Palakkad: A 35-year-old tribal man was beaten to death by the locals for allegedly stealing articles from some shops at Agali in Palakkad, Kerela, police said.

The deceased, suspected to be mentally unsound, was identified as Madhu, hailing from Kadukumanna settlement of Attappady, one of the largest and backward tribal hamlets in the state.

The shabbily dressed man, who was living in the forest near Mukkali for some months, used to be seen wandering in the area, police said. He was beaten up by the local people, who accused him of stealing articles from some shops in the town, and later handed him over to the police on Thursday.

Some television channels aired visuals purportedly showing people taking selfies with Madhu with his hands tied up. Though, the police tried to rush him to the nearby Agali government hospital, he vomited, collapsed and died in the jeep itself and was declared by dead by the hospital, police said.

Agali police has registered a case and some persons have been taken into custody, they said.

“They are being interrogated and the arrest will be recorded after verification,” a senior police officer told news agency PTI.

Police said the post mortem would be conducted at the Thrissur Medical College hospital later, only after which the exact cause of the death will be known. However, Madhu’s relatives told Malayalam channels that he was suffering from a mental breakdown and was staying away from home for some months. They also wanted exemplary punishment to the guilty.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan condemned the incident and said stringent action would be taken against the accused. Directions in this regard have been given to the director general of police, he said. “Such violence cannot be accepted in a civilised society. It cannot be accepted in anyway,” Vijayan said in a Facebook post.

The Thursday’s incident is the third mob attack reported in Kerala in the past few weeks.

Earlier in February, a transgender was harassed and stripped by a mob in Thiruvananthapuram.

In January, a mentally unstable woman was beaten and tortured by three women in front of a crowd in Pallipuram. Her feet were burnt with an iron ladle. When a mobile video of the assault was circulated on social media, the police filed a case against the women.

(Agencies)

Swing it like Irfan as the ace cricketer’s ‘Swing clinic’, Cricket Academy of Pathans (CAP), opens its door to mould the next generation of India’s bowling superstars at its first cricket coaching centre in the South, in Bangalore on Saturday, February 17, 2018. The 10th academy of CAP was launched with ace cricketer Mr. Irfan Pathan at a press conference held at the academy located at Haralur Road here today.

The CAP will provide budding cricketers an ideal platform to hone their skills, while rubbing shoulders and playing along with some of the biggest names in the global arena. With the right techniques and guidance from expert coaches, the Pathan brothers-Irfan and Yusuf launched these academies 2 years back to return their love for the game.

“Cricket is 80% mental and 20% physical,” says superstar cricketer and CAP director, Irfan Pathan.

“We have no dearth of talent in India. It’s just that they need to be mentored, trained and guided in the right direction. Our coaches work with chosen players to offer personalised and specialised mentoring to develop techniques that help build confidence and self-belief. So that when you take your guard or mark your run-up in the big arena, you feel right at home,” said Mr Pathan.

The academy caters to both boys and girls- from age 6 to 21. There are various coaching modules starting from introductory module and goes up to 7 modules and each module has effectively a duration of 4 months. There is special emphasis on Sports Science including talks on nutrition and diet plans given to each student. The academy also has on its panel physiotherapists and psychologists catering to the requirements of the students.

Irfan Pathan also batted and bowled to the students and interacted with the parents. Interacting with the parents, Irfan Pathan shared parents shouldn’t put too much pressure on their children and should let them free so that they can fly and do well in the path they choose. He also emphasized on how sports make you a better person and losing games helps one learn new things and be more confident in their chosen sport.

The CAP, manned by cricketing legends and renowned coaches like Greg Chappell, Cameron Tradell and Arun Bharswaj, promises to be a technology-driven approach to cricket excellence. The ‘Cricket Academy of the Pathans’ is powered by ‘PitchVision’, a state-of-the-art cricket coaching technology developed in the UK, which helps the Pathan Brothers and their team of cricket coaches to track the overall progress of players on a day-to-day basis. This innovative technology will aid coaches and provide a comprehensive data of every ball played on its unique digital platform www.pitchvision.com/CAP along with a mobile phone app which will allow the students and parents to communicate with Pathan brothers and coaching staff and also get access to coaching materials via videos TV channels.

“It’s an honour to be part of CAP that provides a great platform for our budding champions. We are happy to open the first campus in South India in Bangalore, in the green fields of Sarjapur,” said Farheen Zohra, Director, CAP, Bengaluru.

“To start off, we have two great coaches. Mr. Nitin Kumar, who played for Under 19 National Games and Mr. Kranthi Kumar, who played for JNT University and is a Level-1 NIS qualified coach. Kranthi Kumar has also completed Australian Cricket Coordinator Course. With such a great playing IX, we hope to deliver the best coaching available,” said Farheen Zohra.

The CAP Program has set focus each week with varied outcomes depending on the ability level of the participants. CAP programs are a holistic approach to developing cricketers. The required mental approach, game knowledge and experience, is just as important as the physical skills. The CAP program creates intrinsically motivated players who thrive on competition and who understand there are consequences to actions,” shared Mr. Harmeet Vasdev, Managing Director, CAP.

The CAP coaching programme is designed to harness not just the cricketing skills of upcoming players but also inculcate nutrition, fitness and a 360-degree approach to enjoying a healthy lifestyle, both on and off the field. The nutritional experts will design diets and fitness regiments based on the individual strengths of the upcoming champions. The Bangalore chapter of the CAP cricket academy boasts of 2 cement pitches, 1 turf pitch for the nets and also a Mat Pitch. However, the individual focus of the CAP programme means that seats on the Playing IX will be limited so as as it gives more opportunity for the coaches to train each student separately and analyse the strengths and weakness of each and every player.

Cricket Academy of Pathans plans to open 20 more new academies in different cities of India by mid next year. Currently CAP has presence in nine cities including Raipur, Port Blair, Noida, Lunawada, Surat, Sonipat, Rajkot and Delhi and will soon be launching in Patna, Pune, Kota, Indore and Hyderabad.

About Cricket Academy of Pathans :
Cricket Academy of Pathans is an institute born out of a simple thought of ‘giving back’. Moulded by the experience of Pathan Brothers who famously donned India colours, the Academy is all set to revolutionise the standards of coaching and development of cricket in India. After their notable contribution over the years to Indian cricket, the Pathan Brothers now intend to eradicate the one major hurdle in the path of churning out talented cricketers from India— lack of proper coaching. Since only the best can turn out the best, CAP also has on board, cricketing legends like Greg Chappell and Cameron Tradell as the chief mentors.

To strengthen the ‘backbone’ of cricket, coaching, CAP has designed two modules: ‘Coaching the Coaches’ and ‘Coaching the Kids’ to help the system at two levels. While the academy will train the coaches and fine-tune their craft, these coaches will in turn train aspiring kids. Both Mr Chappell and Mr Tradell have curated the CAP curriculum, which lays emphasis on nutrition and the physical development of the kids, providing a wholesome training experience. Armed with a strong curriculum and some of the best names of the cricketing world, the Pathan brothers promise to polish the future of the Indian Cricket with their ground-breaking initiative.

New Delhi: The Income Tax Department today raided 20 premises linked to Gitanjali Gems promoter Mehul Choksi and associated firms in connection with a tax evasion case, official sources said. They said the searches were being conducted in Mumbai, Pune, Surat, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and few other cities against 13 companies linked to Choksi and the Gitanjali Gems.

A total of 20 premises are being raided by a team of over 110 I-T sleuths, the sources said. The department has recently attached bank accounts and other assets of Choksi and the Gitanjali group.

Choksi, and his relative Nirav Modi and others, are being investigated by multiple probe agencies after it recently came to light, following a complaint by the Punjab National Bank, that they allegedly cheated the nationalised bank to the tune of Rs 11,400 crore, with the purported involvement of a few employees of the bank.

The Central Bureau of Investigation and the Enforcement Directorate have registered two FIRs each to probe the case.

(PTI)

New Delhi: The CBI today started questioning of Rotomac owner Vikram Kothari at its Headquarters here in connection with alleged loan default of Rs 3,695 crore towards a consortium of seven nationalised banks, officials said here.

Earlier, Kothari was being questioned in Kanpur where his company and residence is located, they said. He was called here by the agency which started his questioning at its headquarters, they said, without giving any reasons behind the move.

Kothari, his wife Sadhana, and son Rahul, all Directors in Rotomac Global pvt Ltd, have allegedly diverted the bank loans towards purposes other than they were meant for, officials said. One of the consortium members, Bank of Baroda had approached the CBI requesting an FIR against Kothari as the bank apparently feared he might leave the country, they said.

The CBI registered a case on February 18 after receiving the complaint. Initially, the alleged scam was estimated to be of Rs 800 crore but after the CBI started probe into the accounts of the Rotomac Global Private Limited,it was found that the company had allegedly taken loans from Bank of India, Bank of Maharashtra, Indian Overseas Bank, Union Bank of India, Allahabad ank and Oriental Bank of Commerce.

The CBI alleged that the accused had cheated a consortium of seven banks by siphoning off bank loans to the tune Rs 2,919 crore. The total outstanding amount along with interest and liabilities for the company were pegged at Rs 3,695 crore, the probe agency alleged.

Yesterday, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had notified all the land, sea and airports in the country to prevent the exit of the promoter of Rotomac pens, Vikram Kothari, and his family members from India, in connection with its money laundering probe.

The agency also conducted searches at multiple locations in Uttar Pradesh, including in Unnao and Kanpur, to gather evidence in the case. The ED had slapped criminal charges under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) against the company and its promoters on February 18, based on a CBI FIR filed on the same day.

Meanwhile, the Income Tax department had also attached 14 bank accounts of the pen manufacturer as part of its tax evasion probe against the company yesterday. This is the second major bank fraud to surface in the recent past after the sensational Rs 11,400-crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud, allegedly committed by diamond merchant Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi, who is a promoter of the Gitanjali Group of companies. Both Modi and Choksi left the country last month.

(PTI)