DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA JOURNALISM OF COURAGE MONDAY, AUGUST 12, 2024, KOLKATA, LATE CITY, 14 PAGES `6.00 (`12 IN NORTH EAST STATES & ANDAMAN) 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,P10 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 Sebi backs its chairperson: Disclosed, recused upon conflict of interest Investment made in 2015... we were private citizens: Madhabi, husband HITESH VYAS & GEORGE MATHEW Timed with House session: BJP MP Shooter Manu Bhaker and hockey goalkeeper P R Sreejesh ahead of the closing ceremony of the 2024 Summer Olympics, in Paris on Sunday. PTI RELATEDREPORTS,P13 BUSINESS AS USUAL BY UNNY Paris leaves India with a few smiles — and many red flags Bindra on bitter-sweet campaign: ‘Funds can only enable’ EXPRESSAT OLYMPICS MIHIR VASAVDA PARIS, AUGUST 11 HIROAKIOTA,aJapanesepsychiatrist,calledit“ParisSyndrome”. Thestateof beingwheretourists come to Paris with lofty hopes, expecting it to be a picture of perfection, but leave underwhelmed. Three weeks ago, India’s ath- letes didn’t land on these shores as tourists. But they will still return with a lingering sense of disappointment. The country’s Paris 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 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 Sebi chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch. File their second statement within a gap of 24 hours. In their second statement issued on Sunday, they said their investment in the offshore funds, mentioned by Hindenburg Research in its latest allegations, were made in 2015 when they both were ‘private citizens’ living in Singapore. The investment was made almost 2 years before she joined Sebi as a Whole-Time Member, it said. The SEBI statement backing her is significant since the market regulator’s board has Economic Affairs Secretary Ajay Seth, Secretary of the Ministry CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 VIKAS PATHAK & ARUN JANARDHANAN NEW DELHI, CHENNAI, AUG 11 THEALLEGATIONSlevelledbyUSbased Hindenburg Research againstSEBIchairpersonMadhabi SANDEEP SINGH, RITU SARIN & P VAIDYANATHAN IYER MUMBAI, NEW DELHI, AUG 11 AS SEBI chief Madhabi Puri Buch digs her heels in with solid backing by the market regulator, former chairpersons and board members of SEBI The Indian FULL COVERAGE KOLKATA, AUGUST 11 UKRAINE ADMITS MILITARY INCURSION INTO RUSSIAN SOIL THOUSANDS FORCED TO LEAVE SOUTH GAZA AFTER ORDER PAGE 10 CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 E Express spoke with said two specific aspects merit attention in this case: i) did she make complete disclosures to the government and ii) did she recuse herself while investigating a regulated entity where she or her husband had a direct or indirect interest. Thefinanceministry,accord- At RG Kar Hospital where touts get things moving, accused had access to every ward and room FROMMAKINGticketsintheOutPatient Departments (OPDs) to providing elusive beds, to operation and tests — all possible but with a commission at Kolkata’s premier government hospital, R GKarMedicalCollege&Hospital, where a young woman trainee doctor was allegedly raped and murdered on Friday. Thenexusoftoutsofwhichallegedly arrested accused Sanjay Roy was a part also allowed him access to every ward, room, and building of the hospital. Buch triggered a political firestormSunday.WhileLeaderof OppositionRahulGandhiandthe CPMcalledforBuch'sresignation, andtheCongressandtheTMCdemandedaJPCprobeintotheallegations, the BJP dismissed the charges and accused the Opposition of using its “connectionsabroad”tocreate“economic chaos”. As Buch digs heels in, key query: Did she disclose fund linked to Adani? RAPE & MURDER OF DOCTOR AT KOLKATA HOSPITAL RAVIK BHATTACHARYA & SWEETY KUMARI THE WORLD Cong chief Mallikarjun Kharge; BJP’s Tamil Nadu unit president K Annamalai EXPLAINED MUMBAI, AUGUST 11 ADAYAFTERtheUS-basedshortseller Hindenburg Research made a series of allegations against Securities and Exchange BoardofIndia(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 terms of 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 POLICE PROBE:CRIME SPONTANEOUS, WAS INTOXICATED HEADS START TO ROLL: HOSPITAL CHIEF, ACP REMOVED PAGES 3 & 4 Being a civic volunteer attachedtoKolkataPolicegaveRoy an added advantage, and he was considered an “important man” in the tout racket. According to the investigators, Roy, who is in mid-30s, was recruited in 2019 as a civic volunteer, and had allegedly misused his police connections. “He enjoyed easy access to all departments due to his role in the police welfare association. He would check on relatives and family members of police admitted in the hospital. On different points he was also posted in RG Kar Hospitals outpost. He used a CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 ingtosourcesinthegovernment,maybewilling to give concessions to her since she is not from ● civil services background and well within her rights as a private sector person to invest in global funds. Former regulators are, however, of the view that were she and CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Day 2 Anantnag encounter: Civilian dies, search widens BASHAARAT MASOOD SRINAGAR, AUGUST 11 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, were killed on Saturday in the encounter that broke out after a joint team of the Jammu and Kashmir Police and the Army launched a search operation in the mountainous forests of the Ahlan Gadole area of Kokernag in Anantnag. The civilian who 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. RudraPratapSinghstandsnearthemangotreewherethefightbrokeoutin1984;(right)Brijesh SinghaliasDabbuathishomeinLorhiyaGhatavillageinUP’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 when four 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 Kolkata