tirupati l thursday l july 11, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l late city EDITION Modi in Austria in first bilateral visit by an Indian PM in 41 years Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday met Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer and discussed ways to expand bilateral cooperation Strategic direction for India-austria ties Modi invites businesses to make in India India and Austria have decided to give a strategic direction to our relationship, Modi said after his “fruitful” talks with Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer. A blueprint for cooperation has been prepared for the coming decade, Modi said. The two leaders also discussed the Ukraine war, and Modi reaffirmed India’s view that this is not the time for war ■ ■ Modi invited the business community in Vienna to invest in India, highlighting his government’s production-linked incentive scheme and the “fast-unfolding opportunities” in the country Infrastructure, renewable energy, and artificial intelligence are among the areas in which the two countries agreed to “combine strengths” 1983 When Indira gandhi visited Austria. Modi’s visit is the 1st by an Indian PM since then 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 Sec 125 on maintenance applies to Muslim women too, rules SC Supreme Court’s two-judge bench, in concurring verdict, says CrPC section is religion neutral S u c h i t r a K a lya n M o h a n t y @ New Delhi CM Chandrababu Naidu with BPCL representatives, led by Chairman and Managing Director Krishna Kumar, at the Secretariat on Wednesday | Express BPCL to submit plan for petchem complex The company representatives informed the Chief Minister that at least 4,000 to A dele g ation of BPCL 5,000 acres of land will be re(Bharat Petroleum Corpora- quired to establish the petrotion Limited), led by its chemical complex. chairman and managing diNaidu assured them that rector Krishna Kumar, necessary land will be allotcalled on Chief Minister N ted to the company within 90 Chandrababu days, once they Naidu at the Secsubmit a detailed EV firm retariat on invited to set proposal for the Wednesday and project. The deleup unit in AP discussed a progation informed Naidu also met posal to set up a Naidu that they p e t r o c h e m i c a l Pham Nhat Vuong, will be back with CEO of Vietnamcomplex and an the feasibility rebased automobile oil refinery in the port, latest by Occonglomerate State. tober, an official Asserting that VinFast. He invited release said. Andhra Pradesh the company to set T h e d eve l o p up their electric is the best choice ment comes days for investments, vehicle and battery after Naidu visited manufacturing Naidu assured the New Delhi and units in the State BPCL delegation held discussions that land required with Hardeep for the project will be allo- Singh Puri, Union Minister cated. If the proposal mate- of Petroleum and Gas, on rialises, the Petroleum Cor- setting up a refinery in the poration will invest `60,000 State as per Section 93 (4) crore in the State to estab- of the Andhra Pradesh lish an oil refinery and a pet- Reorganisation (APRA) Act, P4 rochemical complex. 2014.  E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Vijayawada In a significant verdict, the Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that all divorced women irrespective of religion, were entitled to seek maintenance from their spouse under Section 125 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC). Section 125 deals with maintenance for the wife, children and parents. A bench of justices B V Nagarathna and Augustine George Masih, pronounced the verdict after rejecting an appeal filed by Mohd Abdul Samad. He had ordered by a family court in Telangana to pay a monthly maintenance of `20,000 to his exwife. The Telangana high court later decreased the quantum of maintenance to `10,000. Samad had divorced her @ T’Puram THE 1994 ISRO espionage case, in which former space scientist Nambi Narayanan was falsely implicated, was the result of a conspiracy hatched by certain police and IB officials, the CBI told a court here. The case was initiated by then special branch inspector S Vijayan after Maldivian national Mariyam Rasheeda spurned his advances, the agency said in its chargesheet filed before the Chief Judicial Magistrate Court, Thiruvananthapuram. It said Vijayan had seized the travel documents of Mariyam, rendering her unable to return before her visa expired. When she could not return, she was booked by the police for overstaying. The chargesheet said police officials S Vijayan (first accused), Sibi Mathews (second accused), K K Joshua (third ac- Nambi Narayanan R B Sreekumar cused) then IB deputy director R B Sreekumar (fourth accused), and IB officer P S Jayaprakash (fifth accused) played an active role in the conspiracy to fabricate documents that led to illegal arrests and subsequent torture. On the direction of the then Crimes DIG Sibi Mathews, four persons — D Sashikumaran, K Chandersekhar, Nambi Naryanan and S K Sharma — were arrested without any evidence. They were interrogated and allegedly tortured at the behest of Sibi, the chargesheet said. It said the espionage angle through triple talaq, which was outlawed by the Supreme Court in 2017 and criminalised by the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Act 2019. The court rejected Samad’s contention that the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act 1986 overrides the secular Section 125 CrPC. The 1986 law was introduced under the watch of the then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi to sof- ten the impact of the landmark Supreme Court verdict in the Shah Bano case in 1985, which said Muslim women were entitled to maintenance. Both justices Nagarathna and Masih wrote separate but concurring verdicts. Justice Nagarathna said the 1986 Act is not a substitute for Section 125, nor has it supplanted it. Both can operate simultaneously at the option of a divorced Muslim woman. Excluding the ap- plication of Section 125 for a divorced Muslim woman would be in violation of Article 15(1) of the Constitution, which states that the state shall not discriminate on the ground of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth, etc., she said. “There cannot be disparity in receiving maintenance on the basis of the law under which a woman is married or divorced. The same cannot be a basis for discriminating a divorced woman entitled to maintenance as per the conditions stipulated under Section 125 of the CrPC or any personal or other law such as the 1986 Act,” Justice Nagarathna said. Justice Masih said rights of maintenance under Section 125 and the 1986 Act “parallelly exist in their distinct domains and jurisprudence”. Gazaorders Three minor boys held for rape and city Israel evacuation The Israeli military has advised all residents of Gaza City to evacuate south to the central Gaza Strip, amid intensified operations in the north. Leaflets dropped by aircraft instructed “everyone in Gaza City” to leave and described it as a ‘dangerous combat zone’ | P9 ISRO case fabricated by police, IB officials: CBI chargesheet E XPR E SS N E WS S E RVIC E Financial empowerment of women Both ‘financial security’ and ‘security of residence’ of women have to be protected and enhanced, Justice Nagarathna said. That would truly empower the homemakers who are the backbone of the family. It is within the family that values of life are learnt. It is these moral and ethical values that are inherited by generations. But, for that to happen, women in the family have to be respected and empowered, she said was fabricated to sustain the wrongs committed by the officials of the state police and IB. R B Sreekumar, then deputy director of IB, has been accused of facilitating unauthorised questioning of Mariyam and torturing the accused. “He was responsible for physical and mental torture of arrested victims during unauthorised interrogation in custody of Kerala police by the IB team,” says the chargesheet. Sreekumar was ADGP in Gujarat during Godhra incident. IB staffer Jayaprakash has been accused of torturing Nambi Narayanan, it added. Responding to the development, Nambi Narayanan said: “I wanted to bring out the culprits, who had fabricated the case. It took about 24 years for that to happen. I’ve lost interest in the case. If required, I can be a witness... Now I am old and even if the accused are punished, I am not interested.” murder of girl in Kurnool village E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Kurnool An eight-year-old girl, who went missing on Sunday, was allegedly raped and killed by three minors under the Muchhumarri police limits in Pagidyala mandal, Nandyal district. Based on the confession of the suspects, police have launched a search operation in the backwaters of the River Krishna near Muchumarri Lift Irrigation water pump house. According to police, the girl went missing on Sunday morning. She had gone to a playground near her house, but did not return even after a long time passed. Her parents then began searching for her, but in vain. Later, they filed a complaint with the police. When the police, too, failed to trace the girl, they deployed sniffer dogs on Tuesday Sourc. es said police observed the suspicious behaviour of the three minor boys, who were wandering in the village, after the SDRF teams have been deployed to trace the girl’s body in the River Krishna at Muchumarri village in Nandyal district on Wednesday | Express sniffer dogs were pressed into service. Sources said one of three boys confessed to the crime and subsequently, the other two were also nabbed. The minor boys, aged between 11 and 15, reportedly admitted to taking the girl from the playground to the pump house on the outskirts of the village, and assaulting her. Afraid that the girl might complain against them, they killed her and dumped the body in the backwaters of River Krishna the same day . Police took the trio to the crime scene on Tuesday night, but could not take up search operations. On Wednesday Nandy, al district SP K Raghuveer Reddy formed five special teams with expert swimmers and launched search operations. P4 @ Visakhapatnam As many as 23 patients undergoing treatment at the 50-bed government hospital in Nakkapalli in Anakapalle district complained of high fever and vomiting after receiving an injection. Upon noticing the severity of the situation, hospital staff promptly shifted the affected patients to Anakapalle Area Hospital. According to reports, the injection administered was cefotaxime, an antibiotic. However, it has not been confirmed if the patients fell ill due to the injection. One of the patients, whose condition was critical, was transferred to King George Hospital (KGH) in Visakhapatnam. Sharing his experience, Rama Krishna said: “My son was sick, and I brought him to the Nakkapalli hospital on Tuesday morning. After conducting blood tests, the doctors revealed that his blood count was very low and advised us to admit him. He was stable until the night. Later, a doctor came Terrorists took instructions from handlers in Pak: NIA M U K E SH RA N J A N @ New Delhi Terrorists who attacked a bus carrying pilgrims in Jammu’s Reasi on June 9 received instructions from their handlers based in Pakistan, a probe by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) found. Sources said as per the evidence collected so far, before executing the attack, the remote handlers were contacted and permission taken. The investigators found that a Rajouri-based overground worker (OGW) Hakam Khan alias Hakin Din, who has been arrested in connection with the case, had sheltered the Pakistani terrorists for nearly a week before the day the bus was attacked. Khan also helped them in reaching the attack spot, sources added. “The arrested OGW played the role of a guide to take the terrorists to the spot where the incident took place and helped them identify the curve on the road, where vehicles used to slow down. Even the exit plan was finalised,” a source aware of the probe details said. The terrorists navigated the thick forests of Rajouri, Poonch, and Kathua using a mobile application, Alpine West, which gave them realtime information about culverts, dense forests and other obstructions, sources said. The probe agency suspects the role of Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba’s Sajjid Jutt in executing the attack. There is a reward of `10 lakh for providing information leading to his arrest in connection with another case. Two other Pakistani terrorists Sajid Ali and Abu Qatal are also suspected to have been involved in the attack, sources said. Terrorists opened fire at a bus carrying pilgrims from Shiv Khori to Katra on the evening of June 9 in the Pouni area of Reasi. The driver of the bus lost control, causing it to fall into a gorge. Nine people, including a minor, were killed in the attack. CBI operates under Centre’s control: SC bench S u c h i t r a K a lya n M o h a n t y @ New Delhi The Supreme Court on Wednesday held that as per the law, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) functions under the administrative control of the Union government and rejected the Centre’s objections to the maintainability of a lawsuit filed by the West Beng al government. The West Bengal government had filed a lawsuit against the Centre alleging that the CBI is pressing ahead with its investi- gation into post-election violence in the state without securing the state government’s prior approval. The West Bengal government had withdrawn general consent for the CBI to probe cases or conduct raids in the state. The Centre had objected to the maintainability of the state’s lawsuit against it, arguing that the CBI is an independent statutory body, and therefore, the Centre cannot be sued in the matter. A two-judge bench of the top court, led by Justice B R Gavai and Justice Sandeep Mehta, said as per provisions of the Delhi Special Police Establishment (DSPE) Act, 1946, the CBI functions under the administrative control of the Union government, and thus, the West Bengal governm e n t ’ s l aw s u i t i s maintainable. “In our view, the CBI is an organ or a body which is established by and which is under the superintendence of the Government of India in view of the 23 patients suffer severe reactions to injection at Nakkapalli govt hospital E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e Reasi attack Patients being treated at the Anakapalli government hospital | Express for rounds and administered an injection to everyone. Soon after, an elderly man in the bed opposite to my son started vomiting. Other patients too began vomiting and shivering. I immediately called for an ambulance and shifted my son to the Anakapalle hospital. Others followed suit and moved from Nakkapalli hospital.” Dr K Kanaka Durga of Anakapalli Government Hospital said, “We received a call after midnight about the incident and were asked to be ready and alert to receive and treat the pa- tients. A total of 23 patients were brought to the hospital. We referred one patient to KGH as his condition was critical. He is now reported to be in stable condition. I believe the injection was cefotaxime, but we are not certain.” The hospital and health authorities are investigating the incident to determine the cause of the adverse reactions. All the patients are residents of Nakkapalli, Janakayya Peta, Vedulla Palem, Thimmapuram, DL Puram, and Upamaka and other villages. statutory scheme as enacted by the DSPE Act,” the court held. The court said a reading of the DSPE Act would reveal that right from the constitution of the special police force, which is called DSPE, issuance of notifications specifying the offences or classes of offences which are to be investigated by it, superintendence and administration of DSPE and extension of powers and jurisdiction of DSPE to areas beyond the Union Territories, “it is the Central government which is vitally concerned with”. express read Naidu takes stock of AP’s financial situation Vijayawada: Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Wednesday held a key meeting with officials to take stock of the financial situation in the State. This comes in the wake of the government’s plan to convene the Assembly session to present the full-fledged budget for the financial year 2024-25 and to fulfil the poll promises made to the people. It has been learnt that Naidu enquired about the total debts of the State, and the debts it made in the last five years of the YSRC regime | P4