madurai l saturday l march 02, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 14 l late city EDITION Google removes popular apps from play store over fee row The search giant on Friday started removing a few Indian apps from its Play Store for not paying platform fees. Google did not name them Ten companies avoided paying fees Dark day for net, says matrimony.com Google said many well-established Indian companies avoided paying fees despite benefiting from the platform. It wants companies using its Play Store to use its billing facility and remove other third party payment services. Google charges between 11%-26% as fee. Earlier a few companies protested, went to the Supreme Court, but did not get interim relief | P12 ■ ■ Matrimony.com founder Murugavel Janakiraman said the move was a ‘dark day’ for Internet in India. Kuku FM co-founder Vinod Kumar Meena said that Google was behaving like a ‘monopoly’ Internet and Mobile Association of India said as the case is pending before the Supreme Court, Google should not take coercive action 2,00,000 indian developers use Google’s play store CHENNAI ■ MADURAI ■ VIJAYAWADA ■ BENGALURU ■ KOCHI ■ HYDERABAD ■ VISAKHAPATNAM ■ COIMBATORE ■ KOZHIKODE ■ THIRUVANANTHAPURAM ■ BELAGAVI ■ BHUBANESWAR ■ SHIVAMOgGA ■ MANGALURU ■ TIRUPATI ■ TIRUCHY ■ TIRUNELVELI ■ SAMBALPUR ■ HUBBALLI ■ DHARMAPURI ■ KOTTAYAM ■ KANNUR ■ VILLUPURAM ■ KOLLAM ■ TADEPALLIGUDEM ■ NAGAPATTINAM ■ THRISSUR ■ KALABURAGI Bomb explosion in popular B’luru cafe leaves 10 injured Low-intensity ied used suspect dropped bomb-laden bag in cafe and left multiple teams formed to catch the culprit P r av e e n K u m a r @ Bengaluru TEN persons were injured as a low-intensity improvised explosive device (IED) went off at The Rameshwaram Cafe, a popular restaurant located in Kundalahalli on the ITPL Main Road in Bengaluru, on Friday at around 1 pm. There were no fatalities, but an injured woman has sustained 40% burns. According to police, a person came to the restaurant carrying an IED-laden bag and dropped it there. The explosion happened an hour later. The device is said to have been kept in a tiffin carrier inside a bag. The suspect took the token from the cashier and ate in the restaurant. He, then, placed the bag near the wash basin area and left. An hour later, it exploded, leaving 10 people, including customers and restaurant staff, injured. Panic gripped Green Avenue opposite Kundalahalli Colony, where the restaurant is located, as people ran helter-skelter. The CCTV footage showed two explosions within a few sec- The Rameswaram Cafe in Bengaluru moments after it was rocked by a lowintensity bomb explosion on Friday, as captured on CCTV | PTI onds apart. Initially it was sus, pected to be a blast due to a leaking LPG cylinder. However, after a thorough examination of the blast site, experts from the Bomb Detection & Disposal Squad and the Forensic Science Laboratory declared it a bomb blast as all the LPG cylinders were intact. Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar, who visited the spot with Home Minister G Paramaeshwara, said the suspect, aged 30-35 years, came in a bus. He ordered a plate of Rava Idli and ate it, before dropping his bag and leaving. Alok Mohan, Director General & Inspector General of Police of Karnataka, said Central agencies including the National Investigation Agency and Intelligence Bureau have been roped in for the investigation. The explosion site was filled with nuts and bolts and blood stains as several were injured. The roof of the restaurant was completely damaged. Smoke was visible for 500 metres. A woman sustained severe burns in the blast. Two senior citizens sustained injuries after broken glass pieces of the restaurant hit them. A restaurant worker also sustained injuries. All the injured are undergoing treatment in nearby private hospitals. Ramesh, a security guard at the restaurant, told TNIE that the explosion was so loud that he lost hearing for some time. “The sound was unbearable. I saw people running helter-skelter. The blast happened near the wash basin area, behind the hotel.” We have clues about the suspect and 7-8 Crime Branch teams have been formed. The culprit will be nabbed soon —D K Shivakumar, deputy CM No gas leak: Cafe Ruling out gas leak, the cafe’s MD Divya Raghavendra Rao said the cylinders are kept inside the kitchen. She said there was no lapse in security measures mother critical Three kids burnt to death in TN in suspected gas leak E x p r e s s N e w s S e r v i c e @ Chennai Tragedy struck a migrant family in Chengalpattu when three children, including a girl and a toddler, were charred to death in a fire caused by a suspected LPG leak in their house late on Thursday The children’s moth. er is critical with 60% burn injuries and is under treatment at the Kilpauk government hospital. The family hailing from Bihar, had , been living in Chengalpattu for the past six years. A case has been registered and an inquiry is on to ascertain the cause of the fire. The Chengalpattu town police identified the children as Raziya Parveen (7), Saif Ali (5), and one-and-ahalf-year-old Althaf. The mother Roji Koothon (24) was a homemaker while father Saddam (29) was a tea vendor at the Chengalpattu railway station. They were residing in a house located on a narrow lane on Periya Manikkara Street in Chengalpattu town. On Thursday evening, Saddam prepared tea at his house kitchen and left for the railway station as per his work schedule. Roji and the children went to a nearby market and returned home. As she turned on a switch in one of the rooms, fire allegedly broke out and quickly engulfed the room. A police officer said, “The family has a stove on the floor in one of the rooms in the house. The cylinder used for the stove is intact. We suspect that there was a gas leak from the stove and it had filled the entire room.” Continued on p5 Modi raps Mamata over Sandeshkhali P r a n a b M o n d a l @ Kolkata In a scathing attack on the ruling Trinamool Congress and its chief Mamata Banerjee at a rally on Friday Prime , Minister Narendra Modi alleged that they were insensitive to the atrocities and sexual assault on women in Sandeshkhali. “The entire nation is in dismay, in anger over what happened with our mothers and sisters in Sandeshkhali,” he said. Without naming TMC strongman Shahjahan Sheikh, who was arrested on Thursday, Modi indicated that the Sandeshkhali stir by the local women will be the BJP’s key poll plank for the Lok Sabha elections. Urging the women electorate across the state to respond decisively against the heinous acts by TMC leaders in the North 24 Parganas island, Modi said, “Every injury inflicted by TMC leaders in Sandeshkhali must be replied with a vote.” Later in the day, Mamata met Modi at Raj Bhavan. “I met the PM as part of protocol and courtesy she said af,” ter the meeting. In his rally at Arambagh in Hooghly Modi gave credit for , Sheikh’s arrest to the BJP’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaks during a public rally at Arambagh in Hooghly district on Friday | PTI functionaries in the state, saying they kept up pressure on the Bengal police. “For Didi (Mamata), political allegiance of certain individuals is more important than addressing the atrocities against women in Sandeshkhali,” Modi charged. Highlighting the alleged corruption in the recruitment in schools, municipalities and distribution in foodgrain, Modi assured that the looters would have to pay back. “Lootnewalo ko lautana parega, Modi chod ne wala nehi hai (Looters will have to refund, otherwise Modi will not spare them),” he war ned. Modi spent the night at Raj Bhavan as he is scheduled to address another rally in Krishnagar, Nadia, on Saturday .
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