Vol. 66 No. 317 | SATURDAY | SEPTEMBER 9, 2023 | 28 Pages | `5 & for Pune `6 only Quality at Value www.freepressjournal.in EDITIONS: MUMBAI*, Pune, Nashik, Konkan, Indore, Bhopal, E-paper SHAH RUKH KHAN’S JAWAN RELEASES Read on to find out how King Khan’s latest release is better than Pathaan EDIT HIDING THE GRIT BEHIND THE GLAMOUR FOREX RESERVES JUMP $4.03 BN TO $598.89 BN BIDEN BETTING ON MODI Vow to "deepen and diversify" defence partnership; talks focus on N-energy, 6G and AI; and ways to fundamentally reshape multilateral development banks JT STATEMENT ■ Building of resilient global semiconductor supply chains. ■ GE Aerospace and HAL to make GE F-414 jet engines in India ■ Kudos for Moon Mission; working group on space makes headway ■ Collaboration in 5G/6G technologies on the anvil ■ India as a hub for repair of US naval assets ■ Steps towards global digital inclusion THE WORLD MAKES BEELINE FOR DELHI FPJ NEWS SERVICE / NEW DELHI More than 30 heads of state and top officials from the European Union, invited guest countries, and 14 heads of international organizations are expected to attend the G20 summit here on September 9 and 10. Ahead of the summit, strict traffic curbs have been put in place to restrict the movement of vehicles in the area where the G20 summit venue and hotels for delegates are located. India welcomed the G20 delegates for the grand Summit with music and ‘Namaste’. Stringent traffic curbs, fighter jets for security murals , all across the town -- New Delhi has pulled out all the stops to ensure a grand spectacle without hiccups. US President Joe Biden, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, and other heads of state will hold discussions on geopolitical tensions and economic slowdowns and rising food and energy prices at one of the most important global gatherings of the year. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Argentine President Alberto Fernández and IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva are among the top leaders who arrived in the national capital on Friday morning. CONTD. ON NATION KUTUMB A PROUD HINDU IS HERE Airhostess murder: Did accused kill himself? Mystery surrounds the death of Vikram Atwal, 40, who was accused of murdering trainee air hostess Rupal Ogrey 24,  , at her flat in Powai on September 3. Atwal allegedly tried to sexually assault Rupal, but the latter put up a stiff resistance, following which, he slit her throat and escaped. Police caught him 14 hours later and produced him before the Andheri metropolitan magistrate, who remanded him in police custody for three days, which expired on Friday Even as the . police were planning to seek further remand, Atwal reportedly ended his life at the Andheri police station lock-up. Po- BID TO GET OVER UKRAINE HUMP REUTERS / NEW DELHI India is hopeful that the Group of 20 will finalise a declaration at this weekend's summit in New Delhi, with only the wording about the war in Ukraine yet to be determined. Negotiators have been struggling for days to agree on the language because of differences in perception, hoping to get Russia and China on board to produce a declaration that will also address pressing global problems like debt and climate change. India's G20 sherpa, or negotiator,  Amitabh Kant said the summit's concluding statement will be a "voice" of the global south and developing countries. A second meeting of sherpas to seek consensus was likely to last into the night. A source told Reuters a joint declaration may or may not come to a unanimous agreement. It could have different paragraphs stating the views of different countries or record agreement and dissent in one paragraph. "We may paper over the differences and make a general statement saying we should have peace and harmony across the world so that everybody agrees," a second source said. OUR BUREAU / NEW DELHI US President Biden arrived in New Delhi on Friday for the G20 summit, where he hopes to deftly fill the space vacated by Russian and Chinese heads of state, so that he can present US to the developing countries as a viable alternative to both Moscow and Beijing. Immediately after arriving on Friday evening, he drove to the residence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi for a bilateral meeting. Jake Sullivan, Biden’s national security adviser, accompanied the president. The Prime Minister's Office shared photos of the two leaders holding animated talks on "a wide range of issues’’, including a deal for jet engines, procurement of predator drones, and collaboration on critical technologies like 5G and 6G networks. There was also talk of a major rail deal but US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan would not confirm these reports. He did, though, flag it as an initiative in which the United States is interested. CONTD. ON NATION DEATH BY TROUSER AISHWARYA IYER / MUMBAI lice claimed that Atwal used his trousers to hang himself from a pipe jutting out from the washroom next to his cell. On Friday Atwal was to be , taken for another medical examination of the injuries and marks inflicted on his body al, legedly by the victim, in the course of their scuffle before her death. This was to rule out the possibility of sexual assault or rape.   Now, the police claim of Atwal’s suicide has sparked a few questions, such as how was it possible for someone to hang himself by tying his trousers around his neck, in a small cell. Also, the pipe from which he is reported to have hanged was not strong enough to bear his weight, sources said. CONTD. ON NATION SWAPNIL MISHRA / MUMBAI INDIA 4, BJP IS 3 Samajwadi Party candidate Sudhakar Singh on Friday defeated his BJP rival Dara Singh Chauhan in the Ghosi assembly bypoll in Uttar Pradesh by a margin of 42,759 votes. Ghosi bypoll was the first major electoral clash between the ruling NDA and the INDIA opposition bloc. The Congress, CPM, CPI, RLD, AAP CPI-ML and the , Suheldev Swabhiman Party had extended support to Sudhakar Singh of SP . But the India alliance can- Rishi Sunak said on Friday that his visit to New Delhi for the G20 summit is "obviously special" and joked about being referred to as the "son-inlaw of India." (Sunak is the first British Prime Minister of Indian heritage, and married to an Indian -- Akshata Murty the daughter of Infos, ys co-founder Narayana Murthy) Union Minister Ashwini Kumar Choubey greeted Govinda lands with paralysis BYPOLL RESULTS OUR BUREAU / NEW DELHI FPJ NEWS SERVICE / NEW DELHI not rest its laurels on the Ghosi triumph. A week after the Opposition formulation said it plans to contest next year's Lok Sabha election "together," "as far as possible," the adage rang true in Kerala, Uttarakhand and Bengal Assembly seats, where INDIA members  competed against, or defeated, each other. In Kerala, Congress candidate Chandi Oommen, son of late Kerala chief minister, retained the Puthuppally assembly seat, bettering his father's record. CONTD. ON NATION A 25-year-old man from Nalasopara, who fell from the second tier of a Dahi Handi pyramid on September 7, has been diagnosed with quadriplegia, a condition that renders him paralysed from neck down. Suraj Kadam was admitted to KEM Hospital, where doctors stated that he was brought in a critical condition but is stable at present. He will undergo surgery for decompression and fracture correction. Kadam lost both his parents to Covid-19. He is a bank employee and the sole breadwinner among his siblings. This year's Dahi Handi festivities have resulted in a total of 197 injuries, with 12 patients admitted to KEM Hospital. “Every year we get such cases during this festival which is very disheartening for family members,” said a doctor. HC quashes 2 FIRs against IPS officer Rashmi Shukla PHONE TAPPING URVI MAHAJANI / MUMBAI In a major relief for Indian Police Service officer Rashmi Shukla, the Bombay high court on Friday quashed two FIRs filed against her in Mumbai and Pune, in cases related to allegedly illegal tapping of phones of politicians. A division bench of Justices Ajey Gadkari and Sharmila Deshmukh quashed the FIRs while hearing two separate petitions filed by Shukla, who is at present serving as additional director general of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) at Hyderabad, seeking quashing of the cases. The FIR filed by the Colaba police station related to the alleged tapping of the phones of Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Eknath Khadse. CONTD. ON NATION NON-DISCLOSURE OF PENDING CRIMINAL CASES Fadnavis acquitted in poll affidavit case AGENCIES / NAGPUR A local court here acquitted Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday in a complaint , lodged against him for alleged non-disclosure of criminal cases pending against him in his poll affidavit submitted before the 2014 assembly elections. Civil Judge S S Jadhav, while holding Fadnavis ‘nirdosh mukta (acquitted)’, noted that there had been no In October 2021, the country's forex kitty had reached an all-time high of $645 billion ‘mens rea (intention)’ on the part of Fadnavis. The senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader, an MLA from Nagpur, was present in the court virtually . Satish Uke, a Nagpur-based advocate, had filed an application seeking criminal proceedings against Fadnavis, alleging that cases of cheating and forgery had been registered against the BJP leader in 1996 and 1998, but he did not disclose this information in his poll affidavit. Fadnavis, 53, who served as chief minister from 2014 to 2019, had submitted to the court in April this year that the non-disclosure of the relevant information was an inadvertent mistake on the part of his previous lawyer. His current advocates, Deven Chauhan and Uday Dable, said on Friday that the court had held that the complainant had failed to prove that Fadnavis had not disclosed the two cases in the affidavit with an intent or knowledge that such a non-disclosure would help him win elections. CONTD. ON NATION Sunak and his wife with “Jai Siya Ram” at Palam Airport. Choubey also presented the couple Rudraksh, a copy of Bhagavad Geeta and Hanuman Chalisa. Speaking to reporters on his flight to New Delhi, the 43year-old British Indian leader said he was excited to be back in India, "a country that is very near and dear to me". "It's obviously special. I saw somewhere that I was referred to as India's son-in-law, which I hope was meant affectionately he told re," porters travelling with him. In his interaction with the news agency ANI, Sunak said he hoped to visit some of the temples during his brief visit. CONTD. ON NATION West pushing hard on political issues Core economic issues take backseat countries. No doubt, the issues are entirely different in Barely few hours from now, some cases,” said a senior Euthe G20 under India’s Presi- ropean diplomat based in dency will conduct its pro- New Delhi. , ceedings. But already there is Though the G20 summit is a surge of pressure from the likely to provide a few breakUnited States and its allies to throughs on key issues like enforce their vision Ukraine, climate of a global geopolitchange, renewable ical and geo ecoenergy and sustainSPECIAL able development, it nomic architecture during the Summit. will be an inflection Since India is keen to make point for India to create a this G20 presidency a success, geopolitical doctrine that is the West is pushing hard on both independent and multithe political agenda than on layered. core economic issues. India being the chair of the “There is a gap in percep- Summit is maintaining its tion between Global South neutrality while assimilating and Global North -- what is opposite views to find a midimportant for us and what is dle path and make incremenimportant for the developing tal progress. CONTD. ON NATION SHALINI PANDEY / NEW DELHI THE FPJ