Kolkata: Kerala beat Bengal via the tie-breaker to claim its sixth Santosh Trophy title at the Salt Lake Stadium here on Sunday. In a keenly-contested final, Kerala missed umpteen chances to let the match remain undecided at 2-2 after extra time.
However, the Satheevan Balan-coached side rode on two saves by keeper V. Midhun to win the penalty shoot-out 4-2 and emerge champion after 14 years.
Kerala banked on its robust gameplan to keep Bengal at bay in the first half.
The host showed aggression but Ankit Mukherjee and Jitin Murmu failing to capitalise on good chances.
While Kerala marked the Bengal players tightly, the home team valued ball possession.
Nevertheless, Kerala showed its perfected art of scoring off counter-attacks. S. Seesan precise long ball set up an unmarked M.S. Jithin, who ran unchallenged into the Bengal box before beating goalkeeper Ranajit Majumder in the 19th minute. Bengal's steady moves earned it a few opportunities but hit a compact wall built by Rahul V. Raj, Vibin Thomas and S. Lijo.
Dead-ball specialist Tirthankar Sarkar's aerial attempt was collected by Midhun and Bidyashagar Singh's effort from close was saved by an alert G. Sreerag.
Kerala found a few more chances, but Jithin Gopalan could not connect one from the edge of the box and V.K. Afdal shot over the bar to waste a superb move crafted by P.C. Anurag on the right and M.S. Jithin on the left.
A wasteful Kerala allowed Bengal to fight back in the second half as Anurag missed a sitter after receiving a fine pass from M.S. Jithin.
Bengal’s efforts bore fruit in the 68th minute. Substitute Rajon Barman worked his way up on the right, squared it up inside the area for Murmu to strike high into the net.
Even as Bengal maintained pressure, Kerala had its chances. However, Jithin Gopalan could not score off a rebound while Afdal hurried on a shot and the action stretched into extra time.
After Bengal lost Barman to a red card for crashing into the rival ’keeper while crafting a move, Kerala scored through Thomas. He rose high to head in a Jestin George cross from the left.
Tirthankar's low left-footer free-kick from just outside the box beat Midhun in the dying moments to take the match into the shoot-outs.
The result: Kerala 2 (M.S. Jithin 19, Vibin Thomas 116) bt Bengal 2 (Jiten Murmu 68, Tirthankar Sarkar 120); Shoot-out: [Kerala 4 (Rahul V. Raj, Jithin Gopalan, Jestin George, S. Seesan) bt Bengal 2 (Tirthankar, Sanchayan Samadder).
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Bengaluru, Nov 5: The Karnataka Wine Merchants’ Association has alleged that the Excise Minister R B Thimmapur’s office has collected Rs 16 crore from various excise department officers by transferring them in and around Bengaluru.
While the Minister refuted the allegation, the opposition BJP got new ammunition to target the ruling Congress.
In a letter to the Karnataka Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot, Chief Secretary and the Karnataka Lokayukta, the Association alleged that the Minister's office is involved in rampant corruption.
“Huge bribes and money laundering took place in the excise minister office in Bengaluru in transferring excise officers and to control illegal collection of money for election purposes from excise officials,” the letter sent by mail read.
Explaining further, the Association said about Rs 16 crore has been collected on a single day from three deputy commissioners of excise, nine excise superintendents, 13 deputy superintendents of excise and 20 excise inspectors “for transferring in and around Bengaluru from past 2 to 3.5 years, as their tenure was getting completed within a month.”
Naming a deputy commissioner, the letter said the officer was collecting money somewhere between Rs 25 lakh to Rs 40 lakh from each officer for transferring them.
The Association said Rs 2.5 crore to Rs three crore was collected from deputy commissioners (excise) working in Bengaluru.
The association has demanded action against those involved "in this corruption."
“No such thing has happened. You must ask them why they went to pay money. Why would anyone pay if everything is correct?” Thimmapur told reporters at Shiggaon in Haveri district.
He also assured to take action against officers if they have collected money.
“The matter is that when these people (wine merchants) do something wrong then they (officers) harass them. The wine merchants should rectify themselves,” the Minister said.
The Leader of Opposition in the Assembly, R Ashoka alleged that there was a Rs 700 crore liquor scam in the state.
“The Karnataka Wine Merchants’ Association in its letter to CM @Siddaramaiah has alleged that State Excise Minister R B Timmapur is involved in blatant extortion and bribery, unfolding another dark episode of the series of scams by 'SCAM'gress Govt in Karnataka,” he said in a post on ‘X’.
He said the Association has alleged that CL7 bar licences were given after collecting a bribe amount of anywhere between Rs 30 lakh to Rs 70 lakh each by the Minister.
In the last one year, 1,000 such illegal licences were given by the excise minister, amounting to Rs 300 crore to Rs 700 crore in corruption, Ashoka alleged.
“After the Maharshi Valmiki ST Development Corporation Scam, MUDA land scam, KIADB land scam, Waqf Scam, this Liquor scam is yet another fresh addition to the series of scams by CM Siddaramaiah led Congress Government in the last 17 months,” the BJP leader alleged.