Ronaldo seeks to avoid prison for tax fraud
Madrid: Real Madrid striker Cristiano Ronaldo will pay the money the Spanish Treasury demands if it withdraws its request for him to be given a prison sentence for an alleged tax fraud of 14.7 million Euros, Spanish media reported on Monday.
However, the Portuguese captain is not willing to admit he has committed any criminal offence..
The Treasury's petition last week for an eight year prison sentence for another former Real Madrid player, Xabi Alonso, for three cases of alleged fraud, totaling eight million Euros, provoked Ronaldo and his advisors to attempt to find a negotiated solution to the charges against him, rather than continuing to fight the case through the courts.
Until now Ronaldo, like Alonso, has strongly denied he committed fraud to avoid paying tax on earnings from image rights but his idea now is to offer the Treasury a "blank cheque" to avoid a prison term.
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Man sets fire to gas cylinder on truck in Kerala's Kottayam, held
Kottayam(Kerala) (PTI): A 33-year-old man climbed onto a parked truck carrying cooking gas cylinders and set fire to one of them near Thalayolaparambu in the small hours of Saturday, police said.
The incident occurred around 12.30 am, they said.
The fire and rescue personnel soon arrived at the scene and extinguished the fire, averting a major disaster.
According to police, the man is suspected to be under mental distress as he claimed that he was walking from Ernakulam to his home in Marangattupilly here when he saw the truck on the roadside.
An FIR under sections 329(3)(criminal trespass),324(2)(mischief),326(f)(mischief by injury, inundation, fire or explosive substance) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita was lodged against him.
Police said that the man was formally arrested, but will be released on station bail as the offences he is accused of are bailable.
"His family is here at the station and he will be released to them," the officer said.
In the FIR, police have said that the man opened the seal of one of the gas cylinders and set fire to it with the knowledge that his act was dangerous to those living in the area.
According to the company transporting the cooking gas cylinders, it suffered a loss of Rs 2,300 in the incident.
