Sonam speech aimed to quell violence: Wife Jailed activist Sonam Wangchuk’s wife, Gitanjali J Angmo, told the SC on Thursday that facts are being manipulated to portray him as a criminal. Angmo said Wangchuk was neither given the “complete grounds” of his detention, not an opportunity for a representation against his arrest. She said the unfortunate events of violence in Leh cannot be attributed to actions of Wangchuk in any manner vijayawada l friday l january 09, 2026 l `9.00 l PAGES 14 l late city EDITION 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 More tariff terror as Don okay with Russia curbs bill Didi crashes ED’s I-PAC raid party, seizes papers S U B H E N D U M A I T I @ Kolkata Trump greenlights bill that could impose 500% levy on India for buying Russian oil Ukraine conflict, would be directly in the firing line. India could face punitive US “This will be well-timed, as trade action in the form of tar- Ukraine is making concessions iffs as high as 500% after Presi- for peace and Putin is all talk, dent Donald Trump reportedly continuing to kill the innoagreed to let a long-pending leg- cents,” Graham said. islation on Russian sanctions The bill has been spearheadmove forward, potentially set- ed by Graham alongside Demoting up a Senate vote as early as cratic Senator Richard Blumennext week. thal and has accumulated Republican Senator Lindsey dozens of co-sponsors in the Graham said on Senate, with a comUS exits the We d n e s d a y t h a t panion measure inTrump had “greenlit” Solar Alliance troduced in the House the bipartisan bill afof Representatives. In a setback to ter they met at the Its stated aim is to global climate White House. “Presi- cooperation, Trump choke off funding for dent Trump will allow formally withdrew ‘Russia’s war efforts’ the sanctions bill to by targeting energy the US from the move forward,” Gra- International Solar revenues that have reham said, and added Alliance, a flagship mained more or less that a vote could come renewable energy steady despite earlier soon, though the bill’s initiative co-led by Western sanctions. fate in Congress re- India & France | P9 Under the proposal, mains uncertain. the US would impose The legislation, fortariffs of at least 500% mally titled the Sanctioning on all Russian goods and servRussia Act of 2025, seeks to im- ices imported into the United pose steep tariffs and second- States. The bill also mandates ary sanctions, running as high visa bans and asset freezes on as 500%, on countries that con- senior Russian officials and tinue to do business with Rus- foreign entities found to be supsia, particularly those import- plying defence equipment to ing Russian energy. India and Moscow, while directing the China, the world’s two largest Treasury Department to sancbuyers of discounted Russian tion Russian state-owned financrude since the start of the cial institutions. J ayanth J acob @ New Delhi West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee comes out of I-PAC chief Pratik Jain’s house with a green folder in hand | pti THE Enforcement Directorate (ED)’s raids at the office of political consultancy firm I-PAC and the residence of its director Pratik Jain in Kolkata on Thursday in connection with a money laundering probe turned into high drama as West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee stormed in and took away some documents. Mamata, who entered Jain’s house at Loudon Street with police escort while the ED searches were still going on, came out with a green folder, which she claimed contained details of TMC candidates for the upcoming Assembly polls. “They were confiscating my party’s documents and hard disks, which have details about our party candidates for the assembly polls. I have brought those back,” she said. I-PAC, which offers political consultancy to the TMC, also manages the party’s IT and media operations. Banerjee alleged ED officials walked away with TMC’s internal strategy documents. “Is it the duty of the ED to collect political party data?” she asked. She then proceeded to the IPAC office in Salt Lake and spent an hour there. Her security personnel were seen taking away several files. The ED said the raids were not against any political party , adding that simultaneous searches were conducted at 10 locations in Delhi and West Bengal in connection with a multi-crore coal scam. Later in the day, the ED moved the Calcutta High Court against Mamata alleging interference in its investigation. The HC is expected to take up the matter on Friday . ‘Approach of AP HC SC slams Cab Sec for not filing is travesty of justice’ affidavit on pvt univ regulation S U C H I T R A K A LYA N M O H A N T Y @ New Delhi Terming the approach of the Andhra Pradesh High Court in quashing a batch of FIRs registered by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) “travesty of justice”, the Supreme Court on Thursday said the FIRs could not be quashed on the ground that the ACB’s Central Investigation Unit in Vijayawada was not duly notified as a “police station” under Section 2(s) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973. “In our considered view, the approach of the High Court is nothing but a travesty of justice. If, on a hyper-technical ground, the FIRs are quashed, the High Court is duty-bound to lay down the law with respect to the jurisdiction that otherwise exists,” said a two-judge bench of the apex court, headed by Justice MM Sundresh and Justice Satish Chandra Sharma, in the 33-page judgment copy accessed by TNIE. , While setting aside the AP HC judgment, the SC restored the FIRs, and permitted the ACB to proceed with the investigations, while directing that no coercive steps be taken against the accused during the pendency of investigation. On passing the baton S U C H I T R A K A LYA N M O H A N T Y When a lawyer said education should not be an industry, Justice Amanullah agreed with him, and said, “Exactly. We are creating the future of the country. Whatever we do today is meaningless if we don’t ensure that the baton is passed on to the right hands.” The Supreme Court on Thursday slammed the Cabinet Secretary to the Union of India for flouting its directions to file an affidavit in connection with the regulation of private universities in the country .   The top court was hearing a case in which it had earlier directed a nationwide audit of private universities after it found that Amity University had harassed a student for changing her name.   “We are really surprised as to how the Cabinet Secretary was under the misconception that despite a categorical order of the court that the affidavit has to be affirmed by him, he has not filed it and has instead been @ New Delhi filed by the Secretary of the Higher Education Department,” a bench of justices Ahsanuddin Amanullah and N V Anjaria said. The apex court said it is getting loads of letters and petitions, some of them with evidence, from across India on the matter. The top court said, “We were not taking this issue totally as a judge or as just an issue before the court. It is taken only in public interest.” During the hearing, when a lawyer said that education should not be an industry Jus, tice Amanullah agreed with him, and said, “Exactly We are . creating the future of the country. Whatever we do today is meaningless if we don’t ensure that the baton is passed on to the right hands.” express read Amaravati not fit to be a capital, asserts Jagan Vijayawada: YSRCP chief and former Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has said the construction of the State capital Amaravati in a river basin is unsafe, unscientific, and against norms. Addressing the media on Thursday, Jagan said, “The Amaravati region is unsuitable, geographically and infrastructurally to function as a capital.” | P4 First understand Amaravati plan: Narayana to Jagan Vijayawada: Municipal Administration and Urban Development Minister P Narayana asserted that the construction of Amaravati would not be halted, despite repeated attempts by former CM YS Jagan Mohan Reddy to obstruct it. He accused Jagan of speaking without proper understanding of Amaravati master plan | P4