Tamil Nadu CM Edappadi K Palaniswami
CHENNAI: Chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami on Tuesday announced a public holiday for Thaipoosam festival on January 28.
In a statement, the chief minister said he had received representations from the public when he toured several districts, seeking a public holiday for Thaipoosam festival as it is done in countries like Sri Lanka and Mauritius. “Considering the requests, I have ordered that a public holiday be declared for Thaipoosam on January 28 and that the festival be included in the list of public holidays in the coming years,” Palaniswami said.
Thaipoosam is a festival celebrated in honour of Tamil deity Murugan in Tamil Nadu. The festival is celebrated in Kerala too and in countries like Sri Lanka, Singapore, Malaysia, Mauritius and Indonesia, the CM said. Soon after the announcement, BJP state president L Murugan tweeted thanking the chief minister for accepting the request of his party to declare a public holiday.
COIMBATORE: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Wednesday arrested three more people, including an AIADMK student wing functionary, in connection with Pollachi sexual assault and extortion case.
The arrested trio have been identified as K Arulanantham, 34, of Vadugapalayam in Pollachi, T Heron Paul, 29, of Achipatti in Pollachi and P Babu alias Bike Babu, 27, of Vadugapalayam. Arulanantham is the Pollachi town secretary of AIADMK student wing. Following the arrest, he was removed from the party.
The accused were produced before a mahila court in Coimbatore. The court remanded them in judicial custody till January 20.
According to sources, the arrests were made following the statement of three rape survivors before a magistrate court a few weeks ago. “The survivors alleged that the arrested men along with N Sabarirajan alias Rishwanth abducted them in a car, sexually assaulted them and threatened to leak the footage,” the source said.
CHENNAI: Chennai airport customs seized 937g gold worth ₹48lakh on Saturday.
Based on intelligence inputs officers intercepted Mohamed Hashan Malique, of Ramanathapuram, who arrived from Dubai and recovered three bundles of gold weighing 880g from his rectum which on extraction yielded one gold ingot of 772g of 24k valued ₹40lakh.
In another case, Mohamed Asarudeen, of Nagapattinam, who arrived from Dubai was intercepted at the exit gate. On search, officers found one a pouch containing gold paste weighing 82g which on extraction yielded 72g gold of 24K purity, one cut bit weighing 57g and two gold plates weighing 36g.
A total of 165g of gold valued ₹8.4lakh was recovered and seized from him.
Anna University
CHENNAI: Raptee Energy, a startup which is developing electric motorcycles, has become the first startup to be incubated at Anna University. The university will provide working space, laboratory access, mentor support and connect with venture capitalists for the startup to build the product.
Anna Incubator, established with the support of Atal Innovation Mission, has selected 24 startups for pre-incubation course. The other 23 startups are in the final stage of pre-incubation programme. Unlike other players in the market, we are not trying to get components and assemble them. We are trying to build control units for electric vehicles, said Dinesh Ramkumar Venkatasamy, an alumni of Madras Institute of Technology, Chromepet, and co-founder of Raptee Energy.