Sri Lanka declares state of emergency to tackle disaster relief operations
Colombo(PTI): Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has declared a state of emergency throughout the island in view of the emergency situation that has emerged due to the devastation caused by floods.
According to an official gazette dated Friday and released on Saturday, the state of emergency has been declared throughout the island.
On Friday, at an all-party meeting, the opposition leaders called for the state of emergency to be declared. The doctors’ trade union in a letter addressed to Dissanayake underscored the need to impose a state of emergency.
The regulations are expected to expedite the process of relief coordination and rescue operations.
The need for speedy deployment of troops, police, the health sector, civil administration and the civil defence force to tackle the crisis situation is to be facilitated through the state of emergency, officials said.
Cyclone Ditwah on Saturday exited Sri Lanka that left more than 120 dead, amid a trail of destruction and damage to infrastructure, entering the south Indian coastal line, meteorological officials said.
“We noticed Ditwah exiting Sri Lanka and heading towards the Indian coast,” Athula Karunanayake, director general of the meteorology department, told reporters.
“However, its indirect impact with heavy rains and high speed winds will remain for some time,” he added.
The official death toll at 9 am was 123 while 130 remain missing, according to the Disaster Management Centre (DMC).
The figure is expected to be much higher as severely affected areas suffer communication breakdown due to bad weather which has hampered verification of the impact from the disaster.
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Three company directors held in Rs 100-crore investment fraud in Kochi
Kochi (Kerala) (PTI): Police on Sunday arrested three directors of a firm accused of cheating hundreds of investors of over Rs 100 crore through a fake investment scheme linked to agricultural tourism here, officials said.
The accused were identified as Muraleedharan, Ashik Murali and Akhil Murali, all natives of Thrissur.
The arrests were made by the Kalamassery police in connection with a fraud involving ATCOS (Agri Tourism Cooperative Society), a firm headquartered at Pathadipalam here.
Police said the company had promised high returns by collecting investments from the public in the agricultural tourism sector, but allegedly cheated hundreds of people and fled with the money.
ATCOS was registered under the Multi-State Cooperative Societies Act and operated 13 branches across various districts in Kerala, besides a branch in Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu, officials said.
When investors failed to receive their promised returns or the invested amount, complaints were filed with the police.
Officials said around 54 cases have been registered against the firm in 32 police stations across the state, including 29 cases at the Kalamassery police station alone.
Following instructions from Kochi City Police Commissioner K S Mahesh Kumar, a special investigation team was formed under the supervision of Deputy Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) Shehensha and Thrikkakara ACP Manoj Kumar.
The team traced the accused to an apartment in Amala Nagar in Thrissur, where they had been hiding after secretly renting the flat, officials said.
The bank accounts of the accused have been frozen, and steps have been initiated to trace their assets, officials said.
Police also conducted a raid at the company’s office at Pathadipalam and seized several documents related to the case.
The accused were produced before the Judicial First Class Magistrate Court in Kalamassery, which remanded them to judicial custody and sent them to Kakkanad jail.
Police said they would seek the custody of the accused for further interrogation as the investigation continues.
