FREE PRESS FP The publishers permit sharing of the e-paper's pdf on WhatsApp and other social media platforms - VOL. 12 NO. 163 | BHOPAL | THURSDAY | NOVEMBER 24, 2022 | PAGES 16 WWW.FREEPRESSJOURNAL.IN Regd. No. Indore MP/ICD 216/2021-2023; RNI No. mpeng/2010/35815 EDITIONS: INDORE, BHOPAL, UJJAIN, MUMBAI, PUNE EDIT `3 QUALITY AT VALUE WEATHER 26.30c. 11.80c Sunrise : 06.45 Sunset : 05.42 THIS IS AN INDIA OF INJUSTICE, SC seeks files from govt on WE DON’T WANT IT, SAYS RAHUL appointment of Goel as EC FOR 24X7 UPDATES ENSURING THE EC’S INDEPENDENCE QUIRKY ESSENTIALS Pg-16 BHARAT JODO YATRA ENTERS STATE News Brief 6 cops hurt as villagers pelt stones over temple demolition JODHPUR: Six policemen were injured on Wednesday when a group of agitated villagers protesting against the demolition of a temple pelted stones at them in a village in Sirohi district's Abu Road area, officials said. The Rajasthan High Court had ordered the removal of the temple structure which encroached upon a pond in Satpur village, they said, adding that nearly two dozen people have been rounded up for the violence. Bose takes oath as new Guv of Bengal KOLKATA: CV Ananda Bose on Wednesday took oath as the new Governor of West Bengal. Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court Prakash Srivastava administered the oath at Governor House in the presence of CM Mamata Banerjee, other state ministers along with Speaker Biman Bandhopadhyay. Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari, who had skipped the ceremony however met the new Governor at Raj Bhawan after the ceremony.Taking to Twitter, Adhikari had clarified the reason for not attending the ceremony and said that he was made to sit beside MLAs Krishna Kalyani and Biswajit Das, who had won the Assembly election on BJP tickets but later defected to the TMC. NIA set to take over Mangaluru blast case MANGALURU: The Mangaluru autorickshaw blast case would be formally handed over to the NIA soon, Karnataka DGP Praveen Sood said on Wednesday. He said the objective of the prime accused Mohammed Shariq was to create a divide between communities. Nepali Cong ahead in election tally KATHMANDU: Nepal Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba was elected on Wednesday with a huge margin of votes for the House of Representatives for the seventh consecutive time, with his ruling Nepali Congress party leading in the election tally by winning 19 seats so far.Deuba's predecessor and opposition CPN-UML leader Oli defeated his nearest Nepali Congress rival Khagendra Adhikari by a wide margin of 28,574 votes. 10 killed in US Walmart shooting WASHINGTON :At least 10 people were killed when a gunman opened fire at a Walmart in Chesapeake located in the US state of Virginia, police said on Wednesday. According to Chesapeake police, a call reporting the shooting came in at 10.12 p.m. on Tuesday, reports Xinhua news agency. A police spokesman said that the suspect, believed to be the store manager, opened fire then shot himself dead, reports the BBC. The shooting was believed to have happened inside the store, and that the suspect acted alone, the spokesman added.The motive behind the attack is yet to be ascertained. More details are awaited. YATRA AGAINST violence, hatred in society: Rahul Need a CEC who can take action against even PM, says SC The Bharat Jodo Yatra-led by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi entered Madhya Pradesh on Wednesday morning via Bodarli village of Burhanpur district from neighbouring Maharashtra. A large number of Congressmen carrying the Tricolour in their hands reached Bodarli to join the foot march early morning. Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole handed over the Tricolour to Madhya Pradesh party chief Kamal Nath to formally launch the 12-day-long Yatra in the state, where it will cover a distance of 380 km before entering Rajasthan. While entering the state, Gandhi said, "This Yatra is against hatred, violence and fear being spread in the country We have start. ed the Bharat Jodo Yatra by taking the Tricolour in our hands from Kanyakumari. Nobody can stop this Tricolour from reaching Srinagar." Targeting the central government on the issues of unemployment and inflation, Gandhi alleged, NEW DELHI: The recent appointment of election commissioner Arun Goel came under the scanner of the Supreme Court which asked the Centre on Wednesday to produce the original files related to his selection, saying it wanted to know whether there was any "hanky panky". The top court also rejected its objections to its order for producing the original records and said it wants to know whether everything was "hunky dory" in the appointment process as claimed by the government, as Goel was only recently given voluntary retirement from service. The Centre was given time till Thursday to produce the files. A five-judge bench headed by Justice KM Joseph also observed there is a need for the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) to be independent and person of character, and posed a hypothetical question asking will it not be a case of complete breakdown of the system if the CEC does not act if there are some allegations against a prime minister. "Do you think the election commissioner, if he is asked to take on none less FP NEWS SERVICE Bodarli (Burhanpur) Congress leader Rahul Gandhi with senior party leader Kamal Nath and others during the party’s Bharat Jodo Yatra in Burhanpur on Wednesday SAVARKAR CHAPTER CLOSED NOW: RAMESH Days after a right-wing outfit on Tuesday put up posters in Burhanpur city criticising his remarks on freedom fighter V D Savarkar and staged a protest, senior party leader Jairam Ramesh on Wednesday said that the chapter is closed. YATRA IS ABOVE ELECTORAL POLITICS: DIGVIJAYA Senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh on Wednesday said his party's Kanyakumari to Kashmir Bharat Jodo Yatra, led by Lok Sabha MP Rahul Gandhi, was not linked to electoral politics and its main objective was to "save" the Constitution and democracy in the country. PRIYANKA LEAVES FOR BURHANPUR Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra reached Indore on Wednesday noon. She was accompanied by her husband Robert Vadra. Priyanka is set to reach Burhanpur by road to join Rahul in his Bharat Jodo Yatra which has enetered MP from Maharashtra. She will participate in the yatra for three days. "The BJP first spreads fear in the minds of youth, farmers and labourers and when it sets in, they convert it into violence." CONTD. ON P6 Rahul looks like Saddam:Himanta Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma has claimed Rahul Gandhi looks like "Saddam Hussein", the former Iraqi dictator, and it would have been better had he turned his appearance like Sardar Patel, JNehru or Mahatma Gandhi. Hitting back, Congress leader ewari said the Assm Manish T CM was sounding like a "petty troll". Gandhi has been seen sporting a beard during the ongoing Bharat Jodo Yatra. During a public rally in uesday, Sarma Ahmedabad on T said, "I just saw that his looks have also changed. I said in a TV interview that there is nothing wrong with his new look. But if you have to change the looks, at least make it like Patel or even Nehru will do. It is better if it looks like Gandhiji. But why is your face turning into Saddam Hussein?" CJI's inclusion will ensure independence in appointment of CEC, says Apex court New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday said to ensure independence of the poll panel, the Chief Justice of India (CJI) could be included in the consultative process for the appointment of CEC. A five-judge Bench, headed by Justice KM Joseph and comprising Justices Ajay Rastogi, Aniruddha Bose, Hrishikesh Roy, and C.T. Ravikumar, is hearing a clutch of petitions seeking a collegium-like system for the appointment of ECs and the CEC. The SC said any ruling party likes to perpetuate itself in power and can appoint a 'Yes Man' to the post under the current system. Moily, Quraishi support SC observation New Delhi: Former Union law minister M Veerappa Moily and ex-CEC SY Quraishi supported a consultative mechanism to appoint the CEC and ECs, while another former head of the poll panel pushed for a body to appoint judges in the SC and the high courts. Yechury for independent panel for appointment of CEC, EC New Delhi CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury on Wednesday demanded that the CEC and ECs should not be appointed by the central government, but by a special panel like in the case of the CBI. than the prime minister-we are saying it as an example, can he say no?" Justice Joseph asked after the Centre claimed that its present system of appointment of Election Commissioners and the Chief Election Commissioner appointed on the basis of seniority by convention has been "fairly doing well". "Suppose for example, there are some allegations against the prime minister and the CEC has to act but he does not act. Will it not be a case of complete breakdown of the system (Election Commission)?" "The CEC should be insulated from political influence and needs to be independent and person of character. These are aspects on which you have to delve into on why we require an independent larger body for selection and not just the union council of ministers," the bench also comprising Justices Ajay Rastogi, Aniruddha Bose, Hrishikesh Roy and CT Ravikumar said. CONTD. ON P6 Delhi child rights panel flags Six e-tender scam accused Man rapes, blackmails teen violent masculinity in textbook to convert to Islam, arrested acquitted by court NCERT ASKED TO modify or replace it NEW DELHI The Delhi Commission For Protection of Child Rights has asked NCERT to modify or replace a chapter in Class IX English textbook, claiming that it normalises "violent masculinity, depicts women in "stereotypical ways and teaches children to accept violence at home". The panel's chief Anurag Kundu said the chapter titled 'The Little Girl' narrates the story of a girl Kezia, who is scared of her father and is constantly threatened by him to a point that it starts impacting her speech. AIIMS-Delhi server down in suspected ransomware attack, OPD services hit AGENCIES New Delhi The server at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi, has been down since 7 a.m. on Wednesday, affecting the outpatient department (OPD) and sample collection services. "Today the server for National Informatics Centre's eHospital being used at AIIMS, New Delhi was down due to which outpatient and inpatient digital hospital services including, smart lab, billing, report generation, appointment system etc., have been affected," AIIMS said in a statement. The hospital said that all these services are running . on manual mode currently The National Informatics Centre (NIC) team working at AIIMS has informed that this may be ransomware attack which is being reported to and will be investigated by appropriate law enforcement authorities. CONTD. ON P6 Later in a tweet, Kundu wrote, "I have written to @ncert Director advising removal of the chapter 3 titled "The Little Girl" of class IX English textbook as it normalises violent masculinity , perpetuates patriarchy and promotes toxic behaviour in the family No immediate ." reaction was available from the NCERT. According to the story, Kezia's grandmother asks her to prepare a gift for her father as his birthday is around the corner. She prepares a pin cushion, but stuffs it with papers which contain a speech her father is supposed to deliver at an event. On finding this out, the father beats her up, but the grandmother asks her to forget the incident. CONTD. ON P6 PROSECUTION failed to prove the charge, says defence OUR STAFF REPORTER city.bhopal@fpj.co.in All the six accused in e-tender scam has been acquitted by the court on Wednesday Defence lawyer said . that the prosecution failed to prove the charge against the accused. The names of six accused who have been acquitted in want of evidence are: Nandkishore Brahme, Manohar MN, Sumit Golwalkar, Varun Chaturvedi, Manish Khare and Vinay Chaudhary . Nandkishore Bramhe was the then OSD of Madhya Pradesh State Electronic Development Corporation (MPSEDC). Vinay Chaudhary, Varun Chaturvedi and Sumit Golwalkar are directors of OSMO IT Solutions. Manish Khare is a renowned industrialist. Speaking to Free Press , defence lawyer of Nandkishore Brahme, Prashant Harne said that the prosecution failed to prove the charge. Hence the court of special judge for Lokayukta and Prevention of Corruption Act, Sandeep Kumar Shrivastava acquitted all the accused. Notably, the accused were booked under IPC sections 467, 420, 468, 471 and 120B. The accused were also BENGALURU: The Karnataka police has charged one Yunus Pasha alias Fayaz Mohammed under the anti-conversion law and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act for allegedly blackmailing a 13-year-old Hindu girl with compromising pictures and forcing her to convert to Islam and marry him in Mandya district. According to the police, Yunus gifted a smartphone to the girl and they began talking on video calls. One day, the accused took some obscene pictures of the girl on video call and used them to pressurise her into having a physical relationship, the police said. When she refused, he started threatening to disclose JAPAN STUN GERMANY HC adjourns mosque committee's plea to challenge lower court verdict PRAYAGRAJ November 29 as the next The Allahabad High Court date of hearing. on Wednesday adjourned The mosque committee the hearing on the Gyanvapi had challenged the Varanasi masjid management's revicourt order rejecting its obsion petition challenging a jection to the maintainabiliVaranasi court order on the ty of the suit filed by five maintainability of a plea Hindu women who sought seeking perpermission mission to ofGYANVAPI CASE to worship fer regular Shringar prayers to idols of deities in Gauri and other deities the mosque compound. whose idols are located on A request for adjournan outer wall of the Gyanvament was made by the counpi Masjid. The district judge sel for the Anjuman Intezaof Varanasi had on Septemmia Masjid committee. Subber 12 dismissed the plea. sequently the court fixed , CONTD. ON P6 booked under section 36 of the Excise Act. When contacted, prosecution lawyer Ashish Tyagi told Free Press that the court of special judge Sandeep Kumar Shrivastava acquitted the six accused. Notably, e-tender scam was one of the biggest scams of Madhya Pradesh and it had even gained political hues as opposition Congress used it as a tool to nail the BJP government. Economic Offence Wing (EOW) has investigated the entire scam. It is learnt that the charge sheet of the case run into thousands of pages. Defence lawyer of Nandkishore Brahme, Advocate Prashant Harne said that the charge sheet ran into 5500 pages. SC to set up special Benches for criminal appeals, tax, land acquisition cases NEW DELHI Japan's players celebrate after winning group E soccer match against Germany at Khalifa Stadium. TO PROTEST AGAINST FIFA'S ONE LOVE ARMBAND BAN German players cover mouths in team photo DOHA: Germany's players covered their mouths for the team photo before their World Cup opener against Japan on Wednesday in protest at FIFA's refusal to allow rainbow-themed armbands. Captains of seven European teams had planned to wear the anti-discrimination armbands during the tournament in Qatar as part of a campaign for diversity, but backed down over the threat of disciplinary action from football's governing body, including yellow cards. The rainbow armbands had been viewed as a symbolic protest against laws in Qatar, where homosexuality is il- their private chats and obscene photos to her family . “The girl’s father said in his complaint that his 13year-old daughter, a student of Class 8, was first blackmailed by a person living opposite to their home. He raped her on a day when she was alone at home and forced her to convert in order to marry her. Acting on this complaint, we have arrested the accused, a case has been registered under the POCSO Act and all aspects of the complaint are being investigated,” Mandya’s Superintendent of Police N Yatheesh was uoted in the media. Yunus had promised to marry the girl after allegedly raping her on the condition that she converted to Islam. CONTD. ON P6 legal. Germany's football federation said in a tweet moments after the photo protest that "human rights are not negotiable"."This is not a political position; human rights are not negotiable," the DFB tweeted."To ban the armband is like banning our right to speak," the federation added. FIFA president Gianni Infantino was at the Khalifa International Stadium for the Germany-Japan match.The German government spokesman, Steffen Hebestreit, said earlier in the day in Berlin that FIFA's decision to bar captains from wearing the "OneLove" armbands was "very unfortunate". CONTD. ON P6 Next week onwards, the Supreme Court will constitute specialised benches to take up criminal appeals, tax, land acquisition, and motor accident claim tribunal cases. During mentioning of cases, Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud made an announcement in this regard. He also indicated that the Justice Surya Kant-led bench would hear cases related to land acquisitions. "From next week, there would be special benches for criminal appeals, direct and indirect tax matters, land acquisition matters, and motor accidents claims tribunal matters," he said. The Chief Justice on Tuesday said from next week, the top court will have a special bench to exclusively deal with tax cases. He told a group of lawyers that on Wednesday and Friday there will be a special bench to take up direct and indi. rect sales tax matters solely CONTD. ON P6