DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA JOURNALISM OF COURAGE SATURDAY, MAY 11, 2024, LUCKNOW, LATE CITY, 18 PAGES DECISION 2024 ● Out of Indore contest, Cong pushes for NOTA vote in constituency `6.00 WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM SINCE 1932 Kejriwal can campaign INTERIM BAIL UNTIL JUNE 1: SC SAYS POLLS A LIFELINE, HE IS NOT A THREAT Court flags suspicion, but gives clean chit to three citing lack of evidence ● Opposition has conceded defeat, now commenting on Ram: Yogi Adityanath Was shot dead in Pune on August 20, 2013 CHANDAN HAYGUNDE & SUSHANT KULKARNI PAGES 3, 4, 7, 8 PUNE, MAY 10 NEARLY 11 years after rationalist DrNarendraDabholkarwasshot dead in Pune, a special court Friday convicted his assailants, Sachin Prakashrao Andure and Sharad Bhausaheb Kalaskar, and sentencedthemtolifeimprisonment for murder. It acquitted threeothersincludingthealleged mastermind Dr Virendrasinh Sharadchandra Tawade. Citing lack of evidence, Special judge P P Jadhav acquitted Tawade, lawyer Sanjiv Gajanan Punalekar and activist 12 Maoists killed in Chhattisgarh encounter, second in weeks Raipur Maharashtra Dabholkar murder: 2 get life in prison, alleged mastermind among 3 acquitted Kanker Chhattisgarh GANGALOOR Bijapur Sukma RAIPUR, MAY 10 BARELY THREE weeks after 29 Maoists were killed in a gunbattle in Kanker district of Chhattisgarh,another12Maoists were shot dead in an encounter withsecurityforcesinthestate’s Bijapur district early Friday. A jawan of the District Reserve Guard (DRG) was injured in an IED explosion when the team was heading back after the operation. Thenumberof Maoistskilled this year in Chhattisgarh is now 103 — the highest since 2019. Until April-end, 91 Maoists had been killed by security forces. The Friday incident took place in the Gangaloor area under the jurisdiction of the Pidiya police station in Bijapur district, considered a Maoist stronghold and an area from where many are recruited. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal addresses supporters outside Tihar Jail after he got interim bail on Friday. Renuka Puri ORDERS FRAMING OF CHARGES Bail conditions: Can’t visit His first remarks: ‘140 crore people CMO, Sectt; can’t sign any have to unite against dictatorship’ file unless it needs L-G nod Sufficient material on sexual harassment by Brij Bhushan: Court EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE JAYPRAKASH S NAIDU VikramVinayBhave,alllinkedto the Sanatan Sanstha. Dabholkar, founder of the Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti, was shot dead by two motorcycle-borne assailants on the V R Shinde bridge in Pune on the morning of August 20 in 2013. WhileacquittingTawade,the judge said there was a “lot of scopeforsuspicion”againsthim, ANANTHAKRISHNAN G NEW DELHI, MAY 10 REFERRING TO a ruling that described elections as “the barometer and lifeline of a parliamentary system and its setup” and underliningthatArvindKejriwal is “the Chief Minister of Delhi and a leader of one of the national parties” who “does not have any criminal antecedents” and is “not a threat to society”, the Supreme Court Friday granted him interim bail until June 1, the seventh and last phase of voting in the ongoing LokSabhaelections,withcertain conditions. Arrested in the Delhi excise policy case on March 21 by the Enforcement Directorate and subsequently placed in judicial custody, Kejriwal has to surrender on June 2. Rejecting the prosecution’s NEW DELHI, MAY 10 BUSINESS AS USUAL BY UNNY AMID THE sound of firecrackers, surrounded by hundreds of supporters, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal walked out of Tihar Jail Friday, with a declaration that “humein sabko milke desh ko taanashahi se bachaana hai (all INSIDE RULING COULD SET PRECEDENT FOR POLITICAL DETAINEES PAGE 6 of us have to unite to save the country from dictatorship)”. “Main tann, mann, dhan se lad raha hoon, sangharsh kar raha hoon, taanashahi ke khilaaf. Lekin 140 crore logon ko taanashahi se ladna padega (I’m fighting against dictatorship with all my might, but 140 crore people will have to do that too),” he said. Kejriwal, who was arrested on March 21 by the Enforcement Directorate CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Lordships made themselves part of campaign: BJP’s Vinay Sahasrabuddhe argument that if politicians can be granted interim bail to campaign for elections, there is no reason why an agriculturalist or abusinessmanshouldbedenied bail to attend to his work, the bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta laid down CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 VIKAS PATHAK NEW DELHI, MAY 10 SOONAFTERtheSupremeCourt granted interim bail to Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal until June 1, the last day of polling, senior BJP leader and party na- tional executive member Vinay Sahasrabuddhe put a question mark on the court’s motives. “By picking a side right in the middle of elections, the lordships that be have made themselves a part of the campaign. When the billion ballots speak, they may not like it!” When contacted, Sahasra- buddhe told The Indian Express: “The Supreme Court order sets a precedent…so people who are charged will, in future, start filing election nominations. There is also a risk that Kejriwal may tamper with the evidence.” Sahsasrabuddhe, former Rajya Sabha MP and former CONTINUED ON PAGE 5 NIRBHAY THAKUR NEW DELHI, MAY 10 A DELHI court Friday ordered framingofchargesagainstBJPMP andformerWrestlingFederation of India (WFI) chief Brij Bhushan SharanSinghinthecaseinwhich sixwomenwrestlershadlevelled allegationsof sexualharassment against him. The court of Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Priyanka Rajpoot said there was sufficient material to frame charges against Bhushan in the offences of outraging the modesty of a woman and sexual harassment (sections 354 and 354A of the IPC) of five women. It said for all allegations levelled againstBhushan byvictimnumber 6, he has been discharged. Her charges dated back to 2012. The court noted that it has BJPMP and formerWFI chief Brij Bhushan SharanSingh found sufficient materialagainst Bhushan for offences under section 506 (1) (criminal intimidation) in the allegations of two victims — number 1 and 5. Bhushan has not been charged with the offence of stalking (354D of the IPC). ForVinodTomar,formerWFI assistant secretary and the secondaccusedinthecase,thecourt saidtherewassufficientmaterial to frame charges against him for criminalintimidationinrelation to the allegations of one victim. Tomar,however,wasdischarged of the charge of abetment. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 INDIA bloc storm arriving in UP, Should all of Parliament Modi will not become PM: Rahul security be with CISF? Panel will examine NEW DELHI, MAY 10 DAYS AFTER Prime Minister NarendraModiallegedthatRahul Gandhi had stopped taking the names of “Ambani and Adani” sincetheLokSabhaelectionswere notified, the Congress leader on Friday mentioned Adani at least 27 times and Ambani 14 times during a rally in Kanpur and said that by mentioning the names of both the industrialists, the PM accepted defeat. Claiming that the alliance of Congress and Samajwadi Party wasgoingtowinnotlessthan50 of the 80 seats in Uttar Pradesh, Rahul said that Modi was not going to become Prime Minister after June 4 when the votes will be counted. Addressing a joint rally with Samajwadi Party president LIZ MATHEW NEW DELHI, MAY 10 Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and SP president Akhilesh Yadav during a joint rally, in Kannauj on Friday. PTI Akhilesh Yadav in Kanpur, Rahul said, “I did not stop… AdaniAmbani, Adani-Ambani… and at the end Prime Minister Narendra Modi shivers and mentions the name of AdaniAmbani in public.” “The day the Prime Minister mentioned the names of Adani CONTINUED ON PAGE 8 ANOTHER REPORT PAGE 3 SECURITY AT the Parliament complex could witness a radical overhaul with the Union Home Ministry constituting a panel to assess whether personnel of the CISF (Central Industrial Security Force) should take charge of the entire process – right from managing security arrangements to issuing passes to regulating movement of MPs, VIPs, officials and the media, The Indian Express has learnt. These responsibilities are currently entrusted with the Parliament Security Service, which functions under the almost century-old Watch and Ward committee. Last month, the CISF was E EXPLAINED EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE ● Home vs Secretariat PARLIAMENT SECURITY service works under the Watch and Ward committee umder the LS Secretariat. Ex-Secy General P D T Achary says any change should be under the direction of the Speaker, not MHA. brought in to replace 150 personnel of the Delhi Police, who used to be deployed alongside the Parliament Security Service. The change was prompted by the security breach on December 13 last year, during which a few people managed to CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 JD(U) sheen off, for Bihar’s NDA voters, it’s Narendra Modi in 2024, not Nitish PAGE 1 ANCHOR DEEPTIMAN TIWARY BHAGALPUR, MUNGER, CHAMPARAN, MAY 10 FOR THE large part of Nitish Kumar’s19-yearruleinBihar,his leadership has been identified with an efficient administration that restored law and order in Bihar CM Nitish Kumar at a rally in Barh on Monday. PTI the state, built road infrastruc- receiving end of abuse and disture, empowered girls, women tress because of their spouses’ and disadvantaged sections of alcoholism. However, a stagnating the society with schemes, carefully designed. Credited growth,lackof jobopportunities with identifying women as a at home, administrative corrupseparate constituency in the tion,poorlyimplementedprohibition,crumblingcitiesbecountry – long before it yond the capital, and his became the flavour of own ideological flip-flops manyaparty–Nitishalso are dimming the enforced prohibition in halo around Bihar’s Vikas the state in 2016. That, too, was a hit DECISION Purush. 2024 CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 with many womenatthe Lucknow