Twin blasts rock pak before elections A day before Pakistan’s general elections, twin blasts shook up Balochistan on Wednesday leaving 30 people dead and 40 others injured. So far, no one has claimed responsibility. Separatist groups operating in Balochistan are the prime suspects for the blasts. Balochistan’s home minister Jan Achakzai said elections would be held as per schedule | P9 | AP/PTI THIRUVANANTHAPURAM l Thursday l February 08, 2024 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■ DHARMAPURI ■ KOTTAYAM ■ KANNUR ■ VILLUPURAM ■ KOLLAM ■ TADEPALLIGUDEM ■ NAGAPATTINAM ■ THRISSUR ■ KALABURAGI Congress outdated party with divisive narratives, says Modi Local Delhi court concurs with ED, summons Kejri RA J ESH K U M AR THA K U R @ New Delhi Finds prima facie offence of intentionally disobeying the probe agency’s summonses J AIS O N WI L S O N @ New Delhi Arvind Kejriwal Jal Board scam The ED said incriminating documents, valuables of D1.97 crore and foreign currency worth D4 lakh were seized in raids on Delhi CM’s PA Bibhav Kumar and others in Jal Board scam No bail to Sanjay The Delhi HC has refused bail to arrested AAP leader Sanjay Singh in the Delhi excise policy scam. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday appeared to lose some wriggle room as a local court summoned him to appear before it on February 17 in the excise policy scam case. It issued the order after taking cognisance of a plea filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) complaining that Kejriwal had failed to comply with its summons in the case for the fifth consecutive time. “Prima facie offence under Section 174 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 is made out and there are sufficient grounds for proceeding under Section 204 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 against accused Mr. Arvind Kejriwal,” Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Divya Malhotra said in her order. As per Section 174, a person who intentionally disobeys the directions issued by the probe agency shall be prosecuted and punished with imprisonment extending up to one month or with a fine or both. The ED had issued summons to Kejriwal on October 30, November 2, December 18, December 22, and January 3 demanding his attendance “to give evidence in connection with the investigation or proceedings under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA)” on the alleged excise policy scam. Objecting to the summons as “unsustainable in law”, Kejriwal had argued that the ED had failed to disclose the capacity in which he was being called — as a witness or a suspect. But under PMLA, the investigating officer is not required to disclose the capacity under which a person is summoned at the stage of probe, the agency said in its plea. Fund right Congress leaders from Karnataka led by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah staging a protest against the Centre in Delhi on Wednesday over the alleged injustice to the state in the devolution of taxes | Parveen Negi | P5 point Nirmala Sitharaman accused K’taka of having separatist mindset and spreading false narrative It demanded that the Centre undo the losses amounting to C1.87 lakh crore allegedly incurred by the state under the 15th Finance Commission “I want to assure the House (LS) that whatever has been recommended by the Finance Commission, I followed to the last word,” she said LDF’s stir for every state’s rights: CM On the eve of the LDF government’s landmark protest in New Delhi against the Centre’s alleged negligence towards Kerala, CM Pinarayi Vijayan sought to remind nonBJP ruled states that the agitation is aimed at safeguarding the rights of all states, not just Kerala’s. The stir, set to be Left’s show of strength ahead of LS polls, is likely to see participation of leaders like Sharad Pawar and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, besides 99 MLAs and nine MPs of the LDF. P4 Uttarakhand passes UCC bill, Prez assent awaited n a r e n d r a s e t h i @ Dehradun The Uttarakhand assembly on Wednesday passed the Uniform Civil Code bill through a voice vote after two days of deliberations. The bill now awaits President Droupadi Murmu’s assent for its enactment. The bill is expected to be the template for adoption by other BJPruled states like Gujarat and Assam. The assembly rejected the opposition’s demand to send the bill to a select committee of the House for vetting. CM Pushkar Singh Dhami said the legislation comprises 392 sections, with major emphasis on succession rights. It establishes a uni- counterpoint Cong alleged that injustice has been meted out to Karnataka in tax devolution and grants-in-aid form legal framework applicable to all citizens, encompassing crucial aspects such as marriage, divorce, inheritance, adoption, and even live-in relationships, irrespective of religious affiliation, he said. The Congress chose not to protest in the House during Dhami’s speech. “The bill’s paramount goal is to protect women’s rights,” Dhami said. The law applies to the whole of Uttarakhand and to people from the state living outside. Apparently to bar the practice of halala, the bill specifies “the right to marry the divorced spouse without any condition, such as marrying a third person before such remarriage”. EXPRESS READ IS man found guilty of plotting suicide attack Kochi: The NIA Court in Kochi on Wednesday found Riyas Aboobacker — a resident of Palakkad — guilty of plotting a suicide attack in Kerala in 2016. Riyas, 34, was arrested in 2019 as part of the probe against 14 persons from Kasaragod who joined Islamic State in 2016. P5 Cut in divisible tax pool worrying: Ind-Ra report Kochi: Reduced divisible tax pool and low tax devolution, which disregards the recommendations of the Finance Commission is a matter of concern for fiscal federalism, says a report by India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra). Panchayat’s plan Sukumara Kurup’s unfinished dream home to house govt offices B I J U E PA U L @Alappuzha Near the NH-66 stretch at Vandanam in Ambalappuzha lies an unfinished, abandoned ‘bungalow’ with a dark past. For it was none other than fugitive criminal Sukumara Kurup who began the construction of the building in the 1980s. It was to be his dream house. However, the work ceased when Kurup went absconding in 1984 after murdering film representative N J Chacko for insurance money It . is believed Kurup needed the money for building the house. Now, four decades later, the Ambalappuzha North panchayat in Alappuzha is planning to claim ownership of the house. It has approached the revenue department The unfinished house of Sukumara Kurup at Vandanam in Ambalappuzha | Express and the state government in this regard. “We have approached the revenue department to get ownership of the house built on 20 cents of land. We have written to the government and the department after private parties tried to encroach on the land,” said panchayat president S Haris. He said the land belongs to an Ambalappuzha native, as Kurup, after buying the property, did not procure the encumbrance certificate from the revenue department. “Kurup’s family tried to acquire ownership of the house and land, but failed as they did not have the proper documents. Since the place is lying abandoned, we filed a petition during the Nava Kerala Sadas event in Ambalappuzha assembly constituency last December. It was sent to the revenue department,” Haris said. Last week, officials from the taluk office inspected the place. Haris said if the panchayat gets the ownership, they plan to set up a village office and other offices in the 1,800 sq ft, two-storey building. PICKING up from where he left off in his reply to the debate on the Motion of Thanks on the President’s Address in Lok Sabha on Monday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday trained his guns on the Congress again, accusing it of working against the interests of the marginalised sections of society and trying to create a wedge between north and south India. Replying to the debate on the Motion of Thanks in the Rajya Sabha, Modi said the Congress had an ‘anti-reservation’ policy Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaks in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday | pti during Jawaharlal Nehru’s time to shut out people from the SC, ST and OBC sections. Modi claimed Nehru was against the idea of reservation and had it not been for Babasaheb Ambedkar, the underprivileged sections would not have had any quota. Nehru, Modi said, was of the opinion that affirmative action to uplift marginalised communities would end up promoting non-meritorious people and bring inefficiency into the system. In an apparent reference to Karnataka deputy CM D K Shivakumar’s brother and Congress MP D K Suresh’s comment that South India should become a separate country, Modi said the grand old party was trying to divide the country for political gains. Modi said the Congress has become such an ‘outdated’ party that it can only think in terms of how to generate new narratives to divide the country . Row rages in CPM over opening education to foreign universities Express News Service @ Kannur/T’Puram The ripples within the CPM over allowing foreign universities to set up campuses in Kerala continued to spread on Wednesday with the party state secretary staunchly defending the proposal and the higher education minister, besides justifying SFI’s opposition to the plan, asserting that many aspects need to be examined before taking a decision on the issue. “There is no policy shift on Can’t share info with cops: WhatsApp to T’Puram court E x p r e ss N e ws S e r v i c e @T’Puram WhatsApp India on Wednesday said it was not responsible for the data stored in the messaging app’s servers located outside the country . The app’s submission came in a counter-affidavit it filed before the additional chief judicial magistrate court in Thiruvananthapuram over a contempt notice. The app was served for its failure in providing cyber police officials the account details of a person who uploaded the obscene videos of a woman hailing from Kilimanoor on the app. The court had summoned Krishna Mohan Chaudhary, the representative of WhatsApp India, to appear in person. However, he was represented by his lawyer, who informed the court that WhatsApp India was not responsible for the data stored in its servers abroad. He said while WhatsApp India does not have authority over the app, it can guide investigators on how to retrieve the data through the proper channel. Prosecutor Praveen Kumar V P argued that WhatsApp could not stonewall the request to share data citing protection of privacy He said the . firm could not eschew responsibility of providing legally sought data. By infringing Indian rules, it could not operate in the country, Praveen ● More on P4 said. 16 pages, including 4 pages of THIRUVANANTHAPURAM Express the opening up of the education sector to foreign universities. We don’t have any confusion either. We have got the nod from the politburo on this. If we allow in foreign universities, our students would not need to go out of the state to pursue higher education,” CPM state secretary M V Govindan said. Defending the SFI, which put the government in a spot declaring that there was no need for foreign universities in the state, Higher Education Minister R Bindu said, “As a student outfit, it’s the responsibility of the SFI to voice its concerns and to ensure that they are addressed.” “It needs to be examined whether such foreign universities would be driven by commercial interests and students would be cheated. Only after examining these aspects can a decision be taken,” said Bindu. The minister said only financial aspects regarding the matter have been declared in the budget and it is not a policy ● More on P4 declaration.
Express Network Private Limited publishes thirty three E-paper editions of The New Indian Express newspaper , thirty two E-paper editions of Dinamani, one E-paper edition of The Morning Standard, one E-paper edition of Malayalam Vaarika magazine and one E-paper edition of the Indulge - The Morning Standard, Kolkatta.
08022024 of The New Indian Express-Thiruvananthapuram