DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA JOURNALISM OF COURAGE BUSINESS AS USUAL BY UNNY ‘CBI is under Centre’s ambit’: SC holds Bengal govt’s suit maintainable ANANTHAKRISHNAN G NEW DELHI, JULY 10 THE SUPREME Court on WednesdayrejectedthepreliminaryobjectionsraisedbyCentre onthemaintainabilityof thesuit filedbyWestBengalchallenging the CBI’s power to register and investigate cases in the state despite withdrawal of general consent on November 16, 2018. Appearing for the Centre, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta argued that the Union governmenthadnosuperintendenceor control over the CBI. Perusingvariousprovisionsof the Delhi Special Police Establishment (DSPE) Act, 1986, a bench of Justices B R Gavai and SandeepMehtasaid,“Rightfrom theconstitutionofthespecialpoliceforcewhichiscalledDSPE,issuanceofnotificationsspecifying theoffencesorclassesofoffences which are to be investigated by the DSPE, superintendence and administration of DSPE and the extensionofpowersandjurisdiction of DSPE to the areas beyond the Union Territories, it is the Central Government which is vitally concerned with.” “In that view of the matter, we find that the contention of thelearnedSolicitorGeneralthat even if the CBI, being an CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 `6.00 (`12 IN NORTH EAST STATES & ANDAMAN) WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM SINCE 1932 MODI IN VIENNA: FIRST VISIT BY INDIAN PM IN 41 YEARS Day after Putin meet, PM underlines: Loss of innocent lives unacceptable US voices ‘concerns’ on India-Russia relationship India,Austriahold bilateraltalks:PM saysblueprintfor cooperationready SHUBHAJIT ROY SHUBHAJIT ROY NEW DELHI, JULY 10 A DAY after he met Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Russia-Ukraine war continued to dominate Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s meeting with Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer in Vienna where he said “this is not a time for war”, “problems cannot be solved on thebattlefield”and“lossof innocent lives, anywhere, is unacceptable”. Modi’s reiteration of the statements, echoing what he said in Moscow, signals to the West that he has sent a clear CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 NEW DELHI, JULY 10 Prime Minister Narendra Modi poses for a selfie with Austrian Federal Chancellor Karl Nehammer during his visit to the Federal Chancellery, in Vienna on Wednesday. ANI IN THE wake of Prime Minister NarendraModi'sjust-concluded visit to Russia, the US State Department, for the second day in a row, expressed “concerns about India's relationship with Russia”. Saying that it “continues” to express these concerns to India, the US confirmed that it had held “conversations” with India in the “past 24 hours” too. “We have been quite clear aboutourconcernsaboutIndia’s relationship with Russia. We have expressed those privately CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 UGC-NET ‘paper leak’: Centre on NEET-UG: Data analytics Evidence was doctored, of results show no mass malpractice finds CBI investigation GOVT, NTA FILE AFFIDAVITS IN SC; COURT HEARING TODAY ANANTHAKRISHNAN G NEW DELHI, JULY 10 DATA ANALYTICS of the NEETUG 2024 results by IIT-Madras found “no abnormality” and show “that there is neither any indication of mass malpractice nor a localised set of candidates being benefitted leading to abnormal scores”, the Centre told the Supreme Court Wednesday. On Monday, the court had sought to know whether it would be feasible to use data analytics to identify suspect cases and segregate tainted students from untainted ones. Responding to this, the Centre, in its affidavit, said the Departmentof HigherEducation had requested the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras to undertake the exercise. “IITMadraswasalsorequestedtoascertain through data analytics, if there are any suspected cases who could have indulged in wrongdoing and other red flags which indicate any aberration in the spread of top performers/ candidates. A set of parameters, which shall form the basis of the analytics, was also requested to be devised,” the Centre said. “Anexhaustiveandelaborate technical evaluation of the data pertaining to the NEET-UG 2024 examination was carried out by IIT-Madras, using parameters likemarksdistribution,city-wise and centre-wise rank distribution and candidates spread over marks range,” it said. The analysis found that “the marks distribution follows the bell-shaped curve that is witnessed in any largescale examination, indicating no abnormality”, the Centre said. “City-wise and centre-wise analysis was done for two years (2023 and 2024) to find out if there are any abnormal indications. The analysis is carried out CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 RITIKA CHOPRA NEW DELHI, JULY 10 THE CBI probe into the alleged UGC-NET paper leak has found that the “evidence”, which led the Education Ministry to cancel the exam just a day after over 9 lakh candidates appeared for it across 317 cities on June 18, was doctored, government sources told The Indian Express. On June 19, the Centre canceled the exam crucial for entrylevel teaching jobs and PhD admissions in Indian universities, followinginputsfromtheMinistry of Home Affairs (MHA) that “theintegrityof theexamination may have been compromised”. Theinputwasascreenshotof a UGC-NET paper circulating on aTelegramchannelaround2pm on the exam day (June 18), with messages and comments suggesting it was leaked before the first session. UGC-NET is held in two sessions; the first session was from 9.30amto12.30pmandthesecond from 3 pm to 6 pm. The chatter on Telegram channels was detected by the IndianCybercrimeCoordination Centre(I4C)undertheMHA,and relayed to the University Grants CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 AIIMS blood test offers Reddit confession, teen from Faridabad, tip-off: hope & help in early How student who duped US varsity was caught Alzheimer’s diagnosis ABHINAYA HARIGOVIND, ANKITA UPADHYAY NEW DELHI, JULY 10 A SIMPLE blood test, developed byresearchersanddoctorsatthe All India Institute of Medical Science(AIIMS),NewDelhi,may help in early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s Disease, a progressivetypeof dementiathatmainly affects those aged 65 and above. For the last four years, re- PAGE 1 ANCHOR searchers have been working with 90 patients from DelhiNCR, all between 50 and 75, at the memory clinic and geriatric departmentsof AIIMStodevelop a blood screening test for early diagnosisof thediseaseandhelp understand what caused their memory to fade. Considering an estimated 8.8 million Indians older than 60 have some form of dementia,apredictivebloodtest CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 PARUL KULSHRESTHA & RITIKA CHOPRA NEW DELHI, JAIPUR, JULY 10 AT 1.03 pm on February 23, Lehigh University in Pennsylvania, US received an email titled “Urgent Report of Admission Fraud – Seeking Immediate Investigation”. The short email would set off a chain of events that would ultimately end in the arrest of a 19-year-old Lehigh University in Pennsylvania. lehigh.edu from India for allegedly duping the prestigious varsity and securing admission, alongside a scholarship of $85,000. The student, Aryan Anand, would have gotten away with it too,haditnotbeenforananonymouspostbyhimonReddit,and another 19-year-old from Faridabad who pieced together the alleged fraud. Anand, a computer science student, was arrested on April 30, and charged with forgery, tampering with CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Muslim women can seek maintenance from husband under CrPC: SC Provisions of 1986 Act do not restrict right under CrPC Section 125: Bench ANANTHAKRISHNAN G NEW DELHI, JULY 10 THE SUPREME Court on Wednesday ruled that all married and divorced women, including Muslim women illegally divorced by pronouncement of “triple talaq”, are entitled to claim maintenance from their husbands under Section 125 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), 1973, “irrespective of her personal law”. In separate but concurring judgments, a Bench of Justices B V Nagarathna and Augustine George Masih held that the right of Muslim women to seek recourse to Section 125 will not be eclipsed by the provisions of the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act, 1986, enacted by the then Rajiv Gandhi government after the landmark Shah Bano judgment of 1985. “Therightscreatedunderthe provisions of the 1986 Act are in addition to, and not in derogation of, the right created under Section 125 of the CrPC,” Justice Nagarathna wrote. Underlining the religionneutral character of the provision, Justice Masih said: “Numerous decisions of this court went on to state that EXPLAINED THURSDAY, JULY 11, 2024, KOLKATA, LATE CITY, 14 PAGES E Reiterating ● its position THE SUPREME court has reiterated a landmark position: that Muslim women are protected like women of other religions, and that Parliament’s 1986 law that attempted to overturn the Shah Bano judgment did not remove the protection available to them under Section 125 CrPC. EXPLAINED,PAGE 12 Section 125 of CrPC, 1973, is a measure for social justice to protect the weaker sections, irrespective of applicable personal laws of the parties”. The court said that “the right to seek maintenance under Section 125 of CrPC, 1973, is invokable even during the sustenance of marriage and thereby is not contingent upon divorce.” “If Section 125 of the CrPC is excluded from its application to a divorced Muslim woman, it would be in violation of Article 15(1) of the Constitution of India CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 CHARGESHEET AGAINST KEJRIWAL, AAP ED: Dealers were arm-twisted for not paying kickbacks, targeted in Punjab NIRBHAY THAKUR CM Kejriwal was arrested by ED on March 21 NEW DELHI, JULY 10 IN ITS first prosecution complaint against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in the Delhi excise policy case, the Enforcement Directorate has allegedthattheAAPconvenorhad a role in “arm-twisting wholesalers for not paying kickbacks”. The complaint, akin to a chargesheet, was filed by the ED in May. The Rouse Avenue Court took cognizance of the complaint, in which the AAP too has been made an accused, on Tuesday. A section of the complaint, whichtalksaboutKejriwal,titled ‘Role in arm-twisting wholesalers for not paying kickbacks’, states that certain liquor busi- nessmen who were not ready to “give kickbacks” were targeted in AAP-ruled Punjab. “...when certain wholesalers were not agreeing to give kickbacks to the AAP in Delhi their businesses were targeted in Punjab through the officials of Punjab,”allegedtheprosecution complaint. “M/s Mahadev Liquor, the thirdbiggestwholesalerinDelhi which has stakes in Ms Deepa Chaddha, was not paying kickbacks. Vijay Nair — by using the CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 At 16 years, a dream, a dream goal, and football history for Yamal SANDIP G NEW DELHI, JULY 10 THEMATCHclock,andtheworld around Lamine Yamal, stopped at 20:16 at the Allianz Arena in Munich. It was the precise moment when the wondrous strike from his left-instep curled and curved in its 20-yard journey, shook the iron post and nestled intotheFrenchnets,pasttheairborne shot-stopper Mike Maignan. The goal stirred a famous comeback victory for Spain over France to enter the Euro Championship 2024 final, and wouldsoarintothehalloffameof thegreatestgoalseverinthetournament, and adorn the wall of footballtragicintheyearstocome. The goal was remarkable on several layers, from his poise in front of a packed defence to snatch the ball, the vision in discovering the perfect path to goal amidst French shirts, the dexterity of his feet to trick his prematch provocateur Adrien Rabiot and friends to one side, nudge the ball to the opposite side with a delicate touch of the out-step and the conviction to bend the ball beyond the goalkeeper from the distance. Butthemostastonishingfea- ture was that Yamal is only 16 — he turns 17 on Saturday. He is already the youngest to several feats — youngest to play for his club, FC Barcelona, and country, youngest goal-scorer for both, youngestassist-maker,youngest goal-scorer at Euros. Helooksyounger.Thereisno trace of moustache; he bares the braces on his teeth when he smiles, he has packed textbooks sothathecanpreparefortheexams. The coach often substitutes him after the hour mark, lest he endsuppayingaheftyfineasthe Germanlabourlawpreventsminors working after 8 pm. With the ball on his feet, though, he Lamine Yamal celebrates as Spain reach the Euro finals for the first time in 12 years. Reuters sends adults double his age this way andthat,into a gorgeof embarrassment. But somewhere, he is still a child. Though he has been at Barcelona’s famous youth academy La Masia for a decade, he feels homesick. He talks to his parents Sheila, from Equatorial Guinea, and Mounir from Morocco,everyday.Inthephone callbeforethematch,hismother asked him what gift he wanted for his birthday. He replied: “You don’t need to buy me any present if we manage to win.” He gave himself a birthday present. A goal of unreal beauty. In that moment, the face of his parents may have flashed in his mind. Childhood was not easy, his father had to borrow moneyfromrelativesandneighbours to buy boots and take him tofootballtrials.Duringonesuch trial, he caught the eye of Barcelona scouts. Eight years later, he caught the attention of the legendary Xavi Hernandez, then Barcelona manager. He needed just 10 minutes of watching him practice to invite him for training with the senior team. And last season, he was fast-tracked to the first team. But for years, he kept his mother’s scarf at his bedside. He carried it to the school and the pitch.Wheneverthereisabreak, he rushes to his hometown, Rocafonda,asleepymigrant-rich townwithabout120,000inhabitants, half-an-hour from Barcelona. He spends time with his parents and extended family. “Ihave23cousins,andwespend a lot of time at my uncle’s bakery. I belong there,” he once told GQ Spanish. The town is his identity. Whenever he scores a goal, he flashesthelastthreedigitsof the town’s post code 304. The numberisprintedonhisboottoo,beside the flags of Equatorial Guinea and Morocco. He has CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Kolkata