No Khel Ratna, 17 names for Arjuna Tejaswin Shankar | AFP kottayam l wednesday l august 19, 2026 l `10.00 l PAGES 12 l city EDITION Chennai: The sports ministry on Tuesday announced the National Sports Awards. For the first time since 2014, no athlete will be bestowed Khel Ratna. Besides, a pruned list comprising 17 athletes was released for Arjuna Awards. Among those who were named for Arjuna Awards are World Cup winning chess player Divya Deshmukh and decathlete and high jumper Tejaswin Shankar 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 13, and 3 minor SC to form expert Girl,murder of herboys detained for grandfather panel to examine police excesses V a r s h a S o m a r a j @Kochi Committee to be announced today; protest hijacked by anti-socials, says Delhi Police a list of FIRs involving only students/ protesters. The court had sought the list of FIRs so THE Supreme Court on Tues- that it can consider invoking day said it will constitute a Article 142 to quash them, high-powered committee to ex- while cases involving those amine allegations of police ex- with serious criminal antecedcesses against student protest- ents can be dealt with separateers on July 20 in Delhi. ly It asked all parties to suggest . A bench of CJI Surya Kant priority issues and terms of and justices Joymalya Bagchi reference of the panel. It also pointed out that the aland V Mohana said an order constituting the committee, legations concerning sexual assault, molestation and comprising retired online harassment of judges, a former DGP, women and other vulan ex-CBI director and nerable persons will others, will be passed Committee to on Wednesday after comprise eminent also be examined. The court said constitutiongetting suggestions persons. We are from political parties considering former al questions concernon additional mem- senior police/CBI ing facial recognition officers among its technology, surveilbers to be included. members ... lance, allegations of The court said it will direct that video foot- Supreme Court-bench sexual assault and onage and CCTV record- led by CJI Surya Kant line harassment of women will ultimately ings of the violence during the July 20 Parliament be decided by the court itself, march be handed over to the and not by the committee. The Delhi Police strongly depanel for examination. The fended the use of force during matter relates to allegations of excessive force used by Delhi the Parliament protest on July Police during the protest at 20, telling the court that the agitation was hijacked by “antiJantar Mantar. During the hearing, CJI Kant social elements”. In an affidasaid the committee can submit vit filed by DCP Sachin Sharma interim reports on urgent is- of New Delhi, police said the sues instead of waiting for a protest “led to a breakdown of final report. The bench also in- law and order in which 240 perdicated that states can submit sonnel were injured”. s u c h i t r a k a lya n m o h a n t y @ New Delhi A 13-year-old girl and three minor boys were detained on Tuesday for the murder of a 65-year-old man, who was found dead at his residence at Karuvatta in Alappuzha the day before. Police said the girl, granddaughter of the deceased, Sivankutty Chettiyar, planned the robbery-murder and remained on video call with her boyfriend as he and his friends killed him. Sivankutty’s body was found with his hands and legs tied at the back with bedsheets and clothes. As per the autopsy, he was smothered to death. Six sovereigns of gold and cash were stolen from the house. “Sivankutty was found with injuries that caused internal bleeding. However, the cause of death was smothering,” District Police Chief T K Vishnu Pradeep told TNIE. The police said the case initially appeared to be a robbery gone wrong. “However, contradictions in the girl’s statements changed the direction of the investigation. Situational evidence and statements helped lead us to theculprits,” Kayamkulam DySP Rajappan Rauthar said. The police have arraigned the girl as the first accused, and her boyfriend, a Plus-II student from Paravur in Kollam, as the second accused. The other two accused are his friends, both aged 17. Preliminary probe points to financial gain as the motive. As per the police, the girl reportedly wanted an iPhone while the boys were in need of money to buy a motorcycle. However, the police are also checking a revenge angle after the boys told them that the girl had complained to boyfriend that Sivankutty had touched her inappropriately and that she ● More on P4 wanted him killed.  CM launches Mission Samudra, I-T heat on 394 entities EXIM operations at Vizhinjam sending money abroad E x p r e s s Ne w s Se r v i c e @T’Puram D IPAK MON D AL @ New Delhi Marking a new chapter in Kerala’s development, Chief Minister V D Satheesan on Tuesday launched the state g ove r n m e n t ’s a m b i t i o u s project, Mission Samudra, and the export-import (EXIM) operations at Vizhinjam International Seaport. Mission Samudra seeks to integrate Kerala’s 600-km coastline, two international seaports and 17 minor ports into a unified maritime zone, with the aim of turning the state into a global logistics and manufacturing hub. The move puts Kerala on the global maritime logistics map and opens a new gateway between India and the world, THE income tax department has launched a nationwide campaign against suspicious outward foreign remittances, focusing on shell companies, persons behind them, and professionals associated with them. It has identified 394 entities that transferred large amounts outside India over the past three years, including 117 entities located in states along India’s land borders. It has also identified 36 professionals for scrutiny . The tax department said on Tuesday that it has uncovered a nationwide network of entities engaged in remitting funds abroad during a search operation targeting a group of ficti- Chief Minister V D Satheesan interacts with Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone CEO Ashwani Gupta and Vizhinjam Inter-national Sea Port Limited MD Geromic George before the inauguration of the port’s EXIM operations | Albin Mathew Satheesan said after the launch. Union Minister for Ports, Shipping and Waterways Sarbananda Sonowal, who was scheduled to deliver the keynote address, was conspicuously absent. Calling Vizhinjam the coun- try’s first automated, algorithm-driven port using artificial intelligence, the chief minister said Kerala should leverage its strengths, including academics, through Mis● More on P4 sion Samudra.  tious charitable trusts involved in providing accommodation entries against bogus donations and contributions. Preliminary ground verification found that many of such entities had either filed no income-tax returns at all or filed returns reporting very small turnovers. “The turnovers had no apparent correlation with the large amounts of money being remitted abroad,” it said, adding that the transactions did not appear to match the stated purposes of the remittances, including payments for freight, software imports and consulting services. It was also found that some of these entities were not operating from the addresses declared by them.