Vol. 35 No. 35 | SUNDAY | MAY 26, 2024 | 28 Pages | `5 & for Pune `6 only Grammy winner Brazilian jazz pianist Eliane Elias gears up for a concert in Mumbai E-AUCTION SALE (Under SARFAESI Act 2002) Residential Flat @ Goregaon (E) Carpet area 158.40 sq. mts. (Flat Nos. 1201 & 1202 combined) situated at Panchsheel Building, Gokuldham, Goregaon (East) *Near Gokuldham Medical Centre *Near RBI Officers Quarters E-Auction on 30.05.2024 between 12.00 PM and 01.00 PM with auto time extensions of 5 minutes each, till sale is concluded. UPSET PRICE: Rs. 3.60 Cr. Visit: www.tmbank.in The Authorised Officer, Tamilnad Mercantile Bank Ltd., Mumbai Mandvi Branch, 100/104, Goradia House Building, Kazi Syed Street, Ist Floor, Mumbai - 400 003, Mob: 9821165681, Ph: 022-23415624 THE FP BULLETIN DOMBIVLI FACTORY OWNER REMANDED A court in Thane district on Saturday remanded in police custody till May 29 the owner of the chemical factory in Dombivli where an explosion killed 10 persons and injured more than 60 to police custody. Malay Mehta, 38, the owner of Amudan Chemicals in the MIDC area where a boiler exploded on Thursday, was produced before the magistrate court in Kalyan, deputy commissioner of police Parag Manere confirmed. The police sought Mehta's custody for 14 days and informed the court that they had to visit the factory site and find out if more persons were involved in the crime, he said. COST INFLATION INDEX NOTIFIED T he Cost Inflation Index (CII) for financial year 2024-25 stood at 363, marking an increase of 15 points, which corresponds to an annual inflation rate of 4.3 per cent, according to a notification of the Central Board of Direct Taxes. The CII for the last fiscal was 348 and for 2022-23 was 331, according to the income tax department, which has notified the CII for the current fiscal for for calculating long-term capital gains arising from sale of immovable property, securities and jewellery. The CII reflects the inflation in the economy, according to Moore Singhi executive director Rajat Mohan. TRUCK DRIVER TO BE DEPORTED A n Indian-origin truck driver who caused a bus crash in Canada that killed 16 members and injured 13 of a junior hockey team in 2018 was on Friday ordered to be deported to India. Jaskirat Singh Sidhu, a truck driver from Calgary, barreled through a stop sign and into the path of the Humboldt Broncos junior hockey team's bus at a rural intersection near Tisdale in Saskatchewan Province. Sidhu's lawyer Michael Greene has said the decision was a foregone conclusion, as all that's required to deport Sidhu is proof that he's not a Canadian citizen and he committed a serious crime, CBC News reported. SSC RESULTS ON MONDAY T he results of the Class 10 Secondary School Certificate (SSC) exams will be declared at 1pm on Monday (May 27). Candidates who have appeared for the exam can check their results on the Maharashtra Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education’s official website, mahresult.nic.in. More than 16 lakh students had registered for the Class 10 examination, which was conducted between March 1 and 22. DOC ARRESTED FOR ACCIDENT D r Rajesh Dere, head of the Forensic Medicine and Toxicology department of Lokmanya Tilak Hospital General Hospital, was arrested late on Saturday night, following a fatal hit-and-run accident on the hospital’s premises. Dere had admitted the victim, Rubeda Shaikh (60), a resident of Mumbra, to the hospital, popularly known as the Sion Hospital, saying she was found ‘unconscious’ near the exit gate, according to Sion police. Mastering the digital shift Crucial role of Artificial Intelligence upskilling in today’s modern world 50.72 CR PEOPLE VOTED IN FIRST FIVE PHASES: EC FPJ NEWS SERVICE / NEW DELHI As many as 50.72 crore people of the 76.41 crore eligible voters have cast their vote in the first five phases of the Lok Sabha elections, the Election Commission of India (ECI) said on Saturday even as it came out with the constituency-wise data on the number of votes cast in these phases of the polls. The data showed that 11 Modi hits dissonant note After machli, mutton, mangalsutra, Muslim League, Narendra Modi deploys another `M' word: Mujra DHEERAJ KUMAR / PATNA Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday hit a controversial note during his attack on INDIA bloc by accusing it of doing 'mujra’ for its vote banks; mujra is a dance usually associated with courtesans, stemming in the popular belief from the Mughal era. The comment immediately evoked sharp reactions and looked poised to escalate into a major controversy . Addressing an election in Bikram under Patliputra Lok Sabha constituency in favour of BJP candidate Ram Kripal Yadav, Modi said, “For Modi, the Constitution and Baba Saheb Ambedkar`s sentiments are supreme. Bihar is the land which has given a new direction to the fight for social justice. I wish to declare on its soil that I will frustrate all attempts of the INDIA bloc to snatch SCs, STs and OBCs of their rights and divert these to Muslims. They (INDIA bloc) may remain enslaved and perform ‘mujra’ to please their vote bank. I will not let them snatch away reservations as long as I am alive," he added. The PM accused Congress of changing the law linked to minority institutions to please their vote bank as thousands of institutions were declared minority institutions in the process. After these institutions were declared minority institutions, SCs, STs, and OBCs could not get reservation facilities during admissions in them, he declared. CONTD. ON NATION PTI / NEW DELHI 66.71 with 10.58 crore people out of the total 15.86 crore eligible voters casting their vote. The third phase of the polls on May 7 for 94 seats saw as many as 11.32 crore of the 17.24 crore eligible voters exercising their franchise, a polling percentage of 65.68, while in the fourth phase of the polls on May 13 for 96 seats, as many as 12.25 crore crore voters out of the total of 17.71 crore electors cast their votes, with the polling percentage being 66.71. The fifth phase of the polls on May 20 for 49 seats, the polling percentage was 62.20 as 5.57 crore of the 8.96 crore eligible voters exercised their franchise. The poll panel also said there is a pattern in creating false narratives and mischievous designs to vitiate the electoral process, and asserted that any alteration in the number of the votes polled is not possible. CONTD. ON NATION 22, including kids, die in Rajkot fire AGENCIES / RAJKOT At least 22 people were charred to death in a massive fire that broke out at a game zone in Gujarat's Rajkot on Saturday afternoon, officials said. The toll could go up. Rajkot Commissioner of Police, Raju Bhargava said, "The fire is under control, and the rescue operations are ongoing." "Around 20 bodies have been recovered and sent to the hospital for post-mortem examination. A probe will be taken up after the rescue and dousing operations," the Commissioner said. The fire broke out at TRP Game Zone. The reason is not yet clear. Accord- ing to officials, the temporary structure of the commercial establishment came down after the massive fire, trapping dozens of people under it. Upon receiving information, a team of fire tenders and officials reached the spot and started an operation to rescue people trapped underneath. The collapse of the structure also made it difficult for fire department officials to carry out the dousing operation. "We are facing difficulty in the firefighting operation because the temporary structure collapsed due to wind velocity said the officer. ," CONTD. ON NATION PUNE PORSCHE CRASH FPJ NEWS SERVICE / PUNE Pune police on Saturday arrested Surendra Kumar Agarwal (77), grandfather of the 17-year-old involved in the notorious Porsche car crash in Kalyani Nagar area on May 19. The police alleged that Surendra Agarwal and his son Vishal put tremendous pressure on their driver Gangadhar Herikrub (44) and forced him to admit that he was at the wheel of the Porsche when the accident took place. The driver's mobile phone was taken away from him and he was confined in a room in the Agarwal household in Vadgaon Sheri. He was threatened with dire conse- FPJ NEWS SERVICE / MUMBAI quences and also offered allurements to make him tell the police that he was driving the sports car on the crucial night of the incident. The police said they had CCTV footage of the car which clearly showed that the minor boy was at the wheel. He was totally drunk and speeding at 200 kmph when he fatally knocked down two 24 year old techies, Anish Awadhiya and Ashwini Koshta, who were returning on a motorcycle. Both of them hailed from Madhya Pradesh. CONTD. ON NATION (From L to R) Anasuya Sengupta, Chindana S Naik, Mansi Maheshwari, Santosh Sivan colonised to know that colonising is pathetic. We just need to be very very de, cent human beings,” the actor said. The Un Certain Regard, which runs parallel to the festival's main competition, aims to highlight new trends, new paths and new countries of cinema. Anasuya is recognised primarily for her work as a production designer in Mumbai and currently resides in Goa. She contributed to the set design of the Netflix show ‘Masaba Masaba’. CONTD. ON NATION The Allahabad High Court came down heavily against Chief Judicial Magistrate Bhagwan Das Gupta at Banda for misusing his position to file a false criminal case against officials of the State Electricity Department. The Bar and Bench reports that JusticesRahul Chaturvedi and Azhar Hussain Idrisi recently determined that a criminal complaint filed by Gupta was a falsehood which levelled wild allegations of fraud, cheating, fabrication and extortion. The Court observed that the case was filed solely to PROFILE Butchered Bangla MP had a colourful past SANJIB GHOSE / KOLKATA Anwarul Azim Anar, the Bangladesh ruling party MP who is suspected to have been murdered in Kolkata had a very colourful past, going by media reports in Bangladesh and information that is coming out in dribbles from the briefings of Harun Rashid, additional Commissioner (DB) of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police. Several criminal cases against Azim melted away when he entered politics. Azim, the three time MP of ruling Awami League in Bangladesh, was re-elected in the January National poll in Bangladesh from Jhenidah-4 seat in adjacent to Nadia district of West Bengal Being a resident of the area, this erstwhile footballer, was engaged in smuggling from a very early age and had an Interpol lookout notice issued on him. In 2008, Interpol had issued a notice against him in connection with several criminal cases, including arms and explosives, as there were several pending cases in Jhenaidah and Chuadanga. Though it was lifted later. Initially he was involved In 2008, Interpol had issued a notice against him in connection with several criminal cases, including arms and explosives, as there were several pending cases in Jhenaidah and Chuadanga. with left leaning politics and controlled extremists in the west and South of Bangladesh adjacent to Bengal border.Using that popularity in 1993, he was elected the , first Commissioner of Kali- ganj Municipality Soon he . switched to all forms of illegal trade from explosives, drugs, gold smuggling to weapons. As an extortionist, he controlled the government tenders in is area. Until the mo- DRIVER’S WOES T he driver's mobile phone was taken away from him and he was confined in a room in the Agarwal household in Vadgaon Sheri. He was threatened with dire consequences and also offered allurements to make him tell the police that he was driving the sports car on the crucial night of the incident, and not the drunk minor. Allahabad HC pulls up CJM over false FIR ONLINE REPORT / ALLAHABAD who hails from Kolkata, dedicated the award to “to the queer community and other marginalised communities” for bravely fighting for their rights all around the world. “You don’t have to be queer to fight for equality , you don’t have to be An approximate voter turnout of 59.06 per cent was recorded in the sixth phase of the Lok Sabha elections on Saturday in 58 constituencies across six states and two Union territories with the polling percentage in the Jangal Mahal region of West Bengal touching 78.19. Incidents of minor clashes and protests were reported from West Bengal while there were instances of EVM malfunctioning at some places, including in Delhi. Jharkhand recorded a turnout of 62.74 per cent, Uttar Pradesh 54.03 per cent, Bihar 53.30 per cent, Jammu and Kashmir 52.28 per cent, Haryana 58.37 per cent, Odisha 60.07 and Delhi 54.48 per cent, according to the figures released by the Election Commission as of 7.45 pm. The EC said polling percentage in the Anantnag-Rajouri seat in Jammu and Kashmir is the highest in decades. With this phase, polling is now complete in 486 seats in 28 states and Union territories. The last of the seven phases of polling is scheduled on June 1 and counting of votes will be taken up on June 4. With large parts of India sweltering under a heatwave, arrangements for cold water, coolers, fans and tents were made at several polling stations. Wheelchairs were kept for the elderly voters. Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chief Mehbooba Mufti, GRANDFATHER ARRESTED FOR “ILLEGAL CONFINEMENT” Anasuya creates history at Cannes Anasuya Sengupta created history by becoming the first Indian artiste to win the Best Actress award in the Un Certain Regard category at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival for her performance in The Shameless. The Hindi-language film, directed and written by Bulgarian filmmaker Konstantin Bojanov, revolves around Renuka, played by Anasuya, who escapes from a Delhi brothel after killing a police officer. The film also stars Omara Shetty the love inter, est of Renuka. In her acceptance speech on Friday night, Sengupta, Aamir Khan gets nostalgic about his iconic film Sarfarosh completing 25 years Flashback time! 59% polling in sixth phase The poll panel came out with the absolute number of voters on its own a day after the SC refused to issue directions to it on an NGO’s plea for uploading the polling booth-wise voter turnout data on its website. crore voters out of 16.64 crore total electors cast their vote in the first phase held on April 19 for 102 seats, the polling percentage being 66.14. In the second phase held on April 26 for 88 seats, the polling percentage was www.freepressjournal.in MEMBER: AUDIT BUREAU OF CIRCULATION JANUARY TO DECEMBER 2023 EDITIONS: MUMBAI*, Pune, Nashik, Konkan, Indore, Bhopal, E-paper Jazz and beyond Quality at Value Reg. No. MCS/048/2021-23; RNI No. 46955/1988 M.p.c.s. office Mumbai-400001 ment he joined politics, there were several cases against him, cases which eventually melted away He engaged with . local criminals to develop quite an empire starting in 1986. In the 1990s he started something called the ‘Token System' in Bangladesh, whereby tokens were issued to the lorries which were carrying drugs on both sides of the border. The police released the vehicles of token holders. A bit like Pablo Escobar, he was called the ‘drug baron’ in Bangladesh and parts of Bengal. CONTD. ON NATION teach the government servants a "bitter lesson". It remarked that Gupta had virtually auctioned his chair, honour and reputation when he went out of his way to exert threats on the government officers to compel them to serve his own personal and financial interests. "A judicial officer ... just to harass the petitioners who in discharging of their official duties were doing a government job entrusted to them, is proceeding to initiate a criminal case, so that the petitioners may kneel down before him and start dancing on his tune," Court said. the CONTD. ON NATION Besides 7 Delhi seats, polling was held in 14 constituencies in UP, 10 seats in Haryana, 8 each in Bihar and West Bengal, six in Odisha, four in Jharkhand and one seat in J&K. who is contesting from the Anantnag-Rajouri seat in Jammu and Kashmir, staged a sit-in outside Bijbehara police station on the Srinagar-Jammu national highway in Anantnag district against alleged detention of her party workers and polling agents. She also claimed outgoing calls on her mobile number had been suspended. Police, however, said those detained were overground workers (OGWs) and the action was taken to ensure smooth conduct of elections. CPI(M) leader Brinda Karat alleged she had to wait for almost an hour to cast her vote as the battery of the EVM control unit at her polling booth "drained out". The District Election Officer later said the battery was replaced within 15 minutes. Besides all the seven seats of Delhi, polling was held in 14 constituencies in Uttar Pradesh, all 10 seats in Haryana, eight seats each in Bihar and West Bengal, six seats in Odisha, four seats in Jharkhand and one seat in Jammu and Kashmir. CONTD. ON NATION Water cut from May 30 RUCHA KANOLKAR / MUMBAI F aced with a significant shortage in its water reserves, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) announced a 5 per cent water cut starting May 30, going up to a 10 percent cut from June 5. There remains only about 10 percent of the usable water stock in the reservoirs that supply Mumbai. This move also covers the Thane Municipal Corporation and the Bhiwandi Nizampura Municipal Corporations, says the BMC. In a statement on Saturday it let it be known that as of May 25, the dams supplying water to Mumbai hold 1,40,202 million litres, which accounts for just 9.69 percent of the annual requirement of 14,47,363 million litres. Earlier, on May 7, BMC Commissioner Bhushan Gagrani had said the city’s water stock was sufficient, with supply management strategies in place to last until July 31. The BMC now says the water restrictions would stay until substantial rainfall replenishes the water bodies. "There is no need for Mumbaikars to panic. Nonetheless, the BMC administration earnestly requests all citizens to use water judiciously," said a BMC Official. CONTD. ON NATION India, China hindering tax deal: US Treasury Secretary ONLINE REPORT US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen stated on Friday that she is working to save a component of the global corporate tax agreement targeting highly profitable multinational corporations but “India is refusing to engage on issues important to US interests”. China also has been “all but absent” in the negotiations to finalize “Pillar 1” of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) corporate tax deal reached in principle in 2021 that involves 140 countries, Yellen told Reuters in an interview. “We are actively engaged in this negotiation” to meet an end-June deadline for the deal, Yellen said in the interview on the sidelines of a G7 finance leaders meeting in Italy . “We're committed to doing everything we possibly can to make it work,” she said. Earlier on Friday Italian , Finance Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti cited objections from the US, India and China to say that the Pillar 1 negotiations were set to fail. CONTD. ON NATION