eye MCS/204/2020-22RNINO.MAHENG2002/21899 THE SUNDAY EXPRESS MAGAZINE MUMBAI,LATECITY DECEMBER22,2024 14+4PAGES,`6.00 DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM MAHARASHTRA PORTFOLIOS ANNOUNCED 81 109 133 82 Fadnavis retains Home, Ajit Finance, Shinde gets Urban, Works, Housing ALOK DESHPANDE NAGPUR, DECEMBER 21 Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, MoS Pankaj Chaudhary in Jaisalmer. PTI RELATED,P11 Lower GST on food delivery and insurance deferred, many rates on popcorn varieties new row AANCHAL MAGAZINE JAISALMER, DECEMBER 21 THE GOODS AND Services Tax (GST)Councilinits55thmeeting held in Jaisalmer Saturday deferred a decision to lower the tax rate on health and life insurance premiums, and food delivery chargesof e-commerceaggregators such as Swiggy and Zomato. It also discussed inclusion of Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF) under GST, but deferred a decision since most states were not in favouroflosingtheirrighttotaxit. What, however, caught attention was the clarification the Council offered on why different varieties of popcorn i.e., regular, salted and spiced, and caramelised,carrydifferentrates of GST. This led to some political backlash too, with Congress spokesperson Jairam Ramesh terming it as “absolutely unbelievable” and “sheer madness”. TheCouncildiscussedthetax rate on ready-to-eat popcorn, which is mixed with salt and spices. It took the view and clarified that popcorn with salt and spices has the essential characterof anamkeenandshouldface 5 per cent GST (other than prepackaged and labelled). The GST should be 12 per cent if the popcorn is pre-packaged and labelled. When mixed with sugar (e.g. caramel popcorn), it was akin to sugar confectionery items (items with ‘added sugar’) and hence, would attract 18 per cent GST. “There is no new imposition of any tax in this regard and is merely a clarification as certain field units were demanding different tax rates on the same. Therefore, it is a clarification being recommended by the GST Council to settle the disputes arising out of interpretation,” an CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 THE BJP-LED Mahayuti government in Maharashtra announced the portfolios of ministers Saturday, with Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis keeping Home, a ministry that Eknath Shinde, his predecessor and now Deputy CM, was keen to have. Fadnavis also kept Energy (excluding Renewable Energy); Law & Judiciary; General Administration Department; Information & Publicity; and Departments/Subjectsnotallot- ted to any other minister. ShivSenaleaderShinde,who was eyeing Home, which Fadnavis had as Deputy CM in the previous government, got threeportfolios:UrbanDevelopment; Housing; and Public Works (Public Enterprises). The other Deputy CM, NCP chief Ajit Pawar, will keep Finance & Planning, and also handle State Excise. The portfolio allocation came hours after the weeklong Winter Session of the state Assembly concluded here. And days after the Fadnavis Government inducted 39 ministers on December 15, although with a rider — their tenure will be for two-and-half years, and their continuance will depend on a review. Many in the ruling alliance feel while the review will fix accountabilityandputpressureon the ministers to perform after the impressive mandate in the recent Assembly elections, a mid-term change will also give hope to other MLAs who could not make the cut this time around. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis, Deputy CM Eknath Shinde and state BJP chief and minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule in Nagpur on Saturday. PTI FULL LIST PAGE 4 Govt amends poll rules to restrict public inspection of electronic records Cong demands reversal of decision, says bid to keep public in dark DAMINI NATH NEW DELHI, DECEMBER 21 THE UNION Government Friday amended the Conduct of Election Rules to limit public inspection of election papers to only those documents specified in the provisions. This amendment, sources in the government told The Sunday Express, would effectively clarify that electronic footage of the CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 E EXPLAINED 22/12/2024 What the tweak ● does NOW, ONLY election papers mentioned under different provisions of the Conduct of Election Rules (like nomination papers) would be open to public scrutiny. Papers available to candidates, like Form 17C, continue to remain available to them. The tweak would effectively exclude CCTV footage or any electronic record of the poll process from public inspection. PM IN KUWAIT Prime Minister Narendra Modi being received by Kuwait Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence Sheikh Fahad Yousef Saud Al-Sabah in Kuwait City on Saturday. PM Modi is on a two-day visit to the Gulf country. PTI REPORT, PAGE8 ED request for sanction to move 7 Indians among injured against Kejriwal gets L-G’s nod in Germany attack; Delhi 5 KILLED AS CAR RAMS XMAS MARKET says senseless, horrific SHUBHAJIT ROY NEW DELHI, DECEMBER 21 WITH SEVEN Indian nationals among more than 200 injured when a man, identified as a “Saudi dissident and exMuslim,” rammed his car into a busy Christmas market Friday in Magdeburg, Germany, India has condemned the attack as “horrific and senseless”. Fivepeoplewerekilledinthe attack. THE WORLD SUSPECT ARRESTED, ‘EX-MUSLIM’ SAUDI DOC WHO CRITICISED IMMIGRANTS PAGE 10 “We condemn the horrific and senseless attack at a Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany. Several precious CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 FormerCM'splea againstchargesheet cognizanceis alreadypending EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE NEW DELHI, DECEMBER 21 DELHILTGOVERNORVKSaxena has recommended that the EnforcementDirectorate(ED)be granted sanction to prosecute former Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwalintheexcisepolicycase, officials of the Lt Governor’s Secretariat said Saturday. Arvind Kejriwal with AAP leaders Manish Sisodia and Avadh Ojha in New Delhi, Saturday. PTI Granted bail by the Supreme Court in separate cases filed by theEDandCBIrelatingtotheexcise policy, Kejriwal, who leads the ruling AAP in Delhi, has a plea pending before the Delhi High Court in which he has sought quashing of a trial court orderthattookcognizanceof the ED chargesheet without prior sanction for his prosecution. Reacting to the ED move to now obtain prosecution sanction,theAAPcalleditanattempt to“politicallymalign”itsgovernment. “The so-called liquor scam investigation has dragged on for twoyears,harassing500people, filing 50,000 pages of documents, and conducting over 250 raids, and not a single penny has CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 At SCREEN Live, the Deol brothers discuss their blockbuster year, family legacy, camps in Bollywood 4-PAGE PULLOUT SPOTLIGHT ON SPYWARE COMPANIES US court holds Israeli firm NSO liable for targeting WhatsApp users VENKAT ANANTH BENGALURU, DECEMBER 21 IN A significant ruling on Friday, a United States District Court heldIsraelitechnologycompany NSO Group liable for targeting the devices of 1,400 WhatsApp users.NSOGroupisthemakerof the Pegasus spyware allegedly used by its government clients to infect the devices of several WhatsApp users, including activists, journalists, and other members of the civil society. The case now moves the deliberations to determine damages NSO owes WhatsApp, which is set to begin on March 3, 2025, in Oakland, California. The ruling, however, does not address the rights of individuals whose phones were hacked. Friday’s ruling came five years after the Meta-owned WhatsApp sued the NSO Group in the US District Court of North California in October 2019. In its ruling, the court concluded that inexploitingabuginWhatsApp, NSOGrouphadviolatedsections of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), a federal cybersecuritylawthatcriminalises unauthorised access to computers, networks and other digital information, and a similar state law in California called the CaliforniaComputerDataAccess Meta-owned WhatsApp had sued NSO Group in 2019 and Fraud Act (CDAFA). “Defendants (NSO Group) appeartofullyacknowledgethat the WIS (WhatsApp Installation Server,whichenabledtheinstallation of the spyware) sent messages through WhatsApp serversthatcausedPegasustobe installedontargetusers’devices, and that the WIS was then able to obtain protected information by having it sent from the target users, through the WhatsApp servers, and back to the WIS,” judge Phyllis Hamilton ruled in the Northern District of California. Concluding that WhatsApp had sufficiently established breach,thecourtsaidthat“common sense dictates that defendants (NSO Group) must have first gained access to the WhatsApp software before reverse-engineering and/ or decompiling it, and they offer no plausible explanation for how CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 300 of 1,400 users from India, why ruling may re-open tapping debate SOUMYARENDRA BARIK NEW DELHI, DECEMBER 21 NOW THAT a US court has indicted NSO Group and held it liable for damages, this may have an impact on the processes in theIndiancourtsandreopenthe debate on state surveillance and privacy of individuals in Parliament. Of the 1,400 WhatsApp users targetedworldwide,itwas reported in 2021 that Pegasus was used on more than 300 Indian mobile numbers, including that of two serving ministers in the Narendra Modi government, three Opposition leaders, one constitutional authority, several journalists and business persons. The revelations had then raised eyebrows over the Union governmentandsomestategovernments’involvementintheattacks, since NSO Group has re- peatedly said it only deals with governments and government agencies. Unsealed documents in the US court had, however, shown that NSO Group, for years, downplayed its role in the deploymentof Pegasus.Through interviews and an assessment of subpoenaed documents, WhatsApp contradicted this claim, alleging that Pegasus customers had “minimal role” in its deployment,withNSO Group managing a substantial part of the process. Following the mediareportsof 2021,the Indian government unequivocally denied all ‘over the top allegations’ of surveillance using Pegasus. In a statement to Parliament at the time, then IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said the reports had “no substance”. He added that India’s surveillance laws ensure that “unauthorised surveillance cannot occur”. The reports had CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 ‘Forged letter’, no culprit: Years on, Kerala woman’s death in UAE a mystery PAGE 1 ANCHOR SHAJU PHILIP THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, DECEMBER 21 ON SEPTEMBER 3, 2005, Smitha George, then 25, newly married and in a foreign land, vanished withoutatrace.Butshepurportedlyleftbehindaletterintheflat in Dubai from where she went missing, saying she was leaving tojoinherlover.Adecadelater,in February 2015, with no trace of Smitha,theKeralaPolicearrested her husband Valiyaparambil Antony,accusinghimofallegedly forging the letter and allegedly torturingSmithaandcausingher disappearance. Now, almost another decade later, comes another twist: last month, a court in Kochi acquitted Antony of both the charges against him. The CBI court also took note of a letter from the UAE — sent in July this year in response to the CBI’s Letter Rogatory — which said that an unidentified body of a woman had been found in a Sharjah hospital morgue on September 6, 2006, a year after Smitha went missing. The UAE letter said Smitha’s family had been shown photographs of the body and they had “confirmed 100%” that it was hers. The letter Smitha George went missing in 2005; her husband V Antony was cleared of all charges by a Kerala court in November also said forensic tests conductedonthebody—whichwas buried on November 22, 2006 — had confirmed that the person died of “natural” causes. “This report clears the mystery since the missing victim did not die on September 3, 2005,” the court of the chief judicial magistrate court in Kochi said while clearing Antony, who had come out on bail after 80 days in jail. But the questions remained. Where was Smitha between September3,2005,whenshereportedly went missing, and September 6, 2006, when her body turned up in a morgue in Sharjah, around 30 km from Dubai? If the body in the morgue wasindeedhers,howdidshedie? And was there another person in Antony and Smitha’s marriage? A body in a morgue Nineteen years ago, on September 1, 2005, Smitha flew to Dubai on a 55-day visa to join her husband Antony, then workedwithamarineengineering firm in Dubai. On September 5, Antony complained to the India consulate in Dubai that his wife had gone missing two days ago, on September 3. He also claimed to have recovered the letter in which she purportedly said she was leaving him for her lover. Police said he also sent a copy of the letter to Smitha’s CONTINUED ON PAGE 2