The editorial Page: in disruptive times, an arc of trust to hold indo-Pacific together 8 TUESDAY, JULY 7, 2026 JoUrnaliSm of CoUrage mumbaI, laTe cITy, 18 paGes ₹5.00 l www.indianexpress.com da I ly f R o m : a h m e da b a d , c h a N d I Ga R h , d e l h I , j a I p u R , ko l k aTa , l u c k N o w , m u m b a I , N aG p u R , paT N a , p u N e , Va d o da R a REG.No. MCS/067/2018 - 20 RNi REGN. No. 1543/57 Bhupender Yadav’s aides dOnaTiOn ‘ThefT’ rOw: TrusT aCCepTs resiGnaTiOns Of ChaMpaT rai, anil Mishra 132 160 200 92 business as usual By EP UNNY Ayodhya temple Trust goes for key changes at the top, to appoint CEO l otherdecisions 3-member panel to recommend names for CEO; retired bureaucrat Krishna Mohan made interim General Secretary Maulshree seth Lucknow, July 6 iN iTS first meeting since allegations of donation theft at the Ram temple in Ayodhya surfaced, the Shri Ram Janmbhoomi Teerth Kshetra, in its firstmajorshake-upsince2020, announced a sweeping organisational overhaul, including leadershipchangesandthecreation of a new chief executive officer (CeO) post, on Monday. The Trust accepted the res- ignations of two key members, general secretary Champat Rai and member Anil Mishra, and appointedseniorRSSfunctionary and retired indian Forest Service (iFoS) officer Krishna Mohan as interim General Secretary. it also announced a three-member committee, comprising retired judge JusticePramodKohli,formerlieutenant General Vishnu Kant ChaturvediandSureshhaware, torecommendnamesforaCeO tomanagethetemplecomplex. l Trust gives records of donations received, spent. It received Rs 3,246 cr since its formation; Rs 2,370 cr spent on temple construction, related capital works l Trust removes Gopal Nagarkatte alias Gopal Rao from list of special invitees; he was in-charge of daily activities such as darshan Shri Ram Janmbhoomi Teerth Kshetra treasurer Govind Giri and interim general secretary Krishna Mohan in Ayodhya, Monday. aNI Rai and Mishra had tendered their resignations after an FiR was lodged on June 25 and eight arrests were made in connection with the case. The Trust will meet again on July 22, by which time it expects the Special investigation Team (SiT) probing the case to submit its final report. The meeting will also consider filling three vacancies among trustees, one that arose followingthedeathofVimlendraPratapMishralastyearandtwofollowing Monday’s resignations. in a significant move, it »COnTinued On paGe 2 eXpress special Facing backlash, Govt likely to delay higher 25% ethanol blend in petrol Move comes on E. back of consumer anil sasi New Delhi, July 6 AMiD A raging backlash over a rapid increase in the use of ethanol in petrol from 10% to 20%injustthreeyears,thegovernment is likely to push back the proposed shift to a higher blend of ethanol fuel e25 comprising 75% petrol and 25% ethanol. The government had originally planned to dispense petrol blended with 20% ethanol only by 2030. But the e20 fuel — 80% petrol and 20% ethanol what is the ethanol advantage? Ethanol has many positives including low carbon content, and lower dependence on import of fossil fuels. But a rapid increase in ethanol has triggered concerns, which the government plans to address before introducing E25. — is now the standard petrol variant available nationwide. While no formal date has been announced for dispensing e25 blended petrol, two government decisions over the last six weeks triggered fresh Workers and earthmovers clear the debris after heavy rainfall triggered a landslide near the ‘Missing Link’ section of the Pune-Mumbai Expressway, in Maharashtra, Monday. Traffic on its Mumbai-bound carriageway resumed Monday night after 18 hours. NaReNdRa VaskaR nine weeks afTer Grand OpeninG »COnTinued On paGe 2 nym USMNT (United States Men’s National Team). But he was there when his national team needed him the most — to rescind the red card brandished on USMNT striker Folarin Balogun for a foul on Tarik Muharemovic in the round-of-16 game against Bosnia and herzegovina. eXpress at World Cup sandip G New York, July 6 USPReSiDeNTDonaldTrump has been a phantom figure at this World Cup. heskippedtheopeningceremony and has not watched a single match, not even of the co-hosts who go by the acro- »COnTinued On paGe 2 the editorial page FiFa lets dOnald truMp, the bully, win paGe 8 express news service New Delhi, July 6 iN A rare move, the Ministry of environment, Forest and Climate Change has simultaneously removed three key aides of Union Minister Bhupender Yadav. While the Private Secretary to the Minister has been shuntedouton“administrative grounds”,anAdditionalPrivate Secretary has been “prematurely repatriated”, and the appointment of another Additional Private Secretary has been “terminated”. The decisions were announced in separate orders Three arrested, search on for another suspect Landslide damages Missing Link; official says ‘act of God’ as Pune-Mum traffic hit Trump delivers ‘assist’ of World Cup, gets red card reprieve for US player July 3 order cites ‘administrative’ reason behind removal of PS dated July 3. The Indian Express reached out to top officials of the ministry for a comment on the changes, but did not receive any response. “…Shri Amar Singh, iRS (iT:2010), Private Secretary to the hon’ble Minister for environment, Forest and Climate Change, is repatriated to his parent cadre, i.e Department of Revenue, on administrative ground and relieved of his duties with immediate effect,” the ministry's order stated. Amar Singh, an indian Revenue Service officer, was initiallyappointedasPrivateSecretary to Yadav in 2021, when the Minister held the labour and employment portfolio. earlier a Deputy Secretary, he was upgraded to Director in 2024.hisappointmentwas"for the period up to 07.09.2026 (i.e. for the balance period of his tenure of five years as Private »COnTinued On paGe 2 Minor’s rape-murder: Bengal district on edge, CM says will seek capital punishment eXplained concerns on mileage and fears of engine damage Purge in Minister’s office: PS, Addl PS shunted out, another Addl PS sacked 670mm rainfall batters Lonavala in 24 hrs as Mumbai surpasses July quota in 6 days sabah virani, sushant kulkarni, ajay Jadhav, dipanita nath & Zeeshan shaikh Mumbai, Pune, July 6 BARelY NiNe weeks after it was inaugurated as Maharashtra’s answer to the MumbaiPune expressway’s most notorious traffic bottleneck, the Rs 6,695-crore Missing link suffered its first major monsoon disruption on Monday, with a landslide damaging a retainingstructurenearoneofits tunnels and forcing the closure of the Pune-to-Mumbai carriageway, as Maharashtra re- inside paGes 4, 6 schOOlsshutin MuMbai,thane, naviMuMbai Opp attacks cM Over landslide ceived record rainfall with 670 mm of rain battering lonavala in over 24 hours. Mumbai surpassed its average rainfall quota for July in six days as Pune recorded 108 mm »COnTinued On paGe 2 Mankhurd BuildinG COllapse Hours after he decided to vacate home with family, man lost wife and four children nayonika Bose & purnima sah Mumbai, July 6 BY SUNDAY evening, Moinuddin Wajid Ali Shah (39) had decided that his family would leavetheirMankhurdhomethe next day. A neighbouring fourstorey building had begun showingsignsofdistressearlier that morning, and he did not want to take any chances. But his family never got that chance. Minutes after Moinuddin stepped out to buy food and householditems,thefour-storey structurecamecrashingontohis shanty in Janta Nagar in Mankhurd’s Mandala area, killing his wife,fourchildrenandasix-yearoldgirlfromtheneighbourhood who had come over to play. »COnTinued On paGe 2 (Clockwise from left) Akhtar Jahan, Anabiya Shah & Serajuddin Moinuddin Shah , Jalaluddin Moinuddin and Kaisar Jaha Moinuddin relatedrepOrts p 3 ravik Bhattacharya & atri Mitra Kolkata, Baruipur, July 6 The RAPe and murder of an 11-year-oldgirlinWestBengal’s South 24 Parganas district, and the subsequent mob violence and lynching of a local man on suspicion of being involved in the crime, put the Baruipur area on edge for the second day on Monday. The incident poses a major law-and-orderchallengeforthe SuvenduAdhikari-ledBJPgovernment, which has warned its politicalrivalsagainstgivingthe incident a communal colour. Former CM Mamata Banerjee and other Opposition leaders have criticised the government overtheincident,withBanerjee also alleging that she was prevented from meeting the victim’s family. So far, three people have been arrested in connection with the rape and murder. The Chief Minister has promised justice, saying the government wouldseekcapitalpunishment for those found guilty. he has alsosaidaSpecialinvestigation »COnTinued On paGe 2 Delhi HC refuses to recall order to Govt to disburse Rs 21 cr to ’20 riot victims sohini Ghosh New Delhi, July 6 The Delhi high Court on Monday refused to recall its January 2025 order in which the courthaddirectedtheDelhigovernment to disburse Rs 21 crore to the victims of the communal violencethattookplaceinNorth east Delhi in February 2020. The compensation was recommended by the North east Delhi Riots Claims Commission (NeDRCC), which was notified by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in April 2020. The government has opposedthehC’sdirective,relying on a Supreme Court judgment that it says “contemplates that the liability (for loss of life or property and injury) is to be bornebytheactualperpetrators andorganisers(oftheviolence)”. however, the government informed the hC on Monday thatithad“notyet”putinplace amechanismtorecovermoney from the accused or perpetrators of the violence. At least 53 people, most of them Muslims, »COnTinued On paGe 2 l GRouP SET uP by HARvARD PRofESSoR Avi LoEb To ADviSE WHiTE HouSE, PENTAGoN, fbi AND AMERiCAN iNTELLiGENCE CoMMuNiTy oN uNiDENTifiED ANoMALouS PHENoMENA From Haryana judoka to Harvard scientist on new US council scouting alien life sukhbir siwach Americanintelligencecommunity on Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena — or, as FROM A judoka in haryana’s NASA calls it, observations of junior team in 2006 to a post- eventsintheskythatcannotbe doctoralresearcheratharvard, identified as aircraft or known Dr Devesh Nandal has come a natural phenomena. long way. he is now beginning Speaking to The Indian Exan even longer journey — in press over phone, Nandal said, search of alien life. “iwaschosentobeanexperton The 37-year-old scientist the council due to my expertise from Jatal village in in Astrophysics and page 1 Panipat was chosen electronic engineerlastmonthtojointhe ing. Whether the UAP Science AdvisUAPareofterrestrial ory Council, a new advisory orextraterrestrialorigin,myexgroupsetupbyharvardprofes- pertise will aid the team in apsorAviloebtoadvisetheWhite plyingnumericalandstatistical house, Pentagon, FBi and the tools to decipher the origin of Chandigarh, July 6 anchor such events.” Nandal is a postdoctoral researcherattheCenterforAstrophysics at harvard & Smithsonian, with experience in theoretical modelling, stellar evolution and interpreting complex data. his role on the council will be to help separate real scientific explanations fromspeculation,andexamine “strange” observations using the same rigorous methods applied in modern astrophysics. “i expect to learn more about the fundamental principlesthatgovernouruniverse. Clearly, these anomalous events are puzzling various Dr Devesh Nandal, a researcher at the Center for Astrophysics at Harvard & Smithsonian, at Maunakea observatories in Hawaii government agencies. i wish to apply scientific principles and expect to understand the physics that operates such ob- jects,” Nandal said. The appointment comes against the backdrop of renewed government interest in the US in extraterrestrial life — a pursuit that has also led to raised eyebrows in the scientific community. in 2022, the US Congress held its first hearings on UFOs in five decades, and the militaryhassincepromisedgreater transparency on the subject. This year, on directions from President Donald Trump, the Pentagon released a tranche of files containing descriptions of reportedsightingsonearthand by astronauts, though none of- fered conclusive proof of extraterrestrial life. ForNandal,meanwhile,the journey he has already completed matters just as much as the one he is about to begin. “My first time moving abroad to study engineering at the University of leeds in the UK was a real eye-opening moment. engineering and Astrophysics might sound similar to some, but in fact are quite different. i learned how to focus on tasks that have never been solved before... This allowed me to win the ViTA-Origins fellowship(UniversityofVirginia) and later the Swiss National ScienceFoundationfellowship, which paved my way to the US, first at Virginia, now at harvard,” he said. Back in Panipat, where his parents are based, Nandal's father Dr Sumer Singh Nandal is a former Deputy Director (Sports)inharyana'sYouthand Welfare Department, and his mother Dr Shakuntla Nandal is a former sociology professor. Their excitement is palpable.“heisnowpartofaselect group of scientists asked to apply modern science to one of today’s most debated topics. his role is not to assume »COnTinued On paGe 2