Friday, September 19, 2025 | Vol. 68 No. 298 | 32 Pages THE FREE PRESS JOURNAL Reg.No MCS/048/2021-23; RNI No. 1541/1957 M.p.c.s office Mumbai. PIN 400001 INDIA EDITION | www.freepressjournal.in ● Leader in E-paper circulation HINDENBURG FILES SEBI GIVES CLEAN CHIT TO ADANI PTI NEW DELHI Markets regulator Sebi on Thursday cleared billionaire Gautam Adani and his group of stock manipulation allegations made by US short-seller Hindenburg Research, saying it found no evidence that the conglomerate used related parties to route funds into its listed companies. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) in two separate detailed orders said the allegations of insider trading, market manipulation, and violations of public shareholding norms were found to be unsubstantiated after a detailed investigation. Hindenburg, which has since shut down, in January 2023 published a damning report against the Adani Group. 4Contd on | nation 4See also | money HOPE FLOATS | Chief Economic Adviser Anantha Nageswaran exudes confidence that the worst will be over by year-end ‘Tariffs solution likely in eight to ten weeks’ PTI KOLKATA Chief Economic Adviser V Anantha Nageswaran on Thursday said he expects that a solution to the tariff issues with the US is likely to come in the next eight to ten weeks. The US had imposed an additional 25% tariff on Indian products in August, citing India’s purchases of Russian oil. With this, the total levy on Indian goods rose to 50%. He told an event organised by the Bharat Chamber of Commerce: “Underneath the surface, conversations are going on between the two governments. My hunch is that in the next eight to ten weeks, we will likely see a solution to the tariffs imposed by the US on Indian goods.” He cautioned that if the tariffs continued, exports to the US would fall. Later in the day, at an event organised by the Merchants Chamber of Commerce and I’m very close to the PM of India. We have a very good relationship and he put out a beautiful statement too. But I sanctioned them. If the price of oil comes down, Putin is going to drop out. He’s going to have no choice V Nageswaran Donald Trump, US president Industry, he added, “I hope that the penal tariff would possibly be removed by the end of November,” while clarifying that this was only his intuition. Nageswaran described India as an aspirational lowermiddle-income economy and noted that real GDP growth in the first quarter of the current financial year was 7.8%. He said that after the COVID-19 pandemic, India’s economy grew faster than many countries. Growth in manufacturing, services and agriculture would contribute significantly to progress in the next two years, while consumption and invest- ments would continue to anchor growth. He said India’s debt-to-GDP ratio was healthy, as it generated more GDP per US dollar of debt than many other nations, showing efficient use of capital. Rural demand, he noted, remains resilient, while urban demand is gaining traction. The relief in GST rates would also raise disposable income, boosting urban consumption. Credit to MSME sector is rising, and advances to large industries are undergoing a structural change, he said, adding avenues for resource mobilisation are now ample. Despite global headwinds, Nageswaran said the external sector remains resilient. “Trade continues to be robust in the current financial year,” he said. Foreign exchange reserves are healthy and current account deficit has dipped to 0.2% of GDP in first quarter of 2025-26. On the rupee, he said, “The rupee is depreciating against the US dollar. Given the underlying strength of the economy, I am more inclined to believe that in the longer run, the rupee is likely to hold its value and become stronger.” 4Contd on | nation Rahul in voter deletion charge M Saleem Pandit Jailed Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front’s (JKLF) former militant leader Mohammad Yasin Malik flaunted his associations with Prime Ministers, Intelligence chiefs, National Security Adviser, Industrialists, and powerful politicians and claimed his actions in getting in touch with Pakistan was initiated by the Intelligence Bureau. Malik, currently lodged in Tihar jail, in an affidavit before Agencies NEW DELHI CJI B R Gavai on Thursday clarified that he respects all religions, after his remarks in court on a plea concerning a damaged Lord Vishnu idol at Khajuraho drew sharp reactions on social media and from the VHP. Responding to the criticism, Gavai said during a post-lunch hearing that things are often blown out of proportion online. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, present in court, defended the CJI, saying he has known him for ten years and that the CJI visits all religious places. He added, “Newton’s law says that every action has an equal reaction. Now every action has a disproportionate social media reaction.” Senior advocate Kapil Sibal agreed, noting that lawyers too suffer from misleading portrayals on social media. Justice K Vinod Chandran, on the bench with the CJI, called misinformation “anti-social media” and shared his own experience of being misjudged online. Senior advocate Sanjay Nuli, who represented peti- Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday escalated his campaign against alleged “voter fraud”, this time accusing the Election Commission of shielding those responsible for mass voter deletions in Karnataka’s Aland assembly constituency. Addressing a press conference at the Congress headquarters, Gandhi claimed that 6,018 voter deletion applications were auto-filed using software and mobile numbers from outside the state, ahead of the assembly polls. These deletions, he alleged, specifically targeted Congress voters and booths where the party was winning. insisted. “We have our people inside the EC, and we are now receiving information from within about ‘vote theft’,” Gan- dhi said. He said the Karnataka CID, which is investigating the case, had written 18 letters over 18 months to the EC seeking information such as destination IP addresses, device ports, and OTP trails, but received no satisfactory response. “Why is the EC not giving this data? Because it will reveal who orchestrated this operation,” he asserted. 4Contd on | nation 4See also | nation Maha voter increase Maharashtra has added 14.71 lakh voters to its electoral rolls since the November 2024 assembly polls while names of 4.09 lakh voters were deleted but not a single political party has raised any objection in this regard, a senior official said on Thursday. SEE CITY One of the charges that led to his conviction, a meeting with Lashkar-e-Taiba chief Hafiz Saeed, was initiated by IB special director VK Joshi, Malik claimed. He said Joshi asked him to engage Hafiz Saeed to strengthen then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s peace process in Kashmir tioner Rakesh Dalal, also clarified that the CJI never made the statement falsely attributed to him and flagged the concern of misleading posts. The controversy began after the bench headed by Gavai dismissed a plea seeking restoration of a seven-foot-long beheaded idol of Lord Vishnu at the Javari temple, part of the Unesco World Heritage Khajuraho complex in MP. The court said the issue fell under the jurisdiction of the ASI and refused to entertain the petition. While dismissing the case, the CJI said “this is purely publicity interest litigation. Go and ask the deity himself to do something. If you are saying that you are a strong devotee of Lord Vishnu, then you pray and do some meditation.” 4Contd on | nation the Delhi High Court said this state-sanctioned engagement continued over successive changes in government. Situating his trial in the aftermath of the abrogation of Ar- ticles 370 and 35A, Malik alleged that the move unleashed “fear, intimidation, and arrests of thousands of political leaders, activists, teachers, lawyers and journalists.” He recalled how in the early 1990s, he was taken from Mehrauli sub-jail to a bungalow in Maharani Bagh, where Home Minister Rajesh Pilot, IAS officer Wajahat Habibullah, and senior IB officers pressed him to surrender arms. According to him, then Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao gave orders to bring him back into democratic politics. After three years of negotiations, he was released in May 1994, announcing a unilateral ceasefire in Srinagar and declaring a commitment to nonviolent democratic struggle. Malik says the government followed through, granting bail in all 32 pending TADA cases, none of which were pursued. 4Contd on | nation Delhi lens on Pakistan’s AI crash victims’ kin defence pact with Riyadh sue Boeing in US Agencies NEW DELHI A day after Pakistan and Saudi Arabia inked a strategic defence pact, India on Thursday said it will study implications of the move for its national security as well as for regional and global stability. The agreement states that "any aggression against either of the two countries shall be considered as an aggression against both", according to a Pakistan-Saudi Arabia joint statement. External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal The deal states any aggression against either of the two countries shall be considered as an attack against both said New Delhi remains committed to protecting India's national interests and ensuring "comprehensive national security in all domains". The "Strategic Mutual Defence Agreement" was signed by Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Abdu- laziz Al Saud and Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. Sharif was on a visit to Saudi Arabia. The sealing of the pact came over four months after a four-day military conflict between India and Pakistan. "We have seen reports of the signing of a strategic mutual defence pact between Saudi Arabia and Pakistan," Jaiswal said. "The government was aware that this development, which formalises a long-standing arrangement between the two countries, had been under consideration," he said. 4Contd on | nation Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar NEW DELHI Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar NEW DELHI CJI clarifies IB initiated my actions, says Yasin Malik remarks on broken idol SRINAGAR EC REJECTS CONGRESS ALLEGATIONS Agencies DELAWARE The families of four passengers who died in the June Air India crash have filed a lawsuit in the United States against aerospace giants Boeing and Honeywell, alleging negligence and faulty design contributed to the disaster that killed 260 people. The complaint, filed Tuesday in Delaware superior court, claims that the crash was linked to a faulty fuel cutoff switch installed and manufactured by Boeing and Honeywell. The plaintiffs said the locking mechanism for the switch “could be turned off inadvertently or missing, causing a loss of fuel supply and loss of thrust needed for takeoff.” The suit argues that the companies knew about the potential risk, citing a 2018 advisory from the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) warning of disengaged locking mechanisms on several Boeing aircraft. According to India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB), which issued a preliminary report in July, Air India had not conducted the suggested inspections. 4Contd on | nation The Election Commission on Thursday rejected Rahul Gandhi’s allegations of mass voter deletions in Karnataka’s Aland constituency, calling them “incorrect and baseless.” In a post on X, the EC said, “No deletion of any vote can be done online by any member of the public, as misconceived by Rahul Gandhi. No deletion can take place without giving an opportunity of being heard to the affected person.” The EC clarified that in 2023, “certain unsuccessful attempts” were made to delete voters in Aland, after which EC itself filed an FIR for probe. It also pointed out Aland was won by BJP’s Subhadh Guttedar in 2018 and Congress’s BR Patil in 2023. The EC said the allegations made by Gandhi against CEC Gyanesh Kumar are baseless and incorrect. The response came as Gandhi accused Kumar of stonewalling Karnataka CID’s request for information held by the poll body that could help identify the culprits who sought illegal deletion of around 6,000 votes in Aland. 4Contd on | nation Mumbai is Millionaire Central Dhairya Gajara MUMBAI Maharashtra has emerged as India’s millionaire capital, recording a staggering 194% growth in millionaire households to 1.78 lakh over the past four years — the highest in the country. Mumbai alone accounts for 1.42 lakh of these families, reaffirming its status as India’s financial powerhouse. According to the ‘MercedesBenz Hurun India Wealth Report 2025’, India now has 8.71 lakh millionaire households — families with a net worth of at least ₹8.5 crore — marking a 90% jump from 4.58 lakh in 2021. This figure represents a 445% rise since 2017, though only 0.01% of these households have become billionaires, highlighting India’s deepening wealth disparity. Maharashtra’s growth story is backed by a robust 55% surge in its gross state domestic product (GSDP) between 2020-21 and 2023-24, State records 194% rise in millionaire households; Mumbai alone hosts 1.42L, highest in India 4Contd on | nation offgrid Macron to prove wife was not born a male SC to hear plea against Banu FPJ News Service Deeksha Pandey MUMBAI French President Emmanuel Macron is gearing up for a courtroom showdown in the US - armed not with politics, but with science. In a defamation case against rightwing influencer Candace Owens, Macron and his wife Brigitte are set to present scientific evidence to prove that France’s First Lady was not born a man, putting a dramatic twist on a conspiracy theory that has stalked their marriage for years. The move comes as part of a defamation lawsuit the couple filed in July against Owens and her media business, accusing her of peddling falsehoods to boost her profile, gain audience, and make money. Brigitte Macron’s life has long been under the microscope, partly due to the unusual trajectory of her relationship with the French president. She was a drama teacher when she met Emmanuel Macron at his high school in Amiens. Despite a 24year age gap, their relationship grew into a marriage that has fascinated and divided public opinion at home and abroad. Owens, who has repeatedly doubled down on the claim that Brigitte Macron was born male under the name Jean-Michel Trogneux, de- clared last year she would “stake (her) entire professional reputation on the fact that Brigitte Macron is in fact a man” and followed up with an eight-part podcast series, ‘Becoming Brigitte’. Tom Clare, the Macrons’ lawyer from the high-profile law firm Clare Locke, told the BBC that Brigitte found the claims “incredibly upsetting” and that they served as a “distraction” for her husband, the French president. “Expert testimony will come out that will be scientific in nature,” Clare said, without revealing specifics. He added that Brigitte Macron was prepared to subject herself to the process “in a very public way” to “set the record straight.” 4Contd on | nation KARNATAKA The Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to urgently hear a petition challenging the Karnataka High Court’s refusal to interfere with the State government’s decision to invite Booker Prize-winning author Banu Mushtaq as Chief Guest to inaugurate the Dussehra festivities in Mysuru on September 22. The matter was mentioned before Chief Justice of India BR Gavai, who agreed to list the case for Friday. The petition, filed by advocate HS Gourav and argued by advocate Sughosh Subramanyam, contests the Karnataka Government’s move to allow a non-Hindu to perform the Agra Puja at the Chamundeshwari Temple as part of the inaugural ceremony. The counsel argued that rituals such as lighting the sacred lamp, offering fruits and flowers to the deity, and chanting Vedic prayers can only be performed by a Hindu. As reported by Bar and Bench and Live Law On September 15, a Division Bench of Chief Justice Vibhu Bakhru and Justice CM Joshi of the Karnataka High Court had dismissed a batch of petitions opposing Mushtaq’s participation. Petitioners had claimed that her involvement would hurt sentiments, alleging she had made “anti-Hindu” statements in the past. 4Contd on | nation