FP FREE PRESS The publishers permit sharing of the e-paper's pdf on WhatsApp and other social media platforms VOL. 13 NO. 207 | BHOPAL | TUESDAY | JANUARY 9, 2024 | PAGES 16 `3 - r Regd. No. Indore MP/ICD 216/2021-2023; r RNI No. mpeng/2010/35815 QUALITY AT VALUE www.freepressjournal.in EDIT ONLY TIME CAN TELL... Pg-14 ED ACCUSES COPS OF ‘LIGHTER CHARGES’ WEATHER EDITIONS: INDORE, BHOPAL, UJJAIN, MUMBAI, PUNE 26.70c. 15.70c Sunrise : 07.06 Sunset : 05.51 THE LIGHT OF WHITE Pg-16 500 GIRLS WRITE TO PM MODI AND HARYANA CHIEF MINISTER ALLEGE SEXUAL HARASSMENT BY UNIV PROF AGENCIES Sirsa, Haryana NEWS BRIEF Major relief for Sharif, Imran ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's Supreme Court on Monday quashed the lifetime disqualification for lawmakers, ruling that parliamentarians would be barred from holding office for five years, in a major relief to leading politicians, including former prime ministers Nawaz Sharif and Imran Khan, ahead of the February 8 elections. A 2018 judgment by a fivemember bench of the apex court had declared that disqualification under Article 62(1)(f) was for life, but changes made in the Elections Act 2017 on June 26, 2023, by a coalition government led by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) restricted it to a five-year term only. BSF recovers Pakistani drone FEROZEPUR: Border Security Force (BSF) personnel, recovered a Pakistani drone used for cross-border smuggling during a search operation on Sunday, said BSF. The made-in-China drone was recovered from a farming field adjacent to Hazara Singh Wala village in the Ferozepur district of Punjab."After receiving information regarding the presence of a drone, @BSF_Punjab launched a search operation and recovered a Pakistani drone (DJI Matrice 300 RTK MADE IN CHINA) used for cross-border smuggling, from a farming field adjacent to village- Hazara Singh Wala, District Ferozepur, Punjab," said BSF in a post on X. Raj min loses to Congman JAIPUR: Surendra Pal Singh TT, who was made a minister in Rajasthan even before being elected as an MLA, on Monday lost the Assembly election to Congress rival, Rupinder Singh Kunnar by 11,283 votes from the Karanpur seat. The BJP candidate was the Minister of State (Independent Charge) in Bhajan Lal's cabinet. This is the first time in Rajasthan that a leader who became a minister before becoming an MLA has lost the election. PG-8 Ex-minister Majhi quits BJD BHUBANESWAR: Former minister and senior BJD leader Balabhadra Majhi on Monday resigned from the primary membership of BJD ahead of the general elections.He has reportedly resigned for being sidelined in the party. “I do hereby relinquish from the primary membership of the BJD. Thanks a lot for allowing me to work for long period along with you since formation of the Party 1997,” he wrote Five hundred female college students from Haryana's Sirsa have written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's office, and Chief Minister ML Khattar, to accuse a professor at the Chaudhary Devi Lal University of sexual harassment and demand his suspension, as well as an inquiry led by a retired High Court judge. Copies of the letter have also been sent to Vice Chancellor Dr Ajmer Singh Malik, Haryana Governor Bandaru Dattatreya, Haryana Home Minister Anil Vij, and National Commission for Women Chairperson Rekha Sharma, as well as senior state government officials and select media organisations. The letter accuses the professor of "filthy and obscene acts". According to the letter, he calls girls to his office, takes them to a bathroom, and "touches private parts, and (does) obscene things with us". The girls said that when they protested, they were threatened with "very bad" consequences. The letter claims this has been going on "for many months" and, "... because he gives a false impression of a person of high character", the professor in question has never been held accountable. The girls also claimed the Vice Chancellor, rather than come to their aid, "threatened to expel us... because this professor is a person of immense political influence..." The Vice Chancellor also reportedly tried to suppress the allegations by offering the girls better marks in written and practical examinations. The university's Registrar, Dr Rajesh Kumar Bansal, confirmed receipt of the anonymous letter. "The police are investigating... the university has its own committee which is probing the allegations. This is a serious accusation... there is no name on ABUSE OF POWER BY GUJ ON RELEASE OF BILKIS BANO’S RAPISTS, SC SAYS... QUASHES REMISSION ORDER, asks 11 convicts to surrender within two weeks NEW DELHI In a massive setback to the Gujarat government, the Supreme Court on Monday quashed the remission it had granted to 11 convicts in the high-profile gangrape case of Bilkis Bano and the killing of her seven family members, while slamming the state for being "complicit" with an accused and abusing its discretion. It ordered all the convicts, who were released prematurely on Independence Day in 2022, back to jail within two weeks. Excoriating the Gujarat government, the apex court said it "usurped" the power of the Maharashtra government to grant remission to the convicts. It held as nullity the May 13, 2022 judgement of another bench of the apex court, which had directed the Gujarat government to consider the remission applications of the 11 convicts in the case, saying it was obtained by "playing fraud on court". "This is a classic case where the order of this court dated May 13, 2022, has been used for violating the rule of law while pass- T oday is truly the New Year for me. I have wept tears of relief. I have smiled for the first time in over a year and half. I have hugged my children. It feels like a stone the size of a mountain has been lifted from my chest, and I BILKIS BANO can breathe again ing orders of remission in favour of respondent nos 3 to 13 (convicts) in the absence of any jurisdiction by the State of Gujarat. Therefore, without going into the manner in which the power of remission has been exercised, we strike down the orders of remission on the ground of usurpation of powers by the State of Gujarat not vested in it. The orders of remission are hence quashed," a bench of Justices B V Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan said. It asked whether "heinous crimes against women permit remission" irrespective of the faith she may follow or creed she may belong to. Bilkis Bano was 21 years old and five months pregnant when she was raped while fleeing the horror of the communal riots that broke out after the Godhra train burning incident in February 2002. Her threeyear-old daughter was among the seven family members killed. In its 251-page judgment, the Supreme Court said the Gujarat government had no jurisdiction to entertain the applications for remission of sentences and only the government of the state where the offenders were sentenced was competent to consider an application for remission and pass an order. "Government of State of Gujarat (respondent No.1 herein) had no jurisdiction to entertain the applications for remission or pass the orders of remission on August 10, 2022 in favour of respondent No.3 to 13 (convicts) herein as it was not the appropriate government within the meaning of sub-section (7) of Section 432 of the CrPC," the bench said. Bilkis Bano, now in her For 32 years BJP has pipped Cong in Lok Sabha vote share In 2019 LS election, the gap was 24% NITENDRA SHARMA BHOPAL The BJP and the Congress have rolled up their sleeves for the Lok Sabha election after the recently concluded assembly polls. The Congress wants to contest the Lok Sabha election, shaking off the jolt that it has received in the assembly election. Nevertheless, the major challenge before the Congress is that it has to reduce the gap of 24% of votes in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. In the previous Lok Sabha election, the BJP got 58% of votes and the Con- gress just 34.5%. In the same year, the Congress won only one seat in MP. In fact, the party has been lagging behind the BJP in terms of vote share for the past 32 years. In the past two Lok Sabha elections, the gap between the BJP and Congress in terms of vote share has enormously increased. In 2014, the BJP got 54% of votes and the Congress 34% and won only two seats. The Congress's performance was better in 2009 when it got 12 seats and received more than 40% of votes. The BJP got 43%. In 2004, the Congress won only four seats and got 34% of votes. The BJP's vote share was 48%. In the past two elections, the Congress's vote share was the same as it was in 2004. The Congress lost the mandate of those who voted for the party in 2009. The last time when the Congress's vote share was higher than that of the BJP was in 1991. The Congress's vote share was 45%, and it was 42% for the BJP. Afterwards, the Congress has always been behind the BJP. The Congress ruled the state during the four Lok Sabha elections 1996, 1998, 1999 and 2019. Although the Congress was in power in the state during these years, the BJP was ahead of its rival in vote share. The Congress leaders also feel that after the defeat in the assembly election, it will be difficult for the party to take on the ruling party with full strength in the Lok Sabha election. The Delhi High Court has ruled that once a school uploads a student's internal assessment marks on the CBSE website, it cannot later request corrections, even if an error occurred during the uploading process. Justice C Hari Shankar said that allowing such corrections would lead to chaos and would require the CBSE to conduct independent verifications in each case. The court made these observations while dismissing a plea by a father seeking a directive for CBSE to correct his daughter's internal assessment marks in Social Studies for Class X in the academic year 2019-2020. "The CBSE would also not be in a position to blindly accept such requests, and would, if this practice were to be allowed, have to conduct independent verifications in each such case to ascertain the actual marks which the candidate had been awarded," the court said. The school had communicated an error in the uploaded marks but was informed by CBSE that corrections couldn't be made, aligning with the circulars issued by the Board. The court expressed empathy for the student but stated that, as the circulars were not challenged, and the Board's decision was in line with them, no sustainable grievance existed in the plea. The writ petition was dismissed without costs. Rejecting the plea, Justice Shankar said that the proscription of revising the marks provided in the When out of power, pics also disappear from hoardings, says Chouhan "Today the Supreme Court's decision has once again told the country who is the 'patron of criminals'," RAHUL GANDHI "With this order, the veil over the anti-women policies of the Bharatiya Janata Party has been removed. PRIYANKA GANDHI VADRA "It appears that justice is being delivered to Bilkis Bano finally after two decades. The brutality of gang rapes and mass murders cannot be brushed aside, and the perpetrators remain unpunished." MAMATA BANERJEE "I am grateful to the Supreme Court for taking this strong and bold judgement. It proves that the rapists were moving freely and enjoying power." SITARAM YECHURI YECHURI'S BJP governments in Gujarat and at the Centre should apologise to her (Bilkis Bano) ASADUDDIN OWAISI 40s, reacted with a sense of satisfaction over the judgement. CONTD. ON P8 No Zero-Sum Game: China calls for open minded approach NEW DELHI WHAT OPPN SAID OUR STAFF REPORTER BHOPAL Former chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has said, “If you are the chief minister, your feet are as adorable as a lotus. But when you are not in power, even your photographs disappear from the hoardings as if you had never existed.” There are many dedicated workers in politics, a leader like Prime Minister Narendra Modi who lives for the country, but there are many fair-weather friends; politics is a bizarre place, he said. Chouhan took part in the annual event at Brahmakumari Sukh Shanti Bhawan in the Neelbad are on Sunday . “When we fix a target for others and work accordingly, we are filled with job,” he said. Now, he has been working continuously, which is not related to politics, he said, adding that he is enjoying it. On a day Maldives' President Mohamed Muizzu landed in Beijing to sign bilateral agreements, China's state media in an editorial referred to India's diplomatic row with the Maldives, and called for an "openminded" approach to looking at South Asian issues. The Maldives government has suspended three ministers over their derogatory comments on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Lakshadweep, India's smallest Union Territory . The Maldivian government has distanced itself from the "insulting" comments by the three ministers, and called the matter their "personal opinion that do not represent the views of the government". Ties between India and the archipelago nation in the past few months, however, have been strained after Muizzu came to power. Seen as a pro-China politician, Muizzu had defeated his India-friendly predecessor Ibrahim Mohamed Solih in the presidential run-off held in September. CONTD. ON P8 Maldivian envoy summoned NEW DELHI : The Maldivian envoy to India was on Monday summoned to the external affairs ministry and conveyed its strong concerns over disparaging social media posts against Prime Minister Narendra Modi by three nowsuspended-ministers as the backlash over the remarks continued for the second day. In Male, the Maldivian government conveyed to Indian High Commissioner Munu Muhawar that the remarks against Modi do not represent its views. Deputy ministers in the youth ministry Malsha Shareef, Mariyam Shiuna and Abdulla Mahzoom Majid were suspended on Sunday. CAIT to exporters avoid Maldives In a stern response to recent derogatory remarks directed at Prime Minister Narendra Modi by certain political figures in the Maldives, Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has urged traders and exporters to refrain from conducting business dealings with the Maldives. Schools to start from 10:00am OUR STAFF REPORTER City.bhopal@fpj.co.in MP Board schools timing have been extended in the state due to cold wave. School Education department has written letter to all district collectors and District Education Officers (DEOs) regarding change of timings. Earlier, in Bhopal, timings for schools which are run in morning shift, was extended 7:00am to 9:00am. Now it has been extended till 10:00am. As per order, all the schools (private and govt schools) which are run in morning shift, will be opened from 10:00am. Schools which are run in both the shift will be opened from 10:00am. Timing of schools, which are run from 10:30am, has not been changed. Exam timing which has been pre-decided for standard 6 to Standard 12th, has not been changed. No corrections allowed after uploading CBSE marks: Delhi HC AGENCIES New Delhi the letter but we will investigate this," he said. "Action will only be taken afterwards. Whoever is guilty will not be spared but if someone is innocent then their character should not be assassinated," the Registrar said. Dr Bansal said relevant CCTV footage had been handed over to the police. However, the letter claims the accused professor has already "deleted... his indecent actions from CCTV footage of his office". CONTD. ON P8 CBSE Circulars is "eminently in public interest". "This one of those unfortunate cases in which the court regrets that it has to rule from the head and not from the heart. "Though, therefore, this Court once again empathises with Miloni, it regrets its inability to come to her aid. The writ petition is dismissed with no order as to costs," the court said. A glimpse of the carvings made on the pillars and ceilings at Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Temple, in Ayodhya. Leaders who lost booths to be out of Cong: Jitendra Singh LS polls candidates may be declared in Feb 1st week OUR STAFF REPORTER city.bhopal@fpj.co.in The AICC general secretary and state incharge Jitendra Singh said Congress leaders who could not even win booths and claimed to be national-level leaders would be shown the door. He said party would form a strategy against such leaders. He added that leaders who caused loss to party when they did not get ticket would also be expelled from the party . Talking to reporters here on Monday, he said names of candidates for Lok Sabha elections might be announced in February first week. Responding to a query, Singh said former chief minister Kamal Nath resigned from the post a day after results were declared. “Nath is a veteran leader of party and we all respect him,” he added. The Congress leaders including Singh took meeting with incharge of Lok Sabha seats and District Congress Committee (DCC) presidents at party office here on Monday At the . meeting, Singh asked DCC Cong role in Ram temple Congress party will highlight its contribution in construction of Ram Temple. Singh asked to highlight contribution of former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, PV Narasimha Rao and Rajiv Gandhi in this connection. presidents and incharge of LS seats to submit panel of names till January 30. Shortly the committee will , be formed to select candidates for elections. Besides, a coordination committee for general election will be formed shortly .