tirunelveli l wednesday l december 24, 2025 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l city EDITION chinnaswamy stadium fails to get approval to host matches The Vijay Hazare Trophy matches, supposed to be held at M Chinnaswamy in Bengaluru, moved elsewhere after government denied permission Committee to submit report to govt Following the stampede during RCB’s IPL celebrations on June 4, the stadium has not hosted any games. The Karnataka State Association sought permission to host without any crowd. The state home minister had constituted a committee that visited the venue to review on Monday and denied their request. They will submit the findings to the government ■ May 3 Games moved to BCCI CoE, says KSCA ■ With no permission to host the 50-over matches, KSCA said in a statement that the fixtures have been moved to BCCI Centre of Excellence for the time being Both Virat Kohli and Rishabh Pant, who were supposed to play at the venue, will now turn up for Delhi against Andhra at BCCI CoE was when the last official IPL match was held at the venue 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 Court rejects UP govt plea to nix charges in Akhlaq case Jaishankar announces aid, builds on First Responder role, commitment to reconstruction $450 mn relief package for cyclone-hit Sri Lanka n a m i ta b a j pa i @ Lucknow J aya n t h J a c o b @ New Delhi A fast-track court in Surajpur on Tuesday rejected the Uttar Pradesh government’s application to withdraw charges in the 2015 Mohammad Akhlaq lynching case, while directing that the trial be fast-tracked with daily hearings. Additional District Judge Saurabh Dwivedi ruled that the case be categorised as “most important” and directed police authorities, including the Gautam Buddha Nagar Police Commissioner, to ensure protection of crucial evidence. The court scheduled the next hearing for January 6. Akhlaq, 50, was lynched by a mob in Dadri’s Bisada village on September 28, 2015, following rumours of cow slaughter. Mohammed Akhlaq He died from injuries sustained in the attack, while his son Danish, who tried to intervene, narrowly survived. The state government had moved the court to withdraw charges on October 15, citing inconsistent witness statements, absence of recovered weapons, and lack of prior enmity between the accused and the victim. Noida Police had registered an FIR at Jarcha police station under IPC sections 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder),148 (rioting with deadly weapon), 149 (unlawful assembly), 323 (assault), 504 (intent to disturb peace) on the basis of a complaint by Akhlaq’s wife. India on Tuesday pledged a $450 million reconstruction and recovery package to Sri Lanka following the devastation caused by Cyclone Ditwah, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar announced during his visit to Colombo as a special envoy of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Speaking after talks with Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath, Jaishankar said he carried a personal message from Prime Minister Modi to President Anura Kumar Dissanayake, whom he met earlier in the day “The letter from Prime . Minister Modi builds on our First Responder role and commits a reconstruction package of USD 450 million.” Jaishankar said the package would comprise $350 million in concessional lines of credit and $100 million in grants. The assistance will focus on rebuilding roads, railways and bridges; housing; health and education facilities; agriculture; and strengthening disaster preparedness. “We are conscious that work towards mitigating the impact Assam’s Karbi Anglong on fire Flames billow from an area after an arson attack following demands for eviction of encroachers in Karbi Anglong district on Tuesday; and security personnel try to control the situation | ANI | P8 India, Bangladesh summon envoys amid protests j aya n t h j a c o b @ New Delhi INDIA and Bangladesh summoned each other’s envoys on Tuesday to lodge formal protests over developments straining bilateral ties, as widespread demonstrations erupted across India following the lynching of a Hindu man in Bangladesh. Dhaka summoned Indian High Commissioner Pranay Verma on Tuesday morning, expressing concern over an “unsatisfactory security situation” at Bangladesh’s missions in India. Foreign Secretary Asad Alam Siam raised issues related to protests outside diplomatic premises in New Delhi, Kolkata and Agartala. “The foreign secretary conveyed Bangladesh’s serious concern and emphasised the host country’s responsibility under the Vienna Convention to ensure full protection of diplomatic premises,” a source said. Hours later, India summoned Bangladesh High Commissioner Riaz Hamidullah for the second time in a week over security concerns for Indian missions in Bangladesh. India urged a thorough probe into student leader Hadi’s death rather than blaming India, noting that unverified claims sparked anti-India protests, including an attempt to storm the Indian Assistant High Commission in Chittagong. The exchanges followed protests by Hindu rightwing groups across New Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai and J a m m u , a m o n g m a n y, against the December 18 lynching of Dipu Chandra Das, 25, in Mymensingh, allegedly attacked over blasphemy charges. In New Delhi, VHP and Bajrang Dal cadres broke barricades and attempted to march towards the Bangladesh High Commission. AIADMK & BJP start preliminary talks for ’26 poll, seat matrix starts doing the rounds T M u r u g a n a n d h a m @ Chennai The AIADMK, which leads the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in Tamil Nadu, and the BJP on Tuesday began preliminary talks for the 2026 Assembly elections, including plans for a joint campaign of leaders and assessment of the current political situation in the state. The talks held at a hotel between the AIADMK team led by general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami and the BJP team led by Piyush Goyal, union minister and BJP’s poll incharge for TN, lasted 90 minutes. Goyal met Palaniswami Ministers Piyush Goyal and Arjun Ram Meghwal with EPS in Chennai | express after consulting the office-bearers of the BJP high-level committee at the party headquarters in Chennai. Following the talks, rumours started doing the rounds about Palaniswami’s purported nod for inclusion of former CM O Panneerselvam and TTV Dhinakaran’s AMMK in the larger NDA alliance as separate political entities and not under AIADMK. It was also speculated that AIADMK wanted to contest in 170 seats and allocate 23 seats each to BJP and PMK. A key AIADMK functionary how, ever, said the party’s willingness to contest in at least 170 seats could be an intelligent guess considering that the total constituencies is only 234, but the number of seats to be apportioned to individual NDA allies was not discussed.  P5 of Cyclone Ditwah must be done in the quickest time possible,” he said and added that India and Sri Lanka were finalising coordination mechanisms for rapid delivery . Jaishankar also pointed to longer-term support, including boosting Indian tourism and foreign direct investment. “India stands firmly with Sri Lanka more than ever before,” he said, expressing confidence in the island nation’s resilience as it recovers from the disaster. Detailing India’s emergency response, Jaishankar said relief operations under Operation Sagar Bandhu began on the day Cyclone Ditwah made landfall. “Our Aircraft Carrier INS Vikrant and INS Udayagiri were present at Colombo and delivered relief material, after which helicopters were de- ‘hc order perverse’ SC sets aside bail of man who allegedly killed key witness SUCHITRA K ALYAN MOHANTY @ New Delhi The Supreme Court has set aside an order of the Madras High Court granting bail to a man who was accused of murdering a key eyewitness in an attempt-to-murder case when he was out on bail. After the alleged murder, the trial court had cancelled his bail, but the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court had overruled the trial court order, and had restored the bail of the accused. The appeal was filed in the Supreme Court this year against that HC order. Noting that the bail order of the HC was vitiated by perversity, arbitrariness and non-application of mind, a two-judge bench of Justices BV Nagarathna and R Mahadevan recently said that the Madras HC had granted bail to the main accused, Gopalakrishnan, and others in the attempt to murder case without considering the fact that the main suspect was also accused of murdering a key eyewitness while he was out on bail. The apex court bench then directed the accused to surrender within two weeks before the trial court.  P5 Bluebird mission countdown begins ISRO will launch the Bluebird Block-2 spacecraft on board launch vehicle LVM3-M6 at 8.54 am on Wednesday from Sriharikota Assessees sore with the taxman’s ‘nudge’ on ITR issues DIPA K MONDAL @ New Delhi Holiday mood dampened for thousands of taxpayers ahead of the Christmas and New Year with the tax department seeking clarification about the discrepancies in their returns for assessment year 2025-26. Sources said the income tax department’s automated risk management framework flagged a high volume of cases where refund claims are substantially high and do not align with official data. Such refunds have been put on hold pending verification. Tax professionals noted a surge in alerts targeting taxpayers who may be misreporting information. Key triggers for these investigations include Form 16 mismatches, suspicious deductions, and non-disclosures of assets. According to the income tax department, ‘identified’ ployed,” he said. Indian Air Force Mi-17 helicopters operated in Sri Lanka for more than two weeks, while an 80-member National Disaster Response Force team carried out rescue and relief work. The Indian Army also set up a field hospital near Kandy with 85 medical personnel, providing emergency care to over 8,000 people. Besides, army engineers erected a Bailey bridge at Killinochchi using equipment transported by C-17 aircraft, while another bridge at Chilaw is currently under construction. According to a World Bank Group Global Rapid Post-Disaster Damage Estimation (GRADE) report, the cyclone caused an estimated US$4.1 billion in damage, which is around 4 percent of Sri Lanka’s GDP . taxpayers are being contacted through SMS and email under the Non-intrusive Usage of Data to Guide and Enable (NUDGE) campaign to correct errors. The due date for filing revised ITRs is December 31. Sources said 5-10 lakh taxpayers have been contacted under NUDGE campaign so far. Certain taxpayers have claimed ineligible refunds — Tax dept A Bailey Bridge built by the Indian Army in Lanka’s Kilinochchi; and (inset) S Jaishankar hands over Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s letter to President Anura Kumara Dissanayake | PTI CM urges Jaishankar to protect TN fishers Chennai: CM MK Stalin on Tuesday urged External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar to intervene to secure the early release of TN fishermen and their boats detained by Sri Lankan Navy, and to work towards a permanent solution to the issue. Highlighting the gravity of the issue, Stalin said 248 TN boats and 62 fishers are in Lankan custody now | P4 e x p r e ss r e a d Man sets wife, three more on fire; kin dies Stalin slams EPS over G RAM G name New Epstein files has Don references Virudhunagar: A man allegedly set his wife, and kin, including two children, on fire in a domestic tiff in Sivakasi on Tuesday. The woman’s ex-mother-in-law died. Others are critical | P4 Chennai: Slamming EPS on G RAM G Act, CM MK Stalin on Tuesday said the AIADMK leader doesn’t have courage to question the centre for removing Mahatma Gandhi’s name from the Act | P4 NEW YORK: A new batch of Jeffrey Epstein files released Tuesday contains numerous references to President Donald Trump, including documents detailing flights he took on Epstein’s jet | P9