DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA JOURNALISM OF COURAGE MONDAY, DECEMBER 23, 2024, NEW DELHI, LATE CITY, 20 PAGES As key cases fall in courts, ED to staff: No PMLA on basis of conspiracy alone DEEPTIMAN TIWARY NEW DELHI, DECEMBER 22 WITH SOME of its high-profile money laundering proceedings falling in court, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) hasdecided not to rely solely on “criminal conspiracy” as the “predicate offence” based on which it registers such cases — it should also include the offence under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) related to that conspiracy, The Indian Express has learnt. According to sources, instructions regarding this decision have been “passed on” by ED Director Rahul Navin to the agency's officers. The PMLA schedule covers close to 150 primaryoffences,rangingfromcorruption to tax evasion and even violations of the Wild Life Act. The latest move follows recent “setbacks” in such cases, includingtwothatweredismissed by the Supreme Court: one against Congress leader and KarnatakaDeputyChief Minister D K Shivakumar, and another against a retired IAS officer who had served under Congress leader and Chhattisgarh ex-CM Bhupesh Baghel. A “predicate offence” here refers to the criminal activity mentioned in a primary FIR registered by another agency on which the ED case is based. Under PMLA, the ED can register a case only on the basis of an FIR filed by an investigative agency, such the CBI, state police or, in some cases, even the IT department. PM VISIT: BOTH SIDES CONDEMN CROSS-BORDER TERROR India,Kuwaitboostties:Strategic partnership,keypactondefence Modi gets Kuwait's highest honour, ‘The Order of Mubarak Al-Kabeer’ CASES DISMISSED DIVYA A NEW DELHI, DECEMBER 22 ■ Karnataka Dy CM and Congress leader D K Shivakumar booked in 2018 in money laundering case for alleged tax evasion, arrested in 2019. SC dismissed case, said “question of whether 120B IPC can constitute a predicate standalone offence to enable ED to invoke PMLA has already been decided...” ■ Chhattisgarh liquor scam case against IAS officer Anil Tuteja was quashed by SC “as there is no scheduled offence”. “If there are no proceeds of crime, obviously offence under section 3 of PMLA is not made out,” the SC ruled. The ED later registered a fresh case. “There is no point in facing setbacks in court after working hard on cases. The Supreme Court has made it clear that IPC section 120B cannot be construed as a standalone predicate offence under the PMLA. What the apex court says is the law. So, instructions to that effect have been passed on,” a senior ED official said. In the past few years, the ED has proceeded with some highprofilecaseswheretherewasno predicate offence barring 120B. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Ahead of Delhi polls, AAP to start doorstep enrolment for women, elderly schemes today Prime Minister Narendra Modi being awarded ‘The Order of Mubarak Al-Kabeer’ by Kuwait’s Amir Sheikh Meshal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah on Sunday. PTI NEW DELHI, DECEMBER 22 AAP VOLUNTEERS and leaders will move from home to home across Delhi from Monday to registerpeoplefortwostategovernmentschemes—theMukhya Mantri Mahila Samman Yojana and Sanjeevani Yojana — which the party believes can be the gamechanger in the upcoming Assembly elections. Announcing the launch of the registration campaign Sunday, AAP leader and former Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal unveiled prototypes of two cards — one yellow and the other blue. The Mukhya Mantri Mahila Samman Yojana, under which non-taxpayingwomenuptothe age of 60 will be given Rs 1,000 per month, was announced as part of the Delhi government’s Budget in March this year but is yet to be implemented. Earlier this month, Kejriwal announced that if AAP is voted back to power in the elections, expected CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 E The next ● level WITH A “strategic partnership”, India and Kuwait have given new momentum to bilateral ties. Kuwait is among India’s top trading partners, with bilateral trade valued at US$ 10.47 billion in 2023-24. The Indian community forms the largest expatriate group in Kuwait. Thetwosidesinstitutionalised defence cooperation through an overarching agreement that includes training, exchange of personnelandexperts,jointexercises, supplyofdefenceequipment,and collaboration in research and development, among others. Besides defence, three other MoUs (Memoranda of Understanding)wereinkedtofacilitatecooperationintheareasof sports, culture and solar energy. Modi invited a delegation comprising the Kuwaiti Investment Authority and other CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 A Goa scam unravels: Portuguese-era land papers forged, properties ‘sold’ by dead Not possible without connivance of Archives dept staff, says inquiry panel PAVNEET SINGH CHADHA PANAJI, DECEMBER 22 FORGED SALE deeds with Portuguese-eracalligraphy,dead men and women shown as sellers, and a village that woke up to discover that half the homes there had changed hands. This is how a land-grabbing racket unfolded in Goa, all under the nose of — and possibly in connivance with — government officials. These are among the findings of a Commission of Inquiry, which the Goa government formed twoyearsagotolookintodozens of such cases, The Indian Express LAND GRAB: THE MODUS OPERANDI ■ Vacant, dilapidated properties or those occupied by owners with common Goan names were identified ■ Ownership, title info from government offices, other sources were obtained ■ Fake, forged sale deeds written in Portuguese- era style calligraphy were prepared ■ Forged sale deeds were inserted in official records, allegedly in connivance with staff of Directorate of Archives & Archaeology ■ Certified copies of fake sale deeds were obtained from Directorate of Archives and Archaeology has learnt. Significantly,theCommission suggestedthatsuchanoperation was “not possible without the connivance of the Archives (department) staff”, but observed thataSpecialInvestigationTeam (SIT) probing the cases is yet to investigate this aspect. After a series of complaints came to light, the Goa government formed an SIT on June 15, 2022,toinvestigatecasesofillegal land transfer and land grabbing using forged documents. The SIT probed 44 FIRs involving more than 100 properties — nearly 1.5 lakhsqmetreofland—andmade CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge with Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah at an event in Kalaburagi, Sunday. X/@kharge Change in poll rules part of conspiracy to destroy integrity of EC, says Cong EC not consulting all, undermining multi-party democracy: Opp parties ASAD REHMAN NEW DELHI, DECEMBER 22 CUTTING ACROSS party lines, the Opposition on Sunday criticised the Centre for amending the Conduct of Election Rules to limit public inspection of election papers to only those documents specified in the provisions. While the Congress called it part of a “systematic conspiracy to destroy the institutional integrity of the Election Commissionof India”,otherslike the Samajwadi Party (SP) and Left parties accused the EC of “undermining multi-party democracy” by taking “unilateral” decisions without consulting all political parties. Earlier, Rule 93 (2) (a) of the 1961 Conduct of Election Rules stated that “all other papers re- JAGDEEP SINGH DEEP MOHALI, DECEMBER 22 ‘A goalpost never talks back, it just listens... I’ve been guarding it for 24 years, it’s a great bond’ P R SREEJESH FORMER INDIA HOCKEY CAPTAIN PAGE 16 ABHISHEK DHANWAL, a 30year-old IT professional, was workingoutinthegymSaturday eveningwhenhistrainernoticed cracks rapidly developing on the walls and alerted him. He and others rushed out of the building. Within moments, Abhishek realised that he had left behind his cellphone and ran back to fetchit,hisfriendstoldhisfather. On Sunday morning, Inderpal was shattered when rescue workers recovered his At the site of the incident in Sohana, Sunday. Kamleshwar Singh BUSINESS AS USUAL BY UNNY lating to the election shall be open to public inspection”. The amended version of the rule now states: “all other papers as specified in these rules relating to the election shall be open to public inspection.” CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 THE WORLD, PAGE 14 GERMANY X’MAS MARKET ATTACK STIRS TENSIONS OVER IMMIGRATION, SECURITY BLAKE LIVELY ACCUSES CO-STAR, DIRECTOR OF SEXUAL HARASSMENT Mohali building collapse: Among two dead, techie who returned to gym to get his phone Delhi CM Atishi with AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal and party leader Manish Sisodia on Sunday. Amit Mehra EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE AS PRIME Minister Narendra Modi and Kuwait’s Amir Sheikh Meshal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber AlSabah held their first bilateral meeting on Sunday, the two countrieselevatedtheirrelationship to a “strategic partnership” and signalled that trade and defence cooperation would form the key pillars of their ties. This came on the day that Kuwait conferred its highest honour — ‘The Order of Mubarak Al-Kabeer’—onModiforhisrole in strengthening the relations between the two countries. Modi arrived in Kuwait on Saturday for a two-day visit — the first by an Indian PM in 43 years. The last Indian PM to visit Kuwait was Indira Gandhi in 1981. Modiwasaccompaniedby External Affairs Minister S JaishankarandNationalSecurity Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval. Besides the Amir, Modi also met Crown Prince Sheikh Sabah Al-KhaledAl-HamadAl-Mubarak Al-Sabah, who hosted a banquet in his honour, and held delegation-level talks with Kuwaiti Prime Minister Sheikh Ahmad Abdullah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah. E X P L A I NE D SC DISMISSED TWO HIGH-PROFILE CASES `7.00 (`8 BIHAR & RAIPUR, `15 SRINAGAR) WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM SINCE 1932 son’sbodyfromthedebrisof the three-storey building that collapsed in the densely populated Sohana area of Mohali, taking the death count to two. A resident of Ambala, Inderpal rushed to Sohana Saturday night after coming to know that Abhishek was missing since the building collapse. After waiting at the site overnight, praying for a miracle, he was told around 10 am that a body had been found. He identified it as Abhishek's. Inderpal told The Indian Express that Abhishek and his CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 P15 THE EXPRESS INTERVIEW ‘IF IT IS BUSINESS AS USUAL, VIKSIT BHARAT BY 2047 WILL NOT HAPPEN’ RAGHURAM RAJAN FORMER RBI GOVERNOR EXPLAINED LOOKING AT 2025: POLITICS LANDSCAPEOFRIFTS ANDCHALLENGES P17 As road ends for Kolkata’s iconic yellow cabs, drivers face uncertain future PAGE 1 ANCHOR ATRI MITRA & SWEETY KUMARI KOLKATA, DECEMBER 22 FOR THE past 15 years, Bijoy Shaw, a 50-year-old taxi driver from Kolkata’s Park Circus area, has been following a routine. At 6.30 each morning, he drives his yellow Ambassador taxi to the Sealdah Railway Station, hoping to find customers. But with Kolkataphasing out 80 per cent of its iconic yellow taxis by March, Shaw and driv- ers like him are staring at an uncertain future. Shaw’s 15-yearold taxi is nearing the end of its service, and he must say goodbye to his companion of many years with a heavy heart. “I never thought of an alternative,” says Shaw, a father of three and the sole breadwinner of the family. “And now that my taxi is nearing the end of service, I don’t know what else to do.” Since their introduction in the 1960s, the yellow Ambassador taxis have come to be synonymous with Kolkata, formerly Calcutta, and were featured in movies spanning decades — from Satyajit Ray’s Calcutta Trilogy in the 1970s to Aparna Sen’s 1981 film 36 Chowringhee Lane and more recently, the 2012 Vidya Balanstarrer Kahaani. But a 2009 order by the Supreme Court, combined with the fact that Ambassadors have longceasedtobeproduced,have meant that by March 2025, the majorityof the city’s yellow fleet — over 7,000 cars — will go off the road. Hindustan Motors began producing the iconic Ambassador in 1958 at their factory in Hindmotor, around 20 km from Kolkata. Four years later, the Calcutta Taxi Association introduced Ambassadors as the standard A protest in Kolkata against the discontinuation of the yellow Ambassador taxis. Partha Paul taximodelsintwocolours—yellow-and-blackforcitycommute and the yellow taxis for intercity travel. In1994,thethenLeftgovernment headed by Jyoti Basu announced “All Bengal permit” for all taxis in the state. The governmentalsogaveKolkatacabstheir universalandthenowiconicyellow colour. In 2009, however, the first blow was dealt. In July that year, the green bench of the Supreme Court ordered that all commercial vehicles that are over 15 yearsoldbe scrapped.Following this order, over 10,000 taxi drivers upgraded their vehicles to the newer Ambassador model, accordingtodatafromthestate’s transport department. In 2013, the Trinamool Congress government under Mamata Banerjee changed the model of commercial taxi cabs to Maruti Swift Dzire. That wasn’t the only change she affected — the taxi colour too changed from yellow to blue-and-white. Two years later, Hindustan Motors announced that it had stopped the production of the Ambassador in its Uttarpara plant. All these events taken together sounded the death knell for the iconic yellow Ambassador taxis. According to aseniorofficialof thestatetrans- portdepartment,over5,000yellow Ambassadors had already gone off the road as of August this year, and 2,500 more would soon follow suit. “Now that production has stopped, the vehicles replacing these will not be Ambassadors and won’t be yellow,” the official says. “By 2027, we’re expecting that the Ambassador taxi would have all but vanished from the city streets.” But there are other factors as wellthatcontributedtotheslow declineof thecabs.Foronething, the car was considered a fuel guzzler, and the rising fuel costs combined with stagnant taxi CONTINUED ON PAGE 2