BHUBANESWAR  MONDAY  MARCH 03, 2025  `9.00  PAGES 12  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, regulatory violations S U D H I R S U 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 journalist Sapan Shrivastava. Seeking a court-monitored investigation, the petitioner alleged largescale financial fraud, corruption, and regulatory violations 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 in the listing of a company . The court said primefacie it shows there have been violations and there are documents to support the same; therefore, 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 pre- vious 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. Rape accused killed with U’khand avalanche arrows by victim and her death toll rises to husband in Sundargarh 8, rescue act over OVER THE MOON EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ Rourkela A 28-year-old rape accused out on bail was allegedly shot dead with arrows by the victim and her husband at Teliposh village in Kuanrmunda block of Sundargarh district on Saturday evening. The deceased was identified as Raj Kumar Yadav, a native of Aurangabad in Bihar. He was allegedly harassing the victim to settle the case after his release from jail six months back. Yadav used to work at a local fabrication unit and lived near the house of the couple. DIG (Western Range) Brijesh Kumar Rai said preliminary investigation revealed that the woman was raped by Yadav around 18 months back. After being released on bail six months back, he was frequently pressurising and harassing the victim to withdraw the case fearing conviction. On Saturday evening, Yadav went to the woman’s house and pressurised her to withdraw the case against him. When he was harassing the woman, her husband arrived and a fierce quarrel ensured between them. In a fit of rage, the couple killed Yadav with bow and arrows and disposed of his body in a pond near their house. IIC of Birmitrapur police station Ram Prasad Nag said on Sunday, the deceased’s body was retrieved from the pond in presence of forensic team. Two arrow s we re fo u n d stuck in Yadav’s body . The woman and her husband have been detained by police for questioning. Nag said a murder case has been registered and autopsy of the body would be conducted after arrival of Yadav’s relatives from Bihar. Further investigation is underway to ascertain the exact circumstances which led to the murder of the rape accused, he added. UNBEATEN INDIA MARCH ON MEN IN BLUE BEAT NEW ZEALAND BY 44 RUNS TO FINISH ON TOP OF GROUP A ON SUNDAY. A LOOK... Varun Chakravarthy(L) celebrates a wicket on Sunday | AP PVT FIRM MAKES LUNAR LANDING IN 1ST ATTEMPT N A R E N D R A S E T H I @ 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 authori, ties 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 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. VARUN TAKES FIFER In what was his first game of the tournament, Varun Chakravarthy took five wickets for 42 runs and in the process helped India defend the target of 250. On the slowish Dubai surface, the spinner from TN rattled the New Zealand middle-order to ensure India remain unbeaten PROTEAS FACE BLACK CAPS TEST With the loss against India, New Zealand finished second in Group A. They will be flying to Pakistan, along with South Africa who topped the Group B, where the two teams play the second semifinal in Lahore on Wednesday SEMIFINAL LINE-UP INDIA VS AUSTRALIA, DUBAI, TUESDAY SOUTH AFRICA VS NEW ZEALAND, LAHORE, WEDNESDAY ECI allays concern over duplicate voter numbers M U K E S H R A N J A N @ 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 matter came to light after several social media posts flagged the mistake 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 poll, ing 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 of- fices 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. To address this, the commission has said it will assign unique EPIC numbers to registered electors, ensuring that any cases of duplicate EPIC numbers are rectified. The ERONET 2.0 platform will be updated to facilitate this process, it said. American private aerospace firm Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lander carrying a drill, vacuum, and other experiments for NASA successfully landed on the moon Sunday | P9 No rift among Cong leaders in Kerala, says Rahul Gandhi EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ New Delhi CONGRESS leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday sought to dispel the notion there is a rift among the party’s leaders in Kerala following its MP Shashi Tharoor’s recent remarks praising the achievements of CPM-led government in the state, saying they stand united. His comment came in the wake of a meeting between the Congress’ central leadership and the party’s leaders from Kerala at Indira Bhawan on Friday to discuss the strategy and the way forward ahead of next year’s assembly polls. Following Tharoor’s remarks, the Congress brass issued a warning that strong action will be taken against those making comments that go against the party’s interests. Posting a picture of the Kerala leaders’ interaction with the media after the meeting on Facebook, Rahul wrote: “They stand as one, united by the light of purpose ahead.” His post was accompanied by the hashtag Team Kerala. The three-hour meeting at the Congress’s Indira Bhawan head- THAROOR U-TURN ON KERALA STORY Days after his praise of the growth of Kerala’s startup ecosystem, Shashi Tharoor has taken a U-turn, saying the growth of startups should not remain “confined to paper” alone | P5 quarters on Friday had discipline, unity and the strengthening of the state organisation as its running theme. Sources said Gandhi asked leaders present at the meeting to be very careful and not to do or say anything that does not toe the party line. In the meeting, Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge laid stress on discipline, ensuring unity and filling up vacant posts to strengthen the party’s Kerala unit.