DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA JOURNALISM OF COURAGE WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 14, 2024, KOLKATA, LATE CITY, 20 PAGES SINCE 1932 ATTACKS WIDESPREAD, OVER 50 OF 64 DISTRICTS HIT: COMMUNITY LEADERS Reaching out to Bangla Hindus,Yunus visits temple, underlines equal rights Hasina seeks justice, calls for mourning on day father was killed Dhaka’s interim govt establishes hotline to report attacks on temples, churches, pagodas EXPRESS INDHAKA CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 BUSINESS AS USUAL BY UNNY DHAKA, AUGUST 13 Muhammad Yunus at the Dhakeshwari Temple in Dhaka. PTI Govt should have spoken out against quota, met protesters, says Hasina son RITIKA CHOPRA NEW DELHI, AUGUST 13 ADMITTING THAT mistakes were made in handling the student protests, Sajeeb Wazed Joy, son of ousted Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, told The Indian Express in an interview that the government should have engaged with the protesters from the very beginning and spoken out against the quotas NEW DELHI, AUGUST 13 A 25-YEAR-OLD woman, who works as an air hostess, was allegedly molested by a rider of an app-based bike ride aggregator service in Chanakyapuri area of New Delhi last week, police said on Tuesday. Theaccused,identifiedas35year-oldJaiveer,wasnabbedfrom Gurgaon within 12 hours of the incident. According to the police, he hailed from Auraiya in Uttar Pradesh and had been working with taxi bike service inDrive in Delhi for the past one year. The incident took place around 11.45 pm on August 7. Around 11 pm, the woman booked a bike ride through inDrive to her home in Dwarka from Laxmi Nagar, where she had come to meet a friend, the police said. “According to the woman, thebikeriderreachedherpickup spot within 15 minutes of booking the ride. When she reached the Simon Bolivar Marg near CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 much earlier. “I believe our government should have spoken out against thequotasandmetwiththeprotesters from the beginning instead of leaving it to the courts... CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 HASINA FACES MURDER CHARGES, PLAINTIFF GETS DEATH THREAT PAGE 16 Ajit Pawar: Made a PM plot case: Bail rule, mistake by pitting wife jail exception even in against Sule in LS polls stringent law, says SC NEW DELHI, AUGUST 13 ARNABJIT SUR Sajeeb Wazed Joy Our government filed an appeal with the Supreme Court to reduce the quotas. I recommended we take a public stance, statingthecourtmadeamistake and we don't want the quotas. But our government chose not to, expecting the judicial system to handle it,” said Joy, who served as IT adviser to Hasina and now lives in the US. However, even as he acknowledged the mistake in IN HER first public statement since her ouster on August 5, Bangladesh's former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Tuesday set the stage for a possible confrontation in Dhaka, as she asked people to observe August 15 — the anniversary of the assassination of her father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman — as 'national mourning day' by placingwreathsattheBangabandhu Memorial Museum. This came on a day when the interim government decided to cancel the national holiday on August 15. This decision was GRANTS BAIL IN UAPA CASE ANANTHAKRISHNAN G Air hostess who took taxi bike molested by rider in Delhi Unhappy with police probe, HC transfers Kolkata case to CBI GRANTINGBAILtoamancharged under the stringent Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) for renting out a portion of his house to alleged cadre of the banned Popular Front of India (PFI) who were planning to carry out disturbances during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Biharin2022,theSupremeCourt Tuesdaysaidtheprinciple“bailis the rule and jail is an exception” will apply even to statutes with stringent bail conditions. The bench of Justices A S Oka and Augustine George Masih said, “When a case is made out for a grant of bail, the Courts should not have any hesitation in granting bail. The allegations of the prosecution may be very serious. But, the duty of the Courts is to consider the case for grant of bail in accordance with the law. ‘Bail is the rule and jail is an exception’ is a settled law. Even in a case like the present case, where there are stringent conditions for the grant of bail in the relevant statutes, the same rule holds good with only modification that the bail can be granted if the conditions in the statute are satisfied.” “The rule also means that once a case is made out for the grant of bail, the Court cannot declinetograntbail.If theCourts start denying bail in deserving cases, it will be a violation of the rights guaranteed under Article 21 of our Constitution,” it said. The bench said this while granting bail to accused Jalaluddin Khan, a retired police constable, who was arrested under UAPA for renting the first floor of the Ahmad Palace building in Patna’s Phulwari Sharif, which was in the name of his wife, to alleged PFI cadre. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE MUMBAI, PUNE, AUGUST 13 MAHARASHTRA DEPUTY Chief Minister and NCP president Ajit Pawar has said that he made a “mistake” by fielding his wife SunetraPawaragainsthiscousin Supriya Sule from Baramati in the recent Lok Sabha polls. “I love all my sisters. One should not allow politics to enter homes. I made a mistake in fielding Sunetra against my sister. This should not have happened. But the parliamentary board (of NCP) made a decision. NowIfeelitwaswrong,”Ajitsaid on Monday in an interview with the Marathi news channel “Jai Maharashtra”. Sule is the daughter of the NCP founder Sharad Pawar, who isnowtheNCP(SP)chief.Sherefrained from making any comments on Ajit's remarks, saying that “I have not heard Ajit Pawar'sstatementandtherefore Ajit Pawar; Supriya Sule I cannot comment on it”. In July last year, Pawar's estranged nephew Ajit rebelled against him along with his faction of MLAs and leaders, splitting their party to join the ruling Mahayuti alliance comprising the BJP and Chief Minister Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena. In the Lok Sabha polls, Ajit gave the NCP ticket to Sunetra in Baramati, the Pawar family's home turf, to take on Sule, who retained her seat by defeating her sister-in-law by over 1.58 lakh votes. “It was the decision of the NCP parliamentary board CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Assam CM gave it ‘flood jihad’ tag, Northeast private university gets national rank honour SUKRITA BARUAH GUWAHATI, AUGUST 13 THE MOOD at the University of Science and Technology Meghalaya was upbeat Tuesday. A day earlier, the Ministry of Education had announced the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) 2024 and the institute had featured in the list of top200universities–theonly private university from the Northeast to make it to the list. The same day, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had launched another tirade against the university after havingaccuseditof “floodjihad”the previous week. On Tuesday afternoon, the university administration held a shortcelebrationinits5000-seat auditorium. Addressing the students,facultyandmembersofthe administration gathered there, Chancellor Mahbubul Hoque be- USTM Chancellor Mahbubul Hoque addresses students and faculty on Tuesday gan by commenting on the timing of the good news: “Kabhi aankh jalne se, upar paani daalne se achha lagta hai, hai na? (Sometimeswhenyoureyesburn, doesn’titfeelgoodwhenwateris putonit?)”.Thisdrewcheersand hoots from the students. In the past week, Hoque has been at the receiving end of vitriol from the Assam Chief Minister, ranging from accusations that he was responsible for CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Students protest at the R G Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata Tuesday. Partha Paul Pulls up authorities, RG Kar Hospital principal who quit to join Calcutta National Medical College sent on leave ATRI MITRA & RAVIK BHATTACHARYA FULL COVERAGE KOLKATA, AUGUST 13 EXPRESSING DISPLEASURE over thehandlingof thecaseof thealleged rape and murder of a junior doctor at R G Kar Medical College and observing that “there appears to be no significant progress in the investigation”, the Calcutta High Court Tuesday transferred the probe from Kolkata Police to the CBI. A division bench, comprising Chief JusticeTSSivagnanamand JusticeHiranmayBhattacharyya, said it would monitor the probe andtheCBIwouldberequiredto submit a report to the court in three weeks. The bench directed the Kolkata Police to hand over the case diary and other documents to the CBI by 10 am Wednesday. Following the High Court order, sources in New Delhi said PROTESTS ACROSS THE COUNTRY MAHARASHTRA: Resident doctors started an indefinite strike Tuesday, halting elective services at hospitals. RENOVATION WORK TRIGGERS CHARGE OF TAMPERING CHANDIGARH: Services at the PGIMER remained partially shut as resident doctors continued their strike for a second day. theCBIregisteredafreshcaseafter taking over the investigation and a team of forensic experts will leave Delhi to visit the spot to lift evidence. “Currently, we are assigning tasks to all the team members and will probe the case from all possible angles,” sources said. Six pleas were filed in the High Court, including an appeal JHARKHAND: Junior doctors at state-run RIMS in Ranchi boycotted OPD services and elective surgeries. PAGES 3 & 5 TRIPURA: Doctors and students of Agartala Government Medical College staged a protest. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Delhi L-G rejects AAP choice, picks Gahlot to hoist Tricolour on I-Day EXPLAINED WITH THE Hindu minority in Bangladesh facing attacks in the lastweek,afterSheikhHasinaresignedasPrimeMinisterandfled to India on August 5, Chief AdvisorMuhammadYunus,who is heading the interim government, reached out on Tuesday with a visit to the Dhakeshwari Temple where he met communityleadersandassured“justice” and “equal rights” for all. “Rightsareequalforeveryone. We are all one people with one right. Do not make any distinctions among us. Please assist us. Exercisepatience,andlaterjudge -- what we were able to do and notdo.Ifwefail,thencriticiseus,” Yunus said, after meeting JUNIOR DOCTOR’S RAPE & MURDER SHUBHAJIT ROY SHUBHAJIT ROY DHAKA, AUGUST 13 `6.00 (`12 IN NORTH EAST STATES & ANDAMAN) WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE NEW DELHI, AUGUST 13 IN A fresh tussle with the AAP government, Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena on TuesdaynominatedDelhiHome Minister Kailash Gahlot to hoist thenationalflagintheCapitalon Independence Day, days after Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said Education Minister Atishi wouldtakehisplaceattheevent. Every year, the Delhi government's General Administration Department (GAD) organises Independence Day celebrations atChhatrasalStadium,wherethe DelhiCMunfurlsthenationalflag. On August 6, Kejriwal, who is in jail after being arrested in the now-scrappedexcisepolicycase, had written a letter to Saxena, L-G Saxena, Kailash Gahlot saying that Atishi would unfurl the national flag in his place. While the Tihar Jail administrationkepttheletteronfileanddid notsendittotheL-G,theAAPreleased a copy to the media. Three days later, Saxena’s office wrote to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on August 9, on the “current impasse createdbecauseof peculiarcircumstances of non-availability” of CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 E ● The latest standoff IN REJECTING Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s recommendation and choosing Kailash Gahlot, the Lieutenant Governor’s office has sought to underline the issue of the “missing” CM and the “impasse” created by his absence. In the past, the L-G's office has said that Kejriwal's decision to not step down as the CM has created hurdles in dayto-day functioning of the government. Helping Wayanad: Girls broke piggy bank, a widow her surgery fund PAGE 1 ANCHOR SHAJU PHILIP THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, AUGUST 13 A 76-YEAR-OLD decided her long-pendingsurgerycouldwait, a fish vendor gave up his day’s savings,twosistersagreeditwas time to break their piggy bank — in the aftermath of the July 30 Wayanad landslide that tore through the hills of the north Kerala district, killing nearly 231 peopleandwashingawayhomes andproperty,contributionssuch as these have been pouring in from across the state into the Chief Minister’sRelief Fund(CMDRF). Nearly 130 landslide victims are still missing. Among those who contributed to the CMDRF — Rs 110.55 crore, as of August 13 — aredailyworkers,students,widows and the elderly. Moved by the enormity of the tragedy and responding to the state government's call seeking contributions for relief operations, they put their everyday lives and needs on hold and dipped into their meagre savings At Chiyyaram in Thrissur, Class7studentSivanandanaand her sister Shivanya, a Class 1 student, handed over to their parents the Rs 3,050 that they had collected over the past year. “They were mostly coins of Re 1, Rs 2 and 5 that I had given them. My elder daughter wanted to buy a new TV and the younger one a bicycle. They were moved by what they saw in Wayanad and Sivanandana said she wanted to contribute. Shivanya alsoagreed.Bothof themagreed that the TV and cycle could be bought later,” says their father C SSaneesh,agoldsmith.Thefamilylivesina600-sq-foothousein the village. Students from Manipur, who study in Kerala, hand over a cheque of Rs 1 lakh as Wayanad relief contribution Edathil Sreedharan, 64, a fish vendoratPanoorinKannur,contributedhisday’scollectionof Rs 53,000 to the CMDRF. “I always watchTVnewswhileeating...It's a daily habit. But after watching news of the Wayanad tragedy, I just can't eat anything... the food just won't go down my throat. Giving up a day's earnings is the least I can do. There are people who have lost everything in Wayanad,” he says. SavithriL,76,anativeof Anad village in Thiruvananthapuram, donated Rs 25,000 — the money she had kept aside for a corrective surgery for her bow legs. “I hadmanagedtosavealittlefrom my agriculture labour pension. I thought I would finally get the surgery done because the pain in my legs was getting unbearable. But when I saw photographs and videos from Wayanad, I thought their pain was much greater than mine. At leastIgettoeatthreetimesaday. My surgery can wait,” she says. The parents of Muhammad Fidel, a Class 2 student who suffers from Spinal Muscular Atrophy, made a difficult decision—theydecidedtohandover their son's savings of Rs 16,000 from the piggy bank to the CMDRF. “We were hoping to buy a car that can accommodate his wheelchair. He agreed to part with his piggy bank, where he saved his monthly disability pension amount (Rs 1,600). The car will have to wait. It was his decision to help the people of Wayanad," says his mother Thasni. Her husband Noufal Shah works in the Gulf. At Chembilode panchayat in Kannur,the22-memberHaritha Karma Sena, a women's selfhelp group that collects nonbiodegradable waste from houses,contributedRs40,000to the CM's Fund. Most of these women come from families that are below the poverty line and CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Kolkata