DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PATNA, PUNE, VADODARA JOURNALISM OF COURAGE MONDAY, JUNE 30, 2025, NEW DELHI, LATE CITY, 20 PAGES `7.00 (`8 RAIPUR, `15 SRINAGAR) WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM SINCE 1932 AN EXPRESS INVESTIGATION - PART 1 POSITIVE SENTIMENT IN URBAN AREAS: FM The Indian Express findshowasingleparentinGurugramlostherlifesavings;followshermoneytoa ruralfamilyinHaryana,dailywagersinHyderabad;tracescracksthroughwhichallof itvanished Says agriculture, dairy among ‘big red lines’ during talks Digital scam trail tracked: Crores move in minutes across banks, state borders; officials watch as same ghost accounts used & reused 1 ACCOUNT TO 141 ACCOUNTS IN 3 LAYERS RITU SARIN GURUGRAM, JHAJJAR (HARYANA), HYDERABAD, JUNE 29 LAYER1 transferred on SEPTEMBER 4 and SEPTEMBER 5, 2024, from victim’s HDFC Bank, Gurugram from Piyush’s ICICI Bank, Jhajjar (Haryana) HDFC Bank, Regent Plaza, Gurugram SEPTEMBER 4-5, 2024, TO PIYUSH, ICICI BANK, JHAJJAR (HARYANA) DAY 1 Rs 2.88 cr transferred between 2.45 pm-2.47 pm to Piyush account. From 2.52 pm-4.20 pm, money is moved out 28 ACCOUNTS IN 10 BANKS Of this, Rs 4.87 cr went to 11 ACCOUNTS in Sreenivasa Padmavathi Co-operative Urban Bank Hyderabad Rs 2.97 cr Piyush’s parents Ranbir & Shakuntala in Jhajjar, Haryana. Photos: Ritu Sarin transferred by 2.50 pm to Piyush account. By 3.19 pm, money moved out nuclear sector. The first is the easing of provisions in India’s nuclear liability law. Called the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act, 2010 (CLNDA), it sought to create a mechanism for compensating victims from damages caused by anuclearaccident,andal● locating liability and specifyingproceduresfor compensation. But it was subsequently cited as an impediment by foreign EXPLAINED E BUSINESS AS USUAL BY UNNY CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Scouting for 6 mid-air refuellers, IAF begins technical evaluation AMRITA NAYAK DUTTA NEW DELHI, JUNE 29 MAHARASHTRA CANCELS ORDER ON 3-LANGUAGE POLICY PAGE 12 equipment vendors such as USbased Westinghouse Electric and French nuclear company Framatome. This was on the groundsthatthislegislationchannelised operators’ liability to suppliers through a provision called therightof recourseof theoperator—anoperatorofanuclearplant would typically be a company such as the state-owned Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) while the suppliers could include foreign reactor THE INDIAN Air Force (IAF) is in the process of conducting technical evaluation of mid-air refuellers that it has been seeking to procure since 2007 as a vital strategicasset,TheIndianExpress has learnt. Accordingtosources,threeto four firms have submitted bids for six mid-air refuellers that the IAF seeks to acquire. “The technical evaluation stage is currently underway,” an officialsaid,addingthatthemidair refuellersfielded by the three tofour firmsareunder consideration. Once finalised, an Indian maintenance partner for these tankers will likely be sought. The IAF currently operates a fleet of six Ilyushin Il-78MKI tankers procured from Uzbekistan in 2003-04. InFebruary2024,theDefence Acquisition Council, headed by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 INTERVIEW NIRMALA SITHARAMAN UNION FINANCE MINISTER strong economies, the better they will serve us.” According to the Finance Minister, agriculture and dairy have been among the “very big red lines,” where a high degree of caution has been exercised, duringtheBTAtalkswiththeUS. On a perceived slowdown in investments by the private sector, she said things have started changing for the better. “At least in the last six months, there is a clear sign that private investments and capacity expansion are happening… There is definitely surplus cash with private companies,andthey'reprobably THE WORLD LAYER3 Money transferred from 28 accounts in 10 banks TO RUSSIA LAUNCHES BIGGEST AERIAL ATTACK SINCE WAR STARTED: UKRAINE 141 ACCOUNTS IN 23 BANKS ACROSS 15 STATES PAGE 16 PM targets Cong: ‘Aimed during Emergency to enslave judiciary’ Work underway for changes in two key laws, can open up civil n-sector LEGISLATIVE GROUNDWORK is underway for multiple amendments to two overarching laws governing the country’s atomic energy sector. The changes will align them with legal provisions globally, address festering investor concerns and set the stage for opening up India’s civil AS THE July 9 deadline to avoid theUnitedStates’punitivereciprocaltariffsisdrawingcloser,the government has hinted at uninhibited deal-making with the world'slargesteconomy,butalso made an unequivocal commitmenttodrawdefinitiveredlines in the best interests of India’s farmers and livestock breeders. ReactingtoPresidentDonald Trump’sstatementlastweekthat an interim bilateral trade agreement (BTA) in the offing with New Delhi would “open up” the Indian market for America, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharamansaid:“Yes,wewould love to have an agreement, a big, good, beautiful one; why not?” In a free-wheeling interview with The Financial Express, Sitharaman said: “At the junction we are in, and given our growth goals and ambition to be ViksitBharatby2047,thesooner we have such agreements with DAY 2 TOMORROW: CRORES MOVE IN AND OUT OF ABANK BUT WHY NO ONE NOTICED NEW DELHI, JUNE 29 Two of 11 accounts traced to R Sharadha, a tailor, and N Ravinder, a carpenter TO HDFC Bank, City Court, Sikandarpur, Gurugram P15 NEW DELHI, JUNE 29 Rs 5.85 cr transferred on CONTINUED ON PAGE 13 ANIL SASI PRASANTA SAHU & K G NARENDRANATH LAYER2 Rs 5.85 cr FROM Aplushcondominiuminside an exclusive gated community in the National Capital Region to a small three-room house in a Haryana village and then through a rented room on a terrace in the suburbs of Hyderabad to 15 more states. All ittookwasjustafewminutesfor a sum of nearly Rs 6 crore to be stolen through this circuitous route to 28 bankaccountsacross the country, and 141 more later, before vanishing into thin air. Andthisisjustoneof the1.23 lakh cases involving Rs 1,935 crorethatwerereportedin2024, almost thrice the numbers logged in 2022, of digital arrests —wherescamstersscareandensnarevictimsthroughfakeinterrogations on video calls before cleaningouttheirbankaccounts. Tracking the trends being reported by state police forces and cyber fraud units all over the country, The Indian Express zeroed in on an illustrative case in Gurugram, involving a 44-yearold advertising executive. India would love a big, beautiful trade pact with US: Sitharaman The blank editorial in The Indian Express after the Proclamation THEEMERGENCY 50YEARSON Address features clips of Morarji Desai, Vajpayee, Jagjivan Ram discussing period ‘Thousands held...people didnotbow down’:PMin MannKibaat Itsshadow—andlight AN EXPRESS SERIES PAGE 14 EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE NEW DELHI, JUNE 29 ‘No leader can dare to impose an Emergency. That’s the biggest positive consequence of that struggle’ RAVI SHANKAR PRASAD SENIOR BJP LEADER PAGE 17 PRIME MINISTER Narendra Modi on Sunday invoked the Emergency during his monthly Mann Ki Baat radio address, saying: “Those who imposed the Emergency not only murdered ourConstitutionbutalsohadthe intention to make the judiciary as their slave.” Addingthat“peopleweretormentedonalargescale”,hesaid: “There are many such examples which cannot be forgotten.” His government marked June 25 as “Samvidhan Hatya Diwas”, to mark the 50th anniversary of the Emergency. Onthenightof June25,1975, CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 earning passive income. But we can see signs of change”. Asked what the government is planning to do to reverse urban slowdown, Sitharaman said the sentiment is definitely turning. “From April, there have clearly been signs of the (positive consumer) sentiment playingout(thankstotheincometax reliefs),” she said. Sitharaman outlined a raft of “second-generation reforms” to be unleashed soon to impart a structural push to the economy, including “getting the banks to be better off,” and spurring private investment in nuclear energy. She also indicated that the weighted average Goods and Services Tax (GST) might come down from the current levels, as part of a restructuring of the rates and slabs of the eight-yearold comprehensive indirect tax. She stressed the need to give additional support to merchandise exports, while noting that taxcontentinexportedproducts is not fully neutralised yet, with certain embedded state and CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 3 killed, over 50 injured in Puri stampede; SP, Collector transferred Family members of a victim at a hospital in Puri. PTI SUJIT BISOYI BHUBANESWAR, JUNE 29 I K Gujral was the Information and Broadcasting Minister during the Emergency. Express Archive When Indira asked Gujral to hold her raincoat: ‘You can’t do any other work’ VIKAS PATHAK NEW DELHI, JUNE 29 DECADESAFTERbeingeasedout as the Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Minister by then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi for his “softness” on mediacensorshipsoonaftertheimposition of Emergency, IK Gujral saidinaninterview,“Democracy anddemocraticinstitutionsarea package... You cannot be partly democratic and partly nondemocratic.” He added, “Therefore, once youstartcompromisingwithinstitutions of democracy, you cannot be democratic. And that applies even today, and that will apply for all times to come.” Gujral,wholaterbecamePM, was moved to the Planning Ministry, with the I&B Minister portfolio going to V C Shukla, who was seen as more pliant by CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 THREE PEOPLE were killed and more than 50 were injured in a stampedeearlySundaymorning outside the Gundicha Temple in Puri, where thousands of devotees have gathered for the annual Rath Yatra. The incident occurred between 4 and 4.20 am at Saradhabali, just outside GundichaTemple,whensomevehicles passed through a crowded area.Eyewitnessesandfamiliesof the victims alleged that there werenoadequatepolicearrangements or officials to manage the swelling number of pilgrims. The dead were identified as Basanti Sahoo (42) and Pravati Das (52) from Khurda, and Prema-kantaMohanty(78)from Bhubaneswar. Hospital officials said that among the injured, some were admitted with serious wounds whileothersweredischargedafter receiving primary treatment. Expressing his condolences, Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi suggested there CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Voice from inside one of India’s widest tunnels: ‘Can’t build by fighting with rock’ PAGE 1 ANCHOR DHEERAJ MISHRA KOTA, JUNE 29 THERE ARE many stories behind the 4.89-km-long, eight-lane tunnel on the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway that cuts through Mukundra Hills in Rajasthan’s Kota. One of them is that of 58year-old Madhukar, who has built tunnels all his life. He started this project during Covid in 2021 at the north end, in what couldwellbehislastassignment before retirement in two years. Now,facedwithadifficult500m stretch—hecallsitthe“nalaportion”—Madhukarisdetermined to complete his ninth project successfully, and gets emotional while recounting his association with the tunnel. The tunnel, which falls between Ummedpura and Nayagaon village in Kota, is a key link of the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway — one of the most ambitious projects of the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) under the Bharatmala Pariyojna. With a width of 22 metres and a height The 4.89-km tunnel in Kota is a key link of the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway and passes through different rock masses and substrata that include sandstone, shale, siltstone, mudstone and limestone. NHAI & Dheeraj Mishra of 11 metres, it is also one of the widest tunnels in the country, passing through different rock masses and substrata that include sandstone, shale, siltstone, mudstone and limestone. In the project cluster, which is divided into 53 packages, the Ummedpura-Nayagaon tunnel is being constructed by a joint ventureof DilipBuildconLimited andAltis-HoldingCorporation.It was originally a 30-month projectscheduledtobecompletedin January 2024, but got delayed duetochallengesduringexcavation and is now likely to be completed by the year-end. “Hum rock se dosti karte hain, aap rock se dushmani karke tunnel nahi bana sakte (We befriend the rock, you can't make a tunnel by fighting with the rock). In this project also, we have come to the most difficult part, but we will pass it slowly. We have to justunderstandthebehaviourof the rock,” said Madhukar, a resident of Khagaria in Bihar, who is in charge of the blasting. HavingworkedindifficultterrainsacrossSikkim,Uttarakhand, MizoramandHimachalPradesh, Madhukar, who holds a diploma inmining,deconstructsthechallenge. “The top surface of the hill is in a zig-zag shape. We have CONTINUED ON PAGE 2