DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2024, MUMBAI, LATE CITY, 18 PAGES ● REG.NO. MCS/067/2018 - 20 RNI REGN. NO. 1543/57 JOURNALISM OF COURAGE `5.00 ● WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM SINCE 1932 SILENT ON ARTICLE 370 IN FIRST J&K POLL RALLY 85 113 139 68 BUSINESS AS USUAL BY UNNY We will restore statehood... I am giving this guarantee: Rahul promise in J&K Ram Madhav: Former militants campaigning openly for NC, PDP Describes L-G as 21st century raja, says outsiders getting benefits NAVEED IQBAL & ARUN SHARMA BASHAARAT MASOOD ADDRESSING his first rally in Kashmir for the upcoming Assembly polls, DECISION Congress leader 2024 Rahul Gandhi J&K Wednesday promised return of statehood to Jammu and PREDICTING THAT a new leadership will emerge in the Valley in the upcoming Jammu and KashmirAssemblyelections,the BJP’s J&K poll in-charge Ram Madhav Wednesday accused the National Conference (NC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) of allegedly taking the support of former militants in their poll campaigning. DOORU (ANANTNAG), JAMMU, SEPTEMBER 4 ZELENSKYY ORDERS BIGGEST RESHUFFLE IN GOVT PAGE 14 CBI books Deshmukh and four others for ‘conspiring to falsely implicate’ BJP leaders Congress leader Rahul Gandhi along with NC leader Farooq Abdullah and others at a poll rally in J&K’s Dooru. Shuaib Masoodi Kashmir, stating that ensuring this was “the responsibility of every citizen” of the country. Accusing the BJP of “taking away the rights and dignity” of the people of J&K, Gandhi said that the next government in the Union territory will be of the INDIA bloc and called their fight CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 THE CENTRAL Bureau of Investigation(CBI)hasfiledafresh FIR against former Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh andfourothers,accusingthemof conspiringtofalselyimplicateBJP leaders by fabricating witness statementsandevidence.Theaccused include a former special public prosecutor, a lawyer, the thenzonaldeputycommissioner ofpoliceandanassistantcommissioner of police, who are alleged tohavecolludedwithDeshmukh. Deshmukh, who is already facing corruption charges, was previously arrested by both the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate (ED). As per the fresh FIR, Deputy ChiefMinisterDevendraFadnavis, an Opposition leader in March 2022,presentedavideorecording to the deputy Speaker during an Assembly session when Maha VikasAghadi(MVA)government was in power. Fadnavis alleged CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Eye on China, Modi in Brunei: India backs policy of development, not expansionism SHUBHAJIT ROY Former Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh that special public prosecutor Pravin Pandit Chavan, who is one of the accused, had discussed “framing BJP leaders” in Maharashtra. In response, then Home Minister Dilip Walse-Patil announced a CID investigation into Fadnavis’s allegations. “Devendra Fadnavis subsequentlyhandedoverthependrive containing relevant information to the CID through the Director General of Police, Maharashtra. Thependriverelatedtotheroleof special public prosecutor Pravin PanditChavaninconnectionwith Cr No 03/2021 of Kothrud Police Station,Pune,”theCBIFIR(filedon July 31) states. “We will remind the people of Jammu and Kashmir that NC, PDPandothershavebroughtout manifestos to take Kashmir back... I see the ex-militants openly campaigning for NC and AFTER BRUNEI, PRIME MINISTER BEGINS TWO-DAY VISIT TO SINGAPORE SAGARRAJPUT MUMBAI,SEPTEMBER4 Ram Madhav is the BJP’s J&K poll in-charge SRINAGAR, SEPTEMBER 4 NEW DELHI, SEPTEMBER 4 PrimeMinisterNarendraModiwithhiscounterpartLawrence WonginSingaporeWednesday.“Had anexcellentdiscussion onawiderangeof issues. Indiacherishesthefriendshipwith Singapore,”ModipostedonX. PTI REPORT, PAGE12 AMIDCHINA’Saggressiveposture intheIndo-Pacific,PrimeMinister Narendra Modi underlined in BruneithatIndiasupportsa“policy of development, not expansionism”, and emphasised the need to respect “freedom of navigation and overflight”. Modi made the remarks at a banquet hosted by Brunei’s Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah in BandarSeriBegawanonTuesday. The two leaders met in the backdropof tensionsintheSouth China Sea, where Chinese and Philippines Coast Guard vessels jousted over an island, located 138 km from the Philippines’ west coast and 1,200 km from China’s southernmost province of Hainan.Bruneihasamaritime claim in the South China Sea. “Wesupportfreedomof navigation and overflight under international laws like UNCLOS. E E X P L A I NE D 05/09/2024 Troubled ● waters UNLIKE SOME of the other countries with claims in the South China Sea, Brunei has kept silent on its claim to a relatively small area off northern Borneo, choosing to focus on growing trade ties with China as it diversifies its economy. New Delhi is looking at capitalising on the potential to tap into Brunei’s China+1 strategy, officials said. India also has vital stakes in the South China Sea, as almost 55% of its trade passes through the disputed waters. We agree that a code of conduct shouldbefinalisedinthisregion. We support the policy of ‘NO ERROR IN REPORTING’ SC pulls up Dhami over posting official to Rajaji: We are not in feudal era ‘Just because he is the Chief Minister, he can do anything?’: Justice Gavai The Indian Express report published on August 29 ANANTHAKRISHNAN G NEW DELHI, SEPTEMBER 4 A WEEK after The Indian Express reported that Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, ignoring a requestfrom the state Forest Minister and Chief Secretary to reconsider the appointment, had handed charge of the Rajaji Tiger Reserve to an officerremovedtwoyearsagoas head of the Corbett Tiger Reserve, the Supreme Court Wednesday took strong exception to the Chief Minister’s decision andreminded himthat“we are not in the feudal era ki raja jaise bole vaisa chale (when the king’s word was final)”. Justice B R Gavai, presiding over a bench that also comprised Justices P K Mishra and K V Viswanathan, told Senior AdvocateANSNadkarni,whoappeared for the State of Uttarakhand, that newspaper reportingonthematterwascorrect. “There is no error in the newspaperreporting.Thereport said Chief Secretary and Forest Minister objected and in spite of thatobjection,theCMoverruled. Nothingwronginthosereports,” Justice Gavai said. On August 29, The Indian Express reported about Dhami’s decision to appoint Chief CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Ahead of SC hearing, Silence, choreographed A statue falls and a controversy rises: Why officer transferred out timidity in SAU: Lankan did Chhatrapati Shivaji statue sport a scar? from Rajaji reserve scholar forced to quit Sculptor Jaydeep CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 ZEESHANSHAIKH MUMBAI,SEPTEMBER4 VIDHEESHA KUNTAMALLA NEW DELHI, SEPTEMBER 4 DESCRIBING SOUTH Asian University’s inquiry into a PhD proposal citing linguist Noam Chomsky’s criticism of the NDA government as “utterly unreasonable,”SasankaPerera(62),the scholarwholaterquitovertheissue, told The Indian Express that the“deafeningsilence”of hiscolleaguesandthe“choreographed timidity,” on campus suggests that SAU “will never again stand for academic freedom.” Perera, a Lankan cultural anthropologist who taught sociol- PAGE 1 ANCHOR Sasanka Perera has taken VRS from SAU ogy at SAU for 13 years, was a founding member of its Sociology department and one of about six foreign faculty on campus. He took voluntary retirement amid a disciplinary inquiry against him over the research proposal with July 31 being his last day on campus. SpeakingtoTheIndianExpress from Sri Lanka, Perera said, “I CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 A SCAR on the forehead of Chhatrapati Shivaji's fallen statue at Rajkot Fort in Sindhudurg has turned into a lightning rod for politicians and historians in the state. On August 25, as the 35-foottall statue collapsed, it plunged Maharashtra politics into chaos, withtheOppositionattackingthe government both over the quality of construction and the decisiontocommissionan“inexperienced” 24-year-old artist, Jaydeep Apte, for the project. But now, another controversy is brewing – over the presence of a scaronthestatue,ontheleftside Last year, sculptor Jaydeep Apte posted pictures of the clay model of the statue on social media. Express of the warrior king's forehead, right below his turban. While most historians agree that Shivaji did nursesuch ascar, they say it was never depicted in any of the known sculptures or portraits of the warrior king because it was hidden under his jiretop, the unique conical headgear that was worn by Chhatrapati Shivaji. This scar is said to have been inflicted on Shivaji during the Battle of Pratapgarh in 1659, when he killed Afzal Khan, the general of the Adil Shahi dynasty. Sculptor Apte had in May last year posted pictures of the clay model of the statue on his social mediaaccount.Oneof hisassociateshadcommentedonthephotograph, “Excellent, great detailing. The statue even shows the scar on Maharaj's forehead.” CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Apte arrested from Kalyan EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE MUMBAI, SEPTEMBER 4 SCULPTOR JAYDEEP Apte, who built the 35-foot statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj at Rajkot Fort in Malvan that collapsed on August 26, leading to a huge outrage, was arrested from Kalyan Wednesday night. Fivepoliceteamswereformedto track the sculptor, who had been abscondingforoveraweek,anda look out circular was also issued. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 JAY MAZOOMDAAR & AVANEESH MISHRA NEW DELHI, DEHRADUN, SEPTEMBER 4 AHEAD OF the hearing in the SupremeCourt,theUttarakhand government removed Indian Forest Service officer Rahul — he uses only his first name — from the office of Director, Rajaji Tiger Reserve. Rahul has now been posted as Chief Conservator of Forests of the Monitoring, Evaluation, IT, and Modernization division, the position he held before moving totheRajajireserve.Theorderissued by a Deputy Secretary of the Forest Department said Rahul himself requested for his transfer from Rajaji reserve on September 3. In a statement, the state government said it had removed Rahul as Rajaji director on September 3, and that the government gave this information to the Supreme Court Wednesday. Following this, the Supreme Court had closed proceedings in the matter. “The state government had transferred many IFoS officers in the past, in which senior officer Rahul was made the director of Rajaji National Park. But later somecontroversystartedarising on this, which was immediately cognized by Chief Minister (Pushkar Singh) Dhami. Along with this, the Chief Minister had CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Day after IC-814 hijack, a call from Pak and a Mumbai manhunt D SIVANANDHAN SPECIAL TO THE THE NEW web series on the IC 814 hijackinghasnotonlybroughtback into news a horrific terror incident that rattled the world but also got embroiledinacontroversyoverthe names of the hijackers, forcing the Governmenttostepin.Now,forthe firsttimeever,thetruthabouthow the case was cracked by the Mumbai Police and the Crime Branch is being presented to the world.Itwasoneofthefinestworks of investigation done by any police department across the world. This is what happened: OnDecember24,1999,Indian Airlinesflight,IC814enroutefrom KathmandutoNewDelhiwashijacked30minutesafterittookoff from the Kathmandu Airport in Nepal.Theentirecountrywasput on highest alert immediately after the authorities came to know of the hijacking. During that time, I was posted as Joint Commissioner of PoliceinMumbaiPoliceandwas head of the elite Mumbai Crime Branch and was informed by my EXPRESS boss and Mumbai Police Commissioner, R H Mendonca, about the incident and was asked to put the entire crime branch on high alert. All of us were following the events as they unfolded with bated breath. The very next day of the hijacking was Christmas Day, December 25, I was in my office, situated in the Mumbai Police Headquarters in Crawford Market, when at around 11 am, I had an unscheduled visitor. It wasHemantKarkare,anIPSofficer from Maharashtra Cadre, who was then posted in the Mumbai office of the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW)*. I instantly knew this was not an ordinary visit. Hemant Karkare informed me that RAW had procured a phone number which was in Mumbai and in constant touch with a phone number in Pakistan. He handed me the phone number and I immediately got down to work... What they heard: sounds of a cattle shed The Kathmandu-Delhi flight was hijacked on Dec 24, 1999. File Teams were formed and were given specific work to ensure that the operation went off smoothly and efficiently... One team was dispatched to the mobile service provider to get the caller details, telephone details, the location of the cell towers, call logs and other details. Another team was asked to put the mobile number on surveillance and monitor it round the clock. All other teams were entrustedwiththeresponsibilityof locating the caller. As the officials waited with bated breath, the first information came from the police team that had been dispatched to the mobileserviceprovider.Theyreported back that the number was being used between Juhu and Malad as this is from where the mobile towers were beaming the signals. Eventhoughtheinformation was useful it was not as helpful, because in a crowded megapolis like Mumbai, millions of people stay between Juhu and Malad... In 1999, the only technology that was available was to listenintothetelephoneconversation and get the location after a delay of a few hours. First three days of our investigations yielded nothing. The authorities, officersweregetting frustrated and more importantly, the Government of India was losing time. The only information was that the team that was listening into the phone CONTINUED ON PAGE 8