DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA ● REG.NO. MCS/067/2018 - 20 RNI REGN. NO. 1543/57 JOURNALISM OF COURAGE TUESDAY, MAY 28, 2024, MUMBAI, LATE CITY, 16 PAGES `5.00 ● WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM SINCE 1932 FIRE AT NEONATAL CARE FACILITY 5 yrs on, Delhi Govt plan to check fires in small hospitals only on paper Panel chaired by ex-Health Minister Satyendar Jain drafted guidelines ANONNA DUTT 6 KILLED AS CYCLONE HITS BENGAL AROUND FIVE years ago, a Delhi government committee headed by then Health Minister Satyendar Jain had drafted a set of guidelines to bring small hospitals and nursing homes under the umbrella of fire safety regulations. Yet, as is evident from Sunday’s incident of fire at a Delhi neonatal care facility, the guidelines were never implemented,andremainedonpaper. Six newborns, aged between one day and 25 days, died in the fire that broke out at Baby Care New Born Hospital in East Delhi’s Vivek Vihar. In 2018, the Director General of Health Services (DGHS), under the Delhi government’s Health Department, had mandated that all hospitals that are overtwostoreyshigh—orover9 metres in height — require a fire safety clearance as per the Delhi Fire Department’s existing norms. These norms required all In South 24 Parganas district of West Bengal that was hit by Cyclone Remal, Monday. At least six persons were killed in the state as the cyclone made landfall late Sunday night. AP PAGE10 NEW DELHI, MAY 27 28/05/2024 122 150 civic body, says no faith in state machinery now SOHINI GHOSH AHMEDABAD, MAY 27 PULLING UP the Rajkot Municipal Corporation for alleged lapses that allowed the gaming zone, where 28 people were killed in a fire on Saturday, to function without adequate Sexual abuse cases false, will appear before SIT: Prajwal KIRAN PARASHAR BENGALURU, MAY 27 JD(S)MPPrajwalRevanna,whois facing sexual abuse charges, has said in a video that he would appearonMay31beforetheSpecial InvestigationTeam(SIT)setupto probethematter.Healsosaidthe cases against him were false. Reacting to the statement, JD(S) leader and former Karnataka chief minister H D Kumaraswamy — Prajwal’s uncle — on Monday expressed relief that he was “returning to the country based on the appeal made by party workers”. Karnataka Home Minister G ParameshwarasaidtheMPwould be arrested upon his return. Prajwal, who is seeking reelectionfromKarnataka’sHassanLok CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Snooped on anyone who spoke against BRS govt, former DCP tells police 187 SREENIVAS JANYALA HYDERABAD, MAY 27 76 clearances, the Gujarat High Court Monday said it no longer has faith in the state machinery that gets into action only after livesarelost.Italsoobservedthat the gaming centre “could not have flourished” without “connivance of the authorities”. The division bench of FORMERDEPUTYCommissioner of Police (Task Force, Hyderabad City)PRadhakishanRaohasconfessed to his involvement in the tapping of phones by some officers in the Telangana Special Intelligence Bureau (SIB) when the BRS government was in power, police sources said. TheHyderabadPolice,which is investigating allegations of phones being tapped of politicians, officials, activists and others during the BRS regime, has attached Radhakishan Rao’s CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 E EXPLAINED CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 SCHOOL CURRICULUM Maharashtra govt to not go ahead Rajkot fire: HC pulls up with Manusmriti reference in draft Anjar Chaudhary, father of 12-day-old Fatima, at the Delhi hospital where six infants died in a fire. ANI ● English and Marathi remains mandatory from Class 1 to 10 EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE MUMBAI, MAY 27 THE MAHARASHTRA governmentwillnotproceedwithallthe recommendations from the recently proposed Maharashtra State Curriculum Framework for SchoolEducation,said StateEducationMinisterDeepakKesarkar. The framework had stirred a controversy for using lines from Manusmritiasreferenceinoneof the chapters in the draft, a move thatKesarkarclarifiedhadnotreceived governmental or the steering committee’s approval before being made public. Speaking at a press confer- BUSINESS AS USUAL BY UNNY Intel bureau misused AT THE centre of the case is Telangana’s SIB, which was allegedly weaponised by the then BRS government to snoop on critics, political opponents, and even party members. In March, the SIB’s former chief, T Prabhakar Rao, was listed as a prime accused. Since then, startling revelations have come to light on the surveillance scope. EXPRESS NETWORK MAN SHOOTS DJ IN RANCHI BAR, IS ARRESTED PAGE 10 2 colleagues convicted in Kirti Vyas murder case, sentencing likely today SADAF MODAK MUMBAI, MAY 27 A SESSIONS court in Mumbai Monday convicted two colleagues for the murder of Kirti Vyas,afinancemanageratBBlunt salon in Andheri, who was reported missing by her family six years ago. The verdict came after a rare criminal trial to determine themurderchargewhenthevictim’s body was yet to be found. Sessions Judge MG Deshp- ande found Siddhesh Shantaram Tamhankar and a female colleague of Kirti guilty of murder, kidnappingformurder,wrongful restraint, and destruction of evidence, among other sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). ThecourtisexpectedtodeterminethesentencingonTuesday, withthemaximumpunishment being the death penalty. Kirti,aged28atthetime,was reported missing on March 16, 2018, after she left her South Mumbai residence for work. Nearly two months later, the police alleged that two of her colleagues wereresponsibleforherdeath. Although Kirti’s body was never found, the prosecution argued that the circumstances indicated her colleagues killed her in a moving car after picking her up from her residence on the morning of March 16, 2018, due to workplace issues. Both defendants denied any involvement, contesting that they neither picked her up nor CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Autographs & selfies as India stars land in Magnus-land for top chess meet EXPRESSINNORWAY AMIT KAMATH STAVANGER, MAY 27 CHESS LEGEND Garry Kasparov called it the Wimbledon of the 64 black and white squares. But Norway Chess, an invitational tournament that began in StavangeronMonday,isresplen- Siblings R Praggnanandhaa and R Vaishali with their mother at Stavanger, the host city for Norway Open 2024. Amit Kamath dent this year with the sport's most dazzling northern lights — home legend and five-time world champion Magnus Carlsen and the organisers' must-have on the wishlist, the chess stars from India. The presence of the world's most famous chess siblings — teenager RPraggnanandhaaand hissister R Vaishali — hasa hardto-miss buzz around them in Magnus-land. Travelling with their mother, they are chased by autograph hunters and selfie seekers. Among them is an important fan who has travelled miles to meet them. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 ence in Mumbai on Monday, Kesarkar expressed regret in excludingMarathiasacompulsory language. “It happened because the draft was made public without following the proper procedure,” he said. Kesarkar also said that the exclusionof Englishasacompulsory languageforClass 11and12 was “because the government is working to offer higher education in regional languages, including technical education”. After the minister’s clarification, theSCERTissuedapressrelease late Monday stating that Marathi and English language wouldbecompulsoryfromClass 1to10.ItalsoclarifiedthatHindi, Sanskrit and other Indian and foreign languages are being offered from Class 6, while Classes 11 and 12 students will have to learn two languages — one Indian and the other foreign. Last week, the State Council of Educational Research and Training unveiled the new Maharashtra State Curriculum Framework (SCF), advocating the integration of Indian Knowledge System (IKS) into School Education (SE). It proposedincludingtextssuchasthe Bhagavad Gita and Manache Shlok — a composition by Samarth Ramdas Swami — for memorisation enhancement CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 PORSCHE CRASH 2 Pune doctors among 3 held for ‘switching’ driver’s blood sample CHANDAN HAYGUNDE & SUSHANT KULKARNI PUNE, MAY 27 TWO DOCTORS at the government-run Sassoon General Hospital who collected blood samplesof theminor,accusedof drivingthePorschethatranover twoyoungengineersonamotorcycle last week, allegedly threw thesamplesinadustbinandsent another person’s blood for alcohol tests, according to police. On Monday, the police arrested Dr Ajay Taware and Dr ShrihariHalnoralongwithahospitalstaffer,AtulGhatkamble,on charges of destruction of evidence. While Dr Taware is the head of the hospital's Forensic MedicineDepartment,DrHalnor isthehospital'sCasualtyMedical A team from Porsche checks the car at Yerwada police station on Monday. Express Officer. Ghatkamble worked in the hospital morgue. All three were produced before court, which remanded theminpolicecustodyuntilMay 30.Seekingtheirremand,thepolice told the court that they had foundthattheaccusedhadtaken bribes to change the samples. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2