DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PATNA, PUNE, VADODARA JOURNALISM OF COURAGE FRIDAY, JULY 18, 2025, NEW DELHI, LATE CITY, 20 PAGES NATO CHIEF THREATENED SANCTIONS OVER RUSSIA TRADE Securing energy needs overriding priority: Govt’s firm reply to NATO BUSINESS AS USUAL BY UNNY Online curation systems unlike newspapers: Govt on safe harbour call NEW DELHI, JULY 17 INAsharply-wordedresponseto NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte’swarningthatcountrieslike India,ChinaandBrazilcouldbehit veryhardbysecondarysanctions if they continued to do business with Russia, the Ministry of External Affairs Thursday cautionedagainst“doublestandards” andunderlinedthat“securingthe energyneedsof ourpeopleisunderstandablyanoverridingpriority for us”. Also Thursday, a day after Rutte’s remark, Petroleum MinisterHardeepSinghPurisaid he didn’t “feel any pressure”, making clear that India does not see any oil supply disruption if CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 ANIL SASI NEW DELHI, JULY 17 NEW DELHI, JULY 17 CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 itsRussiancrudeimportsgetimpacted because the country has diverse sources of oil and there is enough supply available in the market. Randhir Jaiswal, spokesperson for the Ministry of External E Amid effortsto ● sealdeal THE NATO chief’s warning comes at a time when Delhi and Washington are working to seal a trade deal. Geopolitical shifts, freight and refinery economics will shape India’s crude sourcing decisions, diversification strategy. 5 gunmen walk into Patna UPSC opens window for hospital, shoot murder those who don’t make convict, escape on bikes final civil services cut, posts details for pvt jobs APURVA VISHWANATH DEFENDINGITSdecisiontolower the“safeharbour”protectionsfor Internetintermediariesandsocial mediaplatformsandremovecontent through the Sahyog Portal, the Centre told the Karnataka High Court Thursday that algorithmic curation systems fundamentally differ from editorial processes in traditional media. Sufficient supply: Petroleum Minister Hardeep Singh Puri E X P L A I NE D Guard against double standards, says MEA; feel no pressure: Minister Puri SHUBHAJIT ROY & SUKALP SHARMA A CCTV grab of the gunmen inside Patna’s Paras Hospital HIMANSHU HARSH PATNA, JULY 17 A MAN from Buxar, who faced several murder cases and was out on parole, was shot dead in- `7.00 (RAIPUR, `15 SRINAGAR) WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM SINCE 1932 side Patna’s Paras Hospital on Thursday morning, police said. The incident has triggered a renewed political storm about law and order in the election-bound state. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 FOR 32-YEAR-OLD Arun K, coming really close to qualifying in the Civil Services Examination, the most rigorous professional test in the country, was of little consolation. Having exhausted all his chances and a better part of his youth in trying to qualify, he was left with the same predicament faced by a majority of those who appear for this exam: belatedly starting professional life from scratch. Despite being overqualified,hetookuptheonlyjobthat he managed to land after a desperatesearch—asanentry-level administrative assistant in a public school on the outskirts of Delhi. Untilhegotaphonecallfrom a Delhi-based corporate, which was fully updated about how he had fared in the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) examinationandevaluatedhimfor hisveryprettysolidrecordinthe penultimatestagesof thatexam, while taking into consideration hisMastersdegree,toeventually employ him at a mid-seniority grade and a salary that was multiples of what he was getting at CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 GURGAON LAND DEAL ED names Vadra in chargesheet, attaches 43 properties linked to him and others Extension of political witch hunt: Vadra MAHENDER SINGH MANRAL NEW DELHI, JULY 17 THEENFORCEMENTDirectorate, probing an alleged money laundering case linked to a land deal in Gurgaon’s Shikohpur, filed a chargesheet Thursday naming Robert Vadra, husband of CongressleaderandMPPriyanka Gandhi Vadra, as an accused. The chargesheet was filed a day after the probe agency attached43immovableproperties linked to Robert Vadra and his entities including M/s Sky Light Hospitality Pvt Ltd and others. In a statement Thursday, Vadra’s office maintained that the present proceedings were “nothing more than an extension of the political witch hunt ED probe based on FIR registered on Sept 1, 2018 by the present government” against Vadra. “Vadra is aware of reports suggesting that the Directorate of Enforcement has filed a Prosecution Complaint naming him as an accused before the Rouse Avenue Courts, Delhi. As the Court is yet to even take cognizance of the matter, he has not had the opportunity to examine the Prosecution Complaint. As a law-abiding Indian citizen, he has always and will continue to extend his fullest cooperation to CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Tablighi Jamaat ‘Covid’ case: Charges against 70 quashed by Delhi HC SOHINI GHOSH NEW DELHI, JULY 17 MORE THAN five years after the Tablighi Jamaat was accused of spreading Covid by organising an internationalcongregationin Delhi, the Delhi High Court Thursday quashed charges in 16 FIRsandchargesheetsfiledinrelated cases involving 70 Indian citizens. Justice Neena Bansal Krishna told the open court that proceedings stand quashed. The 70 named as accused across 16 FIRs were charged primarily under sections of the IPC, including criminal conspiracy, for allegedly accommodating foreign nationals in mosques andtheir homesduring thepandemic from March 24-30, 2020. The FIRs had also listed 195 foreign nationals but they were not named as accused in most chargesheets — the magistrate court did not take cognizance of CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 ‘Surge in demand for domicile papers suggests presence of many immigrants’ SANTOSH SINGH PATNA, JULY 17 WITH the publication of the first draft of the electoral rolls after the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) drive just a week away, Bihar Deputy Chief Minister and seniorBJPleaderSamratChoudhary addresses the concerns over it, particularly regarding Bihar CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 WHAT WILL THE EXPRESS INTERVIEW SAMRAT CHOUDHARY BIHAR DEPUTY CHIEF MINISTER NOT COUNTINBIHAR AN EXPRESS SERIES PART 12