DHARMAPURI l friday l september 20, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 14 l city EDITION SC throws out curative petition of voda, airtel over mega dues The court dismissed pleas by Vodafone Idea, Bharti Airtel and others, seeking correction of alleged errors in the Adjusted Gross Revenue court’s blow could land telcos in the red No more disputes over AGR, companies told The court order will be a big blow to the telcos, especially Vodafone Idea, which analysts warned could face a financial crisis in the absence of AGR relief. The telecom companies had moved the Supreme Court claiming there were several errors in the government’s calculation of Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) dues. The court dismissed the plea in 2021 after which the curative pleas were filed ■ ■ Vodafone-Idea’s liability is `58,254 cr and that of Airtel’s is `43,980 cr. The dues are currently on moratorium till September 2025 as part of a government relief package for the telcos approved in 2021 | P10 Dismissing the curative pleas, the top court said telecom companies shall not raise any dispute and there shall not be any re-assessment 25 years how long it would take VI to organically pay its dues as per analysis by Macquarie 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 India rubbishes Pannun lawsuit as unwarranted PM’s meeting with Trump not firmed up yet, says foreign secretary As for the buzz on Modi meeting former US President Donald Trump, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri Misri said it has been firmed up yet. on Thursday dismissed imputations A couple of days ago, Trump had said in a civil lawsuit filed by Khalistani he was looking forward to meeting separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pan- Modi during the upcoming visit. “PM nun against the Indian government Modi is a fantastic man and is comand National Security Advisor Ajit ing to meet me next week,’’ he said. Doval in an American court ahead of “We are currently trying to schedPrime Minister Narendra Modi’s US ule several meetings of the prime visit. The case pertains to the alleged minister, based on the time available. attempt to bump him off by a At this moment I cannot spehired gunman. The court iscifically tell you whether sued summons and sought a meetings have been fixed or response within 21 days. not. We are looking from all The foreign secretary deviewpoints, considering how scribed Panun’s allegations as much time we have with “unwarranted and unsubstanwhom the meetings can be artiated, adding “it doesn’t ranged. We will update once change our views about the Gurpatwant they are fixed,’’ Misri said. underlying situation.” Misri Singh Pannun Regarding the Quad sumsaid Pannun’s antecedants mit, he said, all regional, inare well known. ternational, geopolitical situations “I would also like to underline the will be on the agenda and the essence fact that this person represents an from the discussions will be reflected organisation which is unlawful and in the joint statement. “All key chalhas been declared as such under the lenges confronting the international Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act community on development, peace, of 1967 and it has been done so on ac- security will be discussed.’’ count of its involvement in anti-naThe PM will depart on September tional and subversive activities 21 and his first engagement is the aimed at disrupting the sovereignty Quad Summit at Deleware. The and territorial integrity of India,’’ White House said China will be high Misri added. on the agenda of the summit. Y e s h i S e l i @ New Delhi hometown glory R Ashwin walked to bat when India were struggling at 144 for six. Along with Ravindra Jadeja he rebuilt the innings and scored his sixth Test century to take India to a strong position at the end of the day one against Bangladesh | ashwin Prasath | P11 Protesting docs relent, agree to join emergency duty from Sat E x p r e ss N e w s S e r v i c e @ Kolkata JUNIOR doctors in West Bengal, who were protesting for the past few weeks over the brutal rape-murder of a resident doctor at R G Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata, have decided to resume emergency services from Saturday. However, the trainee doctors stressed that they have not called off their protest seeking justice for their colleague and will not join duty in the out-patient departments (OPDs) across government hospitals. “We are withdrawing our cease work partially,” said a protesting doctor. Before partially lifting their sit-in protest, the doctors plan to hold a march from Swasthya Bhawan, the state health department headquarters, to CBI office at Salt Lake area. Earlier in the day the doctors , submitted a draft of the key points discussed in the meeting they had with government officials on Wednesday, to Chief Secretary Manoj Pant. The draft, detailing the points which were taken up agreed upon by the two sides and also those which weren’t, was sent so that the government may issue directives. Meanwhile, the state government issued a list of directives on the safety security and effi, cient functioning of healthcare professionals, saying those orders need to be implemented immediately. The directions mentioned the need for “adequate availability of on-duty rooms, washrooms, CCTVs, drinking water facilities in the healthcare facilities.” tiff over money Engg grad kills woman, stuffs body in suitcase G a u t h a m S e lv a r a j a n @ Chennai A 23-year-old man allegedly beat to death a 35-year-old suspected sex worker with a hammer in a tiff over money and stuffed her body inside a trolley suitcase in Thoraipakkam on Wednesday The suspect, an engineering graduate, . was arrested on Thursday morning by the Thoraipakkam police based on CCTV footage from the locality . The police identified the accused as M Manikandan of Sivaganga who was employed in a private company in Perungudi. He was living at his elder sister’s house along with his mother for the last one month. A couple of days ago, his family went out of town and Manikandan was staying alone. The police said the victim, M Deepa alias Vellaiammal, a native of Pudukkottai, was living with her family in Madhavaram. “Manikandan had arranged for Deepa to come to his house through an agent on Tuesday night. Later that The Thoraipakkam house where the night, an argument broke woman was murdered | martin louis out between the two over money and Manikandan beat Bro reaches spot with her with a hammer. Deepa aid of ‘find my phone’ suffered fatal injuries and died,” said a police officer. Police said Deepa’s brother Manikandan’s family who , had come in search of her to were expected to return on Thoraipakkam on Wednesday. Friday, informed him that He said Deepa’s last known they would be arriving on location was near the scene of Thursday morning. To discrime but could not locate her. pose of the body he ordered a , He traced her location using suitcase online which was the ‘find my phone’ option delivered on Wednesday. He then allegedly stuffed the body into it and in the wee hours of Thursday placed it near a construction site about 200-300 metres away from his residence and came back home. “Passers-by, after noticing blood stains on the suitcase, alerted the police. The body was recovered and sent for postmortem. The police started checking with the residents about the man spotted in the CCTV footage. A resident from the ground floor of the suspect’s building identified him as a resident of a house on the first floor,” said the police. P7 No bilateral with Yunus Modi will have a number of bilateral meetings with world leaders, but not with the head of the interim govt in Bangladesh, Muhammad Yunus. Besides, Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskyy has not requested a meeting with the prime minister, says MEA Diaspora dialogue On Sept 22, Modi will attend a diaspora event at Nassau Coliseum in New York. Arrangements for this event have been made privately, so there is no clarity on who all will be invited. Next day, Modi will address the Summit of the Future at New York DIPAK MONDAL @ New Delhi PARIS-based Financial Action Task Force has asked India to reduce the number of pending trials in money laundering cases. In its mutual evaluation report released on Thursday the , money laundering and terror financing watchdog said India must increase conviction-based confiscations. The report notes that the Enforcement Directorate has made non-conviction based seizures to the tune of `16,497 crore from FY19 to FY23, while confiscations based on convictions were worth `39 crore. During the five-year period, the ED started 4,163 investigations, of which 28 cases ended in conviction. In 132 cases, the ED decided to not probe further. According to the report, the Money laundering investigations Category 2018-2019 2019-20 2020-21 2021-22 2022-Oct 23 Probe launched 195 562 981 1,180 1,245 Cases where decision was taken not to probe 39 17 12 18 46 Prosecution complaints filed 216 51 130 144 323 Cases convicted 4 4 1 3 16 Cases acquitted 1 0 0 0 0 number of investigations has been increasing but the number of prosecution complaints has not kept pace. To increase the rate of conviction, the FATF suggested that India enhance resourcing for ED and specialised courts to be able to swiftly conclude pending prosecutions and sustain timely investiga- tion, prosecution, and conviction. The evaluation report praises India for its “strong provisional measures for depriving criminals from the benefits of their crimes and helping prevent asset flight through the attachment (seizure) of proceeds of crime”. It also notes that In- express read ‘One nation, one poll’ impractical, says Stalin Nataraja temple land sale: HC seeks report Rape case filed against K’taka BJP MLA Chennai: CM MK Stalin opposed the ‘one nation, one poll’, calling it an impractical idea that ignored the complexities of India’s diverse electoral system and undermined federalism. “It is a move to satisfy BJP’s ego, but they cannot implement it,” he said | P4 Chennai: The Madras HC has sought a report from the HR&CE on the “shocking sale” of 2,000 acres of land belonging to the Chidambaram Nataraja temple. While the Podhu Dikshithars claimed that only 1,000 acres of land is left with the temple, the HR&CE said the Dikshithars had sold off 2,000 acres | P2 Bengaluru: Karnataka police have filed a rape case against BJP MLA N Munirathna based on a complaint by a 40-year-old woman. The police recorded her statement before a magistrate, under Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPc) and also conducted the mahazar, on Thursday. This is the third FIR against him. He was earlier booked for using casteist slurs Addressing Lankan democracy deficit, graft as important as economy Award-winning journalist and lawyer, founder and director of the Colombobased Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR) COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s economic crisis is directly linked to its governance crisis, and unless accountability issues, including corruption and democracy deficit, are addressed, the island may not be in a position to overcome its current challenges, subject experts say . As Sri Lanka goes to polls on September 21, poor governance remains a key concern. To restore public trust and to change the country’s trajectory a few measures must , be taken in the first 100 days of a new presidency, including the abolition of executive presidency steps to return to , a parliamentary system and create the post of independent public prosecution, says Dr Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, internationally renowned rights advocate, Execu- tive Director of the Colombo-based Centre for Policy Alternatives and Co-Convenor of the Center for Monitoring Election Violence. Addressing gover nance concerns are as critical as economic reforms and relief to the people, he says. “The 2024 presidential election is not about selecting the best formula for economic revival. The IMF diagnostic report and a Sri Lankan civil society study have both identified systemic corruption as a Taken over 160-acre MRC land: TN to HC R S IVAKUMAR @ Chennai Contrary to the statement made by the Advocate General PS Raman before a division bench recently regarding the taking over of possession of the land leased out to Madras Race Club, the Tamil Nadu government on Thursday informed the Madras High Court that the entire land measuring about 160 acres has already been taken into possession. Senior counsel P Wilson, appearing for the revenue secretary, made the submission before Justice RMT Teekaa Raman when the MRC’s suit on lease termination and resultant notice to take possession of the land came up for hearing. Despite the judge repeatedly seeking clarification and confirmation on whether the counsel for the revenue department contested the statement made by the A-G before the division bench, Wilson said, “Yes, it was a wrong statement.” The A-G, on September 9, submitted before the division bench that the possession was not yet taken when the MRC brought the matter to the notice of the bench. P7 FATF red-flags India’s low conviction rate Ear to the ground Dilrukshi Handunnetti race club case significant malaise. The 2022 people’s movement was not just a reaction to the economic crisis but more of a reaction to the governance crisis. People called for an end to corruption, to drive corrupt politicians home, to create a meritocracy. Curbing corruption is at the centre of any future solution,” adds Dr Saravanamuttu. Saliya Peiris, PC, former president of the Bar Association of Sri Lanka, says, democracy and governance are tied to sustainable development.  Continued on: P9 National People’s Power’s presidential candidate Anura Kumara Dissanayaka (3L), greets Buddhist monks during a rally in Colombo ahead of the Sept 21 poll | AFP dia seizes large amounts of proceeds and instrumentalities associated with crimes that are not prioritised for money laundering investigations. Vivek Aggarwal, additional secretary (revenue) in the Ministry of Finance, said India has been placed in ‘regular followup’, which is the highest rating category by FATF. The UK, France and Italy are the only other G-20 countries that have been placed in this category . According to the report, India has fully complied with 37 out of 40 recommendations for curbing money laundering and terror financing. FATF mutual evaluations are in-depth country reports analysing the implementation and effectiveness of measures to combat money laundering and terror financing. 3 men gangrape TN woman after attacking friend E x p r e ss N e w s S e r v i c e @ Sivaganga Three men, who were part of a five-member gang, raped a woman who was talking to her male friend at a secluded place after thrashing and chasing away the friend near Manamadurai in Sivaganga district on Tuesday. The Manamadurai All-Women Police registered a case under Section 70 of BNS and arrested all the five suspects on Thursday One of the . accused broke his leg while trying to escape, sources said. Police said the accused were aged between 18 and 28. Both the survivor and her friend suffered minor injuries in the attack. The incident came to light when the youth got admitted to Government Sivaganga Medical College Hospital on Tuesday evening with injuries. He initially claimed that he was assaulted by unknown individuals and did not disclose the sexual assault. During an inquiry the police , found that a woman was with him and she had been gangraped by three men. P7