year-old mother is in critical situation and is likely not to survive for many days. The bench said Kappan should visit Kerala only to see his mother, and he shall not give any interview to any media, including social media. EXPRESS READ Nedumkandam custody death: Nine cops to be dismissed T’Puram: The government has decided to dismiss nine police officers named in the CBI’s chargesheet in the Nedumkandam custodial death case. The inquiry commission had confirmed that the internal organs of 49-year-old Rajkumar were irreversibly damaged due to the torture he was subjected to while in custody, which led to his death. P4 Cold response to second phase of vaccination drive T’Puram: Only 22.7 per cent of the 1,32,491 registered frontline workers took part in the second phase of Covid vaccination drive in the state as of Sunday, forcing health authorities to jack up registration numbers and bring more beneficiaries to session sites. Meanwhile, authorities have begun the administration of the second dose of vaccine for healthcare workers. P2 Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award for Hareesh’s Meesha Thrissur: S Hareesh’s novel Meesha, which mixes magic, myth and metaphor into a tale set in Kuttanad, has been named the best novel for the year 2019 by the Kerala Sahitya Akademi. Writers P Valsala and N V P Unithiri were selected for the Akademi fellowships. P7 20 pages, including 4 pages of THIRUVANANTHAPURAM Express Delhi court remanded Disha in five-day police custody. Jacob and Muluk, who is based in Delhi but hails from Maharashtra, have been identified by the Delhi Police as creators of the ‘toolkit’ document, along with Disha. The police said both Jacob and Muluk are absconding. However, in her plea filed in the Bombay High Court, Jacob expressed apprehension that she may be arrested “due to political vendetta and a media trial” and sought transit anticipatory bail for four weeks. She also sought interim protection from any coercive steps by the police. Muluk filed a plea seeking similar relief in the Aurangabad bench of the Bombay HC. Delhi’s Joint Commissioner of Police (Cyber Cell) Prem Nath said initial probe revealed that Muluk’s e-mail account was the owner of the toolkit that was uploaded and later deleted by Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, while the others were its editors. All three — Disha, Muluk and Jacob — have been booked for sedition, creating dishar- mony and ill-will against the Government of India. Briefing the media, the JCP said a Canada-based woman named Puneet connects all the accused with “pro-Khalistan” Poetic Justice Foundation’ (PJF). The police said that on January 11, Jacob and Muluk attended a Zoom meeting organised by PJF in which the modalities of the protests were worked out. The toolkit was created based on that discussion. Disha later shared the toolkit with Greta Thunberg over Telegram mesP9 senger. State assn loses grip on capital venue, int’l cricket in Kerala caught in a spin M A R T I N J O S E P H @ Kochi Kerala’s chances of hosting international cricket matches took a beating after the Kerala Cricket Association (KCA) announced on Monday that they are going to stop looking after the Sports Hub in Thiruvananthapuram. That, currently, is the only venue of that stature in the state. The development follows KCA’s claim that they are una- The stadium which is maintained by the Kerala Cricket Association was allotted to the Army by IL&FS (stadium owners) without informing us. The KCA has decided not to continue maintaining the ground going forward — KCA statement ble to host a women’s cricket series between India and South Africa next month after the venue was reserved for an Army recruitment rally at the same time. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) had allotted the series to Kerala but the state association could not get the clearance to host the competition. KCA raised apprehensions of not receiving any international match going for● More on P4 ward.  MOB ATTACKS COPS WHO CAME SEARCHING FOR CPM leader E xpress N ews service @Kozhikode A police team which went to take a CPM leader into custody in an attempt to murder case was attacked by a mob at Nittoor in Kuttiady station limits here on Sunday night. Four police officers, including a sub- inspector, were injured in the attack, allegedly by CPM activists. No arrest has been made even 24 hours after the incident. The officers had gone to take CPM branch secretary Ambath Ashokan in a case of murder attempt on a BJP worker by hurling a bomb at him in ● More on P4 2016.  fall at Chandy’s feet for help E X P R E S S N E W S S E R V I C E @ T’Puram/bureaus The job aspirants figuring in the PSC civil police officer rank list fall on the feet of former chief minister Oommen Chandy in T’Puram on Monday | B P Deepu HC stays regularisation of 1,850 Kerala Bank staff Kochi: The High Court on Monday stayed the government’s move to regularise 1,850 employees working on contract or temporary basis in the Kerala Bank. The order was issued on a petition filed by a Kottayam native included in the ranklist prepared for direct recruitment as clerk/cashier in the erstwhile Kottayam District Cooperative Bank. He sought a directive to the government to fill all those vacancies in Kerala Bank that are set apart for direct recruitment through the PSC. P4 THE protest by the Last Grade Servant Rank-Holders Association outside the Secretariat against regularisation of temporary postings intensified on Monday even as the agitation by the Youth Congress activists to support the job aspirants turned violent in several parts of the state. On Monday the agitators who have been demonstrating , outside the Secretariat for the past 20 days caught attention as they marched on their knees from the South Gate to the protest arena. They urged the government to end the regularisation of temporary employees and extend the validity of their rank lists for another six months. The government Emotions ran high when a group of has ignored us and men among the agitators dragged them- branded our selves on their knees through the sun- protest as baked road, in a move to get the govern- politically ment’s attention to their demands. Some motivated. We are of them writhed in pain after moving a inviting the DYFI few steps while many others fell uncon- to join our protest as we don’t want scious mid-way and had to be given wa- to make it a ter before being shifted to the hospital. political issue. “We thought the government would be considerate towards our demands. But Laya Rajesh, they have ignored us and branded our protester protest as politically motivated. We are inviting the DYFI to join our protest as we don’t want to make it a political issue. What more can we say in this matter?” asked Laya Rajesh, a prominent face among the agitators. Youth Congress state president Shafi Parambil, who is holding an indefinite fast along with fellow MLA K S Sabarinadhan outside the Secretariat in solidarity with the PSC last grade job aspirants, alleged the LDF government was referring to the existing rank list as a ● More on P4 liability  .