TIRUCHY l thursday l august 18, 2022 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l late city EDITION Actor Jacqueline named accused in extortion case The ED on Wednesday filed a chargesheet naming her an accused in the case involving conman Sukesh Chandrashekhar ‘Accepted gifts bought with illegal money’ Conman helped her family too, says ED The Delhi Police arrested Chandrashekhar in August last year for allegedly extorting `215 crore from Aditi Singh and Shivender Singh, former promoters of Ranbaxy. The ED said Chandrashekhar, who had been dating Jacqueline Fernandez, had given her gifts worth `5.7 crore. She was aware that the gifts were bought with the proceeds of the crime, the ED alleged ■ ■ ■ In addition to the gifts, Chandrashekhar gave $1,72,913 to close family members of the actor through a hawala operator Jacqueline is the only person named in the latest chargesheet She has been questioned several times by the ED. In April, the agency provisionally attached her assets worth `7.27 crore August 31 when a special court will take up the chargesheet for hearing 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 BSY in, Gadkari out of top party panel Balancing act to soften ex-Karnataka CM ahead of state polls; Yogi surprise omission from parliamentary board E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ New Delhi In a major shake-up in its parliamentary board and the Central Election Committee, the BJP on Wednesday dropped stalwarts Nitin Gadkari and Shivraj Singh Chouhan, and inducted B S Yediyurappa, Sarbanand Sonowal, Devendra Fadnavis and Bhupendra Yadav, among others. While Fadnavis and Bhupendra Yadav were made members of the CEC, Yediyurappa and Sonowal got into the more important parliamentary board. UP Chief Minister Yogi Adi- tyanath failed to make it to the panel. He was expected to be elevated to the party’s top decision-making body after the BJP returned to power under his leadership in the state. The parliamentary board is the BJP’s apex organisational body, while the CEC is the top election committee which decides candidates for all polls. Yediyurappa’s inclusion was a balancing act, highlighting the party’s efforts to send a message to the powerful Lingayat community ahead of Karnataka polls. When he was replaced by Basavaraj Bommai as chief minister in 2021, Yediy- BS Yediyurappa Nitin Gadkari Shivraj Chouhan urappa did not take the decision well, and had announced his retirement from politics. The party leadership chose Iqbal Singh Lalpura as the first Sikh representative in the parliamentary board. Lalpura, a BJP leader from Punjab, is a former cop and is at present the chairman of the National Commission for Minorities. Gadkari is considered close to the RSS leadership. His axing came as a big surprise to BJP watchers. The removal of Gadkari and Chouhan shows their increasing differences with the top party leadership. The other new parliamentary board members are K Laxman, Sudha Yadav and Satyanarayan Jatiya, three old party faithfuls but political lightweights. Sudha Yadav and Laxman are from the Other Backward Classes while former Union minister Jatia is from the Scheduled e x p r e ss r e a d E W S f l a ts Govt flip-flop on Rohingya housing in Delhi outskirts E x p r e ss N e ws Se r v i c e @ New Delhi The Centre on Wednesday did a flip-flop hours after a minister applauded a decision to provide government accommodation to Rohingya refugees in Delhi’s outskirts. It said there was no direction to provide EWS (economically weaker section) flats in Bakkarwala to illegal migrants from Myanmar. The day began with Union minister for housing and urban affairs Hardeep Singh Puri tweeting, “In a landmark decision all #Rohingya #Refugees will be shifted to EWS flats in Bakkarwala area of Delhi. They will be provided basic amenities, UNHCR IDs & round-the-clock @DelhiPolice protection.” Several individuals and social media users slammed the government ‘support’ to the Rohingya and sought similar relief to Hindu migrants from Pakistan as well. The VHP termed it shocking, with its working president Alok Kumar saying, “Rohingyas are not refugees but infiltrators. That had been the consistent stand of the Union of India including in its affidavit filed before the Supreme Court. The proposal to allocate accommodation to Rohingyas is deplorable.” The Aam Aadmi Party, too, joined the attack, alle ging the Centre had hatched a plot to permanently settle Rohingyas. As the outrage grew, the Union home ministry issued a statement saying it has not instructed relocation of the Rohingyas. “The Government of Delhi proposed to shift the Rohingyas to a new location. MHA has directed the Government of Delhi to ensure that the Rohingya illegal foreigners will continue at the present location at Kanchan Kunj, Madanpur Khadar as MHA has already taken up the matter (their) of deportation,” it said. It complained that the Delhi Government had not declared the present location (Madanpur Khadar) of the refugees as a detention centre. About 1,100 Rohingyas have been staying in tents in Madanpur Khadar on which the Delhi government reportedly spends about `7 lakh per month. Following a high-level meeting held in July, it was decided to allot EWS flats to Rohingyas. The Delhi Police were directed to provide security to the premises. A Rohinya refugee settlement in Kalindi Kunj in New Delhi on Wednesday | express Salem toddler run over by schoolbus Salem: A one-and-half-year-old girl was run over by a schoolbus near Veeraganur on Wednesday. Police said Bavanitha Sree ran after her elder sister as she boarded the bus. Driver Sudhakar and mother Sudha did not see her. As the bus started to move, she came under the front wheel Airlines told to enforce mask mandate New Delhi: The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Wednesday asked all airlines to strictly enforce Covid protocols, including the mask mandate, in view of a rise in cases. The DGCA said it will conduct random inspections to check if the protocols are being followed cordial ties Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin greeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi during their meeting in New Delhi on Wednesday | PTI | P4 3 sacked for security breach at NSA’s house E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ New Delhi When a security breach occurs at the residence of the person tasked with overseeing national security heads must roll. They did early this month , as three Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) commandos were sacked and two senior officers transferred for major lapses in security at the residence of National Security Advisor Ajit Doval six months ago. CISF’s Special Security Group provides the highest Z-plus security cover to Doval (77), who figures on the central VIP security list. Apart from securing the NSA when he travels, the commandos are tasked with guarding his house. The breach occurred at 7.30 am on February 16 when a man from Bengaluru tried to drive into Doval’s house in Central Delhi in a hired SUV . That the NSA was at home when the incident happened made it all the more serious. A CISF court of inquiry that examined the incident found the constables and the officers guilty on various counts and recommended punitive action against them. The two officers, a Deputy Inspector General heading the VVIP security unit at Doval’s residence and his second-in-command, a senior commandant-rank officer, were transferred. The intruder, later identified as Shantanu Reddy was intercepted outside the residence and was , handed over to the Delhi Police. He had claimed he was being controlled by external forces through a microchip embedded in his body, but an MRI scan could not find any chip. He was later said to be mentally unsound. As Bills await his nod, TN Guv appoints 3 V-Cs E x p r e ss N e ws Se r v i c e @ Chennai TAMIL Nadu Governor RN Ravi on Wednesday appointed vice-chancellors (V-Cs) to three State universities. This comes even as the Bills passed by the TN government seeking to empower itself to appoint V-Cs to 13 State varsities, including these three, are awaiting the Governor’s assent. The Governor, who is Chancellor of State-run universities, appointed T Arumugam as V-C of Vellore-based Thiruvalluvar University, G Ravi as V-C of Alagappa university at Karaikudi and N Chandrasekar as V-C of Manonmaniam Sunda- ranar University (MSU) at Tirunelveli, said a Raj Bhavan statement. Officials at the higher education department could not be reached for comment on whether these appointments were made in consultation with the State government. The appointments are for a period of three years with effect from the date of assumption of office by the appointees. The three new V-Cs have decades of teaching, research and administrative experience. Chandrasekar, who has 35 years’ teaching experience, was earlier the dean of Castes. Sonowal is a tribal. Laxman is at present the president of the BJP’s OBC Morcha. The new entrants to the CEC include Rajasthan leader Om Mathur and BJP women wing chief Vanathi Srinivasan. Srinivasan replaces her predecessor Vijaya Rahatkar as the party’s Mahila Morcha chief as its ex-officio member. Both Yediyurappa and Jatiya are over 75, well over the age bar announced by Modi for holding important posts in the party Fadnavis’ in. duction marks his growing stock in Maharashtra. It’s seen as a reward for bringing down the Uddhav government. research at MSU. Ravi, who has 27 years’ of teaching experience, has held various administrative positions at Alagappa University while Arumugam is currently serving as the head of horticulture department at the Agricultural College Research Institute in Killikulam. In April, the Bills were passed in the TN Assembly seeking to replace the Governor as Chancellor of State-run universities with the Chief Minister to ensure that the State government can appoint V-Cs for these varsities. ‘Univ admin affected’ Presenting the Bills, CM MK Stalin had said there had been a trend of the Governor appointing V-Cs without consulting State govt. He said inability of the govt to appoint V-Cs for varsities in its control had led to confusion & affected admin HC order takes EPS-OPS tussle back to square one R SIVAKU M AR @ Chennai IN a setback to Edappadi K Palaniswami, the Madras High Court on Wednesday ordered maintenance of status quo ante as on June 23, 2022 in the affairs of the AIADMK and said the executive council or general council (GC) shall not be convened without the joint consent of the coordinator and joint coordinator. The order effectively revives the abolished posts of coordinator held by O Panneerselvam and joint coordinator (EPS) while doing away with the interim general secretary post, to which EPS was elected in a July GC 11 meeting. Justice G Jayachandran passed the orders while disposing of the petitions filed by OPS and a general council member P Vairamuthu challenging the legality of convening the July 11 meeting. While coming as a booster to OPS, the court’s direction that a fresh GC meeting shall be conducted if one fifth of the members make a requisition may land him in trouble as a majority of GC members are with EPS. Further, it may trigger another series of legal battles over supremacy in the party structure between the two leaders, leaving cadres in distress. Referring to convening the GC meeting, Justice Jayachandran said, “There shall be no impediment for the coordinator and the joint coordinator on their own to convene the GC meeting jointly to decide the affairs of the party, including amendment of the party constitution restoring the single leadership.” AIADMK’s OPS at late CM Jayalalithaa’s memorial after the HC order | P jawahar If a proper representation from not less than one fifth of the members of GC is received, they shall not refuse to convene the meeting, and it shall be held within 30 days with 15 days’ advance notice. The judge ordered that the two top leaders can approach the court for any direction or seek assistance of a commissioner for conducting the meeting if required. P4