chennai l saturday l september 14, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 20 l late city EDITION Centre renames A&N Capital Port Blair as Sri Vijaya Puram The capital city of Andaman and Nicobar Islands has been renamed to free India from colonial imprints, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said Territory was Chola Empire’s Naval base Hosted the first unfurling of tiranga While the earlier name had a colonial legacy, Sri Vijaya Puram symbolises the victory achieved in India’s freedom struggle and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands’ unique role in it, the home minister said. The island territory that once served as the naval base of the Chola Empire is now poised to be the critical base for India’s strategic and development aspirations, he added | P9 ■ ■ It is the place that hosted the first unfurling of Tiranga by Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose and also the cellular jail in which Veer Savarkar and other freedom fighters strived for an independent nation, Shah said Being a Union Territory, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands come under the direct administrative control of the Union Ministry of Home Affairs 572 Total number of islands in the Union territory, of which 38 are inhabited 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 Raghavulu leads the race to succeed Yechury A N IL S @ T’Puram T H E d emise of Sitaram Yechury has triggered speculations on the next CPM general secretary According to sourc. es, the party will go for a stopgap arrangement by nominating a senior leader as the in-charge till the 24th Party Congress scheduled for next April in Madurai. Yechury’s third term was to end in April. Sources said former general secretary Prakash Karat could be asked to handle the party affairs for the time being. A section feels that Brinda Karat, too, could be given interim charge as she’s a prominent woman face. If the party decides to go for a new face as general secretary , then M A Baby or B V Raghavulu (pic) could be chosen. The CPM politburo, set to meet after Yechury’s public homage on Saturday, will take a call and will present its recommendation before the central committee on September 27. “Since the Party Congress is around the corner, a senior leader will be given temporary charge. The party set the age criteria to infuse new blood into the PB and CC,” said a senior leader. Going by the existing age cap of 75 years, PB members Prakash, Brinda, Manik Sarkar, Surjya Kanta Mishra, and Subhashini Ali are likely to give way for new faces at the Party Congress, which can give exemption to a leader if need be. “It would be wise to go with Brinda, as it would send out a message... The party needs a leader acceptable to other Opposition parties,” said a central committee member. The backing of the Kerala unit is crucial for a decision. Prolonged incarceration is deprivation of liberty, says court CBI must dispel notion of being a ‘caged parrot’ SC raps CBI, grants bail to Kejriwal E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Mumbai IN a dramatic volte-face, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) on Friday threw out its own case against the NSE and its past management led by then CEO Chitra Ramakrishna and vice-chairman Ravi Narain in the co-location case, citing lack of evidence. This paves the way for India’s largest bourse to resume its public listing plan, which has been stalled since 2016 due to the co-location controversy . The case relates to the alleged preferential access given to certain broking firms, including OPG Securities, at the NSE to connect across S u c h i t r a K a lya n M o h a n t y @ New Delhi Hours after the Supreme Court granted him bail in the excise policy case filed by the CBI, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal walked out of Tihar jail, and said, “the thick walls of prison cannot break me.” While granting him bail, justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan differed on the legality of his arrest. Justice Kant held that there was no impediment in arresting a person already in the custody. However, Justice Bhuyan castigated the CBI, saying it should not be seen as a ‘caged parrot’. Justice Kant said although the procedure for the Kejriwal’s arrest meets the requisite criteria for legality and compliance, his continued incarceration would infringe upon established legal principles and his right to liberty. Rejecting the CBI’s contention of influencing the outcome of the trial, he said all evidence and material relevant to the agency’s disposition is already in their possession, negating the likelihood of tampering by the CM. Setting aside the Delhi HC’s August 5 verdict, the SC said, “The appellant shall not make any public comments on the merits of the CBI case, it being sub judice... This condition is necessitated to dissuade a recent tendency of building a self-serving narrative on public platforms.” Slamming the CBI for its belated arrest, Justice Bhuyan said, “Like Caesar’s wife, an investigating agency must be above board. Not long ago, this court has castigated the CBI comparing it to a caged parrot. It is imperative that CBI dispels the notion of it being a caged parrot. Rather, the perception should be that of an uncaged parrot.” Emphasising that personal liberty is sacrosanct, Justice Bhyuan said, “I am of the unhesitant view that the belated arrest of the appellant by the CBI is unjustified and the continued incarceration of the appellant in the CBI case that followed such arrest has become untenable.” He pointed out that that the CBI did not arrest Kejriwal for 22 months till his release was ordered in the ED case. It appears that only after the Special Judge granted regular bail in the ED case on June 20, CBI became active and sought Kejriwal’s custody Jus, tice Bhuyan pointed out, adding the CBI did not feel the need to arrest him for over 22 months. Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal addresses supporters outside Tihar Jail after getting bail | Parveen Negi These anti-national forces that are trying to weaken the nation, divide the nation... I have always fought them and will continue fighting against them Arvind Kejriwal, Delhi CM What it means Bench of justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan relaxed bail conditions It dropped the bar on the CM from going to the Secretariat or signing files. Both were imposed by a coordinate bench headed by Justice Sanjiv Khanna on May 10 and July 12 Justice Khanna had also specified that the conditions can be modified only by a larger Constitution bench It means Kejriwal will have to seek modification of curbs by approaching CJI to set up a larger bench Such conditions were not imposed on Hemant Soren when the SC granted him bail, so he quickly took oath as Jharkhand CM again Kejriwal’s bail will give a fillip to the Aam Aadmi Party’s poll preparations in Haryana e x p r e ss r e a d TN inks `100-cr deal on CM’s last day in US Chennai: Chief Minister M K Stalin departed from Chicago to Chennai on September 12. On his final day, TN signed an MoU with US-headquartered Rapid Global Business Solutions Inc for setting up a unit in the state at an investment of `100 crore. Hotelier’s apology to FM: Parties flay BJP unrelenting Fight for justice Protesting junior doctors on Friday wrote to President Droupadi Murmu, urging her intervention to render justice to the rape-murder of a trainee doctor at the RG Kar hospital. In the picture, the protesting medics take cover during rains as they continued their sit-in protest for the third consecutive day on Friday | PTI Coimbatore: A video of a hotelier apologising to Minister Nirmala Sitharaman sparked a controversy. Political parties slammed BJP for “arrogance”. TN BJP chief K Annamalai apologised for his partymen’s action on Friday | P4 Is centre trying to create financial crisis in TN, asks min, rejects FM’s views on Metro project E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Chennai Strongly denying the contentions of Union Finance Minister Nirmalatha Sitharaman that the state has spent only `5,880 crore for PhaseII of the Chennai Metro Rail Project despite the Government of India (GOI) arranging for `21,000 crore as loans, Tamil Nadu Finance Minister Thangam Thennarasu in a statement on Friday said that `18,564 crore has been spent for the project so far. Of the total money spent, `11,762 crore was from TN’s own resources and `6,802 crore was through loans from foreign financial institutions. The centre, however, has not yet disbursed even one rupee from the `7,425 crore recommended by the Public Investment Board (PIB) for the Phase-II, he said. Thangam said, “We wonder if this is being done for political reasons to delay the projects to the detriment of public and to create a financial crisis for the state government.” He clarified on Sitharaman’s another key contention that the Sebi sees no NSE co-location scam Phase II is a state-sector project. “In 2017, the state recommended Phase II as a Central Sector Project. Based on funding agency JICA’s request to sign the loan agreement immediately to start the project in 2018, the state started implementing this project to avoid delay Since the GOI also . approved it, the project was taken up for consideration by the PIB on August 17, 2021. The board proposed that this project could be implemented as a Central Sector Project,” he said. P7 the co-location facilities. According to Sebi, there may have been lapses at the NSE’s colocation facility but not enough evidence to establish collusion between the NSE and OPG Securities. “It is held that due to the absence of sufficient material/evidence/objective facts on record in this case, the test of ‘preponderance of probability’ fails to produce enough justification for the establishment of collusion/connivance between OPG and its directors with Noticees,” Kamlesh Varshney, wholetime member, Sebi said in an 83-page order. Varshney added: “There is no dispute that the NSE did not have a defined policy for the use of colo (colocation) facility. It even failed to monitor the use of the secondary server by TMs (brokers) without having sufficient reason.” Apart from Ramkrishna and Narain, Sebi has also dropped charges against Anand Subramanian, Ravindra Apte, Umesh Jain, Mahesh Soparkar, and Deviprasad Singh. Earlier this year, Sebi had rejected a settlement plea by the NSE in the co-location case. The co-location scam refers to some brokers gaining an unfair advantage by accessing the NSE’s systems, data, and trading facilities by allowing them to place their servers right in the NSE premises. The case came out in 2015 after three whistleblowers alerted Sebi. Ford to restart ops at chennai factory C SHIVA K UMAR @ Chennai Ford Motor Company on Friday said it has submitted a Letter of Intent (LOI) to the Tamil Nadu government, confirming its intention to utilise its Chennai plant, repurposing it to focus on manufacturing for export to global markets. The US-based automobile manufacturer exited the Indian market in 2022. The announcement follows a meeting between the Ford leadership and Chief Minister MK Stalin during his US visit. The manufac- turer said it would soon disclose the details on the type of manufacturing to be carried out in the Chennai unit. During his meeting with the Ford executives in Chicago on Tuesday, the CM urged the company to renew its three-decade partnership with the state by restarting operations at its Maraimalai Nagar plant. Ford’s return is the culmination of the state’s year-long efforts, said the industries department, attributing it to the efforts of the CM and Industries Minister TRB Rajaa. P7 CM MK Stalin and Minister TRB Rajaa meeting with Ford executives | Express Focus pivots to export Ford said it has planned to repurpose the Maraimalai Nagar plant to focus on manufacturing for export to global markets and that it would soon disclose more details