The Editorial Page: NEET paper leak raises larger questions, calls for honest reckoning 8 TUESDAY, MAY 19, 2026 JOURnaLism of COURage mumBAI, lAtE cIty, 16 pAgEs ₹5.00 l www.indianexpress.com dA I ly f r o m : A h m E dA B A d , c h A N d I gA r h , d E l h I , j A I p u r , ko l k AtA , l u c k N o w , m u m B A I , N Ag p u r , pAt N A , p u N E , vA d o dA r A ReG.No. MCS/067/2018 - 20 RNI ReGN. No. 1543/57 GrANTs bAIl TO J&K rEsIDENT IN UAPA CAsE 114 142 176 ADANIs TO PAy $18 MN TO U.s. sEC ‘Bail the rule’: SC questions its own order in Umar Khalid case US clean chit for Adani after Iran deal, offer to invest $10 bn Cites 3-judge order in 2021: UAPA bail provisions will ‘melt down’ in case of prolonged incarceration, delayed trial 76 inside Ananthakrishnan G Different SC benches, different rulings on bail under stringent UAPA Apurva Vishwanath New Delhi, May 18 New Delhi, May 18 V d satheesan takes charge as kerala chief minister page 7 elon musk loses lawsuit against openai and its ceo sam altman page 12 wAGE CONCErNs Air India services hit at Mumbai airport as AIASL staff protest passengers wait in front of an Air India kiosk during a protest at the Mumbai airport on Monday. sANkhAdEEp BANErjEE Ishika Gupta Mumbai, May 18 SeveRal aIR India flights operating to and from Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International airport were disrupted on Monday after employeesofgovernment-ownedground handling agency aI airport Serviceslimited(aIaSl)staged aprotestattheairportoverwage hikes and other demands, triggeringdelaysindepartures,prolongedwaitsinsideaircraftafter landing,andbaggagedeliveryissues for passengers. asmanyas15flightsdeparting from the Mumbai airport were delayed by between 90 minutesandtwohours,TheIndian Express has learned. apart from departures, several incoming flights were also grounded for up to an hour afterlanding.amongthemwas an air India flight from hyderabadtoMumbaithatlandedat 11.45 am on Monday, with passengers reporting that they wereunabletodisembarkforat least an hour after arrival. “We landed at 11.45 am and hadtoremaininsidetheaircraft »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 CITInG an earlier judgment that the stringent bail provisionsundertheUnlawfulactivities (Prevention) act (UaPa) would “melt down” in cases whereprolongedincarceration anddelayedtrial“produceviolation of article 21”, a two-judge bench of the Supreme Court on Mondayexpressed“seriousreservations”aboutthedecisionof another two-judge bench to deny bail to Umar Khalid and SharjeelImaminthe2020Delhi UmarKhalid,SharjeelImamwere deniedbailinDelhiriotscase riots case. The bench of Justices B v nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan made these observations while granting bail to a resident of »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 In GRanTInG bail to a Kashmiri man in an alleged narcoterror case, the Supreme Court onMondayunderlinedaplurality of judicial approaches in the top court, with different benches taking distinct perspectives on the fraught question of whetherbailrestrictionsunder the stringent Unlawful activities (Prevention) act (UaPa) E. Latur coaching centre founder held, got NEET papers 10 days before exam, CBI tells court Vallabh Ozarkar, Mahender singh Manral & Nirbhay Thakur Mumbai, New Delhi, May 18 MaRKInG ITS tenth arrest in the neeT-UG paper leak case, the CBI has taken into custody Shivraj Motegaonkar, founder of latur-based RCC Classes, alleging that he received the leaked question papers and answers as early as april 23 — 10 days before the May 3 exam, placing one of Maharashtra’s best-knowncoachingfiguresat the centre of the case. Motegaonkar was arrested on Sunday, the same day a CBI team searched the premises of RCC Classes in latur, after beingquestionedbytheagency for the second time in a week. on Monday, he was remanded in CBI custody for nine days. In its remand application filed in a Delhi court, the CBI Shivraj Motegaonkar at the Rouse Avenue Court in New Delhi on Monday. ANI inside page 5 at pune shopping complex, a shut dental clinic, and a ‘beauty parlour’ that isn’t said the leaked questions were allegedly found on Motegaonkar’s phone. “he distributed copies of the leaked papers and can prevail over constitutional safeguards. “If the smaller benches are unabletoagreewiththeratiolaid down by the larger bench, then theproperandtheonlycourseof action open is to make a referencetothehon’bleChief Justice of India for placing the matter for considerationbyastilllarger bench.BeinginacombinationoftwoJudges,we areboundbytheratiolaiddown by the three-Judge bench in answer sheets to multiple persons. There is a video where he is seen in his coaching centre sayingthatthequestionswhich he gave to the students were there in the final question paper. his links with co-accused Prahlad Kulkarni are under investigation,” the agency told the court. opposing the application, counselfortheaccusedsaidthe allegation that he was in possession of an actual question paper was false, and that he merely had questions used by his students for mock tests. “The accused has been in the field of teaching for about 27 years and had sufficient data of questions,” the counsel said. The CBI, however, alleged that Motegaonkar was an “active member” of an organised network involved in leaking andcirculatingneeT-UG2026 »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 13 killed as container trailer rams wedding party tempo in Palghar Express News service »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 business as usual By EP UNNY Goes for $275-mn settlement on Iran sanctions George Mathew Mumbai, May 18 The DonalD Trump-led US administration moved to dismiss criminal fraud charges againstGautamadanionMonday, while also settling alleged Iran sanctions violations involving his flagship adani enterprises, according to court records. The US Department of Justice permanently dropped all criminal charges against Gautam adani and his nephew Sagaradani,bringinghigh-profile securities and wire fraud case in new York to a complete close after prosecutors concluded they could not sustain the allegations. With this, multiple US regulatory and legal investigations involving the group have all closedinthelastcoupleofdays. The New York Times had last week reported that adani’s attorney Robert Giuffra Jr, who is also a personal attorney of US Gautam Adani President Donald Trump, had in a presentation said adani wanted to invest $10 billion in the United States but could not do so because of the cases. adani had been accused of agreeing to pay $265 million in bribestoIndiangovernmentofficials so adani Group could win approval to develop the country’s largest solar power plant. The adani Group has consistently denied wrongdoing. adani is the company’s founder and chairman. earlier on Monday, adani enterprises ltd entered into an agreement with the US DepartmentofTreasury’sofficeofForeign assets Control (oFaC) by paying an amount of $275 million to settle its potential civil liability for apparent violations of oFaC sanctions on Iran. »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Indiaeyestrade pactwithOman amidturmoil, FTAstartsJune1 ravi Dutta Mishra New Delhi, May 18 aMID The Strait of hormuz blockade and uncertainty over peace talks between Iran and the US, the Commerce and Industry Ministry Monday said the India-oman free trade agreement (FTa) signed in December could enter into force as early as June 1. The likely implementation, within months of signing, comes as Delhi pushes for faster operationalisation of the deal since omani ports, mainly Salalah and Duqm, fall outside the Strait and could help India reroute exports for West asia and africa. Commerce Ministry officials said several meetings have been held with exporters to explore opportunities for pushing food and other lowmargin, labour-intensive products, given oman’s geographic advantage during the current crisis. While oman’s annual demand is limited, the pact offers a transit window. officials said that only two Uae ports, Khor »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 nation page 10 india and sweden: deliVering growth, resilience and sustainability BY PM NArENDrA MoDI AND SwEDEN PM ULf KrISTErSSoN Start Your Investment INVESTING KA EASY BUTTON Passive Fund Mumbai, May 18 ThIRTeenPeoPle,including four women, were killed and over30otherswereinjuredafter a container trailer rammed a tempotruckcarryingawedding partyontheMumbai-ahmedabad highway near Dhanivari in Palghardistrict’sDahanutaluka on Monday evening. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis announced compensation of Rs 5 lakh each to the kin of the deceased. according to a statement issued by the Palghar district administration, the eicher tempo on its way to Khadkipada, carrying around 40 passengers, was headed for an en- No stock-picking. No guesswork. Just your money, spread across the market automatically. The tempo truck that was involved in the collision. ExprEss gagement ceremony in Dhanivari when it collided with the trailer truck coming from Mumbai side near Dhaniwari village around 4 pm. The incident happened at a short dis- tance from the bride’s home. “on reaching Dhaniwari village, a trailer (nl 01 aC 9118) coming from opposite lost control, and its container box Latest casualty of Ukraine-Russia war, Odisha man was helping rebuild home was regularly in touch with the family, but on Saturday night, there was no call. In the intervening night of ThIRTY-YeaR-olD anjarana Ramaya from odisha’s Ganjam Saturday and Sunday, Ukraine district had been working with unleashed its largest drone a construction company in strike on Russia since the war between the two Moscow for over a page 1 countries began in year,sendingmoney February 2022. It back home to help killed four people in his family renovate and expand their modest Moscow, including an Indian house. he had been back home citizen — Ramaya. While at recently, reaching in time for least22Indiansareestimatedto Maha Shivratri celebrations have died since the start of the andstayinguntilMarch22.The war,thisislikelythefirstIndian youngest of four siblings, he casualty in the Moscow region. Bhubaneswar, May 18 anchor Anjarana Ramaya, 30, was from odisha’s Ganjam district A passive fund (Index Fund or ETF (Exchange Traded Fund)) mirrors a market index like Nifty 50 Index or Sensex Index. It doesn’t try to beat the market, it simply follows it. 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