DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA JOURNALISM OF COURAGE TUESDAY, APRIL 15, 2025, KOLKATA, LATE CITY, 18 PAGES SINCE 1932 Violence in Bhangar after police stop march to Kolkata `6.00 (`12 IN NORTH EAST STATES, `20 IN ANDAMAN) WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM WANTED IN `13,000-CR PNB LOAN FRAUD CASE BelgiumconfirmsMehul Choksi’sarrest,request forextraditionbyIndia Senior officials set to go to Belgium; lawyer says will file appeal SHUBHAJIT ROY, MAHENDER SINGH MANRAL & SADAF MODAK NEW DELHI, MUMBAI, APRIL 14 EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE KOLKATA, APRIL 14 AFTER MURSHIDABAD, a protest, led by India Secular Front(ISF),againstthenewWaqf law turned violent in Bhangar in South 24 Parganas district of West Bengal as protesters clashed with police and set fire to vehicles after they were stoppedfromheadingtoKolkata to take part in a protest march. According to police, they had toresorttolathichargeafterprotesters sat on a dharna on Basanti highway for over four hours. The protesters also pelted stones at the police. In the Shonpur area of Bhangar, the protesters set fire to police vehicles and motorbikes. RAF personnel were then brought in to control the situation. There was no report of any casualtyintheviolencethatcontinued for over six hours. ISFchairmanandparty’slone MLA Naushad Siddiqui, meanwhile, held a rally at Ramlila CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 MURSHIDABAD ‘PEACEFUL’, PAGE 3 BUSINESS AS USUAL BY UNNY Around 400 people, including children, have taken refuge at Parlalpur High School in Malda district of West Bengal. Partha Paul ‘We have become refugees in our own land... We may never return’ InBengaldistricthitbyviolenceoverWaqf law,villagersseekshelteracrossriver RAVIK BHATTACHARYA PARLALPUR (MALDA), APRIL 14 HEREIGHT-DAY-OLDbabyinher lap, Saptami Mondol (24) sat on a tarpaulin sheet inside a classroomofahighschoolinParlalpur, which has been converted into a shelter after communal violence broke out in West Bengal’s Murshidabad last week. Saptami, who is among the 400 men, women and children taking refuge at the school after fleeing their homes, is unsure if shewilleverreturntohervillage —locatedacrosstheGangaor60 kilometres by road. The violence over the new Waqf law has already claimed three lives, including father and son Hargobindo Das (72) and Chandan Das (40), who were dragged out of their home by a mob and killed. While more than 200 arrests have been made and police claim the situation is normalising, those who fled the troubletorn areas are not so sure. “OnFriday,themobsetfireto ourneighbour’shouseandpelted stones at ours. My parents and I THE EDITORIAL PAGE LAW AND DISORDER That opposition to Waqf Act has sparked violence is disturbing. For West Bengal government, peace, not politics, must be priority PAGE12 PEOPLE SHOULD NOT TO TAKE LAW INTO THEIR HANDS: CM PAGE 3 hid inside and left in the evening whenthemobwasgone.BSFhad started patrolling by then. We onlyhavetheclotheswe’rewearing.Wemadeourwaytotheghat (makeshiftjetty)withthehelpof theBSF,”saidSaptami,whostays in Dhulian and whose husband works in Kolkata as a mason. “Itwasdark;wegotonaboat and crossed the river. On the othersidewasthisvillagewhere a family sheltered us for the night and gave us clothes. The next day, we came to this school,” said Maheshwari CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 THE BELGIUM government on Monday confirmed that fugitive jeweller Mehul Choksi (65) has been arrested in Antwerp followinganextraditionrequestby Indian investigation agencies. Wanted for his alleged involvement in the Rs 13,000-crore PunjabNationalBank(PNB)loan fraud case, Choksi fled India in January 2018. “The Belgian Federal Public ServiceofJusticecanconfirmthat MrMehulChoksiwasarrestedon Saturday,April12,2025.Heisbeing detained in anticipation of further judicial proceedings. Access to his legal counsel has beenassured,”aspokespersonfor Mehul Choksi in Dominica on June 10, 2021. PTI file E EXPLAINED A police vehicle vandalised at Bhangar in South 24 Parganas on Monday. PTI ● WHAT NEXT, WHAT ARE THE HURDLES? P 11 the Belgian Ministry of Justice told The Indian Express. “Finally, the Belgian Federal Public Service of Justice can confirm that the Indian authorities have introduced an extradition request for Mr Choksi,” the spokesperson said, adding that nofurtherdetailscanbereleased at this stage. When contacted, a spokesperson for the Antwerp police confirmed that they had successfully executed the arrest warrant.Theaction“concernsan arrest ordered by the international service, Antwerp Public Prosecutor’sOffice,followingthe service of an extradition procedure and the decision declaring aforeignarrestwarrantenforceable”, the spokesperson said. India and Belgium have a long-standingextraditiontreaty. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Panel gives nod to shift cheetahs from Kuno park to Gandhi Sagar NIKHIL GHANEKAR NEW DELHI, APRIL 14 EVEN AS the Centre is in talks with Kenya, South Africa and Botswanatotranslocatethenext batch of cheetahs to Madhya Pradesh, the Cheetah Project Steering Committee is learnt to Initially, plan is to release 4 or 5 cheetahs into a fenced area have cleared the relocation of some of the cheetahs from Kuno National Park to Gandhi Sagar Wildlife Sanctuary. The steering committee, however, advised that the relocation of the cheetahs to Gandhi Sagar,althoughinthesamestate, should be carried out with care, CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 TELANGANA ‘They spread vote bank ka virus’: PM targets Cong Jail for default on welfare for opposing Waqf law measures in draft Bill for gig workers NIKHILA HENRY HYDERABAD, APRIL 14 THE WORLD President Droupadi Murmu with V-P Jagdeep Dhankhar, PM Narendra Modi, BJP’s J P Nadda, Congress’s Mallikarjun Kharge and Sonia Gandhi at a function to pay tribute to B R Ambedkar, in Parliament on Monday. Anil Sharma CHINA SUSPENDS CRITICAL EXPORTS AS TRADE WAR WITH TRUMP INTENSIFIES ROME TO HOST U.S.-IRAN N-TALKS PAGE 14 EXPLAINED POLICY WHAT KARNATAKA CASTE SURVEY SAYS, ITS IMPACT PAGE 11 EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE CHANDIGARH, APRIL 14 PRIME MINISTER Narendra Modi on Monday targeted the Congress for opposing the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025, accusing it of spreading “vote bank ka virus”. He said if the Opposition party had any sympathy for Muslims, it should appoint a Muslim as its president and give 50% of its poll tickets to people from the minority community. “Babasaheb Ambedkar wantedtobringequality,butthe Congress spread vote bank ka virus in the country. He wanted every poor person to live with dignity, with heads held high, to dream and fulfill them. But the Congress made the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and OtherBackwardClassessecondclass citizens,” Modi said at a public meeting in Hisar, Haryana, after laying the foundation stone of a new terminal building at the Maharaja Agrasen Airport and flagging off CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 SOCIAL SECURITY for gig workers, rules that govern termination, and provisions to punish aggregators that don’t comply — a Bill expected to be brought in bytheTelanganagovernmenton May 1 envisions several guardrails for the welfare of the roughly 4 lakh gig and platform workers in the state. The draft Bill states that if an aggregatorfailstopaythewelfare fund to a board for gig workers’ welfare,itcanbepunished“with imprisonment for a term which may extend to one year or with fine of Rs 2 lakh or with both”. TheoffencesundertheActwill betriablebyacourt“whichisnot inferiorthanaJudicialMagistrate of the First Class”, it states. The Bill mandates that the state government establish the Gig and Platform Workers’ Welfare Board in Hyderabad to CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Eye on ‘oversized’ bats, IPL hands umpires a gauge to check during games PAGE 1 ANCHOR BAT SCANNER DEVENDRA PANDEY & NIHAL KOSHIE MUMBAI, NEW DELHI, APRIL 14 AT THE start of this IPL season, South African fast bowler Kagiso Rabada echoed a key concern voicedbymanyaboutthelackof balance between bat and ball in T20 cricket. With teams pushing to cross the 300-run mark, he said that if the trend continued, the game should be called “batting” not “cricket”. The BCCI is now moving to BAT GAUGE Totaldepth 2.68in/6.8cm Width 4.33in/11.0cm Edge 1.61in/4.1cm Curve 0.20in/0.5cm strike a balance. Going ahead, every IPL batsman will have to pass the bat Umpire checking MI captain Hardik Pandya’s bat. Screengrab through a gauge before taking guard. While the fourth umpire will check the bats of openers before they enter the field, every subsequent batsman will have CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Kolkata