vijayawada 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 E x p r e ss N e w s S e r v i c e @ 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 4 dec 5 statewide dec 4 dec 5 Fresh cases Recoveries Deaths Fresh cases 186 154 Recoveries 191 177 Deaths 3 4 Samples tested 32,036 30,979 8,603 8,895 8,190 6,918 415 2,796 Glitch in dam gate did not lead to bund breach: EE S N a g a r a j a R a o @ Kadapa Flash flood with a large volume of water beyond the discharging capacity of Annamayya project on Cheyyeru in a very short span of time was the only reason for the breach of its earthen bund, asserted the project executive engineer N Ravikiran. Speaking to TNIE, he said the project received an inflow of 3.20 lakh cusecs against its outflow capacity of 2.17 lakh cusecs. “Even if the defunct gate of the project was operational, the outcome would have been the same,” he opined. T he p roject which became operational on January 4, 2001, has five radial gates, each measuring 13.75 x 14 metres. On October 30, 2003, one of the five gates broke when the water level in the project increased to 201.750 metres and it was washed away. A new gate was set up in its place and other four gates of the project were strengthened. During Cyclone Nivar in November 2020, the fifth gate of the project developed a snag as one of its cables snapped. “We could only close the gate, but could not lift it. The other four gates are functioning normally In . November, the project was full to the brim, providing drinking and irrigation water to Rajampet and Nandalur mandals,” he said.  P4 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 attacked it on Sunday, a day after the killing of civilians by mistake | 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- sea surges at rk beach in vizag due to cyclone Though north coastal Andhra districts escaped the impact of Cyclone Jawad, it caused intense activity in the sea. About 200-metre stretch of land from the Children’s Park at RK Beach to Durgalamma temple in Visakhapatnam caved in due to erosion caused by the sea surge. The retaining wall collapsed and the ground developed big cracks. Police barricaded the entire area | P4 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 outP7 fit said in a statement. express read Car goes up in flames after crash, six dead Tirupati: Six pilgrims died and two others sustained injuries when a speeding car crashed into a divider on the highway at Ithepalli in Chandragiri mandal on Sunday evening and caught fire. Chandragiri police said the victims hailed from Vizianagaram and Srikakulam districts | P4 Collective leadership to fight Raj poll: Shah Jaipur: 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 Assembly elections | P8