KOCHI l sunday l november 16, 2025 l `12.00 l PAGES 24 l LATE city EDITION Trump scraps tariffs on some items including coffee, fruits The abrupt retreat from his signature tariff policy comes amid mounting pressure on his administration to combat high consumer prices Admits levies causing prices to shoot The president signed an executive order on Friday that removes tariffs on coffee, tea, beef, fruit juice, cocoa, spices, bananas, oranges, tomatoes, and certain fertilisers imported into the US. “We’ve just made a slight rollback on some foods,” Trump said. He acknowledged that his tariff policy has contributed to a rise in consumer prices in “some cases” ■ $2,000 u-turn after party’s election losses ■ The reversal comes after voters in off-year elections this month cited economic concerns as their top issue, resulting in big wins for Democrats in Virginia, New Jersey and other key races around the US “The president is finally admitting what we always knew: his tariffs are raising prices for the people,” senior Democrat Don Beyer said The amount trump proposed to give each American as tariff dividend 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 Jail till death for former BJP leader in Palathayi Pocso case CM expected to dissolve House, stake fresh claim on Monday daughter quits lalu family, politics imprisonment under Sections 5 and 6 of the Pocso Act (20 A special court on Saturday years each, which will run consentenced schoolteacher and currently), along with life imformer Thrippangottur BJP prisonment till death under the mandalam president K Padma- IPC section. The court also slapped a fine of `2 lakh rajan to life imprisonon him. It directed that ment till death for sexthe sentences under the ual abuse of a Pocso Act be served 10-year-old girl at Palfirst, before the life athayi in Kannur. term. Thalassery Pocso After the pronounceFast Track Special ment of the verdict, Court Judge M T JalaPadmarajan was shifted jarani had on Friday K Padmarajan to the Kannur Central found Padmarajan Prison. guilty under multiple According to the prosecusections of the Pocso Act and IPC Section 376AB (rape of a tion, Padmarajan, a teacher at the school, repeatedly abused girl below 12 years). Padmarajan has been sen- the child between January and tenced to 40 years of rigorous February 2020, after taking her E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Kannur R a m a s h a n k a r @ Patna A day after the Rashtriya Janata Dal-Congress-led Mahagathbandhan’s crushing defeat in the Bihar Assembly elections, a feud erupted within RJD leader Lalu Prasad’s family, with his daughter Rohini Acharya announcing that she was quitting politics and severing all ties with the family . “I am quitting politics and also disowning my family. This is what Sanjay Yadav and Rameez had asked me to do. I am taking all the blame,” Acharya wrote on X. Sanjay Yadav is an RJD MP and a close confidant of Lalu’s younger son, Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, while Rameez is Tejashwi’s friend from neighbouring Uttar Pradesh. Neither Sanjay nor Rameez reacted, deepRohini Acharya ening the mystery and fuelling speculation of pressure within the party and the family . Rohini Acharya had previously made headlines when she donated one of her kidneys to her ailing father, Lalu Prasad. Responding to Rohini’s announcement, her brother Tej Pratap, who himself was expelled from the party a few months back, said: “Those who are trying to harass my sister will not be spared. ‘Jai Chand’ (traitor) will be taught a lesson at an appropriate time.” JD(U) MLC Neeraj Kumar said, “The daughter who saved the life of Lalu is now saying in pain that she is stepping down from politics and snapping ties with the family It is a big question on . Lalu and Rabri Devi.” LJP(RV) chief Chirag Paswan greets Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in Patna | PTI Mind games by Nitish before 10th term shot More arrests in terror module case RA J E SH KU M AR THAKUR @ New Delhi A day after the NDA registered a stunning landslide victory in the Bihar elections, there was no doubt in anybody’s mind that Chief Minister Nitish Kumar will get a record 10th term at the government’s helm. But Nitish being Nitish, he could suggest to the BJP that it should lead the government since it emerged as the single-largest party For its . part, the BJP could graciously insist that the mandate was for Nitish in the hot seat and should stay that way . In 2024, when he returned to the NDA after walking out of the Mahagathbandhan, Nitish enacted the same drama of asking the BJP to stake its claim for chief ministership, but the BJP respectfully turned it down. Of course, the final call will be taken by the BJP’s national leadership. “But, there is no chance of the BJP leading the government; it will send a wrong message within the NDA. The current arrange- ment is working fine,” remarked a senior BJP leader. The swearing-in ceremony is tentatively expected between November 18 and 21, depending on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s availability . Given the solid performance of Chirag Paswan’s LJP(RV) at the hustings — 19 out of 25 seats it contested, it could be rewarded with a deputy chief minister’s position. As for the BJP, it could name a Yadav leader from the party like Ram Kripal Yadav for the second deputy CM’s slot. The idea is to consolidate the BJP’s position in the Yadav vote bank, especially after making inroads into this demographic this time around. A state cabinet meeting on dissolving the outgoing assembly is expected on Monday, after which Nitish will submit his resignation to the Governor. Later, a meeting of the NDA legislative party will elect Nitish as its leader. Nitish will then return to Raj Bhavan and stake his claim to form the new government. e x p r e s s ne w s s e r v i c e @ Kolkata/Chandigarh/Srinagar MORE arrests continue in the Delhi car blast case with the National Investigation Agency (NIA) detaining Zanishar Alam, a 2024 MBBS graduate of Al Falah University, from his village in Suryapur market of Dalkhola in West Bengal’s North Dinajpur district on Saturday . Alam was released late in the evening, NIA officials said. He had returned home on November 12 to attend a wedding. NIA officials traced him from Ludhiana, where his father lives. Acting on a tip-off, officials contacted Touhid in Ludhiana and collected details of his son.“He was released after questioning. His mobile phone has been seized, and told to be present if summoned again,” the officer said. Meanwhile, a surgeon from Pathankot linked to Al Falah University and two doctors and fertilizer store owners from Haryana was also detained. Sources said that 45-year-old Dr Rayees Ahmad Bhat, presently associated with White Medical College in Pathankot, was de- BJP suspends R K Singh | P8 tained by NIA on Saturday and is currently being questioned after investigators found that he was allegedly in touch with Dr Umar Un Nabi, the Delhi blast kingpin. Sources said Bhat was taken into custody to ascertain whether he was part of the “white-collar” terror module managed by Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed and Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind. The NMC has cancelled the registrations of the four doctors — Dr Muzaffar Ahmad, Dr Adeel Ahmad Rather, Dr Muzamil Shakeel and Dr Shaheen Saeed with immediate effect — for their alleged involvement in the terror module. How many know that a Medical Certificate of Cause of Death (MCCD) is legally required when a person dies under the care of a doctor, whether in a government hospital, private hospital, or at home? Despite Kerala’s reputation as a public health model, the state shows a serious gap in the medical certification of deaths. Only 11.4% of the deaths registered in the state in 2023 were medically certified, according to the latest MCCD report of the department of economics and statistics. Out of 30.4 lakh deaths registered, just 34,705 had a doctor’s certificate recording the cause of death. That despite MCCD being mandatory under the Registration of Births and Deaths Act when a doctor attended the patient during the last illness. The report points to limited implementation, with the MCCD scheme functioning only in five urban local bodies — Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Kochi, Kozhikode and Alappuzha — covering just 150 hospitals across both public and private sectors. Among the medically certified deaths, circulatory diseases such as heart attacks and strokes account for 26.4%. Diabetes-related deaths have doubled over the past decade, rising from 10% in 2014 to 19% in 2023. However, the re port notes that these figures likely represent only a small portion of Kerala’s actual disease burden. The report also says that when preparing MCCD, doctors must note the underlying cause — the root disease or condition that initiated the chain of events leading to death — along with the immediate cause of death. Accurate documentation helps the government understand mortality trends and plan health interventions, particularly in managing chronic illnesses such as diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. A senior health department official tells TNIE that many government hospitals are not consistently following MCCD ● More on P5 norms.  MHA probe into nowgam blast accidental explosion: dgp The Home Ministry (MHA) said a probe has been ordered to determine the cause of the Nowgam police station ‘accidental’ blast that killed 9 people, including cops, on Friday The explosion at Nowgam police station on Friday in Srinagar has raised serious questions on handling of explosives by police. DGP Nalin Prabhat said it was an “accidental explosion” | P8 WITH THIS ISSUE Devil’s Doctor d e M in e th Insid of the Urban Terrorist PLUS 12 P AGES Only 11.4% of deaths in Kerala medically certified in 2023 R a h u l R @Kollam to the bathroom of the institution and a private residence. After coming to know about the incident, the girl’s mother contacted the Childline, and subsequently, lodged a complaint with the DySP. Based on the DySP’s direction, the Panoor police registered a case on March 17, 2020. Padmarajan was arrested on April 15, 2020. The case stirred a political controversy, with the BJP then claiming that the allegations were part of an SDPI conspiracy Initially, the local police and . the crime branch investigated the case. However, the investigation team was changed multiple times following concerns raised by the girl’s family  ● More on P5 . A police woman consoles relatives of Mohammad Shafi Parry, a tailor who was among nine killed in the explosion at Nowgam police station | Zahoor punjabi trading zone Sanju to CSK, Jadeja to RR dominate buzz ter was traded with the left-arm-spinning all-rounder. The trading window of the In- Samson landed with CSK for a dian Premier League has figure of `18 cr while Jadeja shown signs of maturity as the left for Rajasthan Royals, surtournament has evolved over prisingly on a pay cut – `14 the years. With the window crore. For CSK, the move would closing on Saturday, most help consolidate their fanbase teams seemed to have covered and fortify their keeping with their bases, especially Mumbai icon Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Indians, Punjab Kings and at 44, not growing any younger. Royal Challengers Bengaluru CSK’s Sam Curran’s move to making most of it. RR too was part of deal. CSK Going by the money left in have managed to free up some the purse, Kolkata Knight Rid- `40 crore after releasing a host ers, after a poor outing last of players, including New Zeaseason, are looking to reland’s Devon Conway and build the team. CSK Rachin Ravindra, DeepRemaining too are following a simak Hooda and Matheeilar script. The two are sha Pathirana. Similarly , expected to engage in a KKR have 13 slots open. fierce battle to secure Mohammed Shami was the choicest of players, bought in an all-cash especially Australian deal by Lucknow Super KKR all-rounder Cam Giants from Sunrisers Green. Interestingly, Hyderabad. most of the players reThough MI have a CSK leased by teams will go smaller purse (`2,75cr), into the auction pool. they have already got a KKR are looking for a balanced team after secaptain as well. curing Shardul Thakur, The central figures Sherfane Rutherford on the last day of a n d M aya n k M a rtrading were Sankande. Same is the ju Samson and case with RCB and Ravindra JadePBK. Auction will ja. The wickbe held at Abu et-keeper batDhabi on Dec 16. E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Chennai the fine print A worker at a screen-printing unit in Thalassery checks the party symbols to be printed on campaign materials, as electioneering picks up pace for the upcoming local body polls. One of the traditional methods adopted in election campaigns, screen printing is used to print images of candidates and party symbols on t-shirts, umbrellas and flags | E Gokul | More poll stories on P2 E X P R E S S R E AD K Jayakumar takes charge as TDB president Denied ticket, BJP worker ends life CPM-Cong blame game after Bihar poll debacle T’Puram: Former bureaucrat and writer K Jayakumar assumed charge as the president of the Travancore Devaswom Board on Saturday. Jayakumar said the new governing committee must respond to the huge expectations of devotees. P5 T’Puram: Putting the BJP leadership in a spot amid the local body election campaigning, a party worker allegedly died by suicide after being denied a ticket to contest. The deceased is BJPRSS worker Anand K Thampi of Thrikkannapuram. P5 T’Puram: A fierce blame game has erupted between the CPM and the Congress — both partners in the Mahagathbandhan in Bihar — following the poll drubbing suffered by the grand alliance in the Bihar assembly elections. P5 Purse A64.30cr A43.40cr