The Editorial Page: NEET paper leak raises larger questions, calls for honest reckoning 10 TUESDAY, MAY 19, 2026 JOURnaLism of COURage luckNOw, lATe cITy, 16 PAgeS ₹6.00 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 Happening today adanIs to Pay $18 Mn to U.s. sec Grants BaIL to J&K resIdent In UaPa case lthe 3rd IndIa-nordIc ‘Bail the rule’: SC questions its own order in Umar Khalid case Track This and more on www.indianexpress.com Cites 3-judge order in 2021: UAPA bail provisions will ‘melt down’ in case of prolonged incarceration, delayed trial Summit will be held in Oslo. It is set to impart a more strategic dimension to India’s ties with Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Sweden and Norway. nation pagE 7 india and swEdEn: dElivEring growth, rEsiliEnCE and sustainability BY PM NArENDrA MoDI AND SwEDEN PM Ulf KrISTErSSoN inside ananthakrishnan G apurva Vishwanath New Delhi, May 18 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 Different SC benches, different rulings on bail under stringent UAPA New Delhi, May 18 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 twisha CasE hingEs on Contrasting aCCounts, whatsapp mEssagEs pagE 7 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. Bengalgovtends religion-based welfareschemes, scrapsoBclist Elon musk losEs lawsuit against opEnai and its CEo sam altman pagE 12 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 »contInUed on PaGe 2 business as usual By EP UNNY atri Mitra Kolkata, May 18 Manesar Protests ‘demanding higherwages notanoffence’: courtgrantsbail tounionleader abhimanyu hazarika Gurgaon, May 18 a GURGaon court on Monday granted bail to a union leader whowasarrestedinconnection with the april 9 labour unrest in Manesar, saying he had been kept in “illegal custody” as there was “nothing incriminating” against him. The workers in Manesar in Gurgaon district were protestingforhigherwages.Dayslater, similar demands by factory workers in noida descended into violence and vandalism, leading to a string of arrests by the UP Police. Gurgaon additional Sessions Judge Dr Gagan Geet Kaurpassedtheorderinthebail pleafiledbyajitSingh,thegeneralsecretaryoftheemployees’ union at Belsonica, an auto parts company in Manesar. “The applicant-accused, who is stated to be a member of the workers’ union, has raised the issue of less salary in a democratic way and nothing incriminating has been shown against him,” the judge said. “Making a demand to raise their wages/ salary by workers/ employeestothegovernmentis not an offence,” said the court. The prosecution had based its case on the gravity of the alleged offences committed during the protest at Richa Global exports Pvt ltd at the Industrial Model Township (IMT) »contInUed on PaGe 2 Taking charge in Kerala Leader of opposition in Lok sabha rahul Gandhi congratulates congress leader V d satheesan after he was sworn in as kerala chief minister, in Thiruvananthapuram, monday. Twenty cabinet ministers of the UdF government also took oath. PTI pagE 6 TheWeSTBengalBJPgovernment on Monday held its secondCabinetmeetingunderthe leadershipofChiefMinisterSuvendu adhikari, where it took severalkeydecisionsincluding on a monthly assistance of Rs 3,000 to women under the annapurna Bhandar scheme and free travel for women in all state-run buses. The Cabinet also decided to discontinueallwelfareschemes basedonreligiousclassification. after the meeting, minister agnimitra Paul said assistance schemesrunbytheInformation and Culture Department and the Minority affairs and Madrasa education Department would be stopped from next month. a detailed notification will be issued soon, she added. Sources in the Minority affairs Department said allowancesforimams,muezzinsand purohitsintroducedduringthe Mamata Banerjee government’stenurewouldbediscontinued with immediate effect. »contInUed on PaGe 2 ‘offer namaz in shifts if lacking in space, but not on roads’: Yogi Says can’t block public spaces in name of religious activities express news service Lucknow, May 18 WaRnInG aGaInST “any form of “anarchy”, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi adityanath said on Monday that people should offer namaz in shifts if they have a limited space, and not on roads as public spaces cannot be blocked in the name of religious activities. addressingagatheringdur- chief minister yogi adityanath ing a programme in lucknow, adityanath said, “namaz padhni hai to shift mein padhiye, hum rokenge nahi. lekin sadak par nahi (If someone wants to offer namaz, they should do it in shifts. We won't stop.Butnotonroads),”hesaid, adding that that “disorder and obstruction” in public spaces willnotbetoleratedatanycost. The roads are meant for Latest casualty of Ukraine-Russia war, Odisha man was helping rebuild home sujit Bisoyi was regularly in touch with the family, but on Saturday night, there was no call. ThIRTY-YeaR-olD anjarana In the intervening night of 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 Moscow for over a between the two page 1 year,sendingmoney countries began in back home to help February 2022. It his family renovate killed four people in 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. anchor anjarana ramaya, 30, was from odisha’s Ganjam district Goes for $275-mn settlement on Iran sanctions shivraj motegaonkar at the rouse avenue court in new delhi on monday. ANI George Mathew Vallabh ozarkar, Mahender singh Manral & nirbhay thakur 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 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 »contInUed on PaGe 2 nation pagE 7 nta ChiEf to appEar bEforE housE panEl Start Your Investment INVESTING KA EASY BUTTON Passive Fund No stock-picking. 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For his brother, anjarana Ganesh, the grief was tinged with anger. he saidtheprivateagencythrough which Ramaya got employment in Moscow “did not even bother” to inform the family about the drone attack. “When we asked the agency about my brother, they first expressed ignorance. When more people from our village went there Lower Cost Full Transparency Diversification within Index/ Sector Since the fund tracks an index, it typically carries a lower expense ratio, keeping your investment costs transparent. You always know exactly what you own. No surprises, no black boxes. One fund. Many companies. Many sectors in a single step. You don't need to find the best stock. Sometimes, owning the whole market is the smartest move. Curious about passive investing? Mutual Fund investors need to complete the Know Your Customer (KYC) process, which can be done by submitting completed KYC Form along with the required documents at any AMC's branch Office or Official Points of Acceptance. 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