`5.00 ● WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM SINCE 1932 Government of India cbc 22201/13/0242/2324 REG.NO. MCS/067/2018 - 20 RNI REGN. NO. 1543/57 JOURNALISM OF COURAGE THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2024, MUMBAI, LATE CITY, 18 PAGES Scan for more information ● Hamara Sankalp Viksit Bharat Modi Sarkar ki Guarantee World-class airport rt network in India Number of airports increased from 74 in 2014 to 149 now LATE NIGHT MEETING AT KHARGE HOME; RAHUL CALLS AGENCIES ‘ELIMINATE OPP CELL’ OnemoreOppleaderfalls:EDarrestsSorenfor ‘moneylaundering’,hequitsasJharkhandCM INDIA bloc rattled again, unsure if ‘BJP vendetta’ has echo on poll street Ruling JMM-led alliance proposes Minister Champai Soren as successor ABHISHEK ANGAD RANCHI, JANUARY 31 JHARKHANDCHIEFMinisterand Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) leader Hemant Soren was arrestedinRanchiWednesdaynight after more than seven hours of questioning by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in an alleged moneylaunderingcaseinvolving ownership of a plot of land. Thearrestwasmadeadayafter the ED seized Rs 36 lakh in cash and a luxury SUV from his Delhi residence. Not long before his arrest, Soren submitted his resignation to Governor C P Radhakrishnan at Raj Bhavan. “CM Hemant Soren has decided to resign. Champai Soren has been chosen as the new leader of the legislative party… MANOJ C G NEW DELHI, JANUARY 31 CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 MORE REPORTS PAGE 10 Hemant Soren tenders his resignation as Jharkhand CM to Governor C P Radhakrishnan in the presence of Champai Soren, at Raj Bhavan in Ranchi on Wednesday. ANI BARELYTWOmonthsbeforethe Lok Sabha elections, the embattled INDIA bloc Wednesday suffered another political blow — the late-night arrest of JMM leader Hemant Soren by the EnforcementDirectorateoncor- ruptionchargesminutesafterhis resignation as Jharkhand Chief Minister. This comes days after Nitish Kumar’s JD(U) walked out of the INDIA bloc and returned to the NDA, stunning the Opposition parties. Stumbling from one crisis to thenext,theOppositionalliance, CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 AN EXPRESS INVESTIGATION-PART 2 80 108 132 76 RBI curbs on Paytm: Can’t take deposits, offer other services after Feb 29 ENS ECONOMIC BUREAU MUMBAI, NEW DELHI, JAN 31 THERESERVEBankof India(RBI) on Wednesday barred Paytm Payments Bank from accepting deposits or top-ups in any of its key products — customer accounts, prepaid instruments, wallets, FASTags and National Common Mobility Card (NCMC) among others — after February 29 in the wake of “persistent non-compliances and material supervisory concerns”. The RBI decision essentially bars Paytm Payments Bank from offering all its core services — including accounts and wallets — fromMarch,effectivelycrippling the company’s business. Given the significant customer base of Paytm — once the poster boy of India’s fintech revolution — this could impact a large number of customers. Neither Paytm Payments Bank nor its parent company, One97 Communications, commented on the RBI action. “Nofurtherdepositsorcredit transactions or top-ups should CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 EXPRESS NETWORK Rs 163 cr BMC special fund follows party line: switch sides, get money ARTICLE 370 TO RAM TEMPLE: PRESIDENT LISTS GOVT’S KEY ACHIEVEMENTS Rs 5 cr for ward after corporator switched from UBT to Shinde PRATIP ACHARYA MUMBAI, JANUARY 31 NOT JUST did the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) disburse Rs 500 crore from its coffers along party lines — only for projects proposed by ruling BJPSena (Eknath Shinde) MLAs and none for the Opposition — when it came to its contingency fund, it took this a step further. In the 10 months between February 2023 and December 31, 2023, the BMC allotted Rs 163.29 crore from its Rs 900-crore contingency fund to 31 of the 227 “corporator wards” in Mumbai for carrying out civic works. As many as 30 of these 31 wardsarethosewheretheir corporators had switched their political allegiance from the BUSINESS AS USUAL BY UNNY Opposition parties. Their breakup: Uddhav Bal Thackeray ShivSena—21,Congress—6and NCP — 3. One is from the BJP. All the 30 crossed over to the Shiv Sena led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde after he broke away to form the state govern- ment with the BJP in June 2022. It was only after the 30 corporators had switched that their wards received the funds, Rs 5 crore each. Indeed, in many cases, funds were cleared in less than a fortnight of the former corporatorswitchingsidestothe ruling alliance. None of the remaining 196 corporator wards received any money from the contingency fund, according to official records, including those obtained under the RTI, investigated by The Indian Express. The contingency fund is a rainy-day corpus meant for use specificallyduring“adversesituations” such as Covid-19 pandemic, landslides, bridge collapses, etc. The civic body normally sets aside around 4 per cent of its annual net income towards the corpus of the fund. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 New IT Rules on fact check unit: Bombay HC gives split verdict OMKAR GOKHALE MUMBAI, JANUARY 31 A DIVISION bench of the Bombay High Court on Wednesdaydeliveredasplitverdict on a batch of petitions challenging the amended Information Technology (IT) Rules which empowered the government to identify “fake news”onsocialmediaplatforms through a Fact Check Unit (FCU). While Justice Gautam Patel agreedwiththepetitioners'contentions and struck down the amendment, Justice Neela Gokhale upheld the government's side. In his verdict, Justice Patel noted that the petitioners were “correct in saying that the State cannotcoercivelyclassifyspeech as true or false and compel the non-publication of the latter. That is nothing but censorship.” However, Justice Gokhale saidthatallegingbiasonthepart of FCU members because they were government appointees was “unfair”, andthe recourse to courtsof lawwasalwaysopenin case of any bias. The Rules “were not directly penalising” the intermediary or the user and “did not bring any chilling effect on their rights”, she said. The petitioners included stand-up comic Kunal Kamra, Editors Guild of India, News CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 UP gets its fourth ‘acting’ DGP; six more states, one UT have acting police chiefs PAGE 1 ANCHOR DEEPTIMAN TIWARY NEW DELHI, JANUARY 31 THE UTTAR PRADESH government Wednesday appointed Director General (Law and Order)PrashantKumarasitsacting Director General of Police (DGP). He replaces Vijay Kumar, who too was an acting DGP, and is,infact,thefourthsuchinarow over the past 20 months. This action is part of an increasing trend of state governments not appointing regular chiefsof policedespiteeligibleofficersbeingavailable.Atpresent, thereareasmanyassevenstates and one Union Territory with an actingDGP.Theseappointments are typically made by handing over the additional charge of the police chief’s post to a DG rank officer in the state holding some other responsibility. While Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, UP and Punjab have had such temporary DGPsfor almost or more than a year, three UP CM Yogi Adityanath with acting DGP Prashant Kumar on Wednesday. ANI other states, Uttarakhand, OdishaandWestBengal,andthe Union Territory of J&K, have recently appointed “acting DGPs”. Such action is in completeviolation of the Supreme Court guidelines on DGP appointments in the Prakash Singh case and the guidelines issued by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC). The apex court has clearly said no temporary or ad hoc appointments of police chiefs must be made barring exceptional circumstances. UPSC guidelines say states must CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 PAGE 11 DISPUTE OVER VARANASI SITE District court allows puja inside cellar at Gyanvapi complex Mosque panel says barricading cut by admn hours after order, moving SC ASAD REHMAN LUCKNOW, JANUARY 31 SIXDAYSafterithandedlitigants copies of an Archaeological Survey of India’s report which stated that “there existed a Hindu temple prior to the construction” of the Gyanvapi mosque, the Varanasi district court Wednesday directed that a priest be allowed to perform puja in the southern cellar of the mosque complex. District Judge A K Vishvesha, in his order, said, “District Magistrate, Varanasi/Receiver is being directed to get puja, raag bhog done by a priest, designated by the plaintiff and Kashi Vishwanath Trust, of idols in the cellar to the south, which is disputed, of building situated on settlement plot no. 9130, police stationChowk, District Varanasi. For this, suitable arrangements must be made with iron barricading and other things within E E X P L A I NE D DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA The cellar, ● the claims HINDU LITIGANTS call the cellar Vyasji ka tehkhana and say idols were worshipped there before the practice was stopped in 1993. It is in the southern part of the Gyanvapi mosque complex. The mosque committee says no idols existed in the cellar, and no prayers were ever offered there. EXPLAINED,PAGE13 seven days.” Late Wednesday, S M Yasin, Joint Secretary of the Anjuman Intezamia Masajid Committee, which had opposed the plea for allowing puja in the southern cellarandsaiditwouldapproach CONTINUED ON PAGE 2