thrissur l saturday l august 24, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l city EDITION youth to the fore as grapplers lead India’s Gold rush in jordan Neha, Pulkit star as Indian women wrestlers win five gold medals at the U17 World meet in Amman, Jordan, to win women’s championships Neha Sangwan | UWW Neha hails from vinesh’s village historic team championship for india Mansi (73 kg), Neha Sangwan (57 kg), Pulkit (65kg) and Aditi (43 kg) bagged a gold each in their respective weight categories. Neha, who hails from wrestler Vinesh Phogat’s village Balali in Haryana, defeated World No 3 So Tsutsui 10-0 via technical superiority in the final. Pulkit made a golden return after an injury lay-off of over two years following surgery ■ ■ On Friday, Kajal defeated Rybak Oleksandra of Ukraine in the 69 kg final to win fifth gold for the country. She won 9-2 The gold helped India beat Japan to win the historic team championship in the women’s freestyle after falling short for the last five years. Japan were in the race until late on Friday Five the number of gold medals india women have won at the U17 worlds 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 PM’s talk time nudge AMMA breaks silence, says no ‘power group’ Actor Sreelekha Mitra in Ukraine for peace alleges misbehaviour, E X P R E S S N E W S S E R V I C E @ Kochi Says ready to play active role, pushes for talks to end war Yeshi S e l i @ New Delhi Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday sought to nudge Ukraine and Russia to the talks table without wasting any time to find a solution to end their ongoing war, in his interaction with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv. He added that he had come with a message of peace. This was the first visit of any Indian PM to Ukraine. “We (India) are not neutral. From the very beginning, we have taken sides. And we have chosen the side of peace. We have come from the land of Buddha where there is no place for war,” Modi said in his opening remarks during the talks with Zelenskyy. “I have come with a message of peace, from India and the Global South. We are ready to take part in peace efforts. Our approach is people centric and we support sovereignty and territorial integrity ,’’ Modi said. He mentioned his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin last month where he reaffirmed that the resolution of the conflict should be through dialogue and diplomacy . “We come from the land of Buddha and Mahatma Gandhi and have always favoured peace. Both you and President Putin should sit across and find a solution.” External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar later said Modi reiterated the need for “practical engagement” between all stakeholders to develop an innovative solution that will help build broad acceptability and contribute towards peace and stability . Prime Minister Narendra Modi embraces Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in Kyiv on Friday | PTI The prime minister conveyed India’s willingness to contribute in all possible ways to facilitate an early return of peace to Ukraine, he said, adding it was a “very detailed, open and in m a n y w ay s c o n s t r u c t ive discussion”. Modi arrived in Kyiv by train and the meeting between the two leaders lasted three hours. Earlier, they paid homage at the Martyrilogist Exposition, which honours the memories of children who have lost their lives in a Russian missile attack the day Modi was in Moscow in July. “Conflict is particularly devastating for young children. My heart goes out to the families of children who lost their lives, and I pray that they find the strength to endure their grief,” said Modi, who placed a toy in their memory . My visit to Ukraine was historic. I had productive talks with President @ ZelenskyyUa. India firmly believes that peace must always prevail It took five days for the Association of Malayalam Movie Artists (AMMA) to respond to the findings in the Justice Hema committee re port, which was released on Monday And when the film artists’ . body finally chose to react, it denied any knowledge of sexual harassment in the industry and ruled out the presence , of a ‘power group’ that controls the Malayalam film sector. AMMA, which fielded its general secretary Siddique along with four office-bearers, including actors Jomol and Ananya, for the news briefing at its office in Kochi, also denied knowledge of existence of ‘casting couch’ in the industry. “In the past 40 years since my entry into the industry, I have not heard of any power group,” said Siddique. “There was a high-power committee constituted several years back, which included the representatives of all associations in the industry. However, the committee is now inactive. Moreover, no such group can deny the opportunities to any artists. It will not help the industry function smoothly he said. ,” Even as the association welcomed the committee’s report and recommendations, AM- —Narendra Modi, PM Four pacts India and Ukraine on Friday inked four agreements and resolved to enhance their cooperation in a range of areas like agriculture, defence, trade, pharma, green energy and education EXPRESS READ 2 hospitalised with Nipah symptoms Kannur: A father-son duo from Mattannur has been admitted to the Govt Medical College Hospital in Pariyaram with suspected symptoms of Nipah. Their samples have been sent to Kozhikode MCH lab for testing. P4 Sebi bans Anil Ambani from securities mkt for five years BENN KOCHUVEEDAN @ Mumbai THE Securities and Exchange Board of India has banned industrialist Anil Ambani and 24 others, including key Reliance Home Finance officials, from the securities market for five years on charges of creating a “fraudulent scheme to siphon off money from the company by structuring it as loans to credit-unworthy borrowers”. The regulator also slapped a fine of `25 crore on Ambani and restrained him from serving as a director or Key Managerial Personnel in any listed company for five years. Apart from Anil Ambani, those debarred and fined include the former officials of Reliance Home Finance Amit Bapna, Ravindra Sudhalkar, and Pinkesh Shah. Ambani, Bapna, Sudhalkar, and Shah have been fined `25 crore, `27 crore, `26 crore, and `21 crore, respectively , Sebi said in its order dated August 22. According to Sebi, Anil Ambani, aided by the key managerial personnel of Reliance Home Finance, devised a scheme to siphon off funds by disguising them as loans to entities associated with him. Ranjith denies charge E xpress N ews S ervice @ Kochi AMMA general secretary Siddique during a press conference in Kochi on Friday. Actors Jayan Cherthala and Jomol are also seen | A Sanesh Jagadeesh strikes dissenting note T’Puram: Minutes after AMMA downplayed mentions of sexual assaults in the Hema Committee report as isolated incidents, the association vice-president Jagadeesh struck a dissenting note and demanded that a proper investigation be carried out into the allegations. Jagadeesh said, “If an actress had given in her statement that someone had persistently knocked on the door of her room at night with a wrong intent, it ought to be investigated.” P4 MA’s official stand is in complete variance with the panel’s findings, which mention the presence of a ‘power group’ and the existence of ‘casting couch’. Siddique said none in the industry has directly complained to the association about casting couch. He, however, said the association had received a sexual harassment complaint in 2018. “We received a complaint from an actress regarding an incident that happened in 2006. However, somehow, we missed following-up the complaint. We will be looking into it to address the issue,” Sid● More on P4 dique added. Malayalam film industry which has come , under a cloud following the release of the Justice Hema Committee report, suffered another setback on Friday with well-known Bengali actor Sreelekha Mitra levelling accusations against filmmaker Ranjith. She alleged that the director misbehaved with her during the audition of his 2009 film Paleri Manikyam: Oru Pathirakolapathakathinte Katha. Ranjith, who is also the chair- Sreelekha Mitra man of the Kerala Chalachitra A c a d e m y, d e n i e d t h e allegations. Talking to a news channel, Sreelekha said the incident happened when she arrived in Kerala to act in Ranjith’s film. “The Ranjith filmmaker invited me to his bedroom, and during the chat he touched my bangles, pretending to be unaware about it. I was a little uncomfortable with it, but tried to continue the conversation. Upon seeing that I was not reacting, he started caressing my neck, which was unacceptable. I excused myself and left the room,” recalled Sreelekha. “It was traumatic, and I was not able to share the incident with anyone. After the incident, I stayed in the hotel with fear, thinking, what if 10 people come and knock on my door? I was waiting for the daylight to break in,” she said. ● More on P4
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