Vol. 67 No. 243 | FRIDAY | JULY 12, 2024 | 27 Pages | `5 & for Pune `6 only Reg.No MCS/048/2021-23; RNI No. 1541/1957 M.p.c.s office Mumbai. PIN 400001 THE FREE PRESS JOURNAL www.freepressjournal.in EDITIONS: MUMBAI INDORE PUNE BHOPAL NASHIK KONKAN E-paper GAMES NATION Congress, INDIA will raise Manipur issue in Parliament, says Rahul Gandhi Paolini edges Vekic in the Wimbledon semis, makes it to her 2nd consecutive Grand Slam final Member: Audit Bureau of Circulation (Jan to Dec 2023) Cinema India changes every 50 kilometers: Purab Kohli Edit Bihar, a byword for corruption UPSC RIDDLE | Is there a foolproof system for verifying an IAS aspirant’s disability and OBC claims? CRACKS ON SAMRUDDHI MAHAMARG Cong takes a crack at Mahayuti Govt Panel to vet how officer Puja ‘sneaked’ into IAS V SUDARSHAN NEW DELHI fp Briefs NEET hearing is deferred The hearing on the batch of petitions seeking cancellation of NEET UG 2024 on the ground of question paper leak was deferred by the Supreme Court on Thursday. The CJIheaded Bench said that it will hear the case on July 18, since some of the parties were yet to examine the replies filed by the Centre and the NTA. Spicejet staff slaps CISF man A SpiceJet staff member was arrested on Thursday after she allegedly slapped a CISF jawan during an argument over security screening. Anuradha Rani, a food supervisor with the airline, was entering the airport along with other staff through the “vehicle gate” around 4 am when she was stopped by Assistant Sub Inspector Giriraj Prasad for not having valid permission to use that gate. She was then asked to undergo screening at the nearby entrance for airline crew, but there were no female CISF personnel available at the time. Jaipur airport SHO Ral Lal said the ASI called for a female colleague for the security check, but the argument escalated and the SpiceJet employee slapped him. First SC judge from Manipur The Supreme Court Collegium has recommended Chief Justice of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh High Court Nongmeikapam Kotiswar Singh and Acting Chief of Madras High Court R Mahadevan for elevation to the top court. On appointment, Justice Singh will be the first judge from the State of Manipur to be appointed as a judge of the Supreme Court. The Centre on Thursday constituted a single-member Committee "to verify the candidature" of controversial probationary IAS officer Puja Khedkar, amid allegations she misused the disability and Other Backward Class quota to secure a position in the service. The probe would be conducted by an additional secretary-rank officer to verify the candidature claims and other details of the 2023 batch officer, who has been allotted A petition has been filed in the Bombay High Court seeking contempt proceedings against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Shiv Sena (UBT) leaders Uddhav Thackeray, Aditya Thackeray, Sanjay Raut and YouTuber Dhruv Rathee, for allegedly meddling in a sub judice matter. As per the petition, the respondents – Rahul Gandhi and others – had posted on the social media platform 'X', a story published in tabloid 'Mid-Day', about an FIR being registered for hacking of EVMs allegedly by the family members of Ravindra Waikar, a Sena leader. troversy, there are three aspects that swim into view: One, her OBC non-creamy layer status, which if it has been claimed, seems to be at a 4Contd on | nation OBC’s NON-CREAMY ASSETS WORTH RS 22 CRORE uja Khedkar's "statement of immovable property for the year 2023", exclusively accessed by NDTV, reveals that the junior officer owns five plots of land and two apartments across Maharashtra. The value of these assets totals a whopping Rs 22 crore. The disclosure lists her as the owner of two plots in Pune district's Mahalunge worth nearly Rs 16 crore, one in Pune district's Dhadawali worth Rs 4 crore, and two P in Ahmednagar's Pachunde and Nandur worth Rs 25 lakh and Rs 1 crore, respectively. The plots in Pachunde and Nandur were a gift from her mother. In all, she owns over 22 acres of land, reports NDTV. She also has two apartments in Ahmednagar and Pune. The 984square-foot flat in Ahmednagar's Savedi is worth Rs 45 lakh and the 724-square-foot apartment in Pune's Kondhwa is worth Rs 75 lakh. ‘Kar li duniya mutthi mein’ S Balakrishnan MUMBAI PM to kickoff GMLR tunnel FPJ News Service 4Contd on | nation the country. The ‘Shubh Vivah’ is on Friday, ‘Shubh Ashirwad’ on Saturday and ‘Mangal Utsav’ on Sunday. The venue is the Jio International Convention Centre at the Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC), where a thick security carpet has been laid out since on the red carpet will be the who’s who of politics, India Inc, Bollywood, international tycoons and the diplomatic corps from New Delhi are expected to attend the mega ceremonies, which, according to the BBC, is ‘turning heads around the world’. Founding patriarch Dhirubhai Ambani’s favourite slogan used to be: ‘Karlo duniya mutthi mein’ and his son is demonstrating how he has already done so. 4Contd on | nation 4Contd on | nation Cross-voting spectre hovers over MLC polls Rohit Chandvarkar Friday's State Legislative Council (MLC) polls will be keenly watched. Maharashtra with its 48 Lok Sabha seats matters a lot in national politics now, as no single party has a clear majority in Parliament and MLC polls are the ‘semi-final’ ahead of the state assembly polls, due in just over three months. This election will have MLAs voting for the seats in the upper house at Vidhan Bhavan. Polling is for 11 seats and 12 contestants are in the fray. One of the reasons this election has become newsworthy is that in the last MLC polls in July 2022 there was cross-voting and the Congress party lost a seat which was originally expected to be won by the party. Congress party's Chandrakant Handore lost and BJP's Prasad Lad won after some members cross-voted. That was widely seen as the BJP's and Devendra Fadnavis's strategy which then culminated in the about 4Contd on | nation QUOTA FOR AGNIVEERS The CISF and the BSF will reserve 10 per cent posts of constables for former Agniveers in line with a decision taken by the Union Home Ministry. In physical tests also, they will be given exemption along with relaxation of the age limit. In the first year, the age relaxation is for five years and, in the subsequent year, the age relaxation will be three years. VERDICT IN SANSKRIT The Allahabad High Court has made history by delivering its judgment in three languages—English, Hindi, and Sanskrit—a first among all High Courts. A single judge wrote the judgment on alimony. Olympic clean-up: Paris evicts homeless FPJ News Service The French government has put thousands of homeless immigrants on buses and bundled them out of Paris before the Olympics. The immigrants said they were promised housing elsewhere; however, they ended up living on unfamiliar streets far from home or flagged for de- 4Contd on | nation The Central Bureau of Investigation on Thursday arrested the alleged kingpin of the NEET paper leak, Rakesh Ranjan alias Rocky, from Bihar`s Nalanda district. He is an active member of the notorious Sanjeev Mukhiya gang. Rocky also happens to be Mukhiya’s nephew. Before he joined forces with his uncle, he ran a restaurant in Ranchi. Acting on a tip off, a CBI off-grid PARIS T ‘Rocky’, leak kingpin, held The Maharashtra government on Thursday tabled a bill in the assembly aimed at preventing the unlawful activities of individuals and organisations, with Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis stressing the need to curb the rising presence of Naxal outfits in rural and urban areas through effective legal means. Chhattisgarh, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Odisha have enacted Public Security Acts for the effective prevention of unlawful activities. MUMBAI Prime Minister Modi will perform the groundbreaking ceremony of a 4.7-km twin tunnel under the ambitious Goregaon-Mulund Link Road (GMLR) project at Nesco Exhibition Centre on July 13. The project is estimated to cost Rs. 6,301 crores. Once completed, this road will seamlessly connect the Eastern and Western suburbs, drastically reducing travel time between Mulund and Goregaon from 75 minutes to just 25 minutes. The 12.2km road – connecting the Western Express Highway at Goregaon to the aking serious cognizance of reports appearing in a section of the media, the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) has taken up immediate repairs of the 40metre-long crack that has surfaced on the Hinduhrudaysamrat Balasaheb Thackeray Maharashtra Samruddhi Mahamarg (HBTMSM). According to an MSRDC release, the highway passes over a three-metre embankment at this spot. Bill tightens noose around urban Naxals MUMBAI The stage is set for the biggest power wedding India has ever witnessed. On Friday, Anant Ambani, 29, son of industrialist Mukesh Ambani – whose personal wealth is reportedly a mind-boggling $115 billion – will tie the knot with his sweetheart of eight years, Radhika Merchant,29, the daughter of Encore Healthcare chief Viren Merchant. It was love at fight sight for both of them and the chemistry continues to be on display at all photo shoots. For three days, invitees will witness the most expensive wedding ever celebrated in MSRDC is on the job Taking a crack at the state government on Thursday, the Congress party pointed out the cracks that have appeared on the Mumbai-Nagpur Samruddhi Marg. However, the state government has claimed that repairs have been taken up immediately. According to the state government, a crack appeared on the 40-metre-long concrete panel of the highway towards Mumbai, at the Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar district near Fatiyabad village. Congress State President Nana Patole said, “There is huge corruption going on in the Mahayuti government. Every department is busy receiving commission. There has also been corruption in the construction of the Samruddhi highway, which was built at a cost of Rs 55,000 crore.” He further alleged that cracks have appeared within a year solely because of corruption. The Samruddhi Mahamarg is known as the highway of death because of frequent accidents, Patole alleged. Patole told the media, “Prime Minister Narendra Modi had inaugurated the highway. Not just Samruddhi highway, cracks have also appeared on the Atal Setu connecting Mumbai and Navi Mumbai. These cracks show the weakness of Modi’s guarantee. There is rampant corruption going on but this government has no shame,” Patole declared. However, the state government has informed that the said highway passes over a three-metre embankment at the spot where the crack has appeared. Prima facie it appears that a small portion of the embankment has been pressed within, resulting in the appearance of the crack. The surface of the highway is safe and poses no threat to vehicles, the state government has vouched. The state has claimed that the ‘defect liability period’ of the said road is till June 2026 and therefore, the 50-metre-long concrete stretch is being constructed anew by the contractor, at his own expense. Kalpesh Mhamunkar Ambani scion all set to make a match of it today MUMBAI Rathee, Rahul, face contempt the Maharashtra cadre. The report will be submitted in two weeks. In untangling the various strands of the Khedkar con- complete variance with her economic status, given her father's declared assets of Rs 40 crore; Khedkar seems to be way above the creamy layer. Two, her disability status; there is some confusion over what kind of disability she has claimed. Reports suggest two kinds -- mental and visual impairment. Either seems unproven going by the number of times she seems to have dodged verification at the AIIMS; as many as six times, according to some reports. Kalpesh Mhamunkar MUMBAI portation. The New York Times reports that the Olympic Village was built in one of Paris’ poorest suburbs, where thousands of people live in street encampments, shelters or abandoned buildings. Police and courts have evicted roughly 5,000 people, most of them single men from around the city, the NYT said, quoting Chris- tophe Noël du Payrat, a senior federal official in Paris. They have been sent off in buses to cities like Lyon or Marseille. “We were expelled because of the Olympic Games,” said Mohamed Ibrahim, from Chad, who was evicted from an abandoned cement factory near the Olympic Village. 4Contd on | nation Dheeraj Kumar PATNA Rocky and Mukhiya team raided different hideouts of Rocky in Nalanda and took him into custody. Rocky, who hails from Nawada district, has been under watch ever since his name surfaced in connection with the paper leak. After his arrest, Rocky was produced before the special CBI court in the state capital which has given the agency 10day remand. During investigation, it turned out that Rocky had obtained the question paper from Jharkhand on his mobile phone, ahead of the examination on May 5. 4Contd on | nation