The Editorial Page: America is walking away from the system it created 10 SATURDAY, JANUARY 10, 2026 JOuRNALISM of COuRAGE NEW DELHI, LATE CITY, 24 PAGES ₹7.00 (₹8 RAIPUR, ₹15 SRINAGAR) 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 cbc 35101/13/0068/2526 Happening today DEAL ALIVE: OffIcIALS; U.S. ENVOY GOR ARRIVES IN INDIA Deal stalled as Modi didn’t call: Lutnick; inaccurate, says govt lPRIME MINISTER Narendra Modi will participate in Omkar Mantra chanting at Somnath temple in Gujarat as part of the Somnath Swabhiman Parv. lBJP working president Nitin Nabin will begin a two-day visit to poll-bound Tamil Nadu, where he is scheduled to attend four events including an organisational meeting. US Commerce Secy claims deal was done; MEA says PM, Trump had 8 calls last yr lTHE SEcOND EDITION Of Women's Hockey India League concludes in Ranchi with the final between SG Pipers and Bengal Tigers. Match starts at 7.30 pm IST. Shubhajit Roy New Delhi, January 9 TRACK THESE AND MORE ON www.INDIANExPrEss.cOm business as Usual By EP UNNY West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee leads a protest march against the ED raid on the I-PAC office, in Kolkata on Friday. PARTHA PAUL Bengal standoff: TMC goes to court seeking return of data, state files FIR against ED ED searches raise ‘serious concerns’, set ‘unsettling precedent’, says I-PAC Atri Mitra & Tanusree Bose Kolkata, January 9 NATION PAGE 9 UTTARAkHANd CM RECOMMENdS CbI PRObE IN 2022 ANkITA MURdER A DAY after the Enforcement Directorate’s(ED)raidsonpolitical consultancy firm I-PAC sparkedapoliticalstorminWest Bengal, the stand-off deepened onFridayastheTrinamoolCongress (TMC) urged the Calcutta High Court to direct the agency toreturn“confidentialandsensitive data” and documents it had seized. In a statement, IPAC said the ED searches had raised “serious concerns” and set an “unsettling precedent”, but added it would continue to cooperate with the probe. These developments came on a day West Bengal CM and TMC chairperson Mamata Ba- LAND-fOR-JOBS cASE ‘Criminal enterprise, used Rlys as fiefdom’: Court frames charges against Lalu & family Nirbhay Thakur New Delhi, January 9 A DELHI court Friday framed charges against RJD chief and former Railways Minister Lalu Prasad, his wife and former BiharChiefMinisterRabriDevi, and children Tejashwi Yadav, Tej Pratap Yadav and Misa Bharti,andothersinthealleged land-for-jobs corruption case being investigated by the CBI. Special Judge Vishal Gogne of Rouse Avenue Court, who passed a 346-page order on the framing of charges, said, “The plea of Mr Lalu Prasad Yadav and his family members to be discharged from the present proceedings is completely unwarrantedwhentheMinistryof Railways and the lands of his constituents were apparently being lorded over by him as a personal fiefdom.” “There are strong indicationsfromthechargesheetsthat Mr Lalu Prasad Yadav and the accused members of his family wereoperatingasacriminalenterprise designed to usurp private lands by bartering away »cONTINUED ON PAGE 2 ThE BIg PICTURE EDITOrIAl PAGE IT SHOULd NOT bE YOUR AGENCY vS MY POLICE P 10 nerjee stepped up her attacks on the BJP, accusing senior partyleadersofbenefitingfrom proceeds of the coal scam the ED is probing, while the police filedtwoFIRsagainsttheinvestigationagencyandtheCentral Armed Police Forces (CAPF), based on the CM’s complaints, in connection with the events the day before. In its High Court plea, the TMC urged it to direct “the respondents to return of all articles including but not limited to the private, confidential and sensitive data, information, documents illegally seized in physical as well as electronic form belonging to the petitioner and or in relation to the operation/affairs/business of the petitioner illegally seized »cONTINUED ON PAGE 2 INFRESHclaimsamidtheprotracted negotiations over the India-US trade deal, US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has said that Prime MinisterNarendraModididnotcall US President Donald Trump afterthedealwassetupinMayJuly last summer, suggesting this as one reason why the agreement stalled. According to Lutnick, Indian negotiators subsequently returnedtoseekclosure,butby then Washington wanted different terms and conditions. The remarks came hours before US Ambassador-designateSergioGorarrivedinIndia Friday night. “Great to be back in India! Incredible opportunities ahead for our two nations,” Gor posted on X. He is expected to take charge of the US Embassy Monday. India faces the highest US »cONTINUED ON PAGE 2 PAGE 15 Ravi Dutta Mishra & Sukalp Sharma New Delhi, January 9 THE TIME window indicated by US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick when an India-US trade agreement could have been inkedcoincidedwithOperation Sindoor and its fraught aftermath:howUSPresidentDonald Trumpsoughtcreditforbrokering a ceasefire between India and Pakistan, a claim that, alongwithanIslamabad-Washington warmth, cast a shadow on the bilateral relationship. Lutnick indicated the India-US agreement wasreadysometimebetweentheannouncementofthe US deals with the UK (May 8) E. Shaju Philip Thiruvanananthapuram, January 9 is confusion, I don’t deny… hope things work out’ Vallabh Ozarkar & Sandeep Singh Mumbai, January 9 INdIAfORGING STRATEGIESTO SECURENATIONAL INTEREST:dAS Lutnick’s deal timeline collides with Op Sindoor, Trump’s ‘ceasefire’ claim »cONTINUED ON PAGE 2 When BJP does something, it’s Sabarimala’s most Amar Prem, when we do it, it’s senior priest held in Love Jihad: Uddhav on alliances ‘gold theft’ scandal On INDIA and How the Piprahwa gems came home P 12 MVA, says ‘there EcONOmY US President Donald Trump with Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick and Senator Lindsey Graham last week. NYT FILE AS QUESTIONS swirl around thelackofcohesionamongOpposition alliance constituents at the national and state levels, formerMaharashtraChiefMin- ExPrEss interview SANKHADEEP BANERJEE UDDHAV THAcKERAY SHIV SENA UBT PRESIDENT ister and Shiv Sena UBT presidentUddhavThackerayFriday acknowledged that there is “confusion” within the INDIA bloc and the state Maha Vikas PAGE 6 Aghadi and said “I hope things work out”. In an interview with The Indian Express as Maharashtra »cONTINUED ON PAGE 2 THE SPECIAL investigation team probing the alleged theft of gold from the Sabarimala temple in Kerala arrested the temple’s most senior Tantri (priest), Kandararu Rajeevaru, on Friday. The SIT, which has registered two cases in connection withthematter,hadarrested10 persons — all of them senior employees of the Travancore Devaswom Board, the government-run body that manages the temple, or CPI(M) leaders who headed the board. Rajeevaru’s is the 11th arrest inthecaseandthefirstfromthe Tantriclanatthetemple.Hewas produced before the Vigilance court in Kollam, which remandedhimtojudicialcustody. His arrest comes at the peak of the ongoing annual festival at the Sabarimala temple. However, rituals will not be affected asanothermemberofhisfamily, Mahesh Mohanaru, had taken on the duties of chief priest for a yearfromAugust2025duetothe rotational system in which differentmembersofthefamilyassume the role. Of the two cases registered in connection with the matter, police sources said Rajeevaru (66) was arrested in the case »cONTINUED ON PAGE 2 l PROBE FOCUS ON HOW ‘WOMAN WITH vERSATILE TALENT WENT INTO SUCH DEPRESSION THAT SHE DIED WITHIN FOUR MONTHS’ The death of a 19-year-old: Himachal family, college grapple with answers Saurabh Parashar clues to go on. A member of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) said the HER PAINTINGS, study notes, case, which has made national praise for doctors and nurses headlines, drawing action by who treated her in various hos- the University Grants Compitals in the months leading up mission (UGC) and National to her death, and her digital Commission for SC/STs, is footprints—theHimachalPra- uniquely complicated. “Statedesh Police is sifting through ments of everyone involved, theseforcluesintothedeathon including the kin of the victim, December 26 of a 19are changing from PAGE 1 year-old,whowasalone day to another, legedly traumatised giving the case a over sexual assault new twist.” and ragging at her DharamThe member points to a shala college. video posted on social media Since the body was cre- recently by one of the four colmated before police started its lege mates accused of ragging probe, there are few physical her, in which she says that the Dharamshala, January 9 anchor 19-year-old had been actually ragged by a final-year student, back in 2024, and not in September 2025 as claimed by the teenager’s parents. Asked how she came to know about this, the college student in the video says the 19-year-old told her so. The SIT member says that, atthesametime,itisdifficultto doubt the videos left behind by theteenagerspeakingabouther harassmentbycollegematesin September — recorded by her relatives while she was in hospital.Andsothelatestclaimhas left them in a bind. Following a complaint by her father on December 30 on the Himachal Chief Minister’s Paintings by the student, who died on December 26 Helpline, police are probing five people against whom an FIR has been lodged, including her four college mates and an assistant professor, who is being investigated for sexual assault charges. While the 19-year-old who died was a Dalit, three of the other accused are SC/STs. The assistant professor, who was suspended on January 4, belongs to an OBC group. The SIT officer says: “At this stage, we can't deny the 19year-old’s allegations, but also the fact that the victim was struggling against severe depression and mental issues.” Kangra Superintendent of PoliceAshokRatantoldTheIndian Express that their focus wastodetermine“howayoung woman with versatile talent, who was into painting, went into such severe depression that she died within four months…asthefamilyclaims”. From September when the alleged “harassment” took placetillherdeath,the19-yearoldwastreatedinatleastsixdifferent hospitals. “We have collectedhermedicalhistoryfrom the hospitals, and it is being examined by a special panel of doctors,” Ratan says. The 19-year-old The teenager grew up in a small hamlet located near the newly opened Himachal Vidhan Sabha building, not far from the college where she was enrolled in, at Dharamshala. The family is a large one, with her uncle’s house and theirs locatedinacommoncompound. Her father is a property dealer who once gave martial arts training to local youths. Speaking to The Indian Express, the 49-year-old says: “Whatever police wanted, we have handed over, including my daughter's paintings devotedtoLordKrishna.Theonly thing I have not shared is a pair of jeans and a sweater which I bought for her when she was in hospital in Ludhiana for a month in November. A doctor had advised us to keep her in a good mood, so I got the new clothes. She seemed almost »cONTINUED ON PAGE 2