The ideas Page: We have a voter-roll problem. But it’s not 13 crore deleted voters 9 SATUrdAY, OCTOBEr 24, 2026 Journalism of CouraGe ahMedaBad, late city, 22 PaGeS ₹6.00 l www.indianexpress.com da i ly f r o M : a h M e da B a d , c h a N d i Ga r h , d e l h i , J a i P u r , ko l k ata , l u c k N o w , M u M B a i , N aG P u r , Pat N a , P u N e , va d o da r a happening today lBJP President Nitin Nabin will meet all district presidents and district in-charges in Jharkhand’s Sukurhutu and will also address the party’s state executive committee meeting. ConGress seeKs ‘immediAte AnsWers’ from GoVt ITBP flags Arunachal face-off, Govt says China patrols stray time to time lUnion CommerCe Minister MEA: Both sides using military, diplomatic mechanisms to avoid LAC miscalculation Track These and more on www.indianexpress.com express news service Piyush Goyal will begin his visit to the Netherlands. YusufPathan getshis‘gift’: Vadodaracivic bodyclears transferof 978-sq-mplot Aditi raja Vadodara, October 23 TheSTandingCommitteeof the Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) on Friday unanimously approved the allotment of a 978-square-metre plot of land to Yusuf Pathan, over which it had served the former india cricketer an encroachment notice two years ago. Congress leaders staged a dharna outside the Standing Committee hall, carrying placards opposing the allotment. But no questions were asked inside. all 12 members of the Standing Committee are elected corporators from the BJP. The Congress, which has only six corporators out of the total 69 in the VMC, has no representation in the Standing Committee. The proposal was “approved unanimously, with no questions raised during the (Standing Committee) meeting”,sourcessaid.Theproposal will be now put before the general Board, the top legislative and decision-making body of the civic administration, for ratification. The Indian Express first reported on October 19 that gujarat’s BJP government had decided to allot the plot to Pathan two months after he rebelled against Mamata Banerjee and broke away from her Trinamool Congress (TMC) along with 19 other West Bengal MPs. Pathan, who won the Baharampur Lok Sabha seat on a TMC ticket in 2024, and the other MPs have since joined a little-known outfit called the »ContinUed on PAGe 2 gujarat Page 3 Police crack rs 8-cr theft case, but half the gold is still missing New Delhi, October 23 a MOnTh after india and ChinaheldCorpsCommanderlevel talks in arunachal Pradesh amid reports of tension in the Taksing area of Upper Subansiri district following moves by the Chinese PLa, Shatrujeet Kapur, director general of the indo-Tibetan Border Police (iTBP), has admitted to a “faceoff” at “several locations in arunachal” which are “still ongoing”. The iTBP chief’s remarks, the first by an official on the situation in the frontier state, drew a sharp reaction from the Opposition Congress Friday which demanded “immediate answers”fromthegovernment on the situation. TheMinistryofexternalaffairs, responding to a question on Kapur’s comments, said the situation along the Line of actual Control “gets disturbed from time to time when Chinese forces diverge from established patrolling patterns”. it underlined that “maintenance of peace and tranquility in the border areas is essential for the overall development of bilat- explained commanders met a month ago iTBp dG shatrujeet kapur during the himveer samman samaroh in alwar, Thursday. @itBP_official/X eral relations”. Speaking at the himveer Samman Samaroh, an annual felicitation ceremony for iTBP personnel, in alwar in rajasthan Thursday, Kapur said, “Our newly raised Shaurya In September, India and China held Corps Commander-level talks at the Wacha-Damai border meeting point on the Indian side. Wacha is India’s easternmost border personnel meeting point, located in the Kibithoo sector of Arunachal Pradesh. Indian troops continue to be deployed in large numbers in the area. commandos are doing great work. recently, a situation arose where a face-off took place at several locations in arunachal and is still ongoing. There, our Shaurya Commando teams played an exemplary role. as everyone knows, the iTBP was raised as a mountain guerrilla force and we were given the duty of guarding the border along China in 2004. We should not abandon our exact mandate.” “We do not need guerrilla warfare these days. a specialised high-altitude mountain fighting force is being set up, whichwillbedifferentfromthe army. as of now, we have formed one Shaurya Commandoteamineverybattalion, andtwomorehavebeenconstituted, so that there will be a express special AttACK on tiGer shroff ‘Chehre aa gaye hain, nikal jao’: on the run, shooters got updates via calls, messages Police suspect handlers were surfing TV channels to alert assailants »ContinUed on PAGe 2 business as usual By EP UNNY some of the accused outside a mumbai court, friday. GaNeSh ShirSekar mohamed thaver Mumbai, October 23 the world Satheesan at Express Adda P 20 Palestinian gunmen kill 2 trooPs, israel to close West bank keralam chief minister V d satheesan in conversation with Vandita mishra, national opinion editor, The indian express, and liz mathew, deputy editor, The indian express, at the express adda in new delhi, friday. reNuka Puri 7 killed, 34 injured in firing at jordan church funeral Jio IPO fires up market, Fadnavis orders probe into Jarange subscribed 22 times over claim, Sena says bid to ‘finish’ Shinde as it draws record bids shubhangi Khapre, Zeeshan shaikh George mathew & Vallabh ozarkar JiO PLaTFOrMS’ mega initial public offering (iPO), which closedFriday,hasrewrittenthe record books of india’s capital market, drawing bids worth over rs 4.90 lakh crore, the biggest-everinvestorresponsetoa public issue in the country. Together with anchor book subscription, the worth of the bids mounted to rs 7.4 lakh crore. Thers30,213-croreoffering wassubscribed22.19times,signalling a massive appetite for sharesofthetelecom-to-digital conglomerate. The frenzy was led by institutional investors, with qualified institutional buyers (QiBs) aMid riSing tensions in Maharashtra’s ruling Mahayuti alliance over an audio clip releasedbyMarathaquotaactivist ManojJarange-Patil,Maharashtra Chief Minister devendra Fadnavis Friday ordered a forensic probe, even as a leader of ally Shiv Sena accused some BJP leaders of conspiring to undermine deputy CM eknath Shinde and politically “finish him off”. in response, the BJP said it would not tolerate such attacks from an ally. at a press conference on Thursday,Jarange-Patilplayed an audio clip of an alleged conversation between BJP func- Mumbai, October 23 Mumbai, October 23 akash ambani, managing director of jio platforms. reuterS bidding for 70.55 times their allotted quota on the closing day of the iPO, according to stock exchange data. Thenon-institutionalinvestor segment was subscribed 14 times, while retail investors bid 2.72 times their quota and »ContinUed on PAGe 2 in The cat-and-mouse chase between the Mumbai Police and the shooters who fled on a motorcycleafteropeningfireat actor Tiger Shroff’s car in Juhu on October 18, the shooters allegedly had an edge — they werebeingconstantlytoldhow far the police investigation had progressed, based on what televisionchannelswerereporting. accordingtopolicesources, at one point, when their photographs from videos of the shooting were flashed on TV screens, one of the shooters got a message that carried an instruction: “Tumharechehreaa gaye hain, nikal jao waha se” (your faces have come out, get out of there). Joint Commissioner (Crime)anilKumbharedidnot respond to a message seeking comment. Shroff escaped unhurt in the attack, but his driver and a vlogger sustained injuries. The three accused — Phool Singh, 18, rehan rahisuddin ansari, 18,andrithikMahto,22—were arrested in rajasthan the next day and have been sent to policecustodyuntilOctober31.So far, 10 people have been arrested. anil Pandit, who claims to be linked to the Lawrence Bishnoi gang, has claimed responsibility for the attack in an unverified social media post. Sourcessaidpoliceareyetto establish who was relaying the updates from TV channels to »ContinUed on PAGe 2 Fugitive gangster Himanshu Bhau held in US, Indian agencies work on extradition Neeraj Faridpuria, another gangster, also picked up mahender singh manral New Delhi, October 23 maharashtra deputy cm eknath shinde; (right) maratha reservation activist manoj jarange-patil. file tionaries on efforts to counter his influence before the 2024 assembly elections, including referencestors500croreallegedlymeantforhim.Shindeand hissonShrikantShinde,anMP, wereinthemiddleofthis,healleged. The Shiv Sena has denied the accusations, while the BJP has cast doubts about the clip’s authenticity. The activist, meanwhile, has emphasised that he did not accept any money. in nagpur, Fadnavis told reports,“ihaveorderedaforensic probe into the audio clip that has come out in public. The matter will be thoroughly investigated to authenticate it. even Jarange-Patil has demanded an investigation. The Shiv Sena leaders and »ContinUed on PAGe 2 aBSCOnding gangSTer himanshu Bhau has been arrested by law enforcement agencies in the United States after they were alerted by india’s Central agencies about his location in Las Vegas. another fugitive, neeraj Faridpuria,whohadbeenevading arrest after removing his ankle bracelet tracker following his detention and release on bail this year, was also picked up. a source in the national investigation agency (nia) said himanshu Bhau was arrested in las Vegas aninterpolrednoticehadbeen issued against himanshu and multiple teams of delhi Police and haryana Police had been working to trace his location in the US. “With the help of technical surveillanceandonthebasisof source-based information, his location in Las Vegas was tracked down and the »ContinUed on PAGe 2 l Veer narmad souTh GujaraT uniVersiTy is replacinG all ceilinG fans in hosTels wiTh ‘anTi-suicide’ sprinG-loaded fans in which any unusual load releases a lock and pulls The fan closer To The Ground Worried over deaths by suicide, university in Gujarat installs special fans in hostels Kamal saiyed ‘Spring-loaded’ fans have a built-in mechanism that is released when a load exceeding a TO PreVenT incidents of sui- certain threshold – say, becide by hanging, a prominent tween 10 kg and 25 kg – acts on public university in gujarat is the rod. The spring uncoils and in the process of replacing all lowers the fan – and in some ceiling fans in its hostel rooms cases an alarm goes off as well. with special “anti-suicide” in 2023, after 23 students spring-loaded fans. died by suicide in the coaching More than 250 hub of Kota in rajasfansinroomsinboth than, the district adpage 1 girls’ and boys’ hosministration had tels of Veer narmad asked hostels to inSouth gujarat Unistall these devices in versity (VnSgU) in Surat have fans, and to cover balconies already been replaced, dr K n and lobbies with “anti-suicide Chavda, vice-chancellor of nets”. The proposal had origthe university told The Indian inally come from the Kota hosExpress. tel association in 2017, and was Surat, October 23 anchor officially mandated after the citysaw23suicidesbystudents that year, the highest ever. On august 9 this year, dr harshPandya,afirst-yearpostgraduate student in the Microbiology department of government Medical College, Surat, died by suicide in his hostel room. The father of the student had filed an Fir against four senior doctors accusing them of harassment that had allegedlydriventheyoungdoctorto end his life by hanging. all four doctors have been arrested. VnSgU officials said there are 312 hostel rooms in the university,inwhichatotal840students — both boys and girls — VnsGu V-c dr k n chavda currently reside. The hostels have a total of 388 ceiling fans, the officials said. after deciding to replace these fans, the university placed an order for 375 units of spring-loadedanti-suicideceiling fans through the government e-Marketplace (geM) portal, a platform for the procurementofgoodsandservices by government organisations, departments,andpublic-sector units, VnSgU sources said. each “adhUniK 5 Star electricCeilingFanwithBrushless dC Motor” costs rs 2,247, adding up to a total order value ofrs8.42lakh,thesourcessaid. The fans have 24-inch-long anti-suicide rods with an antiligature safety mechanism, they said. Vice-Chancellor Chavda said, “These anti-suicide fans areequippedwithaspecialised safety mechanism. if an unusual weight is applied to the fan — such as in a hanging attempt — the spring mechanism causes the fan to extend downwards immediately. This prevents the act of hanging.” dr Chavda added, “So far, 268 fans have been installed, out of which 158 are in the girls’ hostelsand110intheboys’hostels.Ouruniversitycampushas five girls’ hostels and four boys’ hostels.” Ahmedabad VnSgU registrar dr rameshdan gadhvi said: “This step is being taken to ensure student safety in accordance with the directives of the Supreme Court and guidelines of theUniversitygrantsCommission. anti-suicide fans in the hostels will help reduce risks. additionally, instructions are being issued to affiliated colleges to implement necessary safety measures.” as academic and other kinds of pressures on students increase, deep concern has been expressed over mental health on india’s campuses. according to national Crime records Bureau (nCrB) data, the number of student deaths by suicide increased by 34% in 2023 compared to 2019, reaching a staggering 13,892 deaths. This number rose further to 14,488 in 2024. in 2025, three separate Benches of the Supreme Court took note of this “disturbing pattern” and asked for effective steps to improve mental health in higher education institutions. Vishakha Yadav, Shilpa Yadav, Chandani desai, and darshan Parmar, student mental health counsellors at VnSgU, said students are under immense pressure to »ContinUed on PAGe 2