coimbatore l monday l december 6, 2021 l `7.00 l PAGES 12 l late city EDITION Actor Jacqueline stopped from leaving the country Officials stop Jacqueline Fernandez at Mumbai airport over a look-out notice on a `200-crore money laundering case A file image of Sukesh Chandrasekhar being arrested by Delhi Police | pti Recipient of conman’s expensive gifts? Nora mentioned in chargesheet too The Bollywood actor was named in an ED chargesheet filed on Saturday against smooth-talking conman Sukesh Chandrasekhar, who has a long record of duping the rich. The ED said the 32-year-old sent Jacqueline lavish gifts worth `10 crore, including a `52-lakh horse and a Persian cat valued at `9 lakh. On Sunday, Jacqueline was to fly to Dubai for a show ■ ■ The ED has charged Sukesh, a Bengaluru native, as well as his wife, actor Leena Maria Paul, for extorting `200 crore from a businessman’s wife while he was lodged in Delhi’s Tihar jail Sukesh also sent gifts to actor Nora Fatehi. Recently, pictures of Sukesh and Jacqueline being casually intimate went viral online `1 crore worth of gifts that included a BMW car sent to Nora, reports say 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 Superspreader fears 17 new Omicron cases push India’s tally to 21 Express News Service @ New Delhi, Mumbai, Jaipur On a day the national capital reported its first Omicron case, Maharashtra had seven new cases and Rajasthan nine. All of Sunday’s cases were foreign returnees, mainly from Africa. With this, India’s tally has gone up to 21. The first person to test positive for the new coronavirus variant in Delhi had stayed in Johannesburg for week, before which he had travelled to Tanzania. Fully vaccinated and showing only mild symptoms, he has been admitted to the Lok Nayak Hospital — Delhi’s dedicated Omicron treatment centre. In Rajasthan, four of the nine Omicron cases are from the same family Officials said . they came from South Africa recently. “They do not have cough, fever, cold, soreness or other symptoms,” said Dr Ajit Singh, superintendent of the hospital where the patients are admitted. However, Jaipur authorities are worried as those infected with Omicron attended a marriage on November 28, two-three days before testing positive. Last year, some weddings were superspreader events for the virus. Of the new Omicron cases in Maharashtra, six are from PimpriChinchwad near Pune and one from Pune. A 44-year-old woman and her daughters came to PimpriChinchwad from Nigeria on November 24 to meet her 45-year-old brother and his two kids. All six tested positive for Omicron. The Pune case is a 47-year-old man who had returned from Finland. Omicron is a heavily mutated version of SARS-CoV-2 that has sparked a global scare that the pandemic is being prolonged. NATIONWIDE dec 04 dec 05 tamil nadu dec 04 dec 05 Fresh cases Recoveries Deaths 8,603 8,895 Fresh cases 8,190 6,918 Recoveries 415 2,796 Deaths 731 753 6 724 743 10 Pondy makes Covid-19 vaccination mandatory Baga l ava n P e r i e r B @ Puducherry The Puducherry government has made vaccination against Covid-19 mandatory for the eligible population in the Union Territory An order to this . effect was issued on Saturday , just five days after the Union government submitted in the Supreme Court that vaccination is voluntary, and not mandatory . The UT’s Directorate of Health and Family Welfare Services, issuing the orders, said it was invoking sections of the Puducherry Public Health Act, 1973, and enforcing “compulsory vaccination with immediate effect”. The order added that those violating it would be liable to face penal action, as per the provisions of the law. L i e u t e n a n t G o ve r n o r Tamilisai Soundarajan, addressing reporters on Sunday , justified the move and said, “We took the decision consid- Encounter goes horribly wrong in Nagaland, 15 civilians killed P r a s a n ta M a z u m d a r @ Guwahati A blundered ambush by security forces on Saturday evening and its fallout led to the killing of 15 civilians in Nagaland’s Mon district, forcing the state government and the Army to order independent probes. Saturday’s civilian toll of 13 climbed after two others were killed when a mob of over 1,000 people attacked an Assam Rifles camp in Mon town, torching its canteen, gate etc. Several apex tribal organisations decided to withdraw from the state’s ongoing Hornbill festival in protest. Official sources said four of the six civilians injured during Saturday’s violence were admitted to a hospital in Mon while the remaining two were taken to Assam Medical College and Hospital in Dibrugarh. Local tribal organisations claimed 11 persons were injured and two were reported missing. Given the volatile situation and the likely breach of public peace and tranquility the state , government suspended mobile internet/data service/bulk SMS in the entire Mon district. The district administration prohibited the gathering of more than five persons at a time in public An Assam Rifles camp in Mon town of Nagaland on fire after a mob attack on Sunday, following the killing of civilians by mistake the previous day | Special arrangement Deepest condolences to the families of those who have lost their lives. A high-level SIT constituted by the state govt will thoroughly probe this incident to ensure justice to the bereaved families Amit Shah, Union home minister under Section 144 of the CrPC. Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio, who was in Delhi, rushed to Nagaland. Later in the evening, he chaired a meeting of his cabinet. He will visit Mon on Monday to attend the funeral. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi tweeted, “This is heart wrenching. GOI must give a real reply What exactly is the home . ministry doing when neither civilians nor security personnel are safe in our own land?” In what looks like a total intelligence failure, defence per- Collective leadership to fight Raj poll, says Shah in blow to Raje R a j e s h A s n a n i @ Jaipur A woman getting vaccinated in Puducherry | Express ering the safety and welfare of the people. Vaccines safeguard people from the effects of Covid-19.” She added, however, that the government does not intend to punish those who fail to comply . A senior health official in Puducherry said some States were making submission of vaccine certificate mandatory to enter their borders. “Similarly, we have made vaccination compulsory to protect people from new variants of Covid.” In a major jolt to former chief minister Vasundhra Raje in Rajasthan, Union home minister Amit Shah on Sunday told the state unit of the BJP that the next Assembly elections will be fought under collective leadership. In other words, there will be no chief ministerial face for the 2023 state elections. Addressing the BJP’s state working committee meeting, Shah asked the faction-ridden party to unitedly start preparations for Mission 2023 under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. His collective leadership pitch is being seen as a snub to the Raje camp. When Raje’s name was called to welcome Shah, he interrupted, asking how many times would he be greeted. As a result, Raje lost the photo-op, which became a talking point. “No individual can be equal to an organisation. Everyone has to understand it,” he underscored, which was seen as a barb at Raje. For quite some time now, her loyalists have been demanding that she be named the CM face. The presence of Shah on the dais with leaders of all factions was a bid to show unity  . P8 Orders cb-cid probe HC stumbles upon `300-cr land scam B A n b u s e lv a n @ Chennai The Madras High Court has ordered a probe into a curious case of land fraud wherein a few people were not just able to get pattas of open space reservation (OSR) lands, but even got a lump sum by claiming compensation when the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) acquired the land for the Chennai - Bengaluru Expressway project. The court stumbled on the scam when it was hearing a petition seeking compensation for the lands acquired in 2019 for the project. The court found that about 5.1 acres of land parcels acquired near Sriperumbudur in Kancheepuram district were actually OSR lands belonging to the Nemili panchayat since 1992, and that NHAI had paid around `300 crore as compensation to various people who had fraudulently claimed ownership. The lands were allegedly fraudulently transferred to these individuals in 2018, just months before they claimed and received compensation from NHAI. The HC had been hearing a petition filed in 2019 by a resident of Sriperumbudur seeking compensation for the land acquired. While the case was pending before the court, NHAI released the payment. Subsequently when the petitioner ap, proached the court for withdrawal of the case, Justice V Bhavani Subbaroyan found some discrepancies in the affidavit, turned down the request, and directed the CB-CID to probe the matter. The court said NHAI issued statutory notifications for acquiring lands in 2016 and 2017. After a publication in the Gazette, the land promoters sold the land to a few persons in 2018. Within months, the landowners received compensation from NHAI in 2019. Surprisingly the Registering , Authority cancelled the gift deed and transferred the land to a few persons based on a letter given by Sriperumbudur Block Development Officer. P4 Accidental exposé The court stumbled upon the scam when it was hearing a petition seeking compensation for the lands acquired in 2019 for the project. It found that about 5.1 acres of land parcels acquired were actually OSR lands belonging to the Nemili panchayat since 1992 sonnel had ambushed eight daily wa g ers at Oting after mistaking them as militants. The victims were returning home in a pick-up truck from a coal mine on Saturday around 5 pm. Six of the civilians were killed and two others injured, a senior district official said requesting anonymity . When locals heard the sound of gunshots, they rushed to the area, leading to a retaliatory attack in which seven more civilians were killed. An Army jawan, who was g rievously injured, succumbed to his injuries. The locals also set ablaze vehicles of defence personnel. On Sunday morning, Nagaland’s Dimapur-based 3 Corps issued a statement stating that a specific operation was planned to be conducted in the area of Tiru in Mon based on credible intelligence of the likely movement of insurgents. “The cause of the unfortunate loss of lives is being investigated at the highest level,” it said, adding members of the security forces, too, suffered severe injuries. When pictures and videos of the slain civilians went viral on social media, it triggered a public outrage. People registered their protests out on the streets in some parts of the state. In commercial hub Dimapur, hundreds of them congregated outside the district magistrate’s office and staged a protest. The Naga Students’ Federation unfurled its flag at halfmast in protest against the killings. Insurgent group NSCN-IM, the key player in the Naga peace talks, described it as “black day” for the Nagas. “It is learned the killing was the work of the trigger-happy 21st Para Commandos/Assam Rifles,” the outfit said in a statement. express read Tomato price hits `100-mark in Chennai Chennai: The retail price of tomatoes breached the threedigit mark – `100 per kg – at the Koyambedu wholesale market on Sunday, even as the wholesale price was cheaper by `10 per kg. This is the second time the price of the staple has spiked to this level after the rains in the last month | P5 Panel mulls extra dose for vulnerable groups New Delhi: In a meeting on Monday, the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation in the Union health ministry will be considering a booster Covid-19 vaccine dose for immunocompromised people, including transplant recipients, cancer patients on therapy and those suffering from AIDS