chennai l saturday l july 19, 2025 l `9.00 l PAGES 20 l late city EDITION land-for-jobs case: No relief for rjd supremo Lalu Yadav The Supreme Court on Friday refused to stay trial proceeding against Lalu Yadav in a land-for-jobs case during his tenure as railway minister File Photo ‘No compelling reason to stay proceeding’ The former Bihar chief minister and RJD supremo, Yadav had knocked the doors of the Supreme Court challenging the Delhi High Court’s decision to dismiss his plea seeking a stay on the trial court proceedings. On May 29, the Delhi High Court said that there were no compelling reason to stay the proceedings against the RJD (Rashtriya Janta Dal) leader ■ 77 cbi found lalu misused ministerial post ■ CBI had registered the case on May 18, 2022, alleging that between 2004 and 2009, Yadav had exploited his ministerial position to secure land transfers for his family in exchange for Group D railway jobs Notably, these appointments were made without any public job advertisements, and did not align with Railways’ recruitment norms other people apart from lalu yadav named in chargesheet 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 sexual harassment Internal probe panels missing in several TN govt colleges US puts LeT proxy TRF on terror list JE YALAKSHMI RAMANUJAM @ Madurai In a significant development in counter-terror cooperation, the United States formally designated The Resistance Front (TRF), a proxy of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) and a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT). The announcement came amid intense India-US trade talks to arrive at a deal ahead of the August 1 deadline to avoid reciprocal tariffs announced by President Donald Trump. The decision was announced by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio less than three months after a brutal April 22 terror attack in J&K’s Pahalgam, in which 26 civilians were killed. The massacre marked the deadliest assault on Indian civilians since the 2008 Mumbai attacks. “Today’s designations send a clear message: The US stands firmly against terrorism in all forms,” said Rubio. “We are committed to holding perpetrators and their sponsors accountable, wherever they may be.” TRF had initially claimed responsibility for the Pahalgam carnage but later withdrew the statement at Pakistan’s bidding. Probe by the National Investigation Agency identified TRF commander Sheikh Sajjad Amid increasing complaints of sexual harassment of women in workplaces and educational institutions across the country at least 46 of the , 180 government arts and science colleges in Tamil Nadu have failed to set up an ‘Internal Complaints Committee (ICC)’, which is mandatory under the POSH (Prevention of Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace) Act of 2013. As per the law designed to protect women from sexual harassment, all workplaces, both public and private, must establish ICCs to address complaints and take It is mandatory steps to prevent to form ICC in sexual harassment all educational of women. institutions. Of the 193 instiSteps will be tutes (13 state-run taken to ensure compliance universities and 180 government collegP Shankar, Principal es) to which RTI Secretary, Edu dept queries were sent on the working of ‘Vishaka Committees’, only 80 colleges have sent their replies. Thirtyfour colleges said they have ICC panels, but only nine of them shared details about these committees. None of the government universities responded to the RTI query The . state government, in September 2024, had directed all higher education institutions to ensure compliance with the POSH Act, and take proactive measures to tackle drug menace on campuses, but the RTI reply revealed that colleges have failed to comply with the order. W h e n c o n t a c t e d by T N I E , P Shankar, Principal Secretary of Tamil Nadu Higher Education Department, said that it is mandatory to form ICC in educational institutions, and promised to take necessary steps to ensure compliance.  P7 J aya n t h J a c o b @ New Delhi pm modi to take part in 1,000th anniv of chola conquest The function will be held on July 27 to commemorate the 1,000th anniversary of conquest of Gangetic plains by King Rajendra Chola I, who founded the city of Gangaikonda Cholapuram in Ariyalur district | P4 sounding the poll bugle Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Bihar CM Nitish Kumar at a rally in Motihari, Bihar, on Friday. The PM inaugurated a host of development projects for the state | PTI lighting that the government wants Priya to come back safely, the AG submitted that the govt was doing its ATTORNEY General R Venkatara- duty at each and every step. mani on Friday informed the SuCounsel appearing for petitioner preme Court that it would be organisation “Save Nimisha best if only family members Priya International Action of Kerala nurse Nimisha PriCouncil”, which is extending ya were involved in discuslegal support to assist Priya, sions with the victim’s famhad sought a Centre-appointed ily in Yemen to seek pardon. delegation to go to Yemen to “Only the family of Nimimeet the victim’s family for sha Priya should talk with negotiation. Senior lawyer R Nimisha Priya the victim’s kin and an interBasant, appearing for the petivention by any other organitioner, said, “First, the family sation would unlikely be fruitful,” has to forgive us. After that, the disAG Venkataramani told a two-judge cussion on blood money will come bench of Justices Vikram Nath and into the picture... Yemen is a country Sandeep Mehta. where not just anybody can go. ” The bench was informed that PriBasant requested the court that a ya’s execution had been stayed. High- delegation of SNPIAC and a repre@ New Delhi with Russia link RAKESH KUMAR @ New Delhi Today’s designations send a clear message: The US stands firmly against terrorism in all forms Marco Rubio Gul as the architect of the attack. Rubio said the designations were made under Section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act and Executive Order 13224, tools used by the US government to isolate and penalise foreign terrorist actors. The US also reiterated LeT’s longstanding status as a designated terrorist outfit. The US move is expected to add new pressure on Pakistan, long accused by India of harbouring, fostering and enabling anti-India terrorist networks. According to US intelligence and Indian counter-terrorism officials, TRF has been involved in a string of deadly ambushes against Indian security forces throughout 2024, indicating a patter n of coordinated proxy violence. ED arrests Baghel’s son in liquor scam case EJA Z KAISER @ Raipur THE Enforcement Directorate on Friday arrested Chaitanya Baghel, son of ex-Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel, in connection with an alleged liquor scam-linked money laundering case. Chaitanya was produced before the special PMLA court in Raipur, which sent him to ED custody for five days. On Friday morning, a team of ED sleuths reached the residence that Chaitanya shares with his father at Bhilai, about 30 km west of Raipur. According to official sources, the arrest was made on the basis of statements Chaitanya given by one Laxminarayan Bansal, a liquor businessman close to the Congress leader’s son. Bhupesh Baghel said the ED raid came on his son’s birthday . The alleged liquor scam was orchestrated between 2019 and 2022 when Chhattisgarh was governed by the Bhupesh Baghel-led Congress government. According to the charges, a syndicate of politicians and bureaucrats ran a parallel system of liquor trade, where money was collected but not deposited to the exchequer, causing over `2,100 crore loss to the government. AG: Best if nurse’s kin are part of negotiations S u c h i t r a k a lya n m o h a n t y Rules tweaked in TN EU sanctions on for revising asset value Gujarat refinery outfit behind pahalgam massacre proscribed amidst trade talks sentative of Sunni cleric Kanthapuram A P Aboobacker Musaliyar, whose intervention reportedly led to the stay of execution, should be sent for talks. The court, however, did not pass any order and posted the matter for hearing to August 14. The bench also said the petitioner could approach the government. When the bench asked whether the execution was stayed indefinitely the , petitioner’s counsel said no date was given as of now. “Which means something is working,” the AG said. The Supreme Court was hearing a plea seeking a direction to the Centre to use diplomatic channels to save Priya, 38, facing execution in Yemen. Priya was found guilty of murdering Talal Abdo Mahdi in 2017 in Yemen, and is currently in prison. IN a bid to put economic pressure on Russia, the European Union on Friday unveiled a fresh package of sanctions, including lowering the price cap on Russian crude oil and sanctioning Nayara Energy, an Indiabased refinery with links to Russian energy giant Rosneft. Nayara Energy formerly Essar Oil, oper, ates a 20-million-tonne-per-year refinery in Vadinar, Gujarat, and manages 6,750 petrol pumps across India. Rosneft has a 49.13% stake in the firm. With sanctions, Nayara will no longer be able to export refined products such as petrol and diesel to European countries. In 2022, the G7 introduced a $60-a-barrel price cap on Russian oil sold to third countries. The EU is pushing for a lower cap of $47.60 per barrel. Under the price cap mechanism, Western insurance and shipping services can only be used if Russian oil is sold below the capped price. The EU’s latest move—aimed at reducing Moscow’s war revenues—comes amid growing concern that Russia continues to earn significant revenue from oil exports. Ironically, the lower price cap may benefit India, as it stands to get Russian crude at lower prices. Russia is India’s top oil supplier, accounting for 35% of the total crude imports in the past two years. C S h i v a k u m a r @ Chennai The Tamil Nadu government has amended the rules for estimation and revision of guideline value of properties, or market value guidelines (MVG) as it’s officially known. The amendment will potentially enable the government to do a state-level revision of MVG through the Valuation Committee (VC) expeditiously without going through the decisionmaking process involving district-level committees. These amendments to the Tamil Nadu Stamp (Constitution Of Valuation Committee For Estimation, Publication And Revision Of Market Value Guidelines) Rules of 2010 could have wider implications on revision of MVG and cost of registering properties by buyers. The amendments were notified on June 23 based on a government order (GO) issued on the same day . Incidentally in 2023, the Ma, dras HC had set aside the state’s move to rationalise the guideline value over lack of adherence to “due process”. Though the GO said the amendments were based on a proposal from the Inspector General (IG) of Registration, it did not elaborate on the details. Officials from Commercial Taxes and Registration Department were not available for comment.  P7 e x pr e ss r e a d Petrol bombs hurled at school bus after boy dies Rare liver transplantation saves two in Coimbatore TIRUNELVELI: Hours after a Class 10 boy of a school in Tirunelveli, who was undergoing treatment after a suicide attempt, died on Thursday, miscreants hurled petrol bombs at school vehicles in which two buses were gutted | P4 COIMBATORE: A rare inter-hospital swap liver transplant has given a new lease of life to two patients suffering from end-stage liver disease. The procedure was performed simultaneously at two hospitals in Kovai on July 3 | P2