FREE PRESS The publishers permit sharing of the e-paper's pdf on WhatsApp and other social media platforms VOL. 13 NO. 90 | BHOPAL | WEDNESDAY | SEPTEMBER 13, 2023 | PAGES 16+4 = 20 `3 - r Regd. No. Indore MP/ICD 216/2021-2023; EDITIONS: INDORE, BHOPAL, UJJAIN, MUMBAI, PUNE NIPAH NIGHTMARE: Will pull out tongue & gouge Virus kills 2 in Ker out eyes, warns EDIT ‘DECLARE HP CATASTROPHE NATIONAL DISASTER’ Pg-7 News Brief INFLATION MODERATES TO 6.83% R etail inflation in India moderated to 6.83 per cent in August on an annual basis after surging to 7.4 per cent in July, government data showed on Tuesday. Analysts had expected inflation to remain high in September due to rising cereal prices. Food price inflation stood at 9.94 per cent, down from 11.51 per cent in July 2023. Overall inflation in rural and urban areas stood at 7.02 per cent and 6.59 per cent each while CFPI rose to 9.67 per cent and 10.42 per cent respectively, data showed. AP court rejects Naidu’s plea VIJAYAWADA: A local court in Vijayawada on Tuesday rejected a house custody petition filed by TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu, who was arrested in an alleged multi-crore scam and is currently lodged at Rajamahendravaram Central Prison in judicial custody for 14 days. House custody was not granted, Naidu's lawyer Jayakar Matta told PTI. On Monday, a team of lawyers headed by senior counsel Siddharth Luthra representing Naidu had filed a petition to grant house custody for the former CM citing threat perception. SC extends Satyendar’s bail NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday extended till September 25 the interim bail of former Delhi minister Satyendar Jain in a money laundering case. A bench of Justices AS Bopanna and Bela M Trivedi granted the relief to Jain after Additional Solicitor General SV Raju made a request for adjournment. Senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, appearing for Jain, also agreed to defer the matter. The top court then postponed the matter to September 25 after extending the interim bail of the senior Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader. T’gana: Over 70 students fall ill HYDERABAD: As many as 78 students of a residential girls school in Nizamabad district in the state took ill after having their meals and were hospitalised, an official said on Tuesday. Several students of Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya (KGBV) in Bheemgal town of the district complained of vomiting and stomach pain after having dinner on Monday, due to suspected food poisoning. A total of 78 students have been admitted to hospitals in Bheemgal and Nizamabad, the official said. Mamata leaves for Spain, Dubai KOLKATA: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday left for a 12-day tour of Spain and United Arab Emirates to seek investments for the state. Banerjee's flight to Dubai, which was scheduled around 8.30 am, was delayed by at least three hours due to some technical glitches. She and her team finally flew from Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport after a delay of around three hours. A high alert has been sounded in Kozhikode and a control room has been opened to coordinate measures against spread of virus FP BUREAU Thiruvananthapuram Shot allegedly by cadres of banned terror groups REMARKS AGAINST SANATAN DHARMA Security personnel keep a vigil at a medical college after the Nipah virus alert, in Kozhikode The Nipah Virus (NiV) is a zoonotic virus, meaning it can be transmitted from animals to humans. It first emerged in 1998 in Malaysia and Singapore, primarily affecting domestic pigs. The virus has since been found in several species of domestic animals, including dogs, cats, goats, horses and sheep. SYMPTOMS A Nipah infection can cause a problems ranging from respiratory issues to fatal encephalitis - meaning inflammation of the brain. The symptoms include fever, headache, cough, difficulty breathing and vomiting. More severe symptoms are disorientation, seizures and coma. According to the World Health Organisation, cases of Nipah infection have a fatality rate between 40 per cent to 75 per cent. Ayancherry panchayat. Both are close the locality where 17 persons lost their lives due to nipa virus in 2018. The first victim was admitted to a private hospital in the city on August 28, but he died two days later. CONTD. ON P6 T 23 MLAS SIGN RESOLUTION wenty three MLAs in the ruling BJP-led government in Manipur have signed a resolution, pledging to protect the territorial integrity of the strife-torn state. The MLAs also resolved that they would soon proceed to Delhi to persuade the central leadership to bring a solution to the present crisis at the earliest. Interestingly, Chief Minister N Biren Singh was not among the signatories. The signatories, after a meeting with members of newly formed civil society organisation Youth of Manipur at the CM's secretariat on Monday night, stated that the Kuki Zo community's demand for a separate administration was not acceptable to them. FP BUREAU / New Delhi A 3-judge bench of the Supreme Court led by CJI DY Chandrachud on Tuesday referred petitions challenging validity of the sedition law under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) to a 5judge Constitution bench, saying it will consider if the issue need to be referred to a 7-judge bench. THE APEX court had on May 1 deferred the hearing on these pleas after the Centre had said it was at an advanced stage of consultation on re-examining the penal provision This was so since a fivejudge Bench had in Kedar Nath Singh versus State of Bihar (1962) already upheld the validity of Section 124-A on sedition. The Bench, also comprising Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, declined the Centre's request to defer the reference since Parliament is already in the process of re-enacting the provisions of the penal code. CONTD. ON P6 Lt Colonel hammers Nepali lover to death in Dehradun AGENCIES Dehradun An Army officer allegedly killed a woman of Nepali origin with whom he was having an extramarital affair after she pressured him to marry her, police said on Tuesday . The accused identified as Lieutenant Colonel Ramendu Upadhyay was arrested on Monday, SSP Dilip Singh Kunwar said. During interrogation, Upadhyay, 42, confessed to the crime. Upadhyay told police that he met Shreya Sharma in a dance bar in Siliguri when he was posted in West Bengal and became friends E FLASH-FLOODS WREAK HAVOC IN LIBYA mergency workers uncovered hundreds of bodies as they dug through the wreckage of Libya's eastern city of Derna on Tuesday, and 10,000 people were reported still missing after floodwaters broke through dams and smashed through the city, washing away entire neighbourhoods. ONLINE REPORT / Jaipur The three persons had started their journey from Ponlen in Kangpopki district and were proceeding towards Lemakong using the hill road when they were stopped by the armed assailants and gunned down Manipur witness more violence on Tuesday when unidentified armed men, suspected to be cadres of banned terror groups, attacked people from the tribal community this morning killing three of them in Kangpokpi district, officials said. The incident took place between Ireng and Karam Vaiphei villages in the tribal-dominated Kanggui area, located at the bordering districts of West Imphal and Kangpopki. The three persons had started their journey from Ponlen in Kangpopki district and were proceeding towards Lemakong using the hill road when they were stopped by the armed assailants at Ireng near Singhda dam and gunned down, the officials said, adding automatic weapons were used in the incident. CONTD. ON P6 FPJ: www.freepressjournal.in for 24x7 updates Union minister Armed men SEDITION LAW kill 3 tribals GOES BEFORE in Manipur 5-JUDGE BENCH IMPHAL QUALITY AT VALUE 27.00c. 21.60c Sunrise : 06.12 Sunset : 06.36 'I WAS INITIALLY NERVOUS' Pg-20 AN UPHILL TASK FOR THE TDP CHIEF ABOUT NIPAH Kerala has been hit by nipah scare as two persons in Kozhikode have died to infection from the deadly virus. A high alert has been sounded in the district and a control room has been opened to coordinate measures against the spread of the virus. Restrictions have been imposed on four wards of the panchayats. This follows confirmation from the Pune virology institute that the samples from the dead persons had the presence of nipah virus. The dead include a 49-year old from the Maruthonkara panchayat and a 40-year old from the neighbouring r RNI No. mpeng/2010/35815 WEATHER FP Union minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat has said anyone who speaks against the Sanatan Dharma would have his tongue pulled out and his eyes gouged out. A video of Shekhawat making the purported remarks went viral on social media. He was speaking at a public rally in Barmer district of poll-bound Rajasthan last week during BJP's Parivartan Yatra. Reacting to the recent comments made by Tamil Nadu Youth Welfare Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin against the Sanatan Dharma, Shekhawat said, “We have to stand up to the challenge. We will pull out the tongue of anyone who speaks against Sanatan. CONTD. ON P6 ‘Some small leader’ AAP leader Raghav Chadha on Tuesday condemned DMK leader Udayanidhi Stalin's remark on the Sanatan Dharma, and said statements made by some "small" leader from any party cannot be considered the official stand of the INDIA bloc. Overturned cars lay among other debris caused by flash floods in Derna, eastern Libya Monu Manesar held, handed over to Raj cops FP BUREAU Chandigarh Fugitive cow vigilante and Bajrang Dal activist Monu Manesar who was wanted by the neighbouring Rajasthan police in the brutal murder of two Muslim cattle traders since February, was nabbed by Haryana police from a Gurugram area Tuesday morning. Pertinently, Monu Manesar, 28, (real name – Mohit Yadav) was also an accused of inciting the communal violence in Nuh The cow vigilante is a co-accused in brutal murder of two Muslim youths in Haryana’s Bhiwani area and also an accused in inciting communal violence in Nuh and the adjoining areas on July 31 when a religious procession taken out was Bajrang Dal was attacked and in which six people including two home guards and a naib imam were killed and over 80 others, including many police personnel injured and which led to massive damage to public and private proper- ties. According to media reports, Monu Manesar was nabbed by the Haryana police from the Manesar market area in Gurugram district this morning and was presented before a Nuh court where he was handed over to the Rajasthan police towards the evening. CONTD. ON P6 Demands not heard by CM, Cong MLA shaves head in protest In a letter written to Gehlot, Bharat Singh said, "I am getting my head shaven and offering my hair to you. Please accept this humble gift. Remember Mahatma Gandhi and reflect on the seven sins mentioned by him. This post of Chief Minister is not permanent" AGENCIES Jaipur Bharat Singh Kundanpur, the Congress MLA from Sangod, has shaved his head and offered his hair to Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot as a mark of protest, claiming that his demands have not been heard by the CM. In a letter written to Gehlot, Bharat Singh said, "You openly supported Bhaya's (state minister Pramod Bhaya) corruption. Khan Ki Jhopriya village was not included in Kota district. This does not suit Gandhian Ashok Gehlot. Your honour is dead. I am getting my head shaven and offering my hair to you. Please accept this humble gift. Remember Mahatma Gandhi and reflect on the seven sins mentioned by him. This post of Chief Minister is not permanent." Singh added, "I am shaving my head as a symbolic protest. Some issues were put before the Chief Minister for a very long time. Our Chief Minister is a known Gandhian.” “He has done excellent work as Chief Minister. Many times I drew his attention to important issues and his compulsion was that he gave protection to some corrupt people by not paying attention to those issues. "Those who rule may face many compulsions. But the Chief Minister talks Gandhian about ideology Gandhi. ji's entire life was based on truth.” CONTD. ON P6 Prez felicitates Dindori Irked BJP workers lock up woman farmer Lahri Bai Union Min in party office AGENCIES / Bankura (WB) OUR STAFF REPORTER city.bhopal@fpj.co.in President Draupadi Murmu felicitated woman farmer from Dindori, Lahri Bai with Plant Genome Patron Farmer Award for 2021-22 on Tuesday She was fe. licitated for conserving and promotion of "Sri Anna species". She received cash prize of Rs 1,50,000, a citation and a memento during the investiture ceremony of the Farmers' Rights Global Seminar. The programme was organised at C. Subramaniam Auditorium, New Delhi. Union agriculture and farmers' welfare minister Narendra Singh Tomar was also present in the programme. Lahri Bai, a resident of Bajag tehsil of Dindori district, had developed a seed bank of rare "Sri Anna" species like Kodo, Kutki, Sanwa, Kaag, Sikiya and Madua with the help of Baiga community. CONTD. ON P6 BJP workers locked up Union minister Subhas Sarkar in their party office in West Bengal's Bankura on Tuesday, alleging that he was being "dictatorial" in running the district unit. Sarkar, the MoS for Education and MP of Bankura, was chairing a meeting around 1 pm when a group of BJP workers shouting slogans marched into the party's district office and locked him up. One of the protesters, Mohit Sharma, alleged that Sarkar was not giving importance to dedicated party workers and making people close to him members of the district committee. "Some of us have been show-caused. We are protesting to save the party. This time, the BJP did not get any seat in Bankura Municipality because of his incompetence. BJP won two wards in the previous election. They could not field candidates in many seats in panchayat. It is a shame," he alleged. Amid the chaos, another group of BJP workers reached the spot, and a scuffle broke out between the two sides. A large police contingent went to the party office and rescued Sarkar, a police officer said. CONTD. ON P6 X celebrates Apple with unique animation button with her. Their friendship tuned into an affair. Upadhyay said that he and Shreya used to live as husband and wife in Siliguri. "After getting posting in Dehradun, I brought her with me, but when my wife got to know about Shreya, I sent her back to Siliguri," Upadhyay said. However, after few days, Upadhyay called her back to Dehradun and rented a flat for her where he used to meet her. Things turn awry when frequent quarrels started between him and Shreya as she pressured him to marry her. CONTD. ON P6 AGENCIES New Delhi Elon Musk-run X has added a unique animation to the "like" button for Apple's mega event -- Wonderlust. On using the '#AppleEvent' hashtag, the new animation gets implemented. According to MacRumors, clicking the like button pushes the logo to spread into pieces, before changing back into the typical love heart. The brief animation mimics the Apple logo graphics used to promote the Apple event -- multi-coloured metallic Apple logos -possibly a reference to the titanium frame on the iPhone 15 Pro. The colours used in the Apple logo also match the colours expected for the iPhone 15 Pro.