kochi l saturday l February 17, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 16 l late city EDITION Putin’s fiercest critic alexei Navalny, 47, dies in Arctic jail Russian opposition leader and fiercest critic of President Vladimir Putin on Friday died in prison. After a walk, he felt unwell, lost consciousness his team could not confirm death campaigned against official corruption An ambulance arrived to resuscitate him, but he died, according to a prison statement. Navalny’s team said it has no confirmation of his death and his lawyer is travelling to the Arctic Circle prison where he was serving 19-year sentence since December on charges of extremism. The prison is known for its long, harsh winters. Navalny’s allies decried his transfer to the jail ■ ■ Navalny rose to prominence for his campaign against official corruption, organised anti-Putin protests and ran for public office In 2020, he fell severely ill and was taken to Germany for treatment where it was found that he was poisoned using nerve gas. Navalny blamed Kremlin, but it denied. On his return in 2021, he was arrested 1,900 kms is the distance of the prison from Moscow where navalny died 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 One more killed in wild elephant Setback to Veena as attack in Wayanad, 2nd in a week K’taka HC bins plea Paul was a watcher with Kuruva Island ecotourism centre; incident triggers protest in dist Hartal in Wayanad Paul’s death triggered protests against the frequent wild animal attacks in the district. The UDF, LDF and BJP have called a hartal in Wayanad on Saturday. On Friday, local residents staged protest near Paul’s house at Pakkam. They plan to intensify the agitation. Order to tranquillise tiger Mananthavady: The Chief Wildlife Warden on Friday issued an order to tranquillise the tiger that has strayed into human habitation in Pulpally. The order was issued after local residents held the Chedelath forest range officer hostage on Wednesday demanding to catch the tiger by tranquillising it. P4 Express News Service @Mananthavady Wild animal attack has claimed one more life in Wayanad, taking the toll over the past four months to five. Paul Vellachalil, 50, a watcher with the Kuruva Island ecotourism centre, sustained serious injuries in a wild elephant attack at Chekady on Friday morning and died later in the day . “Paul has been working with the Kuruva Island Vana Samrakshana Samithi for the past 12 years as a watcher. The ecotourism centre has been shut down for the past one week following the death of Ajeesh Joseph, who was trampled by a wild elephant near Mananthavady last Saturday,” said Abdul Samad K P, forest range officer. Paul, a resident of Pakkam in the Kuruva ward of Pulpally panchayat, was assigned to alert visitors to the ecotourism centre and send them back. On Friday morning, wild elephants rushed towards Paul while on duty and stomped him. The elephants reportedly retreated to the forest after the attack. Those present in the vicinity rushed to the spot and took Paul to the Wayanad Government Medical College Hospital, Mananthavady He was shifted . to the Kozhikode Medical College Hospital in an ambulance within two hours, but he suc- Cong a/cs frozen, defrozen in hours P r e e t h a N a i r @ New Delhi test wickets and the legend grows The milestone finally came on Thursday when India’s R Ashwin dismissed England’s Zak Crawley to reach his 500th Test wicket — the second Indian to reach the magic figure after Anil Kumble (619 wkts). His record is crazy. England were 207/2 in reply to India’s 445 | P11 Ashwin withdrawn In a late night development, the Indian cricket board said that the Tamil Nadu spinner had been withdrawn from the rest of the Test due to medical emergency in the family. Hours after the Congress announced that its main accounts were frozen, the Income Tax department on Friday granted it temporary relief by lifting the freeze till a final hearing by its appellate tribunal next Wednesday The . accounts were frozen on a tax demand of `210 crore for 201819 as penalty for a 45-day delay in filing returns and cash contributions from its lawmakers, said the party It ap. pealed against the demand to the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT). In its order, the tribunal directed the party to ensure that the accounts have a minimum deposit of `115 crore as lien. In a video message, Congress Rajya Sabha MP Vivek Tankha, who appeared before the ITAT, said the tribunal defroze the accounts and will hear the matter next Wednesday before taking the final call. “On our petition, the I-T department and the ITAT said we have to ensure that `115 crore is kept in the banks. Any amount over and above `115 crore can be spent. This means that `115 crore has been frozen. The `115 crore is much more than what we have in our current accounts,” the party said. Earlier in the day, senior Congress leader and treasurer Ajay Maken told a press conference that the I-T department had frozen four main accounts of the Congress and the Youth Congress on frivolous and flimsy grounds leaving the party with no money to pay bills and salaries. “The crowdfunding money in our accounts has been frozen just two weeks before elections. When the opposition’s accounts are frozen, it is equivalent to freezing democracy,” said Maken. “Since 2019 was an election year, the Congress submitted receipts of `199 crore spent on the elections. Of this amount `14.40 lakh had been deposited in cash by some Congress MPs and MLAs from their salaries,” said Maken. In his pushback, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said, “Don’t be scared, Congress is not the party whose strength is money power, its strength is people’s power.” Govt-farmer discussions +ve, next round on Sunday HARPREET B A J WA @ Chandigarh the third round of talks between farmers and the Centre ended on a positive note with resolution emerging on many sticking points, sources said, but no breakthrough could be achieved as some outstanding issues are yet to be sorted out. The next round of talks will be held on Sunday evening. Till then, the farmers will stay put at the Punjab-Haryana border. The five-hour marathon talks, which started on Thursday night, continued till the wee hours on Friday “We . had a positive discussion with the farmer leaders,” said agriculture minister Arjun Munda. Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, who also took part in the talks, said consensus has been achieved on various points but some important issues are pending, which he said will be resolved soon. Farmer leader Sarwan Singh Pandher said the Union ministers sought more time to decide on the MSP issue. “We want a positive result and do not want any confrontation. We are staying back at the borders. Otherwise, our plan Tear gas being fired upon the protesting farmers at the Shambhu border during the Samyukta Kisan Morcha’s Bharat Bandh in Patiala on Friday | pti to march to Delhi will continue,” he said. Meanwhile, Haryana police fired tear gas shells to disperse protesting farmers when they moved towards the barricades at the Shambhu border. In a separate incident, 63-year-old Gian Singh from Gurdaspur, who was protesting at the Shambhu border died of heart attack on Friday morning. The Bharat Bandh called by some unions got a mixed reaction in Punjab and Haryana. Banks told to pay up Sharing two such I-T notices sent to its bankers — Bank of Baroda and SBI — Maken said the tax authorities directed them to pay them C135 crore and C75 crore respectively as income tax dues from the Congress accounts with them. The notice also held the bankers personally liable for paying the amount to the tax authorities Trust vote ahead of Kejri’s court date a n u p v e r m a @ New Delhi Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday moved a confidence motion in the Assembly a day before he is to ap, pear before a local court for ignoring five summonses from the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with the excise policy case. The discussion on the motion will be held on Saturday AAP . is set to win the trust vote comfortably as it has 62 MLAs while the opposition BJP has eight, seven of whom have been suspended for the rest of the session for interrupting Lt Governor V K Saxena’s speech in the Assembly on Thursday The ED . has already sent its sixth summons to Kejriwal asking him to appear on Monday for questioning in connection with the scam. Speaking in the Assembly Kejri, wal reiterated there was no scam in the excise policy He al. leged that attempts were being made to topple his government by registering false case. cumbed to injuries in the afternoon. Paul’s ribs were broken in the attack and there was severe internal bleeding that led to his death. According to doctors at Kozhikode MCH, Paul was brought to the hospital two hours after the accident, which was a massive time loss in such cases. Though the forest minister directed the district administration to arrange an air ambulance to shift Paul to the Kozhikode MCH, authorities decided to use the road option as the air ambulance from Coimbatore took more time than expected. Paul’s death triggered protests against the frequent wild animal attacks. The UDF, LDF and BJP have called a hartal in Wayanad on Saturday ● More on P4 . EXPRESS READ Heat alert in four districts T’Puram: With mercury soaring to unprecedented levels ahead of summer, the KSDMA has sounded a yellow alert in four districts — Kannur, Alappuzha, Kottayam and Kozhikode — for Saturday. The temperature in these districts is likely to rise 3-4 degrees above normal. P5 against SFIO probe Express News Service @ Bengaluru In a setback to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s daughter Veena T, the Karnataka High Court on Friday dismissed her petition seeking a stay on the investigation by the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) into the affairs of her company, the Exalogic Solutions Private Limited (ESPL). The SFIO probe was ordered by the Union Ministry of Corporate Affairs on January 31 for non-disclosure of a transaction of `1.76 crore, paid by the Cochin Minerals and Rutile Limited (CMRL) to Exalogic for the purported software service rendered by it. Justice M Nagaprasanna had reserved the order after the conclusion of the arguments of both parties on February 12. The copy of Friday’s order would be webhosted on Saturday . The Ministry of Corporate Affairs contended that it or- dered an investigation since the Cochin Minerals and Rutile Limited engaged in sourcing beach sand minerals along the Kerala coast and made illegal payments to the extent of Rs 135 crore to various political functionaries and certain other entities, including Exalogic. The investigation is not only against Exalogic but also CMRL and the Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation (KSIDC). It directly affects public interest, which warrants a probe by the SFIO. The Ministry also contended that there is no parallel investigation as the inquiry officers have already handed over the records to the SFIO and no interference of the court is called for in the matter at this stage. The inquiry officers of the Registrar of Companies are not authorised to access the documents with the I-T Department, but SFIO is authorised and hence it was preferred to conduct an investigation. 16 pages, including 4 pages of KOCHI Express