eye MCS/204/2020-22RNINO.MAHENG2002/21899 THE SUNDAY EXPRESS MAGAZINE Here He Goes Again MUMBAI,LATECITY MAY26,2024 A few months ago he was in hospital. Designer Rohit Bal is now back where he belongs FOUR-PAGE PULLOUT 14+4PAGES,`6.00 WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA SPECIAL PROBE TEAM SET UP, TOLD TO FILE PRELIMINARY REPORT IN 3 DAYS 26/05/2024 121 149 185 78 PM warns of Tejashwi arrest, says INDIA bloc can do mujra for vote bank At least 27 killed in Rajkot amusement park fire, many children among dead Officials say gaming zone didn’t have NOC from fire dept; four detained GOPAL KATESHIYA RAJKOT, MAY 25 AT LEAST 27 people, including children,werekilledasamassive fire broke out at TRP, a private amusement park/ gaming zone, inGujarat'sRajkotonSaturdayafternoon.OfficialssaidTRPdidnot have a no-objection certificate (NOC) from the fire department. In a statement, the state gov- ernmentsaid27bodieshadbeen brought for post-mortem at the Rajkot Civil Hospital. Most of the bodies were charred, making identificationdifficult.“TheirDNA samplesarebeingdrawnforidentification...Theprocessisonatthe RajkotCivilHospitalpolicepostto collect DNA samples of family members so that the DNA can be matched,” the statement said. Rajkot District Collector Prabhav Joshi said most of the Express The gaming zone in Rajkot that burned down on Sunday. Phase 6: Overall turnout dips to 61%, Anantnag-Rajouri touches 54% high PM Narendra Modi with LJP (Ram Vilas) chief Chirag Paswan in Patna on Saturday. 58.70% polling in Delhi; only 57 seats left to vote PATNA, MAY 25 EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE REITERATINGHISallegationthat theINDIAblocwantstocarveout a quota for minorities, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said the Opposition could perform “mujra” or do “slavery” for its “vote bank”, but hewouldthwart any attempt to DECISION divert the SC, ST, 2024 OBC reservation. While he did not name RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, Modi, who addressed a series of rallies in Bihar, also warned that the “countdown” for arrest had started for those behind the alleged land-for-jobs scam. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 THE TURNOUT in the sixth phase of the Lok Sabha elections in 58 constituencies across eight states and Union territories on Saturday was 61.01 per cent, according to the Election Commission (EC) data at 11.30 pm. The overall turnout in Delhi, where all the seven Lok Sabha constituencies voted in the sixth phase, was 58.70 per cent, down from 60.60 per cent in 2019. In2019,theseatswhichvoted on Saturday had recorded 64.73 percentpolling.Butthisdoesnot include the Anantnag-Rajouri constituency of Jammu and Kashmir, which was redrawn duringdelimitationin2022.The constituency saw 54.06 per cent polling on Saturday. The final turnout is likely to rise.Haryanasawthebiggestdip in polling — from 69.93 per cent CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 President Droupadi Murmu after voting at a ‘pink booth’, managed by women staff, in New Delhi on Saturday. Renuka Puri Under attack, poll panel releases number of votes cast in 5 phases EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE NEW DELHI, MAY 25 FACINGCRITICISM—andacasein theSupremeCourt—theElection Commission (EC) Saturday released the absolute number of electors who cast their votes in each constituency in the first five phases of the ongoing Lok Sabha elections,evenasitsaidtherewas “a pattern of false narratives and mischievousdesignstovitiatethe electoral process”. Unlike in 2019, when the EC released and later removed data on votes cast from its website due to alleged discrepancies between the provisional number of votes cast and those counted, CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Kapadia wins Cannes Grand Prix for debut film EXPRESSATCANNES SHUBHRA GUPTA CANNES, MAY 25 “THANKYOUverymuchCannes Film Festival for having our film here. Please don’t wait for an- The cast and the director at the Cannes closing ceremony. AP other 30 years to have another Indian film,” said Payal Kapadia as she picked up the prestigious Grand Prix for her debut feature, All We Imagine As Light, at the 77th Cannes Film Festival. Kapadia had entered the muchfeted Competition Section thirty years after an Indian film made the cut — Shaji N Karun’s Swaham was in the Competition line-up in 1994. There has been a long droughtsince,andKapadia’sfilm has broken through, gloriously. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 From Iran to India: 6 men, a fishing boat and a daring getaway on the high seas PAGE 1 ANCHOR ARUN JANARDHANAN CHENNAI, MAY 25 NOTHING ABOUT the day seemed extraordinary. On the morning of April 22, the sea crashing into the predawn darkness of the shore, the six fishermen hauled their nets, hooks, baits and food supplies onto the CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 THE WORLD ISRAEL CONTINUES RAFAH OFFENSIVE KHARKIV AREAS BACK IN UKRAINE CONTROL PAGE 8 NEW DELHI, MAY 25 SANTOSH SINGH victims were children. Officials did not rule out the possibility of the toll rising. The government has set up a Special Investigation Team (SIT), led by Additional Director General of Police (CID-crime) Subhash Trivedi, to probe the incident. The SIT, which includes Banchhanidhi Pani, commissioner of technical education; H P Sanghvi, director of Forensic ScienceLaboratory,Gandhinagar; J N Khadiya, chief fire officer of Ahmedabad; and M B Desai, superintending engineer of road The fishermen left Iran on April 22, reached India on May 6. deck of the boat, and set sail. Just as they did every day. Except, that day, the six men in the boat had a daring plan: to flee their employer in Bandar-e Chiruiyeh, a harbour in the Iranian province of Hormozgan, andsailallthewaybackhometo India, a distance of over 1,500 nautical miles, threading the geopolitically volatile Strait of Hormuz before entering the forbidding, blue expanse of the Arabian Sea. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 CHHATRAPATI SAMBHAJI NAGAR Helpline numbers on school report cards help prevent 12 child marriages in a day PALLAVI SMART MUMBAI, MAY 25 EARLIERTHISmonth,authorities successfully prevented 12 child marriages that were to take place on the auspicious day of Akshay Tritiya in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar district. The authorities intervened following callsreceivedonahelpline,alerting officials to the illegal marriages. Notably, all these calls were made by classmates of the girls being forced into marriage. Theclassmatesknewwhotocall asthehelplinenumberhadbeen strategicallypublishedonschool reportcardsacrossthedistrictas part of efforts to combat child marriages. In early May, following the declaration of results in most schools, students were handed report cards bearing the child helpline numbers 1098 and 112. Assurancesweregiventhattheir identities would remain confi- dential if they reported any instances of concern. In the days leading up to Akshay Tritiya, falling on May 10 this year, the child helpline receivedcallsfromyoungstudents acrossthedistrict,alertingabout child marriages. These calls provided specific details such as the names of the children, their villages, and the dates of the ceremonies. Prompt action was then taken by the child helpline, in collaborationwiththepoliceand local social activists, to intervene and prevent these marriages. This successful intervention owes much to the proactive action of several school students who promptly reported their friends or classmates being forced intomarriage.Itisadirect outcome of a year-long awareness campaign against child marriages conducted in schools acrossSambhajinagar,oneof the 12districtsinMaharashtraidentified by the National Family CONTINUED ON PAGE 2