AFP The New Indian Express Wishes its readers a Our offices and press will remain closed today and there will be no issue of the paper on Sunday tirupati l saturday l january 15, 2022 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l late city EDITION Visa revoked, Djokovic appeals against decision VISA Immigration minister uses statutory discretion three days before Oz Open. World No 1’s lawyers appeal against decision Spectre of three-year ban massive surge in covid-19 cases Deportation from Australia can lead to a three-year ban on returning to the country, although it may be waived, depending on the circumstances. Immigration minister Alex Hawke said he cancelled Novak Djokovic’s visa in public interest. Prime Minister Scott Morrison welcomed the decision in view of the Covid-19 pandemic ■ ■ Australia is facing a massive surge in virus cases driven by the Omicron variant. On Friday, the nation reported 130,000 new cases including nearly 35,000 in Victoria state Djokovic’s lawyers had last week successfully challenged the decision after the Serbian’s visa was first cancelled | P11 9 Of Djokovic’s 20 Grand Slam titles have been won at Melbourne Park CHENNAI ■ MADURAI ■ VIJAYAWADA ■ BENGALURU ■ KOCHI ■ HYDERABAD ■ VISAKHAPATNAM ■ COIMBATORE ■ KOZHIKODE ■ THIRUVANANTHAPURAM ■ BELAGAVI ■ BHUBANESWAR ■ SHIVAMOgGA ■ MANGALURU ■ TIRUPATI ■ TIRUCHY ■ TIRUNELVELI ■ SAMBALPUR ■ HUBBALLI ■ DHARMAPURI ■ KOTTAYAM ■ KANNUR ■ VILLUPURAM ■ KOLLAM ■ TADEPALLIGUDEM ■ NAGAPATTINAM ■ THRISSUR ■ KALABURAGI Maurya & Co join SP, accuse Yogi govt of betraying BCs Two former ministers, 5 ex-MLAs cross floors; FIR for Covid norm violation N a m i ta Ba j pa i @ Lucknow sankranti sambaralu Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy offers sweet to his wife Bharathi while taking part in Bhogi celebrations at Goshala in Tadepalli on Friday (right) People participate in Jallikattu at Anupalle village in Ramachandrapuram mandal of Chittoor district I Express Close shave for 2 India-bound flights at Dubai e x p r e ss ne ws s e r v i c e @ New Delhi A collision between two Indiabound Emirates planes was averted at Dubai airport on Sunday In. d i a ’ s av i a t i o n r e g u l a t o r, Directorate General of Civil Aviation, has sought the probe report from the UAE authorities. Flight EK-524 to Hyderabad was scheduled for take-off at 9:45 pm while Dubai-Bengaluru flight was also scheduled to take off from the same runway. According to the Emirates flight schedule, there was a five-minute gap between the departure time of both flights. Reports said that the Hyderabad-bound plane was accelerating for take-off from runway 30R when the crew saw another aircraft coming in the same direction at high speed. Take-off was immediately instructed to be aborted by the ATC. The aircraft slowed down safely and cleared the runway via taxiway N4. Flight EK-568 to Bangalore, which was rolling for departure, was to take-off from the same runway --- 30R. Kerala court acquits Bishop Franco in nun rape case E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Kottayam IN a major setback for the prosecution, Bishop Franco Mulakkal, former head of the Latin Catholic Diocese of Jalandhar, was on Friday acquitted in the sensational nun rape case. Kottayam Additional District and Sessions Court 1 Judge I G Gopakumar pronounced the judgment in just one line in the courtroom: “The accused has been acquitted.” Later, on the e-court website, it was stated that the “accused is found not guilty” of wrongful confinement, rape on a woman incapable of giving consent, causing grievous bodily harm during rape, unnatural offence, assault or use of criminal force on any woman, intending to outrage her modesty and criminal intimidation. “He is acquitted and his sureties are discharged,” it said. The courtroom witnessed dramatic scenes as Bishop Franco’s brothers Philip and Chacko and supporters ran towards him and hugged him while he was coming out of the dock after hearing the judgment. The Bishop left the court premises soon with a one-line response to the Bishop Franco Mulakkal folds his hands in gratitude as he leaves after the court acquitted him in a rape case, in Kottayam on Friday | Pti media: “Praise the Lord.” Later speaking to mediapersons at a retreat centre in Kalathipady near Kottayam town, the Bishop said the judgment proved that prayers have powers. “I prayed that the verdict in God’s court be implemented in the court on earth. God has given me an opportunity to prove that God exists and what are His powers,” he said. “All those who loved and stood for the truth stood by him. Stones are thrown only at trees that bear fruits and I am proud of being one such tree,” he said. Ahead of R-Day, IED scare in delhi A member of a Bomb Disposal Squad attempts to defuse an IED bomb found inside a bag at Ghazipur flower market in New Delhi, Friday | Pti New Delhi: An improvised explosive device (IED) stuffed with RDX and ammonium nitrate was found inside an unattended bag at the Ghazipur flower market here Friday morning but it was later defused, officials said. The explosive was kept in an iron box and concealed in the black coloured backpack. The incident comes ahead of Republic Day celebrations on January 26 for which the security apparatus in the national capital is already on high alert. “The explosive prima facie looks to be a mix of RDX and ammonium nitrate. It was about 3 kgs in weight and there were some shrapnel embedded,” NSG DG M A Ganapathy said. Another National Security Guard officer said they were alerted by the Delhi Police about the suspicious object around 11 am and soon after a team reached the market, located close to Uttar Pradesh. PTI Space Challenge 3 projects of AP girls adjudged winners E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Vijayawada / Visakhapatnam / Srikakulam Nine girl students from the Andhra Pradesh Social Welfare Residential Educational Institutions Society (APSWREIS) are over the moon as their science projects have found a place in the list of 75 winners in the ATL Space Challenge 2021 conducted by the Atal Innovation Mission, in collaboration with ISRO and CBSE. Three of the 75 winning projects are from Andhra Pradesh and all of them are from the APSWREIS. The three winning teams comprising Students of APSWR, Nellimarla, with their ‘Creative Model of Pragyan Rover’ project three girls each, hail from APSWR Centre of Excellence, Madhurawada, Visakhapatnam, APSWR, Markapur, Prakasam, and APSWR, Nellimarla, Vizianagaram. Dhawan Space Rover, a working prototype model which can travel in space, developed by Urmila of Class 8, Y Jessica, and E Arundhati of Class 9 from the AP Social Welfare Residential Centre of Excellence at Madhurawada in Visakhapatnam under the theme Inhabit Space, was one of the three winning projects from AP . Explaining their project, Jessica said their team was surprised on hearing the news. “We worked under the guidance of our principal and ATL incharge Rambabu to make this prototype, which can travel on any P4 planet,” she told TNIE. Accusing the Yogi Adityanath government of running Uttar Pradesh in the last five years, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Friday taunted the BJP for losing “one wicket after the other” as he welcomed into the SP fold two ministers and five MLAs who recently quit the ruling party . At a huge gathering of party workers in Lucknow, Akhilesh as well as the new inductees alleged that the BJP dispensation had betrayed the farmers and the youth. Former minister Swami Prasad Maurya accused the ruling party of betraying backwards. The others who joined the SP included minister Dharam Singh Saini and MLAs Bhagwati Sagar, Vinay Shakya, Mukesh Verma, Brajesh Prajapati and Roshan Lal Verma. The police later lodged an FIR against SP leaders after hundreds of supporters, in defiance of the Covid norms, turned up at the party office to attend the ‘virtual rally’. According to Lucknow Police Commissioner DK Thakur, the FIR was lodged against 2,500-odd SP lead- ers under various IPC Sections and relevant sections of the Epidemic Diseases Act. Thakur added that the police had got the event video-recorded before lodging the FIR. While addressing the gathering, Akhilesh took a dig at CM Yogi Adityanath over his recent statement that the UP election was about ‘80 per cent positivity versus 20 per cent negativity’, saying that after Murya’s induction into the SP, 80 per cent support had shifted to his party and the remaining 20 per cent would also vote for SP as they were unhappy with the present dispensation. S P Maurya claimed that he was going to script the end of ‘Yogi sarkar’ on the auspicious day of Makar Sankranti by joining the SP He said it was the . day of the amalgamation of ‘Samajwad’ (socialism) and ‘Ambedkarvaad’ (BR Ambedkar’s philosophy). Playing up the caste card, he said, “They had promised during the 2017 campaign that a backward --- either me or Keshav Maurya -- would be the CM, but they brought a sky lab from Gorakhpur and dropped him on the CM’s chair.” The BJP wickets are falling one after the other. Our ‘baba’ CM doesn’t know how to play cricket. Even if he knew, he has dropped the catch Akhilesh Yadav, Samajwadi Party chief Ban on election rallies likely to be extended The Election Commission is likely to extend the ban on public rallies and roadshows keeping in view the steep rise in Covid cases. The poll panel has also decided to double the broadcast/telecast time allotted to each party on DD and AIR. Earlier, the poll panel had banned the rallies and roadshows till January 15 and said any decision to extend it will be taken following review of the Covid situation in the five States