The editorial Page: Before rebuilding Delhi, a warning from Gurugram 8 WEDNESDaY, aUgUST 26, 2026 JournAlisM of CourAGe MuMbAI, lATe cITy, 20 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 WILL BE VISITING INDIA AFTER 7 YEARS AMID EFFORTS TO RESTORE TIES 78 106 129 69 Business as usual By EP UNNY Xi likely to attend BRICS in Delhi next month with large delegation Beijing’s advance team arrives to prepare the ground for visit Shubhajit Roy New Delhi, August 25 ChIneSePReSIDenTXiJinping is likely to attend the summit of BRICS leaders in new Delhi on September 12 and 13, The Indian Express has learnt. he last visited India in october 2019,monthsbeforePlaincursions along the line of actual Control in eastern ladakh triggered a military standoff between the two countries. It is learnt that the Chinese sidehasconveyedtonewDelhi that Xi is likely to come for the The BIg PICTure EXPRESS special E. khargone violence trials: Acquittals, dead ends and In Beijing, Doval and Wang failing evidence EXPlainEd look to ‘make progress on boundary delimitation’ The steps taken Although troops are still massed along the LAC in eastern Ladakh, India and China have been taking a series of steps to restore ties that took a hit following Chinese incursions. These include direct flights, resumption of visas, easing of curbs on Chinese firms, revival of the pilgrimage to Kailash Mansarovar. leaders’ summit. an advance team from China has arrived forthesecurityandprotocolarrangements to prepare for the President’s possible visit. »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Shubhajit Roy New Delhi, August 25 NSA Ajit Doval with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Beijing, Tuesday. PTI naTIonalSeCuRITyadvisor ajit Doval and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang yi, who are the special representatives of their countries on the boundary issue,heldtalksinBeijingTuesday and the Indian embassy latersaidtheydiscussedwaysto “make progress on boundary delimitation”while“sustaining theongoingworkontransboundary cooperation”. Before his talks with Wang, Doval met Chinese Vice President han Zheng and China said it urged India to view and handle their relationship from a “strategic and long-term perspective” and “properly manage differences”. India, on its part, said Doval and han discussed ways to strengthen peace and tranquillity in the border areas and further improve bilateral relations. a long part of han’s career wasspentinShanghai,underXi Jinping, and he was CPC secretary of Shanghai during 20122017.heisconsideredamember ofthepowerfulShanghaiClique. »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 We are facing difficulty as names of accused generic without father’s name or address: Inspector supervising riot cases Fouryearslater,notmuchheadway l Violence took place on Ram Navami, April 10, 2022 1 person killed 24 injured, including the district SP 16 houses and 29 shops demolished by administration in the aftermath 175 people arrested in initial police action Hasina Fakhroo’s house built under PMAY (Urban) was demolished. AnAnd MohAn J thE caSES EXPRESS special The CourAge run Inside the Army’s Paralympic node PAge 13 thE woRld PAge 16 First in a decade, Maharashtra ACB seeks nod to prosecute judge in graft case Mumbai, August 25 IrAn vows To resIsT wIdened sAnCTIons, sAys u.s. seeks TAlks After3daysof protest,IIT-D sayschanging suicideinquiry panelmembers Sophiya Mathew New Delhi, August 25 IIT-DelhIonTuesdayevening agreed to change the composition of the committee that will inquire into the death by suicideofaMasters’student,bowing to the demand of students who have been protesting on campus since Sunday. In a statement, IIT-D said Rishikesh Kumar, who was studying for an MSc in physics, was an “academically bright student” who had been treated for a mental health »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 being recorded Inafirstinnearlyadecade,the anti-Corruption Bureau (aCB) has sought sanction to prosecute an additional sessions judge of the Mumbai City Civil and Sessions Court, who was named as an accused in a corruption case last year. The aCB sent its request for sanction to the law and JudiciaryDepartmentinJuly.Thedepartment has since forwarded it to the Bombay high Court for a decision by the competent authority. a chargesheet in the case will be filed only after the sanction is received, a senior aCB officer said. The judge, who is currently under suspension, was named in an FIR registered in november 2025 after the aCB arrested a clerk-cum-typist for allegedly accepting Rs 15 lakh from a complainant in return for a favourable order in a civil dispute. The aCB has alleged that the clerk had demanded and accepted the bribe on behalf of the judge. The move is significant as there has been no instance in thelastdecadeoftheaCBseeking prosecution sanction in a case involving a sessions judge, according to officials familiar with such cases. The Bombay highCourthas,however,taken disciplinary action against judges named in corruption cases. last year, it dismissed another additional sessions judge who had been named in a corruption case in Satara. a senior aCB officer confirmed that sanction, mandatory under the Prevention of Corruption act before a court cantakecognisanceofoffences allegedly committed by a public servant, had been sought. “In this case, forensic analysis of the conversation between the arrested accused and the judge was necessary to establish his role, as he was not arrested red-handed accepting the bribe. after a report from the State Forensic Science laboratory confirmed the conversation and matched the voice sample, we decided to seek prosecution sanction from the concerneddepartment,”theofficer said. “It is our procedure to collect concrete evidence before sending a request for prosecution sanction. as this case involved a member of the judiciary, we wanted to complete a thorough probe before seeking sanction,” the officer added. The judge was not arrested inthecase.Theclerk,Chandrakant Vasudev, was granted bail in December 2025. a departmental inquiry against the judge is yet to be initiated, an »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 all acquitted Anand Mohan J Khargone, August 25 onJuly27,aMadhyaPradesh Sessions Court acquitted 11 men accused in the 2022 Khargone Ram navami violence that left more than two dozen people, including Khargone Superintendent of Police Siddharth Choudhary, injured, and one dead. In the wake of the clashes, the administration razed 16 housesintheaffectedlocalities, Judge was named in FIR after clerk allegedly accepted Rs 15 lakh for favourable order; agency awaits sanction to file chargesheet Manish Kumar Pathak & Sadaf Modak thE hold-uP 4 closed for 85 accused yet 65 FIRs to be found 38 under investigation want of evidence 20 at stage of evidence 3 trials completed, 23 cases awaiting Patna Protest Police use water cannons to disperse protesters marching towards Raj Bhavan, demanding a rollback of a proposed two-tier format for BPSC teachers’ recruitment exam, in Patna, Tuesday. AnI New Delhi, August 25 Surrender in 2 weeks: Supreme Court rejects Tarun Tejpal’s exemption plea Ananthakrishnan G New Delhi, August 25 ReJeCTInG a request by Tehelka magazine’s former editor-in-chief Tarun Tejpal who had sought exemption from surrender after being sentenced to 10 years in jail in a 2013 rape case, the Supreme Court Tuesday directed him to turn himself in within two weeks. “The appellant shall surrender within two weeks and shall furnish the surrender certificate,”thesingle-judgebench of Justice alok aradhe said. The bench said if the surrender certificate is submitted Tehelka’s former editor-in-chief Tarun Tejpal. AnI FIle on or before September 22, Tejpal’s main appeal challenging the august 6 ruling of the Bombay high Court in Goa, which convicted and sentenced him for the rape of a woman journalist, will be listed for hearing on September 22. While overturning Tejpal’s acquittal by a trial court and sentencinghim,thehighCourt had given him four weeks to surrender. appearingforTejpal,Senior advocateKapilSibalreferredto thehighCourtverdictandsaid, “The incident took place 13 years ago. The respondent is a senior citizen with a family, a wife and two daughters. There is no report of any misconduct by the respondent or an allegation of having committed any offenceposttheacquittalorder. Both parties must have by now moved on with their lives.” he said Tejpal was on bail »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 linking these to irregularities, and 65 cases were registered. Then Chief Minister Shivraj Chouhan vowed, “There is no place for rioters on the soil of Madhya Pradesh… They will not be released. Strictest action will be taken against them.” Four years later, the cases arecollapsingonebyone,orare stuck without headway, an investigation into court records by The Indian Express reveals. The only three riot cases to »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 2 Indian ships among 45 blacklisted by Iran for Hormuz ‘violations’ Sukalp Sharma HANDED 10 YEARS IN JAIL FOR RAPE forensic reports TWo ShIPS owned and operatedbyIndia-basedentitiesfeature on the list of 45 “non-compliant” vessels issued by Iran’s Persian Gulf Strait authority (PGSa) for allegedly violating terms set by Tehran for transiting the Strait of hormuz. The Indian Express analysed the ownership and management records of the blacklistedvesselslistedbythePGSa on Sunday. The two Indian vessels on the list are lnG (liquefied natural gas) tanker Disha and bulk carrier Maha Roos, as per the analysis. apart from these two, some of the other ships have a history of transportingcargo,particularly energy, to India. Many of the vessels are linked to uae-based entities, particularly the abu Dhabi national oil Company (aDnoC) group.apartfromIndia,vessels linkedtoentitiesbasedincountries like Saudi arabia, Qatar, Greece,thenetherlands,South Korea, Singapore and norway are also on the list. a Pakistanflagged crude oil tanker is among those blacklisted. Some of these vessels had also faced attacks around the Strait of hormuz in the months since the West asia war started late February. “Inlightofviolationsbycertain vessels of the Iranian arrangements for transiting the Strait of hormuz, these vessels will face restrictions in their future transits through Strait of hormuz, such as fines, seizure, or confiscation,” the PGSa said in a post on X late Sunday. To avoid potential issues, it is necessaryforcargoowners--to the destination or from the origin -- to review the list of the vessels on the PGSa’s website, it said. “Vessels that, from this date »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 l ANAYA BANgAR UNDeRWeNT geNDeR-AFFiRMiNg SURgeRY iN MARCH, SAYS BCCi DiD NoT ReSPoND To HeR qUeRieS ‘Great day’: Mumbai trans player gets nod for women community cricket in Australia Devendra Pandey anaya, whose father Sanjay Bangar is a former India allrounder and was also the batFoRMeR MuMBaI under-19 ting coach of the men’s team, cricketer anaya Bangar, who earlierplayedage-groupcricket underwent a gender-affirming for Mumbai alongside Testsurgery in March this year, has capped Sarfaraz Khan and his received clearance to play brother Musheer Khan. women’scommunitycricketin anaya said she wrote to the australia. Board of Control for Cricket in “It is a great day for me, es- India (BCCI) last year to check pecially after knowabout eligibility ing the fact that I can criteria for trans athPagE 1 play cricket. There letes but has not rewas a stage when I ceived a reply yet. thought I would In June this year, never play cricket again, but she reached out to Cricket austhanks to Cricket australia, it tralia. In its reply sent on July has given me another chance,” 20,Cricketaustraliatoldanaya anaya, now 25 years old, told that while she could start playThe Indian Express. ing community cricket imMumbai, August 25 anchor mediately, she would have to fulfil testosterone-related eligibilitycriteriatoqualifyfor‘elite Cricket’ like the Women’s Big Bash league (WBBl). Cricket australia’s ‘Transgender and Gender Diverse Players in elite Cricket Policy’ requires a player’s serum testosterone to be below 10nmol/l(nanomolesperlitre) for at least 12 months to be eligible to play. In 2023, the International Cricket Council (ICC) banned transgender players from the elitewomen’sgameiftheyhave gone through male puberty. a top BCCI official told The Indian Express that the board has no policy yet on trans Former Mumbai U-19 cricketer Anaya Bangar. AnAyAbAngAR/InSTAgRAM women playing women’s cricket. “When it comes to the ICC, they have said no to it. BCCI is yet to decide what can be done in such cases. as this is the first time the board had come up with such a case, the board is yet to take a stand. especially on allowing them in domestic cricket,” the BCCI official said. Responding to anaya’s letter, Cricket australia’s head of Integrity, Jacqui Partridge, said: “until March 2027, you remain eligible to participate in Premier Cricket competitions in any State or Territory of australia. as Premier Cricket is classified as Community CricketratherthaneliteCricket under the Policy, your participation in those competitions is not affected by this determination.” “your eligibility for elite Cricket from that date (March 2027) is conditional upon you providing a blood test upon your arrival in australia confirming that your serum testosterone concentration remains below 10 nmol/l and that you continue to satisfy the Policy’s eligibility requirements,” Partridge said. “I genuinely couldn’t believe that I’ll be able to play again. Because of Cricket australia and its progressive and inclusive policies, which focus on fairness and inclusion in women's sport for trans women, this is a huge milestone, not just for me, but for otherathleteslikemewhowant to try but aren’t doing so because they have to either choosethesportorchoosetransition,” anaya said. While she is still recovering from the gender affirming surgery, anaya said she was in the processoffindingaclubinaustralia to play for. In a social media post in Junelastyear,anayahadcalled for a discussion with BCCI and ICC representatives to discuss apolicyfortransathletes,based on data instead of “outdated perceptions”.Inthepost,anaya »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Mumbai