FRIDAY 01 AUGUST 2025 www.thestatesman.com Pages 12 |` 5.00|LC X.com/thestatesmanltd. Fb/thestatesman1875 SINCE 1818 KOLKATA | NEW DELHI | SILIGURI | BHUBANESWAR ABANDONED BY BJP , SNUBBED BY AIADMK, OPS QUITS NDA FADNAVIS PRAISES ACQUITTAL OF MALEGAON BLAST ACCUSED P8 SENSEX 81,185.58 q296.28 WEATHER GENERALLY CLOUDY SKY. VERY LIGHT TO LIGHT RAIN ACCOMPANIED WITH THUNDERSTORM/ LIGHTNING. THE MAXIMUM AND MINIMUM TEMPERATURES WOULD BE AROUND 34 AND 24 DEGREES CELSIUS RESPECTIVELY. RAINFALL: 016.6 mm TEMPERATURE Max: 29.9°C (-4.5) SUN RISES 05:44 hrs MOON RISES 13:29 hrs P5 NIFTY 24,768.35 q86.70 ` vs $ 87.60 Min. 98% Min: 24.7°C (-2.4) SUN SETS 19:12 hrs MOON SETS 23:27 hrs THUMBNAILS Women plant rice saplings in the field of Karimpur Manimala in Nadia, West Bengal, on Thursday. n ANI Senior IPS officer SBK Singh takes charge as Delhi Police Commissioner: Shashi Bhushan Kumar Singh, an IPS officer and current Director General of Home Guards in Delhi, on Thursday took over as the Commissioner of Delhi Police after being given the additional charge of the post at Police Headquarters (PHQ) here. He succeeds Sanjay Arora, who retires on July 31. The Ministry of Home Affairs has issued an order appointing SBK Singh, an IPS officer, as the new Commissioner of Police for Delhi. The order, issued on Thursday, states that “With the approval of the Competent Authority, Sh SBK Singh, IPS (AGMUT:1988), presently posted as Director General of Home Guards, Delhi, is hereby assigned the additional charge of the post of the Commissioner of Police, Delhi, w.e.f. 01.08.2025 and until further orders.” (P2) GOLD `1,01,320 NEW DELHI, 31 JULY With repeated delays by presiding officers across the country in acting on the petitions seeking disqualification on grounds of defection, the Supreme Court on Thursday called on Parliament to consider whether entrusting the task of adjudicating disqualification petitions to the Speaker or Chairman of legislatures under the Tenth Schedule has effectively served its purpose in combating political defections. Delivering judgment on a set of petitions involving ten MLAs of Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) who crossed over to the Congress in March-April 2024, a bench of the Chief Justice of India, Justice B.R. Gavai, and Justice Augustine George Masih NEW DELHI, 31 JULY Prime Minister Narendra Modi and UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan have expressed their firm commitment to further strengthening the bilateral Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between their two countries. The two leaders, who spoke over the phone yesterday, positively assessed the remarkable progress made across various sectors of bilateral cooperation and laid emphasis on further developing and deepening collaboration for the shared benefit of the peoples of both countries. Sheikh Mohamed congratulated PM Modi on becoming the second-longest-serving BRENT CRUDE (IN $) 71.99 NIA court acquits all 7 accused in 2008 Malegaon blast case Court held that prosecution could not provide ‘cogent evidence’ against the accused and no one was willing to stand with us. I am alive because I am a Sanyasi. They defamed Bhagwa through a conspiracy,” she said. NEW DELHI, 31 JULY A National Investigation Agency (NIA) court in Mumbai on Thursday acquitted all the seven accused, including former BJP MP Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur and Lt. Colonel Prasad Purohit, in the 2008 Malegaon blast case. The other accused who were acquitted by the NIA court are retired Major Ramesh Upadhyay, Ajay Rahirkar, Sudhakar Dwivedi, Sudhakar Chaturvedi, and Sameer Kulkarni. They were acquitted of all charges under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), the Arms Act, and other relevant laws. The judgment comes after a long trial in the case that spanned nearly 17 years. After examining 323 prosecution witnesses and eight defence witnesses, the court reached its judgment that acquitted the accused of all charges under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, Arms Act, and all other relevant laws. The court also ordered the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) ADG to initiate a probe into the matter of planting explosives in the house of the accused Sudhakar Chaturvedi. Delivering its verdict, the NIA court said that while the investigation proved that the blasts indeed occurred, the prosecution could not provide “cogent evidence” to prove the involvement of the accused. The court observed in the verdict that the prosecution could not prove that explosives were stored and assembled at Colonel Purohit’s directed the Speaker of the Telangana Legislative Assembly to decide all disqualification petitions pending against the MLAs within three months from the date of the verdict. “If we do not issue any direction, it will amount to permitting the Speaker to repeat the widely criticised situation of ‘operation successful, patient died’,” Chief Justice Gavai remarked, authoring the Court’s judgment. The Court said that although it does not possess advisory jurisdiction, the continued delays in deciding disqualification petitions raise important questions for Parliament to consider. “It is for the Parliament to consider whether the mechanism of entrusting the Speaker/Chairman, the important task of deciding the issue of PM Modi, UAE President commit to strengthening strategic partnership STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE P12 SILVER `1,15,000 (L-R) Pragya Singh Thakur, Lt Col Prasad Purohit, Sameer Kulkarni, Major (retired) Ramesh Upadhyay, & Ajay Rahirkar. n Agencies residence and placed in the motorcycle that allegedly belonged to Pragya Thakur. The court also questioned the flawed investigation and pointed out several discrepancies in the way evidence was collected at the blast site by the investigation officer. “No sketch of the spot was done by the investigation officer while doing the panchnama. No fingerprint, dump data, or anything else was collected for the spot. The samples were contaminated, so reports can’t be conclusive and relied upon,” the court said. The court also said that the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) could not be applied to the case as the sanction for prosecution was not obtained in accordance with the rules. The court also gave a clean chit to Colonel Purohit’s ‘Abhinav Bharat’ organisation, saying there was no evidence that the funds of the outfit were used for terror activities. Blast victim’s to challenge verdict in High Court: Advocate Shahid Nadeem, representing the victims of the blast, said that they will challenge their acquittal in the High Court. “The bomb blast has been proved by the court. We will challenge this acquittal in the High Court. We will file the appeal independently,” Advocate Nadeem said. Victory of Hindutva, says Pragya Thakur: Addressing the judge in the NIA court in Mumbai, Pragya Singh Thakur said that she was falsely implicated in the case as part of a conspiracy to defame Bhagwa (the saffron colour of Hindutva). “I said this from the very beginning that those who are called for investigation, there should be a basis behind that. I was called by them for investigation and was arrested and tortured. This ruined my whole life. I was living a sage’s life, but I was made an accused, Colonel Purohit thanks NIA court for restoring common man’s faith in the system: Reacting to the verdict, Colonel Prasad Shrikant Purohit thanked the court for restoring the faith of the common man in the system. “I thank you for giving me a chance to serve my nation and my organisation with the same conviction that I was doing before I was framed in this matter. I don’t blame any organisation for all this. Organisations like investigating agencies are not wrong, but people inside the organisations are the ones who have done wrong. I thank you for restoring the faith of the common man in the system,” he said while addressing the judge. Political reactions: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) hailed the NIA court verdict in the 2008 Malegaon Blast case, saying the judgment has destroyed the Congress’ conspiracy of linking terrorism to Hindutva. “Congress’ conspiracy of Hindu terror has been destroyed,” senior BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad said during a press conference at party headquarters. “We demand an apology from the Congress leadership, including Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, for implicating these people in a false case,” he said. “The Congress party can go to any extent for the sake of vote-bank politics. On behalf of the BJP, we would like to say that it orchestrated a false narrative called bhagwa aatankwad.” Top court asks Parliament to consider whether Speakers should decide defection cases under the anti-defection law PARMOD KUMAR ‘GAMBHIR UNDER PRESSURE’ P7 SHASHIKANT SHARMA RELATIVE HUMIDITY Max. 100% TRADE SHOCK DEMANDS A RESOLUTE RESPONSE Prime Minister in India’s history, and wished him continued success in his service to the nation. Mr Modi thanked the UAE President for his gracious wishes and the affection he expressed for the people of India. “The two sides also addressed ways to bolster ties to serve mutual interests while fostering sustainable development and prosperity for their peoples. His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed and His Excellency Modi affirmed their keenness to strengthen relations between the two countries in line with their shared vision to leverage opportunities to achieve further prosperity for their peoples," said the UAE President's office after the phone call. disqualification on the ground of defection, is serving the purpose of effectively combating political defections or not,” the Court observed. “If the very foundation of our democracy and the principles that sustain it are to be safeguarded, it will have to be examined whether the present mechanism is sufficient or not.” The bench, however, reiterated that it was for Parliament to take the final call on revisiting the framework. Quashing the 22 November 2024 judgment of the Division Bench of the Telangana High Court ~ which had overturned an earlier Single Judge’s direction ~ the Supreme Court restored the 9 September 2024 ruling which had merely instructed the Assembly Secretary to place the disqualification petitions before the Speaker and Speaker, in turn, to fix a schedule of hearings within four weeks. The top court made it clear that the Telangana Speaker must conclude the disqualification proceedings within three months and should not permit the MLAs facing defection charges to prolong the matter unnecessarily. “If any MLA attempts to protract the proceedings, the Speaker would draw an adverse inference,” the bench ordered. The Court declined the appellants’ plea ~ filed by BRS and BJP MLAs ~ to itself adjudicate the disqualification petitions, citing consistent position beginning from the landmark Kihoto Hollohan case and other judgments, which holds the Speaker as the first authority to decide such matters under the Tenth Schedule. Criticising the Division Bench for interfering with the Single Judge’s limited direction to initiate proceedings, the top court said: “There was absolutely no occasion for the learned Judges of the Division Bench of the High Court to have interfered with the wellreasoned order of the learned Single Judge.” The dispute relates to three BRS MLAs ~ Danam Nagender, Venkata Rao Tellam, and Kadiyam Srihari ~ who were elected in the December 2023 Assembly polls but allegedly defected to the Congress in early 2024. Their disqualification was sought by fellow BRS legislators and one BJP MLA through petitions filed before the Speaker under the Tenth Schedule. Additionally, the Supreme Court also heard a tagged Writ Petition filed by the same appellants, along with others, concerning disqualification pleas pending against seven more MLAs. The relief sought was identical ~ a direction to the Speaker to decide all such petitions in a time-bound manner, preferably within four weeks. Govt assures protection of national interests in face of Trump tariffs STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE NEW DELHI, 31 JULY Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal Thursday said that the government will take all necessary steps to protect India's national interests in view of the 25 per cent tariffs imposed by the US on Indian goods. He emphasised that the government is committed to safeguarding the interests of Indian farmers, workers, and small entrepreneurs. Mr Goyal said that India will examine the implications of the US tariffs and take appropriate actions to protect its national interests. Making a statement in both the Houses of Parliament regarding the 25 per cent import tariffs announced by US President Donald Trump on Indian goods, Mr Goyal said: "We are committed to safeguarding the interests of our farmers, workers, and small entrepreneurs." Mr Goyal emphasised that India never finalises trade deals based on deadlines, prioritising national interests instead. “India never enters into trade deals based on deadlines or time pressure. A deal is accepted only when it is fully matured, well-negotiated, and in the national interest," he said. He expressed optimism about the ongoing trade deal negotiations with the USA, stating that both countries are looking for a mutually beneficial agreement. The US has Wednesday announced a 25 per cent tariff on imports from India, effective August 1, prompting concerns about the impact on bilateral trade. India and the US have been engaged in negotiations to conclude a fair, balanced, and mutually beneficial trade agreement. Asserting that the government is closely examining the implications of the newly announced US tariffs on Indian goods and will act accordingly to safeguard national interests, Mr Goyal said that India is engaged in trade discussions with various countries, including the USA, to forge bilateral trade arrangements and create better opportunities for Indian exporters. “The Ministry of Commerce and Industry is holding talks with exporters, industries, and all stakeholders and gathering information on their assessment of this issue. The government gives utmost priority to the safeguarding of the welfare of farmers, labourers, entrepreneurs, industrialists, exporters, MSMEs, and stakeholders of the industrial sector,” he said. He said that India was a self-sufficient economic power, among the top five economies and will soon become the thirdlargest economy. He also noted that there was a steady rise in India’s exports in the last 11 years. Congress speaks in different voices on Trump’s ‘dead economy’ remark STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE NEW DELHI, 31 JULY The Congress party on Thursday spoke in different voices on US President Donald Trump's 'dead economy' remark about India. While senior leader Rahul Gandhi justified the American leader's comment, his party colleagues, Shashi Tharoor and Rajiv Shukla, took a diametrically opposite stand. Responding to US President Donald Trump’s latest remarks, describing India and Russia as “dead economies”, Mr Gandhi said Trump’s statement reflects a global truth that only the Indian government refuses to acknowledge. “I’m glad that President Trump has stated a fact… The entire world knows that the Indian economy is a dead economy,” he said while speaking to reporters outside Parliament. Earlier in the day, in a post on his Truth Social handle, Mr Trump said: "I don't care what India does with Russia. They can take their dead economies down together, for all I care. We have done very little business with India; their tariffs are too high, among the highest in the world. Likewise, Russia and the USA do almost no business together. Let's keep it that way." The remark of the US president came a day after he announced a 25 per cent tariff on India to be effective from 1 August. He said in a post on Truth Social that these tariffs are among other things a penalty on India for buying oil from Russia. Contradicting his leader, Rahul Gandhi, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, while speaking to a news agency, said: "It's a very serious matter for us... 25, plus an unspecified penalty for our buying oil and gas from Russia, it could take it up to 35-45... There's even talk of a 100 per cent penalty, which will destroy our trade with America... The trade negotiations are underway, and there is a possibility that it may come down. If it doesn't, it will damage our exports, because America is a very big market for us... The Congress leader said the US administration has to take into consideration the "needs" of the Indian government as well."On the other hand, if their demands are completely unreasonable, our negotiators have every right to resist... America has to understand our needs as well. Our tariffs on America are not that unreasonable. It's about 17 per cent average. American goods are not priced competitively enough to sell in the Indian market..." "If we can't compete in America, we may have to diversify our markets outside of America. We are not out of options. If America is completely unreasonable with its demands, we have to move elsewhere. That is the strength of India; we are not a totally export-dependent economy like China. We have a good and strong domestic market. We must give strong support to our negotiators to find the best deal possible. If a good deal is not possible, we may have to walk away," Mr Tharoor said. US slaps sanctions on 6 Indian companies over Iran oil trade SHAHID K ABBAS NEW DELHI, 31 JULY The USA has imposed sanctions on six Indian companies for their alleged involvement in the trade of Iranian petroleum and petrochemical products. The sanctions, announced by the US Department of State, target entities that have allegedly facilitated the export and purchase of millions of barrels of Iranian crude oil and petrochemical products. The move is a part of sanctions imposed on 20 entities for their involvement in the trade of Iranian petroleum, petroleum products, or petrochemical products. “Today, the United States is taking decisive action to disrupt the Iranian regime’s ability to fund its destabilising activities, including its nuclear program, support for terrorist groups, and oppression of its own people,” the US Department of State said Wednesday in an order sanctioning facilitators of Iran’s petroleum and petrochemical trade. The sanctioned Indian companies, as per reports, include: Kanchan Polymers allegedly imported and purchased over USD 1.3 million worth of Iranian-origin petrochemical products, including polyethylene.