Thiruvananthapuram, July 27 (IANS) A battle royale is in the offing in Kerala with State Finance Minister K. N. Balagopal raising a banter against former Chief Secretary and present Chief Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan — K.M. Abraham.

According to sources, Balagopal has approached his party saying it’s high time that Abraham’s wings are clipped, even when he knows that it would be rubbing Vijayan, the wrong way.

Flamboyant in nature and the final word in all financial matters, Abraham has been having a free run starting from the first Pinarayi Vijayan government in 2016 and was known for his closeness with economist-turned-two-time CPI-M Finance Minister Thomas Isaac.

Abraham’s stock rose hugely when as a full-time SEBI member during 2008-11, his efforts saw the Sahara India Pariwar being tied up in knots and the Supreme Court upheld his judgment against the then high-flying Sahara Group.

After his retirement as Chief Secretary, he was handpicked by Vijayan and after his elevation as the CM’s chief principal secretary, he was given the cabinet rank too.

Balagopal has been facing the flak ever since he replaced Isaac, who was not given the green signal to contest a record straight fifth time as legislator, soon after Vijayan won a second successive term in 2021.

Balagopal was handpicked by Vijayan as the Finance Minister when he had no previous experience in governance. He had only represented a full term in the Upper House starting in 2010.

While Isaac and Abraham gelled well, the duo was largely instrumental in reshaping the Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB), the principal funding arm of the Kerala government.

During Isaac’s term as Minister (2016-21), the duo successfully dealt with both Congress-led UDF and BJP slamming KIIFB and the way it was run.

The present grouse of Balagopal is following the Lok Sabha debacle suffered by Vijayan, when it was able to win just one seat of the 20 Lok Sabha seats. There was a massive outburst in the manner Balagopal handled the state finances as compared to his predecessor Isaac and that comparison hurt him badly.

Incidentally at the CPI-M party stock-taking meeting of the Lok Sabha debacle, Balagopal even offered to quit taking the moral responsibility, but the party leadership asked him to cool down.

Now with Balagopal expressing his ire against Abraham to the party bosses, all eyes are on if Abraham will be reined in as the party is giving Balagopal a clean chit.

–IANS

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New Delhi, July 27 (IANS) Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Saturday extended greetings to the Indian contingent at the Paris Olympics and expressed hope that they will make the nation proud yet again, with their medal wins.

Taking to X, the Congress leader said that all players of Team India are ready for every challenge and the country has a lot of expectations from all of them.

“Best wishes to all the players of the Indian team. May you be victorious!” she wrote on X.

Priyanka’s greeting to the athletes comes just ahead of India beginning its campaign in the month-long sporting extravaganza.

Earlier, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge also extended wishes to the Indian athletes and said that their medals and glory will inspire future generations.

“On behalf of the Indian National Congress, I join the nation in wishing our incredibly talented Indian athletes all the best for the Paris,” he wrote on X.

Notably, Team India has begun its campaign in the Paris Olympics with a couple of events slated for Saturday. On Day 1 of the quadrennial event, the Indian athletes will be in action in at least seven disciplines including hockey, shooting and badminton.

In shooting, Elavenil Valarivan and Sandeep Singh, Arjun Babuta and Ramita Jindal will compete in the 10m Air Rifle Mixed Team Qualification at 12:30 PM followed by 10m Air Pistol Men’s Qualification, in which Arjun Singh Cheema and Sarabjot Singh will be in action.

Manu Bhaker and Rhythm Sangwan will also start their campaign on Saturday with 10m Air Pistol Women’s Qualification at 4 pm.

In Tennis, Rohan Bopanna and Sriram Balaji will take on the French pair of Fabian Reboul and Edouard Roger Vasselin in the men’s doubles first-round match at 3:30 pm.

In Badminton, Lakshya Sen will be up against Kevin Gua Cordon in the men’s singles group stage match at 7:10 pm.

–IANS

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New Delhi, July 27 (IANS) About a dozen students of the KKM college in Jharkhand’s Pakud district suffered injuries as the state police thrashed them inside the hostel premises, allegedly over a proposed protest march against the Bangladeshi intruders on Saturday.

Reacting to the incident, state BJP chief Babulal Marandi tore into the Hemant Soren government for “police excesses” on the hostel students and shared the “disturbing” pictures.

More than ten students are said to have been admitted to Pakud Sadar Hospital for treatment.

Student leader Kamal Murmu said the cops reached the hostel around 10.30 p.m. on Friday and warned the students against organising any protest rally.

When the students refused to obey the order, a posse of police force reached the hostel and started thrashing them, Murmu said.

“Students were pulled out of their rooms and then beaten with sticks,” he said.

However, the police claimed that they reached the hostel premises while looking for a criminal. As they reached the hostel using mobile location technology, they were attacked by a bunch of students, the police claimed.

“We acted in self-defence and retaliated against the assaulters,” the police said.

Pakud police station in-charge Anoop Roshan Bhengra, termed the incident as “police action” against assaulters.

Bhengra said that the hostel residents tried to give cover to a criminal linked with abduction and this resulted in the flare-up and subsequent police action.

Meanwhile, Marandi accused the Hemant Soren government of unleashing its police force to crush the voice of people against Bangladeshi intruders.

Notably, the BJP also raised the issue of Bangladeshi intruders altering the population dynamics in the Parliament recently and also highlighted the fact that how it was posing a risk to the local demography.

Taking to social media platform X, Marandi said that the students were raising their voices against the infiltrators and their motive is only to secure the sanctity and identity of their region.

“Hemant ji, what is the reason behind torturing young students who raise their voice against infiltration to protect their mothers and sisters and showering so much love on outsiders?” he asked.

“Bangladeshi infiltrators are a threat to the identity and existence of Jharkhand. By giving them protection, you are playing with the security of the three-and-a-half crore people of the state,” he said further.

The BJP leader also demanded strict action against all the police personnel involved in this incident.

— IANS

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Gurugram, July 27 (IANS) Several members of the Resident Welfare Association (RWA) of BPTP Park Screen residential society expressed their outrage against its management in connection with a five-year-old boy who drowned in a swimming pool in the society.

The child drowned on Wednesday evening.

The residents in huge numbers approached Gurugram Police Commissioner’s office and demanded action against BPTP management including Managing Director Kabul Chawla on Saturday.

They accused the lifeguard and the maintenance agency of gross negligence, demanding accountability and immediate action.

“The five-year-old boy drowned in a swimming pool at a residential society in Gurugram on Wednesday evening, allegedly in the presence of lifeguards,” police said.

The child, identified as Mevansh Singla, was found floating in a four-foot deep pool at BPTP Park Serene in Sector 37D.

However, the police have arrested two lifeguards — Durg (30) from Madhya Pradesh and Akash (21) from Bihar — for their negligence while on duty.

The boy’s relatives and the RWA alleged the lifeguards failed to notice the boy moving to the prohibited four-foot-deep pool as they were playing on their phones at the time.

Hemant Kumar Pal, the RWA vice president, said that they have had several issues with the builder and BPMS, the management agency responsible for dealing with the maintenance, over the past few years.

“When the incident took place on Wednesday, the lifeguards were not even aware of it as they were engrossed in their phones. It was gross negligence on the part of the BPTP management as well,” Pal claimed.

–IANS

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Patna, July 27 (IANS) Cyber cheats defrauded a Muzaffarpur businessman of Rs 89.90 lakh by alleging his involvement in a money laundering case, an official said on Saturday.

The complainant has lodged an FIR in the Muzaffarpur cyber police station and the matter is under investigation by Bihar Police’s cyber cell.

As per the FIR, the victim said that he received a call from an unknown number and the caller who posed as a Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) official told him that his phone number would be disconnected within two hours.

The caller informed the victim that another mobile number (8945392862) was active and his Aadhaar number had been given in the documentation. The caller said this number had been used to send illegal messages.

He stated that an FIR had been registered in Tilak Nagar Police Station in Mumbai and the victim had to appear before the officers.

The caller transferred the victim’s call to another number (+91 7453951616) and a person wearing a police uniform interacted with him via a video call.

“That man in the police uniform claimed to be an officer of the Tilak Nagar Police Station and he took the victim’s statement.

“He also informed him that a bank account had been opened in Canara Bank using his Aadhaar number and that account was used in the money laundering case of one Naresh Goyal with illegal transactions to the tune of Rs 2.5 crore,” said Seema Devi, DSP of cyber cell Muzaffarpur.

“He further informed the victim that an arrest warrant had been issued by the Supreme Court and asked him to appear at the Tilak Nagar Police Station. When the victim expressed his inability to reach Mumbai on such a short notice, the caller asked him to upload the details of the source of his earnings on the website of the Supreme Court. That caller also gave him a link http://www.main-scoi.in/,” the officer said.

“When the victim opened the link, an arrest warrant was shown in his name. Hence, he uploaded his bank details on that website. Soon after, the cyber conmen withdrew Rs 89.90 lakh from his account. The victim lodged an FIR on July 24 and we are investigating the matter,” she said.

The DSP did not reveal the name of the victim and said that four other FIRs had been registered in Muzaffarpur where fraudsters had used the same modus operandi to dupe people.

–IANS

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