DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA JOURNALISM OF COURAGE TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2021, NEW DELHI, LATE CITY, 20 PAGES TALIBAN CLOSING IN ON AFGHAN CITIES, PUSHING COUNTRY TO THE BRINK MYANMAR JUNTA CRACKS DOWN ON PROTESTERS PAGE 16 Kappan can visit mother, can’t talk to media: SC EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE NEW DELHI, FEBRUARY 15 CITING “HUMANITARIAN grounds”, the Supreme Court Monday allowed jailed journalist Siddique Kappan, who was arrested by UP Police in October, tovisithisailingmotherinKerala — but under strict "safeguards", including a bar on speaking to the media. Kappan is in jail in Mathura inacaselinkedtoanallegedconspiracy to inflame religious enmity over the rape in Hathras of a Dalit girl and her death. The order was issued by a bench headed by Chief Justice of India S A Bobde after Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the Kerala Union of Working Journalists (KUWJ), sought five days interim bail for Kappan to see his mother. The court said it is allowing the visit on humanitarian grounds. Referring to the KUWJ's plea CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 CJI to WhatsApp: You may be 2-3 trillion firm, but people value privacy EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE NEW DELHI, FEBRUARY 15 THESUPREMECourtonMonday sought WhatsApp’s response on a plea seeking to restrain it from implementing its new privacy policy in the country, observing that it was the duty of the court to protect people’s privacy. “People have grave concern about their privacy. You may be a two trillion or three trillion company, but people value their privacy more...It’s our duty to protect people’s privacy,” Chief Justice of India S A Bobde told lawyers appearing for WhatsApp and the Internet giant Facebook, which owns the instant messaging application. The three-judge Bench headed by the CJI and also comprising Justices A S Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian, was hear- GRETA THUNBERG TOOLKIT CASE Day after Disha arrest, police move against two Mumbai activists E E X P L A I NE D THE WORLD ‘Personal chats ● private’ AMID CONTINUING concerns over its new privacy policy, WhatsApp had clarified that the policy changes nothing for those messaging friends and family. It had also said that in some conditions, business messages can be read by Facebook, and could be used for marketing purposes. ing an application filed by two college students, Karmanya Singh Sareen and Shreya Sethi. The court, which noted that WhatsApp’s new privacy policy Probe into ‘WhatsApp chats’ between Disha and Greta, ‘ties’ to US activist JIGNASA SINHA NEW DELHI, FEBRUARY 15 Ashwin with Kohli during Day 3 of second India-England Test, at Chennai’s M A Chidambaram Stadium Monday. BCCI/PTI CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 With first home Worker’s family finds severed limb at Raini ton, Ashwin turns plant site, and closure another corner SHAMIK CHAKRABARTY LALMANI VERMA CHENNAI, FEBRUARY 15 DEHRADUN, FEBRUARY 15 HER BROTHER playing in the snow in the hills of Uttarakhand willbeanimagethatwillstayforever with Ritu Rani, 38, elder sister of Vicky Kumar, 32, who had video-calledherafteratrektothe Bhavishya Badri temple in Tapovan, just a day before flash floods washed away the hydro powerproject’sestablishmentoffice at Rishi Ganga on February 7. From Deoband in Saharan- `6.00 (`8 BIHAR & RAIPUR, `12 SRINAGAR) WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM SINCE 1932 Vicky hoped to build a pucca home for family, says brother pur district of Uttar Pradesh, Vicky had reached the project CONTINUED ON PAGE 10 INDIAN CRICKET has been slow to warm up to Ravichandran Ashwin’s quality and utility. He was the fastest Indian bowler to reach 100 and 200 Test wickets but was called a spin-track bully. He had scored four Test hundreds,beforehisfifthatChepauk Monday,butduecreditdidn’tarrive.Infact,hewasdroppedfrom India’s one-day team after the 2017 Champions Trophy for being one-dimensional. On Monday, the 34-year-old from Chennai went past Garry Sobers and closed in on Ian Bothamintherecordbookswith a 148-ball 106 against England. ItwasAshwin'sfirstthree-figure score on home patch, but it also marked the third time in his careerthathehadtakenafive-for andscoredacenturyinthesame match. Sobers and South African all-rounder Jacques Kallis did it twice,whileBothamachievedthe featfivetimes.Withthisperformance,Ashwinhasmovedintothe pantheon of greats. CONTINUED ON PAGE 10 A DAY after announcing the arrest of 22-year-old activist Disha Ravi over a toolkit tweeted by Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg on the farmers' protest,theDelhiPoliceMonday issued non-bailable warrants againstMumbai-basedadvocate Nikita Jacob and her associate Shantanu, saying that they were allegedly responsible for creating the Google document. Police said that Jacob and Shantanu Muluk, an engineer, werenotfoundattheirresidence in Mumbai and Beed, respectively. Both work for a UK-based NGO called Extinction Rebellion (XR), they said. Sources said two BUSINESS AS USUAL BY UNNY Lawyer Jacob, her aide move HC for bail OMKAR GOKHALE, SADAF MODAK & SAGAR RAJPUT MUMBAI, FEBRUARY 15 more people are learnt to be on the police radar in connection with the toolkit. Sources in the Special Cell, CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 ACTIVISTS NIKITA Jacob and Shantanu Muluk, against whom non-bailablewarrantshavebeen issuedinDelhiinconnectionwith theGretaThunberg'toolkit'case, have moved Bombay High Court fortransitanticipatorybail.Their pleas will be heard on Tuesday. Jacobhassoughtinterimprotection from coercive steps by police, and a copy of the FIR filed in Delhi. Jacob's lawyer mentioned the matter before Justice P D CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 JNU sedition case: Kanhaiya, others to face trial, summoned on March 15 MAHENDER SINGH MANRAL NEW DELHI, FEBRUARY 15 A YEAR after the Delhi Police received prosecution sanction against former JNU Students Union president Kanhaiya Kumar and nine others in the 2016 JNU sedition case, a Delhi courtMondaytookcognisanceof thechargesheetandsummoned all the accused on March 15. In its chargesheet, police claimed Kumar led a procession andsupported—alongwithothers named as accused — seditious slogans raised on the JNU campus on February 9, 2016, during an event to mark the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru. Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (Patiala House Courts) Dr PankajSharma,whiletakingcognisance of the chargesheet againstKumar,SyedUmarKhalid, Anirban Bhattacharya, Aquib CONTINUED ON PAGE 10