DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA ● POSTAL REGN. NO. JAIPUR CITY/001/2024-26 JOURNALISM OF COURAGE TUESDAY, MAY 28, 2024, JAIPUR, LATE CITY, 14 PAGES `6.00 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.Thesenormsrequiredall 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 PAGE5 NEW DELHI, MAY 27 PORSCHE CRASH 2 Pune doctors among 3 held for ‘switching’ minor 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 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. Pune Police Commissioner Amitesh Kumar told reporters, “The father of the minor has been named as an accused on CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 EXPRESS NETWORK IMD: TEMPORARY RELIEF FROM HEATWAVE SOON, MONSOON TO HIT KERALA IN FIVE DAYS PAGE5 RISING ‘HEAT STRESS’ IN SIX METROS AS HUMIDITY UP, NIGHTS WARMER: STUDY Rajkot fire: HC pulls up civic body, says no faith in state machinery now Prajwal: Sexual abuse cases false, 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 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 CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 SEVEN SUSPENDED FOR ‘DERELICTION’ PAGE 3 Snooped on anyone who spoke against BRS govt, former DCP tells police SREENIVAS JANYALA HYDERABAD, MAY 27 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 E X P L A IN E D CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Anjar Chaudhary, father of 12-day-old Fatima, at the Delhi hospital where six infants died in a fire. ANI ● will appear before SIT on May 31 KIRAN PARASHAR BENGALURU, MAY 27 JD(S) MP Prajwal Revanna, who is facing sexual abuse charges, has said in a video that he would appear on May 31 before the Special Investigation Team (SIT) set up to probe the matter. He also said the cases against him were false. Reacting to the statement, JD(S) leader and former Karnataka chief minister H D Kumaraswamy — Prajwal’s un- Says sorry to family for not sharing whereabouts cle — 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 re- election from Karnataka’s Hassan Lok Sabha seat, had left the country soon after the constituency went to the polls on April 26. Following a request by the SIT, sent via the CBI, Interpol had issued a ‘Blue Corner’ notice seeking information on his whereabouts. In the video, Prajwal said in Kannada, “First of all, I want to apologise to my parents, my grandfather, Kumaranna (Kumaraswamy), the people of Karnataka, and all party workers CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 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 5 Congress banks on anti-incumbency against AAP, personal ties in Punjab stituency as his wife Kulwinder Kaur nods. TheCongress won8 of the13 AMRITSAR, FARIDKOT, Lok Sabha seats in Punjab in BARNALA, MAY 27 2019. However, since then, the party has been “I HAD voted for the Aam facingaseriesof setbacks. Aadmi Party (AAP) in It was swept away in the 2022, this time I will vote 2022 Assembly polls, for the Congress chaahe DECISION where it won only 18 of 2024 jitte chaahe haare the 117 seats, and the af(whether it wins or termath saw many of its loses),” says Baljinder Kumar of leaders, including former Chief Rakra Dhahan village in the Minister Captain Amarinder Anandpur Sahib Lok Sabha conCONTINUED ON PAGE 2 MANRAJ GREWAL SHARMA Will vote for Congress this time, says Baljinder Kumar of Rakra Dhahan village, in Anandpur Sahib. 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 — teenagerRPraggnanandhaaand hissisterRVaishali—hasahardto-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 Jaipur DELHI EXCISE POLICY CASE Citing health, Kejriwal asks SC to extend his interim bail by a week EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE NEW DELHI, MAY 27 DELHI CHIEF Minister Arvind Kejriwal has asked the Supreme Court to extend his interim bail by a week, saying he has to undergo some medical tests. Arrested in the Delhi excise policycaseonMarch21,Kejriwal has been granted interim bail until June 1 -- the last phase of voting in the ongoing Lok Sabha elections. In his plea to the Supreme Court, Kejriwal has sought to surrender on June 9, instead of June 2. Saying that he lost 6-7 kgs during his arrest, Kejriwal said in his plea that he could not regain the weight even after his release. Hesaidsuddenandunexplained Seeks to surrender on June 9 instead of June 2 weight loss, coupled with high ketonelevels,couldbeindicative ofkidneydamage,seriouscardiac ailments and even cancer, and earlydetectionisessentialforpreventing further progress of the disease and associated life risk. He said that he suffered many health-related complicationsduringhisarrest,partlydue to the negligent and callous behaviour of the jail authorities. Recent test reports pointed to high blood glucose level as well CONTINUED ON PAGE 2