Maoist rebel jailed for attack on police 36 years ago
A Maoist rebel was convicted in Tamil Nadu last week for an attack on police 36 years ago.
A court in Vellore convicted Sivalingam, a Naxal, to five life imprisonments (about 14 years each) for throwing a bomb at a police team and killing three constables.
In 1980, Sivalingam placed a bomb wrapped in a cloth on the car’s front seat, while he was being taken with four others to a Tirupattur court. As the bomb detonated, Sivalingam and another prisoner escaped. He was captured 29 years later in another case.
In a second incident, Surendra Yadav, a Maoist aged 36, was arrested from a construction site in Sriperumbudur in suburban Chennai. A native of Jharkhand state, Yadav is wanted in 17 cases of terrorism.
The Odisha police have arrested Zahir, 23 along with four other activists of the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI). Chennai police have claimed that Zahir was the mastermind of the May 2014 bomb blasts at the Chennai Central railway station.

47 lawyers suspended in 3 months
Forty-seven lawyers have been suspended by the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry for various misdemeanours in the past three months.
Last week Sunil Kumar was caught smuggling 100g of heroin concealed in his shoes to a prisoner in the Puzhal Central prison in Chennai.
Another advocate R Muthukrishnan was suspended for using cuss words in his court speech, while lawyer V Antony Jyothi Sheeran was pulled up for unruly behaviour to female staff of Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) in the Tiruvallur court.  
W Peter Ramesh Kumar, a Madurai-based lawyer was sentenced to six months in jail for criminal contempt of court by the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court.  
Paradoxically the Supreme Court has admitted a Chennai lawyer’s petition to set up a National Court of Appeal with regional benches to act as final courts of justice for civil and criminal cases.

Soft drinks firm marks a century
Soft drinks conglomerate Kalimark, that markets popular products like Trio, Bovonto, Solo, Vibro, Ginger and others has completed a century since its founder P V S K Palaniappan founded the first factory at Virudhunagar in Tamil Nadu in 1916.
Palaniappan, a coffee and cardamom exporter, was inspired to start a soft drinks company after tasting Pepsi and Coca Cola. He and his wife Unnamalai Ammal bought a small hand-operated machine and learnt to inject gas into local water. Their products were an instant hit locally and units were opened in Madurai, Tirunelveli, Tiruchy, Kumbakonam, Chennai and Karaikudi over the years. Kalimark today holds nearly 14% of the soft drinks market in Tamil Nadu.
Kalimark’s most popular drink Bovonto, is favoured as a digestive after heavy meals, feasts and as an appetizer. These soft drinks are flavoured with local herbs and essences.

Actor Simbu meets police over song row
Tamil actor Simbu alias Silambarasan last met Coimbatore city police officers with his father Vijaya T Rajender to clarify his role in the December 17 uploading of a Tamil song on social media that reportedly denigrated women.
Simbu confessed that he had written the song long ago over a failed love affair and had set it to tune. However he denied his friend musician Anirudh Ravichandar had any role in composing or uploading the song.