eye THE SUNDAY EXPRESS MAGAZINE Forever Rekha KOLKATA,LATECITY OCTOBER6,2024 As Rekha turns 70 next week, a look at her enigma and legacy 14+4PAGES,`7.00 (`12 IN NORTH EAST STATES & `17 IN ANDAMAN) WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA BY UNNY S 24 PARGANAS Minor girl murdered, protesters torch police outpost SWEETY KUMARI KOLKATA, OCTOBER 5 HOURS AFTER a nine-year-old girl was allegedly murdered in a village in South 24 Parganas district, violence broke out in the area on Saturday morning as angry villagers set a police outpost on fire, alleging inaction on part of the local police. The police denied the allegations, saying that one person, aged 19, has been arrested in the case. It is suspected that the girl was sexually assaulted. The post-mortem report is awaited to confirm this, police said. According to the girl’s family, she had gone to a coaching centre on Friday afternoon. When she did not return home, the family searched for her but to no avail. They then approached the police to report her missing. The local police, however, directed them to file a complaint at another police station, the family alleged. When the girl’s body was CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 OVER 66% POLLING IN HARYANA; RESULTS ON OCTOBER 8 Cong likely to win in Haryana, its alliance with NC has edge in J&K, show exit polls NEW DELHI, OCTOBER 5 THECONGRESSislikelytoreturn to power in Haryana after a decade,andhasanedgebutmay missthehalfwaymarkinJammu andKashmir,whereitfoughtthe Assembly elections in alliance with the National Conference, according to most exit polls on Saturday. InJ&K,whereAssemblyelections were held after 10 years — the first after the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019 — some polls predicted a hung House while A DAY after the government announced that External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will lead theIndiandelegationtoPakistan for a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s Councilof Headsof Government on October 15-16, the Minister saidhewasn’tgoingtheretodiscuss India-Pakistanrelationsbut CHANDIGARH, OCTOBER 5 Polling in Julana Assembly constituency, from which Olympian Vinesh Phogat is contesting on a Congress ticket, on Saturday. Gajendra Yadav HARYANASEES66.49%TURNOUT,PAGE4 WHAT THE EXIT POLLS HAVE FORECAST J&K Cong-NC PDP BJP 6-12 27-32 HARYANA Others IndiaToday CVoter 40-48 6-11 Dainik Bhaskar 35-40 4-7 20-25 12-18 Gulistan News 31-36 5-7 28-30 8-16 Axis My India 35-45 4-6 24-34 8-23 BJP Cong Others Dainik Bhaskar DECISION 2024 In 2014, before J&K was split into 2 UTs, PDP won 28 seats, BJP 25, NC 15, Congress 12 15-29 44-54 7-14 Republic Matrize 18-24 55-62 5-14 IndiaToday CVoter 20-28 50-58 10-16 Axis My India 18-28 53-65 4-13 2019 tally in Haryana BJP 40 Cong 31 JJP 10 Others 9 THE COUNTING of votes for the Haryana Assembly polls will take place on October 8, but the chief ministerial race in the OppositionCongresshasalready heated up. As polling for all 90 seats in Haryana was taking place Saturday,seniorCongressleaders started claiming that the party wouldgetan“absolutemajority”, with some of them not shying awayfromprojectingthemselves as probable CM candidates. While staking their claims, they also said that it was the CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 PM IN MAHARASHTRA INAUGURATES UNDERGROUND METRO LINE IN MUMBAI SAYS CONG IS BEING RUN BY GANG OF URBAN NAXALS PAGE8 R G Kar ex-principal, cop tried to hush up case as suicide: CBI RAVIK BHATTACHARYA KOLKATA, OCTOBER 5 THE CBI has alleged that the formerprincipalof Kolkata’sRGKar Medical College, Sandip Ghosh, and former in-charge of Tala police station, Abhijit Mondol, sought to “hush up” the rapemurder of the junior doctor in Augustandto“destroyevidence” to make it seem like suicide. The CBI made these allegations in its submission to the court of Additional Chief Judicial Jaishankar: Going for multilateral event, not to discuss India-Pak ties NEW DELHI, OCTOBER 5 VARINDER BHATIA EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE SCO VISIT TO PAK OCT 15-16 SHUBHAJIT ROY As Congress eyes power in Haryana, CM aspirants swell Independents & small parties may outnumber PDP in J&K House; AAP unlikely to make mark in Haryana Ex-principal Sandip Ghosh was arrested last month Magistrate (ACJM), Sealdah, on Friday, while seeking extension of judicial remand of Ghosh and Mondol,whowerebotharrested last month. “The extraction of data of DVR (digital video recorder) and hard disk containing the CCTV for a “multilateral event”. Speaking at the Sardar Patel Lecture on Governance organizedbyICCentreforGovernance in New Delhi, Jaishankar said, CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Behind Centre’s nod for Chennai Metro II, signal to NDA allies and DMK ARUN JANARDHANAN CHENNAI, OCTOBER 5 External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar footage of Tala police station and mobile phones of both the accused persons have been received from CFSL, Kolkata, and... have been scrutinised. It is clear fromthenumberof callsthatthe accusedpersonswantedtohush up the incident,” it said. Thecentralagencypointedto theSupremeCourt’sobservations onSeptember30that“theCBI,as itappearsbeforetheCourt,isconducting an investigation on two facets:theallegedrapeandmurder which took place on THE UNION Cabinet’s move to approve Phase II of the Chennai Metro Rail project on Thursday and clear the Central counterpart funding came less than a week after Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on September 27 . The Centre’s decision will facilitateasmoothexecutionof the CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 EXPLAINED BUSINESS AS USUAL FOUR-PAGE PULLOUT E ● Seen as politically strategic THE CABINET’S clearance after a delay of over three years is seen as politically strategic since it will help smoothen BJP-DMK and Centre-state relations. This also gives a signal to NDA allies, who are seen as “increasingly demanding” by some in the BJP. No strangers to tough ascents, two stranded mountaineers in Uttarakhand await miracle PAGE 1 ANCHOR AVANEESH MISHRA DEHRADUN, OCTOBER 5 OVER THE past year, British alpinist Fay Manners has made eight significant first ascents — from the Pakistan’s Trango II with its demanding “Waa Shakil” trek to being the first to ascend “Mental Breakdown”, a 765-metre rock climbing route UK national Fay Manners (left) and Michelle Dvorak, from the US, have been stranded at Chaukhamba massif, having lost all communication after Thursday afternoon. Instagran on Father Tower in Greenland’s Mythic Cirque. But it is her latest trek to Chaukhamba-III, one of the four peaks of the Chaukhamba massif in Uttarakhand’s Garhwal Himalayas, that’s proving to be her greatest challenge. For the last two days, Manners (37) and her fellow mountaineer Michelle Dvorak (31), a climate science PhD student from Washington, USA, have been stranded at an altitude of 6,300 metres after losing CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Kolkata