DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA JOURNALISM OF COURAGE SATURDAY, JANUARY 26, 2019, LUCKNOW, LATE CITY, 28 + 6 PAGES IE RTC-PRAYAGRAJ KUMBH `5.00 WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM SINCE 1932 CBI ALLEGED CHEATING, CONSPIRACY Pranab Bharat Ratna, Padmas for 1984 riots, Emergency crusaders Day after Kochhar FIR, Jaitley’s swipe at CBI: Journey to nowhere? EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE NEW DELHI, JANUARY 25 HAPPY REPUBLIC DAY IN A break from the pattern of conferring the Bharat Ratna to ideological fellow travellers of thepartyinpower,theNDAgovernment of Prime Minister Narendra Modi Friday announced the Bharat Ratna for former president and Congress veteran Pranab Mukherjee. Bharatiya Jan Sangh leader Nanaji Deshmukh and singer Bhupen Hazarika will also be conferred the Bharat Ratna posthumously. The political significance of the awards this year is evident from the government’s decision to confer the Padma Bhushan on the late Kuldip Nayar, The Indian Express editorwhowasimprisonedduring the Emergency, and scientist S Nambi Narayan who was wrongly implicated in the ISRO spy case, and the Padma Shri for H S Phoolka, the face of justice for victims of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. The Bharat Ratna awards are being announced after a four-year gap. It was last conferrd in 2015 when the Centre honoured former Prime CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 The Indian Express Wishes Its Readers Happy Republic Day We are closed today. There will be no edition of the newspaper on Sunday, January 27, 2019. The Sunday magazine, Eye, is being distributed today. If we include entire who’s who of banking, what cause are we serving or actually hurting, Minister writes from US THE CHIEF GUEST ARRIVES South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and First Lady Tshepo Motsepe with President Ram Nath Kovind, First Lady Savita Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Rashtrapati Bhavan, Friday. President Ramaphosa is chief guest at the Republic Day parade. Praveen Khanna Ayodhya hearing: CJI reconstitutes bench ANANTHAKRISHNAN G NEW DELHI, JANUARY 25 FOURDAYSbeforepetitionschallengingtheAllahabadHighCourt orderontheRamjanmabhoomiBabri Masjid title suit were to come up, Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi Friday reconstituted the Supreme Court bench that will hear the appeals. Justices Ashok Bhushan and S Abdul Nazeer, who were on a three-judgebenchlastyearwith then CJI Dipak Misra when the Ayodhya matter was raised, are now on the five-judge bench along with CJI Gogoi and Justices SABobdeandDYChandrachud. They replace Justices N V Ramana and U U Lalit who were on the bench constituted by the CJIearlierthismonth.Thatbench satonJanuary10tofixaschedule forhearingbutcouldnotproceed after senior advocate Rajeev Dhavan, representing one of the 10% quota: No stay, SC issues notice to Centre ANANTHAKRISHNAN G NEW DELHI, JANUARY 25 Original judgesback JUSTICES BHUSHAN and Nazeer were part of the three-member bench headed by former CJI Dipak Misra when the case came up last year. Both were excluded when CJI Gogoi made it a five-member bench with four judges, all in line to become CJIs. But the recusal of Justice U U Lalit brought in Justices Bhushan and Nazeer. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 DECLINING TO stay the ten per cent reservation introduced by the BJP-led NDA government for theeconomicallyweakersection of the general category, the Supreme Court Friday issued noticetothecentralgovernment and said it “will examine” whetherthemovewasconstitutional. “We will examine... Issue notice,returnableinfourweeks.No stay for the present. The matters will be heard after pleadings are complete,”abenchofChiefJustice of India Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Sanjiv Khanna said on a batch of six petitions which challenged The Constitution (One Hundred ENS ECONOMIC BUREAU NEW DELHI, JANUARY 25 UNION MINISTER Arun Jaitley tookaswipeFridayattheCentral Bureau of Investigation’s probe intotheICICIBankcasecallingita case of “investigative adventurism” that had digressed from focusingonjusttheprimarytargets. “Sittingthousandsof kilometers away, when I read the list of potentialtargetsintheICICIcase, the thought that crossed my mind was again the same — Instead of focusing primarily on the target, is a journey to nowhere (or everywhere) being undertaken? If we include the entire who’s who of the Banking Industry — with or without CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 BUSINESS AS USUAL CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 A SALUTE TO A NATION ON THE RISE. CONGRATULATING INDIA ON REPUBLIC DAY. w w w. ra f a l e. co. i n OVER 60 YEARS. TO O FA N I MYSTERE IV 6 AIRCRAFT TYPES. ALIZE JAGUAR 1 N AT I O N MIRAGE 2000 R A FA L E BY UNNY Hooda, supporters at his home in Rohtak on Friday. CBI books Hooda, raids home, says conspired with Gurgaon builders SUKHBIR SIWACH & DEEPTIMAN TIWARY CHANDIGARH, NEW DELHI, JANUARY 25 THE CBI Friday searched the home of former Haryana chief minister and Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda in Rohtak after registering a fresh caseagainsthimoverlandacquisition in Gurgaon. The searches were conducted after the CBI Wednesday registered an FIR on charges of corruption against Hooda, sen- ior IAS officer T C Gupta, 15 privatecolonisersandothers.Inthe FIR, the CBI has accused Hooda and Gupta of conspiring with at least 14 builders to cheat landowners and the Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) by allegedly issuing fraudulent licences and releasing acquired land to real estate developers. ThisisthethirdFIRregistered by CBI against Hooda in the last four years. He also faces another FIR being investigated by Haryana police. Calling it “dirty CONTINUED ON PAGE 2