SATURDAY www.thestatesman.com 07 MAY 2022 FIND US ONLINE Scan this with your smartphone twitter.com/TheStatesmanLtd facebook.com/thestatesman1875 Pages 12 |` 5.00|LC KOLKATA | NEW DELHI | SILIGURI | BHUBANESWAR ‘POPULAR FRONT OF INDIA'S AIM IS DESTABILISATION’ BLOW TO JOHNSON WITH LONDON LOSSES P10 WEATHER PARTLY CLOUDY SKY WITH POSSIBILITY OF THUNDERY DEVELOPMENT. THE MAXIMUM AND MINIMUM TEMPERATURES WOULD BE AROUND 41 AND 25 DEGREES CELSIUS RESPECTIVELY. RAINFALL: Trace RELATIVE HUMIDITY Max: 80% P4 P12 Atmanirbhar Bharat Punjab cops arrest BJP’s Bagga; showdown with our path, resolve: PM Delhi, Haryana police STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE Min: 36% NEW DELHI, 6 MAY Min: 24.2°C (-1) SUN SETS 19:00 hrs MOON SETS 00:44 hrs THUMBNAILS Union Home Minister Amit Shah meets with family members of Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha worker Arjun Chowrasia, who was allegedly killed and hanged, in Kashipur, West Bengal.  ANI SC Collegium recommendations: The Supreme Court Collegium has recommended the elevation of Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia, Chief Justice, Gauhati High Court and Justice J.B. Pardiwala, Judge, Gujarat High Court, as judges of the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court Collegium in a meeting held on 4 May also approved proposals for elevation of various judicial officials and advocates as judges in various high courts, according to a statement. D eclaring that Aatmnirbhar Bharat was the government's path as well as its resolve, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said the Centre has continuously worked to create an atmosphere for this. "Our path and destination for the future are clear," Mr Modi said while addressing the inaugural session of Jain International Trade Organisation's 'JITO Connect 2022' via video conferencing. “Aatmnirbhar Bharat is our path as well as our resolve. Over the years, we have worked continuously to create every necessary atmosphere for this," the Prime Minister said. Mr Modi urged the gathering to work for EARTH. He elaborated that 'E' means the prosperity of the Environment. The Prime Minister urged them to also discuss how they can support the efforts to make at least 75 Amrit Sarovars in every district by August 15 next year. 'A' means to make Agriculture more profitable and invest more and more in natural farm- Be it global peace, global prosperity, solutions related to global challenges or strengthening of the global supply chain, the world is looking toward India with great confidence NARENDRA MODI, PRIME MINISTER ing, farming technology and the food processing sector. 'R' means emphasising Recycling and the circular economy, working for Reuse, Reduce and Recycle. 'T' means taking Technology to as many people as possible. Mr Modi urged the audience to consider how they can make other advanced technology like drone technology more accessible. 'H' means -Healthcare, he said that today, the government is doing a lot of work for the arrangements like healthcare, and medical colleges in every district in the country. He asked the gathering to think about how Delhi-Centre tussle: SC sends matter to Constitution Bench their organization can encourage this. Addressing the gathering, the Prime Minister noted the spirit of 'Sabka Prayas' in the theme of today's programme and said today the world is considering India's development resolutions as a means of achieving its goals. Be it global peace, global prosperity, solutions related to global challenges or strengthening of the global supply chain, the world is looking toward India with great confidence. "I have just returned after informing many European countries about India's resolution for the 'Amrit kaal'," he added. The three-judge bench said all other issues, except the issue of control over services, had been ‘elaborately dealt with’ by the previous Constitution bench in 2018 and they will not be revisited. from both the Centre and Delhi government on who should control the services. “Subject to the provisions of the Constitution and Article 239AA (which deals with Delhi's power) of the Constitution and considering the Constitution bench judgment (of 2018), it appears that all the issues except the one pending consideration before this bench have been elaborately dealt with therefore, we do not deem it necessary to revisit the issues that already stand settled," the CJI said while reading out the operative portion of the verdict. The limited issue that has been referred to this bench relates to the scope of legislative and executive powers of the Centre and the Delhi government with respect to the terms of services, the Supreme Court said. The Constitution bench of this court while interpreting Article 239AA of the Constitution did not find any occasion to specifically interpret the dispute herein, we therefore deem it appropriate to refer the above limited question for an authoritative pronouncement by the Constitution bench, the Court said. The Prime Minister said whatever may be the area of expertise, area of concern and whatever may be the differences of opinion of the people, they are all united by the rise of New India. Today everyone feels that India is now moving beyond 'probability and potential' and performing a bigger purpose of global welfare. Reiterating his earlier assertion of clean motives, clear intention and favourable policies, he said today the country is encouraging talent, trade and technology as much as possible. Today the country is registering dozens of startups every day, creating a unicorn every week, he said. The Prime Minister said ever since the Government e-Marketplace i.e. GeM portal has come into existence, all the purchases are done on one platform in front of everyone. Now people from remote villages, small shopkeepers and self-help groups can directly sell their products to the government. Today more than 40 lakh sellers have joined the GeM portal, he informed. He also talked about transparent 'faceless' tax assessment, one nationone tax, productivity linked incentive schemes. Political slugfest over WHO report on excess Covid deaths SNS/AGENCIES STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE NEW DELHI, 6 MAY The Supreme Court in its judgment today referred to a five-judge Constitution Bench the matter pertaining to the tussle between the Centre and the Delhi government over the control of bureaucrats/ services in the national capital. A Bench of the Supreme Court, headed by the Chief Justice of India (CJI) N V Ramana passed the order today. The bench, also comprising Justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli, however, said all other issues, except the issue of control over services, had been ‘elaborately dealt with’ by the previous Constitution bench in 2018 and they will not be revisited. The Supreme Court today in its order listed the matter for hearing before a 5-judge bench on Wednesday, May 11, for hearing the arguments P7 Centre continuously working to create an atmosphere for this: Narendra Modi TEMPERATURE Max: 38.4°C (0) SUN RISES 10:19 hrs MOON RISES 05:55 hrs DJOKOVIC REACHES MADRID OPEN SEMIS ‘PM’S THRUST TO TRANSFORM FARMS’ NEW DELHI, 6 MAY A day after India objected to the use of mathematical models by the World Health Organisation (WHO) claiming 4.7 million "excess" Covid deaths in the country, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday took a jibe at the government stating "Science does not lie, Modi does". According to the WHO report, more than 4.7 million people in India are thought to have died because of Covid-19. "47 lakh Indians died due to the Covid pandemic. NOT 4.8 lakh as claimed by the Govt. Science doesn't LIE. Modi does," tweeted Rahul Gandhi. The Congress leader also demanded Rs 4 lakh mandatory compensation for those losing their lives during the pandemic. The Bharatiya Janata Party questioned the process of the World Health Organization (WHO) in projecting excess mortality estimates due to Covid, and said that the source of the data must have accuracy while also stating that the health body itself does not vouch for the verification of the source. “There are certain flaws in WHO data. The type of methods adopted by WHO in the whole process is wrong. The source of the data must have accuracy, while WHO has recognized that the source is not verified,” BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra told a press conference here. Responding to Rahul Gandhi's accusation of the Centre lying on the Covid death data, Patra charged him with attempting to defame the BJP-led government since 2014. "It's sad that politics is being played on Covid death numbers. Look at the situation and population of our country. We have done better than the developed countries. Rahul Gandhi was the first person to tweet on the WHO data. He is trying to defame PM Modi. He has been doing this since 2014," he said. STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE NEW DELHI, 6 MAY In a showdown between the police forces of Punjab on the one side and Haryana and Delhi on the other, BJP leader Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga was today arrested by the Punjab Police from his residence in New Delhi for his recent remarks against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal but Delhi Police took his custody at Kurukshetra in Haryana. Bagga was picked up from his residence in Janakpuri area on Friday, a month after he was booked for his alleged remarks against Kejriwal over the latter's views on the movie The Kashmir Files. Bagga was taken to the Janakpuri Police Station where BJP workers gathered to protest against his arrest. Earlier in the day, BJP workers also staged protest outside the AAP office. After heated claims and counter-claims over the arrest of Bagga from his west Delhi residence, Delhi Police today took his custody from their Punjab counterparts and sent him back to the national capital from Kurukshetra to be produced in a local court for transit remand. Earlier, Delhi Police lodged two cases against Punjab Police in connection with the arrest. The Punjab Police team taking the BJP spokesperson to Mohali near Chandigarh was stopped midway by Haryana Police after A team of Delhi Police leaves with BJP leader Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga from Thanesar Sadar Police station in Kurukshetra on Friday. ANI Delhi Police registered a kidnapping case on the complaint of Bagga's father. Haryana Police took Bagga to a police station near Kurukshetra town where a team of Delhi Police arrived. Punjab Advocate General Anmol Rattan Sidhu told the media in Chandigarh that the state government is going to file a habeas corpus petition in the Punjab and Haryana High Court as "our police officers have been illegally detained by Haryana Police in Pipli". RK Rathore, the lawyer representing Punjab Police, told a news agency: “The first case was lodged under sections of kidnapping, while the second was lodged under section of assault. The second case was lodged on the complaint of Bagga's father. Delhi police have detained four Punjab Police personnel and taken them to Janakpuri police station." Following all standard operating procedures, Punjab Police had duly informed Delhi Police about the mat- ter, he claimed. Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders have defended the arrest, saying Punjab Police are acting in an unbiased way and the action was taken after Bagga refused to cooperate with the investigation even after notices were sent five times. The father of Tajinder Pal Bagga claimed that he was punched in the face when he attempted to capture the incident on video. Talking to a news agency, Tajinder Bagga's father said, "This morning, 10-15 police personnel came to our home and dragged Tajinder out. When I picked up my mobile phone to record a video of the incident, police took me to another room and punched me in the face." BJP leaders accused the ruling Aam Aadmi Party of misusing the Punjab police. BJP IT department head Amit Malviya took to Twitter to say that every worker of the party will ensure that Kejriwal "learns how to handle power the hard way". India reports 3,545 Covid cases, 27 deaths FACT FILE TOTAL CASES 4,30,94,938 ACTIVE CASES 19,688 NEW CASES 3,545 3,549 NEW RECOVERIES TOTAL DEATHS 5,24,002 UNION HEALTH MINISTRY FIGURES AS OF 8.00 A.M. FRIDAY 06 MAY 2022 Delhi recorded 1,656 cases and 0 deaths STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE NEW DELHI, 5 MAY Showing an upward trend, India reported 3,545 fresh Covid cases in the last 24 hours, along with 27 fatalities, stated the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Friday. With this, India’s active caseload now stands at 19,688 with active cases now constituting 0.05% of the country's total positive cases. As per the data shared by the ministry, India’s recovery rate stands at 98.74 per cent with 3549 patients having recovered in the last 24 hours taking the cumulative tally of recovered patients to 4,25,51,248. While the weekly positivity rate in the country currently stands at 0.79 per cent, the daily positivity rate stands at 0.76 percent, as per the data. Under the National vaccination drive, 189.81 crore vaccine doses have been administered so far. As per the data, COVID19 vaccination for the age group 12-14 years was started on 16 March 2022. So far, more than 2.99 Crore (2,99,46,931) adolescents have been administered the first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine. BEIJING, 6 MAY Less than three months after Beijing hosted the Winter Olympics and Paralympics, the Olympic Council of Asia said Friday that this year’s Asian Games in China are being postponed because of concerns about the spreading omicron variant of Covid19 in the country. The OCA said it had not picked new dates but said they would be announced “in the near future” after talks with local organizers and the Chinese Olympic Committee. The Asian Games were to take place from Sept. 10-25 in the eastern city of Hangzhou and would involve more than 11,000 athletes. The last edition was in 2018 in Jakarta, Indonesia. The World University Games, which were to take place this year from June 26-July 7 in the western city of Chengdu, have also been postponed, organizers said (See Pg 11) Friday. AP 3 HM terrorists killed on key Amarnath pilgrimage route Bizarre twist in 14-year-old murder case: HC frees convict, points finger at witness STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE JAMMU, 6 MAY Hangzhou Asian Games put off over Covid concerns BHOPAL, 6 MAY Three Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) terrorists, including the longest surviving commander of the outfit Ashraf Molvi, were on Friday killed in an encounter with security forces near Pahalgam on a key route to the Amarnath cave shrine in Kashmir. The incident came days after detection of a Pakistani cross-border tunnel in Jammu for infiltration of terrorists to target Amarnath pilgrims. The encounter with the HM terrorists started in the morning at Srichand Top (Jungle area), east of Batkoot Pahalgam area of Anantnag. Pahalgam is the base camp for the pilgrimage and has witnessed major terror attacks at pilgrims in the past. The pilgrimage will begin after a gap of two years on 30 June and conclude on 11 August. As such, security forces were combing south Kashmir areas to eliminate terrorists In a bizarre twist to a 14-yearold murder case of a woman, Madhya Pradesh High Court has observed that a prosecution witness in the case might have been the actual murderer who possibly saved himself by falsely implicating the convict with the connivance of a senior officer of Bhopal Police. The court also upheld the appeal of the tribal convict serving life imprisonment in the case and ordered his immediate release from jail along with a compensation of Rs 42 lakh from the state government. A division bench of High Court comprising Justice Atul Sreedharan and Justice Sunita Yadav quashed the conviction of Chandresh Marskoley, a Gond tribal who was then a final-year MBBS student at Bhopal’s Gandhi Medical College, in the murder case of a woman on 20 August 2008. The court upheld Marskoley’s appeal against his conviction Security personnel near the encounter site on Friday. ANI and make the pilgrimage trouble-free. The police called today's encounter a major success in stopping possible terror attacks on this route. Based on specific inputs about the presence of terrorists in the Srichand Top forest area in Pahalgam, security forces launched a cordon and search operation there. The hiding terrorists fired at the security forces. In retaliation, three terrorists were killed, police said. IGP Kashmir, Vijay Kumar identified one of the slain ter- rorist as Ashraf Molvi, one of the oldest surviving terrorists of the outfit. Security forces have launched a massive search operation on the Pahalgam and Baltal routes leading to the cave shrine. Intelligence agencies have already received inputs that terrorists might try to disrupt the pilgrimage. There were inputs that about 200 trained terrorists were waiting in 29 launch pads in Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) to infiltrate into India. The court awarded Marskoley a compensation of Rs 42,00,000, which shall be paid by the State within 90 days and subsequent rigorous life imprisonment sentenced by a Sessions Court at Bhopal on 31 July 2009. “The case reveals a sordid saga of manipulative and preconceived investigation followed by a malicious prosecution, where the police have investigated the case with the sole purpose of falsely implicating the appellant, Chandresh Marskoley and perhaps, deliberately protecting a prosecution witness, Dr Hemant Verma, who may have been the actual culprit,” read the High Court order. “The counsel for the appellant (Marskoley) has argued that the case against Chandresh Marskoley is a trumped up case on account of previous enmity with prosecution wit- ness Dr Hemant Verma, arising from campus politics and that the prosecution witness (Verma), using his influence with the then Bhopal Inspector General of Police Shailendra Shrivastava was the main culprit who had committed the murder, and with the tacit complicity of the police, falsely implicated the appellant,” the order said. “He (Marskoley) has spent over four thousand seven hundred and forty (4740) days in prison, first as an undertrial after being taken into custody on 20/09/08 (formal arrest was on 25/09/08) and thereafter as a convict’, the High Court said. “And, in the facts and circumstances unique to this case, we award Marskoley a compensation of Rs 42,00,000/(rupees forty two lakhs), which shall be paid by the State within ninety days from the date of this order,” it said. “Thereafter, it shall attract an interest of 9% per annum till the date of payment,” the court order said. According to information, on 20 August 2008, Dr Hemant Verma, who was then a junior resident doctor at the Gandhi Medical College, Bhopal, had told police that Chandresh Marskoley had taken his car. Verma, who was a senior of Marskoley, also said he suspected some wrongdoing. Three days later, the body of a woman, Shruti, said to be the girl friend of Marskoley, was found from the hills of MP’s famous hill station Pachmarhi. On the basis of police investigations based on Hemant Verma’s statements, Bhopal police arrested Marskoley on 25 September 2008, as the main accused. After a trial lasting about 10 months, the trial court in Bhopal convicted Marskoley and sentenced him to life imprisonment on 31 July 2009.