Jan 20 news LIVE | Sabarimala gold theft case: ED conducts searches in Chennai

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is conducting searches within the premises of Chennai Ambattur Smart Creations, a company whose Chief Executive Officer, Pankaj Pandari, was previously arrested by the special investigation team in connection with the Sabarimala gold theft case.

Searches by the ED are underway in various locations in Kerala.

The Special Investigation Team (SIT) has arrested around 10 people so far in connection with the theft of gold plates from the Sabarimala Dwarapalaka statue.

The ED has registered a case for illegal money laundering and has been conducting an investigation.

The searches are taking place in Chennai’s Ambattur Estate among other areas.

Searches are also being conducted at the residence of Pathanraj Bhandari, who lives on the first floor of the KENT apartment complex on Ritherdon Road in Vepery, Chennai.

Nine MBBS students at Dehradun's Doon Medical College were on Monday (January 19) suspended and expelled from the hostel for allegedly ragging junior students.

The action against the MBBS students of the 2023 and 2024 batches was taken based on the recommendations made in the inquiry report of the Anti-Ragging Committee.

The committee found them guilty in the incident of assault on two junior students in the college hostel on January 12.

They said that two students have been suspended from classes for two months and expelled from the hostel and internship for the entire duration of their course. They have also been fined Rs 50,000 each.

The officials said that in addition, seven other senior students have been suspended from classes for one month and expelled from the hostel for three months.

An NRI professional on Monday (January 19) won her High Court appeal in London after a six-year battle for workplace fairness for women suffering from a chronic health condition.

Sanju Pal, a non-resident Indian from West Bengal, suffers from endometriosis and her case is expected to set a precedent on disability discrimination in the workplace related to the illness under the UK’s Equality Act 2010.

The 41-year-old was also challenging a controversial “up or out” progression-based model used to dismiss consultants for not being ready for promotion as unfair under the UK’s Employment Rights Act 1996.

“Ms Sanju Pal succeeds in appeal against (global management consulting firm) Accenture at the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT),” her lawyers said in a statement after the judgment was handed down.

The EAT concluded that an Employment Tribunal’s reasoning on disability discrimination due to endometriosis was “wholly inadequate” and therefore the decision cannot stand. “Her evidence that she was affected by endometriosis was supported by the medical evidence,” the EAT judgment reads.

“The Employment Tribunal also failed to consider whether the condition would continue to have substantial adverse effect on the claimant’s ability to undertake normal day-to-day activities absent medical treatment. The issue of disability will have to be considered entirely afresh,” it states.

Endometriosis is a condition causing pelvic pain that reportedly impacts around 1.5 million women in the UK.

The EAT concluded that the determinations that Pal was not disabled and that she was not subject to discrimination because of something arising in consequence of disability cannot stand, her lawyers highlight.

Having won her appeal on all grounds, the matter will be sent back to a newly constituted tribunal to ensure confidence that the issue of disability will be considered afresh. Pal’s case dates back to 2019, when she was dismissed as manager for alleged underperformance after not making promotion to senior manager level at management consulting firm Accenture (UK) Ltd.

She went on to challenge her dismissal at an Employment Tribunal, which upheld her unfair dismissal claim in May 2022 but awarded her just 4,275 pounds as a “basic award”.

A crackdown on demonstrators taking part in nationwide protests in Iran killed at least 4,029 people, activists said Tuesday (January 20).

The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency offered the toll, saying more than 26,000 people have been detained in the crackdown as well.

It said of the dead, 3,786 were demonstrators, 180 security forces, 28 children and 35 were people not demonstrating.

It fears many more may have been killed.

At least 40 people are confirmed dead in a high-speed rail collision in southern Spain on Sunday (January 18) night, when the tail end of a train jumped the track, causing another train speeding past in the opposite direction to derail.

Juanma Moreno, the president of Andalusia, the southern Spanish region where the accident happened, confirmed the new death toll in an afternoon press conference. Efforts to recover the bodies from the two wrecked train cars continued, he added.

The impact tossed the second train’s lead carriages off the track, sending them plummeting down a four-metre slope. Some bodies were found hundreds of metres from the crash site, Moreno said earlier in the day, describing the wreckage as a “mass of twisted metal” with bodies likely still to be found inside.

The crash took place Sunday at 7.45 pm when the tail end of a train carrying 289 passengers on the route from Malaga to the capital, Madrid, went off the rails. It slammed into an incoming train travelling from Madrid to Huelva, another southern Spanish city.

The head of the second train, which was carrying nearly 200 passengers, took the brunt of the impact. That collision knocked its first two carriages off the track.

Valentino Garavani, the jet-set Italian designer whose high-glamour gowns — often in his trademark shade of “Valentino red” — were fashion show staples for nearly half a century, has died at home in Rome, his foundation announced Monday. He was 93.

“Valentino Garavani was not only a constant guide and inspiration for all of us, but a true source of light, creativity and vision,” the foundation said in a statement posted on social media.

His body will repose at the foundation's headquarters in Rome on Wednesday and Thursday. The funeral will be held Friday at the Basilica Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri in Rome's Piazza della Repubblica.

Universally known by his first name, Valentino was adored by generations of royals, first ladies and movie stars, from Jackie Kennedy Onassis to Julia Roberts and Queen Rania of Jordan, who swore the designer always made them look and feel their best.

“I know what women want,” he once remarked. “They want to be beautiful.”

More than 100 vehicles smashed into each other or slid off the interstate in Michigan on Monday (January 19) as snow fuelled by the Great Lakes blanketed the state.

The massive pileup prompted the Michigan State Police to close a section of Interstate 196 while officials worked to remove all the vehicles, including more than 30 semitrailer trucks.

The State Police said there were numerous injuries, but no deaths had been reported. The crash is the latest impact of the major winter storm moving across the US.

Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar on Monday (January 19) indicated that the leadership issue involving him and CM Siddaramaiah has been discussed by the two leaders in the presence of the Congress high command, and they have arrived at a decision and that there was time for everything.

Time will answer everything, he said.

Shivakumar, who is also the state Congress President, asserted that he has the support of 140 ruling legislators, including CM Siddaramaiah.

His remarks came on his return from New Delhi, where he had been camping for the last couple of days. “I go (to Delhi) for politics and government work. There are reports in the newspapers and TV that I did not get an appointment with Rahul Gandhi and others. Can I keep showing you as to whom I met,” he said.

“One day you (media) show pictures of me sitting together and having discussion (with Congress leaders Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge), then there are reports that I couldn’t meet anyone,” Shivakumar said in response to a question on his visit to the national capital and meeting with Congress high command leaders.

Speaking to reporters, he said, “not wanting to speak about things, I’m quiet. But one thing is sure, time will answer everything. Other than that I will not discuss anything.”

The speculation has been fuelled by the reported “power-sharing” arrangement between Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar at the time of government formation in 2023.