The Editorial Page: Voice from Ladakh is not a demand for privilege, but an appeal to be trusted 10 FRIdAY, MAY 22, 2026 JournAlisM of CourAGe MuMbAI, LATe CITy, 18 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 taKes stOCK at MarathOn MeetinG OF COunCil OF Ministers 115 143 178 Explore alternative energy sources, PM tells Govt amid West Asia crisis Supply chains hit, Govt asks industry if local production of 200 petro items possible Says implement reforms with vigour, Viksit Bharat 2047 is a commitment 76 happening today lCyprus president Nikos Christodoulides, who began his three-day visit to India Wednesday, is set to hold bilateral talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. lWith Kerala’s newly elected MLAs sworn in by pro tem Speaker G Sudhakaran, the Assembly is set to reconvene to elect the Speaker. Track These and more on www.indianexpress.com business as usual By EP UNNY Vikas pathak, harikishan sharma & liz Mathew New Delhi, May 21 WITh ThE crisis in West Asia andtheblockadeoftheStraitof hormuz straining energy supplies, Prime Minister narendra Modi Thursday urged the Council of Ministers to urgently explore alternative energy sources, including a push for biogas as a substitute for LPG cooking gas. The directive came as Modi addressed a three-and-a-halfhour ministerial meeting shortly after returning from a tour of the UAE and four Europeannationswheretheconflict in West Asia and its fallout ranked high in the discussions. The Prime Minister also called upon his government to implement reforms with vigour, underlining that Viksit Bharat 2047 was not merely a promise but a commitment, and stressed the need to focus on the future rather than past ravi dutta Mishra & pratyush deep New Delhi, May 21 Pm narendra modi arrives in new delhi after concluding his five-nation visit, Thursday. ANI complacencies or regrets. At the meeting, where key ministries made presentations »COntinued On paGe 2 ThE DEPARTMEnT for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), in a meeting with the petrochemical industry,hasaskedthemto“urgently respond” on the scope to indigenisetheproductionofover 200 highly import-dependent petrochemical items, The In- dian Express has learnt. These items cumulatively account for annual imports worth over $50 billion and the missive from the DPIIT, issued Wednesday, comes amid the West Asia crisis that has caused price and supply related challenges for the industry. Most petrochemicals listed by the DPIIT are intermediate products that are used in »COntinued On paGe 2 press trust of india New Delhi, May 21 ARJUMAnD GULzAR, alias Burhan hamza, a designated terrorist and the key mastermind behind the 2019 Pulwama terror attack on a CRPF convoy, has been shot dead by unidentified gunmen in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), officials said here on Thursday. hamza, who was operating under heavy ISI-vetted security, was ambushed in »COntinued On paGe 2 Until mid-May, only 6,000 pleas cleared by Bengal SIR tribunals, 4,000 back on rolls Of total disposals, 27% or 1,777, were from Kolkata North & Kolkata South 12tribunals,17districts 24,98,931 Appeals filed Appeals disposed of 6,581 % of disposal 0.26 Appeals accepted 4,043 Appeals rejected 1,267 NoTe: DATA uNTIL MAy 14 insta aCCOunt May be blOCKed tOO damini nath New Delhi, May 21 In ‘cockroach party’ handle, Govt sees a national security threat, asks X to block SET UP on March 20 in the runup to the West Bengal elections, 12 of the 19 Supreme CourtorderedAppellateTribunalsdisposed of 6,581 appeals out of 24.98 lakh filed — 0.26% — against decisions of judicial officers during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, The Indian Express has learnt. Until May 14, the 12 tribu- Page 6 Official claims IB politics flagged concerns, CoCkroaCh Janta PeoPle growing traction Party showswith frustrated among young govt: tharoor pulwamaattack mastermind burhanhamza killedinpoK nearly 25 laKh appeals Filed soumyarendra barik & saikat Kumar bose New Delhi, May 21 ThE X handle of ‘Cockroach Janta Party’, a satirical account opened after Chief Justice of India Surya Kant’s remarks aboutthosewho“attackthesystem”, was withheld Thursday following a direction from the Centre in the wake of inputs fromtheIntelligenceBureau(IB) that raised “national security concerns,”aseniorgovernment official told TheIndianExpress. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY)askedXtowithholdthe accountunderSection69(A)of the Information Technology Act, 2000, the official said, adding that the input to do so came from the IB. “MeitY received an input from the IB to block the X ac- countofCockroachJantaParty, citing that it posed a threat to the sovereignty of India. The IB believed that the account was posting inflammatory content through its account, which could have jeopardised the country’s national security.” the official said on condition of anonymitysincesuchblocking orders are issued under a confidential framework. “In particular, the concern stemmed from the fact that the account’s content was gaining traction among young people.” Section 69 (A) of the Information Technology Act empowers the Central governmenttorestrictpublicaccessto information in the interest of sovereignty, security, public orderorpreventingincitement to offences. »COntinued On paGe 2 Wangchuk to take part in Ladakh talks today: Apex Body Leh to Govt basharaat Masood express Srinagar, May 21 WITh TALKS between the Centre and representatives from Ladakh scheduled for Friday, the Apex Body Leh (ABL) hasinformedtheCentrethatclimateactivistSonamWangchuk will be part of its delegation. This is the first time that Wangchuk, who was released after six months of preventive detention under the national Security Act (nSA) in March, interview ManOj sinha jAMMu AND kAShMIr L-G Page 8 would be part of the dialogue process. SourcesaidthattheABLhas informedtheCentrethroughLadakh Chief Secretary Ashish KundrathattheLehbodywillbe represented by three members —CheringDorjayLakrook,who is president of the Ladakh Buddhist Association (LBA) and cochairman of the ABL; Dorjay Stanzin,presidentoftheLadakh Gonpa Association; and Wangchuk, an ABL member. »COntinued On paGe 2 red cross workers transport people who died of ebola in rwampara, drc. AP repOrt On paGe 6 Maharashtra As chargesheets surge in volume, e-data, accused seek access to computers sadaf Modak Mumbai, May 21 l caseofthepilingpapers In2006,someoftheaccusedin the Mumbai serial train blasts case had to approach the court for permission to keep their over 10,000-page chargesheet in their barracks; the overcrowded Arthur Road Jail barrack barely had space for its prisoners. Twenty years later, the prison still remains crowded, the chargesheets have only got longer, and the struggle for space has gone digital. Undertrials across jails are seeking access to computers or laptops to read the electronic evidence filed against them. From accused in the now concluded Malegaon 2008 blast case to those booked in the Elgaar Parishad case of 2017-18, several accused have beengrantedpermissiontouse computers, with restrictions. While jail authorities oppose such pleas, citing lack of adequate staff to monitor usage and apprehensions of misuse, courts have been receptive on l Mumbai serial train blasts 2006: ATS filed a chargesheet running into over 10,000 pages chargesheet over 10,000 pages, agency collected 1,000 terabytes of electronic data l elgaar parishad case, 2017-18: Pune Police filed an over 5,000-page chargesheet; NIA which took over had one spilling over 10,000 pages, including electronic proof l delhi riots case, 2020: Chargesheet running into 20,000 pages, the Supreme Court permitted accused to file copies on a pen drive in a pending appeal l antilia terror scare, 2021: NIA the grounds that the accused need to access electronic data against them. In the terror scare case involving the Ambani residence Antilia, for example, the nIA submitted in court that it had collected 1,000 terabytes of electronic data – equivalent to roughly 10 billion pages of text – including about 39,000 clips of CCTV footage, apart from emails and call data dumps. One of the accused, the dismissed cop Sachin Waze, sought access to a laptop to go through the same. In jail since l red Fort blast, 2025: NIA chargesheet ran into 7,500 pages 2021, he told the court that he was ready to pay for electricity and Internet charges. Jail authorities opposed the plea arguingthatifWazewasgivenaccess, others too would make similar demands, which would be “dangerous”. Granting Waze’s request, the court said in an order in May 2024: “Admittedly, the data of electronic evidence is huge. To go through it, the help of a device like a computer or laptop is necessary.” As regards Internet access, the court said »COntinued On paGe 2 a tribunal for sIr adjudication in kolkata’s Joka. exPreSS FILe nals,covering17ofthestate’s23 districts, accepted 4,043 appealsandrejected1,267,according to official data accessed by The Indian Express. These appeals include both those filed by citizens whose names were deletedfromtherollsandthose filed by the Election Commissionagainstinclusionsordered by the judicial officers. While the data does not mention the status of the remaining 1,271 appeals, EC »COntinued On paGe 2 Vande Mataram singing compulsory for madrasa students, says Bengal govt order Opp says wrong to force it on minority institutions; BJP defends decision ravik bhattacharya politics Kolkata, May 21 ThEWESTBengalgovernment has made it mandatory for madrasastudentstosingVande Mataram during morning Assembly prayers. The order dated May 19 came into force with immediate effect and was issued a week after the government made the singing of six stanzas of the national song mandatory in all schools under the Department of Education. “I am directed to order that in supersession of all previous orders and practices, singing of Vande Mataram during assembly prayers, prior to the commencement of classes, is hereby made mandatory in all Madrasahs [Govt. Model Madrasahs (English Medium)/Recognized Govt. Aided Madrasahs /Approved MSKs / Approved SSKs / Recognized Page 8 bengal govt: no direCt, indireCt CommuniCation with Press UnaidedMadrasahs)underthe Minority Affairs and Madrasah Education Department, across the State of West Bengal, with immediate effect,” reads the order (MSKs are Madhyamik ShikshaKendras,orSecondary Education centres, while SSKs are Shishu Shiksha Kendras or community-managedprimary educational institutions). The debate around the national song got reignited earlier this year after the BJP-led CentralgovernmentinFebruaryissued a directive mandating the »COntinued On paGe 2 inside trumP: u.s. will eventually get iran’s enriChed uranium Page 14 neet leak: nta Chief aPPears before house Committee Page 6 l afTer JumPIng Parole, hemanT modI lIved In PaTan unTIl 2015, changed hIs name To TwInkle mukund dave; by 2017, he was In mumbaI and as ‘sPandan modI’ goT suPPorTIng acTor roles Gujarat murder convict who did films with Big B, Aamir, Mohanlal held after 12 yrs brendan dabhi Mohanlal — and also Aamir Khan, Ranveer Singh, Aditya Roy Kapur, and Sara Ali Khan. And then, his luck ran out. hE WAS convicted of murder in 2008, and six years later, he Real-life caught up, cutting short his dream reel life. jumped parole and vanished. On Thursday, the Detection For a decade or more, hemantnagindasPurshottamdas ofCrimeBranch(DCB)ofAhmedabad City Police Modi hid in plain page 1 swoopedonpremises sight, seemingly not nearthecity’sGheekrecognised by anyanta Metro Station. one — including the millions who watched him in There, they found hemant severalbig-budgetfilms,aswell Modi,fugitivefromjusticesince as plays and web series. 2014 — known in his current On the big screen, hemant world as Spandan Modi, 54Modiappearedalongsidesuper- year-old actor. This is his story, according stars Amitabh Bachchan and Ahmedabad, May 21 anchor to police. On August 27, 2008, hemant Modi, his brother Sachin, and five others were convicted of the murder of one narendra alias nano Yashwant Kamble. ThemurdertookplaceonJune 15, 2005. Thetrialcourtsentencedall accused to life imprisonment. hemant Modi was first incarcerated in Sabarmati Central Jail and then transferred to Mehsana Jail. There, he became Prisoner number 31146. Six years into his sentence, on July 25, 2014, Gujarat high Court gave hemant Modi 30 hemant nagindas Purshottamdas modi (right) was sentenced to life for a 2005 murder; ‘spandan modi’, hemant’s new avatar. days’ parole. Prisoner number 31146walkedoutofjail—never to return. The other six individuals who were convicted with him completedtheirsentences,and havesincebeenrehabilitatedin society, Police Inspector P M Dhakhada, Investigation Officer (IO) of the case, said. After jumping parole, hemantModilivedinPatandistrict for a year, until 2015. he then changed his name to Twinkle Mukund Dave, and moved to Ahmedabad.hetookupajobin a private company, and accommodationasapayingguest.And then, he decided that his life needed some drama. he began with the stage, makinghiswayintothetheatre scene. he seems to have made fairly rapid progress — by 2017, he had landed in Mumbai, and had started to land himself small roles as a supporting actor in Bollywood. ‘Spandan Modi’ had arrived. According to police, hemant Modi, alias Spandan, actedalongsideAmitabhBachchan and Aamir Khan in Yash RajFilms’‘ThugsofHindostan’ (2018), alongside Ranveer Singh and Boman Irani in Divyang Thakkar’s ‘Jayeshbhai Jordaar’ (2022), and alongside Aditya Roy Kapur and Sara Ali Khan in Anurag Basu’s ‘Metro…in dino’ in 2025. he also worked in the Mo- hanlal starrer ‘L2: Empuraan’ (2025), and in the upcoming films ‘Lahore 1947’ starring Sunny Deol, and ‘Tu Hai Meri Kiran’starringSonakshiSinha. Police said hemant Modi also acted in about 20 Gujarati films,thewebseries‘Taskaree’ starring Emraan hashmi, two hindi and four Gujarati serials, and 17 Gujarati plays including ‘Yugpurush’ and ‘Gandhi ViruddhGodse’.In2025,however, hemant Modi returned to live in Ahmedabad, where he was nabbed after someone finally recognised him. »COntinued On paGe 2