Vol. 66 No. 70 | THURSDAY | JULY 21, 2022 | 16 Pages | BETWEEN THE LINES FIRE ON BOARD NAVAL WARSHIP A n incident of fire was reported on board India’s lone operational aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya on Wednesday, off Karwar on the west coast. The warship, a 47,000-tonne behemoth, was out at sea on a planned sortie for conduct of trials at sea after its re-fit, a periodic overhaul, online media reports said. The fire was brought under control by the ship’s crew using fire-fighting systems. No casualties have been reported. A board of inquiry has been ordered. NOISES WITHIN YOGI CABINET T here are some disconcerting noises within the Yogi Adityanath Cabinet. One person – the Minister State for Jal Shakti Department Dinesh Khatik – has sent his resignation to Home Minister Amit Shah as he is miffed over the irregularities in large-scale transfers in his department. Also, he is complaining that he was “sidelined because he is a Dalit." Besides, he has charged that he was not assigned any work for 100 days. The other and more important -- PWD minister Jitin Prasada -- is said to be upset with the vigilance crackdown in his department and transfer of his officer on special duty (OSD) to Delhi. Prasada is likely to meet Home Minister Amit Shah to talk about the crackdown. He switched over from the Congress to the BJP last year, months before the UP election. NEW PRESIDENT: BY THE EVENING T he name of India’s next president will be known on Thursday once votes are counted beginning at 11 am at Parliament. A media stand has been set up outside Room Number 73 from where the trends will emanate. The winner is not the candidate who gets the most votes, but the one who gets more votes than a certain quota. The quota is determined by adding the votes polled for each candidate, dividing the sum by two and adding '1' to it. The candidate who gets more votes than this value is the winner. The result is likely to be known by evening. MOOSEWALA: TWO KILLED T wo gangsters involved in the murder of singer Sidhu Moosewala were killed in a police encounter that continued for over four hours in the Attari border area on Wednesday. Three cops were also shot at and were hospitalised; their condition was said to be stable. Acting on a tip-off that the two gangsters, Manpreet Singh aka Manu and Jagroop Singh aka Rupa, were hiding in a farmhouse, the Punjab Police’s anti-gangsters task force rushed to the spot, cordoned off the area and asked the accused to surrender. However, when the ‘surrender’ call elicited no response the encounter ensued, resulting in the death of the two gangsters. According to reports, hundreds of rounds were fired by both sides. –See Nation 2 COPS RUN OVER IN LINE OF DUTY S ince the mowing down of a Haryana DSP by the mining mafia, there have been two similar incidents. In the first case, a woman police official engaged in a vehicle checking drive near the Jharkhand capital Ranchi was mowed down on Thursday by a pickup van allegedly involved in cattle smuggling, an officer said. The victim was identified as Sandhya Topno, a 32-year-old Sub Inspector of Police. In the second case, too, in Gujarat’s Anand district, a police constable on vehicle-checking duty died after being run over by a truck. The driver has been identified. –See Nation EDITIONS: MUMBAI*, Pune, Nashik, Konkan, Indore, Bhopal, E-paper LOCAL BODY POLLS Zubair is a free bird WITH OBC SLICE DHANALAKSHMI & AISHWARYA FAIL DOPE TEST, RULED OUT OF COMMONWEALTH GAMES ‘MY PERSONAL LIFE IS BOOMING WITH HAPPINESS,’ GUSHES RANBIR KAPOOR EDIT NEET NEEDS TO BE MORE SENSITIVE l State govt urges SEC not to schedule polls immediately in view of heavy rains and floods SANJAY JOG MUMBAI The Supreme Court’s approval of the report on OBCs prepared by a dedicated commission headed by the former chief secretary, Jayant Banthia, has paved the way for elections to nearly 2,500 urban and local bodies in Maharashtra with OBC quota. Minister Chief Eknath Shinde and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis have announced that all upcoming elections to the urban and rural local bodies will be held with OBC quota. For the Shinde-Fadnavis government (Shiv Sena-BJP alliance), which will be pitted against the Thackeray-led Shiv Sena, the NCP and Congress, winning the maximum seats and top posts will be the acid test. The state government has, however, formally requested the State Election Commission (SEC) not to schedule elections to local bodies immediately, as many parts of Maharashtra have been affected by heavy rains and floods. These elections are expected to be conducted in October and November, as the ruling and opposition parties have also said that in the wake of the monsoon, CONTD. ON NATION PAGE These elections are expected to be conducted in October and November ASLI-NAQLI: SHINDE CAMP PETITIONS EC SANJAY JOG MUMBAI Hours after 12 of the 19 Shiv Sena MPs formally joined the Eknath Shinde camp, expressing their faith and confidence in his leadership and support for Hindutva, the Shinde faction wrote to the Election Commission (EC) with a plea to recognise it as the real Shiv Sena. The letter to the EC referred to the support of 12 Lok Sabha MPs to the Shinde camp, which already includes 40 legislators including Shinde himself, and 10 Independents. A senior leg- islator from the Shinde camp told The Free Press Journal, “They have approached the EC and prayed to be recognised as the real Shiv Sena. The ball is now in the EC’s court.” EC sources confirmed that a letter has been received and it is being processed. The Shinde camp’s move is important, as the Lok Sabha secretariat has already issued a letter appointing the Shiv Sena MP from south-central Mumbai, Rahul Shewale, as the group leader, replacing Vinayak Raut in the Lok Sabha. CONTD. ON NATION PAGE ay faction. The Chief Justice hinted at setting up of a larger Bench as several constitutional issues are involved. The Shinde camp has challenged the disqualification proceedings initiated by Deputy Speaker Narhari Zirwal against the rebel MLAs when they were in Guwahati and a vacation bench of the top court had stayed the process. The five pleas by the Thackeray camp include challenge to the new Speaker Rahul Narwekar’s steps, Governor BS Koshyari’s order asking the Thackeray government to prove its majority the Governor swearing , in Shinde as the new CM and a petition seeking suspension of the Shinde camp MLAs. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Thackeray camp, challenged the Governor’s decision to swear in the new government when the Supreme Court was hearing the matter. “The election of Assembly Speaker is equally bad in law because he has been elected by MLAs against whom disqualification applications are pending," Sibal argued. CONTD. ON NATION PAGE Sena vs Sena turmoil before larger bench? OUR BUREAU NEW DELHI The Supreme Court on Wednesday adjourned the hearing on Shiv Sena turmoil to August 1 and asked the Eknath Shinde camp to file an affidavit in response to the Uddhav Thackeray-led faction’s plea seeking disqualification of the rebel MLAs. A 3-judge Bench headed by Chief Justice of India N V Ramana is hearing a batch of half a dozen petitions -- one set filed by the Shinde camp and the remaining by the Thacker- 330c. 260c. Sunrise: 06:11 am Sunset : 07:19 pm Gets bail in all cases stemming from FIRs lodged in UP l SC also orders disbanding of SIT instituted by UP Police l All FIRs clubbed and handed over to Delhi cops OUR BUREAU NEW DELHI CANNOT ASK A JOURNALIST NOT TO WRITE Twenty-four days after his arrest, Alt News co-founder Mohammad Zubair walked out of Tihar jail on Wednesday evening, within hours of the Supreme Court granting him interim bail in all FIRs lodged in Uttar Pradesh against him for allegedly hurting religious sentiments, saying that “exercise of the power of arrest must be pursued sparingly". A bench led by Justice DY Chandrachud, which also comprised Justices Surya Kant and A S Bopanna, was of the view that there is “no justification” for keeping Zubair in custody any further. No purpose was also served by depriving him of personal liberty and subjecting him to diverse proceedings when the essence of the allegations stems from Tweets, which also form part of an investigation by Delhi Police in a case in The court rejected UP government’s plea to stop Mohammed Zubair from tweeting. How can we say that? It’s like asking a lawyer not to argue...a person not to speak. Whatever he does, he will be responsible to law but we can’t ask a journalist not to write. How can we take anticipatory action against a citizen when he is raising his voice? Every citizen is answerable for what he does in public or private. We will not place any such order. – Justice DY Chandrachud. which he has been already granted bail. It also ordered disbanding of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) formed by the UP ED TO QUIZ SONIA TODAY, CONG LIVID T NEW DELHI he Congress will hold panIndia protests against the questioning of its chief Sonia Gandhi by the Enforcement Directorate on Thursday the , opposition party said while slamming the agency’s action against its top leadership as “political vendetta". The Congress president is set to appear before the ED on Thursday in a money laundering case related to the National Herald-AJL case and top Congress leaders will converge at the AICC headquarters for the protests. Similar protests were held when her son and former party president Rahul Gandhi was quizzed by the agency in June in the case. Sources said party leaders, including MPs, will march towards the Enforcement Directorate office and the Delhi Congress will stage a protest march outside Raj Bhawan. A meeting of senior party leaders was held at the residence of Mallikarjun Kharge to chalk out the party’s strategy for dealing with the “misuse” of the ED against party chief Sonia Gandhi by the Modi government, they said. CONTD. ON NATION PAGE Rishi Sunak on Wednesday firmed his place in the final leg of the race to succeed Boris Johnson; he will go head-tohead with Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, the other finalist, to take charge as Conservative Party leader and British Prime Minister. Sunak won the fifth and final voting round of Tory MPs with a resounding 137 votes, while second-placed Truss won the support of 113 MPs. Trade Minister Penny Mordaunt was knocked out of the race after coming in third with 105 votes. The 42-year-old British Indi- like Kedarnath, Toilet: Ek Prem Katha, Padman, Fanney Khan and Pari and has also worked on the autobiography of Olympian Abhinav Bindra. She headed the movie production company KriArj En- tertainment Private Limited and had been arrested by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Mumbai police in 2018, for cheating Bhagnani of Pooja Entertainment. Bhagnani had stated in his complaint that the unlawful transfer of the rights of the film Kedarnath had caused him to suffer wrongful losses of Rs 31.6 crore. Featuring the late Sushant Singh Rajput and Sara Ali Khan, Kedarnath, the rights to which were held by Bhagnani, were sold to Ronnie Screwvala by Prerna Arora’s KriArj Entertainment. CONTD. ON NATION PAGE Will Sunak sink Liz? ADITI KHANNA LONDON Probe unearthed Film producer fails to appear snooping proof before ED in laundering case Are we in a fantasy land, in such a hopeless situation, that a man who cannot even find 20 MLAs to support him has to be brought back to power by the courts. – Harish Salve, for Shinde camp Ex-CP Pandey in 9-day custody SOMENDRA SHARMA  MUMBAI The Enforcement Directorate, while seeking custody of former Mumbai police commissioner Sanjay Pandey on Wednesday, stated that the probe has uncovered evidence pertaining to the alleged installation of a machine to tap the calls of National Stock Exchange (NSE) employees. In his defence, Pandey told the Delhi court that he was never involved in any tapping of calls and neither did he have any equipment for tapping. The court remanded Pandey to nine days of ED’s custody in the snooping case stemming from a case of suspected money laundering. Pandey was placed under arrest by the ED officials on Tuesday evening after several hours of questioning. He was produced before the Rouse Avenue court in Delhi by the ED officials on Wednesday afternoon. Special Judge Sunena Sharma allowed ED to question Pandey after the agency said he was required to be confronted with other accused in the case. Additional Solicitor General S V Raju, appearing for the ED, had moved an application seeking Pandey’s 14-day custodial interrogation, alleging that Pandey had committed an unlawful act of tapping of phones, for which purpose Rs 4.45 crore was paid, and it becomes the proceeds of crime. Pandey however told the court that he never undertook any phone tapping or live monitoring. “The project for his company iSEC was called analysis of recorded calls. We never did any tapping or any live monitoring. We neither had equipment, nor were we told to tap. Every recording was done by the NSE. The machine was installed in NSE and they are the ones who tapped. What is my culpability?” he said. Advocate Aditya Wadhwa, appearing for Pandey, submitted that his company carried out forensic study of conversations that had been independently recorded by NSE. CONTD. ON NATION PAGE STAFF REPORTER MUMBAI Hindi film producer Prerna Arora, who had been summoned by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday, on charges of money laundering in a Rs 31.6 crore fraud case filed by another producer, Vashu Bhagnani, failed to make an appearance before the authorities. She requested  time through her advocate, Vivek Wasvani, to appear for investigation as she was currently out of town on official business. Arora has produced films Police to probe the FIRs against Zubair and clubbed all the FIRs, holding that the case should be handled by one investigating authority i.e. the , Special Cell of the Delhi Police. Accepting the alternate prayer of Zubair to club all FIRs in Delhi with interim bail, the court said the direction to transfer all UP FIRs to Delhi Police shall also apply to future FIRs registered on the basis of his tweets and he will be entitled to bail in all such future FIRs. The top court also gave liberty to Zubair to seek quashing of the FIRs before Delhi High Court. His lawyer Vrinda Grover pointed out that all FIRs emanate from the same tweets, none of which remotely uses language which is improper or amounts to a criminal offence. She said this is a clear case of “silencing” a fact-checker by invoking criminal action under multiple FIRs. “In this age of digital age, the job of someone who is debunking false information may draw the ire of others. CONTD. ON NATION PAGE an former Chancellor, who has topped every voting round thus far, added 19 votes to his Tuesday tally of 118 and comfortably crossed the 120 MPs mark seen as the threshold to confirm a place in the final showdown. Sunak and Truss are now set for their first live televised debate scheduled on the BBC for Monday . Earlier, outgoing Prime Minister Johnson used his last Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs) in the House of Commons to bid farewell to the top job with the Spanish phrase “hasta la vista, baby”. In his final speech, he had words of advice for his successor: “I want to use the last few seconds, Mr Speaker, to give some words of advice to my successor, whoever he or she may be. “Number one, stay close to the Americans; stick up for the Ukrainians; stick up for freedom and democracy everywhere. “Cut taxes and deregulate wherever you can to make this the greatest place to live and invest, which it is. “I love the Treasury but re, member, if we’d always listened to the Treasury we , wouldn’t have built the M25 or the Channel Tunnel. Focus on the road ahead, but always remember to check the rearview mirror. CONTD. ON NATION PAGE AGENCIES / NEW DELHI cials said, adding the A320neo plane was then diverted to Jaipur. On Tuesday Go First’s , Mumbai-Leh and SrinagarDelhi flights faced engine snags and both planes were grounded by the DGCA. The two planes involved in Tuesday’s incidents will be allowed to fly only after being cleared by the DGCA, officials noted. According to Go First’s website, the carrier has 57 planes in its fleet. On Tuesday , Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia held multiple meetings with airlines and officials from his ministry and DGCA to ensure safety oversight. CONTD. ON NATION PAGE WINDSHIELD CRACKS, AIRCRAFT IS DIVERTED A Go First flight heading from Delhi to Guwahati was diverted to Jaipur after the A320neo aircraft’s windshield cracked mid-air, aviation regulator DGCA officials said. This is the third incident of technical malfunction on a Go First aircraft in two days. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is investigating all three incidents. After the pilots observed that the windshield has cracked, they wanted to return to Delhi but could not do so due to heavy rains on Wednesday afternoon, the offi- Okra & cauliflower touch Rs 100/kg on short supply HEAVY RAINS CAUSE VEGGIE SUPPLY TO DRY UP AMIT SRIVASTAVA NAVI MUMBAI The prices of most vegetables have doubled in just a fortnight, following a dip in supply Traders at the wholesale . market said that supply had practically dried up following the steady rainfall over the last two weeks across the state and the high price of produce would continue for another two weeks at least. Vegetable prices had been creeping up since mid-June and continued to do so in July after there was heavy rainfall , across the state. According to traders at the Agriculture Produce Market Committee (APMC), vehicles are not arriving from many places due to waterlogging and the poor state of roads inside villages in the heartland. “Only small vehicles are arriving, carrying small quantities,” said Sanjay Pingle, an APMC trader. The APMC Mumbai located at Vashi receives most of the vegetables from Nasik, Pune, Kolhapur, Sangli and other places in western Maharashtra and Karnataka. With most of Maharashtra witnessing heavy rainfall, supplies are short. On July 20, the APMC received 450 Prices in June, July Vegetable June 31 July 20 Peas Rs 120 Cauliflower Brinjal Capsicum Carrot Lady’s fingers French beans Rs 60 Rs 80- 100 Rs 40 Rs 60-80 Rs 40 Rs 30 Rs 60 Rs 120 Rs 160 Rs 60-80 Rs 60 Rs 100-120 Rs 180 vehicles laden with vegetables. However, the majority of them were small pick-up vans or tempos, that can only hold a limited quantity of produce. “Overall supply has dipped by around 40 to 50 per cent,” said an administrative official at the APMC. He added that the prices of some vegetables had risen as much as 60 to 100 per cent on account of low supply . Normally around 500 to 550 vehicles , laden with vegetables arrive at the Mumbai APMC in Vashi. However, after mid-June, the supply has come down to 435-450 vehicles, of which more than 300 were small pick-up vans.