DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA JOURNALISM OF COURAGE MONDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2024, KOLKATA, LATE CITY, 16 PAGES BUSINESS AS USUAL BY UNNY ANIL AMBANI TO NIIRA RADIA, GAUTAM SINGHANIA TO BAKUL NATH Searches,summons:ED’sPandoraprobe touchesIndianownersofoffshorefirms NEW DELHI, FEBRUARY 4 SHAJU PHILIP THIRUVANANTHAPURAM,FEB4 DESCRIBING THE newly consecrated Ram Temple in Ayodhya andtheproposedmosquenearby as“symbolsofsecularism”,Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) Kerala president Sadiq Ali Shihab Thangalhassaidthattherewasno needtoprotestagainstthetemple. The Muslim community should think about the future instead of millingaroundtheissue,hesaid. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 `6.00 (`12 IN NORTH EAST STATES & ANDAMAN) WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM AN EXPRESS INVESTIGATION RITU SARIN Ram temple was desire of majority, no need to protest: IUML leader SINCE 1932 RECORDINGof statements to seizure of assets; summons to searches of premises; getting details from Income TaxandRBI—anddetection of money laundering violations. These are the key aspects of theEnforcementDirectorate’s ongoing action in the Pandora Papers investigation that shows probes have been “initiated” for almost all Indian owners of offshore firms named in the 2021 investigation by The Indian Express. They include Anil Ambani to Sachin Tendulkar, Unitech promoters and Niira Radia; Gautam SinghaniatoLalitGoyaland Malvinder Singh, according to Anil Ambani, Sachin Tendulkar, Niira Radia and Gautam Singhania among those being probed. File the current status of the probes, The Indian Express has learnt. The Pandora Papers refers to a trove of 11.9 million secret documents from 14 offshore service providers that gave details of Wary of ‘attempt to split’ its Bihar MLAs, Cong flies 16 to Hyderabad SANTOSH SINGH PATNA, FEBRUARY 4 AS 40 MLAs of Jharkhand’s rulingallianceof JMMandCongress returned to Ranchi from Hyderabad on Sunday night, a day ahead of the Assembly floor test, 16 of Congress’s 19 MLAs in neighbouring Bihar were flown fromDelhi totheTelanganacapital because of fear in the party aboutanattempttosplititahead of the trust vote scheduled for February 12. Though the Janata Dal (United),BJP,andtheHindustani AwamMorcha,withthesupport of an Independent, have 128 MLAs in the 243-member House, a clear majority, state Congress leaders said they were wary of the BJP attempting to breakawaylegislatorstodealthe Mahagathbandhan a crushing blow in the crucial battleground state. Any such move would mark a massive psychological CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 ownershipof29,000offshoreentities used by the super-rich to managetheirglobalmoneyflows. Thedatawasobtainedbythe International Consortium of InvestigativeJournalists(ICIJ)and shared with 150 media partners —TheIndianExpressinvestigated the Indian names on the list. The Centreannouncedthesettingup of a Multi Agency Group (MAG) to spearhead the probe. Subsequently, the Income CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 EXPRESS NETWORK ‘Ram Mandir dream fulfilled, Modi now has only one agenda, that of development’ SAMRAT CHOUDHARY BIHAR DEPUTY CHIEF MINISTER PAGE 14 Protect us from threats, extortion: contractors’ SOS to Shinde Govt ALOK DESHPANDE MUMBAI, FEBRUARY 4 SEEKING PROTECTION from threats,extortioncallsandhooliganism arising out of political rivalry, two organisations of state government-approved contractors and engineers engaged in various developmental projects have written a joint letter to the Maharashtra Chief Minister and the two Deputy Chief Ministers, demanding a law to protect them at work sites. They have CONTINUEDONPAGE2 LUCKNOW, FEBRUARY 4 P5 CONTRACTORS COMPLAINING of threat, extortion and assault by local politicians points to the rising confrontation among parties and weakening law and order. Over the past 20 months, Maharashtra has seen a split in two parties and shift in allegiance of over 80 MLAs. Indian Embassy staffer in Moscow held for spying for ISI: UP ATS ASAD REHMAN PM UNDERLINES DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS SITES Politics and confrontation THE UTTAR Pradesh AntiTerroristSquad(ATS)hasarrested an employee of the Ministry of External Affairs posted at the IndianEmbassyinMoscowforallegedly spying for Pakistan's ISI. Inanofficialstatementissued onSunday,theATSidentifiedthe accused as Satendra Siwal, 28. It said that Siwal, a nativeof Hapur district,wasarrestedonSaturday andpresentedonSundaybefore a special court in Lucknow, which sent him to judicial custody for 14 days. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 BISCUITS Kolkata