Apple issues fresh spyware alert to users The US firm has warned its users in India and 91 other countries of a ‘mercenary spyware attack’. In its latest alert, Apple has dropped the term ‘state-sponsored’ it used to describe such malware attacks in the past. Apple said these attacks are very hard to detect and prevent. The targets are usually politicians, diplomats, activists, and senior journalists. kochi l friday l april 12, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 46 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 Decks cleared for I don’t have to convince anyone of my credibility: Antony ED to take over Herald assets A n i l S & C y n t h i a C h an d r an @ T’Puram PMLA adjudicating authority upholds 2023 order to attach properties worth C751.90 cr Ex press N ews service @ New Delhi in a big blow to the Congress, the decks have just been cleared for the Enforcement Directorate to take possession of assets worth `751.90 crore belonging to the party-owned Associated Journal Ltd (AJL) and Young Indian. For, the PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act) Adjudicating Authority has upheld the provisional attachment order issued last year in connection with a money laundering probe against AJL. The ED had provisionally attached these properties last year. It had also interrogated several individuals, including Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, in connection with the case. The two Congress leaders together held 76% of shares in Young India, the holding company of AJL, which publishes The National Herald newspaper. According to the ED, the AJL had to repay a loan of `90.21 crore to AICC, which, however, treated the said loan as nonrecoverable and sold it for a mere `50 lakh to Young Indian. In its order, the adjudicating authority said it believes the movable assets and equity shares attached by the ED are proceeds of crime. The ED had Prime properties The assets to be taken into possession by the Enforcement Directorate include the Herald House at ITO in New Delhi, land as well as buildings in Mumbai, Lucknow and some other prime location initiated the money-laundering probe following a process initiated by the Court of Metropolitan Magistrate, which took cognisance of a private complaint against irregularities in the affairs of National Herald. The court had held that seven accused persons and entities, including Young Indian, prima facie committed offences of criminal breach of trust under various IPC sections, including cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property, dishonest misappropriation of property and criminal conspiracy. The ED probe revealed AJL is in possession of proceeds of crime in the form of properties in many cities worth `661.69 crore. No allegation can ever question my credibility, said Congress veteran and former defence minister A K Antony, responding to charges of leaking defence secrets levelled against his son and BJP’s Pathanamthitta candidate Anil Antony . In an exclusive interview with TNIE, the Congress Work- ing Committee member exuded confidence of the INDIA bloc working wonders in the election at the national level. “I’m a time-tested politician, and don’t have to convince anyone of my credibility,” said Antony. He was responding to a serious allegation by controversial middleman T G Nandakumar that Anil leaked defence secrets when Antony was the defence minister. The allegation, though raised against Anil, also pointed fingers at the Congress veteran. Antony said he will respond to the charges, if necessary, af- ther-son bonding is at home. He’s a BJP leader and I’m a Congress leader.” He further said that Anil might have made the remark as he’s part of the BJP. The veteran Congress leader said the initial trend that the BJP will win a straight third time, has changed. “The INDIA bloc is emerging like the sun. The BJP won’t have it easy India bloc stands . a winning chance,” he said. Full interview: P5 HC dismisses Swaraj’s plea Firebrand Annamalai’s duel in against K Babu’s election coimbatore is TN head-turner S M anna r M annan @ Coimbatore E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Kochi In a big relief for Congress MLA K Babu, the Kerala High Court on Thursday dismissed the petition filed by CPM leader M Swaraj seeking to declare the former minister’s election from Tripunithura assembly constituency null and void. Swaraj, who lost to Babu by a slender margin of 992 votes in the 2021 election, had alleged that Babu canvassed votes in the name of Lord Ayyappa and Sabarimala women’s entry issue. Justice P G Ajithkumar held that Swaraj failed to prove beyond doubt that Babu committed corrupt practice as alleged. In the petition, Swaraj alleged that Babu and other Congress workers canvassed votes in the name of Lord Ayyappa. They distributed election slips with the wording ‘Ningalude vote Ayyappanu’ K Babu ‘All We Imagine As Light’ first Indian film in 30 years to compete at Cannes P r a s h an t h Va l l a v an Poster of All We Imagine As Light rector Shaji N Karun, which lost to Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction. All We Imagine As Light is an IndoFrench co-production, and revolves around two nurses from Kerala who work at a nursing home in Mumbai. The film stars Kani Kusruti (Biriyaani) and Divya Prabha (Ariyippu). British-Indian filmmaker Sandhya Suri’s Santosh will also be screened M Swaraj (Your vote for Ayyappa) and a picture of Lord Ayyappa, below which the election symbol was printed along with a request to vote, the plea stated. In reply to the allegation, the election agent of the Congress candidate said he or anyone with their consent did not print or distribute such slips. Those are the creation of the petitioner himself, he stated. Babu’s counsel submitted that the witnesses are workers of CPM or its foster organisations, and their testimonies are not supported by any independent evidence. ● More on P8 M a i n s e g me n t Mumbai-based filmmaker Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine As Light is all set to premiere at the 77th Cannes Film Festival, where it will compete for the prestigious Palme d’Or award. The announcement was made on Thursday by Iris Knobloch, president of the Cannes Festival, along with Thierry Fremaux, General Delegate. This year’s Cannes Film Festival is scheduled to be held from May 14 to 25. The last Indian film to enter the competition section at Cannes is the 1994 Malayalam film Swaham, by di- A K Antony | B P Deepu ter the Lok Sabha elections on April 26. “I trust the people. They know me well. If there’s a situation that necessitates my response, I’ll respond later. Those who want to raise it (during elections) can do so. I don’t want to clarify anything. No one can make me respond through provocation,” he said. Referring to Anil Antony terming him an “outdated politician following an outdated ideology”, Antony said: “Fa- at the Cannes this year — under the Un Certain Regard section. Payal Kapadia’s A Night of Knowing Nothing won the Oeil d’Or (Golden Eye) for Best Documentary at the Cannes Film Festival in 2021. The film revolves around a college student who writes a letter to her estranged boyfriend. In 2017, the director’s Afternoon Clouds, was the only film to be selected for screening at Cannes. All We Imagine As Light will compete against 19 other films, including Megalopolis by Francis Ford Coppola, The Apprentice by Ali Abbasi, Kind of Kindness by Yorgos Lanthimos, and The Shrouds by David Cronenberg. E X P R E SS R E A D ED summons CMRL MD in pay-off case Kochi: The ED on Thursday summoned CMRL managing director S N Sasidharan Kartha to appear before it for interrogation on April 15 as part of the probe into the pay-off case involving various companies, including IT firm Exalogic Solutions owned by CM’s Pinarayi Vijayan’s daughter Veena T. P8 P K Biju grilled again in Karuvannur case Kochi: The ED on Thursday interrogated former MP and CPM state secretariat member P K Biju as part of Karuvannur Service Coop-erative bank money laundering case. This is the third time in the past one week that Biju has undergone interrogation by the ED. P8 India keen to help Pak curb terror New Delhi: Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday offered India’s assistance to Pakistan in combating terrorism within their country. He also warned Islamabad of consequences if it tried to destabilise India. P11 46 pages, including 4 pages of KOCHI Express As the summer peaks, the battlefield in Coimbatore Lok Sabha constituency sparkles in an unfamiliar glow. There are two reasons. For one, BJP’s Tamil Nadu state president, K Annamalai, an IPS officer-turnedpolitician, has entered the poll fray. Second, the DMK took over the constituency from CPM after a gap of a decade and fielded a soft-spoken Ganapathy P Rajkumar, former Mayor of Coimbatore Corporation, with the sole aim of trouncing the BJP with all its might. The fact that in 2019, CPM’s P R Natarajan romped home with over 1.79 lakh votes may portray the constituency as a hopeless trek for any debutant. But in the 2021 assembly elections, it changed colour from tip to toe in favour of AIADMK in the five segments under this LS con- stituency Even the victory of . the BJP’s Vanathi Srinivasan from Coimbatore South — the sixth Assembly seat — after a three-cor nered contest in which she handed actorturned-neta Kamal Haasan a drubbing, could be attributed to the alliance with the AIADMK. The firebrand Annamalai, initially reluctant to enter the Lok Sabha race, later fell in line Illus: Mandar Pardikar with the party high command’s decision. Having previously lost to the DMK in the Aravakurichi assembly seat in 2021 by 24,816 votes, he is leaving no stone unturned by touring every nook and cranny of the constituency amidst his busy schedule of campaigning for candidates of the BJP and its allies across the state. He is seen as a fearless, corruption-free leader by the youth and people who are looking for an alternative for the two Dravidian parties. But will it be enough to cross the line? While the BJP eyes the support of a sizable North Indian population and votes from Hindu outfits, the DMK hopes to lap up minority votes and the support of allies like the CPI and CPM, which hold sway over the working class. On the other hand, the AIADMK enjoys a traditional ● More on P8 vote bank.
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