DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA `6.00 WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM SINCE 1932 SHINDE SAYS HE TALKED TO MODI, SHAH CO2 EMISSION GOES BEYOND LIMIT Hyundai, M&M, 6 others may face emission penalties of Rs 7,300 crore Chairperson INSIDE Jagdambika Pal to move resolution today, says A Raja LALMANI VERMA NEW DELHI, NOVEMBER 27 THE CONTENTIOUS Waqf (Amendment) Bill is unlikely to be taken for consideration and passage in the ongoing Winter sessionasthejointcommitteeof Parliament — formed to scrutinise it — is set to seek an extension to collect opinion from more stakeholders. Sources said the Billis now likely to be passed by the House in the Budget session, in early February. Opposition member of the committeeARajasaidthatchairman Jagdambika Pal had agreed to move a motion Thursday to No criminal conspiracy: CBI in its clean chit to Prannoy Roy BOTH HOUSES ADJOURNED AMID OPP PROTEST OVER ADANI, SAMBHAL ISSUES PAGE 6 seek an extension. The panel’s tenure is until November 29. As per rules, the tenure of the committeewillbeextendedafterthe Lok Sabha approves the proposal. The panel’s tenure might be extended until the first week of the Budget Session. Earlier, after a meeting of the Parliament panel Wednesday, CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 BUSINESS AS USUAL BY UNNY EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE NEW DELHI, NOVEMBER 27 THERE WAS no collusion or criminal conspiracy, or abuse of official position by any public servant, the CBI has said in its closure report submitted in a Delhi court in the case against NDTV’s former directors and promoters Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy registered in 2017 forallegedlycausingawilfulloss of over Rs 48 crore to ICICI Bank. “Regarding loss of Rs 48 crore to ICICI Bank and corresponding gain to promoters of NDTV, it is statedinthecancellationreportof theCBIthattherewasnocollusion orcriminalconspiracyorabuseof officialpositionbyanypublicservant or officers of ICICI Bank...,” said the order of Special Judge ShailenderMalikofRouseAvenue Court dated November 12. Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy had on December 23, 2022, sold their 27.26 per cent stake in NDTV to Adani Group-owned AMG Media Network, allowing it to take its holding beyond the majority mark to 64.68 per cent. Earlier, on August 23 that year, AMG Media Network had indirectly acquired 29.18 per cent in NDTV and subsequently launched an open offer to CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 EXPRESS NETWORK SARPANCH, FAMILY BEAT DALIT TO DEATH IN MP: POLICE PAGE 3 New norms effective Jan 1, 2023, but applied for full financial yr: Carmakers EMISSIONS PENALTY Company Cars in Slab 1 sold Hyundai Shiv Sena leader and caretaker CM Eknath Shinde holds a press conference at his residence in Thane, Wednesday. Deepak Joshi I’mnotahurdle,noobstaclefrom us:ShindeclearswayforBJPCM Says Fadnavis, Ajit Pawar and he will meet Shah today to discuss next CM VALLABH OZARKAR MUMBAI, NOVEMBER 27 AMID THE deadlock over who will become the next Maharashtra Chief Minister after the Mahayuti’s landslide victory, caretaker Chief Minister Eknath Shinde announced Wednesday that the Shiv Sena would accept and support the decisiontakenbyPrimeMinister NarendraModiandUnionHome Minister Amit Shah on the issue and that there would be “no obstacle” from their side. “I spoke to the Prime Minister and the Home Minister andsaidthattherewillbenoobstacle from our side in government formation. Modiji is the leader of the NDA (National Democratic Alliance) and I said that whatever their decision is andwhoevertheirCMcandidate is, the Shiv Sena will fully support him,” Shinde said, speaking to reporters at his residence in CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 THE WORLD EVEN AS Sambhal district in Uttar Pradesh remains on edge following a court-ordered survey of the Shahi Jama Masjid there,a localcourt inRajasthan’s AjmeronWednesdayissuednotices to the Union Ministry of Minority Affairs, the Archaeological Survey of India, and the Ajmer Dargah Committee over a petition seeking a survey of the renowned Ajmer Sharif Dargah. The petition was filed by Hindu Sena chief Vishnu Gupta who, while speaking to The Indian Express, claimed that there was a temple at Ajmer Sharif Dargah like “in Kashi and Mathura”. Civil Judge Manmohan Chandel issued notices after Gupta claimed in his petition that the dargah — the mausoleum of Sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti — was a Shiva temple. The court order has not been uploaded online or shared with the petitioners so far. “The court asked us why we are filing it. We told the court everything and after listening to CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 ZEESHAN SHAIKH MUMBAI, NOVEMBER 27 RUMBLINGSHAVEbegunwithin the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) afteritshumiliatingdefeatinthe Maharashtra Assembly elections, with the Uddhav Thackeray-ledShivSenacoming under increasing pressure from its leaders to leave the alliance. Majorityof the20Sena(UBT) MLAs reportedly urged this at a meeting held by Thackeray on Monday, The Indian Express has learnt.Sourcessaidthegrassroots cadre of the Sena (UBT), which was completely overshadowed by the Eknath Shinde Sena’s 57seat tally in the Assembly elections, is questioning the “effectiveness” of the MVA. However, sources said, Thackeray as well as other CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Cars sold 99,289 5,67,546 2,837.8 Skoda 1,788.4 Force Motor 674 Kia 2,69,213 1,346.2 Honda 91,517 457.7 Renault 87,642 438.3 Nissan 34,432 172.3 SOUMYRENDRA BARIK & AGGAM WALIA NEW DELHI, NOVEMBER 27 THE CENTRE has found out that eight carmakers including Hyundai, Kia, Mahindra, and Honda have higher than mandated fleet emission levels in financial year 2022-23, which could mean penalties of around Rs7,300crore,TheIndian Express has learnt. The penalty on Korean carmaker Hyundai is the highest, totalling over Rs 2,800 crore, followed by Mahindra (nearly Rs 1,800 crore) and Kia (over Rs 1,300 crore). For 2022-23, the Bureau of Energy Efficiency, under the UnionMinistryofPower,required car companies of all units sold duringtheyeartoachieveIndia’s CorporateAverageFuelEfficiency (CAFE) norms. This meant a fuel IIT-Delhi student dies as excavation pit caves in near Harappan site AHMEDABAD, NOVEMBER 27 PAGE 14 The Ajmer Sharif Dargah; the next hearing is on Dec 20. File Uddhav faces pressure from party to leave MVA BRENDAN DABHI & RITU SHARMA ISRAEL, HEZBOLLAH TRUCE DEAL FOR LEBANON COMES INTO EFFECT HINDU MONK HELD IN BANGLADESH: 30 DETAINED OVER LAWYER’S KILLING JAIPUR, NOVEMBER 27 Company in Slab 2 Mahindra 3,57,664 Plea claims Shiva temple at Ajmer dargah, seeks survey; court issues notices to Centre, ASI HAMZA KHAN Penalty (in Rs cr) A 23-YEAR-OLD PhD scholar from IIT-Delhi died when an excavation pit from which she was collecting soil samples caved in, near the archaeological remains of the Harappan port town of LothalinGujaratonWednesday. Policeidentifiedthevictimas Surabhi Verma, a resident of Sitapur in Uttar Pradesh. Her professor, Yama Dixit (45) from IIT-Delhi, was rescued from the site and reported to be in a “sta- An IIT-Delhi professor was rescued from the pit ble” condition. According to police, a team of four researchers — two from IIT- Delhi and two from IITGandhinagar — was in Lothal to studypaleoclimatologywhenthe cave-inhappenedatabout11am. “The team had dug up a pit in Lothalandwascollectingsamples when the pit collapsed, burying two of the four members at the spot.Ittookthepolice15minutes to reach the site due to the distancefromthenearestpolicestation.Inall,therewerefivepeople there, including the driver,” said Om Prakash Jat, Superintendent of Police, Rural Ahmedabad. Lothal is about 20 km away from the nearest police station CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Inside NSO Group’s Pegasus pitch: ‘Heaven’, ‘Eden’, ‘Erised’ and a $6.8 million/year licence VENKAT ANANTH & SOUMYARENDRA BARIK BENGALURU, NEW DELHI, NOVEMBER 27 “TURN YOUR Target’s Smartphone Into an Intelligence Gold Mine.” As far as sales pitches go, it couldn’t have been any more direct. The above text is what the Israeli spyware maker NSO Group was using to pitch its Pegasus product to potential customers as one “capable of collectinginformationfrommobile devices,” according to recently unsealed court documents in a US District Court for Northern California. The documents, part of a lawsuit filed by WhatsApp against the NSO GroupinOctober2019,wereunsealed on November 14. The end use, per these documents, would happen via the sale of licenses to a trio of innocuously-nameddelivery“vectors”— ‘Heaven’, ‘Eden’, and ‘Erised’ (desire written backwards)—all part of a hacking suite called “Hummingbird.” Simply put, vectors are entry points for attackers. The names of these vectors were previously unknown, and have emerged following depositions of multiple NSO Group executives. The documents reveal that between April 2018 and May 2020, the company charged its customers—“selectgovernment agencies approved by the Governmentof Israel”—$6.8million(Rs57.3crore)foraone-year license. WhatsApp estimated the number following an expert testimony by Dana Trexler, who runs an “intellectual property disputes and valuations practice”. WhatsApp also estimated that NSO Group earned an approximate $31 million in revenue in 2019 from the sale of these licenses. NSO has challenged these numbers. In a sworn declaration to the court on October 11, Tamir Gazneli, the NSO Group’s head of research and development stated that “NSO’s government customers would alone operate CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Penalty (in Rs cr) 248.3 1.8 Slab 1: Penalty Rs 10 lakh (fixed) + Rs 50,000 per unit manufactured Slab 2: Penalty Rs 10 lakh (fixed) + Rs 25,000 per unit manufactured E EXPLAINED Unfinished business, Waqf committee set to get an extension to Budget session POSTAL REGN. NO. JAIPUR CITY/001/2024-26 JOURNALISM OF COURAGE THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2024, JAIPUR, LATE CITY, 18 PAGES OPP-GOVT FACEOFF ● ● Carmakers’ argument CARMAKERS ARE learnt to have argued that the new and stricter penalty norms came into effect only from January 1, 2023, and therefore calculating penalties on the basis of cars sold in the entire financial year would not be appropriate. Hence, notice has not been issued to the companies. consumption of not more than 4.78litresper100kmandcarbon dioxide emissions of not more than 113 grams per km (since it has a direct correlation with the amount of fuel consumed). CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 DEATHS IN CAR FALL UP bridge deaths: Many red flags, but not on road that mattered MANISH SAHU LUCKNOW, NOVEMBER 27 A RIVER that changed course, a projectabandonedmidway,and a tale of negligence and official apathy – a host of factors played a part in the death of three men, whose car veered off a half-finished bridge in Uttar Pradesh’s Badaun on Sunday morning. As outrage over the deaths grows, the state’s Public Works Department, in its preliminary inquiry, claims to have found negligenceonthepartof fiveengineers. The victims were on their way to Bareilly to attend a wedding function and were using Google Maps when the incident tookplace,theirfamiliessay.The incomplete bridge spans the Ramganga river, connecting Dataganj in Budaun to Faridpur in Bareilly. The district administration hasregisteredanFIRagainstfour engineers from the PWD's Budaun unit, charging them with culpable homicide not amounting to murder. No arrest has been made so far. The CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 In Punjab homes, living with statues: Dadaji is dead, long live Dadaji PAGE 1 ANCHOR DIVYA GOYAL GOPAL LUDHIANA, NOVEMBER 27 WHEN KULWINDER Kaur stepped into the living room of her new house in Punjab’s FerozepurinAugustthisyear,sitting on the sofa was someone she had never expected to see again. AsKulwinder struggledto keep her emotions in check, her five-year-old granddaughter Avneetinstantly recognisedhim as “Dadaji (grandfather)” Malkit Singh, who had passed away in 2014 due to an illness. Eversinceheshot tofame for his life-size carbon fiber statue of singer-politician Sidhu Moosewala, who was shot dead in 2022, Iqbal Singh from Moga, Punjab, has done the same for other families across the state, including Malkit’s family. Today, a life-size carbon fiber statue of Malkit occupies a place of pride on the family’s living room sofa, always dressed in his crisply ironed Punjab Police uniform, complete with a Colonialera jhaalar wali pagg (turban with a fringe) that was discontinued by the force in 2016. Though Malkit never responds, little Avneet never fails to share the minutest details of her day with him. Sikander Singh, Malkit’s son who is set to get his father’s job oncompassionategrounds,says, “I always regretted that my daughter would never meet my father.Now,thankstothestatue, she finally knows what he looked like. When I see her bid goodbye to her ‘Dadaji’ before leaving for school each day, I know my decision to get this statue was correct.” Iqbal Singh, who started creating sculptures from 2010 onwards, says he has made nearly Avneet with her grandfather’s statue in her Ferozepur home. (Right) Anureet Kaur Dosanjh with her mother’s statue. 50 life-size statues till date. “After Moosewala’s family installed his statue at their house inMoosavillage,severalfamilies reached out to me via social media, saying that they too wanted to commission the statues of their deceased loved ones,” says Iqbal, a former oil painter. Delivered free of cost across Punjab, Iqbal uses photographs and details like height and weight to create these statues. With each statue taking nearly a month to make, and costing between Rs 95,000 and Rs 1.5 lakh each, he says his creations only require basic dusting when it comes to theircare. “Since many Jaipur families wish to include these statues as they celebrate special occasions, the extremities are moveablesotheycanchangethe statue’s clothes easily,” he adds. At Daulatpur village in Punjab’s Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar district (formerly Nawanshahr), over 150 km from Ferozepur, the life-size statue of headconstableHarmeshKumar, 53, who died in July last year after a cardiac arrest, has given a new lease of life to his wife Jaswinder Sharma, 49. Their son Karanvir Kumar, who contacted Iqbal via social media, says his mother was in “deep shock” since his father’s death. “My parents fell in love and got married. After his death, mymotherforgothowtolive.But everything changed after I commissioned his statue,” he says. Since the statue’s arrival, Jaswinder either dresses it up in her husband’s police uniform, his black shoes polished to perfection, or a kurta-pyjama, and a suit on special occasions. Karanvirsays,“Itfeelslikemy father is back in our lives once again. At my wedding, he was a part of all the rituals. He also accompanied us in a wheelchair to Delhi airport when we went to drop my younger brother, who CONTINUED ON PAGE 2