DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, PATNA, VADODARA ● REG.NO. MCS/067/2018 - 20 RNI REGN. NO. 1543/57 JOURNALISM OF COURAGE FRIDAY, JULY 4, 2025, MUMBAI, LATE CITY, 18 PAGES `5.00 ● WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM SINCE 1932 SPECIAL INTENSIVE REVISION OF ELECTORAL ROLL IN POLL-BOUND BIHAR Invillageaftervillage,achorus:‘Weonlyhave Aadhaar...howdowegetpapersECwants?’ From CM Nitish turf Nalanda to Lalu’s Raghopur, growing disquiet — and confusion over EC conditions for voting DAMINI NATH & SANTOSH SINGH WHAT WILL NOT COUNTINBIHAR AN EXPRESS SERIES PART 1 NALANDA, VAISHALI, PATNA, JULY 3 AN AADHAAR card, a voter card and an MNREGS job card. For Meghan Manjhi, a 37-year-old labourer, the three “sarkari kaagaz (official documents)” largely define his life. But now, the resident of Kalyan Bigha, the native village of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, must look for more. As per the Special Intensive Revisionof electoralrollsordered by the Election Commission ahead of the Bihar Assembly polls, residents of the state such as Manjhi whose names did not figure in the 2003 electoral rolls must provide one of 11 documentsnotifiedbytheECtoprove their “citizenship”. None of the three documents possessed by Manjhi, who belongs to a Scheduled Caste family, counts. “TheBLO(boothlevelofficer) Booth-level officer Pinki Kumari with residents of Kalyan Bigha in Nalanda. Rahul Sharma Jal Jeevan tender premium stopped, says Patil, flags ‘needless waste’ hastoldmethatifIgetaresidence or caste certificate made before July 25, my (voter enrolment) form can be filled,” Manjhi says. This story plays out in village after village in the state, from Nitish’s turf Harnaut in Nalanda district,toRJDchief LaluPrasad’s Raghopur in Vaishali. The Raghopur Assembly seat is currently represented by Lalu’s son and senior RJD leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav. In the next 20 days or so, as the monsoon moves in, over 77,000 BLOs along with other government staff and political party workers must check the CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 DOUBLE TON BY THE CAPTAIN INDIA CAPTAIN Shubman Gill celebrates after scoring a double century on the second day of the second Test between India and England at Edgbaston on Thursday. WITH HIS 269, Gill recorded the highest Test score by an Indian captain, surpassing Virat Kohli’s 254 not out against South Africa in Pune in 2019. AP REPORTS, PAGE 17 Pune techie raped in her flat by man posing as delivery executive HARIKISHAN SHARMA NEW DELHI, JULY 3 AMID CONCERNS in sections of the government that work contracts have been inflated in some statesundertheJalJeevanMission (JJM), Jal Shakti Minister C R Patil has said that the Centre has stopped thepaymentoftenderpremiumunder the rural tap water scheme — tender premium refers to the additional amount a bidder quotes, higher than the government’s approved cost. Responding to a question at the Idea Exchange programme of The Indian Express (a detailed SUSHANT KULKARNI PUNE, JULY 3 Jal Shakti Minister C R Patil at the Idea Exchange transcript of the interaction will be published next week), Patil said, “Tender premiumkabhugtanhumnerokdiya hai. Jo thha, jo gaya hoga woh alag baat hai, magar jo naya hai usse poori tarah hamne rok diya hai. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 BUSINESS AS USUAL 04/07/2025 BY UNNY 82 MUMBAI, JULY 3 135 82 SON OFPANIPURI VENDOR SECURES SEATINIITROORKEE P4 CONTINUEDONPAGE2 As India pitches for Olympics, IOC airs concerns on doping & governance issues MIHIR VASAVDA 110 SON OF GUJARATI TV ACTRESS DIES BY SUICIDE INMUMBAI P3 A 22-YEAR-OLD IT professional was on Wednesday allegedly raped by a manwho entered her home at a Pune residential society after identifying himself as a delivery executive, police said. The man, who is yet to be identified, allegedly took a selfie of the woman on her phone while she was unconscious and left a message threatening that he would circulate her photos and come back if she reports the incident. The Pune City police said the incidentoccurredaround7:30pm, when the woman was alone at home.Herbrother,wholiveswith her, had gone to their hometown inanotherdistrictofMaharashtra AN INDIAN delegation made a strong pitch to bring home the 2036 Olympics, outlining plans to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) at the Olympic headquarters in Lausanne Tuesday,andofficiallypresented Ahmedabad as the candidate city. But the IOC’s response was candid: get your house in order CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 E E X P L A I NE D The Indian Express report on May 21 ● Reality check AS INDIA hopes to host the Olympics in 2036, the IOC's message is a wake-up call. After the Commonwealth Games in 2010, which India hosted, there were allegations of mismanagement and corruption. ‘Shouldn’t happen to anyone’: 22 yrs lost in proving innocence, Indian-origin man free PAGE 1 ANCHOR ADITI RAJA VADODARA, JULY 3 IN NOVEMBER 2001, in Thunderbolt, Georgia, a woman walked in on a burglar inside her house. The burglar sexually assaulted her at knifepoint and fled withherbelongingsinastolencar. ThecarbelongedtoGujaratiAmerican Sandeep ‘Sonny’ Bharadia, who had earlier reported his vehicle missing. The (From left) Georgia Innocence Project (GIP) senior attorney Christina Cribbs, co-counsel Olivia Vigiletti, Sandeep Bharadia, co-counsel Noah Pines day of the crime, Bharadia was in Lithonia, a Georgian city at least 400 km away from Thunderbolt. Yet, a bizarre twist of fate and circumstances led to Bharadiabeingconvictedof burglary and sexual assault in 2003. After two decades in prison, on May 16, at a hearing that lasted less than a minute in the Chatham County Superior Court in Georgia, Bharadia was finally exonerated of all charges. “This should not happen to anyone,” Bharadia said as Senior Judge James F Bass read out the order clearing him. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Thane man beaten up: Accused made to touch his feet & apologise in front of ex-Sena UBT MP EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE MUMBAI, JULY 3 TWODAYSafteravideoof aman being beaten up by three men outside the Thane railway station went viral, another video has surfaced in which the accused are made to fall at his feet and apologise by the Shiv Sena (UBT).Oneof theaccusediseven slapped. All this happens in the presence of former Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Rajan Vichare in a closed room. In the video, the three men are told to speak in Marathi despite not knowing the language andarewarned“suchthingswill not be allowed in Maharashtra”. On Monday, the three men beat up Thane resident Kiran Jadhav (43) outside a mobile phone store near the Thane railwaystation.Soonafter,ShivSena (UBT) workers reached out to Jadhav and took him to the Thane Civil Hospital. The party workers then lodged an FIR at the Naupada police station against the three men identified as Shanmukh Pujari, Saurabh Jaiswal and Jayantilal Purohit. “Jadhav wanted to recharge hisSIMcardatthemobilephone store. When one of the accused saidtheshopdidnothavethefacility to do it and it must be done online,itledtoanargument.The accused then beat up Jadhav,” a police officer said. Asthesectionsinvolvedwere not major, police issued a notice totheaccusedandallowedthem to leave. Several Shiv Sena (UBT) workers had gathered at the CONTINUED ON PAGE 2