FP The publishers permit sharing of the e-paper's pdf on WhatsApp and other social media platforms Vol. 15 No. 13 | BHOPAL | FRIDAY | JUNE 27, 2025 | Pages 16 ` 3 | Regd. No. Indore MP/ICD 216/2024-2026 | RNI No. mpeng/2010/35815 FREE www.freepressjournal.in Sports GOLDEN SWEEP IN KUCHING P.14 ESTD-1983 iii QUALITY @ VALUE EDITIONS: BHOPAL UJJAIN MONEY PRESS PUNE INDORE NASHIK MUMBAI E-paper Edit A giant leap for India in space P.6 India’s EV growth is significantly lower than top 10 countries Cinema I would want to play Krishna. Or Ravan P.13 Axiom-4: Shubhanshu first Indian to enter ISS PTI NEW DELHI India's Shubhanshu Shukla and three other astronauts entered the International Space Station to warm hugs from the crew members of the orbital laboratory on Thursday. The space station crew welcomed Axiom-4 mission commander Peggy Whitson as she floated into the station soon after the hatch-opening procedures were completed at 5:44 pm IST. Shukla, the mission pilot, followed Whitson, with Polish engineer Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski, a mission specialist and a European Space Agency project astronaut, close behind. "We are happy to be here. It was a long quarantine," Whitson, who is on her fifth space- flight, said as the four astronauts waved to the mission control at Houston. HORRIFIC | FIR reveals human trafficking, hypnosis plot by event manager, accomplices Minor sold for Rs 20K, raped at pool party Our Staff Reporter BHOPAL The horrifying case of a 15year-old girl raped during a pool party at a farmhouse in Khajuri has escalated into a full-fledged human trafficking probe. Police investigations have revealed that the minor was sold for Rs 20,000 by event manager Riya Yadav, who, along with her accomplices, allegedly orchestrated the abuse for financial gain. A case has been registered at TT Nagar police station, where the girl’s mother had initially filed a complaint of abduction after the victim went missing on June 18. Following her rescue on June 21, the minor gave a detailed statement to the fp Hypnosis used to control minor The alleged sorcerer, Hanif Shah of Jehangirabad — who also works as a property dealer — told Riya he could hypnotise people. Riya reportedly asked him to hypnotise the minor girl and her mother so they would obey her instructions and not approach police.She even gave Hanif a list of names, including her two boyfriends and their family members, as she wanted to control their actions for her own benefit. Child Welfare Committee (CWC), prompting the police to expand the scope of the FIR to include rape, molestation, human trafficking and relevant sections of the POCSO Act. Police said Riya Yadav came in contact with garment trader Mukesh Balchandani (37) at a party and offered to “arrange girls” for him in exchange for money. She alleg- The six arrested so far areevent managerRiya Yadav (23), garment traderMukesh Balchandani (37), Mukesh’s friendKapil, Riya’s boyfriend Naved (22), Naved’s cousinAnas (21) and sorcererHanif Shah (36). They face charges under sections related to abduction, rape, human trafficking, molestation and POCSO Act. Police are actively searching for Riya’s friend Mahi, whose role is under investigation. Failing to report minor's sexual abuse Maheshwar, Mandleshwar tobacco-free Black box data extraction on The government on Thursday said data is being extracted from black boxes of the Air India plane that crashed on June 12, and the analysis of the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder is underway. completed at 4:15 pm IST. After the soft capture of the spacecraft, the hard-mating was completed when the two orbiting bodies were connected with 12 sets of hooks with each other and communication and power links were established. The hatch-opening procedures took an hour and 45 minutes before the astronauts floated on board the space station. Shukla, a test pilot with the Indian Air Force, is the second Indian to go to space and the first since Rakesh Sharma's eight-day sojourn in 1984. Navy staffer held for leaking Op Sindoor info to Pak handler India refuses to sign SCO draft over exclusion of Pahalgam JAIPUR An Indian Navy staffer posted in naval headquarters in Delhi was arrested in Jaipur for allegedly leaking defence-related sensitive information to a Pakistani handler in exchange for money, a police official said on Thursday. Vishal Yadav, an upper division clerk (UDC) in the Directorate of Dockyard at the Navy building, allegedly also shared details on Operation Sindoor - strikes carried out by the Indian Armed Forces in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir in response to the Pahalgam terror attack. Inspector General of Police (CID-Security) Vishnu Kant Gupta said Yadav, originally from Rewari in Haryana, leaked the classified information to a female Pakistani handler posing as an Indian woman. 4Continued on | P8 FP News Service JABALPUR Jabalpur bench of Madhya Pradesh High Court has announced a unique punishment for a station in-charge for failing to serve a notice against repeated sexual abuse of a minor in the city.  The court has ordered the police inspector to plant 1,000 fruit-bearing trees within 2 months and submit a report of the same with pictures.  According to information, the court held the Station House Officer (SHO) of Kotwali police station in Satna, Ra- PTI Eight people, including a newly wed woman and her lover, were arrested in connection with the murder of a land surveyor in Gadwal district of Telangana, police said on Thursday. The police claim to have cracked the case, reminiscent of the recent Meghalaya honeymoon murder, within a week of receiving a com- Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday refused to sign a joint communique of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) following the omission of the Pahalgam terror attack and not explicitly addressing India's concerns over Pakistan-backed crossborder terrorism. At a conference of SCO defence ministers' conclave, Singh demanded inclusion of the dastardly terror attack in the communique while the Pakistani side pressed for having a paragraph on militant activities in Balochistan in an apparent attempt to blame New Delhi, top sources said. The SCO operates under the framework of consensus and Pakistan's approach resulted in the conclave ending without the joint communique, they said. The draft communique neither figured the dastardly Pahalgam terror attack nor reflected India's position on cross-border terrorism, and it would have diluted New Delhi's position on a critical issue, they said. In his address at the conclave, Singh took a swipe at Pakistan for backing terrorist groups, as he called for holding accountable the "perpetrators, organisers, financiers and sponsors" of terrorism, including cross-border terrorism. Highlighting India's Oper- ation Sindoor in response to the Pahalgam strike, the defence minister, who arrived here on Wednesday, said "epicentres of terrorism are no longer safe and we will not hesitate to target them." "Some countries use cross-border terrorism as an instrument of policy and provide shelter to terrorists. There should be no place for such double standards. The SCO should not hesitate to criticise such nations," he said. Pakistan Defence Minister Khawaja Asif and Chinese Defence Minister Dong Jun were among those who attended the conclave. In New Delhi, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said the SCO member nations could not reach a consensus on certain issues and hence the document could not be finalised. 4Continued on | P8 vindra Dwivedi, guilty for not serving the notice as directed in the minor abuse case. As a punishment, High Court has ordered the planta- tion of 1,000 fruit trees such as mango, jamun, mahua, and guava in the Chitrakoot region. The plantation must be finished between July 1 and August 31, 2025. The SHO was also directed to bear all the expenses from his personal income. He must also submit GPS locations and photos of all the planted trees to the court, and he is responsible for taking care of the trees for one year. The compliance must include an affidavit from the Satna Superintendent of Police (SP). Advocate Aarti Vishwakarma, lawyer of the survivor, welcomed the court's action and said it sends a strong message about accountability. The next hearing in the case is scheduled for September 16, 2025. 90° turn to be fixed or ROB will be flattened for new bridge: CM CS directs officers to set Over 8.5L mule accounts in 700 bank Those who are responsible for the fault will face the music, says Yadav Our Staff Reporter BHOPAL Chief Minister Mohan Yadav has made a statement about the 90-degree turn on the railway over bridge in the Aishbagh area in the city. His statement came on the heels of criticism the ROB drew from different parts of the country. Yadav said the ROB did not begin in his tenure. The construction of the bridge started in 2022, he said, adding that he did not even inaugurate it. The fault in the construc- tion of the bridge will be fixed, and if they are unable to solve the problem, the present ROB will be demolished and a new bridge will be built, he said. The government will act against those who were responsible for wrongly constructing the bridge, he said. Faults often occur in construction work, and if there are any faults in the ROB, it will be fixed, he said. Accepting a mistake does not make anyone smaller, Yadav said. The officials of the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) and PWD inspected the ROB, Yadav said. A lack of space is the reason behind the fault, Yadav said, adding that the engineers detected the fault by crossing a truck. 4Continued on | P8 up DPC, give promotion branches used by cyber criminals to staff by July 31 PTI NEW DELHI Our Staff Reporter BHOPAL Chief Secretary Anurag Jain has directed all the departments to set up DPC and give promotion to the employees by July 31 according to the promotion policy. Jain issued the directive at a meeting with the officers over the implementation of the new promotion policy. The DPC will be held twice this year. Another DPC will be held in December. The government’s intention is to complete employees’ wel- fare work as quickly as possible, Jain said. As there has been no promotion for nine years, it should be done without any further delay, he said. He directed the officers to set up departmental advisory committees and complete the work concerned with the annual confidential reports of employees, departmental inquiries and pension cases on time. At the meeting, the officers said higher positions had been given in the departments. 4Continued on | P8 On-deputation staffers won’t be promoted At the meeting, it was clearly said the employees deputed to other places would not get promotion. They will get promotion after their return to parent departments. plaint alleging that Tejeshwar (32) went missing. Tejeshwar left home on June 17 morning but did not return. His brother lodged a complaint with police on June 18. Preliminary investigations, based on CCTV footage, revealed that Tejeshwar had left in a car with known persons. His body was later found near Panyam town in Kurnool district of neighbour- ing Andhra Pradesh. Giving details of the case, police said the main accused Tirumala Rao, a married man working as a Manager in a housing finance company in Kurnool, had developed a relationship with a woman sweeper employed in his office. He helped her obtain housing loans and meet her financial needs, which led to an illicit relationship. He also developed a similar re- The duo discussed Raja murder case and analysed the mistakes made by the accused in that incident lationship with her daughter Aishwarya (23) and allegedly promised to marry her. However, Aishwarya got engaged to Tejeshwar in December, 2024. The CBI has detected 8.50 lakh mule bank accounts in over 700 branches nationwide which are being used by cyber criminals to launder proceeds from scams involving digital theft, impersonation, fraudulent investments, and UPI-based frauds, an enquiry by the agency has found. The central agency's crack- India slams B’desh over demolition of Durga temple NEW DELHI down on these mule accounts, opened using fake IDs for the limited use of siphoning victims' money, came through a coordinated search operation recently at 42 locations in Rajasthan, Delhi, Haryana, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh during which nine suspects were taken into custody, officials said Thursday. Those taken into custody include alleged middlemen, "After this, it became difficult for Tirumala Rao and Aishwarya to continue their relationship. As a result, they both planned to kill Tejeshwar by offering a contract (supari) to people they knew," the release said. Tirumala Rao contacted Kummari Nagesh, a commisison agent who makes a living facilitating home loans. 4Continued on | P8 4Continued on | P8 agents, aggregators, account holders, and banking correspondents, all believed to be instrumental in orchestrating and facilitating the opening of these fictitious accounts, they said. A mule account opened in the name of an individual who may or may not be aware that the account is used to launder illicit money. 4Continued on | P8 Thakur made to wait outside as Shivraj and Kailash confer in room Our Staff Reporter India on Thursday strongly condemned the demolition of the Durga Mandir (temple) in Dhaka, criticising the role of Muhammad Yunus-led interim government in allowing the destruction and projecting it as a case of illegal land use. "We understand that extremists were clamouring for demolishing the Durga temple in Khilkhet, Dhaka. The interim government, instead of providing security to the temple, projected the episode as a case of illegal land use and allowed the destruction of the temple today," Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal Raja ‘link’ in Telangana land surveyor’s murder HYDERABAD PTI QINGDAO/NEW DELHI HC directs SHO to plant 1,000 fruit-bearing trees MANDLESHWAR NEW DELHI 4Continued on | P8 ARRESTS SO FAR Briefs Maheshwar and Mandleshwar have been declared tobacco-free zones at a meeting held here on Thursday. This decision was taken at a meeting chaired by SDM Anil Jain under National Tobacco Control Programme organised at Mandleshwar city council hall. edly took two advance payments and received a final payment of Rs 20,000 on the day of June 20 pool party. Investigators confirmed that Riya deliberately lured and sold the minor girl to Mukesh as part of a premeditated plan. The minor girl informed CWC that on June 19, Riya invited her to her home in Karond and introduced her to a man identified as Hanif Shah, a self-proclaimed sorcerer. This is the first time an Indian astronaut has travelled to the International Space Station. "At 6:31 am EDT (4:01 IST) on Thursday, the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft docked to the International Space Station for the fourth private astronaut mission to the orbiting laboratory, Axiom Mission 4," the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announced in a statement. A live videolink from the NASA showed the spacecraft approaching the space station. The docking sequence was INDORE An unexpected scene unfolded on Thursday at the National Soybean Research Institute (NSRI) when union minister of state (MoS) Savitri Thakur was made to wait outside a room where union agriculture minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and minister Kailash Vijayvargiya were engaged in a closed-door discussion. Thakur, who had arrived at the institute to meet Chouhan during his day-long visit to Indore, had to wait outside the room for nearly five minutes before being allowed in. The incident, though brief, raised several eyebrows—especially given the stature of the leaders involved. The meeting between Chouhan and Vijayvargiya, both prominent figures in Madhya Pradesh politics, was already drawing political interpretations due to its exclusivity. Chouhan was in Indore to take part in a programme focused on soybean farming, oilseed research, and dialogues with agriculturists, as part of the Centre’s Viksit Krishi Sankalp Abhiyan. While the event was primarily aimed at farmers, agricultural scientists, oil industry professionals, and academicians, several BJP leaders from the region also made their way to the venue to connect with the senior Union Minister. 4Continued on | P8