Wednesday, February 11, 2026 | Vol. 69 No. 109 | 31 Pages Reg.No MCS/048/2021-23; RNI No. 1541/1957 M.p.c.s office Mumbai. PIN 400001 THE FREE PRESS JOURNAL INDIA EDITION | www.freepressjournal.in ● Leader in E-paper circulation l E-paper edition is not a replica of the print edition BUSTED | The three ships seized on February 5 were on the sanctions list of the US Department of Treasury’s Office of the Foreign Assets Control under the Iran sanctions programme Seized tankers carried Iran oil Stellar Ruby Asphalt Star Al Jafzia FACT SHEET SAFER INTERNET DAY Women missing from B’desh ballot US cut tariff after Delhi’s oil pledge Agencies WASHINGTON/NEW YORK Al Jafzia, Asphalt Star and Stellar Ruby are on the US sanctions list maintained by the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) under the Iran sanctions programme, specifically Executive Order 13902. The executive order authorises the United States to designate individuals and vessels involved in Iran’s petroleum trade, to deny the Iranian regime oil revenues used to fund malign activities. US sanctions targeting Iranian-linked shipping vessels have been expanded throughout 2025 and into early 2026 as part of sustained efforts to curb oil smuggling and sanctions-evasion networks linked to Iran. The Coast Guard, however, did not disclose the names of the vessels when it reported the interception on Saturday. According to tanker-tracking website TankerTrackers, all three vessels have been blacklisted since April 10, 2025. Ashish Singh MUMBAI A 90-member team comprising officers of the Indian Coast Guard (ICG), Intelligence Bureau and other agencies is interrogating 55 persons belonging to different nationalities aboard three vessels for alleged smuggling of oil. ICG last week intercepted and detained three sanctioned oil tankers in the Arabian Sea. The vessels, reportedly part of an Iran-linked “shadow fleet,” were intercepted on February 5, about 100 nautical miles west of Mumbai, while allegedly engaged in the illicit transfer of oil-based cargo within India’s international maritime jurisdiction. Follow- ing the operation, the tankers were moved under heavy escort and anchored 25 nautical miles offshore for the investigation. ``They are not brought into Mumbai port since they do not have the necessary papers," an ICG official told FPJ on Tuesday. Authorities said the tankers are on international sanctions lists and are suspected to be part of a network transporting Iranian crude to global markets. The detained vessels have been identified as Asphalt Star, Stellar Ruby, and Al Jafzia (formerly Chiltern), all listed under U.S. sanctions. According to consultancy reports, the tankers’ details are: Al Jafzia (IMO 9171498; ex- Chiltern) – broadcasting a Nicaraguan flag, previously falseflagged in Guyana Asphalt Star (IMO 9463528) – falsely broadcasting a Malian flag, formerly false-flagged in Aruba Stellar Ruby (IMO 9555199) – flagged in Iran 4Contd on | nation Cat’s paw action? RUSSIA SAYS US FORCING INDIA TO BUY COSTLY OIL Ashwin Ahmad NEW DELHI The Indian Coast Guard’s seizure of three tankers carrying Iranian oil is a first for New Delhi. Diplomats say that while more details are needed of the government action, some questions come to light. One senior diplomat pointed out, shadow or dark fleets normally operate in 200 nautical miles which is considered international waters, to avoid being nabbed. Why then did these tankers seemingly move beyond that into India’s territorial waters? Were they heading for India? The diplomat pointed out that the tweet by the Coast Guard announcing the interdictions made no mention of whether it was a stateless vessel. A stateless vessel is one where a ship hides its registration and flies multiple flags during a voyage. Seizing stateless vessels is acceptable under international law, and India would have mentioned it if that had been the case. 4Contd on | nation No-confidence motion against Speaker moved Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar NEW DELHI The Opposition parties on Tuesday submitted a no-confidence notice against Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla following which, as per the norms, the Speaker decided to skip the proceedings of the House till it was disposed of. The notice was signed by nearly 120 lawmakers from various opposition parties. Announcing the move, Congress deputy leader in Lok Sabha Gaurav Gogi said the notice has been moved under Article 94 of the Constitution to remove the Speaker. Giving the details of the move, Gogoi said, “At 1.14 pm we submitted a motion expressing no-confidence (in and) asking for the removal of Speaker Om Birla as per 94(C). 4Contd on | nation 4See also | nation TMC SOFT PEDALS Trinamool Congress did not join other Opposition parties in signing the resolution seeking the removal of Lok Sabha Speaker. TMC national secretary Abhishek Banerjee said, “We support the demand of the I.N.D.I.A alliance but we should give time. If we jump in haste then there will be no difference between us and the BJP. Our approach should be constructive. We have suggested writing a letter first in a form of protest to the Speaker mentioning the issues and if the Speaker doesn’t take proper action then we always have the room to move noconfidence motion.” Deeksha Pandey MUMBAI Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has accused the United States of exerting pressure on India to block its access to affordable Russian energy. In an interview with TV BRICS, Lavrov said Western countries are using “blatantly unfair methods” against Russia by attempting to dictate its relations with key partners, “including India as well as other The Russian Foreign Minister said the US has “set themselves the task of achieving economic domination” by taking control of energy supply routes and restricting cooperation between other countries. BRICS states.” “They are trying to ban India and our other partners from buying cheap, affordable Russian energy resources,” Lavrov said, adding that India is being “forced to buy US LNG at exorbitant prices.” 4Contd on | nation The Supreme Court of India has again set aside an order of the National Consumer Dispute Redressal Commission (NCDRC) that had directed the ITC Maurya Hotel to pay Rs 2 crore as compensation to a model for a faulty haircut, and has reduced the compensation to Rs 25 lakh. Accordingly, the appeal was partly allowed, and the compensation was fixed at Rs 25 lakh, which had already been deposited by the appellant with the NCDRC, Live Law reports. A bench of Justices Rajesh Bindal and Manmohan noted that the NCDRC had failed to assess how the respondent suffered a loss to the tune of Rs 2 crore. The court said that a general discussion of the alleged loss, without sufficient proof, cannot justify the payment of compensation in such a huge amount. The court recalled that in 2023, it had set aside the BANGLADESH MANDATE Sufia Chowdhury DHAKA Dr Manisha Chakraborty of the Bangladesh Samajtantrik Dal (Bangladesh Socialist Party) is resting after a week of hectic electioneering in Barisal, a river port close to the Bay of Bengal, where she lives and works. Despite the fact that Bangladesh has had two women prime ministers, Chakraborty is a rarity. Of the 1,981 candidates contesting 300 directly elected parliamentary seats, only 76 — less than four per cent — are women. “Some of my opponents want us women to exit public space; others are known to be corrupt. All that we want is a better life for the poor,” Chakraborty, better known in her city as the ‘doctor of the poor’, told a street meeting on Monday, hours before campaigning officially ended for the nationwide polls to be held on Thursday. She is unlikely to win the election, pitted against heavyweights from the BNP and Jamaat, but a large number of poor people in her constituency have paid out of their own pockets to put her up as a candidate. “I support her. She may be a woman and a Hindu, but she is a good person and wants the best for us,” said Irshad Ali, a tempo driver. Jamaat, which has not fielded any women candidates, has said in the past that women should not be trusted with leadership roles. Ironically, Jamaat has been part of a coalition government led by Khaleda Zia. Islamists who now decry women’s participation in politics have also, in the past, worked with Sheikh Hasina when she ruled Bangladesh for 15 long years. However, led by Jamaat, Bangladesh has witnessed a visible resurgence of Islamist groups that seek to curtail women’s participation in public life. 4Contd on | nation BJP wins Chandrapur mayoralty with Shiv Sena (UBT) backing Vidhi Santosh Mehta MUMBAI FPJ News Service MUMBAI Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday cited a December 15, 2023 social media post by former Army chief General Manoj Mukund Naravane’s memoir Four Stars of Destiny was “available now” to challenge publisher Penguin Random House India’s claim that the book has not yet been published. Speaking to reporters in the Parliament House complex on Tuesday, Gandhi read out Naravane’s post on X (then Twitter), which said, “Hello friends. My book is available now. Just follow the link. Happy reading. Jai Hind.” “This is the tweet Mr Naravane has made. The point I am making is either Mr Naravane is lying, and I believe the (former) Army chief, I don’t think he will lie, or Penguin is lying. Both cannot be telling the truth,” the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha said. The book was listed for sale on Amazon and also appeared on Walmart’s website, where it was shown as “out of stock”. The ISBN number 9780670099757 and the copyright page mention © Manoj The Bharatiya Janata Party sprang a surprise in the Chandrapur Municipal Corporation on Tuesday, wresting the mayor’s post despite the Congress being the single largest party, after securing the crucial backing of the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT). BJP corporator Sangeeta Rajendra Khandekar was elected mayor by a narrow margin of one vote, dealing a political blow to the Naravane 2024, with the imprint stating: First published in Penguin Veer by Penguin Random House India 2024. 4Contd on | nation compensation awarded by the NCDRC after holding that the respondent-model had failed to place material on record to substantiate her claim. In the impugned order passed thereafter, the NCDRC again directed ITC SC focus on missing kids PTI NEW DELHI Maurya to pay Rs 2 crore as compensation, relying solely on photocopies of documents produced by the respondent in support of a claim exceeding Rs 5 crore. Setting aside the impugned order, a judgment authored by Justice Bindal allowed ITC Maurya’s plea, observing that a compensation demand of over Rs 5 crore cannot be established merely by producing photocopies of documents. The SC on Tuesday asked the Centre to ascertain whether there is a nationwide network or state-specific groups behind incidents of children going missing from different parts of the country. A bench of Justices B V Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan stressed the need to find out whether there is a pattern in such cases or if they are random incidents, and directed the Centre to collate data from all states. Additional SG Aishwarya Bhati, appearing for the Centre, said that some states have complied in giving data but around a dozen states have not. 4Contd on | nation 4Contd on | nation SC trims compensation from `2 cr to `25 L FPJ News Service 4Contd on | nation FPJ Special If book unpublished, what is Rahul holding? Bad haircut NEW DELHI A day after Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri declined to directly confirm or deny claims made by U.S. President Donald Trump regarding India’s alleged agreement to stop buying Russian crude oil, the White House has said that in the coming weeks, the U.S. and India will work toward finalising the interim agreement on trade with a view to concluding a mutually beneficial Bilateral Trade Agreement. According to the fact sheet, President Trump agreed to remove the additional 25% tariff on imports from India in recognition of India’s commitment to stop purchasing Russian Federation oil, and signed an Executive Order to that effect. The United States will also lower the reciprocal tariff on India from 25% to 18%.  In the fact sheet titled ‘The United States and India Announce Historic Trade Deal (Interim Agreement)’, the White House said the two sides will promptly implement the agreed framework and continue negotiations to address remaining issues, including services and investment, labour, environment and government procurement.   Congress and sending shockwaves through Maharashtra’s opposition ranks. Adding to the unexpected outcome, Shiv Sena (UBT) corporator Prashant Danav was elected deputy mayor, sealing an unusual locallevel understanding between the BJP and the Sena (UBT), even as both parties remain bitter rivals at the state level. The mayoral contest saw a crowded field of nominees. Shiv Sena (UBT) had fielded Manasvi Sandeep Girhe, while the Congress put up Sangeeta Mangal Bhoyar, Sangeeta Gopalakrishna Amritkar, Sunanda Dilip Dhobe and Vaishali Ajay Mahadule. The BJP nominated Sangeeta Rajendra Khandekar and Sarika Sachin Sandurkar. In the final vote, Khandekar edged past her nearest rival by a single vote, clinching the post with the decisive support of Sena (UBT) corporators. The outcome stunned political observers, as the Congress appeared better placed to secure the mayoralty following the January 15 civic polls, which threw up a fractured verdict. 4Contd on | nation Centre mandates three hours to take down deepfake AI FPJ News Service MUMBAI The Union government on Tuesday notified sweeping amendments to the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, significantly tightening obligations on social media platforms and users to curb the spread of deepfakes and misleading AIgenerated content. Under the revised framework, online platforms such as Instagram and X will be required to take down AI-generated or synthetic content within three hours of it being flagged by a competent authority or a court. This marks a sharp reduction from the ear- lier 36-hour window and signals a tougher stance on unlawful and harmful online material. The amendments, issued by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), formally define “synthetically generated information” to include audio, visual, or audio-visual content that is artificially created, modified, or altered using computer resources in a manner that appears real or indistinguishable from an actual person or event. 4Contd on | nation