TIRUCHY l wednesday l march 26, 2025 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l late city EDITION U.S. embarrassed as secret plan to attack Yemen leaked to media ‘Highly damaging’ situation barely avoided The plan was leaked to The Atlantic magazine’s editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg, who was inadvertently added to a Signal app chat with top officials like VP J D Vance, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and CIA Director John Ratcliffe. The leak could have been highly damaging if the enemy somehow accessed to the plan A journalist was accidentally included in a group chat where top US officials were discussing upcoming strikes against Yemen’s Houthi rebels Why was signal, a commercial app, used? ■ ■ Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a post on X on Tuesday that “no ‘war plans’ were discussed” and “no classified material was sent” But top Democrats condemned the breach, saying it was illegal and calling for an investigation to find out why officials were using a commercially available app for sensitive discussions | P9 2 days before the actual airstrike was when Goldberg was added 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 EPS meets Amit Shah in New Delhi; AIADMK-BJP poll patch-up likely Frosty ties Intent, ability in India to interfere with polls: Canada J aya n t h J a c o b @ New Delhi India has the ‘intent and capability’ to interfere in Canadian communities and democratic processes, a media report said quoting Vanessa Lloyd, the deputy director of operations at the Canadian Security Intelligence Service. Lloyd claimed that China, Russia and Pakistan too could interfere in the federal election campaign. She was addressing a media briefing on Monday on efforts to protect the integrity of the general election, voting for which takes place on April 28. Lloyd added that “hostile state actors” were increasingly leveraging AI to meddle in the polls announced by Prime Minister Mark Carney on Sunday . Under a federal protocol int ro d u c e d i n 2019, the news channel CTV News said, a panel of bureaucrats had the power to warn the public if it decided one or more incidents threaten Canada’s ability to hold a free and fair vote. Most threat actors ‘likely have adapted their tradecraft to conceal foreign interference activity, making it even more challenging to detect’, Lloyd mentioned, adding that it was ‘highly likely’ China would use social media to promote narratives favourable to its interests and target Chinese ethnic, cultural and religious communities in Canada using “clandestine and deceptive” means. The ministry of external affairs has so far not responded to these charges. But in January the nation rejected “insinu, ations” levelled by a Canadian commission report of interference in the 2022 election of Pierre Poilievre, the Conservative Party leader. T M u r u g a n a n d h a m @ Chennai Himachal Pradesh HC Chief Justice G S Sandhawalia, a member of the panel set up by the SC, arrives at Justice Yashwant Varma’s residence, in New Delhi on Tuesday | pti SC panel begins ‘currency stash’ probe, visits site Committee inspects Justice Varma’s house where burnt cash was allegedly discovered allegations of corruption following the discovery of cash at his home following a fire incithe Supreme Court-appointed dent on the night of March 14. committee on Tuesday began Justice Varma, who has since its probe into the discovery of been de-rostered by the Delhi cash from the residence of Del- High Court, has denied the alhi High Court judge Yashwant legations against him terming Varma, even as the Allahabad the whole affair a conspiracy . High Court Bar Association The SC Collegium on Monstarted an indefinite strike in day confirmed that it had recprotest against the proposed ommended Justice Varma’s transfer of the tainted judge to transfer to the Allahabad HC, the Allahabad HC. triggering fiery proT he probe panel tests from the bar assomembers—Justice ciation, which urged Sheel Nagu, Chief Jus- There have been the Central gover ntice of the High Court ment not to clear the attempts to of Punjab and Harya- cover up... Until a Collegium’s decision. na; Justice G S SandhaBar association chief resolution is walia, Chief Justice of Anil Tiwari said the reached, we won’t resume the High Cour t of protest is not against Himachal Pradesh; and work, no matter any court but against consequences Anu Sivaraman, Judge those who betrayed the of the High Court of judicial system. Allahabad HC Karnataka—reached Meanwhile, Rajya Bar Association Justice Varma’s official Sabha Chairman Jagresidence at 30, Tughlak Cres- deep Dhankhar on Tuesday cent, in Delhi at 1 pm. They held a meeting of floor leaders spent around 45 minutes there to discuss judicial accountabiland examined the room where ity in the wake of the developthe stash of cash was allegedly ments. The meeting came a day found, sources said. after Dhankhar interacted with It was not immediately Leader of the House J P Nadda known whether Justice Varma and Leader of Opposition Malwas at his residence when the likarjun Kharge, and referred inquiry panel visited. to the mechanism for judicial The panel’s findings will be appointments after the passage crucial in deciding the fate of of the NJAC Act in 2014, which Justice Varma, who is facing the SC later struck down. S u c h it r a K a lya n M o h a n ty & N a mita B a j pa i @ New Delhi / Lucknow AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami and senior leaders of the party met Union Home Minister Amit Shah in New Delhi on Tuesday , indicating possible revival of the alliance between the AIADMK and the BJP for the 2026 Assembly elections. The meeting lasted for around one hour. The leaders of the parties have met after a gap of nearly two years. On September 14, 2023, Palaniswami called on Amit Shah in New Delhi, ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Within a fortnight, the AIADMK snapped its ties with the BJP ending the uneasy relationship between the two parties that prolonged for seven years due to various political compulsions. R S I VA K U M AR @ Chennai A division bench of the Madras High Court on Tuesday recused itself from hearing petitions filed by the state government and Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation (Tasmac) against the action initiated over alleged corruption by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). Meanwhile, a few employees of the liquor corporation, in individual affidavits filed before the court, have accused the agency of confining them under unbearable conditions for long hours till past midnight during the three-day search operation at the Tasmac headquarters. The bench of Justices M S Ramesh and N Senthilkumar Bench halted probe The bench had earlier orally directed the ED not to proceed further with any coercive action till March 25 on Tuesday said, “We are not taking up the petitions. We have some reasons (to recuse).” The petitions may now be listed before the bench of Justices S M Subramaniam and K Rajasekar. Justices Ramesh and Senthilkumar, while hearing the petitions on March 20, passed certain remarks and questioned the ED’s rationale behind detaining Tasmac officers and employees for long hours during the agency’s searches at the Tasmac offices, which lasted from March 6 to 8. The judges had also orally di- rected the ED not to proceed further with any coercive action until March 25 and to file counter-affidavits by then. While Tasmac wanted the court to declare the ED searches as illegal, the state challenged the central agency’s powers to investigate into matters concerning government departments and entities without obtaining the prior consent of the government. The Tasmac also submitted that the ED had been holding a roving inquiry without having adequate materials and reasons to support any generation of proceeds of crime. Following the searches, the ED had claimed that incriminating data relating to transfer postings, transport tender, bar licence tender, indent orders favouring a few distilleries and excess charges of `10-30 per liquor bottle were recovered. P5 Kamra Defies Summons, refuses to apologise Tirupattur: After a video of a Class 12 girl being made to run behind a government bus in Vellore to reach her examination centre went viral on Tuesday, the driver who did not halt the bus at the designated stop was suspended. The conductor was dismissed from service | P2 S u d h i r S u r yawa n s h i @ Mumbai Manoj Bharathiraja dies of cardiac arrest at 48 ‘final’ hurrah Students in Tiruchy celebrate the end of the Class 12 board examination on Tuesday | mk ashok kumar Will meet revenue targets despite tax relief: FM THE government could ‘realistically’ achieve personal income tax collection targets despite offering huge tax relief, Finance Minister Nir mala Sitharaman said on Tuesday while responding to the debate on Budget in the Lok Sabha. The House passed the Finance Bill 2025— the piece of legislation that gives legal backing to the tax proposals and other fiscal meas- half of the AIADMK regarding delimitation of Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu and the need for the state to continue its two-language policy . According to a senior AIADMK functionary, “The DMK has been trying to gain politi- Free Speech Fury Girl made to run behind bus, staff face action E x p r e ss n e ws s e r vi c e @ New Delhi Earlier on Tuesday when re, porters asked Palaniswami on the meeting with Shah, EPS said he would meet the media on Wednesday . According to sources, EPS is believed to have submitted a memorandum to Shah on be- After posing tough questions to ED, HC bench recuses from Tasmac case express read Chennai: Actor Manoj, son of veteran filmmaker Bharathiraja, died of cardiac arrest on Tuesday. He was 48. Manoj made his debut in Tamil movie ‘Taj Mahal’ and went on to play leading role in movies, including ‘Eeranilam’ and ‘Varushamellam Vasantham’ AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami and his party colleagues meeting Amit Shah at the Union Minister’s home in New Delhi on Tuesday | pti ures announced in the Budget—with 35 amendments. “The Finance Bill provides unprecedented tax relief to honour taxpayers. We have recognised their contribution,” Sitharaman said. In the FY26 Budget, the government increased the threshold for income tax rebate to `12 lakh per from `7 lakh earlier. For salaried taxpayers, this threshold jumped to `12.75 lakh per year after taking into account `75,000 standard deduction. The government also tweaked the tax slabs to benefit a large section of taxpayers. New income tax bill in monsoon session Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday said that the new Income Tax Bill, which has been referred to a standing committee of Parliament, would most likely be taken up for discussion in the monsoon session of Parliament The changes would lead to loss of tax revenue of `1 lakh crore. However, the government has increased the personal income tax collection target for FY26 by 14.14%. “The projected tax collections for FY26 are based on solid data,” Sitharaman said. With the passage of the Finance Bill 2025, the Lok Sabha completed its part of the Budgetary approval process. The Budget process for FY26 will be complete after the Rajya Sabha also approves it. The Mumbai Police on Monday summoned stand-up comedian Kunal Kamra for questioning the next day over a case registered against him for lampooning Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde during a recent performance in Mumbai. However, Kamra refused to appear immediately, citing death threats and concerns for his safety He reportedly request. ed a week’s time to comply Kamra also took . to social media and said he had no reason to apologise since he had only repeated what deputy chief minister and NCP leader Ajit Pawar had already said. The police, investigating whether Kamra was compensated to mock Shinde, have registered a case under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and are examining his phone and call records. The controversy erupted after Kamra’s performance, in which he parodied the song Bholi Si Surat to call Shinde a gaddar (traitor), referencing his 2022 rebellion against Uddhav Thackeray. Following the video’s release, Shiv Sena workers vandalised a comedy club and demanded its closure. Eleven workers were arrested and later granted bail. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) also demolished part of the club. Kamra defended the comedy club, saying a venue is not responsible for a comedian’s words. Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut defended Kunal Kamra saying he had not said anything new. “...Kamra has spoken and repeated the truth and fact only,” Raut said. I do not fear the mob. I wouldn’t go under my bed waiting for the controversy to die down Kunal Kamra Kamra trolls BMC Addressing trolls, Kunal Kamra left a voicemail featuring his song, Hum Honge Kangaal (we shall be bankrupt) and mocked BMC by saying that his next show be held at place which needs to be razed cal mileage out of the language issue to cover up its governance failures for the past four years. Since the AIADMK is also wedded to the two-language policy and is of the view that Tamil Nadu should not be affected by the delimitation of Lok Sabha seats, the party wants to make its voice count.” While Palaniswami left for New Delhi on Tuesday morning, AIADMK deputy general secretary KP Munusamy and another senior leader SP Velumani reached the national capital in the evening. Senior functionaries, including M Thambidurai and CVe Shanmugam, were already camping in New Delhi. Palaniswami is scheduled to return to Chennai by 11.30am flight on Wednesday . P5 TN’s concrete response on language issue soon, says CM T M u r u g a n a n d h a m @ Chennai Asserting that the Tamil race and Tamil language can be protected only by strengthening the state’s autonomy and establishing the state’s rights, Chief Minister and DMK president MK Stalin on Tuesday told the Assembly that a precise response is being contemplated on the issue and he would make an announcement soon. Replying to a discussion on a calling attention motion on the language policy in the Assembly, the chief minister alleged that by imposing Hindi, the present union government is trying to dominate the states, their languages, and ethnic groups. “There is a need to put a decisive end to this,” the CM said. Stalin alleged that the union government was doing injustice to the states in allocation of funds and imposition of language because they are being considered as vassal states of the union government. “We are therefore under compulsion to take concrete steps to protect the federal nature of India and to win states’ autonomy he said. ,” Stalin said the leaders of all political parties except the BJP supported the two-language policy that has been in force in Tamil Nadu for nearly six decades. Though BJP MLAs Vanathi Srinivasan and C Saraswathi were present in the Assembly throughout the discussion, they did not counter the charges levelled by leaders of other political parties on the union government. P5 SAMSUNG SLAPPED WITH $601 MN TAX CLAIM The government has ordered Samsung and its executives to pay $601 million in back taxes and penalities for evading tariffs on imported telecom equipment. It is one of the biggest tax demands in recent years | P10