eye MCS/204/2020-22RNINO.MAHENG2002/21899 THE SUNDAY EXPRESS MAGAZINE The Flop Thickens MUMBAI,LATECITY APRIL20,2025 Response to Sikandar and latest industry figures show Bollywood’s slide continues 14+4PAGES,`6.00 DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM NEGOTIATORS TO DRAW UP ‘REALISTIC’ ROADMAP FOR INTERIM DEAL WITH U.S. 94 122 150 60 MAHARASHTRA In tariff shadow, trade talks gather pace, team visits US April 23, Goyal in UK in May From tariffs to rules of origin, 19 chapters being negotiated with US RAVI DUTTA MISHRA NEW DELHI, APRIL 19 2008 MALEGAON BLAST: AFTER OVER 17 YEARS, TRIAL CONCLUDES PAGE 4 TRADE TALKS with Western countries, particularly, the United States and the United Kingdom, have gathered pace with a negotiating team headed to Washington DC next week to push through an interim deal, and Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal set to visit the UK to iron out the remaining differences. Team to US will be led by Rajesh Agrawal, Addl Secy, Commerce Indian negotiators preparing for a three-day visit beginning April 23 to the US to draw up a “realistic 90-day roadmap” to clinch an interim agreement CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 E EXPLAINED 20/04/2025 Trump tariffs & ● trade deals THE TRUMP tariffs, and the radical changes in US trade policy, have prompted India to push through trade agreements with not just the US, but also with the UK and the European Union. The 90-day tariff pause is being used to at least conclude an interim deal with the US. Talks with UK in final stages, no new round RAVI DUTTA MISHRA NEW DELHI, APRIL 19 WITHIN A month of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman visiting the UK, Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal is expected to meet his counterpart in London next month, as trade talks are progressing “well”, a senior government official said on Saturday. Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal “Thenegotiationsfortheproposed free trade agreement between India and the UK are progressingtowardsthefinalstages. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Flag ‘Maharashtra interest’: Raj and Uddhav signal thaw as questions hover MANOJ MORE & ZEESHAN SHAIKH PUNE, MUMBAI, APRIL 19 SHIV SENA (UBT) president Uddhav Thackeray and his estrangedcousinandMaharashtra NavnirmanSena(MNS)chief Raj ThackerayonSaturdayindicated willingnessaboutapossiblerapprochementbetweenthem.The twoleaderssaidtheywereready to keep aside their “disputes” for the larger interest of the people of Maharashtra. Raj Thackeray made the first move. During a podcast with filmmaker Mahesh Manjrekar, the MNS chief said he was ready to keep aside the “minor disputes” between him and Shiv Sena (UBT) president Uddhav Thackeray; MNS chief Raj Thackeray Uddhav. “For me, the interest of Maharashtra is bigger while everything else is secondary... I can keep aside our minor disputes,” Raj said. “I am ready to work with Uddhav (Thackeray), but the only question is whether CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 MP INVOKES ‘SAVARNA’ BENCH, NJAC NEED After BJP’s Dubey says CJI behind ‘civil wars’, Nadda distances, warns against such remarks BJP respects judiciary, integral part of democracy, strong pillar, says Nadda VIKAS PATHAK & LIZ MATHEW Dargah razing: Nashik civic body had said part of area ‘earmarked for Pir’ ZEESHAN SHAIKH MUMBAI, APRIL 19 THE DEMOLITION of a dargah in Nashik, which spiralled into violence this week, came despite a strong pushback from the Maharashtra Waqf Tribunal and thecivicbodyitself acknowledging that the dargah has existed for decades. LocatedinNashik’sKatheGalli and nestled among several residentialbuildings,thedecades-old Hazrat Saatpeer Sayed Baba Dargah stood on a large tract of The dargah was demolished on April 16. File land with seven graves believed to be of Sufi saints. On April 16, the Nashik Municipal Corporation (NMC), which had earlier declared the dargah illegal, began a demolition drive there, triggeringproteststhatleftthreedozenpolice personnel injured and led to the arrest of more than 30 people. By the time the Supreme Court heard the case hours later and stayed the drive, the entire structure had been flattened. The NMC’s demolition came on the back of the Bombay High CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 DELHI POLICE COMMISSIONER, DCP TESTIFY NEW DELHI, APRIL 19 HOURS AFTER BJP MP Nishikant Dubey launched a strong attack on the Supreme Court, saying Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna was responsible for “all civil wars in the country”, party president J P Nadda on Saturday said the BJP “completely rejected” these remarks and warnedagainstsuchstatements. Earlier in the day, Dubey posted his ANI video clip on X in which, while responding to a questionontheWaqflawandthe Eleven people, including eight members of the family of a 2020 Delhi riots victim, were killed when a four-storey residential building collapsed in Dayalpur, in Mustafabad area of Northeast Delhi, in the early hours of Saturday. Praveen Khanna BJP MP Nishikant Dubey; party chief J P Nadda recent violence in West Bengal, he says: “Is desh mein jitne grih yuddha ho rahe hain unke zimmedar kewal yahaan ke Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna Sahab hain (CJI Sanjiv Khanna is CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Justice Varma case: Officials confirm cash, panel asked why not seized, why clip erased MAHENDER SINGH MANRAL NEW DELHI, APRIL 19 DURING THEIR appearance beforethethree-judgeinquirypanel toexplaintheMarch14fireatthen Delhi High Court judge Justice YashwantVarma’sresidence,two keyquestions,wereaskedofDelhi Police Commissioner Sanjay Arora; DCP (New Delhi district) Devesh Mahala; and the first responders: why no action was taken to seize the cash; and why avideoclipwasdeletedfromthe first responders’ phones. In their response, The Sunday Express has learned, the inquiry committee was told that no FIR was lodged in the matter and, hence, the cash wasn’t seized, but “due process” was followed bythepolicepersonnelwhowitnessed the fire, as they escalated the matter to their seniors, who eventually informed the Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court about what transpired on the night of March 14. “As for why the video of the burning cash was deleted from themobilephonesof thefirstresponders, the panel was CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 FOUR-PAGE PULLOUT 58-YEAR-OLD ABDUCTED, KILLED After latest murder, Delhi slams Dhaka: ‘Persecution of Hindu minorities’ Victim taken from home, sent back assaulted, unconscious: Daily Star SHUBHAJIT ROY NEW DELHI, APRIL 19 DAYS AFTER a Hindu community leader in Bangladesh was killed, the Ministry of External Affairs Saturday strongly condemned his alleged abduction and murder and said it follows a “pattern of systematic persecution” of Hindu minorities in Bangladesh. MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal urged the interim government in Dhaka to “live up to its responsibility” of protecting minorities without “inventing excuses.” AccordingtoBangladeshmedia reports, the man has been identified as Bhabesh Chandra Roy, 58, and he was the vicepresident of the Biral unit of the Bangladesh Puja Udjapan Parishadandaprominentleader of the Hindu community in the area. The Parishad mobilises members of the community across Bangladesh for religious festivals. Theincidenthappenedinthe Dinajpur area near the border between northern Bangladesh andnorthBengal,morethan300 km away from Dhaka. Dhaka-basednewspaperThe Daily Star reported that Roy was allegedly abducted from his home and beaten to death Thursday afternoon, according to police and family members. “Police recovered Bhabesh's body around 10 pm…His wife, Shantana Roy, told The Daily Star that Bhabesh was at home in the afternoon when he received a phone call around 4.30 pm. She claimedthecallwasmadebythe perpetratorstoconfirmhispresenceathome.Approximately30 minutes later, four men arrived on two motorcycles and allegedly abducted Bhabesh from the premises. Witnesses reported seeing the men take him to Narabari village, where he was brutally assaulted,” the report said. Laterthatevening,thereport said,theattackerssentanunconscious Roy back to his home in a van. Family members, with the help of locals, rushed him to the local health centre from where he was transferred to Dinajpur CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Contractors decide to drag Maharashtra govt to court over ‘Rs 89,000 crore dues’ ALOK DESHPANDE MUMBAI, APRIL 19 MAHARASHTRA’S CONTRACTORS are set to drag the state governmenttotheBombayHigh Courtovertheissueof “non-payment of bills worth Rs 89,000 crore for infrastructure works in the state”. The representative body of contractors has announced to file petitions before the HC benches in Mumbai, Nagpur and Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar. “At a time when our pending payout from the government is aroundRs89,000crore,thestate government is merely releasing Rs 4,000 crore. The Maharashtra State Contractors Association and the State Engineers Association held a state-level meeting in Thane and took a decision to drag the government to court,” said Miling Bhosle, state president of the contractors’ association. The meeting was held in Thane on Friday. Both associations have been demanding their dues from the government since last year. In February, they wrote a letter to top leaders in the state, warning tostopallongoinginfrastructure works as payments worth Rs 89,000 crore from different departments have allegedly not CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Loudspeaker in hand, Bose tours Bengal areas singed by Waqf violence RAVIK BHATTACHARYA SAMSERGUNJ, APRIL 19 ARMED WITH a handheld loudspeaker, Bengal Governor C V AnandaBosetouredthecommunal violence-hit Dhulian and Samsergunj areas of Murshidabad district on Saturday with a message: “Ab se karwahi hogi (action will be taken).” “I have seen what has happened here. I have heard your demands and felt the sense of CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 West Bengal Governor C V Ananda Bose at Dhulian in Murshidabad district on Saturday. Partha Paul Before Europe gold, ‘Georgi Georgian’ won bull, tractor in India dangals PAGE 1 ANCHOR MIHIR VASAVDA MUMBAI, APRIL 19 TO THE rest of the world, he is a heavyweight superstar from Azerbaijan. Across India’s fabled mud pits, though, he’s simply “GeorgiGeorgian”.NotthatGiorgi Meshvildishvili,whochangedhis nationality, would mind. Earlier this month, Giorgi was crowned European champion in the 125-kg freestyle cat- egory.Thecontinentalgoldcame months after he won a bronze at the Paris Olympics. And while he is still basking in the afterglow of the two medals, the 32-year-old can’t stop gushing about the other prizes he’s won in India -- a tractor, a bull and a Bullet motorcycle. “Very, very special,” he says. Beforehefoundhiswaytointernational podiums, Giorgi cut his teeth on mud pits in Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Maharashtra. “I came to India three times and my experience was very, very nice,” Giorgi tells The Indian Express. “The dangals were extraordinary. I played against Jassa Patti, Sikandar (Sheikh) and Pritpal (Phagwara)… all of them very, very strong.” Jaskanwar Singh Gill, known as Jassa Patti in the wrestling fraternity,has,overtheyears,earned sobriquets like “modern-day Dara Singh” and “Virat Kohli of mudwrestling”.SikandarSheikh and Pritpal are also two of the strongest grapplers on the mud. Less than a fortnight ago, the wrestling fraternity watched in awe as Giorgi lifted Georgia’s SolomonManashvili—weighing 125 kg — from the waist, lifted UWW Giorgi Meshvildishvili after winning the European wrestling champion in Slovakia earlier this month; with Jaskanwar Singh Gill, aka Jassa Patti, before a dangal in Punjab. himoverhishead,andslammed him on the mat. The move, executed in desperation with just seven seconds left in the final, helped Giorgi win the European Championshipgoldmedalinthe most dramatic manner. The world may only have been acquainted with Giorgi’s brute power in the last few months. But around the rustic world of dangals across India, ‘GiorgiGeorgian’s’strengthisthe stuff of legendsandhasbeencelebrated for years. His first visit to India was in 2016 when he competed in Dilawarpur, a village in Punjab. Sincethen,he’scompetedatvarious dangals across Punjab, Maharashtra and Himachal Pradesh. Golu Pehelwan, who runs an academyinMullanpur,brokered Giorgi'sfirstappearanceinIndia. “Wrestlingisaclosecommunity. One of my coaches had taken some of our junior wrestlers to Georgia for an exposure camp. There, he met Giorgi and told him about the dangal culture back home. He got interested and we extended an invitation to him,” Golu recalls. Back then, Giorgi was an CONTINUED ON PAGE 2