KOCHI l thursday l july 04, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 16 l LATE city EDITION Poll finds Harris, not Biden, has better chance of beating Trump Trump has 6-point lead over president About 47% of registered voters support Trump, while 45% back Harris in a hypothetical matchup, the poll found. In the Biden vs Trump matchup, 49% of registered voters said they would vote for Trump as against 43% for Biden. His poor performance in last week’s debate with Trump has put the spotlight back on Biden’s advanced age and ability to lead the US | P9 Indian-origin US Vice President Kamala Harris is better placed to beat Donald Trump than President Joe Biden, according to a CNN poll More pressure on Biden to step down ■ Pressure is mounting on Biden to step down as Democratic party’s presidential nominee. “There’s a large and increasing group of House Democrats concerned about (his) candidacy,” a Democratic lawmaker said ■ According to one Democratic aide, at least 25 party lawmakers in the House of Representatives are preparing to demand that Biden step aside Sept 10 is when Biden and trump will face off in the next debate 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 Markets on a roll, Sensex at 80,000 level Judicial probe into Hathras stampede Ex-Allahabad HC judge Brijesh Srivastava to head 3-member panel, submit report in 2 months; Yogi flags conspiracy angle N A M I TA B A J PA I & P R A B H AT S H U K L A @ Lucknow / Hathras A day after the stampede in Hathras claimed 121 lives, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday announced a judicial probe led by for mer Allahabad High Court judge Brijesh Kumar Srivastava into the tragedy Re. tired IAS officer Hemant Rao and former IPS officer Bhavesh Kumar Singh are the other members in the judicial commission. Speaking to reporters after visiting the spot and meeting the injured persons admitted in hospitals, Yogi said the conspiracy angle can’t be ruled out. He said the panel will look into all aspects of the tragedy . The panel will complete its probe and submit its report within two months. To prevent such mishaps from recurring, the judicial commission will also suggest the standard oper- A R S H A D K H A N @ New Delhi Registering a new landmark for India’s equity market this year, the BSE Sensex for the first time scaled the 80,000-mark on Wednesday The 30-share benchmark hit . a high of 80,057.90 during the first 30 minutes of the trading session. The Nifty50 index also touched an alltime high of 24,294.60. The Sensex has added the latest 10,000 points in less than seven months as it had first breached the 70,000 mark on December 11, 2023. Its journey from 60,000 to 70,000 was a lengthy one as it took 1.5 years for the market to add the previous 10,000 points. Sensex had scaled the 60,000 mark on September 24, 2021. What is notable is that the benchmark index has added about 8,000 points from the lows of June 4, the general election results day Sensex had ended the June 4 session with a . massive loss of 4,390 points, or 5.74%, at 72,079.05. Much of Wednesday’s early gain is attributed to a sharp pick-up in HDFC Bank shares. The stock opened 3% higher and hit a high of `1,792 per share as its weightage is expected to shoot up in the MSCI index. “The focus of market activity today will be HDFC Bank which will continue its upward move factoring in the news of potentially increasing the weightage of the stock in the MSCI Index. The delivery based buying in the stock witnessed in the last many days has the potential to continue for a few more days pushing the stock further up and imparting resilience to it. As the weightage of HDFC Bank in Nifty increases there will be more delivery based buying by ETFs and also active funds,” said V K Vijayakumar, chief investment strategist, Geojit Financial Services. He added that the US Fed’s latest take on inflation is also positive news for equity markets globally “The Fed’s next rate action is likely to be a rate . cut. RBI also is likely to follow suit with a rate cut in the next policy meeting,” he said. Road to 80K Sensex has given a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13.8% since July 1990 1K Jul 1990 10K 20K 30K 40K 50K 60K 70K 6 Feb, 19 Oct, 4 Mar, 23 May, 21 Jan, 24 Sep, 11 Dec, 2006 2007 2015 2019 2021 2021 2023 BSE m-cap ( lakh cr) 80K 3 Jul, 2024 445 lakh crore 6.9 25 73 100.4 188 2000 2005 2010 EXPRESS READ Champai exits, Hemant stakes claim to be CM Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) leader Hemant Soren on Wednesday staked his claim to form the Jharkhand government, hours after Champai Soren resigned as CM. Hemant was arrested by the ED in a land scam case in January. He was released on bail last week. Hours before arrest, he had resigned as Jharkhand CM and Champai Soren was sworn in. On Wednesday, INDIA bloc MLAs who met in Ranchi decided to make Hemant the CM. 16 pages, including 4 pages of KOCHI Express 2015 2020 2024 Bags and other belongings lying at the scene a day after a massive stampede that took place after a satsang in Sikandara Rao area in Hathras district of Uttar Pradesh, on Wednesday | PTI Baba on the run, police raid trust Hathras deputy superintendent of police Sunil Kumar said the baba is on the run and yet to be traced. On Wednesday, police raided Baba’s abode at Ram Kutir Charitable Trust in Mainpuri district Modi finally ends silence, says Manipur violence is declining RAJESH KUMAR THAKUR @ New Delhi Breaking his silence on Manipur, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday told the Rajya Sabha that violence in the trouble-torn state is declining and security and social stability are improving. He saw in them a positive trend towards peace. Replying to the debate on the motion of thanks on the President’s address, Modi said normal life has been restored in most parts of Manipur with schools, colleges, offices, businesses and other institutions functioning normally in Manipur. The state, however, is facing floods now, he added. Kharge with Sonia Gandhi after walking out of the Rajya Sabha | PTI Amid walkout by the Opposition, Modi said law enforcement agencies have lodged more than 11,000 FIRs and arrested over 500 suspects in Manipur after the ethnic violence erupted in the state. “Our government is continuously making efforts to re- store normalcy and it is showing results. Union home minister Amit Shah camped there and steered all efforts of peace,” he said, adding, “I want to warn all elements trying to add fuel to the fire in Manipur to stop...A time will come when Manipur itself will reject such people.” Keeping up his tirade against the Congress, Modi said the grand old party was the “biggest opponent of the Constitution” and was anti-SC, ST and OBCs. Taking a swipe at the Opposition for its walkout, he said, “They are unable to digest the people’s mandate to the NDA to serve the nation. That’s why they never face the government on the floor.” Death row convict to walk free after 10 yrs E x p ress Ne w s S er v i c e @Kochi In a dramatic turn of events, the Kerala High Court has acquitted Gireesh Kumar, who was convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of Alice Varghese in Kollam in 2013, citing “systemic failure” of investigation agencies as well as the judiciary After . a gruelling 10 years behind bars, Kumar is now set to walk out of jail a free man. An additional sessions court in Kollam had awarded capital punishment to Kumar in the sensational murder case that took place in Kundara in 2018. The allegation was that Kumar trespassed into Alice’s house intending to commit rape and robbery, and after committing the crimes, caused her gruesome death and decamped with articles worth `6 lakh. An HC division bench comprising Justice A K Jayasankaran Nambiar and Justice Syam Kumar V M ordered his acquittal on Kumar’s appeal challenging the death sentence. The HC said he was forced to undergo incarceration for around 10 years, that too on death row, due to systemic failure of various state apparatuses, including the investigation agencies and the judiciary . Considering the ignominy of over 10 years of incarceration and the trauma of living under the constant threat of a death sentence, the bench directed the state government to pay Kumar a compensation of `5 lakh. The ruling underscores the importance of judicial review and highlights the potential for miscarriages of justice, as well as the human cost associated with prolonged and unjust incarceration. The court said the method of inve s t i g a t i o n p o i n t s t ow a r d s total lack of scientific evidence to implicate the accused in the crime and the benefit of the doubt arising from the same should accrue to him. A L ess o n i n c o m pass i o n Students devise ‘pension’ scheme for retired teacher S O VI VI D YA D H A R A N @T’Puram Decades ago, Krishna Pillai taught English through home tuitions to hundreds of students in and around Vithura, a sleepy village on the eastern fringes of Thiruvananthapuram. Now, Pillai, nearing 80, neither has a roof over his head nor a family to support him. For the people of Vithura, the sight of Pillai frequenting waiting sheds and shop verandahs for shelter is common. Arun V P the VHSE-NSS pro, gramme officer of Government Vocational Higher Secondary School, Vithura, too, met Pillai NSS volunteers of Government VHSS, Vithura, handing over the monthly pension to former teacher Krishna Pillai at the school in Thiruvananthapuram almost everyday on his way to school. Dejected at the plight of the former teacher, Arun narrated Pillai’s story to the NSS volunteers of the school. They put their heads together and came up with the idea of providing a monthly assistance in the form of a pension to help Pillai buy essential items and medicines. “Sir (Pillai) was born to a family of farm labourers and pursued his studies battling many odds. He taught several students, most of whom are now well-placed. However, he does not even possess an Aadhaar card to claim the government’s welfare pension,” Arun said. The NSS unit decided to provide `1,600 — the amount provided by the government as welfare pension — to Pillai every month. The fund would be sourced through the profit students earn through the sale of the products they make. The first ‘pension’ was handed over to ● More on P4 Pillai last month. Most students who Pillai sir taught are now wellplaced. He does not have an Aadhaar card to claim welfare pension Arun V P, VHSE-NSS prog officer press Intake Principal booked; no case against assailants yet | P4 ating procedure to be followed during such events, Yogi said. Referring to the initial report filed by the special investigative team led by ADG Agra zone Anupam Kulshreshtha, Yogi said the volunteers of Bhole Baba, in whose event the stampede happened, were managing it and district administration officials were not allowed inside the pandal. Police personnel were stationed outside the pandal. Yogi said the baba’s volunteers fled immediately after the stampede without making any effort to help the injured. Referring to pictures and videos of the baba with SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, he said it showed the baba’s political connections. On why the baba’s name was missing in the FIR, which only named the organisers, Yogi said the initial report was filed against those who sought permission for the event. “As the investigation progresses, the ambit of the FIR will also expand to include all those responsible and accountable for the tragedy he added. ,” Meanwhile, eyewitnesses and locals who rushed to the spot immediately after the tragedy blamed the organisers for poor management. Locals said the crowd was so large that the national highway abutting the venue was cut off for up to 5 km on both sides, blocked by buses carrying devotees from far-off places. Because of this, ambulances took an hour to reach. 750 Keralites on SE Asia trip ‘missing’, probe on S ha n A S @T’Puram A huge number of Keralites who travelled to five Southeast Asian countries between 2023 and 2024 have failed to return despite the expiry of their tourist visas, igniting apprehensions that many of them might have joined crime syndicates involved in cyber fraud. Around 750 Keralites who went to Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam in the past one-and-a-half years are yet to return. Highly-placed sources in the police told TNIE that they suspect half of them could have joined cyber crime gangs in those nations. It was upon detecting a rise in cyber fraud that targeted Keralites and originated from the five countries that the the police’s cyber investigation wing and central agencies decided to prepare a database of people who went there on tourist visas but did not return. After collecting the data, the state police chief, in an order on 120 repatriated recently Around 120 Keralites involved in such rackets were repatriated from Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia in the last 18 months. Most of them worked in call centres, collecting details of potential victims from social media and enticing them into investing in fraudulent schemes July 1, asked district police chiefs to verify the whereabouts of the missing people. “It is possible that some of them might be living with their relatives abroad after their visas expired, while some might have moved to other countries. Even after discounting their numbers, we suspect at least 50% of the missing persons could have joined gangs. Hence, we have started verifying the current status of each of them. Legal action will be taken against those found working with criminal gangs. Measures to repatriate them will be initiated,” said a source.
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