MANGALURU l sunday l march 24, 2024 l `12.00 l PAGES 24 l CITY EDITION cbi raids multiple premises of Moitra in cash-for-query scam The CBI conducted searches at various premises linked to Mahua Moitra, including her parents’ home in Kolkata, in the cash-for-query case trinamool calls the raid vendetta politics CBI TO FILE REPORT WITHIN SIX MONTHS The CBI sleuths reached the Trinamool Congress leader’s home in Kolkata and other cities early in the morning and went to her party office in Krishnanagar in the evening. The TMC repeated her for the Lok Sabha poll from Krishnanagar. The party dubbed the raids as vendetta politics and a desperate attempt by the BJP to misuse central agencies ahead of the polls ■ ■ A FIR was filed this week against Moitra on the directions of Lokpal, which has asked the CBI to file its report within six months Moitra has challenged her expulsion from Lok Sabha in the SC. She was expelled in December 2023 following the recommendation of Ethics Committee for sharing her login, password of NIC portal 1st TIME MAHUA MOITRA BECAME A LOK sABHA mp IN 2019 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 143 killed and counting in Moscow terror attack by IS group’s Afghanistan branch Y e s h i s e l i @ New Delhi Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwat Maan at an AAP protest condemning the arrest of his Delhi counterpart Arvind Kejriwal, in New Delhi on Saturday | PTI Putin rejected warnings about attack, says US At least 143 people were killed in a terrorist attack on a packed concert hall in western Moscow, Russian authorities said on Saturday. The Islamic State’s Afghanistan branch later claimed responsibility for the attack. Gunmen burst into Crocus City Hall in Moscow’s suburb of Krasnogorsk on Friday and randomly opened fire on people who had arrived to watch a concert by Russian band Picnic that was about to start. The attackers also set off a blaze that took firefighters hours to bring under control. Authorities said the toll could rise as investigators were combing through the charred wreck- Rescuers clear charred wreckage inside Moscow’s Crocus City Hall on Saturday | AP The US Embassy in Moscow said it had warned Russia on March 7 that extremists were planning to target large gatherings in the city. But Russian President Vladimir Putin had called it a “provocative” statement and “outright blackmail... to intimidate and destabilise our society by scaring Russian citizens” age of the hall for more victims. Over 100 people have been injured and the condition of 44 of them is said to be serious. The Russian interior ministry said all four suspected gunmen were foreign nationals. Sources with links to the security services said they were from Tajikistan. One of the detained suspects reportedly told Russian investi- gators he was recruited through Telegram and offered 5,00,000 rubles (`4.5 lakh) for his role. In his statement on Saturday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said 11 people have been detained. He also sought to link the attack to Ukraine, saying they were trying to escape to Ukraine through a ‘window’ prepared for them on the Ukrainian side of the border. But Ukraine denied any role in the carnage. Prime Minister Narendra Modi joined others in condemning the attack. “We strongly condemned the heinous terrorist attack.... India stands in solidarity with the government and the people of the Russian Federation in this hour of grief,” he posted on X. P9 HC rejects urgent hearing. Holi-day for Kejri with ED Karnataka moves SC for `18,171 cr drought grant from Centre Comment by German foreign office on full legal access to the Delhi CM angers MEA the liquor policy scam. Of the proceed of crimes, `45 crore was used in the Goa polls. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind In a related development, the Kejriwal on Saturday suffered Ministry of External Affairs a fresh setback after the Delhi (MEA) bristled at a comment High Court rejected his appeal on Kejriwal by a spokesperson for urgent listing and hearing of Germany’s foreign office. against his remand in the liq“Kejriwal is entitled to fair uor scam case. He was and impartial trial. remanded in the EnThis includes that he forcement Directomakes use of all availrate’s custody till able legal avenues Thursday by a local without restriction. court on Friday . The presumption of The legal team of innocence is a central Aam Aadmi Party element of the rule of ‘Will come law and must apply to (AAP) national conout soon’ him,” the spokespervenor Kejriwal mentioned the matter be- “I will soon come son said. fore Justice out... Whether The MEA reacted Manmohan, Acting inside or outside, rather shar ply by Chief Justice. The every moment of summoning German judge heard it though my life is envoy Georg Enzweilit was the court’s off dedicated to er and voicing its disday but refused to list , serving the approval. “The Gerit for urgent hearing. country,” Kejriwal man Deputy Chief of Since the Delhi High was quoted as Mission in New Delhi Court will be closed saying by his wife was summoned and for two days on Mon- Sunita in a video we conveyed India’s day and Tuesday due strong protest on their to the Holi festival, the earliest foreign office spokesperson’s Kejriwal’s plea can be listing comments on our internal affor hearing is Wednesday . fairs. We see it as undermining The ED had alleged on Fri- the independence of our judiciday that Kejriwal generated ary,’’ said MEA spokesperson over `100 crore in kickbacks in Randhir Jaiswal. S u c h i t r a K a lya n M o h a n t y a n d Y e s h i S e l i @ New Delhi express read Was trolled over seating position: CJI Bengaluru: CJI DY Chandrachud on Saturday recalled a recent incident of him facing ‘trolling’ for adjusting his seating position, during a hearing due to a discomfort and highlighted the need for judicial officers to manage stress. P5 CBSE: New books for Classes 3 and 6 New Delhi: The NCERT will release a new syllabus and textbooks for Classes 3 and 6, while there will be no change in the curriculum and textbooks for other grades for the academic year 202425 commencing from April 1, according to CBSE officials. express news service @ Bengaluru The Karnataka government on Saturday approached the Supreme Court, seeking its direction to the Centre to release Rs 18,171 crore due to the state to tackle drought. “After exhausting all our options, we exercised our statu- tory right under Article 32 with a writ petition. The Centre even violated the Disaster Management Act 2005. The petition is likely to be listed for hearing after a week as the court is on vacation,” Chief Minister Siddaramaiah told reporters here. Siddaramaiah said that his government approached the North-South divide in cybercrime: Fraudsters target each other’s zones R i s h i ta K h a n n a @ Bengaluru Cybercrime investigators, who have cracked multiple mule accounts, have observed a clear pattern of north-south divide in India: cyber fraudsters in the north target victims in the south, while those in the south target victims in the north. A police officer who is part of investigations into mule accounts (accounts used to receive and transfer funds acquired illegally on behalf of others) in Karnataka said all those accounts that were cracked were linked to villages in the north. The officer explained that this calculated move allowed fraudsters to act swiftly so that by the time a complaint was filed and police initiated action, the accused could transfer money and escape. This allowed adequate time to escape even if the police in the north alerted their southern counterparts to act. Mule accounts make things complicated as these have to be addressed through collaborative efforts involving the police in the north and the south and the banks whose accounts are being used, which takes time, allowing the accused to escape or take evasive action. P5 WITH THIS ISSUE Packing a Punch PLUS 12 PAGES n u m b e r c r u n chi n g Chennai link to data analysis in IPL S wa r o o p S wa m i n at h a n @ Chennai WHEN Gujarat Titans won the Indian Premier League (IPL) at the first time of asking in 2022, one person came in for special praise. Sandeep Raju, somebody who had played zero games for the franchise. Representational image But the role he played Sunday helped Hardik Pandya & Special Co. win the league. “I badata analysts to give sically help the team with them that extra one per with performance analytcent. What, though, links ics,” he had said in an in-house Raju with most of the other anvideo the franchise uploaded. alysts currently employed by “I help them look at data and various IPL teams is the city come up with performance and they call home? Chennai (or a strategies and I also help with place in Tamil Nadu). Mumbai recruiting talent.” Indians have in their ranks VarOf course, none of this is un Narasimhan. Rajasthan Roynew. All sports teams — fran- als have Krishnan Seshadrichise, clubs, countries across a nathan. Sunrisers Hyderabad wide variety of sport — employ have Gaurav Sundararaman. Lakshmi Narayanan has been associated with Chennai Super Kings. Shrinivas Chandrasekaran (Lucknow Super Giants) and Sankar Rajagopal (former Punjab Kings, now with Jio) are other names. Why is this the case? There are multiple reasons but the most common answer is that the ‘companies that provide data analysts are headquartered in Chennai’, both within a 10km radius (SportsMechanics and Kadamba). In a way, this is what’s happening to the IPL teams. Because some teams still do not have separate data wings, what they essentially do is hire employees of these two companies for a fixed period every season. This year alone, there are at least seven Tamilspeaking analysts in IPL. Big team players Even the Indian men’s cricket team have on their roster somebody who is associated with Chennaibased company Sports Mechanics (Hari Mohan, who hails from Coimbatore). Seshadrinathan was at StatDNA, Arsenal’s analytics company when Arsene Wenger was the manager. SC with a ‘prayer’ to direct the Centre to immediately release funds to tackle drought. On moving the top court after the announcement of elections to the Lok Sabha, he said, “Seeking justice cannot be an election issue.” He claimed that the state gov- ernment had initiated steps to tackle drought by distributing Rs 2,000 each to 33,44,000 farmers by releasing Rs 650 crore from its treasury . “We have declared 223 taluks as drought-hit. Crops grown on 48 lakh hectares of land have been damaged. We submitted three memorandums to the Centre. But the state has not received a single penny from the Centre,” he said. In October last, a central team visited the state and according to the rule, a decision should be taken to provide funds to tackle drought within a month of the team submitting its report, he said. P5
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