Ruturaj takes over from Dhoni as CSK captain CHENNAI: In his 15th year with Chennai Super Kings, M S Dhoni (left) will feature just as a player in the upcoming edition of the Indian Premier League, which begins at the MA Chidambaram Stadium here on Friday. Ruturaj Gaikwad (right), who has been with the franchise since 2019, will take over the mantle from Dhoni as CSK skipper | ashwin prasath tirupati l friday l march 22, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l anantapur 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 o p e r at i o n ga r u da CBI seizes drugs in a ship at Vizag port E x p r ess Ne w s S e r v i c e BJP funds came via Qwik, Future & big corporates eXPR E S S n E W S s E R V IC E @ New Delhi Bond list with alphanumeric numbers released @ New Delhi/Visakhapatnam As part of its Operation Garuda, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday detained a shipping container at the Visakhapatnam Port on the suspicion that it had a huge consignment of narcotics. According to the CBI’s statement, the container was booked from Santos Port, Brazil for delivery at Visakhapatnam, in the name of a Visakhapatnam-based private company Sandhya Aqua Exports Pri, vate Limited. “The consignee had said that the shipping container carried 1,000 bags of inactive dried yeast of 25 kilograms each, totaling 25,000 kg. During the examination, it was found that the consignment had narcotic substances, suspected to be cocaine, mixed in the yeast,” the CBI said, adding that the quantity of the narcotics is being ascertained. The CBI carried out the exercise after receiving an input from Interpol and with the help of Customs, officials said. “The whole consignment has been seized and an FIR has been registered against the consignee and others,” a CBI official added. As per the report, a team headed by Umesh Sharma and CBI DSP Kash Kumar Meena, under the supervision of CBI SP Gaurav Mittal, inspected the shipping container, which the Customs Department had detained. An FIR was registered based on the special report of CBI Deputy SP Umesh Sharma against Sandhya Aqua Exports Private Limited and others under Sections 29 read with 8, 23, and 38 of NDPS Act, 1985. Representatives of Sandhya Aqua Exports Private Limited were also present along with other witnesses, when the seal P4 of the consignment was opened. E x p r ess Ne w s S e r v i c e @ New Delhi Big donations From Future Gaming, DMK got `509 cr; TMC `402 cr; YSR Cong about `154 cr; BJP `104 cr From Qwik Supply, BJP got `395 cr; Shiv Sena `25 cr Vedanta gave donations to BJP, Congress, BJD and TMC Bharti Airtel donated to BJP, RJD, SAD, Cong, JD(U) Muthoot donated to BJP, NCP Bajaj group donations went to BJP, AAP Apollo Tyres bonds went to Cong Keventers gave bonds to BJP and Cong Lakshmi Niwas Mittal donated to BJP Kiran Mazumdar Shaw donated to BJP, TMC, Cong Rungta Sons Pvt Ltd donated to Cong, BJP, TMC, Sikkim Krantikari Morcha Torrent pharma donated to BJP, AAP, Cong Natco Pharma gave bonds to BJP, TDP, TMC and BRS The DMK appeared to be the biggest beneficiary of the electoral bonds from lottery king Santiago Martin’s Future Gaming & Hotel Services as it received `509 crore, followed by the TMC `402 crore, YSR Congress `154 crore and the ruling BJP `104 crore, initial analysis of the data suggested. At `1,368 crore, Martin was the largest donor of electoral bonds to political parties. The full details of the donations were uploaded by the Election Commission of India in the evening after it received them from the State Bank of India. Qwik Supply Chain Private Limited, considered to be linked with Reliance Group, donated over `350 crore to the BJP while Hyderabad-based infrastructure firm Megha Engineering donated nearly `450 crore to the party. Western Power, a subsidiary of Megha Engineering, also donated `80 crore to the BJP. Kolkata-based Keventer Food Park Infra and its associated companies Madanlal Ltd and MKJ Enterprise gave BJP bonds totalling `383 crore. Qwik Supply also donated `35 crore to the Shiv Sena and the NCP . The fresh data includes alphanumeric numbers that can help match the purchasers of the bonds with the parties that redeemed them. The ECI in a statement said, “In compliance with the Supreme Court’s directions, SBI has provided data pertaining to electoral bonds to ECI today i.e. March 21, 2024. The ECI has uploaded it on its website as received from SBI on an ‘as is where is basis’.” Two sets of data — 552 pages of details of redemption by political parties and 386 pages of details of donors — cover electoral bonds purchased and redeemed from April 2019 until January 2024. The SC had directed SBI to disclose all electoral bond details, including the identification code. In his affidavit in the SC, the SBI chairman said the “prefix and the bond number is in fact the alphanumeric number”. Pawan & Naidu discuss joint electioneering S V i s w a n at h @ Vijayawada Jana Sena Party (JSP) president Pawan Kalyan called on TDP supremo N Chandrababu Naidu at the latter’s residence in Hyderabad on Thursday to discuss a slew of issues related to the ensuing elections. According to sources, the duo held talks on the election manifesto, the selection of candidates for the remaining Assembly and Lok Sabha constituencies, and joint electioneering. It may be pointed out that the TDP, JSP and BJP have joined hands to contest the Assembly and Lok Sab- KEJRI ARRESTED ha elections in the State. It has been learnt that the party chiefs discussed at length about organising public meetings to be addressed by Naidu, Pawan and senior leaders from the BJP . While Naidu is set to launch his election campaign by ad- dressing a ‘Praja Galam’ public meeting in Chittoor district on March 26, the actor-politician will commence electioneering from March 27. During the talks that lasted nearly an hour, both the leaders discussed the steps that need to be taken for the smooth transfer of votes between the alliance partners. They also emphasised on the need to ensure better coordination among the leaders and cadres of the three parties to thwart the attempts of the ruling YSR Congress Party to create a rift among the alliance P4 parties. Fact-check unit notification stayed, SC sends case to HC 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 stayed the Centre’s notification setting up a fact-checking unit under the Press Information Bureau, saying its impact on freedom of speech and expression needs to be analysed. A bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud set aside the March 11 Bombay High Court order refusing an interim stay on setting up of the factchecking unit under the amended IT Rules to identify fake news targeting the Centre. The bench said the stay shall oper- ate till the Bombay High Court finally decides the challenge to the IT Amendment Rules, 2023. “The challenge to the validity of 3(1)(b)(5) (of IT Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code Rules 2021) involves serious constitutional questions and the impact of the rule on free speech and expression would need to be analysed by the high court,” the bench said. The court was hearing a special leave petition by comedian Kunal Kamra and the Editor’s Guild of India seeking a stay on setting up of factchecking unit. BJP names election in-charges The BJP appointed party national general secretary Arun Singh and ex-cabinet minister Siddharth Nath Singh as poll incharge and co-incharge respectively in Andhra Pradesh express read High Court sets aside verdict on Group-1 Mains exam Vijayawada: The High Court of Andhra Pradesh on Thursday issued an interim stay order on the verdict given by a single judge bench, setting aside the Group-I (Mains) examination results announced on May 26, 2022 | P4 SPs of three districts give explanation on poll violence Vijayawada: SPs of Prakasam, Nandyal and Palnadu districts appeared before Chief Electoral Officer Mukesh Kumar Meena and gave explanation on the violence that took place in their districts after the poll schedule was released | P3 Delhi Police personnel removing an Aam Aadmi Party worker protesting against the arrest of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal | Praveen Negi YOU READ IT HERE FIRST on June 22, 2022 HOURS after the Delhi High Court refused to grant any interim protection from coercive action to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, the Enforcement Directorate on Thursday night arrested him in connection with a money laundering case linked to the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy . This paper was the first to break the story on June 22, 2022 that federal investigative agencies were looking into the Delhi excise policy scam. The ED will produce Kejriwal before a Delhi court on Friday and seek his custody for interrogation. The arrest came amid high drama and protests by Aam Aadmi Party w o rk e r s , w h o thronged the CM’s official residence shouting slogans against the ED. Besides Delhi Police personnel, Rapid Action Force and CRPF teams were deployed around the CM’s residence during the operation. Kejriwal had skipped nine summons by the probe agency , claiming the notices were illegal and politically motivated. AAP leader Atishi said Kejriwal will not resign as CM and will run the city government from jail, if need be. She said the party’s legal team has moved the Supreme Court seeking an urgent hearing. The apex court is likely to hear the matter on Friday morning. The case pertains to alleged corruption and money laundering in formulating and executing the Delhi government’s excise policy for 2021-22, which was later scrapped. The ED alleges the accused were in touch Kejriwal for tweaking the excise policy in such a way to bring undue benefits to them. In return, they paid kickbacks to the AAP, it was alleged. Prominent AAP leaders like Manish Sisodia and Sanjay Singh are already in jail in connection with the scam.
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