COIMBATORE l tuesday l March 16, 2021 l `7.00 l PAGES 12 l LATE CITY EDITION Beyonce breaks records as women rule Grammys 2021 Women artistes emerged big winners in the usually male dominated top categories at the 63rd Grammy Awards R&B singer H.E.R. Most awarded female artiste in history With 28 Grammy wins in all, Beyonce broke the record of veteran singer Alison Krauss. She trails only classical conductor Sir George Solti, who still holds 31 Grammys. She was nominated in nine categories and won in four, including best rap song with Megan Thee Stallion for Savage remix, Best R&B performance for Black Parade and best music video for Brown Skin Girl ■ BTS ‘i can’t breathe’ is song of the year ■ R&B singer H.E.R. won song of the year for I Can’t Breathe, which quotes the last words of George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man who died while being arrested by police in Minneapolis last year Canadian YouTuber Lilly Singh turned up on the red carpet wearing a mask displaying “I stand with Farmers” (pic far left) The popular korean boy band lost to lady gaga and Ariana Grande | P9 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 counterpunch RS flags British racism, govt says it will take it up when required E x p r ess Ne w s S e r v i c e @ New Delhi Days after a tell-all interview of Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle and the controversy over Indian-origin Rashmi Samant, who was forced to resign as president of the Oxford University Students Union, the issue of racism in the UK figured in the Rajya Sabha on Monday . Just last week, the UK Parliament had debated the ongoing agitation against the new farm laws in India and criticised the alleged violation of human rights of protesters. The Centre hit back sharply, calling it an “unwarranted and tendentious” debate. The matter of racism was raised by BJP member Ashwini Vaishnav. “She (Samant) was cyberbullied to the point that she had to resign and even the Hindu religious beliefs of her parents were publicly attacked by a faculty member,” Vaishnav said. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said India would take it up with Britain. As a friend, India also has concerns about UK’s reputational impacts, he added. “We have strong ties with the UK, we will take up such matter with great candour when required. We will monitor such development very, very closely, we will raise it when required.... As the land of Mahatma Gandhi, we can never turn our eyes away from racism wherever it is, particularly so in a country where we have such a large diaspora,” he said. Death penalty in Batla House encounter case ‘Jaya gave me a chance...’: EPS files nomination E x p r ess Ne w s S e r v i c e @ Salem Filing his nomination from the Edappadi Assembly constituency for the seventh time, Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami on Monday recounted how he got his foot in the door more than 30 years ago. “Former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa gave me a chance to contest from here in 1989, and since then, she gave me many more chances. She made me an MLA, MP and minister.” “I fulfilled all my promises to the people of Edappadi. And if they want anything now, we will provide that too,” he added. Palaniswami contested Ariz awarded maximum punishment for gunning down police inspector Sharma S a n a S h a k i l @ New Delhi Ariz Khan, convicted in the killing of a police officer in the 2008 Batla House encounter in Delhi, was sentenced to death on Monday by a Delhi court, which said it is the most appropriate punishment for ‘dreaded terrorists’ like him. “Nature of offence and manner of committing the crime caused extreme indignation to the society in this case,” Additional Sessions Judge Sandeev Yadav said, declaring that there was no doubt that Ariz and his accomplices fired at police officials “without any provocation”. The encounter between the Delhi PoAriz Khan lice and a bunch of Indian Mujahideen members holed up in a flat in South DelFits rarest of hi had led to the death of Inspector Morare yardstick han Chand Sharma while two others sustained injuries. The court also imThe court put the posed a total fine of `11 lakh on Ariz, of case in the “rarest of which `10 lakh was ordered to be given rare” category while to the family of Sharma, who was postagreeing with humously awarded the Ashok Chakra Additional and many gallantry awards. Prosecutor A T Judge Yadav also sought to put an end Ansari that this was to the allegations of the September 2008 not just any killing police operation being a fake encounter. but a murder of a He held that police officials had no intenlaw enforcement tion to kill the occupants of the flat, statofficer who was a ing that some members of the raiding defender of justice team were not even carrying arms. “It is obvious that convict Ariz Khan along with his accomplices fired at police officials without being challenged, instinctively the judge said, in the 22-page ver...” dict. Ariz’s lawyer M S Khan had opposed capital punishment saying the incident was not premeditated. The judge cited the weapons recovered from the flat to conclude Ariz and his accomplices were terrorists. “Deadly weapons like AK-47 and two pistols were retrieved from the flat where the shootout took place.... Considering the nature of devastation these weapons can cause, it will be safe to conclude that there was were kept in the flat with a view to indulge in terrorist and anti-social activities,” the court ruled. H a r i s h M u r a l i @ Chennai (From top) Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, DMK president MK Stalin, and MNM chief Kamal Haasan file their nomination papers for the upcoming Assembly elections, in Salem, Chennai and Coimbatore respectively on Monday | P jawahar & U RAKESH KUMAR press Intake Footsoldier of AIADMK to face DMK’s Nehru in Tiruchy West | P2 DMK manifesto has been copied by AIADMK, says Stalin | P4 Amit Shah, Mamata locked in war of words | P7 NIA conducts raids at 11 locations across Delhi, Kerala and Karnataka | P7 Security forces gun down 55 in Myanmar in past 48 hours | P9 China’s sand blanket State records 835 new Covid cases, 4 deaths in a day E XPR E S S N E W S S E RVIC E @ Chennai The number of Covid-19 cases in Tamil Nadu continued to rise on Monday with 835 more , people testing positive, and four succumbing to the disease. Of the new cases, 317 are in Chennai alone. The city has 1,973 people undergoing treatment for Covid-19. Coimbatore, meanwhile, reported 70 new cases. In Thanjavur district, four more people linked to Ammapettai School tested positive, taking the number of infectees linked to the cluster to 62. Tamil Nadu has a test positivity of 1.3 per cent.  P5 Privatisation will unlock real value of PSUs: FM tells Rajya Sabha | P10 Wholesale inflation zooms in Feb, dims hopes of a rate cut by RBI E x p r ess n e w s se r v i c e @ New Delhi A sharp increase in fuel and food prices pushed the wholesale price index-based inflation to a 27-month high of 4.17% in February according , commerce ministry data released on Monday . The WPI inflation was 2.03% in January and 2.26% in February last year. The latest numbers, coming a week after another set of data showed February retail inflation shot up to 5.03%, may force the Reserve Bank of India to opt for a pause in policy rate in the next monetary policy review. Experts say the upward trend in inflation will continue for the next three months. “Inflation dynamics will rule out any further rate cuts, with a status quo expected through 2021,” said Aditi Nayar, principal economist, ICRA Ratings. According to government data, food index in February 2021 rose to 3.31%, compared to a 0.26% contraction seen in the previous month. Petroleum product prices have reached historic highs as international crude prices have surged in recent months and due to high indirect taxes both at the Central and state government level. 22 DAyS TO GO We provided a new arts and science college, polytechnic college and BEd college, new PHCs, veterinary medical outlets, primary schools and anganwadi centres, upgraded primary schools to middle schools, middle schools to high schools, and high schools to higher secondary schools Edappadi Palaniswami, CM TTV U-turn in case against AIADMK Foreign funding cut, activists turn politicians | P4 Commuters walk along a sidewalk amid a sandstorm during the morning rush hour in Beijing on Monday. Billed the worst sandstorm in a decade, it blew in from the Inner Mongolia region and forced the cancellation of over 400 flights in Beijing due to low visibility. As many as 12 provinces in the country’s north were blanketed in yellow sand and dust | AP | P12 from Edappadi in 1989, 1991, 1996, 2006, 2011 and 2016, and won four times - in 1989, 1991, 2011 and 2016.On Monday, he filed his nomination at the Edappadi tahsildar of fice around 1.20 pm, shortly after opening the AIADMK election office near the Edappadi bus stand. He went in alone and submitted his papers to returni n g o f f i c e r o f E d ap p a d i Assembly constituency Dhanalingam. Speaking to the media later, he highlighted what the AIADMK did for the constituency in the fields of education, healthcare, and agriculture, among others.  Continued on P4 Trade deficit widens Exports rose 0.67% to $28 billion in February, on a yearon-year basis, even as trade deficit widened to $12.62 bn. Imports rose by 6.96% to $40.54 billion in the month The trade deficit in February 2020 was at $10.16 bn | P10 IN a significant move, TTV Dhinakaran on Monday withdrew himself from a case filed, challenging the ruling AIADMK leadership. His counsel filed a petition at a city civil court, saying Dhinakaran was “abandoning” from the cases that challenge the decisions taken by AIADMK’s general council in September 2017. The court accepted the submissions and adjourned the plea to April 9. On Monday, when the case came up before civil court judge ARV Ravi, Dhinakaran’s counsel submitted that Dhinakaran has floated a new party and hence was abandoning the case. “The abandonment petition was moved in the City Civil and Sessions Court and was accepted by the judge,” Dhinnakran’s counsel N Raja Senthoor Pandian told Express. However, no petition was filed on behalf of VK Sasikala, and the court was told that a submission would be made after getting instructions from her. Plea was moved by Sasikala The case pertains to a plea moved by Sasikala seeking to declare five AIADMK leaders as not members of the party. She had also challenged the decisions made by them, after her removal from the post of interim general secretary