Ahead of elections, one BJP worker and two others were detained with Rs 4 crore cash by Tamil Nadu Police at Tambaram railway station in Chennai, as per the reports.

The BJP member, identified as S Sathish (33), along with his brother Naveen (31) and one driver, Perumal (26), were carrying Rs 4 crore in eight bags, the report suggests, the flying squad team with police detained them when they were set to travel to Tirunelveli by Nellai Express train.

The report further suggests that the team of Tirunelveli BJP MP candidate Nainar Nagenthiran instructed Sathish to reach Tirunelveli with Rs 4 crore.

The police conducted search operations in Kilpauk, Triplicane, and Saligramam, as well as the locations linked to Tirunelveli BJP candidate Nainar Nagendran. According to the report, the passengers had stored the cash at places associated with the BJP leader before transporting it to Egmore railway station.

The police detained all three suspects and informed the income tax department. The IT teams will interrogate the accused now.

Currently, there is an ongoing investigation to determine if the passengers had planned to distribute the cash in the Tirunelveli Lok Sabha constituency before the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. The elections are scheduled to take place in seven phases starting on April 19th.

In the first phase of the 2024 general elections, voting in Tamil Nadu’s 39 constituencies is scheduled for April 19, with counting on June 4.

As the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) is currently in effect following the announcement of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has strictly mentioned its guidelines for the politicians and their party members.

Earlier, the ECI  instructed the Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) to immediately halt delivering Viksit Bharat messages on WhatsApp.

The poll body has also asked the Ministry to provide a compliance report on the subject, it added. The Commission claimed it had received multiple complaints alleging that even after the election results were announced and the MCC went into effect, messages intended to promote the Central government’s activities under the Viksit Bharat Sampark were still being delivered to citizens’ phones.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin on January 26, handed over the Kottai Ameer Communal Harmony Award 2024 to Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair during the 75th Republic Day celebrations in Chennai. Governor R.N. Ravi and other dignitaries were also present at the event.  

The fact-checker Zubair has been working to debunk the fake news, circulating on social media platforms. Zubair through his Alt News portal has been analysing the veracity of the news coming out on social media and his work helps to prevent the occurrence of violence in society likely to be caused by fake news, the statement read.

The statement further brought attention to a specific incident during March 2023, where social media was loaded with misinformation that the migrant workers were being attacked in Tamil Nadu.  

It was noted that his website Alt News published the video after verifying the authenticity of the video footage. The footage in the video posted on social media had not actually taken place in Tamil Nadu and thus stopped the spread of rumours against Tamil Nadu and acted to prevent violence caused by caste, religion, race and language in the state, the citation said.

During the ceremony, CM Stalin also presented the Chief Minister’s Special Award to U Aayi Ammal, also known as Pooranam. Pooranam, who resides in Madurai district, donated 1.52 acres of her land to upgrade the Madurai East Panchayat Union Middle School to a High School in Y. Kodikulam. She made this generous donation in memory of her daughter Janani.

The Chief Minister awarded the Anna Medal for Gallantry, 2024 to three individuals. These included fisherman Yasaar Arafat from Kayalpattinam in Thoothukudi district, D. Daniel Selvasingh from Thadiveeran Koil in Tirunelveli, and Tahsildar S. Sivakumar from Srivaikundam in Thoothukudi district. Arafat led a group of over a dozen fishermen from Singithurai to rescue around 250 people who were stranded in the unprecedented floods on December 17 and 18 last year in Thanneerpandal village.

A heart-wrenching incident was reported in Tamil Nadu where a woman jumped off ahead of a moving bus after getting misleading information from someone that her family would receive Rs 45,000 in case she died in an accident.

In the video, a mother killed herself by jumping in front of the moving bus to arrange money for her son’s education. Reportedly, a woman was a safai karmachari at the collector’s office in the Salem district of Tamil Nadu, the report said.  

The woman made this fatal sacrifice because she was in need of money to pay her son’s college fees, so she decided to end her life to get the compensation of Rs 45,000.

The video has moved people. The internet users have expressed their grief and anguish over the incident. Netizens questioned and showed their anguish towards the situation that led a mother to kill herself for paying the education fees of her son.

The incident also exposed how people face difficulties who try to make their children’s lives better by educating them. Many people said that true development would mean that no one is forced in that situation to take such a step.

As per the police, a 46-year-old deceased woman was identified as Papathy, a resident of Salem district who was working as a sanitary worker in the Collector’s office. She had lost her husband long before and was a single mother parent to a daughter and a son. Papathy died after she came into a speeding that killed her at second Agraharam street in Salem. The police have registered a case, and an investigation is underway.

After inspecting the CCTV footage, the police were shocked to know that this was the woman’s second attempt to kill herself, Papathy had earlier attempted to jump before a moving bus but she could not succeed after a two-wheeler hit before she could fall into a bus. After a while, she repeated the act when another bus approached her. The entire episode was caught on camera, as per the reports.