Vol. 67 No. 143 | FRIDAY | MARCH 15, 2024 | 26 Pages | `5 & for Pune `6 only Quality at Value www.freepressjournal.in MEMBER: AUDIT BUREAU OF CIRCULATION EDITIONS: MUMBAI*, Pune, Nashik, Konkan, Indore, Bhopal, E-paper Unkind cut lands CHILLAR Big players who Didi in hospital PARTIES, bought bonds BAR BJP ARITRA SINGHA / KOLKATA With hardly a month left for the mother of all polls, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has badly injured her forehead and was bleeding profusely on the way to hospital on Thursday evening. Soon after the incident, the All India Trinamool Congress put out a note on its X handle saying, “Our Chairperson Mamata has sustained a major injury Keep her in your . prayers." The CM was immediately rushed to SSKM where a medical board was constituted. However, after a CT scan and multiple stitches, she was discharged from the hospital. According to party sources, TMC national secretary Abhishek Banerjee and TMC councillor Kajori Banerjee accompanied her. An eight-member team of specialist doctors was formed, including a senior doctor from Apollo.  However, they did not issue any medical bulletin. One of the doctors said on the sidelines she had received four stitches GAURAV VIVEK BHATNAGAR NEW DELHI PUSH FROM BEHIND? Late on Thursday, Dr Monimay Bandhopadhyay, director of SSKM, said, "The Chief Minister came to the hospital around 7.30 pm with a sharp cut on her forehead and had cerebral concussion due to a push from behind.” Though TMC councillor and Mamata’s sister-in-law, Kajori Banerjee, said the CM fell at home, she had neither ruled out nor clarified the “push” theory. -- three on forehead and one on nose. "She had a deep cut on her forehead and necessary tests and examinations were done. She was advised  to stay at the hospital but she preferred to go home. She will be under observation,’’ said the doctor. CONTD. ON NATION In compliance with the directions of the Supreme Court, the Election Commission on Thursday uploaded the data relating to the purchase and encashment of electoral bonds, as furnished to it by the State Bank of India on March 12. The commission, in a note, said it has uploaded the data on its website on “as is where is basis.” The EC also maintained that it has “consistently and categorically weighed in favour of disclosure and transparency a position re, flected in the proceedings of the Supreme Court and noted in the order also.” On the Election Commission website, the data has been placed on a page with the title “Disclosure of Electoral Bonds”. It has sections – EC RITUAL OR 2-MINUTE MAGGIE 6 names, 10 minutes before meeting on new ECs; chosen day before SC hears legal dare GAURAV VIVEK BHATNAGAR-/ NEW DELHI Two retired Indian Administrative Service officers of the 1988 batch, Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Gyanesh Kumar, were on Thursday appointed Election Commissioners by a three-member high powered committee chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and comprising Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chaudhary and Union Home Minister Amit Shah. Sandhu is from the Uttarakhand cadre and has served as Chief Secretary in the state besides serving as Principal Secre- tary to four Chief Ministers in Uttarakhand and Punjab. He is also a medical doctor, a historian as well as a lawyer by educational qualification. Kumar has served as secretary in the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs and the Amit Shah-led Ministry of Cooperation. The names of Sandhu and Kumar were chosen from a shortlist of six candidates which was drawn from an overall list of 212 candidates. The two vacancies had arisen as Election Commissioner Anup Chandra Pandey had retired in mid-February and then on March 9 the other EC, Arun Goel, had resigned due to unspecified reasons. The appointments of the two new ECs come just a day before the Supreme Court is to hear two petitions which demanded that the Centre be restrained from making the appointments under the new law -- The Chief Election Commissioner and other Election Commissioners CONTD. ON NATION ALL FOR SYNCED POLL GAURAV VIVEK BHATNAGAR NEW DELHI A committee set up under former President Ram Nath Kovind has, in its report, recommended to the President a two-step approach to simultaneous polls. As the first step, the committee has suggested that simultaneous elections be held for the House of the People (Lok Sabha) and the State Legislative Assemblies. In the second step, it has called for holding elections to the Municipalities and the Panchayats and synchronising them with the elections to the Lok Sabha and the Assemblies in such a way that the gap between the two is not more than 100 days. The committee had also recommended that there should be a single electoral roll and electoral photo identity cards for use in elections to all the three tiers of Government. Besides Kovind, the highlevel Committee also comprised Union Home Minister Amit Shah, former Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad, former Finance Commission chairman N.K. Singh, former secretary general of Lok Sabha Dr. Subhash C. Kashyap, senior advocate Harish Salve, Senior Advocate and former Chief Vigilance Commissioner Sanjay Kothari. CONTD. ON NATION 2029 TIMELINE n 18,000-page report on 'One Nation One Election' n Unanimous opinion favours simultaneous polls n Can be held by 2029, for which constitutional amendments  needed are n Envisages municipal polls within 100 days of LS and State Assembly elections n  Single electoral roll and photo identity card will be facilitated n  Shorter term for assemblies elected after 2024 Amnesty for 8,000 State jail inmates SOMENDRA SHARMA / MUMBAI As many as 8000 prisoners lodged in the state prisons may benefit from the amnesty granted by the state government. Amnesty has been announced for convicts who have been sentenced for more than one month to life imprisonment. The period of amnesty will range from five days to 15 months, officials said. According to the prison officials, this gesture comes on the occasion of the Amrit Mahotsava of Indian Independence, when a proposal was sent by Amitabh Gupta, CONTD. ON NATION ’93 MUMBAI SERIAL BLASTS / MAJOR ACT OF OMISSION Nation fails to honour braveheart DHAIRYA GAJARA / MUMBAI He served the country as an Army officer, and shortly after retirement, was rushed in to help avert disaster on and after ‘Black Friday’ in Mumbai – March 12, 1993, when serial bomb blasts had rocked the city Two days after, Major . Vasant Jadhav (retd), put his life in peril once again, by defusing a live bomb in Dadar, and yet, what has the country done for him? Failed to honour him for his acts of valour. Decades have passed but his services have gone unsung, despite his numerous appeals to the authorities, and now, the retired major, 76, has em- PIC: SALMAN ANSARI barked on a hunger strike at the very spot where he had helped avert disaster 31 years ago, demanding the recognition he justly deserves. Commemorating the 31st anniversary of the act on Thursday Jadhav sat at the , exact spot where the scooter with bomb was parked, under a hoarding and distributed pamphlets to passersby express, ing the wish that someday he would re, ceive his fair share of recognition for his courageous act. Jadhav had retired from the Army two months before the bomb blasts and had joined the bomb squad governed by the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security Since . he was no longer an Army officer, he was not eligible for the Sena Medal. Therefore, the ministry of civil aviation recommended him for the President’s Police Medal for CONTD. ON NATION Gallantry . PETROL PRICE CUT: Petrol and diesel prices have been cut by `2 per litre, just ahead of the election dates. In Mumbai, where VAT and other taxes make fuel costlier than in Delhi, the effective price would be `104.21 per litre, compared to `106.31 a litre. Part 1 and Part 2 -- under the head “Details of electoral bonds submitted by SBI”. Part 1 has 337 pages and provides the date of purchase of the bonds, the name of the purchaser and the denomination. The purchase dates range from April 12, 2019 to January 11, 2024. Part 2 has 426 pages of data which provides the date of encashment, the name of the political party and the denomination of electoral bonds. The date range of encashment of these bonds is from April 12, 2019, to January 24, 2024. The SBI had on Wednesday filed a compliance affidavit in the Supreme Court wherein it said it has submitted before the Election Commission the details of electoral bonds purchased and redeemed from April 14, 2019 to February 15, 2024. CONTD. ON NATION PARANJOY GUHA THAKURTA MUMBAI H ere is a tentative list of entities in corporate groups that purchased electoral bonds and the controversies surrounding some of these groups. We know that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) got more than half the funds from the redemption of bonds between 2018 and 2024. One of the companies that bought the bonds is FuAnother controversial ture Gaming and Hotel Serv- company that bought bonds ices. This company bought is Megha Engineering and bonds worth Rs 1,368 crore. Infrastructure Limited, The person behind this com- which is part of a group pany is Santiago Martin, of- based in Telangana. The ten called India’s group is associated “lottery king.” with the KaleshThere have been waram lift EXCLUSIVE tion project irrigaseveral investigain the tions about this person’s fi- state. Megha Krishna Reddy nancial dealings by govern- is one of the prominent indiment authorities, including viduals behind this group, by the Enforcement Direc- which was also associated torate, that are pending. He with a controversial water was once arrested in 2008 in pipeline project in Odisha. an unrelated case pertaining A Congress leader Reto allegations about acquisi- vanth Reddy (now the Chief tion of land. Minister of Telangana) had THE FPJ written to his predecessor K Chandrashekar Rao, making several allegations against the Megha Krishna Reddy group, that is also a major contributor to the Prudent Electoral Trust, the biggest among all the 18 electoral trusts in the country Such . trusts can make tax-exempt donations to political parties. A report by Reuters has highlighted how prominent business groups contributed to the trust that was set up in 2013 and has received over Rs 20,000 crore. Eight major groups donated heavily to CONTD. ON NATION