Centre not taking steps for release of Nimisha Priya: K C Venugopal
Thiruvananthapuram, Jul 13 (PTI): AICC general secretary K C Venugopal on Saturday claimed that the central government was not taking any steps to intervene with the execution of Nimisha Priya, a nurse from the state convicted of murder in Yemen.
Venugopal contended that it was "sad" that the Centre was not showing any urgency in the matter despite the issue being brought to the attention of the Prime Minister and the External Affairs Ministry.
The AICC general secretary, who is also the MP from Alappuzha Lok Sabha constituency, said in a post on social media platform 'X' that the death sentence imposed on Priya was a "grave travesty of justice".
"She is a victim of unimaginable cruelty and domestic abuse on foreign soil, driven to the brink. She doesn’t deserve to die. I’ve written to the PM seeking urgent intervention to prevent her execution," he said in the post.
Meanwhile, prominent businessman Boby Chemmanur told a TV channel that he has collected Rs one crore towards blood money for the release of Priya and would be flying to Oman soon to meet the person who has promised to help in the negotiations for her release.
He said the funds were collected by the Boche Fans Charitable Trust and expressed that any additional money required would be provided by the Malayali community and the Nimisha Priya Action Council.
Kerala's ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) on Friday urged the central government to step in immediately to secure a commutation of her sentence.
Nimisha Priya, who hails from Kollengode in Palakkad district, was convicted in 2020 for the murder of a Yemeni man who had been her business partner.
The incident took place in July 2017. Her appeal was rejected by Yemen's Supreme Judicial Council in November last year, and the country's public prosecutor has now ordered that her sentence be carried out on Tuesday, July 16.
Priya is currently being held in Sana'a Central Prison.
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FIDE Women's World Cup final: Humpy draws with Divya in first game
Batumi (Georgia), Jul 26 (PTI): Young Indian International Master Divya Deshmukh held her nerves to hold stalwart Koneru Humpy to a draw in game 1 of the FIDE Women's World Cup final, with both players having their share of opportunities to take the lead here on Saturday.
The draw with black means Humpy, the two-time World Rapid champion, holds a slight edge going in the second and final game under the classical chess rules in the two-game mini-match, and should the deadlock continue, games of shorter duration will be played to determine the winner.
Humpy employed the Queen's gambit accepted as black and it turned out to be a pretty fascinating game right out of the opening as Divya, 19, came up with a piece sacrifice early to deny the black king the right to castle.
Humpy was the first to err and, according to computers, Divya had things under control on the 14th move. However in her bid to recover the extra material, the Nagpur girl, who has secured a place in the Candidates tournament with her sterling performance here, missed a promising continuation.
What followed the exchange of all minor pieces and the ensuing queen and rook endgame gave enough counter play to both players. The game was eventually drawn after Humpy sacrificed her rook to force perpetual checks.
"The game saw an extremely sharp battle with the game ending in a draw in 41 moves. On move 7, Divya made her aggressive intentions clear by offering another pawn,
which looked like home preparation. Humpy made a practical decision of refraining from taking the pawn and a balanced position was reached by move 10 by white," said Grandmaster Pravin Thipsay, an Arjuna awardee and the first Indian to get a chess Grandmaster norm.
"However, instead of developing the undeveloped Knight, Humpy retreated the centralised Knight on move 10, giving huge positional advantage to Divya. Divya could have gained huge positional advantage on the 12th move by moving a rook. However, she chose to play for King side attack by sacrificing a piece instead.
"Humpy, too, erred at this stage and instead of moving the King to Queen side, moved it to the King side. Divya, on move 14, could have obtained a crushing attack by threatening a mate by developing her Queen. Instead she chose to exchange a pair of Bishops first, which enabled Humpy to defend her King by returning the piece," said Thipsay.
"Players thus reached a balanced Queen and two Rooks ending. Divya continued to play ambitiously and tried to attack Humpy’s King but the latter defended accurately and the game was drawn in 41 moves by perpetual check," he added.
In the play-off for the third place, Chinese players Zhongyi Tan, the former women's world champion and top seed Lei Tingjie also decided to split points out of a Queen’s gambit declined game.
The opening raised visions of a close contest between the two but having been knocked out of title race in the previous round, none of them wanted to take any huge risk. It was still a middle game when the players shook hands.
With the top two positions sealed for the Indians, the berth to the next Candidates is also assigned, while the player finishing third will also get an entry to the premier event scheduled for 2026.
Results: Divya Deshmukh (Ind) drew with Koneru Humpy (Ind); Zhongyi Tan (Chn) drew with Tingjie Lei (Chn).
