DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA JOURNALISM OF COURAGE MONDAY, MARCH 10, 2025, LUCKNOW, LATE CITY, 14 PAGES `6.00 WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM SINCE 1932 India’s unbeaten March WIN CHAMPIONS TROPHY FOR THIRD TIME: ‘A DREAM COME TRUE’ BUDGET SESSION RESUMES TODAY Opp set to raise US tariffs, voter rolls, delimitation; Govt focus on Waqf Bill Tamil Nadu CM and DMK chief M K Stalin with party MPs T R Baalu, Kanimozhi Karunanidhi and others during a meeting which decided to raise in Parliament the delimitation issue and the row over Hindi, in Chennai on Sunday. ANI PAGE6 ASAD REHMAN NEW DELHI, MARCH 9 The Indian team with the ICC Champions Trophy after defeating New Zealand by 4 wickets at Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Sunday. PTI Brilliant show in dramatic final against New Zealand gives India their first 50-over ICC title in 12 years EXPRESSAT CHAMPIONS TROPHY VENKATA KRISHNA B DUBAI, MARCH 9 IT MAY not be as iconic a parting shotasMSDhoni’ssixovermidwicket on that famous night in Mumbai 14 years ago. But BUSINESS AS USUAL BY UNNY Ravindra Jadeja’s slap through square leg for the boundary that wrapped up the Champions TrophyinDubai—India’sfirst50over ICC title in 12 years — will still be remembered for long. Emotions surged as the Indians surpassed the target of 252 with four wickets and six balls to spare, ending a long and frustrating wait to win a global tournamentinthisformat.Then, as fireworks soared under the floodlight glare amid a shower of goldglitter,withARRahman’s “Vande Mataram” piping in the background, India’s ecstatic cricketers rushed to their square of glory. CaptainRohitSharma,whose 76 set up the chase against New Zealand in the Sunday final, sprintedstraighttothepitchand CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 RELATED REPORTS PAGES 13, 14 Rohit’s redemption: From sitting out in Sydney to standing tall in Dubai VENKATA KRISHNA B DUBAI, MARCH 9 AS THE Indians got busy posing with the ICC Champions Trophy, skipper Rohit Sharma would quietly emerge out of the smog, walk to the middle of the pitch, uproot one of the stumps and have a short dandiya jig with Virat Kohli. Unlike in Barbados I am not going to retire: Captain Rohit Sharma. AP LUCKNOW, MARCH 9 Objective lost, has triggered concerns, fears: Nasscom wrote to IT Ministry E AN XPRESS RTI APPLICATION SOUMYARENDRA BARIK NEW DELHI, MARCH 9 WALTER J LINDNER PAGE 12 ON MARCH 1, 2024, just months aheadof LokSabhaelections,the ITMinistryissuedanadvisoryrequiringartificialintelligence(AI) platforms to seek government permission before launching “under-testing,unreliable”services, only to go back on it a fortnight later. While the guidance had drawn public criticism from CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 E EXPLAINED YOUR RIGHT TO KNOW EX-GERMAN ENVOY TO INDIA CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 THE WORLD SYRIA COMMUNAL CLASHES TOLL CROSSES 1,000 ARMED MAN SHOT AT NEAR WHITE HOUSE: OFFICIALS PAGE 10 CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Behind Govt rollback Journalist shot dead in Sitapur, police point 16 days after tunnel of advisory on seeking to ‘land dispute’; 6 detained for questioning collapse in Telangana, one body recovered nod for AI services: Industry pushback MANISH SAHU ‘India the only country with good relationship with Putin, Zelenskyy... If we need big weight, it is the first choice’ lastyearwhenIndiawontheT20 World Cup, where he struggled toholdbacktears,herehewould hughislongtimeteammatewith a huge grin. Inamatterof months,Rohit's fortunes have taken a dramatic turn. At the start of the year, when Rohit dropped himself for the Sydney Test after a string of lowscores,hisfutureintheteam THESECONDhalf of Parliament’s Budget session starting Monday is expected to be fiery, with the Opposition set to target the government by raising several issues, ranging from delimitation and three-language formula to the US trade tariffs and alleged manipulation of electoral rolls. A showdown between the Treasury and Opposition benches is also likely over the contentious Waqf Amendment Bill, which has been cleared by the Union Cabinet for introduction in Parliament. Union Parliamentary Affairs MinisterKirenRijijuhassaidthat the government is keen on early passage of the Waqf Bill, claiming that it would solve many issues of the Muslim community. The NDA allies like the Nitish Kumar-led JD(U) and N Chandrababu Naidu-led TDP have already indicated that they would support the legislation with the changes approved by the Joint Committee of Parliament in the face of the Opposition's protest. The Congress has asserted that the INDIA bloc leaders will hold “extensive consultations” to jointly oppose the Waqf Bill. The government's focus duringtheupcomingsessionwillbe Why Govt diluted ● advisory AFTER NASSCOM told the government its stated aim of users getting more information was “being lost” because of the “approach and drafting” of the advisory, the IT Ministry scrapped the provision to require permission before rolling out “under-testing, unreliable” AI services, limited the scope of the guidance to some intermediaries, and removed any mention of firms having to prepare a status report. A35-year-oldjournalistwasshot dead by unidentified motorcycle-borne assailants on a highway near Maholi town of Uttar Pradesh’s Sitapur district on Saturday, police said. Four bullet wounds were Grieving relatives of the victim in Sitapur, Uttar Pradesh, on Sunday. PTI found on the body of RaghvendraBajpai,aMaholiresident who worked as a correspondent with the Hindi daily Dainik Jagran. An FIR has been registered against unidentified persons on charges of murder, the police said, pointing to an alleged land dispute as the likely cause of CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 10 days before Hampi rape, accused made chain snatching attempt: Police KIRAN PARASHAR SANAPURA (KOPPAL), MARCH 9 THE THREE accused in the alleged gang rape of two women, including an Israeli tourist, near Hampi, the UNESCO World Heritage Site in northern Karnataka, were allegedly involved in a chain-snatching bid about 10 days before the incident, a police officer told The Indian Express. “The attempt failed but their Two of the accused, Sai Chetan and Mallesh TOURISTS PACK UP, HOMESTAYS BRACE FOR CRACKDOWN P3 targetdidnotcomplaintopolice. If police had been informed, maybe this incident (gang rape) couldhavebeenaverted,”theofficer said. From preliminary investigations in the alleged gang rape, the officer said, police suspect that “the accused, who are construction workers from the Gangavathi region nearby, were under the influence of illegal substances” at the time. According to a repesentative of local homestay owners, “the CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Rescue teams at the tunnel in Nagarkurnool, Sunday. Express NIKHILA HENRY & RAHUL V PISHARODY HYDERABAD, MARCH 9 ON THE 16th day of the search for the eight men trapped in a collapsed tunnel in Telangana, rescuers on Sunday recovered the body of one of them. He was identified as Gurpreet Singh from Tarn Taran in Punjab. Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy an- nounced ex gratia of Rs 25 lakh to his family. The eight men had been trapped since the Srisailam Left Bank Canal (SLBC) tunnel in Nagarkurnoolpartiallycollapsed on February 22. On Sunday, Gurpreet’s body was found near the broken tunnel boring machine that was being used to excavate the tunnel. Two people were operating the machine and six were helping CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Man buried with excavator, kin face endless wait — for body, death certificate PAGE 1 ANCHOR SAGAR RAJPUT PALGHAR, MARCH 9 IN THE END, closure — or some sense of it — came in the form of afive-foot-somethingcastmade of atta and a garlanded photographof RakeshYadavplacedon a bamboo frame. Months after 35-year-old Rakesh and his excavator were buried under 60 feet of mud and rubble at the site of a water supply project in Palghar's Navghar area,over1,600kilometersaway, at Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh, Rakesh’s family carried out his last rites. “The pandit said since the bodywasneverfound,wecanget a cast made to roughly match Rakesh’s height. We made one with atta, put his photograph on it and carried out the cremation,” says Rakesh’s father Balchandra, 62. But for the family, the wait continues—thistime,foradeath certificate. Though the administrationcalledoff thesearchoperations four months after the accident, the authorities are yet to officially declare Rakesh dead. Rakesh’s brother-in-law, Santosh Yadav, says, “When we came to Vasai (in Palghar, soon after the accident), we spoke to several authorities there, but at that time, we were told that since the body had not been found,noonecouldissueadeath certificate.” “Rakesh had invested some money in LIC policies, and his wifeandthreechildren needthe money for their future, which is why his death certificate is very important for us. We will need the certificate in the future too, for other formalities,” he added. When contacted on the matter of Rakesh’s death certificate, The site in Palghar, Maharashtra, where Rakesh Yadav was buried after a mishap in May 2024; (right) his body not found, Yadav’s family performed his funeral using his photograph. Express CollectorandDistrictMagistrate GovindBodkedirectedTheIndian Express to Resident Deputy CollectorSubhashBhagade,who said that Rakesh has “not been officially declared dead”. “I will understand the procedure and get back,” he added. OnMay29,2024,Rakeshand his eight-tonne excavator were buried when one of the concrete wallsof atrenchhewasworking in collapsed on him. He was part of a team working to excavate a tunnel to lay a pipeline for a water supply project under the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority’s (MMRDA) Surya Regional Water Supply Scheme. Soon after the accident, a team of the National Disaster Relief Force, firemen from the Vasai Virar Municipal Corporationandpersonnelof the Indian Army’s Pune-based 269 Engineer Regiment launched an operationtolocateRakesh.Asthe news reached his family in Azamgarh, on May 30, Rakesh’s elderly parents, wife, three children,andotherfamilymembers packed a few sets of clothes and boarded a train to Mumbai. The family of nine, including Rakesh’s parents, his wife Sushila and their three children, CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Lucknow