U.S., France urge Israel, Lebanon to pause fight The US, France and other allies jointly called for an immediate 21-day ceasefire on Thursday to give room for negotiations to de-escalate tensions. Israel has rejected the truce proposal and vowed to continue fighting. The Indian Embassy in Beirut urged Indians to avoid travelling to Lebanon and advised those present there to leave at the earliest | PTI | P9 villupuram l friday l september 27, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l 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 37 kids among 46 drowned after holy dip across Bihar Jivitputrika fest is celebrated by mothers for the well-being of children R a m a s h a n k a r @ Patna Senthil Balaji amidst his supporters outside the Puzhal Central Prison | p ravikumar Senthil Balaji gets bail after 15 months 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 Thursday granted bail with stringent conditions to former Tamil Nadu minister V Senthil Balaji in a money laundering case after 15 months, noting that there is no possibility of the completion of trial in the near future. The former electricity minister may get back his portfolios in the impending Cabinet reshuffle hinted at by Chief Minister M K Stalin to take place soon. A three-judge bench of Justices Abhay S Oka, Ahsanuddin Amanullah, and Augustine George Masih, which had reserved the verdict on August 12 in a bail petition filed by the DMK strongman, pronounced the judgment on Thursday . The top court said the continued detention of Balaji, who was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate last year, will amount to infringement of his funda- mental rights under Article 21 of the Constitution. Noting that there are more than 2,000 accused and over 600 witnesses in the case, the bench said that inordinate delay in the conclusion of the trial and the higher threshold for the grant of bail cannot go together. “Therefore, even in ideal conditions, the possibility of the trial of scheduled offences concluding even within a reasonable time of three to four years appears to be completely ruled out,” it said. The judges said stringent provisions regarding the grant of bail in Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) cannot become a tool which can be used to incarcerate the accused without trial for an unreasonably long time. The court, however, noted that there is also prima facie material to show a deposit of cash amount of `1.34 crore in Senthil Balaji’s bank account. P5 As many as 46 people, including 37 children, drowned in the last 24 hours while taking a holy bath in rivers and ponds across Bihar as part of the three-day Jivitputrika festival’s celebrations, which began on Wednesday Four . women were among the 46 who lost their lives. Women observe fast for the well-being of their children to mark the occasion. The three-day festival began with nahay khay (fasting) when devotees take a holy dip in rivers and ponds. Wednesday’s deaths were reported from 15 districts of the state. “A total of 43 bodies have been recovered so far. Further search operations are underway the Bihar disaster manage,” People mourn on Thursday after their family members drowned in Aurangabad district of Bihar | PTI ment department said. People blamed the casualties on the lack of crowd management near water bodies. “There was no deployment of the state disaster response team at any of the water bodies in the district,” said Upendra Yadav, father of SC junks Guj govt plea to expunge critical remarks in Bilkis verdict S UCHITRA KALYAN MOHANTY @ New Delhi the Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed a review plea filed by the Gujarat government seeking to expunge certain adverse remarks against it while quashing the premature release of the 11 men convicted of gangraping Bilkis Bano and murdering her family members in 2002. A bench of Justices B V Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan also rejected the application for listing review petition in open court. “Having gone through the review petitions... we are satisfied that there is no error apparent on the face of the record,” it said. The SC had on January 8 quashed the Gujarat government’s decision to grant remission to the 11 convicts. The court said Gujarat “usurped the powers” of the Maharashtra government because the case had been transferred there. eight-year-old Ankaj Kumar, a resident of Kusaha in Aurangabad district. Jaglal Rai, who lost his 14-yearold daughter Rikki Kumari, said his daughter had gone for taking bath in the village pond when tragedy struck. Rai, a resident of Olhanpur village in Saran district, said his daughter was part of a group of women and girls who had gone to the pond for a holy dip. Incidents of drowning were reported in East Champaran, West Champaran, Aurangabad, Nalanda, Kaimur, Buxar, Siwan, Rohtas, Saran, Patna, Vaishali, Muzaffarpur, Samastipur, Gopalganj and Arwal districts. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar announced an ex-gratia of `4 lakh for the next of kin of the deceased. Noose for man who sexually assaulted 21 minors A special POCSO court at Yupia in Arunachal Pradesh on Thursday awarded death sentence to the former hostel warden of a government residential school for sexually assaulting 21 children, including 15 girls aged between 6 and 15 Sena, TMC spat at waqf Bill JPC’s Mumbai meet P r e e t h a N a i r @ New Delhi A meeting of the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) scrutinising the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, in Mumbai on Thursday witnessed tumultuous scenes after a verbal spat between TMC MP Kalyan Banerjee and Shiv Sena (Shinde)’s Naresh Maske. The Opposition boycotted the meeting for half an hour after the ruckus. The meeting was attended by representatives from the Maharashtra government, Ministry of Minority Affairs, state Waqf Board, state Minority Commission, and various NGOs. Sources said Maske and Banerjee locked horns after the latter intervened during an NGO’s submission in support of the Waqf Bill. Speaking to this newspaper, an MP said the witness from the NGO spoke to the TMC leader in a disrespectful manner, which irked the Opposition. “Banerjee asked the Chairman to take action against the witness. But the Sena MP supported the person. Later, the Chairman asked the witness to apologise, which he didn’t. The Opposition then walked out,” he said. Maske alleged that Banerjee asked the representatives of the NGO to get out as they supported the bill.
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