HYDERABAD l Saturday l march 15, 2025 l `9.00 l PAGES 16 l LATE CITY EDITION Women’s Premier League final: Delhi face Mumbai challenge The finalists from the inaugural season two years ago will face each other again at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai for the summit clash Two most consistent sides meet again Amongst the five WPL teams, Mumbai Indians and Delhi Capitals have made it to the competition’s playoffs on all three occasions. Delhi topped table on all three occasions, while Mumbai, led by Indian captain Harmanpreet Kaur, won the title once. Mumbai beat Guajarat Giants in the eliminator, while Delhi entered the final on points ■ 2-0 top players expected to light up show ■ ■ Mumbai’s Natalie Sciver-Brunt and Hayley Matthews have topped the most runs and most wickets charts, respectively Delhi’s Meg Lanning and Shafali Verma scored the most runs as an opening pair in the history of the competition Both teams are nearly even in sixes: MI with 30 and DC 28 Delhi won both fixtures against Mumbai in the league stage 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 300% premium on gold bond’s redemption at `8,624/gm for series IV B e n n K o c h u v e e d a n @ Mumbai On a wing and a prayer Passengers standing on the wing of an American Airlines plane as they are evacuated after it caught fire while at a gate at Denver International Airport in Colorado, US, early on Friday. While taxiing to the gate, an engine on the Boeing 737-800 caught fire. Flight 1006, headed from Colorado Springs Airport to Dallas Fort Worth, had 172 passengers and six crew members at the time of the mishap | AFP | P9 trump positive, as is putin Russian prez sends addl signals to his US counterpart about Ukraine truce; is “cautiously optimistic” about a deal Moscow: US President Donald Trump on Friday urged his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to spare the lives of Ukrainian soldiers on the frontline, after what he called was a “very good and productive” c e a s e f i re d i s c u s s i o n s i n Moscow. Trump’s comments came after his special envoy Steve Witkoff held talks with Putin in Moscow to discuss details of a plan for a 30-day ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine after three years of war. “We had very good and productive discussions with President Vladimir Putin of Russia yesterday, and there is a very good chance that this horrible war can finally come to an end,” Trump said on his Truth Social network. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt later clarified that Trump himself had not spoken to Putin on Thursday night. She said no call was scheduled on Friday “but that could obviously change.” Moscow has in the past week been driving much of Ukraine’s forces out of Russia’s Kursk region, parts of which Kyiv occupied last year. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Friday that the US could help end the war by exerting sufficient pressure on Russia to end Trafficking accused dies, kin allege torture Man with iron rod attacks devotees at Golden Temple e n s @ Nizamabad Alakunta Sampath, who was arrested by cybercrime police on March 4, died on Thursday night while undergoing treatment at the Government General Hospital (GGH), Nizamabad. The news prompted allegations from his relatives that the 31-year-old was a victim of custodial torture. However, the police made it clear that Sampath was shifted to the hospital after complaining of fatigue and pain in his left hand, where he passed away during treatment. Police registered a case and handed the body after postmortem to his family who claimed , that there were signs of injuries from police beatings. Sampath was arrested on March 4 based on a complaint filed by Gulf job fraud victims. continued on P5 Vladimir Putin Donald Trump its invasion of Ukraine. Strong pressure must be applied to the only one who wants to continue this war,” Zelensky said. Kursk was one of Kyiv’s few bargaining chips in swapping land with Russia, which has occupied around a fifth of Ukraine since it took Crimea in 2014 and launched its full-scale H a r p r e e t b a j w a @ Chandigarh A man armed with a rod attacked devotees inside the Golden Temple complex in Amritsar on Friday injuring five. , Sources said the attack took place inside Guru Ram Dass Inn near the community kitchen (langar) hall. The Punjab Police have arrested the accused and another person who had accompanied him to the Golden Temple. The police have not officially disclosed the identity of the attacker. But an official said the attacker was identified as Zulfan from Haryana, who is working as a daily wage labourer. He allegedly had an argument with some people before he started hitting devotees with an iron rod. A probe is on to unearth the An injured receives treatment at a hospital after a man attacked devotees at the Golden Temple complex | PTI motive behind the attack, police said. One of the injured, a youth from Bathinda, is in serious condition and has been admitted at the emergency wing of Sri Guru Ram Das Institute of Medical Sciences and Research in Amritsar. Meanwhile, the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) has strongly condemned the incident. invasion in February 2022. Earlier in the day Russia said , Putin had sent “additional” signals to Trump about a ceasefire, adding it was “cautiously optimistic” about the prospect of a deal. US envoy Steve Witkoff met Putin late Thursday to lay out the details of the joint USUkrainian plan, which envisages a 30-day pause in hostilities between Moscow and Kyiv after three years of fighting. The Kremlin said both sides agreed that a telephonic “conversation is needed” between Trump and Putin but that the timing was yet to be determined.  AP & AFP INVESTORS who bought sovereign gold bonds series IV in 2017 have struck gold. With gold prices crossing the sensitive $3000/ounce first time-ever in early trade on Friday in international markets, the Reserve Bank of India fixed the final redemption price for sovereign gold bonds (SGBs) due on March 17, at `8,624/gm for the 2016-17 series IV SGB Series IV was is. sued at a price of `2,943/gm. “The redemption price of the SGB shall be based on the simple average of closing price of gold of 999 purity of the week (Monday-Friday), preceding the date of redemption, as published by the India Bullion and Jewellers Association,” the RBI said in a statement. Since the inception of the SGB scheme in November 2015, under the gold monetisation scheme to offer an alternative investment to physical gold, as much as 146.96 tonnes of gold was issued/raised through 67 tranches, amounting to `72,274 crore. Since July 2024, the RBI has announced premature redemption for SGBs issued between 2017 and 2020. In FY24, investors bought gold bonds worth `27,031 crore or 44.34 tonnne of gold. Since SGPC Secretary Par tap Singh said three devotees from Mohali, Bathinda and Patiala and two sewadars were injured. Partap Singh claimed the attack was part of a larger consipracy . The incident has raised concerns about the security of devotees on the Golden Temple premises. A man had opened fire at former Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal at the entrance of the Golden Temple in Amritsar in December last year, sending shock waves across the state. Sukhbir in blue ‘sewadar’ uniform, was at the entrance of the Golden Temple serving religious punishment when he was attacked. The assailant was taken into custody and was identified as former militant Narayan Singh Chaura. Putin thanks world leaders including PM Moscow: Russian President Vladimir Putin thanked world leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi for their “noble mission” to end the war between Ukraine and Russia. “Many heads of state, the president of China, the Prime Minister of India ... are spending a lot of time dealing with this issue. We are thankful to all of them,” Putin said July 2024, the government has redeemed six tranches of SGBs, with 61 tranches remaining outstanding, and the final redemption scheduled for February 2032. SGB 2016-17 series I, issued at `3,119 on August 5, 2016, was redeemed in the first week of August 2024 at `6,938/gram. The series II, issued at `3,150/gram on September 30, 2016, was redeemed on September 30, 2024 at `7,517/gram. The third se- SGB 2016-17 issue and redemption price Series Issue price Redemption price I `3,119/gm `6,938/gram II `3,150/gm `7,517/gm III `3,007/gm `7,788/gm IV `2,943/gm `8,624/gm ries, issued at `3,007/gram on November 17, 2016, was redeemed on November 16, 2024 at `7,788/gram. The July 2024 budget projected that government liabilities on gold bonds would hit `85,000 crore by the end of this fiscal, almost nine times the number in FY20. A duty cut led to a massive 6% plunge in domestic gold prices , yet the first redemption gave gold investors a premium of 122%. express read India slams Pak charges on terror sponsoring New Delhi: India on Friday trashed Pakistan’s accusation that New Delhi is “sponsoring terrorism”, following the Balochistan train attack and said Islamabad should look inwards before shifting the blame on others for its “failures”. “The whole world knows where the epicentre of global terrorism lies,” EAM spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal told media | P7 Another Israeli tourist visiting Hampi alleges sexual assault K i r a n B a l a n n a n a v a r @ Hampi An Israeli tourist was allegedly molested in Hampi by a group of three youth during Hampi Utsav last week. This incident came to light due to the testimony of a witness. Seeing the youth allegedly molesting the woman, an autorThe traditional Holi fistfight between residents of Telangana and Maharashtra takes ickshaw driver rushed to her rescue. But the trio assaulted place at Hunsa of Bodhan mandal in Nizamabad district, despite police ban | P2 the auto driver and left him with a bloody nose. The Hampi police took the trio in and filed a case against them under Section 109 for assaulting the auto driver. They did not file any case for allegedly held molesting the Man with 250 g Israeli woman, although she of ganja was also taken to the station 10 03 2025 03 along with the auto driver. in 90 days ated fraudulent SIM cards deactiv AART I K AS H YAP @ Hyderabad ad, crumbling 71K The police produced the Patient overlo youth before a local court, 30,000 ra Pla r found gandhi hos duty hours infly, health ministeguemany doctors missing duringPital which let them go after they adThe Telangana State Human Recent Rights Commission has taken mitted to assaulting the auto cognisance of a ground report driver and gave a written unby TNIE on poor infrastructure dertaking that they would not and facilities at the Gandhi commit such offences henceHospital. forth, the witness said. He said The report published by TNIE on March 10 the Israeli woman told the auto City-based advocate Rama Rao Immaneni filed a comdriver she would take express read up the plaint with the SHRC on take action as deemed fit matter with her embassy and March 13 citing the reas the state unit lacks seek legal action. port published by TNIE But so far, the Hampi police Express manpower. on March 10. Rama Rao The report delved have not received any comImpact stated, “My complaint into the poor infra- plaint from any embassy A sen. is based on the TNIE restructure in the medical ior officer of Vijayanagara, port which talks about college, including dys- who confirmed the incident, the lack of facilities in the functional lifts, the contin- said patrolling has been inteneye on the bal l Gandhi Hospital and Medical ued closure of the national sified and stern action will be College, considered the best emergency life support skill taken against troublemakers. tertiary care centre in the state. centre since its inauguration, This incident comes close on It is saddening to see such a and unhygienic conditions in the heels of the gruesome gangpoor state of affairs in the the students’ mess. rape of two women, including hospital.” It also looked at the ill-main- an Israeli tourist in the Koppal The advocate said that the tained hospital building, lack district of Karnataka, and the National Human Rights Com- of facilities for attendants, un- gang-rape of a British woman mission would investigate and hygienic drinking water, etc. in Delhi’s Mahipalpur. fistfight & festivities HRC to inspect Gandhi facilities after TNIE report hyderabad monday l of 250 grams of Police arrested a man in possession stand area on Sunday. ganja in the Nizamabad bus in this regard and the A case has been registered Town SHO B Raghupati probe is underway, said One l for telecom general powered solutionverificat ion TNIE, Special Director SIm subscrib er Telecom aP LSa (andhra (aSTR). “aSTR maintains dea), DoT, Pradesh & Telangan of SIm card hold“Cyber- tailed records your adPrashant R Patil said, and can identify multiple ImagIne your name, obtain SIm cards ers beby a person crimina ls dress and your very identity of people. SIm cards procured addresses and fraudulently and cheat ing used to fuel a network for has under different cases were detected by law t SIms To combat this, the DoT fraud. This is the reality cting names. many fraudulen using enforcement authorities the SIm cted been blocking or disconne countless victims of are used have been disconne  39,000 phone numbers SIm cards procured and this system,” he said. card scam, where fake identities . fake or forged, as per DoT for fraud.” Officials said TSPs must are the currency of deception during the DeHe urged the public to join  2,500 were detected verify applicants. “TSPs Attendants To tackle such crimes, a a r t i K a S h Ya P @ Hyderabad against SIm-retelecom municathe fight are responsible for eninternal analysis by of patients partment of Telecom medical lated fraud by reporting suring proper verificaservice providers sleep on tions (DoT), under the ministry WHILe the gandhi Informatouted suspicio us activity tion before issuing SIm the floor of Communications & College and Hospital is cted tertithrough the Sanchar due to lack cards. If they fail to tion Technology, disconne as the best government rs also exploited Point Saathi portal, website the facility nt mobile SIm Fraudste , of seating comply the DoT has the 71,000 fraudule ary-care hospital, agents to illegally the andhra of Sale (PoS) or dial 1930. “If victims facilities authority to take action, cards in 90 days in continues to struggle under SIm cards. The scam the crime, a that acquire cture in the AMC Telecom do not report as there are specific licencPradesh and Telangan burden of poor infrastru came to light when a s will continue to . the libuilding patient ing conditions between (TSP) lodged a fraudster had been procured illegally and an overwhelming of Gandhi opera- Service Provider others. By reporting such cencor and licensee (TSP),” anas part of an extensive the Kukatpally cheat load. complaint with Hospital in , we can take action infrathe DoT deactivated around police against a PoS agent for al- incidents Sources said several fraud,” he urag added. Secunderab ad tion, SIm plague SIm and prevent further SIm cards daily using The officials warned that structure-related issues legedly facilitating bulk | aarti KaShYaP 800 illegal , t added. which has a capacare non-tran sferable other advanced technifraudulen aI and the hospital, ed the cards g to official connections through DoT officials highlight a person who obtains cal tools. according to ity of 2,200 beds. accordin use to track meaning SIm means. over name is solely reoper- various tools they information, most of these official figures, it sees ent alen an- a SIm in their use. Procuring explaining the modus d under and combat SIm fraud. departm sponsible for its cards were registere said they used 1,500 outpatie nt s. In andi, officials well. Students use the inpaof aDeT (Digital Intelli- SIm cards illegally is a non-cogfake identities by scammer littered with tioning s to obtain SIm urag (OPD) registrations, 150 tool fake identitie centres regularly for admis- hospital remain gence), DoT, said one such on- nisable offence, they said. one case, one person procured cards and defraud people of tient department (IPD) in corners. The training training.” and facial recogniti using cy cas- waste dumped Speaking to is the aI facility is also hands-on major concern is hundreds of SIm cards sions and 25-30 emergen at the drinking water genders. crores of rupees. another . different names and es daily However, doctors visitors often use the ac- unhygienic as dysfunctional lifts, which hospital told TNIE that meant for gener- the for over in the the same taps remained out of order tual daily patient flow of new 1,800 and al water use. a year. Construction OPD ranges between months driving in Cyberabad records Lack of facilities in college lifts only began a few 2,100, while the IPD 478 booked for drunken and at against 478 and staff strug- ago. around 1,100 admissions e police registered cases logy cases. While patients a postgraduate microbio Hyderabad: Cyberabad cybercrim during a weekend te facilities at least 300-400 emergency the influence of alcohol a regular visitor to the desk, at gle with inadequa persons for driving under 388 two-wheelers, at the IP registration the adjoining med- student, , said, “The lifts have resulted in the seizure of be seen the hospital, crackdown. The operation serious building three heavy vehicles. least 100 people could ical college also faces elers, 70 four-wheelers and use for at least a 17 three-whe been out of waiting at any given time. the challenges. stairs in cy year. We have to climb . even surprise visit by a recent The nationa l emergen r building exposed Two sisters injured in skill cen- this four-floo members and state health minister Two held with 140 kg of ab- Life Support (neLS) faculty Maoist landmine blast the issue of doctors being in the college build- senior with mobility issues on-duty tre, housed spurious cotton seeds . by the Union students sent from duty Several siblings from to take the stairs evemissing ing and funded and Khammam: Two has remaine d are forced doctors were found new Adilabad: Kannepalli police Bijapur district, . e wards governm ent, inauguration ry day We are hoping the the Rampur village in from their respectiv grievous agriculture officials raided locked since its be installed soon, but Chhattisgarh, sustained lifts will during shift hours. residence of a man allegedly injuries in a Maoist landmine blast pace of work, it t three years ago. student looking at the in Surjapur eight-flo or inpatien The with storing spurious seeds a final-year mBBS another three to amC on as they were walking was in- might take building, which houses .” village, Mancherial district, Ultapalli forest said, “This skill centre nts, four months to complete persons. firewood in the units for various departme cond after Covid-19 for One of the Sunday and arrested two Students also raised of area in Cherla mandal. waiting area and augurate training, but I have lacks a proper in They also seized 140 kg situa- surgical about the poor hygiene sisters, Kunja Pandey, has seating facilities. This open in the last cerns spurious cotton seeds, worth reportedly lost her right leg. of pa- never seen it college canteen. tion forces attendants except a few times the approximately `3.5 lakh. from hospital three years, a third-yea r student tients admitted to the lectures. If they ri said, “The food qualmany for medicine to sit or sleep on the floor. hands-on surgical malkajgi d to cybercrime victims before Covid, and wards opened it for of great ity was better Lok Adalat: `43 cr refunde attendan ts inside the training, it would be area was decent. and facilitated the why it the seating have also been found eating Lok Adalat, held on Saturday, c, the help, but no one knows Hyderabad: The National in the state. This But after the pandemi sleeping on the floor. 4,961 victims of cyber fraud has never been put to use.” have been changed sevrefund of `43.31 crore to to 4,893 victims On the eighth floor, outside such claims, hospi- vendors record of `33.2 crore refunded has beRejecting and the food adsurpasses the previous December 2024. n Rajku- eral times, the respiratory medicine of rats during the Lok Adalat in tal superintendent Ch a pile come worse. We have seen velmurugan “We have speministrative block, in Hyderabad on Sunday | Sri loganathan hes in the kitchen, aban- mari told TNIE, Children play cricket at NTR Ground for all the and cockroac eating here.” broken hospital beds lay for cial skill centres stopped doned, providing shelter the departments and they are func- so we of stray dogs. The hallways @ Hyderabad C h i t h a lu r i r eva n t h funny business Daily wager gets `23 lakh GST demand notice B S at ya n a r aya n a R e d d y @ Khammam The life of a daily wage worker, J Venkateswarlu, took an unexpected turn when he received a notice from the GST officials in Vijayawada, asking him to pay `22,86,014 towards GST for doing granite business with a turnover of `2 crore. Venkateswarlu, an illiterate, received the notice at his home address on March 7. It left him bewildered and distressed. The notice was issued in the name of Bhagyalaxmi Enterprises, a company registered in A bewildered J Venkateswarlu shows the notice demanding `22,86,014 GST Vi j a y a w a d a , A P, u s i n g Venkateswarlu’s PAN details. However, Venkateswarlu, a resident of Chandrugonda mandal headquarters in Bhadradri Kothagudem district, has noth- ing to do with the granite business. The notice was sent to the address linked to his PAN card which was being misused without his knowledge. Days after receiving the notice, Venkateswarlu began receiving phone calls from GST officials demanding payment. Overwhelmed and deeply shaken, he sought help from local residents. Determined to uncover the truth, Venkateswarlu and a few close associates travelled to Vijayawada to locate Bhagyalaxmi Enterprises. To their dismay, they found no trace of the company or its office. It soon became clear that Venkateswarlu’s PAN card had been misused by unknown individuals to register the company and conduct granite business. When he visited a MeeSeva centre to apply for a new PAN card, he was informed that a card had been previously issued in his name. With no clarity on how to proceed or whom to approach to file a complaint, Venkateswarlu felt helpless and decided to focus on his daily work to support his family . Speaking to TNIE, Venkateswarlu appealed to the government for help.