I-T officials question Sasikala in prison

Press Trust of India

BENGALURU, DECEMBER 14, 2018 00:00 IST

Income Tax officials on Thursday questioned former AIADMK leader V.K. Sasikala at Parappana Agrahara Jail, in connection with a disproportionate assets case, prison sources said.

The I-T officials arrived at the jail at 11 a.m. and began questioning.

This continued till late in the evening, the sources told PTI, declining to elaborate.

Sasikala, former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa’s close aide, has been lodged in the jail since February last year.

The Supreme Court had upheld her conviction by a special court in a disproportionate assets case.

She was sentenced to four years imprisonment, by the Court.

Sasikala, who took over the reins of the AIADMK after the death of Jayalalithaa in December 2016, was later removed from the party by Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami-led camp.

Recently, the Madras High Court set aside a lower court order directing Karnataka jail authorities to produce Sasikala before it in connection with a Foreign Exchange Regulation Act (FERA) case.

HC quashes DVAC probe into new Secretariat construction

Mohamed Imranullah S.

CHENNAI, DECEMBER 14, 2018 00:00 IST

Says decision taken by government in haste

The Madras High Court on Thursday quashed a Government Order (G.O.) issued on September 24 and a consequential letter written on September 28 for an inquiry by the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) into alleged irregularities in the construction of a new Legislative Assembly-cum-Secretariat complex at Anna Salai during the DMK regime between 2006 and 2011.

Justice Pushpa Sathyanarayana passed the order while allowing writ petitions filed by DMK president M.K. Stalin and treasurer Duraimurugan. She agreed with senior counsel P. Wilson that the government had ordered the DVAC inquiry in a hasty manner without going through records collected by a Commission of Inquiry, which was brought to an “unceremonious end”.

‘Violation of order’

Such a hasty action amounted to violating an interim order passed by Justice S.M. Subramaniam of the High Court on August 3 on a writ petition filed by DMK patriarch M. Karunanidhi before his death on August 7, Justice Sathyanarayana said. The interim order mandated the government to suspend the commission of inquiry led by former High Court judge R. Regupathi and then arrive at a decision on the need for criminal action.

“A reading of the impugned (under challenge) G.O. in its entirety would go to show that the government has not even cared to receive the files from the commission, much less to read and make out a prima facie case for referring the matter to the DVAC,” she added.

After the interim order, Mr. Regupathi tendered his resignation on August 10 and the government decided not to appoint any other retired judge to the commission.

The judge also doubted whether criminal action could be initiated on the basis of material collected by a commission rendered defunct.

Christmas is peak time for heart attacks: Study

Nicholas Bakalar 14.12.2018

Christmas may be the peak time for heart attacks — at least in Sweden. Swedish researchers studied 2,83,014 heart attacks between 1998 and 2013 that were documented in a registry that included the date and time when symptoms started.

They found that compared with days in the two weeks before and after Christmas, the risk of heart attack was 15% higher on Christmas Day and 37% higher on Christmas Eve.

They found a 20% increased risk on New Year’s Day, and a 12% increase during Midsummer, a mid-June Swedish holiday with vaguely pagan overtones during which the drinking and dancing never stop and the sun never sets.

There was no increase on New Year’s Eve or during Easter weekend.

The study, in ‘BMJ’, is observational, and draws no conclusions about cause. But the senior author, David Erlinge, head of the cardiology department at Lund University in Sweden, said that the holidays have special stresses — travel, difficult relatives or friends, complicated preparations for guests, extra physical activity and, of course, eating and drinking too much.

“It’s a big study, not a sample,” he said. “Every heart attack for 16 years in the whole country is in it. It’s reality.”

Leaves may fall, but tree will stand: T T V

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

14.12.2018

The AMMK has been built on the strength of Amma’s (Jayalalithaa) loyal cadres. A few people leaving the party will not hurt its growth prospects, party deputy general secretary T T V Dhinakaran said in a statement on Thursday, reacting for the first time to party’s Karur district secretary Senthil Balaji joining the DMK.

“Our journey started with an independent victory, by defeating traitor Palaniswami (EPS) and forcing the principle opposition party to lose its deposit, in the R K Nagar bypolls,” Dhinakaran said on his birthday. “In nine months since the launch, the AMMK now has 1.2 crore members, with 20 associate units and 70 party districts. It has been built on the hard work of Amma’s (Jayalalithaa) true cadres and against hurdles created by those in power at the Centre and state,” Dhinakaran said.

“Our sustained growth has caused tremors in the camps of traitors and our political enemies, who are now bent on trying to disrupt and destroy us. Just because a few leaves fall, it does not mean that the giant banyan tree will cease to exist. Let’s us continue to focus on strengthening this organization and gear up for elections to demolish these traitors and political enemies, trying to prevent our efforts to serve the people of the state,” Dhinakaran added.

Four college students suspended for ragging

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Madurai:14.12.2018

Four final year students of the government ayurveda college at Kottar in Nagercoil have been suspended for two weeks on the charge of ragging a junior at the college hostel earlier this week. They were evicted from the hostel pending an inquiry by a three-member committee headed by the dean in charge, P Narayanan.

“We will lodge a police complaint after the inquiry,” Narayanan said, refusing to detail the allegations. Sources said the victim was a first year student who was also staying in the hostel.

On the day the incident took place, the suspended students and another person, who is yet to be identified, allegedly ragged and humiliated the junior student late at night.

After 18 years, Senthil Balaji returns to where he started
Key AMMK Leader Is All Set To Join The DMK Today

Sivakumar.B@timesgroup.com14.12.2018

Prominent AMMK leader Senthil Balaji, 43, is all set to join the DMK on Friday. He, along with his supporters, will call on DMK president M K Stalin at Anna Arivalayam and formally join the party, which he left in the year 2000.

On Thursday, Stalin held discussions with the party’s Karur district secretary Nanniyur Rajendran and Trichy district secretary K N Nehru about Balaji’s re-induction into the DMK, sources said. Starting his political career in the DMK, Balaji joined the MDMK and later the AIADMK and became transport minister in 2011. But, he lost his ministerial berth and party posts in 2015.

“Balaji along with his supporters were to meet Stalin on Thursday but his coming to Chennai has been delayed. Balaji joining the DMK will help the party as it has no strong leader in Karur district as K C Palaniswami is unwell and we also lost our party district secretary Vasuki Murugesan in an accident,” said a DMK leader, seeking anonymity.

Balaji will be the first senior AIADMK and AMMK leader to join the DMK after the death of former chief minister J Jayalalithaa. Unlike the death of M G Ramachandran when many senior AIADMK leaders rejoined DMK, there were no such desertions after Jayalalithaa’s death, though some lower level cadres joined DMK now and then.

After being elected from Karur constituency in 2006 and 2011 assembly elections on behalf of AIADMK, he contested from Aravakurichi constituency in a byelection held in November 2016, when Jayalalithaa was hospitalized, and defeated DMK candidate Palaniswami.

“The DMK has been a little weak in the Kongu belt and in the assembly elections in 2011 and 2016, the party did not perform well and Balaji joining the DMK will give us a leg up,” said the leader. There is absolute consensus in the DMK party’s district unit about his joining the party, the leader added.


SWITCHING SIDES: Senthil Balaji with T T V Dhinakaran

THE DMK HAS BEEN A LITTLE WEAK IN THE KONGU BELT,

BALAJI JOINING THE DMK WILL GIVE US A LEG UP

DMK LEADER

DVAC unearths fraudulent land deal worth more than ₹8 crore in Vellore

Siddharth.Prabhakar@timesgroup.com

Chennai:14.12.2018

The Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-corruption (DVAC) has busted a dubious land deal worth ₹8.14 crore engineered in 2012 by the president of a co-operative society in Vellore along with a deputy director of the TN Khadi and Village industries board and a former deputy collector .

In the FIR registered on Monday, the DVAC named D Rishikumar, president of north Arcot district ex-servicemen co-operative timber and blacksmith workers and service limited, a cooperative society under the KVIB. S Ravi, the DD of TN KVIB, Chennai, N Nagaraj, assistant director in the central office of TNKVIB, B Shelly and R Indirasittu, former officials in the same office, K Mathivannan, deputy collector (stamps) Vellore, K Vasu, a resident of Avadi, K Srinivasulu, executive director of a private realty company and the company were also named accused.

The case was taken up based on a petition by RTI activist Siva Elango of Satta Panchayat Iyakkam (SPI).

The case pertains to an 87,120sqft plot in Vellore that belonged to the co-operative society. It was bought in 1964 from the Katpadi co-operative township ltd for ₹12,000 for construction of homes for workers of the society. There was a condition that the land could be sold only to the township. In 2012, the land was allowed to be sold.

The DVAC said Rishikumar fraudulently entered and became president of the society. He is also accused of generating a fake letter to conduct auction of the land. It was sold to Vasu for ₹9.27 crore, an amount less than the guideline value, on behalf of Srinivasulu and the realty company. Officials of TNKVIB were informed five months later. The DVAC alleges this sale caused loss to the government.

Despite a sub-registrar registering the document with an objection, Mathivannan approved the deal, the DVAC said.

The anti-corruption body alleged that the government officials colluded for bribes. During a preliminary enquiry, a number of documents have been obtained, which are cited in the FIR. The DVAC said the transfer of land itself was illegal, giving a benefit of ₹8.14 crore to the private persons.

The case pertains to an 87,120sqft plot in Vellore which belonged to a co-operative society