DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA ● REG.NO. MCS/067/2018 - 20 RNI REGN. NO. 1543/57 JOURNALISM OF COURAGE TUESDAY, MARCH 26, 2024, MUMBAI, LATE CITY, 14 PAGES `5.00 ● WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM SINCE 1932 CALLS FOR TRUCE DURING RAMZAN US abstains, allows UNSC to pass Gaza ceasefire resolution 111 139 172 62 Snubbed, Israel protests, cancels visit; Hamas welcomes move BUSINESS AS USUAL EDITH M LEDERER BY UNNY UNITED NATIONS, MARCH 25 HAPPY HOLI Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde participates in Holi celebrations outside his residence in Thane, Monday. Deepak Joshi DECISION 2024 BJP LATEST LIST HAS THREE FROM MAHARASHTRA PAWAR, THACKERAY MAY APPROACH TOP CONG LEADERSHIP OVER 2 SEATS PAGE 5 Phone tap case in Telangana: Former intel bureau chief is prime accused SREENIVAS JANYALA HYDERABAD, MARCH 25 WITH THE former chief of Telangana’s Special Intelligence Bureau (SIB) being listed as a prime accusedin the Hyderabad Policecaseintophonetappingof BRS’s political rivals when the party was in power, more skeletons are tumbling out of the closet, with investigators alleging there was a concerted effort to destroy evidence when it became clear the BRS was losing to the Congress in the December Assembly polls. Investigators familiar with thecase alsoalleged theaccused officials had “formed a coterie” and performed illegal activities topleasethethenBharatRashtra Samiti (BRS) government and some of its top leaders. According to investigators, former SIB chief, retired IPS officer T Prabhakar Rao, who has been named as “accused number 1” by the Hyderabad Police, failed to “draw the line” when taking or implementing orders fromthepartyinpower.“Officers whodirectlyworkedforRaoperformedtaskswhichwerenotexpected of them,” a probe officer said,detailingthatthesetasksinvolved alleged phone tapping, collecting intelligence on movementsof certainpeople,andsurveillance of opposition leaders, activists and political critics. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 PAGE 1 ANCHOR Derogatory post on Kangana from Cong social media head sets off political row Shrinate denies role in ‘mandi’ post, actor says: ‘every woman deserves dignity’ EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE NEW DELHI, MARCH 25 ANOBJECTIONABLEremarkpurportedly made by senior CongressleaderSupriyaShrinate about actor Kangana Ranaut, who has been named by the BJP asitscandidatefortheLokSabha elections from Mandi in Himachal Pradesh, triggered a politicalcontroversyonMonday, with the ruling party attacking the Congress and demanding that she be sacked as the party’s social and digital media head. The comment in Hindi, featuring a photograph of Ranaut, was posted from Shrinate’s 26 firms facing heat from agencies bought bonds, 16 of them after knock on door Bonds worth `5,179 cr bought by 26 firms; BJP got 37%, TMC 18%, Cong 12% ANJISHNU DAS NEW DELHI, MARCH 25 BJP’s Kangana Ranaut (left) and Cong’s Supriya Shrinate Instagram account. “Kya bhav chal raha hai Mandi main koi batayega(cansomeonesaywhat is the going rate in Mandi),” it said,inadenigratingreferenceto the actor and her constituency. Denying her involvement, Shrinate claimed it was posted by somebody who had access to her accounts. “The mischief was started by somebody who runs a parodyaccount in mynameon Twitter (X) and I have no clue who this person is. The moment it was brought to my notice, I CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 OF 26 companies that bought the electoral bonds and have faced action by investigative agencies, 16 donated to political parties through bonds only after they came under the radar of these agencies. Further, the donations of another six companies surged after these agencies started cracking down on them. A scrutiny of the 26 companiesbyTheIndianExpressreveals the parties that benefited includedtheBJP,whichrulesatthe Centre, and got 37.34% of the bonds purchased by these companies, and other ruling parties in states likethe TMCgot 18.29%, DMK 11.35%, BJD 4.48% and BRS 8.59%.TheCongress,whichrules EXPRESS NETWORK MEGHA ENGG TOP DONOR FOR BRS TOO, GAVE POLL BONDS WORTH Rs 195 CR THE UNITED Nations Security Council (UNSC) on Monday issued its first demand to halt the fighting in Gaza, passing a resolution that called for a ceasefire during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, after the US abstained, drawing an immediate protest from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Netanyahu canceled a planned visit to Washington by a high-level delegation and accusedtheUSof “retreating”from a “principled position”by allowingthevoteto passwithoutconditioningthe ceasefire on the releaseof hostagesheldbyHamas. Reuters adds: Hamas said it welcomed the UNSC resolution, and that it stood ready to engage inan immediate swapof prisoners with Israel. The resolution passed 14-0 aftertheUSdecidednottouseits veto power on the resolution, which also demanded the releaseof allhostagestakencaptive duringtheOctober7surpriseattack by the Hamas in southern Israel. A key reason for past US vetoesof SecurityCouncilceasefireresolutionswasthefailureto tiethemdirectlytothereleaseof Linda Thomas-Greenfield,USAmbassadorandRepresentative totheUN,votestoabstain attheUNheadquarters,Monday. AP The US shift IN PREVIOUS resolutions, the US closely intertwined calls for a ceasefire with demands for the release of Israeli hostages in Gaza. This resolution, using wording that’s open to interpretation, continued to link the two issues, but not as firmly. RELATED REPORT PAGE 10 PAGE 7 in three states, got 11.97%. Overall, between April 2019 and February 2024, these 26 companies bought Rs 700.65 crore in bonds before facing agencies’ actions and Rs 4,479.6 crore after. Ten of these companies donated a total of at least Rs 100 crore each. For instance, the top donor FutureGaming,ownedby“lottery king”SantiagoMartin,didnotpurchaseasingleelectoralbonduntil CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 MOHAMED THAVER MUMBAI, MARCH 25 G Janardhan Reddy joins the BJP in the presence of senior party leader B S Yediyurappa in Bengaluru, Monday. PTI Mumbai lost over 21,000 trees in 6 years 9 CBI cases pending, to make way for Metro, road projects Karnataka’s mining E AN XPRESS RTI APPLICATION PRATIP ACHARYA MUMBAI, MARCH 25 IF DETERIORATING air quality over the past few years has emerged as a major concern for Mumbai,itsfast-depletingurban green cover has only compounded the problems. The city has witnessed felling of at least 21,028 trees over the past six years,accordingtodataprovided bytheBrihanmumbaiMunicipal Corporation (BMC) to The Indian Express under the RTI Act. The trees were felled largely Mumbai tree count is 29.75 lakh as per 2011 census. File FADING GREEN, 2018 TO 2023 Trees cut (24 wards) Trees transplanted (24 wards) Trees transplanted (9 wards)* Transplantation success (9 wards)* Transplantation success rate (%)* : : : : : 21,028 21,916 4,338 963 22.2 *Transplantation success rate available only for 9 wards; Source: RTI response from BMC to make way for development projects such as Metro, bullet train, coastal road, sewage treatment plant (STP) and the Goregaon-Mulund Link Road among others. TheBMCdataalsoshowsthat although it transplanted 21,916 trees during the six-year period — between 2018 and 2023 — their survival rate was low. Data on survival of transplanted trees was available only for 9 out of the total 24 wards. According to the data, out of the 4,338treestransplantedinthese 9 wards, only 963 trees (22%) survived. Another cause of concern for Mumbaikars is the city’s tree count. According to the BMC, Mumbai has a total of 29,75,283 trees. Civic officials, however, clarifiedthatthisnumberisfrom CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Promised jobs in Thailand, forced into cyber fraud in Laos; FIR filed SURVIVAL RATE OF TRANSPLANTED TREES LOW: BMC DATA YOUR RIGHT TO KNOW hostages.TheUSarguedthatthe two issues were linked while RussiaandChinafavoredunconditional calls for ceasefires. The resolutionapprovedMondaydemands the release of hostages but does not make it a condition for the ceasefire. The US decision to abstain comes at a time of growing tensions between President Joe Biden’s administration and Netanyahu, who has rejected US efforts to prevent a potentially devastating Israeli ground invasion of the southern Gaza city of Rafah and has dismissed Biden’s call for the eventual creation of a Palestinian state. During its US visit, the Israeli baron Janardhan Reddy returns to BJP JOHNSON T A BENGALURU, MARCH 25 FORMER KARNATAKA minister G Janardhan Reddy, 57, who is accused in nine CBI cases linked to illegal mining from the 20082013 period — when the BJP was in power in the state — made a return to the party on Monday by merging his Kalyana Rajya Pragathi Paksha party with the BJP ahead of the Lok Sabha polls. The move is largely seen as an attempt by the BJP to offset the losses caused by the KRPP in a few districts of northern Karnatakainthe2023statepolls. Reddy is currently the sole MLA from the KRPP in the state. Speaking to reporters after merging the KRPP with the BJP on Monday, Reddy said that he had offered to support the BJP but Union Home Minister Amit Shah insisted on a merger. “Amit Shah told me that the question of external support does not arise. He reminded me that my political birth was in the BJPandaskedmetoreturntothe party,” he said, adding that he had to exit the BJP in the past "due to unavoidable situations". “The return of Janardhan Reddy gives the BJP immense CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 AT LEAST 25-30 Indian youngsters were allegedly duped by a gang that promised them highpaying jobs in Thailand and eventually smuggled them to Laos where they were forced to work in a call centre, making fraudulent calls to Europe, US and Canada. Mumbai Police registered an FIR on Sunday based on a complaint from one of the Indians, Thane resident Siddharth Yadav, 23, who managed to return to the country with the help of the Indian embassy in Laos. The matter is now being probed by the Crime Branch. According to Yadav’s complaint,heandthreeothersworking withhim were also allegedly tied to chairs when the suspects found that they had contacted the Indian embassy for help. Incidentally, in October 2022 aswell,thegovernmenthadrescued130Indianswhowerelured by a fake job racket in which Indians were promised jobs in Thailand but taken to Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia, where they wereforcedintocybercrimetargeting western countries. In his complaint to the Vile Parle Police, Yadav, a resident of CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Horror novel, black magic, 2 killings: Kerala double murder unravels SHAJU PHILIP THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, MARCH 25 HIS MALAYALAM novel Mahamanthrikam, about a sorcerer who gets close to a landlord’sfamilyandwoosthedaughter, has been read by more than 50,000 people on an online platform. In hundreds of comments, his readers praise the horror novel — serialised in six parts — and urge him to give them more. Nitheesh P R (31) has garnered quite a following for himself on the multilingual digital storytelling platform Pratilipi, wherehisserialisednovelbegan appearing from October 2018. The story had all the ingredients of a hit horror flick — revenge, witchcraft, ghosts, and demons. However, the writer, a selfproclaimed black magic practitioner,isnowalsoaccusedintwo murders spanning over eight years in a case that police stumbled upon during an investigationintoarobbery.Furtherinvestigations revealed a twisted tale that had uncanny similarities with the plot of his 2018 novel. Also known as Puthenpurackal Nitheesh, he was arrested in the early hours of March 2 along with Vishnu (27) from Kattappana town in Kerala’s Idukki district during an attempted robbery at an automobile workshop. Whileinvestigatingthetheft, police came across evidence pointing to two murders that they allegedly committed — of a newborn baby, allegedly Nitheesh’s, and Vishnu’s father N G Vijayan (65). It started with the police’s search of the rented house that the two lived in at Kakkatukada village under Kanchiyar panchayat near Kattappana town to see where the stolen items were kept. During the search, the policefoundtwowomenlockedin- Nitheesh P R’s online novel has been read by more than 50,000 people side a room. They were Vishnu’s mother and sister. The women were found to be in a mentally unstable condition. Subsequently,thepolicecontacted the relatives of the family, who indicated that Vijayan, the head of the family, had been missing since last September. Further investigation found thatNitheesh,whohadattached himself to the family years ago in the guise of perfoming black magic for them, allegedly impregnated Vijayan’s daughter and that she delivered a child in July 2016. The newborn was allegedly killed four days after birth, with both Vijayan’s and Vishnu’s help, according to police. It was also found that in August 2023, Vijayan was allegedly killed and buried under the floor of one of the rooms at their rented house. Inspector N Suresh Kumar, whoisinvestigatingthecase,said Nitheesh’s serialised novel had many similarities to the first crime.“There are a lot of similarities between the story and the sequenceof eventsthatledupto the first murder. He had developed a close relationship with VIjayan’s family under the guise of performing black magic for them. Vijayan was interested in black magic and Nitheesh reached out to the family, exploiting their belief in superstition,” he said. According to the police, Nitheesh studied up to class 12 and later started working as a black magic practitioner. After the killing of the newborn, the police said, the whole family came further under Nitheesh’sinfluence.“Theyacted as per Nitheesh’s directions. He had even sexually abused Vijayan’swife,andforcedVishnu to engage in theft,” the inspector said. This eventually led to a dispute between Vijayan and Nitheesh,which,theofficersaid, led to Vijayan’s murder in 2023. Before getting embroiled withNitheesh,Vijayan,amiddle class farmer, was leading a quiet life in Kattappana in a house he owned.Nitheeshalsolivedinthe same town, not far away from Vijayan’sfamily.Nitheesh’sfather had abandoned his family years ago and his mother worked as a house help. A local resident said, “VIjayan’sfaithwasrootedinsuperstitions. Nitheesh had exploited it and there were regular poojas at his home. Vijayan even believedthathishousewasunfit forresidence.Nitheesh’sinvolvementatthehouseslowlyturned Vijayanintoanintrovert.Hesold his house for Rs 94 lakh a few yearsago(afterthemurderof the newborn).” CONTINUED ON PAGE 2