chennai l thursday l july 17, 2025 l `9.00 l PAGES 18 l late city EDITION Kharge, Rahul write to PM, seek law to restore statehood of J&k ‘Include Ladakh under 6th Schedule’ In their letter, Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi said the legislation should be brought in Parliament’s Monsoon session All-party meeting likely on Saturday The leaders of opposition in the two houses of Parliament—Kharge in Rajya Sabha and Gandhi in Lok Sabha—also called on the government to bring a legislation to include the Union Territory of Ladakh under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution. The Sixth Schedule is constitutionally protected, ensuring greater autonomy and security for local governance ■ ■ The upcoming session is likely to be stormy as Opposition members are gearing up to raise the Pahalgam attack, leak of the interim report on the Ahmedabad air crash in the international media etc Sources said the government may convene an all-party meeting on July 19, two days before the Monsoon session’s commencement July 21 First day of the Monsoon session, will go on till August 21 CHENNAI ■ MADURAI ■ VIJAYAWADA ■ BENGALURU ■ KOCHI ■ HYDERABAD ■ VISAKHAPATNAM ■ COIMBATORE ■ KOZHIKODE ■ THIRUVANANTHAPURAM ■ BELAGAVI ■ BHUBANESWAR ■ SHIVAMOgGA ■ MANGALURU ■ TIRUPATI ■ TIRUCHY ■ TIRUNELVELI ■ SAMBALPUR ■ HUBBALLI ■ DHARMAPURI ■ KOTTAYAM ■ KANNUR ■ VILLUPURAM ■ KOLLAM ■ TADEPALLIGUDEM ■ NAGAPATTINAM ■ THRISSUR ■ KALABURAGI ‘SIT misdirected Don at it again on India deal itself’ in Ashoka prof case, says SC that the deal with India will be on the same line. India has not formally reacted to Trump’s claims, but officials say that the US president has the habit of making tall claims in public, which are far from reality. They cite the example of the Vietnam deal; Trump had claimed the South East Asian country had agreed to a 20% tariff, but Hanoi rejected the claim. India has maintained that it will not sign any deal that is against the country’s interest. New Delhi and Washington are in talks to finalise a trade deal before DI PA K M ONDAL @ New Delhi Asks why it expanded scope of investigation into Mahmudabad’s FB post on Op Sindoor “It is open for the SIT to say that the contents of the FIRs does not disclose any offence. Questioning the line of Then this case can be closed. It probe by a Haryana police Spe- can always say that during the cial Investigation Team (SIT) course of investigation, they into social media posts by have come across certain inAshoka University professor criminating materials, which Ali Khan Mahmudabad on Op- constitute separate offences eration Sindoor, the Supreme and the law will take its own Court on Wednesday observed course,” the bench said. “it had misdirected itself.” When the state’s lawyer said The court had ordered the Mahmudabad could be asked to setting up of the SIT to exam- join the investigation at any ine if there was anything in- point again, a surprised court criminating in the social media said, “You do not need him, you posts by Mahmudabad. need a dictionary .” In its interim report, The bench directed the SIT said it had the SIT to submit its reseized Mahmudabad’s port in four weeks. mobile phones and sent Granting some liberthem for forensic analyty and relaxation on his sis. It further revealed bail conditions, the that he had appeared court said Mahmudabefore the SIT for ques- A K Mahmudabad bad is now free to write tioning four times. on any subject other A bench of justices Surya than the matter pending before Kant and Joymalya Bagchi the court. wondered why the SIT was exSenior advocate Kapil Sibal, panding the scope of the probe. appearing for Mahmudabad, It said its direction was to con- told the court that the SIT had fine the investigation to the two also questioned the professor FIRs against Mahmudabad about the places he had travover his contentious social me- elled to in the past 10 years. dia posts. Mahmudabad had moved the “We are asking why SIT is, court challenging his arrest folon the face of it, misdirecting lowing a Facebook post on Opitself ? They were supposed to eration Sindoor, India’s retaliaexamine the contents of the tory strike against Pakistan for posts,” Justice Kant said. the Pahalgam terror attack. SU C HITRA K ALYAN M OHANTY @ New Delhi nainar polL case Man exchanged `98L for 1.5-kg gold bar: Police S i d d h a r t h P r a b h a k a r @ Chennai The CB-CID, which is investigating the seizure of `3.98 crore cash on April 28, 2024, allegedly meant for bribing voters by incumbent Tamil Nadu BJP president and MLA Nainar Nagenthran in the Lok Sabha polls, has recently arrested a man named Sooraj on the charge of exchanging `97.92 lakh in cash for a 1.5-kg gold bar, sources said. The accused was later granted bail by the Sessions Judge of a Chennai court on July 10. The CB-CID, while opposing the bail plea, told the court that it has found evidence that indicate the involvement of BJP treasurer S R Sekhar, state general secretary (organisation) Kesava Vinayakan, and party’s industrial wing president Govardhan in the transaction. The agency also said the Call Detail Record (CDR) data collected by it establish the role played by these leaders in attempting to distribute money to voters in Tirunelveli in support of Nagenthran who unsuccessfully contested as BJP candidate in the Tirunelveli Lok Sabha seat in 2024.  P7 AIR INDIA fuel switches fine, inspection reveals An airline official said the carrier has completed inspection of locking mechanism of fuel control switches in Boeing 787 planes and found no issues express read MBBS counselling in TN to begin on July 30 Chennai: Counselling for MBBS & BDS courses for 202526 in TN will begin on July 30 and merit list will be released on July 25, TN health minister said on Wednesday | P2 ‘BJP too will recognise Dravidian Model 2.0’ Chennai: Next TN government will be Dravidian Model 2.0, and it will elevate TN so much even the central BJP govt will acknowledge it, says Stalin | P4 US President Donald Trump on Wednesday said a trade deal with India would soon be sealed under which American firms would get greater access to Indian markets. According to Trump, the trade pact with India will be on the lines of the US-Indonesia deal announced early in the day . “They are going to pay 19% and we are going to pay nothing … we will have full access into Indonesia, and we have a couple of those deals that are going to be announced,” Trump said, adding It’s Not a setback: counsel EPS campaigning in Chidambaram on Wednesday | express Shah’s comments being twisted to hurt alliance: EPS E x p r e s s N e w s S e r v i c e @ Cuddalore AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami on Wednesday reiterated his cautious stance on Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s repeated assertion that the BJP will join the AIADMK-led government after winning the 2026 Assembly poll, and alleged that misinterpretation (of Shah’s remarks) is an attempt to drive a wedge among allies in the NDA coalition. Posing a series of rhetorical questions to reporters when asked about Shah’s comments on coalition government during a media interaction in Chidambaram, the former CM asked, “Who is leading the alliance? It’s me. Is it not my decision on who will form the government and who will become CM? What more clarity you need?” “He (Shah) only said our coalition will form the government. He did not say it will be a coalition government,” EPS said. “AIADMK will win strongly Thani perum aatchi amaikkum . (We will form government with our own majority/as single largest party),” he added. Responding to the statement of Anbumani Ramadoss, president of PMK, another potential ally, that his party too wanted to be part of the ruling government, EPS said, “Let them first join the alliance. They have not even sat for the feast. Why are they talking about serving the meal before that?”  P7 Bright moves At women’s chess World Cup, China faces new threat—India s w a r o o p s w a m i n at h a n @ Chennai THE Chinese women’s dominance of the 64 squares faces an existential threat from an upcoming force. India. At the ongoing women’s World Cup in Batumi, there are four from China in the last 16, including two World Championship runners-up. The reigning world champion, Ju Wenjun, declined to take part but they are still well represented, both in terms of quality and quantity . India, though, aren’t too far back. The gold medallists from last year’s Olympiad also have four players in the pre-quarterfinals. In the only direct confrontation between the two nations in the last-16, Divya Deshmukh took down Zhu Jiner (a GM) in the first tie (Deshmukh, an IM, is one of the country’s brightest prospects). In a queen-centric endgame versus Jiner, Deshmukh, an age-group world champion, completely asserted her posi- tion as her pieces had better coordination and were very active. After building up an imposing advantage, she played the decisive 49. Qf7+ and Jiner resigned on the spot. If the 19-year-old draws with black pieces on Thursday she will ad, vance to the quarterfinals. The teen was joined by young R Vaishali, seasoned D Harika and Koneru Humpy in the last 16 after the first three rounds in Georgia. The other three drew their opening ties and they will all advance if they win on Thursday. The women’s World Cup is important as it carries with it as many as three qualification places for next year’s women’s Candidates. Divya Deshmukh against Zhu Jiner at the event I FIDE/ Anna Shtourman Candidates calling World Cup carries three qualification spots. Vaishali and Humpy played in 2024 but qualified through other pathways. If players qualify through World Cup, they can have 7-8 months to prepare “We do not see this as a setback, but as part of a longer process. Our goal is to bring the entire family around,” Chandran said. A source familiar with the negotiation said: “We are mounting a collective effort. Govt continues to provide help for conversation with the victim’s family for a settlement.” August 1, the new deadline for imposing the reciprocal tariff. The US has announced a 26% tariff on India, but has put on hold the tariff for now. Currently only a 10% , basic tariff is in place. An Indian team is in the US for carrying out the fifth round of negotiations on the bilateral trade agreement. Chief negotiator and commerce secretary-designate Rajesh Agrawal on Tuesday said that the Indo-US trade deal was progressing as per the terms of reference decided between the two countries agreed in February . The US has already announced reciprocal tariff between 25-40% against two dozen nations. Relative rejects blood money offer the death sentence, and negotiators are working on getEfforts are in full throttle ting the immediate family to to convince the family of Ta- collectively accept the blood lal Abdo Mahdi, the money offer. This manYe m e n i n a t i o n a l datory process could murdered in 2017, to be long and we need to accept blood money have patience,” her in return for sparing lawyer Subhash ChanIndian nurse Nimidran told this paper. sha Priya from execuHer execution, origition. This comes even nally scheduled for Nimisha Priya as one of Mahdi’s Wednesday was postfamily members pubponed following interlicly rejected reconciliation. ventions from various quar“We are making all efforts ters. In a Facebook post, to get Nimisha spared from Mahdi’s brother, Abdelfattah J aya n t h J a c o b @ New Delhi Mahdi, condemned the delay and reaffirmed the family’s position: “Now it’s been postponed and we were not expecting that—unfortunately —especially that those who have stopped the implementation know our absolute refusal to any attempt to reconcile in any form... pressure won’t move us. Retribution will come.” Priya’s legal team and supporters are working to evolve consensus within the Mahdi family to accept blood money and pardon her.