FP The publishers permit sharing of the e-paper's pdf on WhatsApp and other social media platforms FREE PRESS Vol. 15 No. 182 | BHOPAL | SUNDAY | DECEMBER 14, 2025 | Pages 16 ` 4 | Regd. No. Indore MP/ICD 216/2024-2026 | RNI No. mpeng/2010/35815 www.freepressjournal.in Sports Welder’s son spikes his way to glory P.15 ESTD-1983 iii QUALITY @ VALUE EDITIONS: BHOPAL WORLD Int’l troops deployment in Gaza early next year UJJAIN PUNE INDORE NASHIK Cinema ‘We use them to promote our… P.13 WHAT A MESS(I)! Aritra Singha KO;LKATA SC questions 180-day seizure powers of ED Questions non-judicial oversight, seeks Centre’s reply Agencies NEW DELHI Disappointed fans expressing their displeasure with the alleged poor management during (inset) Argentine footballer Lionel Messis G.O.A.T India Tour 2025, at Salt Lake Stadium in Kolkata on Saturday Khan, who had been invited to the programme, also returned from the airport without attending the event. Taking to X, Chief Minister Banerjee expressed shock over the incident and apologised to Messi and his fans. She announced the formation of an enquiry committee headed by retired Justice Ashim Kumar Ray, with the failed to ensure proper security. “I spent `12,000 but couldn’t even see Messi,” he said. Haris Swamy from Kerala said he waited outside the stadium all Friday night only to be disappointed. Several fans protested outside the Hyatt hotel where Messi was staying, demanding the arrest of Sports Minister Aroop Biswas. Notably, Messi 20 US states sue Trump over ‘unlawful talent tax’ States warn steep Lawmakers seek to end India tariffs WASHINGTON: Three US House members have introvisa fee will duced a resolution to revoke President Donald Trump’s national emergency tariffs of up to 50% on Indian imports, cripple schools, calling them illegal and harmful. The move targets addihospitals & global tional duties imposed under emergency powers, arguing they disrupt supply chains, raise consumer costs, and competitiveness damage US-India ties. The controversy over the H1B visa programme has erupted anew after the Trump administration imposed a staggering $100,000 fee on new applications, prompting a lawsuit by 20 US states led by California. California Attorney General Rob Bonta termed the move “un- lawful, arbitrary and against public interest,” arguing that the administration bypassed Congress to enforce the unprecedented hike. Filed against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the lawsuit challenges a September presidential directive that applies to all H-1B petitions submitted after September 21. Earlier, total Tiger carcass found in Chandia range had virtually inaugurated his statue at Lake Town earlier. Meanwhile, the main organiser was arrested. Director General of Police Rajeev Kumar said the unrest stemmed from fans’ anxiety over Messi not playing. He confirmed that ticket refunds would be issued and that the situation was now under control. Vessel with Indian crew seized by Iran Agencies TEHRAN visa fees ranged between $1,000 and $7,500, making the new charge the steepest in US immigration history. The states contend that the policy violates the Administrative Procedure Act by sidestepping mandatory public notice and consultation. Iran has seized a foreign-registered oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman and detained 18 crew members, alleging it was carrying six million litres of smuggled diesel fuel. The seizure took place on December 12, according to Iranian state media Tasnim News, citing judiciary officials from Hormozgan province. The vessel’s name and flag state have not been officially disclosed. Provincial judiciary chief Mojtaba Ghahremani said the tanker ignored orders to stop and attempted to flee. 4Continued on | P8 4Continued on | P8 Agencies WASHINGTON The Supreme Court on Thursday sought the Centre’s response to a petition challenging the Enforcement Directorate’s power under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) to seize and retain property for up to 180 days without prior judicial scrutiny. The plea was filed by a sitting Karnataka MLA whose assets were allegedly frozen without an opportunity to contest the action. A Bench of Justices PS Narasimha and AS Chandurkar issued notice and tagged the case with pending challenges to the constitutionality of the PMLA adjudication framework. Justice Narasimha flagged a potential flaw in the law, questioning how a nonjudicial Adjudicating Authority could decide complex issues involving property rights and constitutional safeguards. Senior Advocates Mukul Rohatgi and Ranjit Kumar argued that Sections 20 and 21 of the PMLA allow the ED to operate unchecked for six months without recording or disclosing “reasons to believe.” They also questioned the structure of the Adjudicating Authority, which currently consists of a single, nonlegally trained member for the entire country. Chief Secretary and Additional Chief Secretary (Home and Hill Affairs) as members, to investigate the incident, fix responsibility and recommend preventive measures. Fans vented their anger over alleged profiteering and poor arrangements. Bablu Roy told Free Press that water bottles were sold at `200, compared to `20 outside, and said police IANS Our Staff Reporter A tiger was found dead in Chandia range situated near Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve in Umaria district on Saturday. The dog squad has identified suspects and investigation is underway. An Umaria forest range official said a tiger was seen lying motionless in Chandia range by the patrolling staff. The dog squad help was taken and sniffer dogs reached till some suspects. The post-mortem report will reveal the actual cause of death. Govt writes to Centre for IAS officer Verma’s termination MILESTONE The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has scripted a political milestone in Kerala by emerging as the single largest force in the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation, signalling a major shift in the State’s local body politics. For the first time, the lotus has bloomed in the capital’s civic body, long considered a stronghold of the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF). In the newly expanded 101member Thiruvananthapuram Corporation, the BJP-led NDA PM Narendra Modi hailed the BJP-led NDA’s emergence as the single largest force in Thiruvananthapuram Corporation as a “watershed moment”, saying Kerala voters had rejected the LDF-UDF duopoly and endorsed the BJP’s development vision for the State’s future. secured 50 seats, reaching the halfway mark. The LDF won 29 seats, the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) 19, while Independents took two. Our Staff Reporter The state government has sent a proposal to the union ministry of personnel, public grievances and pensions for termination of Santosh Kumar Verma from service and withdrawal of the IAS award given to him. To note, Verma was removed as deputy secretary, agriculture and shifted to the general administration department (GAD) pool in the wake of his controversial remark against Brahmin girls. GAD has written a letter to the secretary, ministry of personnel, public grievances and pensions, drawing his attention towards the government receiving various memorandums from different social organisations, employee unions and elected representatives against Verma. In these memorandums, a demand has been raised that Verma should be terminated from the Indian Administrative Services. Along with this, GAD has also written about the case in which Verma is accused of forging court order to show his acquittal in a criminal case and getting promoted to IAS from State Administrative Services (SAS). The letter explained that his name was included among those under consideration for promotion from SAS to IAS cadre in 2019. 4Continued on | P8 Agencies A Spanish woman has lost her job after repeatedly turning up to work far earlier than her scheduled shift, a habit that eventually escalated into a legal battle. The 22-year-old employee had been coming into office around 6.45 am despite her of- ficial 7.30 am start and had been warned for more than a year to stop doing so, the Daily Mail reported. However, she continued coming to the office at the same time even after her employer had made it clear that she was not allowed to come in early and had no assigned duties at that hour. Tired of her refusal to fol- low instructions led, the company classified her behaviour as serious misconduct. Managers argued that the issue wasn’t enthusiasm, but defiance as she was repeatedly Our Staff Reporter BHOPAL The security of Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has been stepped up. The Union Home Ministry wrote to the Chief Secretary to beef up the security of Chouhan a month ago, and afterwards, his security has been enhanced. In the letter, the Union Home Ministry said that according to the input of the central security agencies, ISI of Pakistan had gathered information about Chouhan. The security of Chouhan should be enhanced before any untoward incident takes place, the letter indicated. Chouhan has already been provided with Z-plus security. After receiving instructions from the Union Home Ministry, barricades have been put up outside his B 74 governmental THE THREAT There are two reasons for the threat to Shivraj Singh Chouhan from Pakistan s ISI. During Chouhan's tenure as chief minister, the police shot dead some SIMI terrorists who tried to escape from the Bhopal central jail. Afterwards, the issue of enhancing Chouhan s security was discussed. The other reason that forced the government to step up Chouhan s security was that ISI was collecting input about some important politicians of the state. Chouhan s name is on the list. BARRICADES RAISE DUST Putting barricades outside Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s residence has raised political dust. Many people said Chouhan might get an important position at the centre. But in a few minutes, it came to light that he received threat from Pakistan’s ISI. residence in Bhopal. Barricades have also been put up outside the main gate of his bungalow. 4Continued on | P8 Yadav, with a team of officers, will be there from Dec 19 to 23 Nitendra Sharma Forum plans BHOPAL to build ties Chief Minister Mohan Yadav is with state govt leaving for Davos in Switzerland next month to participate in the World Economic Forum (WEF). Its meeting is held every year in Davos. The theme of the meet is A Spirit of Dialogue. Yadav will be in the conference from January 19 to 23. A team of officers, consisting of the Additional Chief Secretary of CM’s Secretariat (ACS), Neeraj Mandloi; ACS of the Renewable Energy Manu Shrivastava; Principal Secretary (PS) of Industries Depart- Polling in one Vizhinjam ward was postponed due to the death of a candidate. In the outgoing corporation, the BJP had only 35 seats, underscoring the scale of its gains. State BJP president Rajeev Chandrasekhar described the result as “game over for the Left” in the capital and said Kerala politics was heading towards a BJP-Congress contest. He asserted that the party’s “Viksithu Keralam” vision was resonating with voters ahead of the Assembly elections. 4Continued on | P8 offgrid ignoring explicit orders rather than performing useful work. She was eventually dismissed. Upset over her company’s decision, the woman challenged the firing in the Social Court of Alicante, insisting the company had acted unfairly. But the court heard that she maintained the same routine despite multiple warnings. At times, she also attempted to Security enhanced a month after receiving UHM letter CM to visit Davos on invitation from WEF Woman fired for arriving too early to office in Spain MADRID ISI threat: Security beefed up at Chouhan’s Bhopal residence BHOPAL Lotus blooms in Kerala, surprise win in Thrissur signals major shift THIRUVANANTHAPURAM/THRISSUR BHOPAL E-paper Naton SIT names former BJP MLA in... P.7 KOLKATA ASHAMED| Salt Lake Stadium was vandalised by fans who were left dejected after not being able to catch a glimpse of Lionel Messi Chants of “Messi, Messi” echoed across the Salt Lake Stadium on Friday as football icon Lionel Messi arrived in Kolkata for the first leg of his three-day India tour. Thousands of fans, some of whom reportedly paid up to Rs 15,000 for tickets, gathered in hope of catching a glimpse of their idol. However, the excitement soon turned into anger as widespread mismanagement marred the event. Most spectators were unable to see Messi inside the stadium as he was surrounded by politicians, celebrities, their families and paparazzi. Frustrated fans booed the organisers and began throwing bottles and chairs. As tempers flared, parts of the stadium infrastructure were vandalised, forcing organisers of the “G.O.A.T Tour” to quickly escort Messi away from the venue. After Messi’s exit, chaos escalated further. Angry fans stormed the ground and set fire to sofas and canopies erected for VVIP guests. Police personnel struggled to control the situation and were forced to resort to a lathicharge to disperse the crowd. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s convoy, which was en route to the stadium, turned back as the situation spiralled out of control. Bollywood actor Shah Rukh MUMBAI log into the company’s app before arriving at the workplace. According to The Daily Mail report, the court upheld the dismissal, and emphasised that the issue had nothing to do with “arriving too early”. It had everything to do with refusing to follow workplace rules, a violation covered under Article 54 of the Workers’ Statute. ment Raghvendra Singh; PS of the Technical Education Department Manish Singh; and the Managing Director of the MP Industries Development Corporation, Chandramauli Shukla, will accompany him to Davos. The World Economic Forum has said that as the International Organisation for Public-Private Cooperation, it will build a personalised agenda with the state government to ensure a greater impact. Since the public-private dialogue is the basis of greater resilience, the meeting will bring together major governments, international organisations, and global companies. 4Continued on | P8 4Continued on | P8 No ceasefire with Cambodia, fighting to continue, says Thai PM Evacuees sit on the ground as they take refuge in Banteay Menchey, Cambodia on Saturday Agencies BANGKOK Thailand’s Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul on Saturday said there was no ceasefire agreement with Cambodia and warned that Thai forces would continue military operations along the disputed border, contradicting claims by US President Donald Trump that hostilities had ended. Anutin’s statement came amid intense fighting despite Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, a key mediator, urging both sides to halt violence from Saturday evening. Cambodia has not confirmed any ceasefire. Thailand’s Defence Ministry said four Thai soldiers were killed on Saturday in the Chong An Ma area, taking the death toll among Thai troops to 14 since clashes erupted on Monday. Across both countries, more than 20 people have been killed, nearly 200 wounded, and an estimated 600,000 displaced along the 800-km Thailand–Cambodia border, where tensions centre on disputed ancient temples. “Thailand will continue military actions until there is no threat to our land and people,” Anutin said in a Facebook post. 4Continued on | P8