hyderabad l monday l march 03, 2025 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l late city EDITION Britain, France to work with Ukraine to secure peace deal Starmer stresses restoring peace talks The European leaders are in London to discuss the ways to end the war. The meeting has been overshadowed by the extraordinary scolding of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy by US President Donald Trump, who shouted him down live TV on Friday. Starmer said he is now focused on being a bridge to restore peace talks, rather than “ramp up the rhetoric” The three countries will present the new ceasefire plan to the United States, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Sunday ‘european force to be sent to ukraine’ ■ ■ Sunday’s summit is likely to include talks on establishing a European military force to be sent to Ukraine to underpin a ceasefire. Starmer said it would involve “a coalition of the willing” | P9 Next steps: Arming Ukrainians, including a European element to guarantee security, and providing a “US backstop” to check Putin €200 bn likely to be released by eu to fund ukraine’s efforts 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 Spl court orders FIR against Buch Anti-Corruption Bureau told to book ex-Sebi chief, 5 others for alleged stock market fraud Su d h i r Su r ya w a n s h i & B e n n K o c h u v e e d a n @ Mumbai A day after Madhabi Puri Buch demitted office as the chairperson of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), a special court here directed registration of an FIR against her and five others in connection with alleged stock market fraud and regulatory violations. The order was passed by special judge Shashikant Eknathrao Bangar on Saturday on a petition filed by Thane-based jour nalist Sapan Shrivastava. Seeking a court-monitored investigation, the petitioner alleged large-scale financial fraud, corruption, and regulatory violations in the listing of a company . The court said prime-facie it shows there have been violations and there are documents to support the same; therefore, The complaint There is prima facie evidence of regulatory lapses and collusion, requiring a fair and impartial probe Special judge S E Bangar Sebi, BSE officials allegedly allowed listing of a firm that failed to meet regulatory norms, leading to market manipulation and loss for investors Court to monitor Court sees cognisable offence, to monitor the investigation & has sought status report within 30 days the Anti Corruption Bureau should file an FIR against the accused, it ordered. Apart from Buch, the officials against whom the court has ordered registration of the FIR are three whole-time members of Sebi—-Ashwani Bhatia, Ananth Narayan G, and Kamlesh Chandra Varshney—BSE chief executive Sundararaman Ramamurthy and former BSE chairman Pramod Agarwal. Responding to the court order, Sebi said it will challenge the it. In a statement issued on Sunday, the markets regulator said it was not given a chance to represent itself and that none of the officials named in the petition was in their current positions when the alleged misdeeds happened. Terming the complaint ‘frivolous’, Sebi alleged that the petitioner is known for filing such petitions in the past. “The applicant is known to be a frivolous and habitual litigant, with previous applications being dismissed by the Court, with imposition of costs in some cases,” it said. Echoing similar views, the BSE said: “The application is frivolous and vexatious in nature,” adding that the court has not issued any notice or granted any opportunity to place the facts on record. In a late-evening statement, the BSE said the company in question is Cals Refineries, listed in 1994, and the officials named in the application were not in their respective positions at the time of listing and were not connected with the company at all. “BSE is initiating necessary and appropriate legal steps in this regard,” it added. Over the moon matters of faith Pvt firm makes lunar landing in 1st attempt Muslims break their fast on the first day of the holy month of Ramzan at Mecca Masjid in Hyderabad on Sunday. The crescent moon was sighted on Saturday, heralding the onset of Ramzan | SRI LOGANATHAN American private aerospace firm Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lander carrying a drill, vacuum and other experiments for NASA after touching down on the moon Sunday | P9 express read No rift among Kerala Cong leaders: Rahul New Delhi: Rahul Gandhi on Sunday sought to dispel the notion there is a rift among Kerala Congress leaders following MP Shashi Tharoor’s remarks praising the achievements of CPM-led government, saying they stand united. His comment came in the wake of a meeting between the party central leadership and the leaders from Kerala | P5 VELMURUGAN Fate of trapped workers not known yet: CM E x p r e s s N e w s S e r v i c e @ Hyderabad Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy on Sunday said that the fate of the eight workers trapped in the Srisailam Left Bank Canal (SLBC) tunnel remained unknown. He visited the SLBC project site and inspected the rescue operations being carried out by various agencies. Later, he along with Irrigation Minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy and Tourism Minister Jupally Krishna Rao reviewed the situation with the rescue teams. “Experts have not come to any conclusion regarding the trapped persons. We do not know whether they are still alive or dead. It will take two to three days to get a clear picture and the rescue operations are cont i nu i n g , ” t h e ch i e f m i n i s t e r explained and said that the government was ready to extend every possible support to the families of the U’khand avalanche toll rises to 8,rescue act over Rescuers on the job in Chamoli district on Sunday | Express Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy speaks to officials during his visit to the SLBC tunnel in Nagarkurnool district on Sunday trapped workers. He said that mechanical parts were found during the digging in the tunnel by the rat miners at the place which was mapped by the NGRI as the possible location of the trapped NARENDRA SETHI @ Dehradun THE bodies of the last four trapped labourers were pulled out from the site of the avalanche-hit Border Roads Organisation (BRO) camp in Chamoli on Sunday taking the death , toll to eight as authorities ended the nearly 60-hour rescue operation. Army doctors said 46 workers who were rescued on Saturday have been brought to the military hospital in Jyotirmath. Two of them have been referred to AIIMS, Rishikesh. Three of the workers are in critical condition. The body of the last missing worker has also been retrieved, said Army PRO Lt Col Manish Shrivastava. The avalanche hit the BRO camp between Mana and Badrinath on Friday, burying the 54 workers inside eight containers and a shed. Earlier, it was believed that the total number of trapped labourers was 55 but one persons. The rescuers tentatively identified the whereabouts of the workers, but have not reached a firm conclusion, the CM added. Speaking to reporters, he explained: “Mud and water are filling the tunnel. Due to the damaged conveyor belt, the rescue teams are not able to bring out the mud. Rescue operations will be sped up after repairing the conveyor belt.” He said that he had instructed the officials to use robots, if necessary to carry out the , rescue operations. Describing the tunnel collapse as an unexpected and unfortunate accident, Revanth said: “All should rise above political differences and come together to face this difficult situation and show sympathy to the families of the victims.” He said that 11 agencies with support from private organisations were participating in the rescue operations. continued on P4 Dhami condoles deaths Dehradun: Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami expressed grief at the death of eight workers in the avalanche in Chamoli district. of them was on unauthorised leave and had reached home safely . More than 200 personnel from the disaster management authority ITBP , , BRO, NDRF, SDRF, IAF, district administration, health department and fire brigade were engaged in the rescue operation. Located three kilometres from Badrinath, Mana is the last village on the India-Tibet border at a height of 3,200 metres. Among the deceased are four from Uttar Pradesh: Jitendra Singh, Manjeet Yadav, Alok Yadav, and Ashok Paswan; two from Himachal Pradesh: Mahender Pal and Ramesh Chand; and two from Uttarakhand: Anil Kumar and Arvind Kumar Singh. Revanth hails Modi as sympathetic to TG, terms Kishan ‘villain’ Express News Service @ Hyderabad Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy on Sunday said that while Prime Minister Narendra Modi was favourably disposed towards Telangana, Union minister G Kishan Reddy was trying to stall the state’s progress. “When I recently met Modi, he was sympathetic towards the problems of Telangana and expressed his readiness to solve them. But Kishan is playing the role of Saindhava and blocking the development of Telangana. While the prime minister is favourable towards the state, Kishan Reddy holds a grudge against it,” the chief minister alleged. Addressing a ‘Praja Palana’ public meeting at Wanaparthy , he accused Kishan of putting pressure on the Centre to not grant approval for the Metro phase II, funds for the Musi rejuvenation project, and national project status for the Palamuru Rangareddy Lift Irrigation scheme. “The Central government has granted permission for the development of the airport at Mamnoor because of the efforts of the state government. But Kishan is claiming credit for it. He did not attend the review meeting convened by Union Power Minister Manohar Lal Khattar in Hyderabad. This shows that Kishan is not interested in the development of Telangana,” the chief minister alleged. He further wanted Kishan to explain why he was not bringing any funds or projects to the state, while Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman managed to bring Metro to Chennai and Union Minister Shobha Karandlaje secured funds for the Bengaluru Metro. He alleged that the state BJP president was full of jealousy and bitterness. Turning his ire on former ch i e f m i n i s t e r K C h a n drasekhar Rao, he alleged that the SLBC tunnel had collapsed because the erstwhile BRS government neglected the project during its 10-year rule. continued on P5 ECI allays concern over duplicate voters M U KESH RAN J AN @ New Delhi THE Election Commission of India (ECI) has moved to calm concerns over duplicate voter ID numbers, clarifying that identical EPIC numbers don’t indicate fake voters. The issue came to light after several social media posts flagged the issue and claimed that electors in different states were being assigned similar EPIC numbers. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had also raised similar concerns. In its response, ECI said while some electors may share the same elector photo identity card (EPIC) number, their demographic details, assembly constituency and polling booth , information differ, and that they can only cast their votes at their designated polling stations in their respective constituencies. The duplicate EPIC numbers were caused by a decentralized and manual mechanism used before the electoral roll database was shifted to the ERONET platform. “This resulted in certain State/UT CEO offices using the same EPIC alphanumeric series and leaving a scope for the possibility of duplicate EPIC numbers being allotted to electors in different constituencies in different states,” ECI said.