The New Indian Express Wishes its readers tadepalligudem l wednesday l december 25, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l city EDITION Champions Trophy: India and Pakistan clubbed in same group The ICC finally announces the schedule for the global 50-over competition that begins from February 19 in Karachi rival neighbours play in dubai on feb 23 Boxing day test: India hope for MCG heist India are clubbed with Pakistan, New Zealand and Bangladesh in Group A. Group B comprises South Africa, Australia, Afghanistan and England. India vs Pakistan is on February 23. If India progress to semis, they will play in Dubai on March 4. If Pak advance, they play in 2nd semis in Lahore next day. If India enter final, it will be in Dubai or else in Lahore on March 9 ■ ■ The Melbourne Cricket Ground pitch is expected to be seamer-friendly when India take on Australia in fourth Test on Thursday morning India are yet to decide on the final XI, but the Aussies have said they will hand 19-year-old Sam Konstas his debut. The visitors need a win to retain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Match live: 5 am | P11 1-1 The five-Test series is level at one a piece 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 Allu Arjun grilled for three hours, seeks bail Guv Appointments, shuffles Arif transferred to Bihar, Bhalla goes to Manipur C h i t h a l u r i Rev a n t h Former home secy AK Bhalla gets to manage strife-torn Manipur Actor Allu Arjun, accused in the Sandhya Theatre stampede case, was on Tuesday grilled for more than three hours by the police. Parallelly a bail petition , was filed on his behalf in the Nampally court here. Arjun faces charges of culpable homicide as a woman was crushed to death in the stampede. And her son continues to be in a critical state in a hospital. Advocates appearing for the actor filed a bail petition in the Nampally court, which is expected to be heard in the next few days. The Nampally court has already granted bail to six persons in the case. Arjun reached the Chikkadpally police station at 11 am where a team of officials, led by Central Zone DCP Akshansh Yadav, questioned him. Sources said, the police posed over 20 questions reg arding his visit to the theatre and the Dec 4 stampede. Some of the questions reportedly posed to Arjun were: Did the theatre management inform him about the denial of police permission? If they did, did they inform him or his team? “Did you, or your team, inform the theatre management about your arrival? Why did you come in a rally? While you were on the way to the theatre, why did you open the sunroof of your car and wave to the crowd? Were you made aware when you were inside the theatre that a person died due to that rally? Did the police inform you on that day about the death of a woman?” were reportedly among the questions the police asked Arjun. Sources said police showed videos of the stampede. “Why did you hold a press meet? Do you stick by what you said at the press meet since the videos indicate otherwise?” were some of the other questions. R a j es h K u m a r T h a k u r @ Hyderabad @ New Delhi Strife-torn Manipur on Tuesday got a seasoned hand in former Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla as its new governor. The state is yet to emerge from the ethnic conflict between Meiteis and Kuki-Zo groups that led to violence since May last year. Bhalla, the longest-serving Union Home Secretary, completed his five-year tenure on August 22 this year. He is known to be a tough administrator and a strategist. Bhalla is a retired 1984-batch IAS officer of the Assam-Meghalaya cadre. If he manages to help bring some stability to Manipur, it would be a job well done. Till now, Assam Governor Lakshman Prasad Acharya, who was holding additional charge of Manipur. Bhalla was among the five gubernatorial appointments/ transfers announced on Tuesday. The other big announcement was a swap between Ker- R V Arlekar A K Bhalla ala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan and his Bihar counterpart Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar. This newspaper had reported earlier that Arif would figure in the gubernatorial reshuffle this year. Khan’s appointment in Bihar is being seen as a strategic move ahead of assembly elections in the state in 2025 in which the BJP as a major ally of the Bihar NDA nurtures dreams of coming to power at its own. Khan is a liberal Muslim scholar who articulates the Centre’s policies upfront. He was forever on a collision course with Kerala LDF government led by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. Gen V K Singh H B Kambhampati Retired General V K Singh was appointed governor of Mizoram. The BJP had denied him a ticket for the Lok Sabha polls this year. Gen Singh replaces Dr Hari Babu Kambhampati, who has been transferred as governor of Odisha after incumbent Raghubar Das put in his papers citing personal reasons. Gen Singh’s name was doing the rounds for a gubernatorial assignment for long time and his appointment was expected to be either in J&K or Manipur but it went to Mizoram. Sources said many more gubernatorial appointments are on the cards for states like UP, J&K, Bengal and some UTs. Lokpal calls Sebi chief for oral hearing on January 28 P r ee t h a N a i r @ New Delhi TAKING cognizance of complaints of impropriety and conflict of interest filed by Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra and two others, anticorruption body Lokpal on Tuesday called Sebi chief Madhabi Puri Buch and the complainants for ‘oral hearing’ on January 28. The complaints were made on the basis of a report by USbased short-seller Hindenburg Research, according to an official order. In its report, Hindenburg alleged that Buch and her husband had stakes in obscure offshore funds used in the alleged BJP X’mas gesture hits Kerala wall where the state unit of the BJP had started its outreach proA day after Prime Minister gramme in which leaders will Narendra Modi participated in visit church heads as well as 10 the Christmas celebration host- lakh Christian homes till Deed by the Catholic Bishops’ Con- cember 30. ference of India (CBCI) in DelSources said the central leadhi, a senior Orthodox Church ership of the BJP asked Union Bishop in Kerala on Tuesday minister George Kurian and openly questioned the state BJP president K saffron party’s outSurendran to openly reach to the Christian condemn the act of the community . three VHP workers. “There (in Delhi), However, the powerful There (in Delhi), they honour the bishSyro Malabar Church they honour the ops and revere cribs. bishops and revere is also not convinced cribs. Here (in Here (in Kerala), they by the outreach bid. Kerala), they destroy the cribs,” the “This is part of a stratdestroy the cribs metropolitan of the egy to display domiMalankara Orthodox Yuhanon Mar Meletius nance over the minorSyrian Church’s Thrisity community,” said sur Diocese, Yuhanon Fr Joby Kachappilly . Mar Meletius, said in a FacePolitical analysts view the debook post. The bishop’s sharp velopments as an emerging parremarks come in the backdrop adox within the Sangh Parivar of the arrest of three VHP work- with regard to ideology and poers in Palakkad for trying to dis- litical correctness. rupt Christmas celebrations “Lately, RSS chief Mohan at a school and the deBhagawat has been askstruction of a crib made ing various Sangh Pariby students of another var outfits to put a stop school by unidentified to their claims over persons. The two incimosques,” said political dents sparked widespread analyst Ajith protests in Kerala, Sreenivasan. K S S R E E JITH @ T’Puram Arif Mohd Khan money siphoning scandal involving the Adani Group. The Lokpal had on November 8 sought Buch’s ‘explanation’ on the complaints filed by Moitra, a Lok Sabha member and two others. In its order, the Lokpal asked the Registry to issue notices to the RPS (respondent public s e r v a n t ) a s we l l a s t h e complainant(s) to avail of the opportunity of oral hearing on January 28. “It will be open to the RPS (respondent public servant) as well as the complainant to authorise an advocate to espouse their cause, if they so desire at the time of oral hearing,” the order said. Notices to RPS The Lokpal asked the Registry to issue notices to the RPS & the complainants to avail of the opportunity of oral hearing on January 28 ACB registers FIR against former CID chief for misconduct E x p r ess Ne w s S e r v i c e @ Vijayawada The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) on Tuesday registered an FIR against N Sanjay former , Additional Director General of APCID (Andhra Pradesh Crime Investigation Department) and former Director General of AP State Disaster Response and Fire Services, who was recently suspended on charges of misconduct, misuse of power and misutilisation of government funds to the tune of `1.36 crore. Sauthrika Technologies and Infra Private Limited and Kritvyap Technologies Private Limited were also named in the FIR. The accused were booked under Sections 13(1) (a) read with 13(2) and Section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption Act 1988, and IPC Sections 409, 420,477A read 120B. According to the FIR, Sanjay while serving as DG of the , Fire Services Department, allegedly manipulated tender processes to award a contract for development and maintenance of AGNI-NOC portal, mobile application and supply of hardware to Vijayawada-based Sauthrika Technologies and Infra. The FIR stated that a payment of `59,93,000 was fraudulently facilitated to the company on February 22, 2023, within one week after the agreement, albeit slow progress in the development of AGNI-NOC portal. Further, the IPS officer has been accused of purchasing 10 laptops from Sauthrika Technologies and Infra P4 at an exorbitant price of `17,89,784.  Petchem complex: Work to begin with `6,100 crore S V i s w a n at h @ Vijayawada In a communication sent to SEBI (Securities and Exchange Board of India) and BSE (Bombay Stock Exchange), Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) informed that its board, during a meeting held on Tuesday, has approved the initiation of pre-project activities with an investment of `6,100 crore for the establishment of a greenfield refinery-cum-petrochemical complex on Andhra Pradesh’s East Coast. As part of the pre-project activities, various studies will be conducted, including steps to identify and acquire land, preparation of a detailed feasibility report, conducting environmental impact assessments, and the development of a basic design engineering package and front-end engineering design. It is worth noting that a BPCL delegation, led by Chairman and Managing Director Krishna Kumar, had met with Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu in July 2024 and discussed plans to set up a petrochemical complex and an oil refinery in Andhra Pradesh. Vizianagaram TDP MP Kalisetti Appalanaidu told TNIE, “This has been made possible due to the confidence and trust that industrialists have in Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu. He is the brand ambassador of Andhra Pradesh. I am confident that more investments will flow into the State in the days to come.” express read Naidu leaves for Delhi to attend NDA meet Vijayawada: Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu left for New Delhi on Tuesday evening to attend a meeting of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) leaders, scheduled for Wednesday. He is expected to raise issues related to Andhra Pradesh. The meeting, to be held at BJP President JP Nadda’s residence, comes amid the controversy surrounding Amit Shah’s recent remarks on Dr BR Ambedkar | P7 Lapse in filing nominations on my part: Manu New Delhi: Twenty-two-year-old Paris Olympics’ double bronze-medallist Manu Bhaker on Tuesday admitted that there might be a lapse on her part while filing nominations for this year’s National Sports Awards amid a raging controversy over her exclusion from the list of Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna awardees | P11