Chennai:

In a brazen attack, the Tamil Nadu chief of the Bahujan Samaj Party was hacked to death by six bike-borne men near his house in Chennai on Friday. 

The six men attacked Armstrong when he was having a discussion with a few party functionaries near his house in the city’s Sembium area and then fled. The family rushed him to a hospital, but he was declared brought dead.

Police officials said this could be a revenge murder, linked to the killing of a gangster, Arcot Suresh, last year. A senior police officer told NDTV, “We are conducting an investigation. The murder seems to be linked to an earlier killing.” 

Some reports said the attackers posed as food delivery agents, but police are yet to confirm this.

The Sembium inspector of police has been tasked with cracking the case. 

The opposition has hit out at the ruling DMK in Tamil Nadu and said the killing is evidence of the deteriorating law and order situation in the state. 

Leader of Opposition Edappadi Palaniswamy said, “What do I say when the state chief of a national party is murdered? The law and order is shameful. There is no fear of law or the police”.

A lawyer, Armstrong was elected to the Chennai Corporation Council in 2006. He shot to fame after he organised a mega rally in Chennai two years ago and invited BSP chief Mayawati.

Chennai:

In a big seizure, the Narcotics Control Bureau in Chennai has recovered 1.8 kg of cocaine and 1.4 kg of MDMA (ecstasy), busting a pan-India network. The consignment, authorities said, is worth Rs 22 crore in the international market. 

A statement by NCB Chennai Zonal Director P Aravindhan said the cocaine was seized from a Bolivian woman passenger when she landed in Chennai on May 9. The drug was found “concealed inside her woollen jacket”. Further investigation led to the arrest of two women – an Indian and a Brazilian – in Mumbai and the recovery of an additional 15 gm of cocaine from the house of the accused.

As part of another joint operation with the Customs Department, the NCB intercepted a parcel from the Netherlands with 1.4 kg of MDMA. Investigators also tracked down and arrested two Nigerians, in Puducherry and Bengaluru, who they suspect were supposed to receive the contraband. 

In March, a film producer and former DMK functionary, Jaffer Sadiq, had been arrested after a four-month manhunt, for allegedly smuggling drugs worth over Rs 2,000 crore out of the country.  The DMK, which is the ruling party in Chennai, had expelled Sadiq and distanced itself from him. 

Chennai:

An Indian heart has given new life to a young woman from Karachi in Pakistan, and her family, after a transplant surgery at Chennai’s MGM Healthcare. And that is only half of this remarkable story; the surgeons, and the hospital, performed the procedure free, thanks to the city-based Aishwaryan Trust.

19-year-old Ayesha Rashan, the transplant recipient, wants to study fashion design. Her family said they could not have afforded the operation without the support of the trust and the Chennai doctors.

“I feel good after the transplant,” Ms Rashan told NDTV as her mother thanked the doctors, the hospital, and the medical trust. Ms Rashan’s condition is stable, and she can return to Pakistan.

According to the doctors, Ms Rashan was admitted with severe heart dysfunction.

Following heart failure, she was put on ECMO, which is a form of life support for people with life-threatening illness or injury that affects the function of their heart or lungs.

However, her heart pump then developed a leak in a valve, necessitating a full heart transplant.

A heart transplant can cost over Rs 35 lakh. In Ms Rashan’s case, this bill was covered by the doctors and the trust.

The donor heart came from Delhi, and the young girl was lucky, Dr KR Balakrishnan, Director (Institute of Heart and Lung Transplant), and Dr Suresh Rao (Co-Director (Institute of Heart and Lung Transplant), told NDTV.

They said Ms Rashan received the heart rapidly since there were no competing claims as otherwise a foreigner can’t get an organ.

“She is like my daughter… every life matters,” the doctors said, underlining Chennai’s status as the “capital of organ donation and transplant surgery”.

Tamil Nadu leads in organ donation and transplants, thanks to pro active initiatives decades ago.

The doctors also made an appeal to the government for a better policy as in other states they say several viable donated  organs were being discarded because of the high cost of transplant surgery, which cannot be afforded by most people in the country.

READ | Act Against Hospitals Involved In Illegal Transplant, States Told

These high costs make transplant surgeries a rich field of opportunities for criminals, and, in this regard, the central government this week asked all states and UTs to investigate all possible violations and take action, including suspending licenses of hospitals that perform illegal transplants.

Vladivostok:

Russia has shown interest in sending a business delegation to Chennai to explore business opportunities, including developing an alternative maritime route between Vladivostok and the southern metropolis.

This was conveyed to Union Minister of Ports, Shipping, and Waterways Sarbananda Sonowal during a meeting in Vladivostok with a Russian delegation led by Sergey Mochalnikov, Deputy Minister of Energy Minister, Russian Federation, and Maxim Reshetnikov from the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation, an official statement said.

Mr Sonowal also extended an invitation for an Indo-Russian workshop on the Eastern Maritime Corridor in Chennai to provide a common meeting ground among the port authorities of Russia Far East and India, Russian railways, logistics and shipping companies of both countries, coking coal trade transporters of India and Russia among others.

The Russian government expressed their desire to visit the Chennai port with a large business delegation to explore opportunities and possibilities through bilateral discussions, the statement said.

Speaking on the occasion, the union minister said the operationalisation of Eastern the Maritime Corridor (EMC) will usher in a new era of trade relationship between India and Russia.

“Under the visionary leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India remains firmly committed to making innovative solutions that will enhance and further foster the strong bilateral relationship between our two great nations.

“As our teams hedged their effort for early operationalisation of EMC, the visit to Vladivostok, Vostochny, Nakhodka, and Kozmino was particularly helpful. Taking this forward, I propose a workshop of all stakeholders at Chennai in India and extend our invitation to this workshop where we can meet, interact and discuss for smooth and swift operationalisation of EMC,” he said.

Sonowal was addressing the session aimed at forging possibilities for early operationalisation of EMC as an alternative trade route between the Russian port city of Vladivostok and Chennai.

The workshop is proposed to take place from October 30 to November 1, 2023, in Chennai.

Referring to India’s maritime programme and its flagship programme Sagarmala, Sonowal said in 2015, the transformative flagship initiative of Sagarmala was launched with the objective of boosting India’s logistics sector performance, by unlocking the full potential of India’s coastline and waterways.

The vision of Sagarmala is to reduce logistics costs for both domestic and EXIM cargo with optimised infrastructure investment through port-led development, he said.

Currently, there are 802 projects worth investment of more than $65 billion for implementation under the Sagarmala project by 2035. Out of which, 228 projects worth $14.6 billion have been completed and 260 projects worth $27 billion are under implementation.

Further, 314 projects worth $24 billion are under various stages of development. Further, under the holistic development of coastal districts, a total of 567 projects with an estimated cost of around $7 billion have been identified.

The Eastern Maritime Corridor is estimated to reduce the time required to transport cargo between Indian and Russian Ports of the Far East region by up to 16 days, i.e., 24 days in comparison to over 40 days currently taken to transport goods from India to Far East Russia via Europe.

The present trade route between Mumbai in India and St. Petersburg in Russia covers a distance of 8,675 nautical miles which takes approximately 35 to 40 days. The Chennai-Vladivostok sea route (EMC) will cover a distance of about 5,600 nautical miles. A large container ship that travels at the normal cruising speed of 20-25 knots (37-46 km/hour), will be able to cover this distance in approximately 10 to 12 days.

This corridor holds immense potential to unlock new opportunities for trade and cooperation, the statement said. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)