DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA JOURNALISM OF COURAGE MONDAY, AUGUST 12, 2024, AHMEDABAD, LATE CITY, 14 PAGES `5.00 WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM SINCE 1932 ONE WEEK OF HISTORY ‘Students brought her down because they felt stifled... but when Mujib’s statues were destroyed, we cried’ On the streets of Dhaka as regime changes: Protesters manage traffic, anti-Hasina writing on the wall EXPRESS INDHAKA SHUBHAJIT ROY AUGUST 11 UNTIL EXACTLY a week ago, Obhik, 19, was among the stu- dents who hit the streets in protest against the then Sheikh Hasina government. Today, he is back on the road — this time as a student volunteer, supervising the traffic in the busy Shahbag area, next to the Dhaka University campus. If aweekisalongtimeinpolitics,thelastsevendaysinDhaka mark a veritable change of era. Stunning speed has marked the regime change: from Sheikh Hasina leaving the country to an interim government being put in place under Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus — to a new Chief Justice being sworn in Sunday. “We got rid of the government, now we will have to take up the responsibilities. My feet hurtbutitisourresponsibilityto serve the people,” says the sec- Student volunteers manage the traffic at the Shahbag junction in Dhaka on Sunday. Shubhajit Roy MOREREPORTS,P11 ond-yearstudentof architecture, who suffered a fracture in his right arm facing lathicharge and teargas when he was on the other side of the picket lines. It is the first day of the working week and roads are busy. Obhik says he's been on traffic duty since 11 am, and was at his posttilleveningdespiteadrizzle. Facingthewrathofthepeople for siding with the government andshootingatprotesters,thepolice are not turning up for work. Last Sunday, more than 100 CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 NEW HINDENBURG REPORT Sebibacksitschairperson:Disclosed, recusedonconflictofinterest Investment made in 2015... we were private citizens: Madhabi, husband HITESH VYAS & GEORGE MATHEW Allegationsvery serious,SEBIintegrity compromised:Rahul BUSINESS AS USUAL BY UNNY Paris leaves India with a few smiles — and many red flags EXPRESSAT OLYMPICS MIHIR VASAVDA PARIS, AUGUST 11 HIROAKIOTA,aJapanesepsychiatrist, calledit“ParisSyndrome”. Thestateof being wheretourists come to Paris with lofty hopes, expecting it to be a picture of perfection, but leave underwhelmed. Three weeks ago, India’s ath- elicited contrasting emotions but did one thing: raise the bar for India’s athletes. In the warm and sunny city of Chateauroux, shooter Manu Bhaker showed it is possible to win not one but two medals in a single campaign. With some luck, it could have been an unprecedented hat-trick. About 300 km away in Paris, Neeraj Chopra soared again and took India to newer territories: following up on the Tokyo gold with a silver here. But the country’s greatest living Olympian, at war with his own body, looked CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 RELATED REPORTS PAGE 12 SRINAGAR, AUGUST 11 THE WORLD THOUSANDS FLEE SOUTH GAZA PAGE 11 NEW DELHI, CHENNAI, AUG 11 THEALLEGATIONSlevelledbyUSbasedHindenburgResearchaga- Cong chief Mallikarjun Kharge; BJP’s Tamil Nadu unit president K Annamalai CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 As Buch digs heels in, key query: Did she disclose fund linked to Adani? SANDEEP SINGH, RITU SARIN & P VAIDYANATHAN IYER MUMBAI, NEW DELHI, AUG 11 AS SEBI chief Madhabi Puri Buch digs her heels inwith solidbacking by the market regulator, former chairpersons and board members of SEBI The Indian E Express spoke with said twospecificaspectsmerit attention in this case: i) did she make complete disclosurestothegovernment and ii) did she recuse herself while investigating a regulated entity where she or her husband had a direct or indirect interest. The finance ministry, accord- ingtosourcesinthegovernment,maybewilling togiveconcessionstoher sincesheisnotfromcivil ● servicesbackgroundand well within her rights as a private sector person to invest inglobalfunds.Formerregulators are, however, of the view that were she and her husband to be CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Day after J&K gunfight: Job losses and salary cuts hit Surat diamond hub, distress Injured civilian dies, forces widen search ops pushes workers to brink BASHAARAT MASOOD Bindra on bitter-sweet campaign: ‘Funds can only enable’ letes didn’t land on these shores as tourists. But they will still return with a lingering sense of disappointment. The country’sParis Olympics campaign ended with six medals -- one silver and five bronze. There could be another, with an asterisk, as the Court of ArbitrationforSportisyettopronounce its verdict in Vinesh Phogat’s plea for a silver. But there were also six agonising fourth-place finishes, more than ever, to mark the bitter-sweet campaign that ebbed as the Games progressed. Every medal had a story. It their second statement within a gap of 24 hours. In their second statementissuedonSunday,they said their investment in the offshore funds, mentioned by HindenburgResearchinitslatest allegations, were made in 2015 whentheybothwere‘privatecitizens’livinginSingapore.Theinvestment was made almost 2 years before she joined Sebi as a Whole-Time Member, it said. The SEBI statement backing herissignificantsincethemarket VIKAS PATHAK & ARUN JANARDHANAN inst SEBI chairperson Madhabi Buch triggered a political firestorm Sunday. While Leader of OppositionRahulGandhiandthe CPMcalledforBuch'sresignation, and the Congress and the TMC demanded a JPC probe into the allegations,theBJPdismissedthe charges and accused the Oppositionofusingits“connectionsabroad” to create “economic chaos”. ONE OF the two civilians wounded in an encounter between security forces and militants in south Kashmir’s Anantnag district on Saturday succumbed to his injuries on Sunday, police said. Two soldiers, identified as Havildar Deepak Kumar Yadav and Lance Naik Praveen Sharma, werekilledonSaturdayintheencounterthatbrokeoutafterajoint team of the Jammu and Kashmir Police and the Army launched a searchoperationinthemountainous forests of the Ahlan Gadole areaofKokernaginAnantnag.The civilian who died Sunday was identified as Abdul Rashid Dar. Thesecurityforces’operation against the militants continued on Sunday, with police saying searches were underway in the upperreachesof Kokernag.They said any concrete information about the militants would only be given after the operation comes to an end. “The search operation was going on when the security forcessawmovementof oneforeign terrorist. There was exchange of fire, and during this operation, two security force personnelwerecriticallyinjured and later attained martyrdom. One more soldier was injured, CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 RELATED REPORTS PAGES 4, 10 KAMAAL SAIYED SURAT, AUGUST 11 A SUICIDE helpline launched by the Diamond Workers Union Gujarat (DWUG) has received over 1,600 calls – or more than 50 calls a day – since its launch on July 15. Nearly 75 per cent of thecallersareworkerswhohave lost their jobs. This is just an indicator of the distress and desperation among theworkersengagedintheSurat diamondindustry,India'slargest, thathasbeenstrugglingformore thanayearnowafterbeinghitby conflictsabroad–firsttheRussiaUkrainewarandthentheonebetween Israel and Palestine. Job losses and salary cuts in the Surat diamond units, on which more than 10 lakh liveli- E E X P L A I NE D Shooter Manu Bhaker and hockey goalkeeper P R Sreejesh ahead of the closing ceremony of the 2024 Summer Olympics, in Paris on Sunday. PTI MOREREPORTS,P 13,14 Sebi chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch. File EXPLAINED MUMBAI, AUGUST 11 ADAYAFTERtheUS-basedshortseller Hindenburg Research made a series of allegations against Securities and Exchange Boardof India(SEBI)Chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch, Sebi came outinBuch’sdefenceandsaidthe regulator has adequate internal mechanismstoaddressissuesrelatedtoconflictof interest,which include disclosure framework and provision for recusal. Relevantdisclosuresrequired in termsof holdings of securities and their transfers have been made by the Chairperson from time to time, SEBI said on Sunday. “Chairperson has also recused herself in matters involving potential conflicts of interest,” the regulator said, backing its Chairperson and advising investorstoremaincalmandexercise due diligence. The SEBI press statement came soon after Buch and her husband Dhaval Buch issued Opp wants Buch to quit, JPC probe; bid to create economic chaos: BJP Direct correlation ● with sales A LUXURY product, the diamond market is constantly impacted by global events like the 2008 recession, Covid-19 lockdown and now the wars that have impacted production and sale. hoods depend, have claimed the lives of 62 diamond polishers in the past 16 months. Among those who called the helpline was Jaysukh Koradiya (52),aresidentof Varachha,who sought a job to clear his debt of CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Dabbu, Rudra, a mango: A scuffle that turned into murder case lasting 40 yrs PAGE 1 ANCHOR AJOYSINHAKARPURAM &MANISHSAHU NEW DELHI, GONDA, AUGUST 11 DABBU HAD SPOTTED the mango, Rudra said it was his. On a hot April day back in 1984, two friends fought over the fallen mango near a field in Lorhiya Ghata village in Uttar Pradesh’s Gondadistrict.Thefruitwouldgo ontoextractasteepprice,resulting in a murder case that would drag on for 40 years and traverse thelengthof theIndianjudiciary, fromthelowestcourtalltheway up to the Supreme Court. OnJuly24,theSupremeCourt convertedtheconvictionof murderinthecasetothelessstringent culpable homicide. But by the time the ruling came, two of the accused — Rudra Pratap Singh’s father Ayodhya Singh and uncle Lalji Singh — had already been deadforsomeyearsandtherelationshipbetweenthetwofriends had changed irrevocably. According to court documents, it started when Vishwanath’s 10-year-old son BrijeshSinghaliasDabbuspotted themangowhileplayingwithhis friendandneighbourRudra,then 9, on April 19, 1984. Dabbu claimed proprietary rights over the fruit since it was found in his father's field, reducing his friend to tears. Rudra’s complaints brought his father Ayodhya and four others — Man Bahadur Singh, Lalji Singh, Bharat Singh, and Bhanu Pratap Singh — to the field, all armedwithlathis.Theirloudadmonition of his son Dabbu drew theattentionofVishwanath,who wasthreshingwheatnearby,and he soon joined them. It was then that the situation took a turn for worse, court documents show. “The aforesaid accused thereupon started beating Vishwanath Singh with lathis,” a court document says. RudraPratapSinghstandsnearthemangotreewherethe fightbrokeoutin 1984;(right)Brijesh SinghaliasDabbuathishomeinLorhiyaGhata villageinUP’sGonda. Vishal Srivastav As Vishwanath approached the group, the adults gathered there began to assault him. Vishwanath tried to strike back with his khodni — a spade-like gardeningtool—butitdidn’tstop theassault,thedocumentsshow. By this time, Vishwanath’s two brothers — Jagannath Singh andJagdishSingh—hadreached the site of commotion but they too were allegedly beaten up. It stopped whenfour other people joinedinandtheaccusedleftthe scene, the court documents show. Vishwanath died on the way to hospital, and an FIR in the case was registered at UP’s Kotwali (Dehat) Police Station under Gonda district on the basis of a complaint by Vishwanath’s brother Jagannath Singh, who would eventually become Prosecution Witness-1 (PW-1) for the trial ahead. Apost-mortemrevealedthat Vishwanath had multiple bonedeeplacerationsandabrasionson hishead,ahematoma(bloodclot caused by broken blood vessels), and a broken occipital bone. On April 4, 1986, a trial court in Gonda district held all five of thesuspectsguiltyofIPCsections relatedtomurder,riotingandunlawful assembly, among others, and sentenced them to life imprisonment. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Ahmedabad