Egyptian Prez sisi begins India visit Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, the chief guest at the Republic Day celebrations, being accorded a warm welcome as he arrives at Air Force Station Palam in New Delhi on Tuesday. He is on a three-day state visit to India to enhance bilateral ties on a range of areas. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Sisi will hold summit talks on Wednesday | PTI KOLLAM l wednesday l January 25, 2023 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l city EDITION 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 Police yet to make a move against lawyer Campuses push back on BBC film Screened in University of Hyderabad and various varsities in Kerala; JNU pulls the plug E x pre s s Ne w s Serv i ce @ Thiruvananthapuram/Hyderabad/New Delhi (ABVP) was planning to oppose its exhibition. But by pulling the plug, the institution found a temporary workaround. In Left-ruled Kerala, screenings across the state were organised by the youth wings of both the CPM and the Congress. Tension prevailed in various parts of the state, especially in Thiruvananthapuram, Palakkad and Wayanad following vociferous protests by the BJP Yuva Morcha workers, who tried to prevent screenings organised by the DYFISFI and the Youth Congress. The Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) organised the screening in Muthalakulam, Kozhikode. In Thiru- The Opposition’s pushback against the government purging social media of a controversial BBC documentary on the The police are yet to take the statement of law2002 Gujarat riots came from university yer Saiby Jose Kidangoor, despite the damning campuses with multiple screenings in report by the vigilance wing of the Kerala HC Kerala and Telangana amid protests by that said Saiby had collected kickbacks from the BJP’s youth wing. clients to bribe judges to get favourable orders. An attempt to screen it at the volatile The absence of acJawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in tion has raised Delhi on Tuesday was thwarted as the HC Lawyer CoLLeCted kiCkbaCks to ‘buy’ verdiCts eyebrows. administration snapped its power conCourse of justice TNIE had on nection. The organisers of the screening Monday published then shared the link of the first of twothe details of the part series, India: The Modi Question, report that said with those in the gathering. Mass screening planned 80,000 Indians in US face layoff SibyJudges don’t face poll, but Film inst stir ends heat had collected While the first screening happened in people are watching: Min The DYFI has decided to organise screenings lakhs from clients the University of Hyderabad on Satur200,000 at 2,000 centres in Kerala, said state A grab of the report published taking the names Norovirusday last, the process took off in a big way in Ekm president V Waseef. CPM’s student 30-40% in TNIE on January 24 of Justice P V Kunin Kerala on Tuesday Tension was build. Spotify organisation SFI has called for nationwide hikrishnan, Justice ing up in the JNU where the right-wing P K Firos arrested screening of the documentary 60 Muhamed MusAdays Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad taque and Justice 600 Ziyad Rahman A Once statements of other A. people involved in the Kochi city police matter are recorded, we will call Saiby to get his version. commissioner K The probe report will be Sethu Raman said sent to the state police chief the probe team was to take a call on whether an collecting details FIR should be registered from the lawyers Moving coins M a n o j V i s w a n at h a n @Kochi – witnessed at the hill shrine K Sethu Raman, who levelled allegaanother issue during the pilgrimage season tions against Saiby . Kochi city police commissioner this year, led to offering boxes “We have recorded Moving the loads For the past 70 days, a team of the statement of of coins to banks 790 Travancore Devaswom filling up. Now, the money has to be film producer Alwin Antony who is involved after counting is Board (TDB) employees is busy in the issue. Once the process is over, we will another uphill counting the money put in of- counted and recorded before it call Saiby for recording his statement. After task for TDB. fering boxes during the Manda- is moved to banks. Though the hill shrine has this, the probe report will be sent to the state Tractors la-Makaravilakku pilgrimage been closed since January 20 police chief to take a call on whether an FIR transporting season. Specifically, it is the piles of after the pilgrimage season, the should be registered,” Sethu Raman said. essentials to the The vigilance wing report had also said prohill shrine will be coins that has made their task TDB team cannot leave without ceedings could be initiated against Saiby as used to take the arduous. The total worth of the counting and recording each per the Advocates Act. The Supreme Court in bags of coins to coins is estimated to be around penny received as offering. The work, as one exhausted staffer the Sambu Ram Yadav vs Hanuman Das KhaPampa where `30 crore! The unprecedented rush of lamented, is proving to be nevtry case had observed that demanding bribes they will be ● More on P4 for judges is a serious misconduct. loaded in trucks devotees – almost 1 lakh a day er-ending.  P R a m d a s @Kochi PM unveils Model of netaji MeMorial Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday unveiled the model of a memorial dedicated to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, to be set up in Andaman and Nicobar To mark Netaji’s 126th birth anniversary, Modi also named 21 islands of the Union Territory after Param Vir Chakra awardees Prime Minister Narendra Modi pays homage to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose on Parakram Diwas, in New Delhi on Monday | ANI THIRUVANANTHAPURAM l tuesday l January 24, 2023 l `9.00 l PaGes 16 l Late City edition 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 P R A M d A S @Kochi Kochi City Police Commissioner K Sethu Raman said a preliminary inquiry has been launched on the HC vigilance wing’s report. “We will examine which offences can be included. A decision in this regard will be taken only after recording the statement of the persons who raised the allegations. Once the recording of statements is over, a report will be submitted to the state police chief,” Sethu Raman said. The court can send intimation to Bar Council of Kerala about regarding the lawyer’s misconduct for initiating action This is the first instance of the Kerala High Court vigilance wing submitting such a scathing report against a lawyer WHAT’S the price of justice? While that is debatable, there seems to be a price tag to get favourable verdicts. At least that is what a leading lawyer with the Kerala High Court had his clients believe when he collected lakhs from them. The money he told them, , was meant as kickbacks for HC judges to get judgments in their favour. The shocking revelation was made in the report submitted by the HC’s vigilance wing af- Ziyad Rahman A A of the Kerter a detailed probe into the ala HC. “Prima facie, there is dealings of lawyer Saiby Jose sufficient material to prove the Kidangoor. The probe was allegations against the lawyer,” launched following revelations said the report, a copy of which by HC lawyers as is with TNIE. It well as a directive also said his inpress from the court. clusive tegrity was ‘highThe report said ly doubtful’. the team found The HC vigiseveral instances of Saiby col- lance wing had recorded statelecting huge sums of money ments from several lawyers. from clients by taking the One said that as per the infornames of Justice P V Kun- mation he received, Saiby sehikrishnan, Justice A Mu- cured `25 lakh from a client to hamed Mustaque and Justice be given as bribe to a judge. An- other lawyer said Saiby allegedly collected `50 lakh from clients. The second lawyer also alleged that Saiby and his friends had been threatening him ever since he made the revelation on social media. A third advocate said a film producer, who is an accused in a case registered with the Ernakulam South police station, had spent `25 lakh on the case. The producer, said the lawyer, had told him that `15 lakh was paid to Saiby as fees. As per the lawyer, when the producer sought a concession of `5 lakh, Saiby told him that “some amount was to be given to the judge who was considering the case.” The probe officer concluded that Saiby’s acts would come within the ambit of professional misconduct as per Section 35 of the Advocates Act. The vigilance wing also suggested contempt of court proceedings as per Section 2 (c) of the Contempt of Court Act. Saiby was recently elected president of the Kerala High Court Advocates Association. EXPRESS READ Forced to find job within two months or leave the country, many share plight on social media platforms; Spotify to cut its staff base by 6% u M A k A N N A N @ Bengaluru WITH a series of layoff announcements by all top tech companies globally in recent weeks, reports suggest that 60,000-80,000 Indian IT professionals in the US have lost their jobs. A majority of them are said to be on H-1B and L1 visas, who will have to find another job within 60 days or pack up. Microsoft, Meta, Amazon and Alphabet together have laid off 51,000 employees. Till now, 312,600 employees have lost jobs, according to Layoffs.fyi, which compiles data from public reports and tracks layoffs. In 2023 alone, 174 tech companies laid off 56,570 employees. Many affected Indians have shared their stories on social media platforms. Monambigha M, one of the impacted Google employees, said in a LinkedIn post that she must spring back into action as being an immigrant on an H-1B visa does not give her the flexibility to take time off. She joined Google only 10 months ago. After working with Google for three years and six months, Kunal Kumar Gupta received the termination mail. “I am immediately open to work and would need immediate assistance to find a role as I am on an H-1B visa which gives me 60 days to find a job,” Gupta said. Meanwhile, Swedish music streaming firm Spotify on Monday announced that it is reducing its employee base by 6%, or about 600 employees. In a note to employees, CEO Daniel Ek said, “While we have made great progress in improving speed in the last few years, we haven’t focused as much on improving efficiency... And in a challenging economic environment, efficiency takes on greater importance. So, in an effort to drive more efficiency control , costs... I have decided to restructure our organisation.” According to HR experts, it is not difficult for those who lost jobs in the US to find one in India. Vijay Sivaram, CEO of Quess IT Staffing, expects hiring intent for IT professionals across tech and non-tech companies to revert to its pre-pandemic levels. “Hot skills such as full stack engineers, data analysts and scientists, DevOps specialists, and cloud engineers will be sought after,” he said. After Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud’s request for UnIOn Law Minister Kiren Ri- imposition of curbs on social jiju on Monday threw another media against adverse combarb at the judiciary, saying ments on judges, the Centre is though judges don’t face public considering taking stern steps, scrutiny or polling like politi- he said, but wondered what cians, people are watchcould be done if the ing and forming opincriticism is on a “mass ions based on their scale”. “CJI told me performance. that there should be Speaking at a Delhi some restrictions on Bar Association event, social media. CJI asked Rijiju said, “Judges us to take some stern don’t have to face elecsteps against people tions. They are also not commenting on judges. subjected to public We are considering it. Kiren Rijiju scrutiny Although the . But when people are public can’t elect judges, they criticising at a mass scale, are watching them. Their judg- what can we do?” Rijiju asked. ments, the way they work and Reiterating that his letter to the manner in which they dis- the CJI dated January 6, did not pense justice, people are look- seek government nominees on ing and also forming an opin- the collegium, he said it was ion. In the age of social media, meant as a follow up of the SC’s nothing can be hidden.” verdict in the nJAC case. S H R u T I k A k k A R @ New Delhi Tech employees lost jobs in the US since November SwediSh muSic Streaming company decideS to trim 6% of itS workforce, or employeeS Of the affected are Indian IT professionals who are on H-1B and L1 visas Grace period for non-immigrant visa holders to find another job, or they will have to leave the US Kottayam: Students of K R Narayanan National Institute of Visual Science and Arts called off their 50-day-long strike following talks with the minister on Monday, two days after the institute’s director resigned | P5 Kochi: Norovirus, a stomach bug, has been detected in Ernakulam with 62 students of a school showing symptoms. The presence of the virus has been confirmed in five students | P5 T’Puram: Muslim Youth League (MYL) general secretary P K Firos has been arrested under nonbailable sections for the violence during MYL’s Secretariat march on January 18 | P4 Counting coins worth `30 cr an uphill task for TDB staff vananthapuram, the screening organised by the Students’ Federation of India (SFI) in the Government Law College and the University College went off without a hitch. However a screening at Poojapura turned into a street fight with BJP workers trying to remove barricades erected by the police to prevent them from reaching the venue. The police had to fire water cannons six times at the protesters. A similar protest was witnessed at Manaveeyam road where the Youth Congress screened it. In Telangana, a group of students under the aegis of the Fraternity Movement screened the documentary at the University of Hyderabad without seeking the administration’s permission. The matter came to light after the ABVP lodged a complaint with the university’s Registrar. The administration then tried to stop it but the organisers refused to budge. Around 50 students watched it, said Amal Jose Phillips, a PhD student. RRR leads the Indian brigade at Oscar 2023 Chandhini R 16 PAgES, INCLuDINg 4 PAgES OF THIRuVANANTHAPuRAM ExPRESS express read Control room to track punishment rolls of officers T’Puram: The state police will have a permanent control room to track the punishment rolls of officers against whom department action was taken. Officers here will be tasked with collecting reports on such cops from the police districts every month | P4 Revenue dept to regularise un-assessed land in Malabar T’Puram: In a significant development, the state revenue department has decided to issue land records to the thousands of landholders in north Kerala who could not own the land they possess because they were unable to pay the tax for the un-assessed land | P5 Nominations for the 95th Academy Awards were announced on Tuesday, and as anticipated, it turned out to be an unforgettable day for India. While Naatu Naatu from SS Rajamouli’s RRR made it to the Best Original Song category , the two documentaries, All That Breathes and The Elephant Whisperers, made the nomination list under the Best Documentary Feature and Best Documentary Short, respectively Chello Show (Last Film Show), India’s offi. cial entry to the Oscars under the Best International Feature category did not feature in the list. , History was created with the nod for RRR’s Naatu Naatu, composed by M M Keeravani and written by Chandrabose, as it became the first Indian song to be nominated at the Oscars. Naatu Naatu also won under the same category in the recently announced Golden Globes and Critics Choice Awards as well. Even though Indian musicians like A R Rahman and Bombay Jayashri have been nominated for the Oscars previously it happened for , non-Indian films like Slumdog Millionaire and Life of Pi, respectively .