DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA JOURNALISM OF COURAGE MONDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2024, LUCKNOW, LATE CITY, 14 PAGES INSIDE PRESIDENT’S RULE REVOKED IN JAMMU & KASHMIR PAGE 5 SET UP PANEL TO PROBE CAMPUS ‘SUICIDE’: IIM-A STUDENTS’ BODY PAGE 4 Clash over ‘music’ during idol immersion procession in Bahraich, 1 dead AN EXPRESS INVESTIGATION – PART 1 From Dhaka to Delhi, how kidney racket grew on fake family trees, fudged papers and a ghost lab 20-25 transplants by one surgeon at two Noida hospitals under lens, police look at more cases, middlemen say they verified documents themselves RIGOROUS PROCESS OF VERIFICATION, SAYS YATHARTH EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE LUCKNOW, OCTOBER 13 COMMUNAL CLASHES erupted in the Mahasi tehsil of Bahraich district in Uttar Pradesh on Sunday during the Durga idol immersion procession, leading to the death of a 22-year-old man from a gunshot wound and several others injured. Several vehicles and shops were also set on fire. According to police sources, theclashesbeganaftermembers of the minority community allegedly asked the music to be turned off as the religious procession was passing through a Muslim area. Taking serious note of the clash, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said those responsible for causing disturbances in Mahasi would not be spared. He also said that strict action would be taken against the administrative and police officers whose “negligence” contributed to the incident. “A heated argument began over the playing of DJ that escalated, leading to a clash and stone-pelting between the two groups. The situation took an CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Photographs: Gajendra Yadav Case records show Dr Vijaya Rajakumari conducted a total of 61 kidney transplant surgeries for Bangladeshi patients between August 7, 2022 and May 13, 2024 at Yatharth Hospital, Noida; and 66 such surgeries between January 1, 2018 and March 31, 2023 at Apollo Hospital, Noida. KAUNAIN SHERIFF M & MAHENDER SINGH MANRAL NEW DELHI, OCTOBER 13 FAKE FAMILY trees, forged documents, a diagnostic lab that existed only on paper, fabricated seals, a plastic box labelled “premium dates” but full of red “official” stickers — and a 10-member syndicate that revolved around a Delhi surgeon. These are among the main props and players behind an international kidney transplant racket that was allegedly being runbytheaccusedwhohadlinks to two well-known hospitals in the National Capital Region, exploiting loopholes in the system Govt begins study to find roots of ancient Indian communities NEW DELHI, OCTOBER 13 IN A first, the government has undertaken a comprehensive scientific study using ancient and modern genomics to “conclusively” find the population history of South Asia, amid conflicting theories about the origin of ancient Indian communities. Thestudyisbeingundertaken through the Anthropological Survey of India (AnSI), which functions under the aegis of the Ministry of Culture. Titled “Reconstruction of the population history of South Asia using ancient and modern genomics”, the project will study 300 ancient skeletal remains – largely cranial and other bone fragments,includingtooth—,collectedfromdifferentarchaeolog- E EXPLAINED DIVYA A Significance of theDNA ● study THE STUDY, using scientific techniques such as DNA analysis, aims to offer insights into the movement of ancient populations in India. The evidence will also help understand the expansion of the ancient Indian population over time. ical sites in India and Pakistan. These include remains collected during excavations carried out before and after Independence at Indus Valley CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 `6.00 WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM SINCE 1932 and even bypassing screening at thediplomaticlevel,accordingto an investigation of case records by The Indian Express. These include copious interrogation reports to international approval forms and call records —andlaybaretheracketthatled to the arrest of 10 accused, including the 50-year-old surgeon who allegedly conducted around 20-25 transplants for Bangladeshi patients at the Apollo and Yatharth hospitals in Noida over the past three years that are under probe. TOMORROW A KEY ACCUSED AND HIS DAMNING LINKS The police have also sought details of over 125-130 other transplants conducted on Bangladeshi patients at these two hospitals from 2018 to 2024 — an analysis of case records show all of them were allegedly conducted by the accused surgeon, Dr Vijaya Rajakumari who was arrested on July 1, and is now on bail. She denied all the allegations in court. Among those arrested were also two Bangladeshi nationals, includingatranslatorworkingin India’s medical tourism sector. The racket was busted by Delhi Police following an investigation triggered by an alert from the Union Health Ministry in April this year warning of a CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 THE CASE has focused on 20-25 kidney transplants conducted at Yatharth Hospital and Apollo Hospital — both in Noida. Responding to queries in this regard, a spokesperson for Yatharth said: “Regarding the recent case, we want to clarify that all cases, including those from visiting consultants, undergo our rigorous multi-layered verification process. We have taken proactive steps to further strengthen our processes. It is crucial to emphasize that Yatharth Hospital has always adhered to all legal and ethical guidelines for transplant procedures. We have fully cooperated with the authorities in their investigation. We remain committed to serving our community with integrity and compassion, striving to uphold the trust placed in us by our patients and their families.” Apollo Hospital did not respond to a detailed questionnaire on the case from The Indian Express. DAY AFTER BABA SIDDIQUE KILLING Probe points to role of Bishnoi gang, likely contract killing: Police 1 more held from Pune; police send teams to Delhi, Ujjain, Haryana SAGAR RAJPUT & MOHAMED THAVER MUMBAI, OCTOBER 13 CITING INITIAL investigations, Mumbai Police sources said on Sunday that prima facie, the Lawrence Bishnoi gang was suspectedtobebehindthekillingof three-time former MLA Baba Siddique (66), who was gunned down — allegedly by three men — on Saturday night. Police identified a Bishnoi gangmember,ShubhamLonkar, who put out a social media post claiming responsibility for the killing, as a key conspirator and said he had “recruited” two of the three shooters who worked in a Pune scrapyard. Police sources also said the three suspected shooters had met a Bishnoi gang member in a Haryana jail earlier, and had been given a contract to kill Siddique for `2.5-3 lakh. While two of the three suspectedshooters—GurmailSingh from Haryana and Dharmaraj CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 RELATED REPORTS PAGE 4 Ajit Pawar at Baba Siddique’s funeral, conducted with full state honours, in Mumbai on Sunday. Ganesh Shirshekar Suspects from Haryana, Punjab and UP, two with criminal records SUKHBIR SIWACH, MANISH SAHU & ANJU AGNIHOTRI CHABA KAITHAL, LUCKNOW, JALANDHAR, OCTOBER 13 OF THE three suspected shooters, two — Dharmaraj Kashyap who has been arrested and Shivkumar Gautam who is on the run — were from the same village in Bahraich district of Uttar Pradesh and had no criminalhistory,policesaid.Thethird, Gurmail Singh, from Kaithal district of Haryana, was arrested in Haryana resident Gurmail Singh, one of the alleged shooters a murder case in 2019. Police on Sunday named a fourth suspect, Mohammad Zeeshan Akhtar (22), alias Mohammad Yaseen Akhtar, a resident of Nokodar in Punjab’s Jalandhardistrict,whoalsohasa criminalrecord,andissuspected CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Saibaba’s family remembers lost Amid row, trust linked years: ‘Didn’t have enough of him’ to Kharge’s family drops request for plot B U Out on bail, suspects in Gauri Lankesh’s murder felicitated NEW DELHI, OCTOBER 13 BENGALURU, OCTOBER 13 VIDHEESHA KUNTAMALLA & UMA VISHNU “THERE IS no Vasantha without Sai,” says Vasantha, her voice steady through the grief, hours after the death of her husband G N Saibaba, a former Assistant ProfessoratDelhiUniversityand a human rights advocate. Saibaba,57,diedlateOctober 12 following post-operative complications from a gallbladder surgery at Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences in Hyderabad. The family said Saibaba’s body would be donatedtoGandhiMedicalCollege in Telangana on Monday. Aformerprofessorof English at Delhi University’s Ram Lal Anand College, Saibaba spent a decadeinjailoverallegedMaoist links before he was acquitted by theNagpurBenchof theBombay USINESS AS SUAL BY UNNY EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE BENGALURU, OCTOBER 13 Vasantha and G N Saibaba at their residence in Delhi in April. Abhinav Saha/file High Court and released from Nagpur Central Jail on March 7. The years in jail, many of those in the infamous Anda Cell, took away 10 years of his life as the wheelchair-bound activist endured physical hardships and legal setbacks. This was also the time Saibaba wrote “hundreds of letters” — many of these to his wife Vasantha, his childhood sweet- heart who he met at a coaching centreinAmalapuraminAndhra Pradesh. “We went to the same centre. One day, Sai was late and the teacher asked me to help CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 HIS DECADE-LONG TRIALS EXPLAINED, P 11 THE SIDDHARTHA Vihar Trust, headed by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge’s son Rahul Kharge, has written to the Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board (KIADB), withdrawingitsrequestforgrant of a five-acre civic amenities site near Bengaluru, following allegations of misuse of power from the BJP over the land allocation. The land at the Hi-Tech AerospaceandDefenceParkhad earlier been sought by the trust to set up a multi-skill development centre, training institutes and a research centre. InhislettertotheKIADB,trust chairman Rahul said the objective of the trust was to create Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge more employable opportunities through skill development for studentsandunemployedyouth. “An educational institution cannotfunctioneffectivelywhile facingmalafide,baselessandpolitically motivated allegations,” he wrote. “The Trust has been foundedonhighvaluesandgreat passion to serve society. We do not wish to be drawn into controversies which will divert our attention and efforts from our primary objective of empowering the disempowered through CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE TWO KEY accused in the murder of journalist Gauri Lankesh, including the alleged shooter, were felicitated by members of HindutvagroupsintheVijayapura region of Karnataka after they were released from prison on bail. Parashuram Waghmore(33), who is accused of shooting Lankesh Lankesh, and was killed Manohar Edave in 2017 (40), accused of beingarecruiter forthesyndicateimplicatedinthe killing, were released on bail on October 10 along with another CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 In India’s last ‘sati’ village, chorus for temple trumps fear of police action PAGE 1 ANCHOR HAMZA KHAN DIVRALA (SIKAR), OCTOBER 13 ALMOST FOUR decades ago, when water was plentiful and mostfamiliesstilllivedinDivrala villageofRajasthan’sSikardistrict, Shekhawat Sadan, in the heart of the village, had a full house. The families of brothers Sumer, Mangesh, Simpu and Gajraj shared the house, now paintedinshadesofblueandyellow.Onebyone,thebrothersdied —Sumerbeingthelast,sometime in 2020 — and their families — save for Sumer’s son Bhupendra — moved out. The grand door to the house mostly remains padlocked now, while the residence is under the care of Bhupendra, who suffered a stroke. In 1987, Shekhawat Sadan was at the heart of an event that shookthenation:OnSeptember 4, 18-year-old Roop Kanwar allegedly sat on her husband Maal Singh’s funeral pyre and committed “sati”. While the family claimed her act was voluntary, activists have maintained that she was forced to do so. Besides forcing the ouster of Chief Minister Hari Dev Joshi of the Congress, Roop’s death led to theenactmentoftheCommission of Sati (Prevention) Act, 1987. Last week, in one of the last remaining cases lodged in connection with the incident, a special Sati Nivaran Court in Jaipur acquitted eight persons accused of glorifying the act. Although severalcaseswerefiledandhundreds were named as accused, activists say not a single person has been convicted till date. AsBhupendraopensthemain doorofShekhawatSadan,hesays it’smostlywomenwho“pray”to Roop. “There are a few every day. On gyaras (her death anniver- The spot in Sikar’s Divrala village where 18-year-old Roop Kanwar is said to have committed ‘sati’ in 1987. Hamza Khan sary), there are thousands,” he says, straining to speak. Roop, the youngest of six siblings, was married to Sumer’s son Maal Singh in January 1987, but he passed away from an illness in a Sikar hospital eight months later. After Maal Singh’s death, Bhupendra’s other brother, Pushpendra, died in an accident.TheirsisterManjulives in Jodhpur with her family. At Shekhawat Sadan, Roop’s room,nowashrine,isvisiblybettermaintainedthantherestofthe house,whichismarkedbyblackening walls and climbing moss. Onhercot,sharingspacewithgarlanded images of Lord Ram, Sita, Hanuman and Saraswati, is a weddingphotoofRoopandMaal Singh. Overlooking the bed is a window from where visitors “pray or pay their respects” from outside. Outside, above the window, the text reads: “Shri Roop Kanwar Sati Maa.” AtDivrala,thelegendof Roop Kanwar has only got stronger with each passing year and with every retelling: a woman says the lump on her throat disappeared after she prayed to Roop, one claims her daughter was blessedwithachild,andanother woman says her family found a groom for her. Narpat Jangid, 46, who was in Class 6 in 1987, claims: “Over 70% in Divrala have faith in Roop and turn to her in times of crisis. ‘Sati Maa’ fulfils their wishes.” HisfatherRamlalwasamong the dozens who spent about 2.5 monthsinjailinconnectionwith the incident. However, seniors likeJaiSingh,75,writeoff Roop’s impact.Hesays,“Onlyafewworship Roop in their houses or at herhomeorthespotof herpyre.” At the site where Roop allegedly committed sati, DharamveerSingh,35,wholives nearby,says“devoteespraywith incense sticks, coconuts, oil, etc., and leave money too”. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Lucknow