Former Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha MPs Sushmita Dev, Prakash Chik Baraik and Sukhendu Sekhar Roy joined the Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday.

They had resigned as Rajya Sabha MPs in June.

On Thursday, the three leaders were inducted into the BJP in the presence of state party president Samik Bhattacharya.

The TMC has been grappling with factionalism after its loss in the West Bengal Assembly elections in May.

On June 14, a delegation of 20 TMC MPs met Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and requested that their group be merged with the Tripura-based Nationalist Citizens’ Party, which is a part of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance.

TMC National General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee wrote to Birla on June 19, demanding that the rebel MPs be disqualified.

On June 3, nearly 60 out of the TMC’s 80 MLAs rebelled against the party leadership to choose Ritabrata Banerjee as the leader of the Opposition in the House.

Recently, on July 5, former West Bengal Finance Minister Chandrima Bhattacharya, who was a key loyalist of Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, resigned from all party posts.

After joining the BJP, Devi said that the “massive wins” of the BJP in West Bengal and Assam prove that the “faith of the public in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision is only growing”.

#WATCH | Kolkata, West Bengal: On TMC MP Mahua Moitra's statement, Former TMC Rajya Sabha MP Sushmita Dev says, "Her biggest problem is that no one wants to take her into their party; that is why she remains with the Trinamool."

On joining the BJP, she says, "The massive… pic.twitter.com/1qc1anlcoM

— ANI (@ANI) July 9, 2026

“One might praise or criticise a government or point out its shortcomings,” Devi said, “...but when it comes to last-mile delivery, the work Modi-ji has accomplished is something no other party in the history of this country has managed to do.”

Bhattacharya welcomed the three leaders and said that “this is a joyous occasion for us and the entire BJP is delighted”.

Written by Tanya Shrivastava. Edited by Sneha.

Also Read: Why the Trinamool Congress is collapsing like a house of cards

Forest fires in the Himalayas typically occur between November and June, during the drier months. However, out-of-season and higher elevation fires have sparked concerns about their effective management in a changing climate. A new study from the Western Himalayas provides more clues into the underlying factors driving forest fires in the region.

A higher frequency of forest fires was associated with a decline in floristic diversity and the promotion of fire-dominant plant species in Uttarakhand – the most fire-prone state in the Indian Western Himalayas, according to the Forest Survey of India.

Fires in the Himalayas are also particularly worrisome because they threaten to erode carbon stocks. Including the Eastern Himalayas, the Himalayan forests are estimated to hold 3,273.1 million tonnes of carbon.

For the Western Himalaya study, researchers from the Forest Research Institute, Dehradun, and Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, considered a host of bioclimatic, anthropogenic, and topical variables that could influence forest fire dynamics in the region. “What we tried to do was study 10 years of past data to understand how these variables interact with each other. Temperature had the biggest edge out of all of them,” said Amit Kumar Verma, a senior technical officer and faculty member with the Forest Research Institute (FRI) who authored the study.

Adding fuel to fire

The study’s findings add to a growing body of evidence of forests’ sensitivity to environmental fluctuations – and temperature in particular. Though most forest fires are triggered by human activity in India, every one degree celsius rise in mean summer temperatures was associated with approximately 128 additional fire incidences, the study found. The results align with other studies from across India, including central forests, which find temperature to be a leading [variable] in forest fire occurrence.

The analysis took into account over 18,000 independent fire locations between 2013 and 2022 in Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu, Kashmir, and Ladakh. Across 39 different variables — including proximity to human settlements, topography, precipitation, soil moisture and wind intensity, among others — temperature thresholds proved to have an outsized impact on forest fire occurrence.

Fire incidents rose in response to degree rises in annual mean temperatures, and maximum and minimum temperatures during the hottest, coldest, wettest, and driest months. “If you don’t have good rainfall, and that is followed by a weak winter, then there’s less moisture content on the forest floor which makes it flammable,” explained Verma.

March, April, and May were months that were the most favourable for forest fire occurrence. “The pre-monsoon period represents a convergence of climatic and anthropogenic drivers, where accumulated dry biomass from winter senescence (degradation) coincides with rising temperatures, low relative humidity, and enhanced human presence in the forest for grazing, fuelwood collection, etc,” says the paper.

Significantly seasonal precipitation was also found to be a contributor, “as the accumulation of biomass during wet months becomes highly combustible when rapidly dried during seasonal drought,” the study says. Dried pine cone needles, leaf litter, and understorey are all fuel in these circumstances.

VK Dhawan, a former scientist and forestry expert with the Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education who was not involved with the study, said that lack of snowfall in the winter months also had a role to play in worsening fires. “Shifting glaciers, reductions in winter precipitation and rainfall have all contributed to less moisture on the forest floor,” he said.

In January, the Indian Institute of Remote Sensing reported an “alarming decline” in winter precipitation, of deficits between 60% and 116% from October to December 2025. Reductions in rainfall and snow “also controls the soil moisture recharge and forest fuel conditions, which has cascading implications for forest disturbance and wildlife dynamics,” the IIRS warned.

Managing forest fires

Apart from temperature, higher forest fires were also associated with closer proximity to roads and human settlements. Scatter graphs of fire locations revealed a “pronounced concentration of fires within the first 0 to 1 km from roads, beyond which fire counts drop sharply and remain consistently low at greater distances,” the FRI study says.

“Roads improve mobility and give people greater access to forests,” explained Verma.

A majority of forest fires originate in human activity. Himalayan communities have traditionally used fire to improve the soil fertility in forests and grow fodder for their cattle. Fires can also result from the improper disposal of cigarettes and bidis, or are intentionally lit by poachers. “People light the fires, but climatic conditions like hotter temperatures, low moisture, can trigger a wider spread,” said Dhawan, adding, “Accidental fires by the roadside are a common occurrence during the fire season, which is why we need better prevention methods.”

In 2018, India released its National Action Plan on Forest Fires which outlined fire management strategies that states could refer to, such as community inclusion in fire mock drills, floor biomass management, and improving fire detection and alert systems. According to Dhawan, reviving fire lines and clearing biomass through controlled fires are critical to controlling the spread of forest fires in the Himalayas.

The central government gave the Uttarakhand government permission to fell trees in order to revive and maintain fire lines at elevations exceeding 1000 meters in December 2025. Tree felling and green cover removal at these elevations had been banned by the Supreme Court earlier. “Fuel needs to be removed from the forest floor ahead of the fire season, through controlled burning along roads and fire lines. Communities should also be incentivised and compensated for co-operating with the forest department,” said Dhawan.

This article was first published on Mongabay.

The Telangana High Court on Thursday granted bail to Bandi Bhageerath, the son of Union minister Bandi Sanjay Kumar, in a case pertaining to the alleged sexual assault of a girl reported to be 17 years old, The Times of India reported.

He had surrendered before the Telangana Police on May 16, hours after the High Court declined to give interim protection from arrest in the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act case. The police, however, have maintained that he was apprehended on the outskirts of Hyderabad, The Times of India reported.

The parents of the girl have alleged that Bhageerath befriended their daughter on the pretext of marriage and sexually assaulted her at a farmhouse in Moinabad on December 31.

Based on the girl’s statement, the police added charges of rape under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and aggravated penetrative sexual assault under the Pocso to the first information report.

Bhageerath has denied the allegations and registered a complaint accusing the girl and her family of blackmailing and extorting him of Rs 5 crore. Based on his complaint, the police registered a case of extortion and criminal intimidation against the girl and her parents.

On June 20, he was granted four-day interim bail to appear for an exam, The Hindu reported.

Edited by Tanya Shrivastava.

The Calcutta High Court allowed the Trinamool Congress to use the funds from its three bank accounts that were frozen by the West Bengal Police and the Enforcement Directorate. The party has been allowed to use the funds for day-to-day operations under the supervision of a court-appointed special officer till September 30.

The police had frozen the accounts after rebel TMC MLA Biswanath Das filed a complaint alleging that party funds had been misused. The High Court also observed that at the interim stage, it was unable to find sufficient material justifying the “abrupt” freezing of the accounts within a day of a first information report being registered.

The party had described the ED’s action on Wednesday as “politically motivated”. Read on.

Australia will begin exporting uranium to India for peaceful purposes after the two countries finalised the arrangements needed to implement a civil nuclear cooperation agreement. The pact had been stalled since 2014.

The announcement came during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s trip to Australia, where he met his counterpart Anthony Albanese. The leaders did not announce how much uranium Australia would export or when shipments would begin. Read on.

About 3,000 liquefied petroleum gas cylinders were swept away because of heavy rainfall into the Patalganga river from a bottling facility of the Hindustan Petroleum Corporation in Panvel, in Maharashtra’s Raigad district. The cylinders were filled and empty.

In Thane, three persons were killed in rain-related incidents and 800 were evacuated in the past week.

Delhi received near-continuous rainfall for the second consecutive day, leading to waterlogging and traffic congestion. Read on.

Union Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari told The Indian Express that the claims made online about damage to cars because of blending petrol with ethanol are part of a “false narrative”. He added that the average mileage of vehicles may have been marginally reduced because of the ethanol fuel.

“Show me a single car that has suffered damage because of E20 fuel,” he told the newspaper. Meanwhile, consumers have complained that the new fuel mix damages and reduces their mileage. Read on.

The toll in the landslide in Kerala’s Wayanad reached five with the recovery of two bodies at the disaster site. Search operations were underway to locate three persons who are still missing.

Three of the 10 persons injured in the landslide, which occurred two days ago, had been discharged and four remained in hospital in stable condition. Three persons were in the intensive care unit, including two in critical condition. Read on.

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The Calcutta High Court on Thursday allowed the Trinamool Congress to use the funds from its three bank accounts that were frozen by the West Bengal Police and the Enforcement Directorate, Bar and Bench reported.

The party has been allowed to use the funds for day-to-day operations under the supervision of a special officer, retired judge Justice Subrata Talukdar, till September 30, said Justice Saugata Bhattacharya.

On June 19, Kolkata Police froze debit operations on the three accounts, a day after rebel TMC MLA Biswanath Das filed a complaint alleging that funds had been misused. The party has been grappling with factionalism after its loss in the West Bengal Assembly elections in May.

On Wednesday, the Enforcement Directorate said that it had frozen three bank accounts of the TMC, holding deposits worth Rs 440 crore, under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

The party described the agency’s action as “politically motivated”.

On Thursday, the High Court observed that at the interim stage, it was unable to find sufficient material justifying the “abrupt” freezing of the accounts within a day of the first information report being registered, Bar and Bench reported.

The TMC can use the money in the accounts only for the day-to-day expenses needed for running the party and for legal expenses, the legal news outlet quoted the court as saying.

The court also questioned the Bharatiya Janata Party-led state government and the West Bengal Police for freezing the bank accounts of the TMC at a “lightning speed”, Bar and Bench reported.

“When a poor citizen comes to a police station, the police is not activated,” Bar and Bench quoted the High Court as saying. “But when a complaint is lodged on evening 6 pm with respect to three accounts, next day freeze occurs.”

The court noted that the complaint made by Das did not highlight any particular incident or transaction.

Taking strong exception to the conduct of the rebel MLA, the court added that Das prima facie acted opportunistically and did not raise any concern of financial irregularity before the Assembly elections.

“Why the complainant did not raise the issue before May 4 [day of Assembly election results],” Bar and Bench quoted the court as saying. “It is nothing but sheer opportunism.”

Edited by Sneha.

Heavy rainfall led to waterlogging and traffic snarls in parts of Delhi and the National Capital Region on Thursday.

Thursday was the second consecutive day of near-continuous rainfall in the region.

The Mehrauli-Badarpur road was among the worst affected by waterlogging, ANI reported. Waterlogging was also reported at Burari in the northern part of the national capital and on NH 24 near the Akshardham temple in southeastern Delhi.

Trees also fell in parts of the city.

In Ghaziabad, waterlogging was reported in the Indirapuram and Abhay Khand areas. Roads were also submerged in Noida’s Sector 75 after overnight rainfall.

Several areas in Gurugram were flooded on Wednesday after heavy rainfall.

VIDEO | Ghaziabad: Heavy rainfall leads to waterlogging in parts of Delhi- NCR. Visuals from Indirapuram.

(Full video available on PTI Videos - https://t.co/n147TvrpG7) pic.twitter.com/jmssgFZStz

— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) July 9, 2026

#WATCH | Delhi | Traffic snarls on NH-24 near Akshardham temple as the national capital has been receiving continuous rain since last night pic.twitter.com/HDCaabF4Jg

— ANI (@ANI) July 9, 2026

VIDEO | Delhi: Heavy rain hits parts of the national capital; Sangam Vihar witnesses waterlogging.

(Full video available on PTI Videos - https://t.co/n147TvrpG7) pic.twitter.com/XPFufx74JX

— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) July 9, 2026

3,000 LPG cylinders swept away

In Maharashtra’s Raigad district, about 3,000 liquefied petroleum gas cylinders were swept away because of heavy rainfall into the Patalganga river from a bottling facility of the Hindustan Petroleum Corporation in Panvel, said Collector Kishan Jawale. The cylinders were filled and empty, the official said.

The administration said that citizens should not keep or use the cylinders if they find them. The cylinders should be deposited at the Hindustan Petroleum dealers, the tehsildar office or the office of the sub-divisional officer in Pen, it added.

🚨 महत्त्वाचे आवाहन | रायगड

अतिवृष्टीमुळे एचपीसीएल पाताळगंगा एलपीजी बॉटलिंग प्लांट (चावणे, पनवेल) येथून अंदाजे 3,000 एलपीजी सिलेंडर (भरलेले व रिकामे) पाताळगंगा नदीत वाहून गेले आहेत.

— जिल्हाधिकारी किशन जावळे#Raigad #HPCL #LPG #DisasterManagement #Maharashtra pic.twitter.com/30vTFdm8EL

— Raigad District Collector (@CollectorRaigad) July 8, 2026

Three killed, 800 evacuated in Thane

Three persons were killed in rain-related incidents and 800 evacuated in the past week in Maharashtra’s Thane district, PTI quoted unidentified officials as saying.

Two persons, including a teenage girl, were injured in a lightning strike on Wednesday. Both are out of danger now, the officials told PTI.

Meanwhile, search was on to find the bodies of two boys who drowned in separate incidents in a river and a nullah in Bhiwandi, the news agency quoted the officials as saying.

Torrential downpours have caused widespread disruption, prompting emergency teams to rescue and relocate 797 persons from 229 families to safer locations.

Edited by Sneha.

Union Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari has told The Indian Express that while the average mileage of vehicles may have marginally reduced because of blending petrol with ethanol, the claims made online about damage to cars are “overblown” and part of a “false narrative”.

“Show me a single car that has suffered damage because of E20 fuel,” the newspaper on Thursday quoted him as saying. “What is being circulated on social media is part of a concerted false narrative.”

Gadkari said that vehicle manufacturers had been asked to replace parts of older cars during servicing that may have suffered minor damage.

The comments came amid criticism by vehicle owners that E20 fuel was reducing mileage and damaging cars.

The minister said the E20 variant of petrol, which has 20% ethanol, was introduced across the country in 2025 after it had been cleared in multiple tests carried out by vehicle manufacturers and Pune-based government-run testing lab Automotive Research Association of India, the newspaper reported.

The minister was quoted as saying that there is a difference in calorific value between ethanol and petrol. “...mileage also depends on driving conditions, especially in cities such as Delhi or Mumbai, where vehicles stay in lower gears due to driving conditions…” he told the newspaper.

Gadkari cited the automotive research association’s report as saying that there was no problem with mileage efficiency for cars specifically built with flex-fuel engines. He added that the flex-engine technology was being worked on.

Not decided policy alone, says Gadkari

Gadkari has been defending the government’s 20% Ethanol Blended Petrol programme, claiming on Wednesday that no car in the country was facing problems because of E20 petrol.

On Wednesday, Gadkari told India Today that the ethanol blending policy was framed collectively by government departments and not his decision alone. “The entire process is conducted after consultation with the petroleum ministry, the Cabinet and scientific research,” he was quoted as saying.

The programme currently mandates the sale of petrol blended with 20% ethanol. India hit its target of reaching a 20% ethanol mix in petrol in July 2025, five years ahead of schedule.

The blending of ethanol with petrol is part of India’s broader energy transition strategy aimed at reducing dependency on fossil fuels, cutting greenhouse gas emissions and boosting income for sugarcane farmers.

Consumer complaints

Consumers have complained that the new fuel mix damages engines and reduces their mileage.

An opinion poll by LocalCircles published on Sunday showed that 53% of the surveyed petrol vehicle owners said that they believe that the government’s handling of E20 rollout was “disastrous” or “ineffective”.

Sixty-six percent of the respondents said that they were experiencing a more than 10% drop in mileage with E20. Forty-five percent of the surveyed users said that their cars had suffered moderate to major increase in wear and tear, or needed repairs, according to the polling conducted in June.

A report in October, which analysed government and industry data, said that only about 20% of new petrol vehicles sold in India in the last 15 years were compliant with the E20 fuel blend.

On December 11, Gadkari told Parliament that the government had tested older vehicles running on E20 fuel and found no case of engine failure.

The vehicles covered almost 1 lakh km in the tests conducted by the automotive research association, the minister said.

Gadkari had added at the time that the research association had observed “no impact” of E20 fuel on the vehicles’ performance, start ability, drive ability and metal capability.

Edited by Tanya Shrivastava.

The Calcutta High Court on Wednesday verbally observed that pending appeals against voter deletions under the Special Intensive Revision process “will take 21 years for all appeals to be disposed of” if the appellate tribunals function at the current pace, The Times of India reported.

The court made the verbal observation while hearing the case of a man whose application for an urgent passport was pending as his name was removed from the electoral rolls. The bench declined to direct the authorities to process the passport application, but told the appellate tribunal hearing special intensive revision cases to expedite the hearing of his appeal.

“Unless declared to be a citizen of India, you cannot be given passport,” Justice Kausik Chanda told the man, according to The Times of India.

The petitioner, Sirajul Shekh, a Cooch Behar resident, approached the court after his passport application had been put on hold during police verification after his Electoral Photo Identity Card number became invalid following the deletion of his name from the electoral roll.

He told the court he required a passport to seek medical treatment abroad for a gastrointestinal illness.

During the hearing, the petitioner’s counsel argued that a voter identity card is not a mandatory document under the 1967 Passports Act or the 1980 Passports Rules in cases where identity, address and date of birth are otherwise established, The Wire reported.

The counsel also argued that a voter identity card is not proof of citizenship and submitted that the Supreme Court had held in a separate case that deletion from the electoral roll during the voter roll revision process is not a determination of non-citizenship.

The case comes days after former The Telegraph editor R Rajagopal received his renewed passport months after his application was delayed following his removal from West Bengal’s electoral rolls during the voter roll revision exercise.

Rajagopal had said then that the resolution of his case did not address the broader problem, adding that “unless and until there is policy clarity on this issue, it is difficult to claim any real relief”.

Voter roll revision and citizenship

The special intensive revision of voter rolls in West Bengal was carried out before the Assembly elections in April.

Final rolls published in February initially excluded more than 61 lakh voters, with the process continuing through supplementary lists and adjudication of about 60 lakh “doubtful and pending” cases.

By April 6, about 91 lakh voters, nearly 11.9% of West Bengal’s electorate before the revision process began, had been removed from the electoral rolls.

Ahead of the Assembly elections, about 34 lakh appeals were reportedly pending before appellate tribunals. Of these, 27 lakh were filed by persons who were excluded from the voter list. The tribunals, set up as part of the special intensive revision process, had allowed 1,607 names to be added back to the electoral rolls.

The voter list revision has taken place in several other states such as Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala in the past year. The third phase is underway in 16 states and three Union Territories.

On May 27, the Supreme Court upheld the legality of the special intensive revision of electoral rolls conducted by the Election Commission, saying that the exercise “advances the constitutional imperative of free and fair elections”.

However, the court said that the poll panel’s inquiries for the purpose of including a person in the voter list do not mean that it can decide whether the person is an Indian citizen.

On Wednesday, the Ministry of External Affairs reiterated that the passport is a travel document and not proof of citizenship.

Edited by Neerad Pandharipande.

A doctor who was assaulted by Shiv Sena corporator at a civic hospital in Dombivli in Thane district resigned on Tuesday, saying he does not feel safe returning to work, The Indian Express reported.

The 26-year-old resident medical officer at the Kalyan-Dombivli Municipal Corporation’s Shastri Nagar Hospital said he had left the city after receiving threats and would “never go back”, NDTV reported.

“I have resigned because there is a lot of fear,” he told the news outlet. “Goons are watching us, and I have already left the city. They are very dangerous people. The other doctors may continue working there, but I cannot.”

The assault took place on Monday after doctors at the state-run hospital asked the family of a pregnant woman to transfer the woman to another hospital because there were no beds available in the neonatal intensive care unit, which the newborn was expected to require.

According to the police, this prompted the family to contact Ramesh Mhatre, a municipal corporator from the Shiv Sena faction led by Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde. Mhatre arrived at the hospital with his supporters.

Surveillance camera footage shared on social media showed the corporator and his associates punching and slapping the hospital staff.

Mhatre was arrested on Wednesday evening after he surrendered to the police, The Indian Express reported.

Three of his associates – Ramesh Pawar, Pramod Nikam and Akshay Karande – had been arrested earlier.

Mhatre was later admitted to Thane Civil Hospital after complaining of health problems, NDTV reported.

The police have registered a case against Mhatre and his associates under sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita pertaining to assaulting a public servant, voluntarily causing hurt, criminal intimidation, unlawful assembly and rioting.

They were also booked under the Maharashtra Medicare Service Persons and Medicare Service Institutions Prevention of Violence and Damage or Loss to Property Act.

Mhatre has denied assaulting a woman doctor. He said he had only tried to take her mobile phone while she was speaking on it during a discussion about the patient’s condition.

The male doctor who has resigned told The Indian Express that Mhatre was attempting to shift the focus to the assault of only a woman doctor.

“He has tried to shift the focus by highlighting the assault on a woman, knowing that it is a sensitive issue,” the doctor told the newspaper. “But that does not justify the assault on a male doctor. No camera angle can hide the truth of what actually happened.”

Recalling the incident, the doctor said he was the only male doctor present and was repeatedly punched on his face, head, chest and abdomen. He alleged that the woman doctor, two nurses and a hospital attendant were also assaulted.

Protests by doctors, nurses

The Maharashtra State Association of Resident Doctors welcomed Mhatre’s arrest but said doctors in government medical colleges and hospitals would wear black ribbons on Thursday while continuing medical services, The Indian Express reported.

It said the protest was aimed at seeking long-term measures to address rising incidents of violence against healthcare workers across the state.

The Maharashtra State Nurses Association has announced a three-day black-ribbon protest from Friday and warned that the agitation would be intensified after Monday if “no concrete action” was taken.

Edited by Neerad Pandharipande.

The toll in the landslide in Kerala’s Wayanad reached five on Thursday with the recovery of two bodies at the disaster site, PTI quoted Kerala ministers AP Anil Kumar and T Siddique as saying.

Search operations were underway to locate three persons who are still missing.

The landslide occurred in the Kelladi area of Wayanad district on Tuesday. The Kerala State Disaster Management Authority said that the debris that had accumulated while excavating the Wayanad-Kelladi tunnel had slid down after heavy rainfall.

On Wednesday, Chief Minister VD Satheesan said that the government will conduct a detailed “techno-legal study” and investigate what led to the incident.

He also said that three of the 10 persons injured in the landslide had been discharged and four remained in hospital in stable condition. Three persons were in the intensive care unit, including two in critical condition.

Edited by Nachiket Deuskar.

Examining 45 days of CCTV footage from the Ram temple in Ayodhya, a Special Investigation Team set up by the Uttar Pradesh government found 70 instances of counting staff hiding bundles of notes and loose cash in their clothes, pockets and shoes.

Tasked with investigating donation theft at the temple, the SIT submitted a preliminary report to the state’s home department on June 23. Scroll has seen a copy of the report.

The report details how offerings at the temple were stolen during the counting process, with staff routinely hiding cash on their bodies and walking out with it, as systems meant to stop this were not enforced.

The reports flags serious lapses by the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra, the trust that runs the temple, and the State Bank of India, the banker to the trust.

It pins blame for the dilution of the security protocol in the counting room on trustee Anil Mishra, a prominent local leader of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. However, it does not recommend any action against him.

While it does not name Champat Rai, the general secretary of the trust, one of his aides is among the eight staffers that it recommends that the police investigate. The same men have been named as the accused in a first information report filed by the police on June 25.

The three-member SIT was formed on June 13 on the request of the temple trust after Opposition leaders and a whistleblower raised questions about how donations were being handled at the temple.

It is expected to submit a final report on July 22.

The footage and the 70 instances

The SIT's strongest evidence comes from CCTV footage of the counting room, located in a building within the temple complex. The SIT said that it had access to only 45 days of recordings, from April 27 to June 5, 2026.

The trust’s own internal audits, covering 2022-’23 to 2025-’26, recommended the preservation of 180 days of footage. “However, Trust officials did not take these reports seriously and ignored the audit findings, which led to the present problem,” the report stated.

In the available CCTV footage, the SIT found 70 instances of counting staff hiding bundles of notes and loose cash in their clothes, pockets and shoes.

Two staffers, Avinash Shukla and Manish Kumar Yadav, were seen repeatedly siphoning off money in the footage, according to the report. Three others, Anukalp Mishra, Lavkush Mishra and Karunesh Pandey, were seen assisting them. A sixth, Ramashankar Mishra, was also caught on camera hiding cash, the report states.

The SIT said that bank records of the accused and witness statements suggest that similar thefts were happening even earlier, but without CCTV footage, the scale could not be verified.

It added that the accused were hired by a firm contracted by the State Bank of India on the recommendation of the officials of the Ram temple trust.

The SIT also emphasised the absence of basic safeguards during the counting of cash donations. It alleged that counting staff were not frisked at entry or exit and that they were allowed to carry mobile phones and personal belongings into the room.

While a pocket-less uniform had been prescribed for counting staff to prevent concealment and theft, the rule was never enforced, and neither the trust nor the bank noticed or acted on this.

The report added that coins and cash from different donation boxes, or hundis, were mixed before counting, making it impossible to trace donations to a specific box. “Given the very large quantity of public donations received, this situation proved to be a serious weakness from the point of view of audit and accountability,” it said.

Ramshankar Yadav, alias Tinnu, an aide of Champat Rai, had keys to these donation boxes “without any clear written order”.

“Any person having custody of the keys to the offering boxes without formal authority creates a risk of unauthorised access,” added the report, pinning this problem on Subhash Srivastava, an RSS leader in Ayodhya in-charge of the counting room.

The SIT said that before it was formed, trust officials had already recovered close to Rs 78.94 lakh from the accused. It also mentions recovery of foreign currency, jewellery and Rs 2.25 lakh from a bathroom next to the counting room.

It added that registers maintained by the trust had records of precious offerings by the Indian Bullion and Jewellers Association, Vishwa Sindhi Seva Samaj, a Sarafa association, and businessman Anil Vishwakarma, which included a silver necklace, silver footwear and hundreds of kilos of silver bricks. The necklace and the shoe were found to be in the trust’s custody while the bricks had been sent to the Security Printing and Minting Corporation of India to be melted, a record of which was maintained by the trust.

Anil Mishra's role

The SIT’s preliminary report puts the spotlight on Anil Mishra, a former executive head of RSS in the Awadh region, and a member of the temple trust. As a representative of the trust, Mishra signed off on a security protocol with the State Bank of India, the temple’s banker, on February 6, 2025.

The SIT notes that this protocol actually diluted a safeguard that the trust and the bank had agreed upon in September 2024, which mandated that every person entering or leaving the counting room be checked by a guard. Instead, the new protocol allowed for “regular or random” checks, which were then not carried out at all.

“The issue of frisking not being carried out was also brought to his [Mishra’s] attention through internal channels,” the report states. “Despite this, no effective written instruction was issued to implement the search arrangement.”

The SIT held Mishra responsible for recommending Srivastava as the in-charge of the counting room, under whose supervision the thefts took place.

“Based on the available material, his [Mishra’s] role does not remain limited to mere administrative negligence, but appears to be a factor involving gross negligence, serious failure to comply with necessary security measures, creating conditions that facilitated the act of theft/ embezzlement, and providing facilitation to it,” said the report.

Despite the harsh indictment, the SIT did not recommend any action against Mishra in its concluding suggestions.

SBI’s role

The report is equally direct about the State Bank of India, which was a signatory to the counting arrangement with the trust.

Under a Memorandum of Understanding that the bank signed with the trust in February 2024, its role went beyond receiving the counted money. The bank was responsible, along with the trust, for supervising counting staff, ensuring counting machines were available, and enforcing security compliance.

The SIT found that the bank did not provide staff with the prescribed uniform and that there was no monthly rotation of its officials at the counting site, which was meant to happen.

What the report leaves out

The preliminary report’s gaps are as notable as the findings. While the SIT holds Mishra responsible at a “senior supervisory level”, it recommends FIRs only against the eight staffers. This includes counting officials Avinash Shukla, Manish Kumar Yadav, Anukalp Mishra, Lavkush Mishra, Karunesh Pandey, Ramashankar Mishra, counting-in-charge Subhash Srivastava, and Ramshankar Yadav alias Tinnu.

Champat Rai, the trust's general secretary and its most senior functionary, does not feature anywhere in the nine-page document, despite the trust's responsibility for the counting process being a running theme throughout the report.

The role of Gopal Nagarkatte, an RSS leader who assumed administrative role at the trust in 2021, is also not part of the findings.

When I watched Main Vaapas Aaunga with school friends recently, it felt almost as if my ancestors were asking me to come back home to Lahore.

A young couple sitting next to me were asking one another whether the story was based on fact or fiction. My answer to them: regardless of the details, the movie did capture the texture of some lives affected by Partition, such as those of my father and mother.

In many ways my parents’ story is quite different from that of Keenu and Afsan in the film. Unlike Keenu and Afsan, they were able to find a life together after Partition. They were both Hindu. And neither of them expressed a wish to return to the Lahore they had grown up in.

For my mother it was fear; for my father it would be like visiting a ghost.

But there were other resonances. Like Keenu, my mother developed severe dementia late in life, and in that phase, she became lost in Lahore. One day she looked really busy. I asked her what she was doing. She said, “I have a lot of work to do. Everything is all over the place. Taji’s clothes have to be put back in the cupboard”. (The family always referred to her father as Taji, short for Pitaji.)

A few days later she said, “Are you coming with me to Lahore?” I tried to explain that she needed a visa. She got really upset. “You are always so negative,” she said. “I am driving with William [her driver] to Lahore. I will go alone if you don’t want to come.”

Some months later, I told her I was going shopping for a sofa. “Don’t buy one. I have one at home,” she said. “You can take it.” The sofa she had in mind had been left behind in Rattigan Road more than 60 years ago.

Alok Sarin, our wonderful psychiatrist, told us that we should not contradict her. She died in June 2019 with memories of Lahore firmly etched in her mind.

My mother was a grandchild of the well-known public figure, Professor Ruchi Ram Sahni and grew up in a large compound on 22 Rattigan Road, adjoining Bradlaugh Hall. By June 1947, her uncles had persuaded Ruchi Ram Sahni to leave for Bombay. As a result only her family was left in the large compound.

Every day vehicles full of young people shouting “Pakistan leke rahenge” and “Allah o Akbar” passed on the streets. We will take Pakistan. God is Great.

This would be followed by saffron-clothed mobs shouting “Har Har Mahadev”, hail Lord Shiva.

She used to tell us how frightening it was to be living in Lahore those days, watching the city burn from their roof-top, not knowing who had left, who was still around and who had died.

At night, she and her older brother would keep vigil on the roof. The lights would be switched off and they could hear armed people moving around the compound.

My mother’s father was a small-time journalist and editor, not a very successful one at that – he had to keep selling family jewelry to run his printing press. When my Nani pressed him to leave Lahore like her other relatives, he refused.

“Where will we go?” he retorted. “I have a printing press. We can’t carry it with us to India. In any case, Hindus have lived under Mughal rule for centuries. We can also continue to live in Lahore under Muslim rule. The Sikhs have been living in Afghanistan for generations and they seem to be fine.”

One day my mother was warned in college by her Muslim classmates that her father was on a “hit list” and should leave Lahore immediately. She never forgave herself for not passing on this message to him. He was apparently a target because of his efforts to persuade his Hindu friends to stay on.

On August 14, 1947, as he was returning home for lunch, he was stabbed by a mob just outside his house. He cried out, “Marra gaya, marra gaya.” I have been hit.

My mother and her older brother rushed to the gate, where they saw him die before their eyes. They could not reach him because they were pushed back by the crowd that had gathered on the busy road. Later they were told that some workers of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh had picked up the body and had performed his last rites.

The family jumped over the broken wall into the compound of Bradlaugh Hall where they were rescued by some army personnel.

The family was lucky to escape to Ferozepur, and then to Lucknow, where they stayed in the house of her uncle, the scientist Birbal Sahni. My mother was almost 20.

My father had seen my mother at a wedding in Lahore and decided that he was going to marry her. But they belonged to different castes. His father, a senior government official, wanted his son to marry a woman from a wealthy family, since he himself was a self-made man. When he learnt about this budding romance, he got my father a job in Simla, hoping that he would forget my mother.

The day before my father was to leave for Simla, he took the bold step of visiting my mother at her home and gifting her a book of love poems by Omar Khayyam. Mum was too scared to accept a gift from a man, largely because her own father would have been very upset at this. But they promised to stay in touch.

But then came Partition and my father could not go back to Lahore. His father, meanwhile, was comfortably placed in Delhi in a huge property, which is now the Iranian Cultural Centre.

In Simla, my father learnt about the killing of my mother’s father from The Times of India, but had no news about the others. He left immediately for Delhi, hoping to find my mother.

Every evening after work, he would make the rounds of Connaught Place, hoping to meet someone who could give him news. Then one day by chance he bumped into Mum’s older brother and learnt the story of their escape from Lahore to Ferozepur. (Mum used to tell us that it was the worst monsoon she had ever experienced; the rivulets they could see were red with the blood of dead refugees.)

Dad was desperate to meet my mum. Knowing that his father would not give him money for the train ticket, he sold his watch and landed up in Lucknow, where they had moved from Ferozepur. It was winter and bitterly cold, and she had no warm clothes.

She later explained to him that while leaving Lahore; she had hastily packed only a few vessels and the clothes that were easily accessible. She was able to load only a few trunks in the truck on which they escaped to Ferozepur. She had assumed they contained warm clothes; instead, they contained phulkaris that her paternal grandmother had embroidered in Chakwal in the late 1880s under candle light).

My father bought her a coat, and later escorted her to Amritsar so that she could sit for her final MA exam – because of sporadic rioting, it was not safe for her to travel alone.

My mother had a difficult time trying to support her family with teaching jobs; she was young and beautiful and faced harassment from male colleagues. PG accommodation was not safe for her. She moved from job to job – Sitapur to the Patna Women’s College and finally, back to Lucknow because it was not safe for her to live alone.

There was more to the story of their romance and the problems they faced, as I realised when I found in the packet of letters they exchanged in the late 1940s.

But marry they did in June 1950, in the face of great resistance from my father’s family.

Mum insisted on a civil marriage because she didn’t want her brother to be indebted by a traditional wedding. No dowry, she told my father: she was only going to come with her own clothes and bedding.

We grew up in Delhi, where my parents lived and died, with stories of Lahore, love, and loss. And that is why Main Vaapas Aaunga hit so close to home.

Neera Burra is a sociologist, an amateur historian and a writer of this and that. Her latest book, an edited volume, is titled A Memoir of Pre-Partition Punjab: Ruchi Ram Sahni 1863-1948 (2017), Oxford University Press, Delhi. Her other book is Born to Work. Child Labour in India (1997), Oxford University Press, Delhi. Her blog can be accessed here. Her email address is neeraburra@gmail.com.

On June 30, as heavy rains battered Mumbai, a 60-year-old peepul tree came crashing down on a school bus that had briefly stopped on Lane 11 near Chembur’s Diamond Garden.

As it collapsed on the bus roof, its trunk fell directly on Vihaan Srivastava, a Class 6 student of Universal School, who lived in the same lane and was about to alight at the next stop. Of the 13 students in the bus, four other students sustained injuries. But 11-year-old Vihaan died.

Six days later, 18-year-old Hasan Alam Syed died after a tree branch snapped and fell on his head in Aarey colony while he was on his motorcycle.

The next day, 63-year-old Yusuf Kundawala died after a large branch of Saptaparni tree collapsed over him in Kurla’s Naupada area. He was about to join the inauguration ceremony of his family’s new shop.

The three deaths occurred in a week when Mumbai received more than 300 mm of rain – almost an entire month’s rainfall.

The heavy rain came with an unprecedented number of tree falls.

On July 5, according to Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, the city saw 523 cases of tree or branch falls – 50% higher than the figure it usually records for an entire year.

The next day, 428 trees fell, taking the total number of tree fall episodes since June 30 to 1,516.

Experts say three factors have led to such a high number of tree collapses – intense rain, high wind speed, and unscientific tree handling.

Mahesh Palawat, vice president of Meteorology and Climate Change at Skymet Weather, attributed the four spells of triple-digit rainfall in Mumbai in the first week of July to changed monsoon dynamics linked to climate change.

“Weather systems forming in the Bay of Bengal have been travelling in the west direction, instead of northwest,” he said. “Additionally, there has been a rise in the moisture loading from the Arabian Sea due to the record-setting ocean warming.”

He explained: “This leads to continuous regeneration of clouds over the region in the presence of a weather system.”

In addition to the heavy rain, municipal commissioner Ashwini Bhide blamed high-wind speeds, ranging between 50 kmph to 70 kmph, for the exceptionally high number of tree falls.

But according to arborist Vaibhav Raje, while extreme weather events can contribute significantly to tree falls, it is usually concretisation around trees that accelerates root decay that eventually leads to collapses.

Arun Sawant, president of National Society of the Friends of the Trees, an organisation that works to preserve trees in cities, said Mumbai is undergoing rapid urban development. “The more concrete, the more tree falls we will see,” Sawant said. “Add to that unscientific pruning.”

A tree audit in Chembur

The Mumbai municipal corporation responded to the death of 11-year-old Vihaan by going into an overdrive. The civic body pruned, trimmed and chopped off tree branches along the entire leafy lane, even though many trees, including the peepul tree that had collapsed, had been trimmed just before monsoons.

The lane has over 27 trees, hugging the road and the footpath. Scroll, along with a horticulturist with National Society of the Friends of Trees, inspected 10 trees around the accident site.

Only two trees had a buffer zone of one metre by one metre at their base, as mandated by the National Green Tribunal in 2015 in response to a public interest litigation by Mumbai-based NGO Vanashakti seeking the removal of concrete around trees. Called a tree basin, the buffer creates breathing space for the roots and allows water to percolate into the soil.

Of the remaining eight trees that failed to follow the one metre rule, three had concrete choking their base while five had a basin of less than a metre. This was also the case with the peepul tree that had collapsed.

After its collapse, the municipal corporation suspended its assistant garden superintendent as well as a sub-engineer from the road department, indicating that it realised that negligence in road construction work had possibly led to the tree fall. In fact, the municipal corporation’s garden department had written two letters to the contractor responsible for the road construction work, flagging the damage that the digging had done to the tree’s roots.

“Footpath concretisation also happened around four months ago,” said Vikas Patharkar, a resident of Lane 11. He added that several residents had complained to the municipal cororation that the peepul tree appeared to be in a dangerous condition.

However, the municipal corporation maintained that it received no formal complaints and a visual assessment in May marked the tree as healthy and safe.

Scroll found a similar pattern in Bandra where we inspected 17 trees with an arborist and found that 11 did not have a one-metre tree basin. Ten trees had a localised decay. One tree was severely decayed and faced a high risk of collapse.

Jeetendra Pardeshi, garden superintendent, did not respond to Scroll’s queries about violation of National Green Tribunal’s directions.

How concrete kills the tree

For over a decade, citizen groups and ecologists in Mumbai have been expressing concerns about the concretisation of tree bases.

“When we lay cement or concrete at the tree’s base, we suffocate the roots from getting air or from spreading wide to get nutrients,” said Jagdish Mhatre, member of the National Society of the Friends of the Trees.

In 2014, Mumbai-based NGO, Vanashakti surveyed 1,965 trees and found that “water and nutrient stress resulting from concretised tree bases” were among the leading causes of dying tropical rain trees in the city.

For instance, when their team dug the vicinity of the trees, they found up to 5 feet of concrete, tar and other construction material that constituted the trees’ base. There was no soil, which should ideally be present for three feet.

“In natural conditions, trees anchor and grow in the soil,” the report stated, explaining that the top soil and subsequent layers provide food and water. But, “urban trees lack this basic necessity, which consequently weakens the trees,” the report said.

Raje, from arboricultural consultancy firm TreeCoTech, also voiced these concerns. “In a forest, trees form a community,” he said. “The roots create a network that supports each other. In urban areas, even if they are near each other, trees are alone due to concretisation.”

Moreover, Mumbai’s water logging also weakens the trees. With concretisation, there is no porous soil left to allow rainwater to absorb, said Prakriti Srivastava, a former principal chief conservator of forest of Kerala.

“When this water is retained in the live tissues of the tree, it ultimately causes it to rot away,” she explained. “Fungus and termites find a good breeding ground, ultimately hollowing out the tree and weakening it.”

Srivastava added: “Ultimately, a hollow and weak tree is only the symptom of the problem. The real cause is the water logging due to poorly planned urban infrastructure and the subsequent decay that is happening because of that.”

This held true in case of another tree collapse in Chembur’s Postal Colony. A Bridelia Retusa tree uprooted and collapsed on the night of July 4 after being submerged in knee deep water for four days. A car escaped the crash seconds before the fall. The tree’s base was also covered by concrete.

Unscientific pruning can disbalance trees

Experts also blamed unscientific pruning for the weakening of trees.

“Trees take a crown shape when they grow, they know that they have to balance themselves to withstand wind and water, they have a mechanism to grow in such self-sustaining structures,” said Govind Singh, Director of Delhi-based NGO, Delhi Greens. “These aspects have to be kept in mind when pruning is done to ensure that the existing structure that you leave behind is also self-balancing.”

This, however, is often not taken into account, said Srivastava, Kerala’s former chief conservator.

Often, authorities trim the side of the tree towards the road, to keep the road free of obstacles, she said, while the rest is allowed to grow. “This tilts the tree towards one side”, making it susceptible to fall.

Raje said contractors commonly prune lower branches which “shifts the center of gravity to upper branches and disrupts the tree’s balance”.

In Mumbai, at least four experts told Scroll that pruning exercise is undertaken “unscientifically” by the municipal corporation. The civic body has no permanent arborist to assess trees. It relies on horticulturists for that.

“A horticulturist is an expert in plants and its propagation,” an arborist said on the condition of anonymity. “They cannot really assess if a tree has issues.”

Dr Nilesh Baxi, a former tree committee member of municipal corporation, said he has “not seen a single arborist inspect trees before they are pruned” in Mumbai.

Even in cases where horticulturists assess trees, they do not accompany the contractor during pruning exercise. Nor do other officials from the municipal corporation’s garden department.

Scroll accessed copy of work orders issued by municipal corporation’s garden department to contractors for pruning trees. These orders specify the tree, the number of branches to be cut and the length and width to be cut, but do not specify which branch to cut. “Contractors are not experts,” Baxi said. “They just prune any branch.”

Baxi said that a branch which is more than four inches at the point where it joins the main trunk must not be cut unless specifically required. “Often we see these big branches being hacked,” he said, attributing this to the fact that several contractors were in the wood supply business. “They chop big woody branches for commercial profits.”

Mhatre, a resident of Chembur, said he had witnessed big tree branches chopped in his locality by “contractors who are in the wood business”.

Previous directions ignored

Despite the January 2015 National Green Tribunal order that recommended removing concrete to leave a one-metre buffer around trees within three months, only 273 tree bases were de-concretised by April that year.

In the meanwhile, more tree fall-related deaths continued. “In 2018, a young lawyer died after a tree fell on him, and in 2022, another such accident happened,” Thane resident Rohit Manohar Joshi told Scroll.

In both cases, he explained, the residents had alerted the municipal corporation that the trees were dangerous and should be removed, but there was no action.

Frustrated at the deaths, Joshi filed a public interest litigation in the Bombay High Court in 2023. He asked for a uniform compensation plan for victims of tree falling and deconcretising trees in Thane district.

While hearing the matter, the court directed the Thane Municipal Corporation to de-concretise 7,400 trees within 45 days. It also suggested the petitioners to make Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation a party respondent since the 2015 green tribunal order dealt with the same subject in Mumbai city.

“Now, years have passed and this work has still not been done,” said Joshi, adding that the court directed an inspection by Thane and Mumbai civic commissioners.

A joint inspection with commissioners, representatives of the garden department, and citizens was conducted in Mumbai in June this year. They found that 61% of around 1,100 trees “still need to be de-concretised”, said Joshi. “Fifty of these are dead and are dangerous to the public.”

One person died and at least five others were feared trapped after an under-construction building collapsed in north-west Delhi’s Rohini on Wednesday afternoon, The Hindu reported.

The four-storey under-construction building collapsed near a municipal corporation school in Rohini’s Sector 16 at about 4.20 pm.

The Delhi Police, the fire service, the National Disaster Response Force, the municipal corporation and other agencies launched a rescue operation, PTI reported.

A 42-year-old motorcyclist, Ram Kishore, died after being struck by debris when the building collapsed, The Hindu reported. He was taken to hospital, where doctors declared him dead on arrival, unidentified officials said.

At least three persons were rescued alive, including construction worker Ravi and Saddham, who was admitted to Babasaheb Ambedkar Hospital with fractures to his pelvis and arm.

“At least four-five workers are suspected to be still trapped inside the collapsed structure,” an unidentified police officer told The Hindu.

Deputy Commissioner of Police Shashank Jaiswal told PTI that rescuers had established contact with one trapped man, provided him with water and arranged oxygen before pulling him to safety.

“We are trying to establish contact with the other people trapped under the rubble and rescue them as quickly as possible,” Jaiswal added.

The authorities have evacuated nearby buildings as a precaution, he told The Hindu.

Delhi: An under-construction building collapsed in Rohini Sector-16, resulting in one worker’s death and the rescue of another person. Several labourers and the building owner are feared trapped. Rescue operations by multiple agencies using heavy equipment and emergency support… pic.twitter.com/sdwTjVUGW9

— IANS (@ians_india) July 8, 2026

The Municipal Corporation of Delhi said the collapsed structure was among recently constructed buildings in the area that had approved plans under a scheme for small residential buildings, PTI reported.

According to the civic body’s preliminary inspection, plumbing work was allegedly being carried out before the collapse, and structural elements such as beams or columns may have been drilled or cut during the work, the news agency reported.

Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta said the rescue operation was continuing and that the authorities had been directed to provide every necessary assistance.

Police have registered a first information report and the investigation is ongoing, ANI reported.

Pune: Workers trapped as waste mound collapses on building

A rescue operation was also underway in Moshi, Pimpri Chinchwad near Pune, after a large mound of waste collapsed on Wednesday onto a three-storey administrative building at the city’s waste processing facility, The Indian Express reported.

The building was located beside a large waste mound at the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation’s Moshi garbage depot.

Officials said heavy rainfall over several days may have caused the waste to become unstable before it crashed into the building, The Times of India reported.

Municipal Commissioner Vijay Suryawanshi said 20 employees were inside the building when it collapsed. Four escaped immediately, while several others were rescued during the evening.

As of 9.30 pm, six others, including five men and a woman, were rescued alive, The Times of India reported.

Rescue operations involving the National Disaster Response Force, the Army, firefighters and other emergency services continued overnight, with several people still believed to be trapped.

Officials said fresh air was being supplied into the damaged building using mechanical ventilation.

“Garbage has landed inside the structure and can generate toxic methane that can harm them,” fire officer Rishikant Chippade told The Times of India.

#WATCH | Maharashtra | Rescue operation ongoing after a building collapsed in the Moshi area of Pimpri Chinchwad.

Teams from the NDRF, the Army, Police, and Fire Brigade are at the site. Rescue operations are underway on a war footing. pic.twitter.com/IeOsZUbY8F

— ANI (@ANI) July 9, 2026

Edited by Neerad Pandharipande.

In June 2020, during the Covid-19 pandemic, 59-year-old Jeyaraj and 31-year-old Bennicks were taken into police custody in Madurai for allegedly violating lockdown restrictions. After two days of being physically tortured by the police in Sathankulam town, the father and son died, sparking demonstrations and social media outrage.

Most often, such incidents are met with indifference or celebrated. For instance, the Telangana Police in December 2019 shot dead four men, accused of rape and murder, claiming that they were trying to escape. In this instance, the state’s use of violence to dispense “justice” was celebrated.

The contrasting responses to both incidents shows that public outrage rarely actually holds the state accountable.

Two custodial deaths

Custodial violence is shamefully routine in regular interactions between the police and people in India. The Sathankulam custodial murders are unusual because they disrupted the indifference that is the usual reaction to such violence.

After massive public anger, the Madras High Court took suo moto cognisance of the murders on June 24, 2020. This meant that it took action of its own accord without a petition being filed. The court was careful to ensure the integrity of the investigation. Most cases of custodial deaths linger before the judiciary, but the trial in the Sathankulam murders was wrapped up by March 23, 2026.

However, the public reaction to the extrajudicial killings in 2019 of Jolly Naveen, Jolly Shiva, Mohammad Arif and Chintakuntu Chennakeshavulu in Hyderabad was quite different.

The four were accused of raping and murdering a 25-year-old healthcare professional in Hyderabad in November that year. There were protests in several cities demanding that the four suspects be shot, burnt or lynched. The demonstrators expressed fury against the failure of the police to have protected the victim.

On December 6, 2019, the media reported that the suspects had been killed after they allegedly attempted to attack the police at 3.30 am when they were taken to the scene to reconstruct the crime.

This is similar to the events in West Bengal on Wednesday. On July 8, the police shot dead one of the men arrested in the rape and murder case of an 11-year-old girl in Baruipur town in South 24 Parganas district. The police claim that the suspect, when taken back to the crime scene, tried to snatch a weapon and fire at them.

Unlike the call for justice for Jeyaraj and Bennicks, the public celebrated the killing of the four men in Hyderabad and garlanded the police officers handling the case. The extrajudicial killings were perceived as offerings made to the public to redeem the police for the security lapses.

In January 2022, the Justice VS Sirpurkar Commission established by the Supreme Court to investigate allegations that these were actually extra-judicial killings asserted that the claims about the suspects assaulting policemen were false. It recommended that the police officers be tried for murder.

But the Telangana High Court, in an interim order, suspended the findings of the report and instructed the state government to not take any coercive steps against the police officers until further notice.

Decoding the popular reaction

Public outrage often depends on the relationship perceived between the public and the victims of police brutality. In such circumstances, the state is only responding to the mood of the crowd rather than acting in a manner that actually questions its own use of violence.

The contradictory positions are obvious from the way in which both incidents were constructed in the public imagination.

Jeyaraj and Bennicks were held up to be “ordinary, law-abiding citizens” who were innocent and had not committed any crime. The public discussion emphasised the difference between Jeyaraj and Bennicks and other criminals that the police deal with ordinarily.

The violence of the police was also seen as disproportionate to the apparent violations of lockdown restrictions that the father and son were accused of.

Horrific information about the nature of police violence circulated: how the victims were beaten with batons, the blood stains on their clothes and the walls, their howling. This emphasised that the treatment meted out to Jeyaraj and Bennicks was more brutal than it had been to most other prisoners.

The projection of Jeyaraj and Bennicks as being law-abiding citizens and the imagery of their torture made it easy for ordinary people to identify with their plight.

But when the encounter killing of Shiva, Chennakeshavulu, Naveen and Arif was discussed, they were projected as belonging to a class of criminals whose encounters with police violence are understandable. The details that were circulated related to the charred remains of the young woman they had raped and murdered.

In fact, the mob outside the police station demanded the opportunity to treat the accused the way that the police later treated Jeyaraj and Bennicks. Sexual violence is deemed an exceptional violation of social civility, rendering Shiva, Naveen, Chennakeshavulu and Arif worthy of custodial killing.

Of course, public outrage is not bound to emerge in all cases of custodial death of victims who are perceived to be innocent or who have been brutally tortured or against all accused in sexual violence cases.

The Indian public’s immense tolerance for bodily harm being inflicted on detainees is obvious in the silence that has greeted the allegations of custodial torture of students detained in March, by the Delhi Police as part of an operation against Maoist networks.

Outbursts against police brutality are the short-term emotional reactions of a disorganised mass of people. They are not necessarily motivated by a stable political goal or organised political position. Instead, their anger may have been catalysed by social and economic conditions at that moment.

The public’s position in the cases in Sathankulam and Hyderabad was formed by the dominant social assumptions about criminality, who is thought to deserve punishment and when police violence is warranted. These assumptions are also the result of the varying acceptance thresholds that the public has for specific acts of illegality and the treatment it believes should follow.

The state and the ‘popular’

The state’s response to the anger about the custodial violence against Jeyaraj and Bennicks would seem to represent a victory for the democratic voice of the people. But the public outrage was not a principled position against custodial violence. It did not emerge out of an organised attempt to understand the phenomenon of custodial violence or the relationship between the police and the people. Neither did it demand any systematic interventions to halt this.

The public only expressed a sense of injustice against the deaths of Jeyaraj and Bennicks.

The state’s engagement with such outraged crowds is geared towards catering to the public’s unprincipled perception of justice – one that often the state holds too, one that the policemen involved in Hyderabad custodial murders believed they were dispensing.

The state’s response is meant to assure the public that such instances of power excesses are a deviation from an otherwise stable commitment to procedural integrity. But almost always, it does so without curtailing its own misuse of power. The state makes no commitment to limiting its heightened powers or examining its immunity against excesses.

This underscores the fact that popular outrage does not necessarily demand concrete accountability from the state. In fact, popular outrage often reinforces the state’s authority because it reaffirms the state’s ability to recognise and correct its unjust use of power. The state’s responses attempt to manage the anxieties of the public.

As a result, the politics of outrage creates a platform where the state’s authority over violence and an emotionally charged crowd reinforce each other.

Anup Surendranath is a Professor of Law at NALSAR, University of Law, Hyderabad, and Executive Director, The Square Circle Clinic.

Saniya Rizwan is an Associate (Research) at The Square Circle Clinic working on areas related to violence, law, surveillance, and popular politics.

The Enforcement Directorate on Wednesday said that it had frozen three bank accounts of the Trinamool Congress holding deposits worth Rs 440 crore under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

The party described the agency’s action as “politically motivated”.

The ED said that it froze the accounts after conducting searches at five premises in and around Kolkata linked to the Carewell Group, an aviation company.

The searches were conducted in connection with an investigation based on a first information report filed by the Bidhannagar Cyber Police in West Bengal. The case pertains to alleged financial irregularities, unlawful collection of money and routing of suspected funds through certain bank accounts of the TMC.

The agency claimed that around Rs 160 crore was transferred from the party’s bank accounts to Carewell Aviation India Private Limited and a related company between April 2023 and June 2026.

Carewell Aviation then transferred around Rs 83 crore to another related entity, which was used to buy an Embraer Legacy 600 aircraft and an Agusta 109 Grand New helicopter, the agency claimed. It alleged that Rs 112 crore was spent on the purchases.

The agency also claimed that a Cayman Islands-based company provided an unsecured loan of $1.7 million, or approx Rs 14.04 crore, in 2023 to finance the purchase of the helicopter.

The ED alleged that the aircraft and helicopter were later leased to the TMC, even though they had been bought using money transferred from the party’s accounts. It claimed that the party subsequently made substantial payments for using the aircraft.

The TMC condemned the “arbitrary and illegal action” of the ED.

“The misuse of investigative agencies to target political opponents has become a hallmark of the [Bharatiya Janata Party’s] politics,” the party said in a social media post. “[It] represents a serious assault on democratic institutions and the principles of a level playing field.”

Statement from Trinamool Congress

All funds held in the party’s bank accounts have been fully and transparently disclosed. The party has duly reported all donation transactions to the Election Commission of India (ECI) and the Income Tax Department. These disclosures are…

— All India Trinamool Congress (@AITCofficial) July 8, 2026

It added that all the funds held in its bank accounts had been “fully and transparently disclosed”.

“The party has duly reported all donation transactions to the Election Commission…and the Income Tax Department,” the party said. “These disclosures are published annually on the [Election Commission’s] website and are available in the public domain.”

In May, the BJP came to power in West Bengal, ending the TMC’s 15-year rule.

Written by Tanya Shrivastava. Edited by Sneha.

Licences of taxi and auto-rickshaw drivers who fail to clear a Marathi language test will be cancelled from August 16, The Hindu quoted Maharashtra Transport Minister Pratap Sarnaik as saying on Wednesday.

On April 14, the state government made it mandatory for all licensed taxi and auto-rickshaw drivers to have a basic knowledge of Marathi from May 1. However, on April 29, it deferred the implementation of the decision until August 15.

When the test was announced, officials told The Hindu that drivers would be assessed on their ability to read Marathi signboards or documents, write a simple sentence and hold a basic conversation in the language.

Separately, while replying to a question on making domicile certificates mandatory for bike taxi operators, Sarnaik said on Wednesday that licensed bike taxi services would officially commence in Maharashtra from August 1, the newspaper reported.

He said that the government had decided to make domicile certificates mandatory because many unauthorised bike taxi operators had entered the market, creating difficulties for law enforcement agencies.

“Anyone seeking permission to operate a bike taxi service in Maharashtra will have to produce a domicile certificate establishing that he or she is a resident of the state,” The Hindu quoted him as saying. “We are bringing the necessary legislative provisions for this.”

Edited by Sneha.

Glaciers are often seen as frozen reservoirs of clean and fresh water, but new research shows they are also active chemical systems and climate warming may be altering not just how much water they release, but also its quality.

A new study on Rulung Glacier in Ladakh region found that rising temperatures and faster glacier melt are intensifying interactions between meltwater and the rocks beneath the ice, altering the chemistry of water flowing into the Indus river basin. Researchers say these changes could affect river ecosystems, agriculture, and drinking water supplies downstream.

The Himalayas, often called the “Water Tower of Asia”, store vast freshwater reserves in glaciers and snowfields that sustain major river systems supporting over a billion people. Glaciers act as natural water reservoirs, releasing meltwater during dry seasons and regulating water availability for agriculture, hydropower, and daily use. In cold-arid regions like Ladakh, where rainfall is scarce, communities depend heavily on glacier-fed streams, making any changes in the hydrochemistry of meltwater especially critical.

Water chemistry

Whether it is rainwater, river water or groundwater, every type of water carries a distinct chemical signature acquired from its interaction with rocks, soils, gases, biological activity, and sometimes human pollution. By examining these dissolved chemicals, hydrochemists can determine where the water came from, how it evolved, whether it is safe for drinking or agriculture, and what it reveals about environmental and climatic conditions.

Riyaz Mir, a scientist at the National Institute of Hydrology, Western Himalayan Regional Centre, Jammu explains, glacial meltwater plays a fundamental role in shaping the hydrochemistry of Himalayan rivers because it acts as both a source of freshwater and a carrier of dissolved minerals, sediments, and nutrients derived from intense water–rock interaction beneath and around glaciers.

“As glaciers melt, the cold water flows over freshly crushed rock surfaces produced by glacial erosion, allowing rapid chemical weathering. This process enriches the meltwater with dissolved ions such as calcium, magnesium, bicarbonate, sulfate, sodium, and silica, which strongly influence the chemical composition of downstream rivers,” he says.

Study findings

The study published in Physics and Chemistry of the Earth journal examined meltwater from Rulung Glacier at four sites during the ablation period (annual melt season) in 2023 and 2024. The researchers used a combination of field sampling, hydrochemical analysis, and statistical interpretation techniques to understand how glacier meltwater chemistry changed within a year.

Ajay Taloor, a geoscientist at the Department of Remote Sensing and GIS at University of Jammu and the lead author of the study shares, the investigation demonstrated that the meltwater of Rulung Glacier is dominated by alkaline freshwater conditions. The water’s pH values range between 7.75 and 8.16 and Total Dissolved Solids remain below 500 mg/L at all sampling locations, indicating that the glacier meltwater falls within the desirable drinking water category.

Researchers observed that meltwater initially acquires dissolved ions from carbonate-rich metamorphic rocks such as gneiss, schist, and calcite-bearing formations present near the glacier snout, resulting in high concentrations of calcium (Ca2+) and bicarbonate (HCO3−).

As the meltwater travels further beneath the glacier and through proglacial streams and lakes, prolonged water–rock interaction, oxidation of sulphide minerals like pyrite and chalcopyrite, dissolution of carbonate and silicate minerals, sediment transport, and changing discharge conditions further modify its chemistry.

However, the study also found that rising temperatures and faster glacier melt are intensifying chemical weathering and altering meltwater chemistry in the Ladakh region.

“Weathering processes have accelerated in recent years due to enhanced rainfall and glacier ablation linked with global warming, causing greater solute transport into glacier-fed streams. Faster glacier melt can also influence the release and mobility of trace elements. such as aluminium (Al), molybdenum (Mo), zinc (Zn), and copper (Cu), although their concentrations generally remain within permissible limits in the studied glacier,” Taloor explains. Trace elements are chemical elements that occur in very small concentrations in water, rocks, soil, or living organisms.

However, prolonged warming and increasing glacier retreat may increase the exposure of fresh rock surfaces, enhance oxidation reactions, and potentially increase the amount of trace metal into downstream river systems. “Our study therefore concludes that climate-induced glacier melt not only alters hydrological regimes but also changes the hydrochemical and geochemical characteristics of Himalayan meltwater systems, with important implications for water quality, ecosystems, and downstream water resources,” he says.

Mahjoor Lone, an earth scientist at Northumbria University who is not associated with the study on Rulung glacier, said, the integration of major ions, trace elements, and multivariate statistical approaches (in the study) provides valuable insight into how intensified meltwater-rock interaction may be altering downstream water chemistry in this glacial system.

“At the same time, I believe the interpretation linking the observed hydrochemical changes to climate change should be viewed with measured caution. While the proposed mechanism is scientifically sound and consistent with established glacial weathering theory, the study’s relatively short temporal coverage and the absence of isotope-based tracing and long-term hydroclimatic integration limit the strength of causal attribution.” Isotope-based tracing is a technique scientists use to track where water or dissolved chemicals come from and how they move through the environment.

Lone notes that while the research paper is very valuable as an early indicator of climate-sensitive hydrochemical change, but “further long-term, interdisciplinary investigations combining hydrology, isotopes, glacier mass balance, and geochemical flux analysis would be necessary to establish a more definitive climate-change signal, thus governing the future research work in this direction.”

River ecology, agriculture

Scientists are already observing changes in meltwater chemistry and hydrochemical behaviour in glacier-fed rivers and lakes in the high-mountains of Asia, including the Himalayas. A long-term monitoring study (1990s-2010s) of Himalayan glacial lakes has also found rising ionic content (eg, sulfate) over decades, often linked to enhanced weathering and increased exposure of subglacial rock as glaciers retreat.

Mir points out that “the field-based studies of glacier basins (eg, Chhota Shigri, Dokriani) indicate that meltwater chemistry and ion concentrations vary seasonally and respond to changing melt conditions, with chemical weathering processes evolving as glaciers melt and retreat.”

He notes that continuous long-term records are still limited in the Northwestern Himalayas, and more systematic monitoring is needed to robustly quantify trends specifically tied to climate change.

The changes in meltwater chemistry however can have both positive and negative impacts on river systems, scientists warn. “In the case of a river ecosystem, a moderate increase in dissolved minerals like calcium and bicarbonate can be beneficial, buffering water acidity and supplying essential nutrients,” says Lone. “However, increased sediment and dissolved ion concentrations may change habitat conditions for algae, microbes, and fish species that are adapted to cold, chemically stable mountain waters,” he adds.

Lone points out that in some cases, elevated trace metals or sudden chemical fluctuations can stress sensitive aquatic ecosystems and alter food chains.

For example, a study investigated the effects of glacier ice melt on the geochemistry and hydrology of proglacial streams of Wyoming’s Wind River Range, USA. The findings showed that glacier-fed streams show strong daily and seasonal changes in water chemistry, with meltwater diluting some elements while increasing certain trace metals like manganese. The USA study concludes that as glaciers retreat, streams are likely to become warmer, more chemically stable, and less variable, with important implications for downstream ecosystems and water resources.

For agriculture, glacier-fed rivers are a lifeline across the Indus basin. Moderate mineral inputs can actually benefit soils by supplying nutrients such as calcium and magnesium, shares Lone. However, excessive dissolved salts or trace elements over long periods may gradually reduce soil quality, affect crop productivity, and contribute to salinisation in already water-stressed regions, he adds.

Meltwater chemistry may therefore also influence the suitability of irrigation water for different crops. For drinking water, the concern is both quantity and quality. Many Himalayan communities rely directly on glacier-fed streams with minimal treatment, especially in the upper Indus basin.

Increased concentrations of certain trace elements, suspended sediments, or contaminants mobilised from rocks and glacial deposits could affect potability and increase treatment requirements downstream, Lone adds. “So, we can say that we are not only losing ice; the meltwater itself is changing in ways that may gradually affect river life, farming, and drinking water quality.”

“What this means going forward is that monitoring in glacier-fed regions cannot focus only on glacier retreat or river discharge, but it must treat water quality as an equally important part of climate resilience,” shares Irfan Rashid, an associate professor at the Department of Geoinformatics, University of Kashmir.

Rashid emphasises the need for long-term, seasonal water-quality monitoring to track how meltwater chemistry changes through different melt and flow conditions, along with the integration of hydrochemical data into broader water management and climate-planning strategies.

He suggests that the future efforts establish continuous benchmark monitoring sites for glacier mass-balance observations, climate records, isotopic fingerprinting, and remote sensing to better understand how mountain water systems are evolving. “At the same time, community-level adaptation and awareness will be essential, especially in regions like Ladakh,” he adds.

Calling this study an “early signal”, Rashid recommends preparedness instead of solving problems after they emerge.

This article was first published on Mongabay.

Four persons from West Bengal’s Birbhum district who were forced into Bangladesh in June 2025 were brought back to India on Wednesday, a resident of their village confirmed to Scroll.

Sunali Khatun, her husband and their son, as well as another woman, Sweety Bibi and her two sons, had been taken into custody in Delhi and sent to Bangladesh. The six persons maintain that they hail from Birbhum district.

In December, Khatun, who was pregnant at the time, and her son Sabir were brought back to India on humanitarian grounds.

On Wednesday, Khatun’s husband, Danish Sheikh, Sweety Bibi and her two sons entered West Bengal, their neighbour Soyef Ali, a resident of Paikar village in Birbhum, told Scroll.

They entered the state through the Mahadipur border crossing in Malda district.

On May 22, the Union government told the Supreme Court that it would bring back the persons who had been forced into the neighbouring country to verify their citizenship.

The Centre’s statement came while the Supreme Court was hearing its challenge to a Calcutta High Court order that had set aside the deportation order against all six of them.

It had directed that they be brought back to West Bengal within four weeks. The High Court had passed the order on a petition filed by Khatun’s father, Bhodu Sekh.

Two days before the four-week period ended, the Union government in October challenged the order before the Supreme Court. The government and the Delhi Police questioned whether the High Court had the jurisdiction to hear the case.

On Wednesday, Trinamool Congress MP Samirul Islam said that “it was only because of the judiciary’s intervention that the Union government was ultimately compelled to bring back these poor Indian citizens”

In a social media post, he said: “We have no objection to the deportation of those who are genuinely illegal infiltrators.”

“Our fundamental question remains: why should poor and genuine Indian citizens be subjected to such harassment and injustice in the name of deportation?” asked Islam.

The long-awaited dream of poor illegal deportees of Birbhum has finally come true. After a legal battle that lasted for more than a year, today marked the return of Sweety Biwi, her two minor sons, and Sunali Khatun's husband to their mother land after they were allegedly… pic.twitter.com/sK5sWpZp6K

— Samirul Islam (@SamirulAITC) July 8, 2026

Since the terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam in April 2025, the police in several states ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party have been detaining Bengali-speaking persons – mostly Muslims – and asking them to prove that they are Indian citizens.

Several persons have been forced into Bangladesh after they allegedly could not prove their Indian citizenship. In some cases, persons who were mistakenly sent to Bangladesh returned to the country after state authorities in India proved that they were Indians.

Scroll has also reported on several cases of persons who were forced into Bangladesh being brought back to India, as the authorities had failed to follow the process laid down by the Union home ministry for such deportations.

Inputs from Anant Gupta. Written by Tanya Shrivastava. Edited by Sneha.

United States President Donald Trump said that Washington’s ceasefire with Iran was “over”. This came after American and Iranian forces exchanged fire following attacks in the Strait of Hormuz.

“I do not want to deal with them any more,” said Trump. “They are scum.” Earlier in the day, America launched strikes on Iran in response to Tehran’s alleged attacks on three liquefied natural gas and crude oil tankers transiting the Strait of Hormuz.

The interim ceasefire agreement signed between Washington and Tehran was intended to provide a 60-day window ​for negotiations on a permanent agreement, but indirect ⁠talks in Qatar have ended with no sign of ​headway. Read on.

Four persons from West Bengal’s Birbhum district who were forced into Bangladesh in June 2025 were brought back to India. They had been taken into custody in Delhi along with Sunali Khatun and her son.

Khatun, who was pregnant at the time, and her son Sabir were brought back to India in December on humanitarian grounds. Her husband, Danish Sheikh, as well as Sweety Bibi and her two sons, entered West Bengal through the Mahadipur border crossing in Malda district on Wednesday.

On May 22, the Union government told the Supreme Court that it would bring back the persons who had been forced into the neighbouring country to verify their citizenship. Read on.

Bangladeshi or Indian? Raghav Kakkar and Anant Gupta investigate Modi government’s crackdown on ‘illegal immigrants’

One of the persons accused in the alleged rape and murder of a minor in West Bengal’s Baruipur was killed in an alleged gunfight with the police. Prabhas Mondal attempted to snatch a weapon from the police and open fire at them when the crime scene was being reconstructed, claimed the district superintendent of police.

The police fired at Mondal “in retaliation”, the officer said, adding that he was declared dead at the hospital. Mondal was among the three persons arrested in the case. The body of the girl was recovered from a sack in a pond in the Surjyapur area. Read on.

An Indian police officer, Gurinderjit Singh, has been charged by the United States authorities for allegedly extorting $400,000 from a family in Los Angeles by threatening to file false murder cases against their relatives in India. First Assistant US Attorney Bill Essayli said that Singh was not in custody, “but he will be shortly”.

The US will seek the extradition of the officer from India, he added. Singh is reportedly a station house officer in Punjab.

US federal indictments alleged that he colluded with members of an organised crime group led by Jaggu Bhagwanpuria to target perceived rivals with threats of false cases and demands for money. Read on.

A commander of the terrorist organisation Lashkar-e-Taiba was killed by security forces in Jammu and Kashmir’s Shopian district. He was identified as Zakir Ahmad Ganie, a resident of the neighbouring Kulgam district.

The joint security operation began on Saturday after surveillance cameras detected the movement of two suspected militants in an orchard in the Meemandar area of Shopian. Search is underway for the second suspected militant, who has been identified as Latif Bhat. Read on.

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Shiv Sena corporator Ramesh Sukrya Mhatre was arrested on Wednesday for allegedly assaulting doctors and staff at the Shastri Nagar Hospital in Thane’s Dombivli, The Times of India quoted the deputy commissioner of police as saying.

The incident took place on Monday. Mhatre had been absconding till Wednesday, according to The Indian Express. Three of his associates had been arrested earlier.

On Monday, doctors at the state-run hospital asked the family of a newborn to transfer the baby to another hospital because there were no beds available in the neonatal intensive care unit, reported PTI.

According to the police, this prompted the family to contact Mhatre, who arrived at the hospital with his supporters.

Surveillance camera footage that was later shared on social media showed the corporator and his associates punching and slapping the hospital staff, NDTV reported.

Ruling party Corporator Ramesh Mhatre caught on camera slapping lady doctor & on-duty medical staff at KDMC Hospital, FIR still not registered.

Doctors and hospital staff members are protesting but zero action against Mhatra who has other criminal cases against him.#FAIMA… pic.twitter.com/nSgRRBZgwM

— FAIMA Doctors Association (@FAIMA_INDIA_) July 8, 2026

The three associates who were arrested earlier were identified as Ramesh Pawar, Pramod Nikam and Akshay Karande, The Indian Express reported.

Assistant Commissioner of Police Suhas Hemade told the newspaper that they were identified based on the CCTV footage and would be produced before a local court.

The police had registered the case against the Shinde Sena corporator and four others based on a complaint by a doctor, Vaibhav Salunkhe, reported The Times of India.

They have been booked under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita sections pertaining to assault on a public servant, voluntarily causing hurt, criminal intimidation, unlawful assembly and rioting.

They also face charges under the Maharashtra Medicare Service Persons and Medicare Service Institutions Prevention of Violence and Damage or Loss to Property Act.

Mhatre has denied that he assaulted a woman doctor, according to The Times of India.

He claimed that he had only tried to take her mobile phone because she continued speaking on it while he was seeking information about the patient’s condition.

The incident had prompted widespread protests by doctors and healthcare workers, The Indian Express reported.

Following a call by the Indian Medical Association, routine outpatient and non-emergency services were suspended at several civic hospitals, including Shastri Nagar Hospital, Rukminibai Hospital, Harkishan Das Hospital, Shaktidham Hospital and Vasant Valley Maternity Hospital, as well as at several private hospitals.

The Maharashtra State Association of Resident Doctors had announced that doctors in government medical colleges and hospitals would wear black ribbons on Thursday while continuing to provide services, The Indian Express reported.

The association had given the authorities 72 hours to identify and arrest those responsible. It warned that it would begin an indefinite statewide protest if no further arrests were made.

Edited by Sneha.

The Tamil Nadu government has challenged a Madras High Court ruling that said that a person who converts to Islam cannot claim reservation under the Backward Class (Muslim) category, Live Law reported on Wednesday.

On June 24, the High Court struck down a 2024 government order that allowed persons from Backward Classes, Most Backward Classes, Denotified Communities or Scheduled Castes who converted to Islam to obtain a Backward Class (Muslim) community certificate. The certificate could be issued only if they belonged to Ansar, Dekkani Muslims, Dubekula, Labbais, Mapilla, Sheik and Syed.

The court had held that a person who has converted to Islam cannot claim the status of a Backward Class Muslim. “He is only a Muslim and that’s all there is to it,” the bench said.

The observations came while ruling on a plea filed by a 33-year-old man who was born as a Hindu in Thoothukudi district.

The man converted to Islam in 2015, changed his name and married as per Islamic traditions. He had subsequently applied for a community certificate that identified him as a Muslim Lebbai, one of the seven sects recognised as Backward Class Muslims in Tamil Nadu under the 2024 government order.

He approached the High Court after the tehsildar had rejected his application for the certificate.

During the proceedings, he had cited the 2024 government order.

The state government also defended its order, contending that it was based on a recommendation made by the state Backward Classes Commission. It said that only the persons who were eligible for reservations before conversion would continue to receive the benefits.

However, the bench rejected the state’s defence. It said that a High Court order from “more than 75 years ago” had established that when a person converts to Islam, he becomes a “just another Mussalman”.

It held that the legal position cannot be undone by a government order.

The High Court further observed that the government order had clubbed converts from the Backward Classes, Most Backward Classes, Denotified Communities and the Scheduled Castes into the Backward Class Muslims category “just for the sake of ensuring” that the persons continue to get reservations.

Edited by Tanya Shrivastava.

Months after the National Council of Educational Research and Training withdrew a social science textbook following criticism from the Supreme Court, the educational body has released a revised edition that removes references to “corruption in the judiciary”, PTI reported.

The sections on “Challenges Faced by the Judicial System” and “Corruption in the Judiciary” have been removed entirely, PTI reported.

While the mention of judicial backlogs and references to two major court cases have also been dropped, new material on public interest litigation, tribunals and alternative dispute resolution mechanisms has been added to the revised textbook.

The updated chapter on the judiciary describes it as an “impartial and independent institution” that safeguards citizens’ rights and upholds the spirit of the Constitution, the Deccan Herald reported.

The NCERT has also made changes to the opening section, titled “Big Questions”. In the withdrawn textbook, it asked students why an independent judiciary is necessary. The revised one asks why justice is important for a “just and harmonious society”, the news agency reported.

The withdrawn textbook had cited former Chief Justice BR Gavai as acknowledging instances of “corruption and misconduct” in the judicial system.

The chapter also detailed a “massive backlog” of cases in Indian courts due to “shortage of judges, complex procedures and poor infrastructure”.

In February, the Supreme Court took suo moto cognisance of the matter and banned the publication and re-printing of the textbook, saying that it contained “offending” content. It also directed the Union government and state education departments to ensure that all copies of the book, printed or digital, are removed from public access.

The revised textbook acknowledges that the chapter on the judiciary has been rewritten by an expert committee in compliance with the directions of the Supreme Court.

The revised edition lists 48 members as part of its development team, as opposed to 51 members in the withdrawn textbook. The names of Michel Danino, Suparna Diwakar and Alok Prasanna Kumar, the three people who were initially held responsible for the contentious chapter, have been dropped from the team.

Edited by Neerad Pandharipande.

A commander of the terrorist organisation Lashkar-e-Taiba was killed by security forces in Jammu and Kashmir’s Shopian district on Wednesday.

The man, Zakir Ahmad Ganie, was killed in a joint operation conducted by the Jammu and Kashmir Police, the Army’s Rashtriya Rifles and the Central Armed Police Force.

He was a resident of Motalhama village in the neighbouring Kulgam district, The New Indian Express reported.

Ganie joined The Resistance Front, an affiliate of Lashkar-e-Taiba in 2025, The Wire reported.

The operation began on Saturday after surveillance cameras detected the movement of two suspected militants in an orchard in the Meemandar area of Shopian, The New Indian Express reported.

Search is underway for the second suspected militant, who has been identified as Latif Bhat. He reportedly joined the Lashkar-e-Taiba in 2025.

Edited by Tanya Shrivastava.

On the night of February 7, a fight broke out between four drunk young men in a small town in Manipur’s Ukhrul district.

Two of them were Tangkhul Nagas, the majority community in Ukhrul. The other two were Kukis.

Typically, a brawl such as this would have been settled by village chiefs from both communities.

But the matter did not end there.

A day later, an abandoned Kuki home in a nearby village was set on fire. In retaliation, about 20 houses belonging to the Tangkhul Naga community were set ablaze.

For two more days, fires scorched villages around Litan, the tiny commercial town where the fight took place. Gunfights broke out. According to police records, seen by Scroll, 74 homes belonging to both communities were set ablaze.

By all accounts, the violence in Litan lit a fire between Kukis and Nagas in a state that has already seen a ‘partition’ on ethnic lines in 2023 after fierce clashes between Kukis and Meiteis left at least 260 dead.

A month after the arson and gunfights in Litan, the killings began.

At first, two Kukis were found in the hills near the town. They had been shot dead. In April, two Naga men were killed on the highway that connects Ukhrul to Imphal via Litan.

In the last six months, the violence between Nagas and Kukis has spread to more hill areas of Manipur, where both tribal groups live in close proximity, leading to a cycle of abductions, revenge killings and economic blockade. At least 25 people have died in the conflict so far. More buffer zones – to demarcate Kuki from Naga areas and vice versa, which neither side is allowed to cross – have come up.

But how did a petty fight in a town cascade into deadly clashes? Why did Nagas, who had been studiously neutral in the conflict between Kukis and Meities, harden their stance against another tribal community?

Scroll travelled to Ukhrul, Imphal, Senapati and Kangpokpi to investigate. We found that from Litan onwards, at the heart of the dispute is a contestation over land and territory.

Senior Manipur police officials and top central security officials called it a “fight of domain” or “jurisdictional control of land” between Kukis and Nagas, who have a history of animosity. What has strained the relationship further is the Kuki demand for a “separate administration” within Manipur and the narrative pushed by both Meiteis and Nagas that “Kukis are not indigenous to the state”.

The Litan brawl

The town of Litan abuts the National Highway-202, a storied mountainous road that runs between Imphal and Nagaland’s Mokokchung, and goes through Ukhrul.

On the night of February 7, two Naga men were walking by a road in Litan, when one of them switched a torch on. The light fell on two Kuki men, in an inebriated condition by the roadside. Tempers flared, an argument started. A group of five Kuki young men then arrived in “support” of the latter and badly beat up one of the Naga men.

That very night, Kuki residents told Scroll, the Naga man, Stalin Shimray, a teacher, went to the Kuki chief of Sereikhong village, where his assailants lived, and reported the violence against him.

Both parties decided to settle the dispute through customary law practices the next day.

“The intention was to solve the problem,” said 39-year-old Wungreikhan Kasar, the village chief of a Naga village Sikibung. “The culprits should have come to the customary court or the victims’ family. But they did not turn up.”

The Kukis, too, accused the Nagas of not turning up.

“On February 8, the Kuki chief and his cabinet waited for the Naga man to turn up,” said Mercy Khongsai, a member of a Kuki civil society group and an office bearer of Kuki Students’ Organisation, Ukhrul. “Definitely, the Kuki man was supposed to be penalised for spilling blood.”

Instead, she alleged, the Sikibung village chief, Kasar, and other Naga people went to the Kuki chief’s home and threatened him.

According to a first information report filed at the Litan police station, when the youths went to the Kuki chief’s home, demanding that the culprits be handed over, the situation escalated.

“This led to pelting of stones against each other,” the FIR read. Clashes and arson followed.

But was this about a drunken brawl in the first place? Scroll’s reporting shows that the Nagas and Kukis in the area have, for decades, been embroiled in a dispute over land.

‘Our forefathers gave them this land’

The Kuki settlement in Litan Sareikhong village, according to Naga accounts, dates to the 1940s.

“They forcibly settled here in the 1940s,” said Kasar, the village chief of Sikibung. The Naga village on top of a hill overlooks the Kuki village of Litan Sareikhong.

The Nagas claim that Sikibung has “jurisdiction” over Sareikhong.

Kasar told Scroll that the Kuki settlement had been evicted by authorities in 1955, but they “settled in a nearby area”. “Even in 1967, a district judge in Imphal had declared that Sareikhong and Litan belong to our village, Sikibung. But the state government did not evict the Kukis.”

In 1973, Kasar said, the Nagas “made a compromise” and signed an agreement allowing Kukis to stay there, if they paid the Nagas Rs 20,000.

“The land was given to them by our forefathers,” said Kasar. “But they breached the agreement.”

The Nagas said that the amount was never paid in full by the Kukis, “making the agreement invalid”. The Kukis deny the claim, saying the settlement was carried out in 1974.

The long-festering dispute came to a head in September 2024, when the Tangkhul Naga Long, the apex body of the community, issued an administration order declaring that Litan comes under the jurisdiction of Sikibung.

A month later, the Isak-Muivah faction of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland, the largest and most influential of Naga insurgent groups, also declared that Litan is an “ancestral land of Sikibung since the days of the forefathers”.

The NSCN (I-M) is currently in talks with the Centre for a “sovereign” state of Greater Nagaland encompassing parts of Manipur’s hill districts.

In the backdrop of this disagreement, the fight at Litan was read by the Nagas as an example of Kuki aggression.

“They don’t honour us, the landlords,” said Kasar. “They are the tenants. They are staying at the mercy of Nagas. But they want to dominate us, they don’t want to live under Tangkhuls. They want to evict Nagas from that area in Litan bazaar.”

Lalboi Haokip, who heads the Kuki Students Organisation in Ukhrul, countered the Naga claim. “The dispute at Litan appears to be a completely local disturbance, but the Tangkhul Nagas have expanded it into a full-blown inter-communal conflict,” he said. “Taking advantage of a small incident, the Nagas want us to vacate the Litan area.”

Haokip also claimed that the land belonged to their “ancestors”. “The Ukhrul district does not belong to Tangkhuls only.”

There are around 14 designated Kuki villages in Ukhrul district, he said.

“These villages are duly gazetted and recognised by the government,” Mercy Khongsai, the Kuki Students Organisation member, told Scroll. “This essentially means the ownership of the land belongs to the villagers, not to Tangkhuls,” Mercy said.

Khongsai objected to what she called the dominating behaviour of the Nagas.

“They have a superiority complex,” she said. “They say Kukis should not reply but only listen and be well-behaved in front of the Tangkhuls. They openly said in front of the higher officials during the Litan dispute that the Kukis should know who the real landowners are.”

Kasar, the village chief of Sikibung, however, insisted that the Nagas had to assert their rights if they wanted to stop Kukis from taking over their land.

The fight in Litan was not a small incident, he said. “It is all linked as the Kukis want to expand the territory,” Kasar told Scroll. “They want to dominate the areas and eliminate the Nagas from the Litan area. They want to make it part of a Kuki homeland.”

Competing homelands

For decades, militant groups from each of Manipur’s ethnic groups have fought for their vision of a homeland.

Nagas have fought for Nagalim, a sovereign state that would include Nagaland, Naga-dominated areas of Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and Assam as well as Myanmar. Kukis fought for Kukiland, which covers most of the Manipur hills, and overlaps with the proposed Naga homeland. Meitei militant groups have fought for a sovereign state of Manipur, encompassing the Imphal Valley as well as the hills – which Naga and Kuki groups resented.

The Nagas account for about 20 per cent of Manipur’s total population. Most of them live in the hills surrounding the valley, home largely to the Meiteis, the state’s dominant ethnic group.

The hilly terrain is also home to the Kukis, who constitute the third-largest demographic group in the state. Conflicts between groups have often arisen because of competing claims to land, which emerge from competing histories.

While there were reports of clashes since colonial times, the political demands and armed movements have only made the enmity more hostile and intensified.

In 1993, this Naga-Kuki dispute led to bloody ethnic clashes, which resulted in killings of hundreds, and burning of villages. Thousands of people were turned out of their homes. The violence lasted for five years.

According to Kukis, NSCN (IM) cadres “uprooted” over 350 Kuki villages. Many of the Kukis displaced in those clashes settled in Litan and the area around Sareikhong.

A map, an aspiration

Since the outbreak of ethnic clashes between the Meitei and the Kuki-Zomi-Hmar communities in 2023, the Nagas have taken no side.

But the Kuki groups’ growing demand for a separate administration that would span most of the Manipur Hills has made the Nagas anxious.

A senior Naga police official from Manipur told Scroll that Nagas began to get restive after a purported map of Kukiland began to crop up on social media platforms. It included Naga areas like Chandel, Tengnoupal and a huge chunk of Ukhrul district and even Kamjong district.

Scroll could not confirm if this is a map endorsed by the Kuki groups.

“They are claiming so much land belonging to the Nagas as part of the separate administration,” he said. “Because of that aspiration the Nagas feel very threatened.”

The senior Naga police official added: “The Nagas think they need to fight back to protect their traditional land. It [conflict] is basically an issue of jurisdictional control of the land. It is not a drunken or superficial fight. ”

The Naga political leadership in the state agreed.

A Naga MLA told Scroll: “The Kuki people want to establish a separate administration, which will include many Naga areas especially in Kangpokpi, Chandel and Tengnoupal districts. But this is not their own ancestral homeland. That’s the root cause of the present conflict.”

A ‘reasonable demand’

Kuki leaders, however, said that the separate administration they have proposed will encompass only areas with Kuki habitations.

Seilen Haokip, spokesperson of the Kuki National Organisation, said that the Kukis have been demanding a union territory since 2023 because they cannot go back to live under the Imphal valley anymore.

“The Meitei, the majority in Imphal, have chased us out,” he said. “We can’t go back there. We have been forced back to our ancestral lands in those hill districts,” he said.

The KNO, a conglomerate of tribal armed groups, signed a ceasefire – called the suspension of operations or SoO agreement – with the Centre and the state of Manipur in 2008.

Since the 2023 clashes, the KNO is one of two Kuki umbrella groups negotiating with the Centre for a separate Union territory. “We submitted the demand to the Centre during talks on September 1, 2023. We reiterated that same demand in November 2025,” he added. “It’s a continuation. It’s not a new demand.”

The proposed territory would be under Article 239A of the Constitution, which empowers Parliament to create an administrative unit out of geographically fragmented areas, as in the case of Puducherry. “It will be an administrative map comprising areas in the hills of Manipur inhabited by Kukis,” Haokip said.

That map, Haokip said, would include Kuki inhabited areas in Churachandpur, Kangpokpi Pherzawl, Tengnoupal, and Chandel. “But there would be pockets in Ukhrul, Kamjong, Senapati, Tamenglong and Noney. We are not claiming all of those areas, only our inhabited areas.”

He argued that the demand was “reasonable”. “We are reasonable and rational enough not to include Kuki-inhabited areas in Nagaland, Meghalaya, or Tripura,” Haokip said. “We are doing it within the context of present-day Manipur. Unlike the NSCN-IM, we are not asking for territorial integration of all Kuki-inhabited areas. If the government is going to deny us that, then God help us.”

Janghaolun Haokip of Kuki Inpi, apex body of the community in Manipur, said the Centre’s negotiations with Kuki SoO groups have made the Nagas nervous. “These clashes may have been conceived as a way to block a separate administration agreement with the Centre,” he claimed.

The indigenous question

In the conflict, the narrative of Kukis as “unwanted and non-indigenous” and “illegal migrants” has gained strength.

The Naga MLA, for instance, claimed that Kukis are “very recent migrants, they only came around the 1830s”. “They are mostly from Myanmar,” he explained. “[Across the hills], the British would settle one Kuki village between two Naga villages. There were killings and fighting between 1840 and 1917. That sowed the enmity between us.”

Kuki scholars have disputed this. A Delhi-based scholar from the Kuki community pointed out that recent academic research, by historians like J Guite, used “latest genetic studies [to show] that Kukis have roots in the Indian subcontinent stretching to more than a millennia”.

“But figures like Thuingaleng Muivah, the head of the NSCN-IM, have been most successful in framing Kukis [as illegal immigrants] to mobilise and unite Manipur Nagas politically,” the Kuki scholar said. “For him, ‘othering’ the Kukis is instrumental in the construction and consolidation of modern Manipur Naga identity.”

The contestation is not only over history.

An advisor to Manipur Chief Minister Yumnam Khemchand, who requested anonymity, alleged “that most of the recent Kuki migration” has happened in the hills and not the Meitei inhabited valley. “Nagas have realised this recently. There is an old anxiety among the Nagas that Kukis are taking away their land and this has been reinforced again.”

However, there is no official data on Kuki migration within the state.

The senior Naga police official added that the current conflict has brought Nagas and Meteis together on one demand – for a National Register of Citizens with 1951 or 1961 as a cut-off date to check “illegal Kuki migrants.”

Political scientist Kham Khan Suan Hausing warned that invoking an arbitrary timeline to determine who is “indigenous” in Manipur “is unconstitutional and only likely to promote violent conflicts”.

‘A long haul’

Five months after that first fight, Litan Bazaar resembles a war zone.

On the morning of June 21, when we reached there, most of the shops were either shut or had been abandoned. Burnt homes and charred two-wheelers, the remnants of the February 7 arson and violence, were strewn around.

Hundreds of central security forces had descended on the town, and were patrolling the area with armoured military vehicles.

In the hills surrounding Litan, Scroll found that bunkers had come up in the villages, where armed Nagas and Kukis took position, their guns trained at each other.

The bridge over the Thoubal river, next to the Litan police station, had been turned into a de facto “border”. No Kuki can travel to Ukhrul beyond this point while Nagas cannot cross the bridge without the escort of security forces.

The Naga MLA alleged that the Litan clashes had been engineered to “extend the boundary of the Kangpopki district”, where the Kukis are in the majority, to Thoubal river right next to the Litan police station.

He pointed out that Kuki armed groups had opened fire at Sanakeithel, a Tangkhul Naga village encircled by at least 11 Kuki villages, along the highway. “They want to eliminate that village to create a passage from Kangpokpi to Ukhrul.”

Lalboi Haokip, from the Kuki Students’ Organisation, countered that Kuki villages in the Litan area have come under heavy fire because Naga armed groups want to wipe out their villages and force all Kukis out of Ukhrul.

Their villages, he said, had been “isolated” and surrounded. The supply of essential commodities was down to a trickle. “The administration has not done anything to make us feel secure,” he said.

A central security official posted in Ukhrul also told Scroll that “the Tangkhuls now want to drive Kukis from the Litan area.”

A senior office bearer of United Naga Council, the apex body of Nagas in Manipur, told Scroll that there “has been increasing pressure on the Naga armed groups to flush out these Kuki villages in Litan”.

“It would take them only a few hours to clear the villages but they are not doing it as they are in a ceasefire agreement with the government and because of the presence of Army and Assam Rifles,” he added, referring to the NSCN(IM).

Both communities told Scroll that they were in it for the long haul.

“This won’t stop soon,” said another security official posted in Litan. “The Kuki-Naga conflict lasted for four-five years in the 1990s. They are prepared for a longer run.”

The Uttarakhand Police have registered a first information report against a staffer in the office of the Badrinath-Kedarnath Temple Committee chairperson amid allegations of donation theft at the Badrinath shrine, ANI reported on Wednesday.

Pramod Nautiyal, who was posted as a personal assistant in the chairperson’s office, had already been suspended by the temple authorities, The Indian Express reported.

Nautiyal was booked for alleged theft by clerk or servant and aggravated criminal breach of trust of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, ANI reported.

The committee had served a show-cause notice to him on Friday after the alleged irregularities came to light. Following this, a four-member inquiry panel conducted a preliminary investigation.

The investigation found that the counting of offerings made in the temple’s donation plate on July 2 “established that temple funds were illegally removed from the donation counting centre between 9 am and 9.30 am”, ANI quoted the FIR as saying.

The temple committee had filed a complaint accusing Nautiyal of unlawfully taking the donation money for “personal gains”, the news agency reported.

During his suspension, Nautiyal will be working at the temple committee’s office in Joshimath in Chamoli, The Indian Express reported.

He will not be permitted to leave the headquarters without approval from the authorities, and has been directed to cooperate in the inquiry and disciplinary proceedings, the newspaper quoted officials as saying.

Hemant Dwivedi, the trust’s chairman, told the newspaper that “the suspended man has been an employee during the term of three former chairpersons”.

Dwivedi added that the action “was taken so that no tampering can be done during the investigation”, adding that the probe aims to “ascertain the level of misappropriation in the counting centre”.

Following the developments, Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami directed the formation of a three-member “high-level committee” to probe the allegations.

The committee has been directed to submit its report to the state government within 15 days.

The developments came days after allegations that donations made to the Ram temple in Ayodhya had been embezzled.

Edited by Nachiket Deuskar.

Also read:

• What the SIT report on Ram temple donation theft does and does not say

• The RSS man at the centre of Ram temple trust’s controversial run in Ayodhya

• In Ayodhya, it’s Sangh Parivar vs Sangh Parivar as Ram temple fund ‘theft’ charges blow up

The authorities in the United States on Tuesday charged Indian police officer Gurinderjit Singh for allegedly extorting $400,000 from a family in Los Angeles by threatening to file false murder cases against their relatives in India.

“I think he actually did file the murder charges against the family in India till the victim eventually agreed to pay the money,” First Assistant US Attorney Bill Essayli alleged at a press conference.

Essayli said that the police officer was not in custody, “but he will be shortly”. The US will seek the extradition of the officer from India, he added.

While the US authorities described Gurinderjt Singh as a “police chief”, it was unclear where he was posted. Singh is reportedly a station house officer in Punjab.

However, US federal indictments alleged that he colluded with members of an organised crime group led by Jaggu Bhagwanpuria to target perceived rivals with threats of false cases and demands for money, The Tribune reported.

The indictment alleges that in April, a California-based member of the Bhagwanpuria syndicate named Gurlal Singh threatened a victim in the United States before passing on the person’s details to a “corrupt law enforcement officer” in Punjab.

Gurinderjit Singh implicated the victim, as well as the victim’s father and sister in a murder case in Punjab in connection with the killing of a person in January, The Tribune reported.

FBI announces three indictments charging 37 in an international organized crime operation based in India: "These criminal organizations have engaged in widespread violence including targeted killings, extortions and kidnappings." pic.twitter.com/2oc9HR7vlm

— CSPAN (@cspan) July 7, 2026

Crackdown on Indian gangs

Gunder Preet Singh is among 37 defendants charged for organised crimes in three indictments unsealed on Tuesday, the US Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California said. The charges are part of an action against India-based transnational gangs.

Those charged include gangsters Lawrence Bishnoi and Goldy Brar for organised crimes and ordering the 2023 killing of Khalistani separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Canada.

Bishnoi is in a Gujarat jail awaiting trial in several cases. Brar, whose real name is Satinderjeet Singh, is absconding.

The US’ Federal Bureau of Investigation has offered a reward of up to $50,000 for information leading to the arrest of Brar. He is a designated terrorist in India under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act.

Those charged in the US include two “who ran their global criminal syndicates while imprisoned” in India, the federal authorities stated.

The law enforcement agencies in the US, Canada and Europe arrested 24 persons allegedly linked to three India-based transnational organised crime groups, the authorities said. Eleven of them were arrested in California, and one each in Indiana and the state of Georgia.

Apart from those arrested in the US three defendants were held in Canada and one defendant in Spain. Seven defendants were already in custody.

The agencies are looking for 10 fugitives, seven of whom are in the US, two in India and one in Europe, the attorney’s office said.

The persons have been charged with several criminal acts.

The arrests on Tuesday – codenamed “Operation Hard Ball” – followed a years-long federal investigation into Indian crime syndicates, the attorney’s office said.

The groups are alleged to be involved in racketeering, targeted killings, shootings, extortion and the smuggling of narcotics, among other crimes “whose impact is especially felt in the Indian diaspora”.

During the investigation, the agencies seized about 1,000 kg of cocaine, 1 kg of heroin, $40,000 in cash and a dozen firearms.

Indian High Commissioner to Canada Dinesh Patnaik welcomed the charges and arrests, telling The Globe and Mail that New Delhi had been asking for North American countries to crack down on transnational gangs.

“For a long time, there was a feeling in India that the countries in North America have been turning a blind eye, but the very fact that now you’re taking action and the Americans are taking action is good news,” Patnaik was quoted as saying.

Asked whether New Delhi would extradite Bishnoi and others to the US, the diplomat told the newspaper that the Indian courts would decide once Washington submits formal requests.

Edited by Neerad Pandharipande.

One of the persons accused in the alleged rape and murder of a minor in West Bengal’s Baruipur was killed in an alleged gunfight with the police, ANI reported on Wednesday.

When the crime scene was being reconstructed, Prabhas Mondal attempted to snatch a weapon from the police and open fire at them, the news agency quoted the district superintendent of police as saying.

The police fired at Prabhash Mondal “in retaliation”, the officer said. He was declared dead at the hospital.

Prabhash Mondal was among the three persons arrested in connection with the alleged rape and murder of an 11-year-old girl in Baruipur town in South 24 Parganas district.

The body of the girl was recovered from a sack in a pond in the Surjyapur area, a day after she was reported missing.

The case was initially registered as a missing person complaint on Saturday after her father reported her disappearance. Following the preliminary investigation, police added charges of rape, gang rape, murder, destruction of evidence and provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act.

The incident triggered widespread protests, with demonstrators blocking roads and a railway line, burning tyres and vandalising police vehicles.

During the unrest, residents allegedly caught two suspects and assaulted them. A 26-year-old man suspected of being associated with the persons accused in the matter was also lynched by a mob on Sunday.

Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari said that the man who was lynched was innocent.

The police have also detained local Bharatiya Janata Party leader Santanu Mondal on allegations of helping one of the suspects escape, The Telegraph reported.

The police alleged that Santanu Mondal had intervened after residents caught the two suspects and took them to a police outpost. Officers at the outpost were outnumbered when the crowd again attacked the suspects.

“The force was outnumbered and the mob started to thrash the men again, alleging the BJP leader was trying to help them,” a police officer told the newspaper. “The prime accused, Ananda Sardar, took advantage of the chaos and fled.”

Ananda Sardar was arrested later on Monday. Besides Prabhas Mondal, the third person arrested in the matter was Dibakar Sardar.

The state government has set up a Special Investigation Team headed by Additional Superintendent of Police Pinaki Dutta to investigate the case.

Edited by Neerad Pandharipande.

The Karnataka High Court on Monday stayed a deportation order by the Foreigners Regional Registration Office in Bengaluru against a man accused of being an undocumented Bangladeshi migrant, The Indian Express reported.

The man, Abdul Rahim, has been in detention since March. He has claimed that he is an Indian citizen by birth and that the order was passed against him on account of mistaken identity.

Justice Suraj Govindaraj directed the Foreigners Regional Registration Office to verify Rahim’s identity, The Indian Express reported.

The judge noted that he claimed to be the same person who had been held guilty by an Uttar Pradesh court for allegedly entering the country without documents from Bangladesh, and that an appeal against the conviction is pending in the Allahabad High Court.

Govindaraj told the Foreigners Regional Registration Office to check whether Rahim’s claims about the case in Uttar Pradesh are correct. The court listed the matter for further hearing on July 14 and directed the authorities not to deport him till then.

Rahim was detained on March 5 by the Bengaluru Police during a drive to identify alleged undocumented Bangladeshi immigrants, and handed over to the FRRO, The Indian Express reported.

On the same day, the Foreigners Regional Registration Office passed an order under the Foreigners Act, directing that he be sent to the Utile Foundation detention centre in Bengaluru.

Rahim’s lawyer Clifton Rozario told the court that his client is an Indian citizen by birth, and that he has a birth certificate, passport, voter ID card, Aadhaar and several other documents, The Indian Express reported.

The petition contended that the detention order was passed without hearing Rahim, and without a meaningful inquiry into his citizenship.

Rozario also argued that the detention order amounted to double jeopardy, as Rahim had already been convicted by a court in Uttar Pradesh’s Ghaziabad for allegedly entering and living in India without valid documents, The Indian Express reported.

Double jeopardy is a procedural defence that prevents an accused person from being tried twice for the same offence. The protection against such prosecution is laid down under Article 20 of the Constitution.

According to Rahim’s petition, he moved in 2014 from Delhi to Bengaluru, where he runs a waste management business through a government-registered proprietorship. He also holds a Goods and Services Tax registration certificate issued under the Karnataka Goods and Services Tax Act, The Indian Express reported.

In May 2025, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs directed the states and Union Territories to verify the credentials of persons suspected to be undocumented migrants from Bangladesh and Myanmar.

Since the terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam in April 2025, the police in several states, most of them ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party, have been detaining Bengali-speaking persons – mostly Muslims – and asking them to prove that they are Indian citizens.

Several persons have been forced into Bangladesh after they allegedly could not prove their Indian citizenship. In some cases, persons who were mistakenly sent to Bangladesh returned to the country after the state authorities in India proved that they were Indians.

Edited by Nachiket Deuskar.

The authorities in the United States on Tuesday charged gangsters Lawrence Bishnoi and Goldy Brar for organised crimes and ordering the 2023 killing of Khalistani separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Canada.

The charges against Bishnoi and Brar were part of a wider action against India-based gangs.

On Tuesday, the United States Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California said that law enforcement agencies in the US, Canada and Europe had arrested 24 persons linked to three India-based transnational organised crime groups. Eleven of them were arrested in California, and one each in Indiana and Georgia.

A federal indictment unsealed in Los Angeles alleged that Bishnoi ordered the killing of Nijjar, mentioned as “H.S.N.” in the court documents, outside a gurdwara Canada’s Surrey in June 2023.

Nijjar was killed by masked gunmen. His killing had led to a deterioration in the relations between New Delhi and Ottawa after Justin Trudeau, the Canadian prime minister at the time, told Parliament that intelligence agencies were examining “credible allegations” linking Indian government agents to the murder. India has rejected the allegations.

Nijjar was an advocate for Khalistan, an independent Sikh nation sought by some groups. He was the head of the Khalistan Tiger Force, which is a designated terrorist outfit in India.

Apart from those arrested in the United States in the case, three defendants were arrested in Canada and one defendant in Spain. Seven defendants were already in custody.

The persons have been charged with several criminal acts, including Nijjar’s assassination.

The arrests on Tuesday – codenamed “Operation Hard Ball” – followed a years-long federal investigation into Indian crime syndicates, the attorney’s office said.

The groups are alleged to be involved in racketeering, targeted killings, shootings, extortion and the smuggling of narcotics, among other crimes “whose impact is especially felt in the Indian diaspora”.

During the investigation, the agencies seized about 1,000 kg of cocaine, 1 kg of heroin, $40,000 in cash and a dozen firearms.

The agencies are looking for 10 fugitives, seven of whom are in the US, two in India and one in Europe, the attorney’s office said.

As part of Operation "Hard Ball," the FBI and our law enforcement partners throughout California, other U.S. cities and in Canada, India and Europe collaborated to execute dozens of search and arrest warrants targeting 37 members of violent transnational organizations who are… pic.twitter.com/WXIOk6vALU

— FBI Los Angeles (@FBILosAngeles) July 7, 2026

Thirty-seven defendants were charged across three indictments unsealed on Tuesday. This includes two “who ran their global criminal syndicates while imprisoned” in India.

Bishnoi is in a jail in Ahmedabad awaiting trial in several cases.

Deputy Commissioner Lisa Moreland told CBC News that the US will seek the extradition of Bishnoi from India.

Brar, whose real name is Satinderjeet Singh, is absconding.

The US’ Federal Bureau of Investigation has offered a reward of up to $50,000 for information leading to the arrest of Brar. He is a designated terrorist in India under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act.

The attorney’s office alleged that Bishnoi presided over a gang that spanned continents. He “personally directed” political assassinations, murders, shootings, extortions, kidnappings, drug smugglings, human trafficking and other crimes committed by members and associates of his gang globally, the authorities alleged.

First Assistant US Attorney Bill Essayli said that the agencies in the United States, Canada and Asia were “determined to target and dismantle these criminal organizations wherever they operate”.

FBI Director Kash Patel said that the work of the US Homeland Security Task Force and foreign partners such as the Royal Canadian Mounted Police “was truly historic”, reiterating that more than 30 persons across continents had been indicted in a single operation.

Indian High Commissioner to Canada Dinesh Patnaik welcomed the charges and arrests, telling The Globe and Mail that New Delhi had been asking for North American countries to crack down on transnational gangs.

“For a long time, there was a feeling in India that the countries in North America have been turning a blind eye, but the very fact that now you’re taking action and the Americans are taking action is good news,” Patnaik was quoted as saying.

The Canadian authorities had in May 2024 arrested four Indians for their suspected role in Nijjar’s murder.

In September, Ottawa had also declared Bishnoi’s group a “terrorist entity”.

Written by Nachiket Deuskar. Edited by Neerad Pandharipande.

The deadly fire that swept through a building housing a coaching centre in Lucknow on June 22, leaving 15 students dead exposed urban India’s familiar failings – unchecked violations of building regulations and a governance system that reacts only after lives are lost.

The fire put the focus on a paradox. India’s policymakers present urbanisation as a pathway to development. Yet Indian cities are in a state of heightened crisis.

The National Crime Records Bureau report on Accidental Deaths & Suicides in India 2024, released in May, recorded 69,378 accidental deaths that year in 53 “mega cities” – with a population of 10 lakh or more.

The dominant model of city-making prioritises jobless growth, construction for real estate and quicker spatial mobility but ignores safety, social inclusion and public health. Its consequences are visible in accident statistics: deaths from fires, climate-related vulnerabilities, and suicides.

Deadly roads

The rate of accidental deaths in India’s “mega cities” stood at 43.2 per lakh people, significantly higher than the all-India rate of 33.3 per lakh.

Most of these deaths were caused by vehicular crashes, said the report: the 53 mega cities recorded 73,426 traffic crashes, 63,519 injuries and 17,797 deaths. Of these road accidents, 40.3% occurred in urban areas. Nearly one-third of these took place in or near residential areas.

These traffic deaths are symptoms of a development model that places the movement of cars above human life. The most vulnerable victims were two-wheeler drivers and pedestrians. Pedestrian deaths are poorly documented and analysed, even though most Indians get around by walking in cities.

Delhi recorded the highest number of traffic fatalities among Indian cities, followed by Jaipur and Bengaluru. Of these incidents, 52.8% were due to speeding, 30.1% to dangerous driving and only 2.6% to drunk driving.

Beyond the roads, more than 25,000 accidents occurred on the railway tracks and railway premises in 2024 leading to over 22,000 deaths.

Most were caused by people falling from trains or being hit by trains as they crossed the tracks. These numbers indicate failures in transport planning and safety systems.

The Lucknow coaching centre fire highlights another major urban risk: unsafe buildings. In 2024, India recorded 5,888 deaths from 5,971 fire accidents. More than 60% of all fire accident deaths occurred in residential and dwelling units.

Such deaths are often the result of illegal construction, poor maintenance and overcrowding, inadequate fire safety measures, blocked exits and weak enforcement of building regulations. In such an urban landscape, even a small spark can easily become a mass casualty event.

Suicide and distress

If accidental deaths point to the failure of physical infrastructure, the death by suicide rates in the report reveal the social and economic distress of urban life. According to the data, the suicide rate in cities was 16.3 per lakh population in 2024, significantly higher than the national average of 12.2.

The 53 mega cities accounted for 26,150 of the deaths suicide of the total 170,746 reported in India. Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai and Mumbai together accounted for nearly one-third of all such deaths.

The largest category among those who died by suicide were daily-wage earners followed by self-employed people, salaried employees, unemployed people and students.

Cities offer opportunities to millions of workers and migrants but with insecurity, unstable employment, rising costs of living, debt and poor social protection. Suicides among workers and the economically vulnerable are a mental health concern but also linked to urban development.

Climate vulnerability

One area in which the report offers only a partial picture is climate-related mortality. Deaths from heatstroke, cold exposure, floods, lightning and other environmental causes are listed in the report under “forces of nature”. In 2024, there were 917 such deaths in mega cities. The main causes were heatstroke and exposure to cold.

But this framing is inadequate. Heat deaths are notoriously underreported. Besides, the report does not account for pollution-related deaths.

Climate-related deaths are heavily shaped by planning decisions, housing conditions, access to services and socio-economic inequalities. Such vulnerabilities are likely to increase as climate change accelerates.

The term “forces of nature” that the report holds responsible for these deaths obscures the role of faulty governance, planning and public policy. These deaths are as much failures of human systems as of environmental events.

Much of the policy debate on urbanisation focuses on governance failures, infrastructure deficits or economic competitiveness. These concerns are well-founded, but they mask a more fundamental reality: urban Indians are dying at an alarming rate because of the way cities are conceived, governed and managed.

To address this crisis of urbanisation, India needs a different urban agenda. Cities should put safety ahead of speed, de-prioritise cars and invest in public transport, with public walking infrastructure, cycling networks and traffic calming through street design and regulation that slows vehicles and improves safety.

Building safety regulations must be strictly enforced. In the short term, regulations must also address the majority of informal settlements rather than blanket labeling them as illegal.

In the long term, adequate housing for those who live in informal settlements must be prioritised. Urban policy must build climate resilience with heat action plans, cooling infrastructure, urban greenery and improved environmental monitoring systems.

At the same time, cities must confront the social and economic drivers of suicide by creating jobs, strengthening labour protections, ensuring affordable housing, expanding accessible mental health and public health services.

The Lucknow fire is a reminder that these 15 deaths were preventable. But prevention requires confronting the magnitude of the problem. India owes its urban residents a deeper examination of how our cities function and who they fail to protect.

Aravind Unni is an urban practitioner and policy researcher working on inclusive cities, urban climate justice, informality, and urban development in India.

Kuldeepsingh Rajput leads the Rubal Foundation and works on workers’ rights, migration, social protection, community leadership, and grassroots urban inclusion.

Opposition leaders in Congress-ruled Karnataka have written to the Election Commission alleging “massive irregularities” in the special intensive revision of voter rolls in the state, IANS reported.

The door-to-door enumeration exercise for the revision of electoral rolls began in the state under phase three of the special intensive revision on June 30.

The Election Commission is carrying out the exercise to revise electoral rolls through house-to-house enumeration and verification of old voter data.

On Tuesday, leaders from the Bharatiya Janata Party and Janata Dal (Secular) alleged that the officials conducting the exercise in Karnataka are showing “zero regard for the approved process…undermining the very spirit of democracy”.

Booth-level officers “belonging to a particular religion are being deployed in minority areas” to conduct the voter roll revision exercise, the group led by Bharatiya Janata Party leader R Ashok said in the letter. Ashok is the leader of the Opposition in the Karnataka Assembly.

The letter said: “Religion of the booth-level officer should not matter while conducting the SIR.”

“Enumeration forms are being filled out while sitting at community halls, mosques and the residences of [booth-level officers],” the letter said. “WhatsApp groups have also been created for the same purpose and people and being encouraged to visit these community halls and mosques for the SIR process.”

It added: “Such a practice is a breach of the established SIR guidelines and raises serious concern regarding the neutrality of the electoral process.”

The Opposition leaders also raised concerns about the “pace at which the SIR exercise is being carried out”.

“The exercise started on June 30 and within six days nearly 72% of the work had already been completed,” the letter claimed. “This itself is evidence enough the SIR guidelines are not being followed.”

The Opposition parties demanded that the SIR process in Karnataka be suspended and the re-verification of enumeration forms already collected be done.

They also requested that central observers be appointed for every district to oversee the SIR process to ensure that the exercise is conducted in a “fair, transparent and impartial manner”.

Among the signatories of the letter are Union ministers HD Kumaraswamy and Prahlad Joshi.

The third phase of the special intensive revision is underway in 16 states and three Union Territories.

With this phase, the exercise will cover the entire country except Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh. The Election Commission said that the schedule for the revision in these regions will be announced later, considering the Census exercise and the adverse weather.

In 2025, the first phase of the voter roll revision exercise was conducted in Bihar and the second phase in 12 states and Union Territories.

Concerns have been raised that the exercise could remove eligible voters from the roll.

Several petitions were filed in the Supreme Court against the voter roll revision.

On May 27, the Supreme Court upheld the legality of the special intensive revision of electoral rolls conducted by the Election Commission, saying that the exercise “advances the constitutional imperative of free and fair elections”.

However, the court said that the poll panel’s inquiries for the purpose of including a person in the voter list do not mean that it can decide on whether the person is an Indian citizen.

Edited by Sneha.

At least two persons were killed in a landslide at a site of road tunnel project in the Kelladi area of Kerala’s Wayanad district on Tuesday, ANI reported.

The Kerala State Disaster Management Authority said that the debris accumulated during excavation of the Wayanad-Kelladi tunnel slid down after heavy rainfall.

Seven persons are missing and seven others have been rescued, ANI quoted Chief Minister VD Satheesan as saying.

The chief minister said that the soil excavated during the construction work should have been removed. He claimed that the contractors did not obey the orders of the Public Works Department Minister PK Basheer and collector to clear the mud accumulated in the area, The New Indian Express reported.

VIDEO | Kerala: Landslide near Meenakshi Bridge at Kalladi, where work on a tunnel road project connecting Malappuram and Wayanad districts was going on. One killed, seven injured, another seven missing, says Kerala CM V D Satheesan. CCTV visuals of the incident.#KeralaNews… pic.twitter.com/4tUkNZCUz7

— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) July 7, 2026

“The problem is this piled-up soil,” ANI quoted Satheesan as saying. “It was known that if it rained, it would lead to an accident.”

The region received around 225 mm of rainfall in 24 hours, the chief minister added.

Several more persons are feared trapped under the debris, ANI reported.

Personnel from the police and the National Disaster Response Force have been deployed for rescue efforts.

Videos shared on social media showed debris gushing towards bystanders near the site of the landslide.

VIDEO | Wayanad, Kerala: Rescue operations continue after landslide near Meenakshi Bridge at Kalladi.

(Full video available on PTI Videos - https://t.co/n147TvrpG7)#Wayanad pic.twitter.com/TrMhQTemEC

— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) July 7, 2026

Since Monday, Wayanad, Malappuram, Udukki and Palakkad districts have been receiving rainfall due to the strengthening of westerly winds, ANI quoted India Meteorological Department scientist Neetha K Gopal as saying.

“Yesterday night, the rain picked up, and Wayanad received extremely heavy rainfall,” she was quoted as saying. “The wind is expected to remain strong. We have issued a ‘red’ alert for Wayanad and Calicut districts today.”

Wayanad MP and Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra offered condolences to the family of those who died in the landslide.

“I appeal to the [workers of the ruling alliance in the state]...members of the public to provide all possible support while strictly following the administration’s guidelines,” Vadra said in a social media post. “At a time like this, we need to ensure that relief and rescue efforts are not hampered and we ensure all possible help without causing any distractions.”

In July 2024, more than 400 persons were killed after heavy rain triggered two landslides in Wayanad.

Edited by Tanya Shrivastava.

A Special Investigation Team set up by the Uttar Pradesh government to probe the alleged embezzlement of donations at Ayodhya’s Ram temple found 70 instances of counting staff hiding bundles of notes and loose cash in their clothes, pockets and shoes. The report submitted by the SIT, which Scroll has reviewed, pins blame for the dilution of the security protocol in the counting room on trustee Anil Mishra, whose resignation from the post was accepted on Monday.

The team examined CCTV footage of the counting room from April 27 to June 5. Although the trust’s internal audits recommended the preservation of 180 days of footage, it “did not take these reports seriously, which led to the present problem”, said the report.

The SIT said that bank records of the accused and witness statements suggest that similar thefts were happening even earlier, but without CCTV footage. Read on.

The Delhi High Court ordered that the X account of the political campaign Cockroach Janta Party be unblocked. This came after the Union government said that it had no objections to the account being restored.

The account had been blocked on May 21 “in response to a legal demand”. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the court that the account had been blocked in view of the undergraduate National Eligibility cum Entrance Test. The re-exam for medical college seats was held on June 21.

Dipke said that the court’s order was a “big win” not only for the political campaign but also for “free speech and digital rights”. Read on.

At least two persons were killed in a landslide at the site of a road tunnel project in the Kelladi area of Kerala’s Wayanad district. The Kerala State Disaster Management Authority said that the debris accumulated during excavation of the Wayanad-Kelladi tunnel slid down after heavy rainfall.

Seven persons are missing and seven others have been rescued, Chief Minister VD Satheesan said. He added that the soil excavated during the construction work should have been removed. Satheesan claimed that the contractors did not obey the orders of the Public Works Department Minister PK Basheer and the collector to clear the mud accumulated in the area. Read on.

The Gujarat High Court upheld the death sentence handed to 38 of the 49 persons convicted in the 2008 Ahmedabad serial bomb blast case. Rejecting all appeals filed by the convicts, a division bench also upheld the life imprisonment given to the remaining 11 persons.

Twenty-two explosions had ripped through the city on July 26, 2008, leaving 56 dead and more than 200 injured. A special court had, in February 2022, convicted the 49 persons.

Twenty-eight persons had been acquitted in the case and one person accused in the matter had turned an approver for the prosecution. Read on.

The Supreme Court refused to entertain a petition seeking to restrain Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Vijay and other Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam leaders from making public statements about the Karur stampede. The stampede took place on September 27 at Vijay’s rally in the district and left 41 persons dead.

In its petition, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam sought directions to restrain the state ministers from commenting on the investigation or extending welfare benefits to families of those who died in the stampede. The party raised concerns that such interactions could influence the probe. Read on.

India will sell BrahMos and Astra missiles to Indonesia, the two countries said. The agreement, which expands defence cooperation between the two countries, was signed during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Jakarta.

The two countries also agreed to enhance real-time maritime information sharing and strengthen maritime security cooperation. Read on.

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A day after the film Satluj – which depicts extra-judicial killings and enforced disappearances by the Punjab police in the 1990s – was removed from the streaming platform Zee5, political leaders condemned the move to “censor” one of the state’s “darkest chapters”.

The Honey Trehan film, previously titled Punjab ’95 and led by Diljit Dosanjh, was released on Zee5 on Friday evening. By late Sunday evening, the movie had been removed from the platform.

Zee5 posted on social media that “in light of the current developments, Satluj will be unavailable in India until further notice”. It did not elaborate on the nature of these developments

On Monday, Shiromani Akali Dal leader Sukhbir Singh Badal said that the “powerful film that courageously unveils Punjab’s painful history…cannot be silenced this way”.

“This is not mere censorship,” Badal said on social media. “It is an assault on our collective memory, truth and freedom of expression.”

He added: “Punjab deserves to confront its past with honest not suppression.”

Shocked and saddened by the arbitrary removal of #Satluj from #ZEE5 in India.
A powerful film that courageously unveils Punjab’s painful history and honours the supreme sacrifice of S. Jaswant Singh Ji Khalra cannot be silenced this way.
This is not mere censorship — it is an… pic.twitter.com/yfrkMKYq5D

— Sukhbir Singh Badal (@officeofssbadal) July 5, 2026

The film is based on human rights activist Jaswinder Singh Khalra’s efforts to expose the culture of brutality and impunity that prevailed in Punjab under the guise of fighting the Khalistani movement.

Khalra was abducted in September 1995, never to be seen again. A Central Bureau of Investigation team found that a Punjab police unit had held Khalra without charges, murdered him in October 1995 and dumped his body. A handful of police officers were eventually convicted for the murders.

In the film, Diljit Dosanjh’s character Jaswant investigates a death squad that has the protection of Bitta, the state police chief.

Congress leader Sukhpal Singh Khaira said on Monday that the “removal of this fact-based film is in contradiction to the decision of the Supreme Court that upheld the conviction of guilty police officers responsible for the abduction of [Khalra]”.

“I urge the government of India to release the film so that our present and future generations know what a police state is,” he added.

I strongly condemn the removal of film Satluj from @ZEE5India platform in India. We all know about the gross human rights violations prevalent then in Punjab and the subsequent mysterious disappearance of Prof Jaswant Singh Khalra !

The removal of this fact based film is in… https://t.co/PStilrhBfB

— Sukhpal Singh Khaira (@SukhpalKhaira) July 6, 2026

Aam Aadmi Party MP Malvinder Singh Kang said that “when a nation begins to fear its own history, censorship becomes its most dangerous weapon”.

Beyond shocking.
When a nation begins to fear its own history, censorship becomes its most dangerous weapon.
I unequivocally condemn the unexplained removal of #Satluj from Zee5 India. A film that compels India to confront one of Punjab's darkest chapters and portrays the alleged… pic.twitter.com/kEZOxHSL1L

— Malvinder Singh Kang (@kang_malvinder) July 6, 2026

“Propaganda-driven films such as The Kashmir Files and The Kerala Story were promoted and screened without obstruction,” Kang said in a social media post. “Yet when a film raises uncomfortable questions about the human rights violations and atrocities in Punjab, it disappears from an OTT platform.”

Punjab ’95 had faced strict censorship after it was completed in 2022. Over the course of several months, the censor board had demanded 127 cuts, effectively scuttling the release, Trehan had told Scroll in an interview last year.

The version that was briefly available on Zee5 was uncut.

Written by Tanya Shrivastava. Edited by Sneha.

On Monday, the Union government constituted a high-level inter-departmental committee to examine the film Satluj’s content, a day after directing streaming platform ZEE5 to take it down, the Hindustan Times reported.

The film depicts extra-judicial killings and enforced disappearances by the Punjab Police in the 1990s.

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting’s order was issued under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, read with Part 3 of the Information Technology Rules, the newspaper quoted persons familiar with the matter as saying.

The film, previously titled Punjab ’95, is directed by Honey Trehan and stars actor Diljit Dosanjh. It was released on Zee5 on Friday. By late Sunday, the movie had been removed from the platform.

Zee5 said on social media that “in light of the current developments, Satluj will be unavailable in India until further notice”. It did not provide any details.

In a subsequent post, the platform said: “We are doing our bit to bring Satluj back. Please do yours – don’t support piracy. We remain committed to exploring every possible avenue to bring Satluj back to you.”

The film is based on human rights activist Jaswinder Singh Khalra’s efforts to expose the culture of brutality and impunity that prevailed in Punjab under the guise of fighting the Khalistani movement.

Khalra was abducted in September 1995, never to be seen again. A Central Bureau of Investigation team found that a Punjab Police unit had held Khalra without charges, murdered him in October 1995 and dumped his body. Some police officers were convicted for the murder.

In the film, Dosanjh’s character Jaswant investigates a death squad that has the protection of Bitta, the state police chief.

Punjab ’95 had faced strict censorship after it was completed in 2022. Over the course of several months, the censor board had demanded 127 cuts, effectively scuttling the release, Trehan had told Scroll in an interview last year.

The version that was briefly available on Zee5 was uncut.

An unidentified senior official of the information and broadcasting ministry told the Hindustan Times that the matter was being examined by the inter-departmental committee.

The panel is empowered to make recommendations to the Union government on content-related complaints.

Section 69A of the Information Technology Act allows the government to direct intermediaries to block or remove online content on grounds including public order, national security, and the sovereignty and integrity of India.

Part 3 of the Information Technology Rules extends aspects of this framework to publishers of online curated content and digital news, allowing the Union government to issue such directions to streaming platforms and news publishers.

Edited by Nachiket Deuskar.

Also read:

• ‘Satluj’ review: A harrowing, heart-rending tale of impunity and courage
• Why the film ‘Punjab ’95’ hasn’t seen light of day

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday denied bail to Athar Khan, one of those accused of being part of an alleged larger conspiracy to spark riots in the national capital in 2020, Live Law reported.

Khan was arrested in July 2020 under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, and has been in jail for six years.

A division bench comprising Justices Prathiba M Singh and Madhu Jain said that on a preliminary reading, Khan’s role “in causing death and violence as also the destruction of private and public property” had been established, The Indian Express reported. The court also said that statements of protected witnesses indicated that he could be a flight risk.

“The Appellant is also likely to adversely influence the witnesses whose evidence is yet to be recorded,” the court said, according to Live Law. “Thus, even if the normal conditions of bail are applied, in this case, the Appellant, owing to his role and the protection that needs to be given to witnesses, is not entitled to bail.”

On May 26, the High Court had, while reserving its order, verbally observed that the WhatsApp chats of Khan prima facie proved a conspiracy to spark violence.

Communal violence erupted in North East Delhi in February 2020 during clashes between supporters of the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act and those protesting against it. The riots claimed 53 lives and left hundreds injured, with most of those killed being Muslims.

The Delhi Police have alleged that the violence was part of a larger conspiracy to defame the Narendra Modi government and was orchestrated by individuals involved in the protests against the amended citizenship law.

Several accused are facing charges under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act, the Arms Act, and various provisions of the Indian Penal Code.

Edited by Neerad Pandharipande.

The systematic annihilation of Muslim livelihoods has been a central marker of the Modi years. This has been caused in part by the frequently violent activism of non-government formations fraternal to the Bharatiya Janata Government and affiliated to the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh. What is sometimes missed is the central role in all of this of the state.

It is important to understand that what the country has witnessed – and India’s Muslim citizens have endured – under Narendra Modi’s leadership is not merely a random conglomeration, a massing of unconnected individual hate attacks on Muslim livelihoods. The years of Modi’s leadership have witnessed a conscious and catastrophic dismantling of the livelihoods and economic foundations of an already highly dispossessed community through both law and policy.

Analysts observe that “while Muslim disadvantage has been widely noted… there are few policies in place to protect them”. Such policies could include building better educational infrastructure in Muslim majority areas, training more Muslim teachers, enhancing the quantum and coverage of scholarships for Muslim children and youth, and taking strict action against discrimination. On the contrary, the effort is in the reverse direction, with many scholarship schemes for minority children either wound up or severely under-budgeted.

Worse, during the Modi era, there are many state policies that target Muslim livelihoods directly. These include hardened cow protection laws. Under-budgeting and poor public provisioning of schools, medical centres and infrastructure in settlements with high density of Muslim populations is the rule, not the exception. Bulldozers have in these years deliberately targeted Muslim properties.

But these are not all. I will speak here of examples of other state policies and laws of the union and Bharatiya Janata Party state governments which have been deleterious to Muslim livelihoods. These are laws that openly or tacitly abridge or extinguish Muslim livelihoods on the pretext of many outlandish jihad conspiracy theories; the halal ban; and changes in the waqf law. Each of these state policies and laws have had a direct inimical impact on the livelihood opportunities of Muslims, and their security and dignity at work.

Halal bans

“Halal” in Arabic means “permissible”. Aditya Menon’s thoughtful essay for The Quint reveals many flaws in the understanding of the idea of halal. Halal is widely understood by its opponents only as a way of slaughtering animals for meat, by slitting of the throat while reciting the Kalma. This is an important part of halal, but halal is a much broader concept. And in fact, the Quran describes anything that is “permissible” or “lawful” as halal and dubs what is “forbidden” and “unlawful” as haraam.

For instance, banking that earns interest or unlawfully earned wealth is haraam. Islamic Banking (that does not charge or earn interest) is halal, as is halal tourism in which hotels do not serve alcohol and provide separate swimming pools for men and women. In food items, foods and drinks containing the meat of pigs, blood, carrion (meat of an animal that is dead already), alcohol and most narcotic substances are haram. A pharmaceutical product that does not contain alcohol or pig gelatin would be certified as halal.

A significant example of state actions directly aiming to damage Muslim livelihoods is the halal bans. The Uttar Pradesh government in 2020 imposed a ban on halal-certified food products in the entire state. The Uttar Pradesh ban covered not just food products, but also drugs, medical devices, and cosmetic products with halal-certified labels.

This ban followed many agitations by Hindutva organisations against halal-certified products. A “#BoycottHalalProducts” campaign was launched around 2019 by Hindutva organisations Sanatan Sanstha and Hindu Jagruti and vigorously supported by Sudarshan News TV channel.

Sanatan Prabhat, a Hindutva group of periodicals, described halal certification as a kind of “economic jihad” aiming at the “Islamisation of India”. They maligned the meat trade as somehow linked to terror, and hoped to win the support of Sikhs who have a religious injunction against eating halal meat, as well as the Dalit Khatik community whose traditional occupation is the sale of meat. It hoped to pit both Sikhs and Khatiks against Muslims.

Menon explains that the Sikh religious bar is not just on halal, but on the meat of any animal slaughter that involves rituals (and therefore would also include Hindu animal sacrifices that are common among Nepali Hindus among others). He quotes a Sikh tweet that reflects a common sentiment among the Sikhs he interviewed: “I don’t eat halal or any other meat that has been slaughtered under a religious/belief custom/ceremony/ritual, I don’t have any problem with people eating halal or anything else, Sanghis trying to pit Sikhs against Muslims is a joke! ....”

The Tender Chicken you buy in Karnataka, which was promoted by BJP MLA @CTRavi_BJP is halal certified too... pic.twitter.com/coV7pI5SWD

— Mohammed Zubair (@zoo_bear) April 1, 2022

Ravi Ranjan Singh, a resident of Delhi’s Mayur Vihar, formerly a journalist who became a self-professed acolyte of Yati Narsimhanand was a passionate campaigner against halal. “They threaten my identity,” he declared. “...Halal is not just meat, it is everywhere...These are economic black holes which lead to economic slavery. Non-Muslims are being deprived of employment. We will all be slaved.” He accused the halal industry of “employment discrimination”, falsely claiming that it only employs Muslims for all jobs from the butchering of the meat to its sale to a customer. “They [Muslims] are forcing (halal) on us,” in hospitals, housing complexes, schools and airlines – all part of a halal nexus to keep non-Muslims out.

The protests seeking a ban on halal certification gathered momentum when many more Hindutva organisations joined it. They campaigned against state-owned Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation, Air India, and others for offering halal-certified products. The campaigners argued that halal certification promotes Islamic practices and sought a ban on such products, including halal-certified meat in public institutions.

The Hindutva group Hindu Janajagruti Samiti Karnataka spokesperson Mohan Gowda also targeted the Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation and other organisations that offer halal-certified chicken products, soft drinks, flour, and chocolate brands. It campaigned to ban halal-certified products in Karnataka, stating that animals are killed by offering them to Allah, which they found offensive to Hindu gods. Hindutva organisations also urged Hindus to eat jhatka meat, which kills animals in one strike, claiming it is less cruel than the halal method.

Bajrang Dal, Vishva Hindu Parishad and other Hindutva outfits in 2022 ran a door-to-door campaign in Karnataka asking people not to buy halal meat, reportedly with the tacit support of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.

The BJP national general secretary CT Ravi even called halal food “economic jihad”. During the Ugadi festival, a section of Hindus prepare non-vegetarian feasts, and the campaigners urged them to not buy meat from Muslim meatsellers. During the statewide call for boycott of Muslim traders, led by Hindutva activists, members of the Bajrang Dal physically attacked a Muslim meat seller in Karnataka’s Shivamogga district. Five men were arrested.

The Vishva Hindu Parishad demanded a legal challenge against halal certification in India, arguing that it discriminates against non-Muslims and funds terrorism. Halal and halal certification, they said, is discriminatory, economically, socially and against all non-Islamic religions.

The Adityanath government, in November 2023, lodged an FIR in Lucknow against the Halal India Private Limited Chennai, Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind Halal Trust Delhi, Halal Council of India Mumbai and Jamiat Ulama Maharashtra.

UP govt bans manufacturing, storage, distribution and sale of Halal products. pic.twitter.com/aAccIYqPgE

— Piyush Rai (@Benarasiyaa) November 18, 2023

The charges were of issuing halal certificates for some products on the basis of forged documents to exploit the religious sentiments of customers of a particular community (Muslims) for financial gains. It also spoke of companies and staff involved in an “anti-national conspiracy”, namely “funding notified terrorist organisations and organisations involved in anti-national activities” and “conspiring to incite large-scale riots by messing with public faith”.

The next day, the state government issued an order banning the manufacture, sale, storage and distribution of halal-certified products with immediate effect in the state from the view of “public health.” Food products made for export were notably excluded from this list.

Protests against halal products also spread to other parts of the country. A protest in February 2023 in Dhanbad, Jharkhand, was led by the Hindu Janajagruti Samiti and the Halal Sakhti Virodhi Kriti Samiti against halal certification. Protesters claimed that there was an increasing demand for halal products forcing Hindu business owners to obtain halal certification, even for items like sugar, oil, and cosmetics. This, they said, was part of a campaign against “Halal Jihad”.

In Kerala too matters went out of hand with right-wing groups raging against the so-called “halal invasion” in Kerala, or the supply of halal-certified jaggery to the Sabarimala temple – which they even challenged in court. Christian groups also joined the campaigns against halal-certified groups. The hostility of sections of the Christian clergy against Muslims in Kerala has long been simmering.

In January 2020, chief Cardinal Mar George Alencherry of the Syro Malabar Church issued a circular warning Christians against “love jihad” claiming that “Christian women from Kerala are even being recruited to Islamic State through this”. The Pala archdiocese’s Bishop Mar Joseph Kallarangat said that non-Muslims in Kerala are targeted with “narcotics jihad”, a project to lure women and turn them into drug addicts. Social relations were further strained in June when a group of Christian youths made several disparaging comments about the Muslim community on the conferencing app ClubHouse.

Joy Abraham, a member of the Church's Auxiliary for Social Action , said “For the last few years, Arab food culture has massively invaded the state. Being citizens of India, we cannot allow this to happen. Muslim food manufacturers are getting reservations in the name of ‘Halal’ certification while others are denied opportunities. For example, manufacturing a ‘Halal’ certified product requires the company to employ at least 10 members from the Muslim community. We are against this invasion of a particular culture,” said Joy.

This, Muslim entrepreneurs said, is a falsehood. Syed Mohamed Imran, the Operations Head of Halal India, said non-Muslim staff are recruited and trained in Halal. “Halal food means hygienic, safe, non-toxic, ethical for mankind to consume, according to the Quran”.

BJP state president K Surendran did not agree, alleging that “Halal” is “a planned attempt to divide people and create communal riots” and called for a ban on the practice of Halal certification and Halal boards at Kerala hotels. In a press conference, Bharatiya Janata Party state general secretary P Sudheer equalled “Halal” to triple talaq.

Amendments to the Waqf Act

The Lok Sabha in 2025 passed, without any prior consultation with Muslim leaders or the political opposition, far-reaching changes in the Waqf Act. The Waqf Act, 1995, allowed Muslims the right to donate property for the welfare of their community, particularly the dispossessed among them. The amendments bring these Muslim properties donated for charity, which were until now governed by the community, substantially under state control. It also brings in non-Muslim non-officials into the systems of governance of these properties.

The amendments are presented by the government as long-delayed administrative reforms that were necessary to bring transparency into the management of these vast properties, and to ensure that these are suitably deployed for the welfare of the people. The government speaks of bringing in “unified management,” “efficiency,” and “inclusiveness”.

Organisations of Indian Muslims, in India and the diaspora, however, have expressed grave disquiet over how the move was thrust upon the community without consultation, which they see as a thinly veiled bid to deprive the Muslim community of control over its legitimate assets.

Rasheed Ahmed, Executive Director of The Indian American Muslim Council, for instance, summarises these concerns. Waqf properties, he says, “support countless educational institutions, healthcare facilities, and social welfare programs that serve Muslim communities across the country. He describes the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025 as “a blatant attempt to strip the Muslim community of its control over waqf properties and place these institutions under state control”. The intention, he says, “is to dilute the authority of the Muslim community and weaken its ability to safeguard religious endowments”. This undermines “not only the religious autonomy of Muslims but also threatens the very purpose of waqf, which is to serve the socio-economic needs of marginalised communities”.

For the purposes of this essay, I will limit my discussion to the possible impacts the amended law could have on the livelihoods of Indian Muslims. Centrally, the law ends the autonomy of the community to manage these properties and charity endowments and brings in significant state control. What may this mean in practical terms for impoverished Muslim livelihoods? This could undermine the economic and social infrastructure that many poor Muslims rely on, making waqf-based housing, schooling, small businesses, and social support charity more precarious. This reduction of control combined with increased risk of de-waqfisation or adverse bureaucratic decisions, represents a material threat to livelihoods and communal welfare, even if the law does not explicitly label it as such.

Reducing Muslim community control over its key resources that existed in the past has roused anxieties of exposing waqf properties to estate loss, eviction, and economic marginalization. In that case, the reforms may have the intended or unintended outcome of a structural attack on Muslim livelihoods by dismantling traditional waqf-based institutions of economic support, housing, education, and charity.

Under the amended law, waqf-lands may be deemed government property if their legal status is not formally submitted within a fixed time period. Section 3A(1) stipulates that “No person shall create a waqf unless he is the lawful owner of the property.” This means that any economic activity based on informal or customary waqf such as homes, small shops or businesses becomes vulnerable to legal challenge.

Section 36(1A) requires that “from the commencement of the Act … no waqf shall be created without execution of a waqf deed.” In practice, this introduces higher legal and transaction costs for poor or uneducated waqifs and small local institutions who previously relied on oral or informal dedications. Given the informal nature of large swathes of land title in India, this threatens the security of many waqf properties. Such loss of waqf status may lead to the dispossession of communities or individuals whose livelihoods depend on those properties. These could include residents of poor housing, small businesses, small shops and markets around mosques or dargahs, schools and madrasas, and properties whose income was used to give financial support to widows and orphans.

The threats are greater in a context in which right-wing governments are dismantling even the meagre affirmative action support for the Muslim community that existed in the past, like scholarships. In such conditions, powerless members of the community can at best hope for support from within the community.

It is not my argument that the managers of waqf properties were always performing these duties in an exemplary, blameless way. But however imperfectly, this was a potential resource for the disadvantaged Muslim to access for her dignified survival. It serves an even more critical life-support mechanism for impoverished and vulnerable Muslims when the state has pulled back from its duties toward this section of citizens. The fear is that this alternate pathway to education, livelihood and social security, can now be effectively blocked or made more arduous.

Therefore, even if it is noted that Muslims face grave disadvantages in employment, there are few policies in place to protect them. Such policies could include building better educational infrastructure in Muslim majority areas, training more Muslim teachers, enhancing the quantum and coverage of scholarships for Muslim children and youth, and taking strict action against discrimination. On the contrary, the effort is in the reverse direction, with many scholarship schemes for minority children either wound up or severely under-budgeted, and the state with its laws and policies assaulting the efforts of persons of Muslim identity to earn a livelihood with dignity and safety.

Laws to prevent ‘spit jihad’

None less than a chief minister – Pushkar Singh Dhami of Uttarakhand – issued detailed guidelines to his police and health departments to prevent instances of people spitting in food. One of these is a hefty fine of up to Rs 1 lakh for this offence. Also CCTV cameras are made mandatory in their eatery kitchens and all hotel staff need to undergo a police verification. He termed the offences that the law seeks to prevent and punish as “thook jihad”.

The Uttar Pradesh chief minister also announced his resolve to bring in a tough statute to curb contamination of food and beverages with human waste, spit, inedible items or other filthy material. It would make it mandatory for food centres to display the names of their owners, for cooks and waiters to wear masks and gloves and, like in Uttarakhand, for CCTVs to be installed in hotels and restaurants.

Adityanath also instructed officials that those who indulge in such jihad should be charged under non-bailable sections of the law, and punished with imprisonment and fine. He dog-whistled about other suspected jihads as well. He instructed strict action against staff working in an eatery if found to be an “intruder or an illegal foreign citizen.” This is a widely used dog-whistle for Muslims.

He should also face harsh punishment to any staff member of an eatery if he uses false names; that there should not be a single activity of adulteration of food items and beverages by “anti-social elements” through the concealment of their true identity. While opening a three-storey “floating restaurant” in Gorakhpur, Adityanath again made a dig at alleged “thook jihad”. “It’s good, at least what you get here won’t be the juice from Hapur. You won’t get rotis with spit on them. Whatever you get here, will be pure.”

Adityanath’s reference to Hapur was to the arrest of two persons – the juice stall owner and a minor – for allegedly contaminating juice with human urine. BBC reports that these government directives followed the unverified videos on social media showing vendors spitting on food at local stalls and restaurants – and one video depicting a Muslim house-help mixing urine into food she was preparing. (It is another matter that the police later found that she was of Hindu identity).

In these states, the police did not need a specific law to detain and charge people for allegedly spitting into food. BBC reports that even before the ordinance in Uttar Pradesh, the police in Barakanki arrested restaurant owner Mohammad Irshad for allegedly spitting on a roti, charging him with disturbing peace and religious harmony.

Supreme Court to Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand: “DO NOT FORCE THE OWNERS OF EATERIES ALONG THE KANWAR YATRA ROUTE TO DISPLAY THEIR NAMES OUTSIDE SHOPS”.
SupremeCourt stays UP and Uttarakhand govt direction that eateries along the Kanwariya route should display the names of the… pic.twitter.com/m2w18kcLeB

— Mohammed Zubair (@zoo_bear) July 22, 2024

Likewise, the Uttarakhand police arrested two hotel workers in Mussoorie – Naushad Ali and Hasan Ali – for allegedly spitting in a saucepan while making tea. They were charged with causing public outrage and jeopardising health.

Several other arrests also were made. In Gautam Buddha Nagar, police arrested a restaurant worker called Chand for allegedly spitting on rotis while making them at the eatery. In Saharanpur a minor boy was arrested for allegedly spitting on rotis while he was cooking them. The restaurant where the boy worked was also sealed, and a crime registered for promoting enmity between different grounds on the grounds of religion, etc. Again in Shamli, a juice vendor named Asif was arrested for allegedly spitting into the mosambi juice while he was squeezing the fruit with a hand-operated juicer.

In 2020, a man named Naushad was arrested for “thook jihad” by the Uttar Pradesh police in Meerut. They acted on the complaint of Hindu Jagran Manch leader Sachin Sirohi. Members of this group first assaulted him before complaining to the police that he spat into rotis. The police arrested him under the National Security Act. Later, it dropped the NSA charges and he was let off on bail. However, The Wire reports that all chapati shops refused to hire him, fearing a backlash. Naushad had always denied spitting in the food, but he spent three months in jail and then became jobless.

Conclusion

The scale, the reach and the magnitude of harm unleashed by the RSS-BJP project to annihilate Muslim livelihoods is immensely worrying. The debilitating damage to the life and livelihood chances of Indian Muslim citizens is partly the result of the spread and virulence of violence of embedded cadres of affiliates of the far-right Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh. The public statements of Bharatiya Janata Government leaders reflect and amplify the toxic prejudice and hate.

But behind all of this is the state backing of this project by a series of laws, policies and state actions. For me, the conclusion is inescapable. These signal what can only be described as a momentous project of vast ethnic cleaning.

I am grateful for the extensive research support of Sumaiya Fatima and Syed Rubeel Haider Zaidi

Harsh Mander, peace and justice worker and writer, leads Karwan e Mohabbat, a people’s campaign in solidarity and support to victims of hate violence. He is a visiting faculty in the South Asia Institute, Heidelberg University. His recent books are Under Grey Smoggy Skies: Living Homeless on the Streets of India’s Cities; and A Matter of Life and Death: The Unfinished Journey to Secure Healthcare for All.

India will supply BrahMos and Astra missiles to Indonesia, the two countries confirmed on Tuesday.

The agreement, which expands defence cooperation between the two countries, was signed during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Jakarta.

This came months after the Indonesian defence ministry told Reuters in March that it had entered an agreement with India to buy the BrahMos systems.

The details of the BrahMos and Astra deals were not immediately clear.

The BrahMos is a supersonic cruise missile jointly developed by India and Russia. Indonesia will become the third foreign operator of the missile system after the Philippines and Vietnam.

Astra is a beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile designed by the Defence Research and Development Laboratory. The Indian military is currently the lone user of the missile system.

On Tuesday, the two countries also agreed to enhance real-time maritime information sharing and strengthen maritime security cooperation.

The distance between the southernmost point of India in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Indonesia is about 150 km. India and Indonesia’s maritime boundary is at the northern opening of the strategic Strait of Malacca. More than 20% of global trade passes through the strait.

At a press briefing alongside Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto, Modi said that the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership the two countries began in 2018 was “reaching new heights today”.

India and Indonesia also signed agreements to improve cooperation in the field of minerals and telecommunication technologies.

The agreement will further strengthen the supply chain in the critical minerals and steel sectors, Modi said.

An agreement was also signed between India’s Election Commission and the General Elections Commission of Indonesia to facilitate the sharing of best practices and experiences.

Modi was conferred with Bintang Adipurna of the Republic of Indonesia, the country’s highest medal of honour.

It was awarded to recognise Modi’s “leadership in strengthening India-Indonesia friendship and furthering unity, continuity and prosperity” of the South East Asian nation, India’s Ministry of External Affairs said.

Written by Nachiket Deuskar. Edited by Neerad Pandharipande.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to entertain a petition filed by the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam seeking to restrain Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Vijay and other Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam leaders from making public statements about the Karur stampede, which had left 41 persons dead, Bar and Bench reported.

The stampede took place on September 27 at Vijay’s rally in Karur when he was addressing supporters from his campaign vehicle. The first information report alleged that while permission had been granted for 10,000 attendees, more than 25,000 persons gathered at the venue. The Supreme Court had ordered an inquiry by the Central Bureau of Investigation into the stampede on October 13.

In its petition, the Opposition party sought directions to restrain the state ministers from commenting on the investigation or extending welfare benefits to families of those who died in the stampede. The party raised concerns that such interactions could influence the probe, the legal news outlet reported.

At the time of the stampede, the DMK was in power in the state. However the TVK later emerged as the single-largest party in the Tamil Nadu Assembly elections held on May 4 and Vijay became the chief minister.

The petition was filed ahead of Vijay’s meeting on Friday with the families of those who died in the incident, Live Law reported.

The DMK argued that the families were also material witnesses in the CBI investigation and that direct interaction with persons connected to the case could influence the probe, Bar and Bench reported.

The party flagged statements by TVK minister Aadhav Arjuna that allegedly projected blame on the DMK, the legal news outlet reported.

It also clarified that the DMK was not opposed to compensation being paid to the families but wanted the ruling party to be restricted from commenting on the case.

In response, the bench asked: “You want the chief minister’s visit to be regulated by the Supreme Court and fix his itinerary?”

The court also questioned whether distributing compensation and welfare benefits would affect the investigation.

“Is this a very thought of application?” Bar and Bench quoted the court as saying. “What is the sequitur? Just pause and think... Today to make this court a political fora… instead of fighting your battles outside.”

During the hearing, the DMK referred to Vijay having a “dual role” as head of the executive and as an accused in the case, Live Law reported.

The court clarified that Vijay had not been named as an accused in the original matter.

Edited by Tanya Shrivastava.

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday ordered that the X account of political campaign Cockroach Janta Party be unblocked, Bar and Bench reported.

The order came after the Union government said that it had no objections to the account being unblocked.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta was quoted as saying that the account had been blocked in view of the undergraduate National Eligibility cum Entrance Test. The re-exam for medical college seats was held on June 21.

Mehta said that posts on the platform “would have created chaos among students and parents”, Bar and Bench reported.

Abhijeet Dipke, the founder of the Cockroach Janta Party, said on Tuesday that the court’s order was a “big win” not only for the political campaign, but also for “free speech and digital rights”.

The account had been blocked on May 21 “in response to a legal demand”. Hours later, Dipke had opened a new X account.

Dipke had challenged the government’s blocking order, which reportedly cited “national security concerns”.

The campaign was launched on May 16 in response to reports of remarks by Chief Justice Surya Kant on the previous day comparing some unemployed youngsters to “cockroaches”. Within a week, the campaign had garnered more than 22 million followers on social media platform Instagram.

The chief justice claimed on May 16 that he had been misquoted by sections of the media and that it was baseless to say that he criticised young people in general. Kant claimed he had specifically criticised “those who have entered professions like the Bar [legal profession] with the aid of fake and bogus degrees”.

Edited by Neerad Pandharipande.

Also read:

• How the ‘cockroaches’ at the Jantar Mantar sit-in are keeping themselves busy
• Watch: Meet the ‘cockroaches’ who crawl out every night at Jantar Mantar

The Gujarat High Court on Tuesday upheld the death sentence handed to 38 of the 49 persons convicted in the 2008 Ahmedabad serial bomb blasts case, The Indian Express reported.

A division bench of Justices AY Kogje and Samir Dave also upheld the sentence of life imprisonment given to the remaining 11 persons. The court rejected all appeals filed by the convicts.

Twenty-two explosions had ripped through the city on July 26, 2008, leaving 56 dead and more than 200 injured. A special court had in February 2022 convicted the 49 persons, of whom 38 were sentenced to death, and the others were given life imprisonment.

Twenty-eight persons had been acquitted in the case and one person accused in the matter had turned an approver for the prosecution, Bar and Bench reported.

The blasts

The blasts on July 26, 2008, took place at the municipal-run Lallubhai Gordhandas Hospital, on buses, parked bicycles and in cars.

The police had claimed that persons associated with the banned terror outfit Indian Mujahideen were responsible for the serial blasts. The Indian Mujahideen is a faction of the outlawed Students Islamic Movement of India.

The investigators alleged that the explosions were planned as revenge for the 2002 Gujarat riots in which the majority of those killed were Muslims.

Edited by Nachiket Deuskar.

Three persons have been arrested in connection with the alleged rape and murder of a minor girl in Baruipur in West Bengal’s South 24 Parganas district, The Hindu reported on Tuesday.

A local Bharatiya Janata Party functionary has also been detained on allegations of helping one of the suspects temporarily escape, The Telegraph reported.

On Sunday, the 12-year-old girl’s body was recovered from a sack in a pond in the Surjyapur area, a day after she was reported missing.

The case was initially registered as a missing person complaint on Saturday after her father reported her disappearance. Following the preliminary investigation, police added charges of rape, gang rape, murder, destruction of evidence and provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, an unidentified police officer told the newspaper.

The incident then triggered widespread protests, with demonstrators blocking roads and a railway line, burning tyres and vandalising police vehicles, The Telegraph reported.

During the unrest, residents allegedly caught two suspects and assaulted them. A 26-year-old man suspected of being associated with the accused was also allegedly lynched by a mob, The Telegraph reported.

The police have also detained Santanu Mondal, a local BJP leader, on allegations of helping one of the suspects escape, The Telegraph reported.

According to the police, Mondal intervened after residents caught the two suspects and took them to a police outpost. Officers at the outpost were outnumbered when the crowd again attacked the suspects.

“The force was outnumbered and the mob started to thrash the men again, alleging the BJP leader was trying to help them,” a police officer told the newspaper. “The prime accused, Ananda Sardar, took advantage of the chaos and fled.”

Ananda Sardar was arrested later on Monday, The Hindu reported. The other two arrested men have been identified as Dibakar Sardar and Pravas Mondal.

The state government has also constituted a six-member Special Investigation Team headed by Additional Superintendent of Police Pinaki Dutta to investigate the case, The New Indian Express reported.

The police have also registered three additional cases relating to the violence that followed the discovery of the body, including on charges of mob lynching, damage to railway tracks and attacks on security personnel and police vehicles, Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari said.

Adhikari said he had spoken to the girl’s family and assured them the government would seek capital punishment for those responsible.

Meanwhile, the authorities have imposed orders prohibiting public gatherings under Section 163 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita across Baruipur, Narendrapur and Sonarpur areas of South 24 Parganas to maintain law and order.

Edited by Neerad Pandharipande.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation has declared a holiday for all government, municipal and private schools and colleges in Mumbai on Tuesday after the India Meteorological Department issued an orange alert for heavy rainfall and gusty winds.

The civic body said the closure was a precautionary measure to ensure the safety of students and urged citizens to avoid stepping out unless necessary.

Schools and colleges in the neighbouring Thane and Raigad districts, as well as in the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation area, will also be closed on Tuesday in view of the heavy rainfall.

The order issued by the Thane district authorities said that continuous heavy rainfall in the past three days had increased the risk of waterlogging in low-lying areas, fallen trees and disruption to traffic.

Nashik alert

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis warned of nearly 300 mm rainfall in parts of the Nashik region because of “cloudburst-like” conditions, the Deccan Herald reported.

“Nashik and Trimbakeshwar have been identified as a high-alert zone for tomorrow,” he said on Monday. “We are asking people to be alert. The district administration has already begun preparations considering the possibility of a major cloudburst situation.”

Disruption in Mumbai-Pune region

The warnings came after several days of heavy rainfall disrupted transport in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region and surrounding areas.

A landslide on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway’s “Missing Link” disrupted traffic on Monday. On Monday night, the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation said that the debris had been cleared and the traffic had resumed.

Rail services were also affected on Monday. Trains between Mumbai and Pune were suspended because of heavy rainfall and landslides in the ghat section.

As of 4.30 am on Tuesday, 41 mail express trains had been cancelled because of the landslides, the Central Railway said. Fifty-nine trains had been diverted.

Local trains on Mumbai’s Western Line and Central Line operated with a delay on Monday. On Tuesday too, all local trains on the Western Line were running 10 to 15 minutes late.

Written by Sara Varghese. Edited by Nachiket Deuskar.

Also read:

• What Mumbai’s rulers should realise about devastating rains: The exceptional is the new normal
• Watch: Streets under water, highways blocked after heavy rains in Mumbai, Pune

In February, sections of the media reported that the University Grants Commission had returned several PhD theses submitted to the Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar Bihar University in Muzaffarnagar. The commission found that around 40% of the theses had been written using artificial intelligence. The university was instructed to ask the researchers to rewrite and resubmit their work.

Despite this, the commission has not yet issued any formal guidelines on the use of AI in academic research. In June, The Times of India reported that the UGC had issued revised guidelines stating that a PhD with 10% to 40% of content generated by AI or which has been plagiarised will be returned to the scholar for revision within six months.

AI would be permitted only for language correction and other limited support, the article said. These guidelines did not appear to be immediately available on the UGC website.

But the guidelines, as reported by the newspaper, raise an important question: can the use of AI in research be treated as plagiarism?

Good research is expected to contribute new knowledge to the existing body of scholarship and open up new avenues for further research. To achieve this, a researcher must perform a few basic tasks.

First, they must familiarise themselves with the existing scholarship in the chosen field and identify what is often described as a “research gap”. This involves reviewing earlier books, articles, and research papers – an exercise commonly known as the “literature review”.

Once this stage is complete, the researcher must formulate a hypothesis or thesis statement and clearly define the objectives of the study. In practice, researchers do not perform all these tasks on their own. The guidance of a research supervisor is an integral part of the process.

AI tools can assist with certain aspects of this intellectual labour – suggesting directions, helping to organise ideas, or assisting in the search for relevant works to write the literature review. Should such assistance be regarded as improper?

That said, a note of caution is necessary. AI tools sometimes cite books and articles that do not exist in reality – a phenomenon known as “hallucination”. They may also generate hypotheses that are impossible to test empirically. A literature review produced entirely through AI, therefore, carries a high risk of error.

Similarly, the feasibility of a hypothesis or the practicality of research objectives must always be discussed with and validated by the supervisor.

In such cases, AI should function only as an auxiliary aid.

Research also demands extensive reading. Scholars must consult large numbers of articles, books, and research papers to know what they should exactly do. However, not all texts require the same level of attention. As Francis Bacon famously observed in his essay Of Studies, some books are to be tasted, others swallowed, and a few chewed and digested.

Likewise, a researcher reads some works closely while merely skimming others. For texts whose essential argument can be grasped through a summary, many scholars today use AI tools for having summaries of those texts. Should this also be deemed unacceptable?

In scientific research, AI-powered search tools can also rapidly identify relevant information and references. In certain disciplines, AI may even form part of the methodological apparatus of research. Fields such as information technology, data science, and digital humanities can employ machine learning techniques to analyse large datasets.

However, even in such cases, researchers must possess a clear understanding of the methodology and must interpret the results themselves, in consultation with their supervisors.

Already, several foreign universities have already issued detailed directives on how to appropriately use AI in academic research.

For instance, Oxford university has clearly specified the permissible areas for AI use in research. These include language refinement and correction of grammatical errors in theses, organising research sources and generating references but requires transparency, accountability and documentation.

In India, however, institutions such as Calcutta University and Shiv Nagar University have introduced regulations whereby researchers are not permitted to submit their theses if the use of artificial intelligence is found to exceed 10%.

While taking decisions on AI use in PhD theses, it should also be remembered that the software tools designed to detect the use of artificial intelligence in research are not always completely reliable.

The reality is that, regardless of the preferences of the University Grants Commission, researchers will inevitably use artificial intelligence in future academic work. Therefore, it is imperative to raise awareness among researchers about the proper use of AI.

In India, coursework is now mandatory at the beginning of a PhD. During this phase, it should be ensured that researchers attain AI literacy.

However, it is important to remember that even if AI is used in research, the true strength of a PhD thesis lies in the researcher’s original thinking, analytical ability and creativity. Thus, while AI may be employed as an assistive tool, the core intellectual work of research must be carried out by the researchers themselves.

While it is futile to ban AI in research, it is essential for scholars to understand the potential and limits of AI as an auxiliary tool in research.

Angshuman Kar is a professor in the department of English and culture studies at the University of Burdwan.

Landslides and waterlogging triggered by heavy rain in the last three days threw life out of gear in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region and Pune on Monday.

After incessant rainfall and strong winds in Mumbai, flooded roads and felled trees made commuting difficult. The administration has urged residents to remain indoors unless necessary.

Andheri subway: A water logged Andheri subway today around an hour ago. #Mumbairains. pic.twitter.com/ynDLFPcgDe

— Richa Pinto (@richapintoi) July 6, 2026

#MaharashtraRains Heavy monsoon downpours trigger severe flooding across Mumbai & nearby areas! Waterlogged railway tracks delay local trains while submerged roads leave commuters wading through knee-deep water Stay safe and avoid travel! 🌧️🚆 #MumbaiRains #Monsoon #TrafficUpdate pic.twitter.com/6Onw0tdW3I

— Gummalla Lakshmana (@GUMMALLALAKSHM3) July 6, 2026

On Monday, the Mumbai-Pune expressway and the old Mumbai-Pune highway were blocked due to landslides.

Videos posted on social media showed debris blocking the carriageway between the opening of the tunnel and the cable-stayed bridge located in the “Missing Link” section of the expressway.

Food Mall Visual #PuneMumbaiExpresswayHighway pic.twitter.com/BkPIswlo9A

— Pune Pulse (@pulse_pune) July 6, 2026

#पुण् मुसळधार पावसाचा आळंदीला फटका. 2 दिवसांवर आषाढी वारी प्रस्थान आलेले असताना इंद्रायणी नदीवरील पूल पाण्याखाली गेल्याने वारकऱ्यांची आळंदी प्रवेशाची वाट बंद झाली आहे. पाणी ओसरण्याची नागरिक-वारकरी वाट पाहत आहेत.
येथील नदी काठच्या आश्रम शाळांनाही फटका बसला आहे#Pune #Punenews pic.twitter.com/4pB70ZOnEa

— Brijmohan Patil (@brizpatil) July 6, 2026

On Monday morning, waterlogging was reported in several areas of Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad.

#WATCH | Pimpri-Chinchwad, Maharashtra: Water enters Morya Gosavi Ganpati Temple in Pimpri-Chinchwad as the water level of Pawana river rises following incessant rainfall in the area. pic.twitter.com/LIM2Z7frL8

— ANI (@ANI) July 6, 2026

Trains between Mumbai and Pune were also suspended, the Central Railways said.

At least 18 trains operating out of Mumbai had been diverted, while one was rescheduled. Four trains each had also been short-terminated and short-originated, the Central Railways added.

On the Western line, at least six trains had been cancelled and eight others were rescheduled.

Suburban trains in Mumbai were also delayed. The services between Karjat and Khopoli were suspended after the heavy rainfall led to the ballast under the tracks getting washed away.

Landslide at Khandala. The tree came in contact with OHE and caught fire. It has been extinguished and the muck is being cleared from the tracks. #MumbaiRains pic.twitter.com/8z9oH60lIe

— Rajendra B. Aklekar (@rajtoday) July 6, 2026

After Mumbai-Pune rail section, Karjat Khopoli ballast washed away suspending services #MumbaiRains @mid_day pic.twitter.com/PL44wi3xNU

— Rajendra B. Aklekar (@rajtoday) July 6, 2026

#WATCH | Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra: Heavy rainfall causes severe waterlogging in the Chirner village.

A resident says, "...No one has come to check on us yet. We have been in this water for two days now... Yesterday alone, we killed at least 10 to 12 snakes..." pic.twitter.com/iEaUjTZTa9

— ANI (@ANI) July 5, 2026

Thane pic.twitter.com/ReO25ClDtp

— Singh Varun (@singhvarun) July 6, 2026

Palghar Railway station @IndiaWeatherMan @shubhamtorres09 @rushikesh_agre_ @s_r_khandelwal
Turned into a river pic.twitter.com/8IoofwCIAt

— varun mundra (@varunpgd) July 6, 2026

Nalasopara railway station on Western Railways.#Mumbairains. pic.twitter.com/aDMYNJOE6c

— Richa Pinto (@richapintoi) July 6, 2026

Indrayani River flooding, Alandi, Pune !!

Indrayani River is currently at one of its highest flood levels in recent years after intense rainfall in the Khandala–Lonavala region. Continued heavy precipitation across the Lonavala–Pune corridor raises the risk of further flooding… pic.twitter.com/g7CUkZU8yE

— Naveen Reddy (@navin_ankampali) July 6, 2026

#WATCH | Vasai, Maharashtra: Heavy rainfall causes widespread waterlogging in several areas of Vasai. pic.twitter.com/BAgd1XPfeW

— ANI (@ANI) July 6, 2026

The India Meteorological Department has warned that there will be no immediate relief from the rain.

On Monday, a red alert was in place in Mumbai and neighbouring Thane, Palghar and Raigad districts.

Thirteen persons have been killed in rain-related incidents in the past three to four days in Mumbai and nearby regions, the state disaster management minister said.

Edited by Tanya Shrivastava.

Two Assam Rifles soldiers were killed in a gunfight with unidentified militants close to Ukhrul town in Manipur on Monday, an official from the paramilitary force told Scroll.

Ukhrul is a Tangkhul Naga-majority district. The incident took place at around two hours, the Ukhrul Times reported. Assam Rifles stated that operations were continuing to “neutralise the militants”.

The two personnel who were killed were identified by the newspaper as Warrant Officer Balwant Singh and Havildar CM Singh.

No group has claimed responsibility for the alleged ambush.

The developments came amid tensions between Kukis and Nagas in Ukhrul that had erupted on February 7 after an alleged assault involving members of the Tangkhul Naga and the Kuki-Zo communities escalated into clashes. At least 25 persons from the two communities have been killed since tensions erupted.

Ethnic clashes had first broken out in Manipur in May 2023 between the Meitei and Kuki-Zo-Hmar communities. At least 260 persons have been killed and more than 59,000 persons displaced since then in the conflict.

Biren Singh had stepped down as the chief minister in February 2025 amid allegations from Kuki-Zomi-Hmar groups that his response to the violence had been partisan and that he had stoked majoritarianism.

After he resigned, Manipur was under President’s Rule for a year until Yumnam Khemchand Singh took oath as chief minister on February 4.

Inputs from Rokibuz Zaman. Edited by Sneha.

At the end of a week of incessant rains in which nine Mumbai residents died in a house collapse or because trees had fallen on them, apologists of the administration swarmed on to social media to offer absolution.

“No infrastructure in the world is designed to handle so much rain, but life is on in Mumbai,” pronounced one user on X. Proclaimed another, “No country in the world can have a city unflooded with such huge [amount] of rain in a short spell. Mumbai does better than many despite all its faults.”

In the 24-hour period until Sunday morning, the Colaba weather station in South Mumbai recorded 265.6 mm of rainfall – its wettest July day in five decades. The gauge at the Santa Cruz station to the north received 227.7 mm of rain, the second-highest figure for July in five years.

While the intensity of the rainfall was unusual, the administration and its supporters are ignoring the obvious: in the era of climate change, the exceptional is the new normal.

There is no shortage of research about the risks that Mumbai faces from climate change. For instance, a climate action plan published by the city’s municipal corporation in 2022 noted that Mumbai “has been witnessing a steady increase in extreme rainfall events”.

Earlier this year, experts at Azim Premji University said that in suburban Mumbai, the southwest monsoon is projected to increase by 18% by 2040, from the baseline of 1,749 mm fixed in 2020. The southern section of the city, meanwhile, is expected to receive 2,003 mm of rain by 2040, up from 1,715 mm in 2020.

Mumbai’s administration is blundering on regardless, defying its own studies.

In March, for instance, it obtained the permission of the Supreme Court to fell 45,000 mangrove trees to allow it to construct the Versova-Bhayandar section of its coastal road project in North Mumbai.

This despite the fact that the municipality’s climate plan calculates that the loss of carbon-absorbing mangroves in Mumbai results in the emission of 1,572 tonnes a year of carbon dioxide – the gas that is the main driver of climate change.

Another example of conspicuous callousness was seen in April, when the Maharashtra government issued a notification converting a 13,843-square-metre plot of salt pan land in the eastern neighbourhood of Wadala from a natural zone into a residential zone, primarily to allow the construction of a gymkhana for IAS officers.

Like the mangroves, Mumbai’s salt pan lands act as a natural barrier against tidal surges. They also work as a sponge, absorbing rain spilloff.

Instead of strengthening the city’s natural defences, the municipality is allowing them to grow weaker despite climate threats.

Extreme heat

Ironically, just a fortnight before the deluge, Mumbai was baking in intense summer heat. Though the average summer temperature in the city is around 32 degrees C, temperatures rose to 35 degrees or more on at least 38 days between March and June. On June 12, the city sweated away as it experienced its hottest night in 57 years, with the mercury refusing to fall below 30.2 degrees.

These high nocturnal temperatures were the result of the “urban heat island effect” – the phenomenon that describes the heat absorbed by concrete and asphalt surfaces in the scorching day being released even after sunset. This effect is exacerbated by the loss of tree cover.

The escalation of the heat island effect isn’t surprising. Since the pandemic, Mumbai’s administrators have gone into overdrive to clad the city in concrete. They have offered builders incentives to tear down perfectly solid apartment blocks and “redevelop” them into soaring towers. Over the past six years, 1,094 “redevelopment” deals have been signed.

This process, as well the numerous road and flyover construction projects now underway, has resulted in thousands of trees being cut. Between 2016 and 2021, according to the municipal climate action plan, the city lost 2,028 hectares of urban tree cover.

In Mumbai, you never know what the rains will expose. This was Bhandup yesterday: a road caved in during ongoing excavation work and a vehicle fell into the pit. Heavy rain was the trigger, but was reckless construction the real cause? Why are redevelopment projects being allowed… pic.twitter.com/dUXVDAzOow

— Rajdeep Sardesai (@sardesairajdeep) July 5, 2026

Also under scrutiny this week is the Rs 17,000-crore programme to concretise 714.1 km of Mumbai’s roads. Not only has this boosted the heat island effect, the concrete seems to be choking the city’s trees – causing them to topple over.

Between July 1 and July 5, reported The Indian Express, at least 559 incidents of falling trees have been reported. Three people – including an 11-year-old school student – have been crushed by toppling trees over the past week.

Few of Mumbai’s recent urban planning decisions seem to reflect an awareness of a city attempting to build resilience against the effects of climate change.

The municipal climate action plan of 2022 ends with an exhortation to “Resident Welfare Associations, Advance Locality Management groups [and] civil society groups” among others to “participate, deliberate and catalyse” its success.

That is empty rhetoric. That year, for instance, citizens protesting against trees being cut for a metro car shed in Aarey were slapped with police cases. In other instances, once-vocal citizens organisations with useful urban expertise have been undermined or simply ignored.

On Thursday, a politician belonging to Maharashtra’s ruling coalition in an television interview with Rajdeep Sardesai brushed away criticism about the large number of trees being cut in the drive to concrete the city’s roads.

“You cannot have everything,” said Milind Deora of the Shiv Sena’s Shinde faction. “You cannot please everyone.”

That statement gave no cause for confidence. It did not reflect an understanding of the fact that coping with climate change does not involve pleasing people. It needs administrators courageous enough to fend off vested interests to implement projects that are in line with their own research and who listen to the creative, grounded solutions offered by those with the biggest stake in the city – Mumbai’s ordinary residents.

Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust accepted the resignation of its general secretary, Champat Rai, amid the row about alleged embezzlement of donations made to the Ram temple in Ayodhya. Trustee Anil Mishra’s resignation has also been accepted, said the trust’s treasurer.

On June 26, Rai and Mishra resigned from their posts on “moral grounds”. This came after a first information report was registered against eight persons in the case on June 25 on a complaint by the trust.

Opposition leaders and a whistleblower have claimed that cash and jewellery offerings made by devotees had been embezzled by temple staffers under the trust’s watch. Read on.

The RSS man at the centre of Ram temple trust’s controversial run in Ayodhya, reports Ayush Tiwari

Thirteen persons have been killed in rain-related incidents in Mumbai and its surrounding areas in the past three to four days, said the Maharashtra government. The India Meteorological Department has issued a red alert warning of heavy rainfall in the region in the next two days.

On Sunday, six persons were killed after a residential building collapsed in the city’s Mankhurd area. Two other men were killed in separate incidents earlier in the day.

Separately, traffic was stopped on the Mumbai-Pune expressway after a landslide blocked the route. The traffic on the old Mumbai-Pune highway was also halted because of a landslide and heavy rainfall in the Karjat-Lonavala Bhor Ghat section. Read on.

The Delhi High Court has sought the Union government’s response on two petitions challenging orders directing the Delhi Gymkhana Club to vacate its 27.3-acre premises. The matter has been posted for further hearing on July 28.

The Delhi Gymkhana Club is one of the national capital’s oldest and most exclusive social and sporting clubs. It is located near the prime minister’s official residence and other high-security installations.

In May, the Land and Development Office directed the club to vacate and hand over its premises to the Union government, saying that it was required for “strengthening and securing of defence infrastructure”, governance facilities and other “vital public security purposes”. Read on.

Lashkar-e-Taiba chief Hafiz Saeed has been named in a fresh chargesheet in connection with the April 2025 terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam district. Saeed has been accused of “waging war against India and hatching a conspiracy from across the border”.

In its main chargesheet, the NIA had named seven persons, including Pakistani handler Sajid Jatt of the Lashkar-e-Taiba and its affiliate The Resistance Front. The terror attack at Baisaran on April 22 left 26 persons dead and 17 injured. Read on.

Political leaders have condemned the removal of the film Satluj from the Zee5 streaming platform, criticising the move to censor one of Punjab’s “darkest chapters”. The film depicts extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances by the Punjab police in the 1990s.

Shiromani Akali Dal leader Sukhbir Singh Badal said that the “powerful film that courageously unveils Punjab’s painful history…cannot be silenced this way”.

The film by Honey Trehan was previously titled Punjab ‘95 and was released on Friday evening but was removed by Sunday evening. Zee5 posted on social media that “in light of the current developments, Satluj will be unavailable in India until further notice”. It did not elaborate on the nature of these developments. Read on.

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The government’s think-tank NITI Aayog in April released a report on the Ease of Doing Research in India. Seventy-six percent of the respondents said the industry rarely supported funding for projects in their discipline.

This is hardly a surprise.

Private investment in R&D in India has historically been very low, even in sectors like the pharmaceutical industry where private corporations have made huge profits only to plough that excess capital into real-estate or failing movie studios. As a result, it has been the Indian state, not the private sector, which has traditionally had to cough up the capital for R&D in India.

Much of the Indian government’s funding for R&D is routed through various government institutions like the Technology Development Board, the Anusandhan National Research Foundation and the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council. Typically, these bodies invite grant applications from industry and academia, which are assessed before making the final grants.

While this funding has generally been modest, in November, the Indian government announced an ambitious fund of Rs 1,00,000 crore for R&D for the public and private sector. Officially called the Research Development & Innovation fund, it will be funded through loans and equity investments.

The Research Development and Innovation scheme targets sunrise sectors as well as sectors important for economic security and strategic purposes. Earlier this year, energy security, deep technology, including quantum computing and artificial intelligence, were identified as priority sectors under the RDI scheme.

The first tranche Rs 20,000 crore for the scheme was released in the last budget. These funds are to be administered through the Anusandhan National Research Foundation as the first-level custodian of funds. Other government bodies like the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council, the Technology Development Board, and non-banking financial corporations as second-level fund managers – “SLFM”. This is a significant increase in government spending on R&D. For contrast, the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council, since its inception in 2012, has reportedly disbursed only Rs 4,200 crore in grants.

While increasing government funding for R&D is always welcome, questions have been raised whether increased funding, without a reform of the culture of “red tape” in public universities and public research institutions, will achieve any significant outcomes, especially when the focus is on applied research and industry collaborations. To this, there are two more specific concerns: transparency and intellectual property management.

A legal framework for transparency

When Parliament gives the bureaucracy complete discretion to disburse Rs 1 lakh crore, one would have expected the government to create a legal framework to ensure transparency in how these funding decisions are made by those in charge of disbursing the funds.

In particular, these funding bodies should be releasing elaborate information on who exactly is making these funding decisions, while also making funding agreements available to the public with appropriate redactions. This does not happen in India.

Take, for example, the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council. It makes publicly available a list of projects it has funded, but it will fight a citizen to death if asked to disclose its funding agreements under the Right to Information Act.

This is unlike the position in the United States, where the “grants policy” of the National Institutes for Health clearly states that most information related to grants will be made publicly available:

“Except for certain types of information that may be considered proprietary or private information that cannot be released, most grant-related information submitted to NIH by the applicant or recipient in the application or in the post-award phase is considered public information and, once an award is made, is subject to possible release to individuals or organizations outside NIH.”

The policy emphasises that this information is made public “to foster an open system of government and accountability for governmental programs and expenditures and, in the case of research, to provide information about federally funded activities”.

Neither the Anusandhan National Research Foundation nor the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council, nor the Technology Development Board, have a similar clause on their websites. Without such disclosures, it is impossible for civil society to hold accountable either the funding bodies or those receiving public funding from these bodies.

These are important questions to ask at this stage because of the experience during the Covid-19 pandemic when the BIRAC handed out crores of public money to Indian pharmaceutical companies to develop new vaccines but refused to make publicly available the funding agreements even when some of these projects got caught up in controversy.

Take for example, the mRNA vaccine developed by Gennova Pharmaceuticals with significant financial assistance from the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council. The government touted the vaccine as a symbol of India’s self-reliance in vaccine technology. It then came to light that an American biotech company had alleged that Gennova had stolen its trade secrets related to the mRNA vaccine and initiated litigation against the Indian company. Both parties eventually settled the dispute out of court.

Union Minister @DrJitendraSingh launches the GEMCOVAC® -OM, an Omicron-specific mRNA-based Booster vaccine

India’s first mRNA vaccine developed using the indigenous platform technology by Gennova, with funding support from DBT & BIRAC pic.twitter.com/RLrxjN6jHA

— DD News (@DDNewslive) June 25, 2023

There was barely a word from Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council while this controversy was playing out in the courts and nobody knows how the public funding granted to Gennova was utilised by the company. Similarly, due to the opacity regarding funding agreement, it is impossible to know whether the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council negotiated a requirement for Gennova to share its publicly-funded mRNA technology with India’s relatively large public sector vaccine industry. The Council refused to make publicly available the funding agreement under the RTI Act.

A second example on why transparency is important, is the case of Covaxin, the vaccine developed by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with the Indian Council for Medical Research, with funding from the government.

During the pandemic, the Indian Council for Medical Research refused to make available the funding agreement with Bharat Biotech available under the RTI Act – however some aspects of the MoU had to be disclosed in Parliament because of questions raised by the Opposition. Later, it came to light that Bharat Biotech had filed patent applications for Covaxin without including the Indian Council for Medical Research as a co-patentee or its scientists as co-inventors.

Only after the issue was raised in Parliament did Bharat Biotech move to include the Indian Council for Medical Research as a co-patentee. This was possible only because the Opposition had asked the government to disclose the terms of the MoU during the pandemic.

#TodayInParliament ||

Union Health Minister @JPNadda during Question hour in #LokSabha:

💠#ICMR got Rs 172 crore as royalty from Bharat Biotech International Limited (BBIL) for jointly developing #Covaxin.

💠Mr. Nadda said that after the government’s objection to not putting… pic.twitter.com/db8KtLTSo3

— All India Radio News (@airnewsalerts) August 2, 2024

These concerns of transparency are severely magnified in the context of Anusandhan National Research Foundation, given its budget of Rs 20,000 crore for just one year.

As of today, the ANRF Act is lacking in statutory safeguards mandating transparency. At most this law requires grantees to submit a “statement of expenditure” and “utilisation certificate” but these statements reveal little useful information. Hopefully the Foundation will develop a transparency charter before waiting for the first controversy to make it to the news.

The Intellectual Property issue

A second issue pertains to the intellectual property in the research generated from public funding provided by the RDI Fund. Like many other countries, India has traditionally allowed private companies to seek patents, in their name, for inventions resulting from public funded research.

The terms on which such intellectual property can be commercialised, the royalty rates payable to the government and the terms on which the invention can be used in public interest by the state is generally determined by the funding agreement between the funding body and the recipient. This is not ideal because it delegated a lot of discretion to the bureaucracy which makes these decisions in complete secrecy.

Other countries, such as the United States, have enacted laws like the Bayh-Dole Act to regulate public funding of research and development. This law also secures public interest in all intellectual property generated through federal funding. For example, in certain cases of public emergency or non-commercialisation or national security, the Bayh Dole Act allows the American state “march-in” rights to protect public interest by over-riding exclusive patent rights.

The ANRF Act, 2023 enacted by Parliament is silent about the intellectual property generated via public funding. A few months ago, the Anusandhan National Research Foundation publicly announced an IP policy, which provides some “guiding principles” for grants that it makes. For instance, on the issue of “march in” rights, the ANRF’s policy document states the following:

Any licensing arrangement should consider preserving for the Government of India the irrevocable, royalty-free right to practice or require the licensee to grant sub-licenses to responsible applicants, on reasonable terms, when it may be necessary to fulfil public interest, including, health or safety or security needs of the country. This is without prejudice to the right of the Government of India under law for compulsory licensing.

As the language above indicates, crucial decision-making powers regarding IP are delegated to unknown bureaucrats at ANRF – the policy only makes a non-binding recommendation.

Enforcing “march-in” rights through contractual agreements or via the remedies under the Patents Act, (such as compulsory licensing or “government use” provisions) tends to be legally complicated and may require payment of reasonable compensation, thereby opening the door for litigation and delaying the ability of the government to use the new technology in public interest. It is easier to achieve these objectives through statutory safeguards in a law.

Robust legal framework

In the past, India has attempted to enact its own version of the Bayh Dole Act, after a recommendation on these lines was made by the erstwhile National Knowledge Commission. That attempt failed in 2010 after a poorly drafted legislation was torpedoed by a Parliamentary Standing Committee.

Since then, the bureaucracy in control of India’s scientific establishment has preferred to tackle these issues through guidelines, instead of a binding statutory law which guarantees transparency and accountability. The bureaucracy seems reluctant to recommend a legislation to govern public-funded intellectual property since that would curb the vast and opaque discretionary powers they enjoy right now.

Hopefully the political establishment will soon realise that it is a bad idea to hand over Rs 1,00,000 crores to this bureaucracy without having in place a robust legislative framework to ensure both transparency and protection of public interest in the IP generated through the funding.

Prashant Reddy T is the coauthor of Create, Copy, Disrupt: India’s Intellectual Property Dilemmas (OUP). Yogesh Byadwal is a final year student at NLSIU.