DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA JOURNALISM OF COURAGE SATURDAY, MAY 4, 2024, NEW DELHI, LATE CITY, 20 PAGES `7.00 (`8 BIHAR & RAIPUR, `12 SRINAGAR) WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM SINCE 1932 CITES ONGOING LS POLLS Wewillconsider Kejriwalinterim bail,mayormay notgrant:SC Congress leader Rahul Gandhi files his nomination papers for the Rae Bareli seat on Friday. Vishal Srivastava MAULSHREE SETH & MANOJ C G RAE BARELI, NEW DELHI, MAY 3 ENDINGWEEKSof suspenseand uncertainty, the Congress Friday announceditscandidatesforthe traditional Gandhi family seats of AmethiandRaeBareliinUttar Pradesh, but with a twist. Senior leader Rahul Gandhi switchedtoRaeBareli,perhapsa safer seat than Amethi, from where he lost to Union minister SmritiIraniin2019,whilehissister and AICC general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will not be contesting. The announcement came on the last day of filingnominationsforthetwoseats, which go to polls on May 20. In Amethi, the party fielded Kishori Lal Sharma, an influential representative of the NehruGandhi family in the two seats BUSINESS AS USUAL BY UNNY for over two decades. Rahul filed his nomination papers accompanied by not just motherSoniaGandhi(thesitting MP from Rae Bareli), sister Priyanka and brother-in-law RobertVadra,butalsoseveraltop Congress leaders, including CONTINUEDONPAGE2 WITH RAHUL Gandhi filing nominationpapersfromtheRae Bareli Lok Sabha seat, Prime Minister Narendra Modi Friday Prime Minister Narendra took a swipe at the Congress Modi addresses a public leader, saying that fear of losing meeting in Krishnanagar, elections is making him “run” West Bengal, Friday. PTI from one seat to another. Addressing a rally in Bardhaman-Durgapur referringtoSoniaGandhi. constituency in West “I had also said that Bengal,hesaid:“Ihadsaid Shehzada will lose the inParliament2-3months election in Wayanad. In before the elections that fear of losing the seat, he their biggest leader will DECISION will look for another seat 2024 not dare to contest electocontesttheelection,”he tions; that she will run said,targetingRahul,who away out of fear. She ran away to isalsocontestingfromtheseatin Rajasthan and got elected to the Kerala which he won in 2019. Rajya Sabha from there.” He was CONTINUEDONPAGE2 PAGE 1 ANCHOR SURAT, MAY 3 PAGES 6, 7 BIG WOMEN ON BOARD PICTURE A year since Karnataka made bus travel free for women, its four bus PAGE 13 corporations see around 1.10 cr daily passengers, 60% of them women ACKNOWLEDGING THE dip in voter turnout in the ongoing Lok Sabha polls, the Election Commission (EC) Friday expressed disappointment about the polling percentage in some metropolitancitiesinthesecond phase, attributing it to “rigid levels of apathy” in urban seats. TheCommission’sstatement comes against the backdrop of a drop of just under 4 percentage points for the first phase of elections and under 3 percentage points for the second phase compared to the 2019 elections. Voting percentage for the 102 seats that went to poll in the first phase on April 19 was 66.14% and for the second phase on April26,inwhich88seatsvoted, was 66.71%. In the first two phases, urban seats, which have traditionally registered low turnouts in the fifties, did not move the needle even this time. In fact, the voting percentage decreased further. Among them was Ghaziabad, which experienced a decrease of 6 percentage points from 55.88% in 2019 to 49.88% this time. Gautam Buddh Nagar recorded 53.63%,downfrom60.4%in2019. NEW DELHI, MAY 3 MORE THANsevenmonthsafter Canadian Prime Minister Justin TrudeauallegedthatIndiangovernment agents had a possible role in the killing of Khalistan separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, the Canadian police have “arrestedmembersof anallegedhit squad investigators believe was tasked by the government of IndiawithkillingNijjarinSurrey last June”, CBC [Canadian BroadcastingCorporation]News reported on Friday. “The men were arrested Friday during police operations inatleasttwoprovinces.Sources said investigators identified the alleged hit squad members in Canada some months ago and Suspended JD(S) leader Prajwal Revanna CONTINUEDONPAGE2 Hit squad members tied to killing of separatist Nijjar held in Canada: Report SHUBHAJIT ROY Prajwal faces new case after woman alleges he raped and blackmailed her have been keeping them under tight surveillance,” the report stated. Police are expected to announce the arrests and share some details of their investigation later Friday. Without disclosing details abouttheidentityof theindividualsarrested,thereportsaidthat sourcesclosetotheinvestigation CONTINUEDONPAGE2 KIRAN PARASHAR BENGALURU, MAY 3 INAfreshcaseregisteredagainst Janata Dal (Secular) MP Prajwal Revanna, a former zilla panchayatmemberhasaccusedhim of sexuallyassaultingherforover threeyearsandrecordingvideos of theact,whichhewoulduseto threaten and blackmail her. TheFIRhasbeenregisteredby the Criminal Investigation Department(CID)inKarnatakaafter the woman, who is in her 40s, recorded her statement with the Special Investigation Team (SIT). CONTINUEDONPAGE2 Loss to nation due to oral cancer deaths: Study pegs it at `72 lakh for a man, `57 lakh for woman RUPSA CHAKRABORTY MUMBAI, MAY 3 A NEW study led by Tata Memorial Hospital has estimated that premature oral cancer deaths have cost India productivity losses to the tune of $5.6 billion or 0.18 per cent of its GDP in 2022. Oneof the key findingsof the study, according to its lead author Dr Arjun Singh, Assistant Professor, Tata Memorial Hospital,isthat91percentof the deaths or terminal stages were among patients with a median age of 41.5 years. Giventhattheretirementage in India is around 62 years, the study — which tracked 100 patientsoverthreeyears—showed that those who succumbed to thediseasecumulativelylost671 productive or working years (29.8% to early stages and 70.2% to advanced stages). The mone- tary value of the losses for men exceeded Rs 72 lakh and that for women Rs 57 lakh. “If they had survived, they could have contributed more to the country’s GDP,” said Dr Singh,giventhepopulationmortality rates in India. As Dr R A Badwe, senior author and former director, Tata MemorialCentre,said,“Veryfew studieshavefocussedonproductivity losses of cancer in low CONTINUEDONPAGE2 E Prevalent, but can be ● prevented THE FINDINGS of the study on diagnosis, intervention, access to and costs of healthcare, will help the government draw up better resource allocation. THE SUPREME Court said Friday that on May 7 it may consider granting interim bail to Delhi Chief MinisterArvindKejriwalin view of the ongoing Lok Sabha electionsif thehearingonhispetition challenging his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) gets prolonged. Kejriwal is currently in judicial custody following his arrest by the ED on March 21 in connection with the Delhi excise policy case. Towards the end of the proceedings Friday, the bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and DipankarDattaexpresseddoubts thatthehearingonthechallenge may not conclude on the next date as well. It told Additional Solicitor General S V Raju who appeared for the ED: “It does appear we will not be able to completetoday.SokeepitonTuesday (May7)morningitself…If it’sgo- Arrested by ED in excise policy case on March 21 ing to take time, (and) does appear it’s going to take time, we may then consider the question of interim bail because of the elections. We may hear you on that because of the elections. Let’s be very clear on that.” The ASG pointed out that Kejriwal had only challenged his arrest and had not filed any bail application. He said the election is one of the grounds raised in the petition. “Maybe, but that (court’s suggestion to take the elections into account) is for interimbail…Wemayhearyouon that,” Justice Khanna said. Raju referred to the interim bailgrantedtoAAPleaderSanjay Singhand said “look at the statements he is making”. CONTINUEDONPAGE2 Month after closing file saying Rohith Vemula was not Dalit, police say ‘probing further’ SREENIVAS JANYALA HYDERABAD, MAY 3 MORE THAN a month after the Telangana police filed a closure report in their investigation into the January 2016 death of University of Hyderabad PhD scholar Rohith Vemula, the state Director General of Police Friday saidtheyhavedecidedtoconduct further investigations as “some doubts have been expressed” by Vemula’s mother and others. The closure report filed by the police had claimed that Vemula was not a Dalit and that itwaslikelythefearthathis“real caste” would be revealed was what led him to suicide. It had also absolved all those accused in the case. InastatementonFriday,DGP Ravi Gupta said the final report inthecasewaspreparedin2018, and that it was officially submit- His suicide in 2016 had triggered protests on campuses ted in the jurisdictional court on March 21, 2024. “As some doubts have been expressedbythemotherandothersofthedeceased,RohitVemula, ontheinvestigationconducted,it hasbeendecidedtoconductfurtherinvestigationintothecase.A petition will be filed in the court concerned requesting the Hon’bleMagistratetopermitfurther investigation into the case,” the DGP’s statement said. Policehadfiledacasein2016 on charges of abetment to suicide and under the SC and ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. In the closure report, police had CONTINUEDONPAGE2 Look at Surat withdrawal reasons: ‘Depression, not wasting money’ KAMAAL SAIYED ● Back to retake Guna, Jyotiraditya Scindia hopes to put 2019’s shock loss in rearview Jithendra M NEW DELHI, MAY 3 KOLKATA, NEW DELHI, MAY 3 ● As BRS bleeds, a buffed-up BJP has a problem of plenty NEW DELHI, MAY 3 EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE SANTANU CHOWDHURY & VIKAS PATHAK 2024 ANANTHAKRISHNAN G Disappointed with apathy of voters in metros: Poll panel on turnout in Phase 2 Modi takes swipe at Rahul: Fear of losing is making him run... daro mat, bhaago mat DECISION ArgumentswillbetakenuponMay7, ASGsaysthere’snobailapplication E X P L A I NE D Congress fields Rahul from Rae Bareli seat, Gandhi family loyalist gets Amethi ticket NEARLY A fortnight after the Surat Lok Sabha seat was won uncontested by the BJP, after the Congress candidate’s nomination was declared invalid and eight candidates withdrew, the ripples from it are yet to die down. Days later, the Congress’s Indorecandidatedroppedouton the last day of withdrawal of nominations, leaving the party without a nominee in the seat. On Thursday, Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said “a beginning”had been made from thetwo seats,towardsachieving the BJP’s target of 400-plus Lok Sabha seats for the NDA. While the Congress’s candidate from Surat whose papers wererejected,NileshKumbhani, has not been seen in public but hasclaimedlackof supportfrom own party ranks, the others too remain “missing”. A look at the eight,andtheirreasonsfordropping out, in their words: ■ Pyarelal Bharti, 58: After the Congress was ruled out from the race, Bharti, fielded by the BSP, was seen as the only viable challenge to BJP candidate Mukesh Dalal. The Congress and AAP, who are allies in Gujarat, also promised to support Bharti. AnativeofVaranasiwhoissettled in Surat for the past 25 years, Bharti,however,stunnedhisparty by declaring that he was withdrawing. In his affidavit, Bharti, who runs a weekly newspaper called Sharmik Shakti, put his education qualification as Class 10 and declared cash in hand of Rs 5,000 as part of his assets. Bharti has contested elections in the past too — the 2014 BJP’s Mukesh Dalal (centre) was elected unopposed from Surat on April 22. File parliamentary polls from Navsari,the2022Assemblyelections from Varachha seat in Surat, and the 2021 Surat MunicipalCorporationelections from the Khatodara ward. He lost every time. BSP Surat president Satish Sonavne says that after coming toknowof Kumbhani’sdecision, the party feared that something was afoot and immediately got cracking.“WesentPyarelalaway to Vadodara to a party worker’s house, and got his clothes collected from home. We told him to switch off his phones.” But from there, Sonavne says, Bharti went “missing” and they later learntthathehadwithdrawnhis nomination. The whole family then stopped taking their calls, he says. According to the BSP leader, they have still not been able to get in touch with Bharti or his family. Their rented Surat house is locked and the family is said to be currently in Varanasi. ■ Bharatbhai Prajapati, 50: A worker in Surat’s diamond units for the past 30 years, Bharatbhai originally belongs to CONTINUEDONPAGE9
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