T he top 3 hig hest- paid players kozhikode l wednesday l december 17, 2025 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l city EDITION D25.5 cr Uncapped? No worries, IPL can make you rich Several players who have not played for India had their biggest pay day at the IPL mini auction. A look Life-changing day Overseas stars revel Kartik Sharma (19), H14.2 cr. Prashant Veer (20), H14.2 cr. Mangesh Yadav (23), H5.2 cr. And Auqib Nabi (29), H8.4 cr. From 19 to 29 year old, these uncapped players’ lives will change forever. If Veer’s father is a contractual teacher in UP earning H10,000 a month and supporting a family, Nabi began his journey in Baramula where there is hardly any cricket infrastructure. For Sharma, it is a reward for pursuing a sport his father too pursued as a profession. Their houses burst into emotional celebrations. If the youngsters were spotted by scouts during state T20 leagues, for Nabi, it was a reward after years of toil without much return D14.2 cr Cameron Green Australian all-rounder Cameron Green became the highest-paid overseas star, signed by Kolkata Knight Riders for H25.5 crore. Matheesa Pathirana (H18 crore) and Mustafizur Rahman (H9.2 crore) were also signed by KKR who made the most of the big purse. Sunrisers Hyderabad saved up their purse and went after Liam Livingstone (H13 crore) while Lucknow Super Giants went big for Josh Inglis (H8.6 crore). The trend continued with overseas seamers and explosive all-rounders in great demand Kartik Sharma D14.2 cr Prashant Veer T20 generation in demand CSK head coach Stephen Fleming called them the “T20 babies”, up and coming stars in domestic cricket between 19-23 who were scouted and fought for at the auction table. This is a generation that grew up on IPL and were spotted in state T20 leagues It helped that this was a mini-auction and the purse is as big as it gets, but teams were keen to invest in younger talent with the T20 game evolving faster than ever. It will be interesting to see how these players and teams look by the time next mega auction comes along `215.45 cr Total money spent at the auction 35 As many as 35 of the 77 players signed at the auction are uncapped Indians (1 uncapped Australian) 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 Bondi Beach assailant G-Ram-G bill introduced in LS amid din had roots in Hyderabad Cong’s nationwide protests today P R EE T HA N AI R @ New Delhi Sajid migrated to Australia in ’98; no India connect to radicalisation C h i t h a l ur i R e v a nt h a nd B a l a C h a u h a n @ Hyderabad/ Bengaluru Sajid Akram, 50, one of the perpetrators of the Bondi Beach mass murder in Sydney , had migrated from Hyderabad to Australia in November 1998, Telangana Director General of Police B Shivadhar Reddy said on Tuesday . Sajid and his son Naveed, 24, massacred Jews on Sunday while the latter were observing the first day of Hanukkah, killing 15 people. Sajid was shot dead on the spot by the police while Naveed was injured. After the attack, the Australian police raided Sajid’s house and found his Doodhbowli in Hyderabad address on his passport, sources told this daily . A commerce graduate from a autonomous minority college in Hyderabad, Sajid migrated to Australia on student visa in search of better livelihood. His student visa was transferred in 2001 to a partner visa and later Resident Return Visas. “His first job was as a salesman in a mall in Sydney. He later married Venera Grosso of European origin. The couple Bengal SIR: 58L voters out of revised electoral rolls S U B HE N D U M AI T I @ Kolkata WITH deletions of more than 58 lakh alleged dead and bogus voters from the list, Election Commission of India (ECI) on Tuesday released the draft electoral rolls for West Bengal after completing phase one of Special Intensive Revision (SIR). As per the draft electoral rolls, the names of 7,08,16,631 voters were included in the rolls in West Bengal’s phase 1 of SIR. The ECI has identified about 1.66 crores out of these voters who may be called for hearings to verify their documents again. In January, 2025, there were 7,66,37,529 voters on the list. With 58,20,898 voters, who are either dead or have permanently shifted, dropped, the official elect o r s i s n ow 7,08,16,631. The commission said the deletion list includes voters whose names appeared in the January 2025 electoral rolls but do not figure in the post-SIR draft rolls. With assembly elections likely early next year, the draft rolls have been uploaded on the West Bengal Chief Electoral O f f i c e r ’s ( C E O ) we b s i t e (ceowestbengal.wb.gov.in/Electors), the ECI voter portal (voters.eci.gov.in) and ECINET application. A press statement issued by office of the state CEO Manoj Kumar Agarwal said all claims and objections in the draft rolls can be made between December 16 and January 15, 2026. The final rolls will be out on February 14. (From left) Naveed and Sajid Akram ISIS footprint According to unconfirmed reports, Naveed was associated with Isaac El Matari from Sydney, who had declared himself the IS commander for Australia and was jailed in 2021 for terrorist offences had two children — 24-year-old son Naveed (the second Bondi shooter) and a daughter. Since 1998, Sajid visited Hyderabad on six occasions primarily for property issues. His last visit was in 2022, to settle his property share with his elder brother, who lives with their widowed mother and his family in Tolichowki in Hyderabad. The relationship between the sib- lings was not courteous,” sources on condition of anonymity told this newspaper. Sajid did not even show up when his father died in 2009. His dad worked for the UAE army and returned to Hyderabad after retirement. That is when he built the house in Tolichowki. “The family is in shock because Sajid never displayed any extremist ideology. Surprisingly he did not have many , friends in Hyderabad, who could throw light on his radicalisation,” the sources added. The DGP said the factors that led to their radicalisation appear to have no connection with India. In Australia, Sajid obtained a firearm license for ‘recreational hunting’. Weeks ahead of the Bondi massacre, Sajid and Naveed flew to the Philippines and received “military training”. They arrived on November 1 and left on November 28. Sajid had travelled using his Indian passport. Naveed is an Australian citizen. He was earlier assessed by authorities in 2019 for his alleged links with IS but was cleared for not posing any ongoing threat. High command to call shots as state Cong gears up for assembly election K S S R EEJI T H @ T’Puram Sensing a chance to come back to power in Kerala, the Congress high command is set to play a more decisive role in the party’s state unit in the run-up to the 2026 assembly election. Following its unprecedented, direct intervention in the recently concluded local body elections, the All India Congress Committee (AICC) is expected to exercise a strong say in key aspects of the assembly polls. Sources said the high command would play an active role in framing strict criteria for candidate selection, overseeing campaign strategies and directly monitoring the disbursal of election funds to candidates. According to them, the approach is aimed at addressing long-standing organisational weakness and internal faction- alism in the state Congress. “This was the first time in the history of Congress that the AICC scrutinised a local body election in any state,” AICC organisational general secretary K C Venugopal told TNIE. “Usually, it is the assembly and parliament elections that receive our attention. We have never paid such close attention to an election before. We will continue with this format,” he said. Aware of the LDF’s organisational advantage and the internal rift within the state Congress, the high command had charted a work plan as early as 2024. During LSG polls, the involvement of AICC general secretary in-charge of Kerala, Deepa Dasmunsi, and Venugopal ranged from coordinating voter enrolment drives to intervening in local disputes and resolving organisational issues ● More on P4 across districts.  THE Lok Sabha on Tuesday witnessed fierce protests from Opposition members after the government introduced a new bill to replace the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act. Several Opposition MPs demanded that the new bill—Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB-G RAM G) Bill, 2025—be sent to a Parliamentary panel. Amid the buzz that the government is determined to clear the bill in the current session, INDIA bloc leaders have decided to meet at Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge’s chamber at 10.15 am on Wednesday for a strategy session. The Congress has also issued a Whip mandating its MPs to The Congress will hold protests across the country on Wednesday against VB-G RAM, alleging the Centre is trying to dismantle a rights-based welfare scheme and attack Mahatma Gandhi’s legacy. Senior leader K C Venugopal, in a letter to all state Congress chiefs, urged them to organise protests at all district headquarters be present in the Lok Sabha for the next three days as VB-G RAM G and other key legislations are likely to come up for consideration and passage. On Tuesday, after introducing VB-G RAM G Bill, Union Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said the government not only believes in Gandhi but also follows his principles. Leading the attack, Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said the bill would eliminate the legal guarantee of employment for rural workers and increase the financial burden on states. She alleged it will give the Centre power to pre-determine the funds and the areas of allocation, thereby ending the demand-based system. Congress MP Shashi Tharoor termed the bill a retrograde step, saying the 40% financial burden on states will lead to “delays in wage payments, a reduction in the number of workdays, and ultimately the destruction of the scheme itself ”. After staging a walkout from the House, the Opposition leaders held a protest at the Mahatma Gandhi statue in the Parliament complex. Separately, in a post on X, Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi alleged Prime Minister Narendra Modi had always opposed the ideas of Mahatma Gandhi and had been trying to weaken the rural employment scheme. “Modiji has a deep hatred for two things — the ideas of Mahatma Gandhi and the rights of the poor,” he said. Govt, governor reach consensus; Saji Court rejects Gopinath, Ciza Thomas appointed VCs Herald case E x p r e s s N e w s S e r v i c e @ T’Puram After months-long standoff, Governor Rajendra Arlekar and Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan have finally reached a consensus on the appointment of vice chancellors (VC) to two universities. The governor’s secretariat on Tuesday issued orders appointing Ciza Thomas as VC of APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University (KTU) and Saji Gopinath as VC of Digital University Kerala (DUK). Ciza Thomas and Saji Gopinath Saji Gopinath Ciza Thomas were the candidates preferred by the governor and the state government, respectively The . consensus comes in the wake of the Supreme Court’s latest directive to the Dhulia committee to select VCs on its own. Following the governor-gov- ernment standoff, the Supreme Court had constituted searchcum-selection committees headed by Justice (Rtd) Sudhanshu Dhulia to shortlist VC candidates. As per the court’s directive, the panel was to shortlist four or five names for each university The CM was asked to rec. ommend the shortlisted names in the order of his preference. However, the governor did not accept the names recommended by the CM — C Sathish Kumar for KTU and Saji Gopinath ● More on P4 for DUK.  25 killed in U.P. road accidents in a day major pile-up Cranes clear the charred remains of a bus after a fog-hit pile-up involving several buses and cars triggered fires on the Yamuna Expressway in Mathura on Tuesday morning. At least 13 were killed. In all, across UP, 25 people were killed and 59 injured in a series of fog-linked accidents. Inset: People help an injured person | pti chargesheet ud aya n k i s h o r e @ New Delhi IN a huge relief to Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, a Delhi court on Tuesday refused to take cognisance of a chargesheet filed against them by Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a money laundering case in the National Herald case. Special Judge Vishal Gogne said the prosecution complaint ( E D ’s e q u iva l e n t t o a chargesheet) filed by ED under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) was not maintainable since the case was not filed on the basis of an FIR. The court, however, said that since Delhi Police has registered an FIR in the Sonia Gandhi m a t t e r, E D can make further submissions in the case, if it wants. Apart from Gandhis, Suman Dubey, Sam Pitroda, Young Indian, Dotex Merchandise and Sunil Bhandari were also accused in the case. “Cognisance of the offence (of money laundering) defined under Section 3 and punishable under Section 4 is declined. The complaint is dismissed,” the court said. The ED initiated its probe based on a private complaint filed by BJP leader Subramanian Swamy accusing Gandhis and others of cheating, criminal conspiracy breach of trust , and misappropriation. malayalam classic to be reprinted express read Lost in time, ‘Dracula’ returns to Kerala after half a century BJP likely to bet on Sreelekha for mayor post R a j e s h R a v i @Kochi After decades in the shadows, the Malayalam translation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula — first published in 1975 — will return to print in January 2026. For publisher Rayan Pushpanath, the rediscovery of the longlost book felt less like routine archival work and more like cracking a cold case. Written by his grandfather, legendary Malayalam crime and horror writer Kottayam Pushpanath, the translation had virtually vanished from circulation. No major library had a copy. Collectors drew blanks. Even detailed bibliographies listed the book, but none could produce it. Yet this missing volume was no ordinary translation. It was the spark that opened the door to gothic horror for generations of Malayali readers — and quietly reshaped popular fiction in the state. Printed in 1975, ‘Dracula’ arrived in Kerala at a time when Malayalam popular literature was dominated by social novels, family A copy of the original Malayalam translation of ‘Dracula’ by Kottayam Pushpanath sagas and romantic melodrama. “For readers who had never encountered a full-fledged gothic horror novel, it was a revelation. Fear, mood and the supernatural suddenly became part of mainstream reading,” recalls Rayan. Pushpanath’s engagement with Dracula did not end with translation. The book became the foundation for what can now be described as the Malayalam “Dracula universe”. Over the years, he wrote nearly 10 in- terconnected novels, including ‘Dracula Asiayil’, ‘Draculayude Makal’, ‘Dracula Unarunnu’, ‘Dracula Brazilil’ and ‘Dracula Kotta’. In these works, the vampire count was uprooted from Victorian England and placed in Indian and global settings, encountering local folklore, belief systems and anxieties. Long before people spoke about cinematic universes or franchise storytelling, my grandfather was doing it through nov● More on P4 els,” says Rayan.  T’Puram: BJP state president Rajeev Chandrasekhar is likely to hold crucial discussions with the party’s central leadership in New Delhi on Wednesday or Thursday to finalise the BJP’s mayoral candidate for the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation. Sources said the party state leadership has almost settled on R Sreelekha for the mayor post, with the final call to be taken after consultations with the central leadership, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi. P4