BHUBANESWAR l friday l september 19, 2025 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l late CITY EDITION Visas of certain Indian business executives revoked: u.s. embassy The visas of a few Indian business executives were revoked for their alleged involvement in trafficking of fentanyl precursors, the US said decision to rein in trafficking of drugs fentanyl overdose deaths tipping point The embassy’s decision is in keeping with the Trump Administration’s efforts to keep Americans safe from dangerous synthetic narcotics. “Individuals and organizations involved in illegal production, trafficking of drugs to US, along with their families, will face consequences including being denied access to US,” affirmed Chargé d’affaires Jorgan Andrews ■ ■ The US embassy in Delhi said the Trump administration has already taken critical steps to confront this crisis through a series of executive orders that secure its borders and combat drug trafficking | P7 Fentanyl is a potent synthetic opioid and drug. There have been reports in US of drug overdose deaths from consumption of fentanyl 70% of 1,07,000 drug overdose deaths in u.S. in 2024 were from fentanyl 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 Fresh Rahul-CEC India weighs Pak-Saudi def pact sparring on ‘vote theft’ in Karnataka Nato-style agreement to treat attack on one country as attack on both J AYA N TH J A COB @ New Delhi Sebi clean chit to Adani on Hindenburg allegations BE N N KOCHUVEED A N @ Mumbai MARKETS watchdog Sebi on Thursday dismissed all the charges levelled by the nowshuttered US -based short-seller Hindenburg Research against the Adani group, its founder Gautam Adani, his brother, and a few top executives including the group’s chief financial officer Jugeshinder Singh. The Hindenburg report had accused the group of share price rigging, insider trading, accounting fraud, and using offshore tax havens and shell firms to route funds. Sebi said its probe found no violation of regulations and that there were no related-party transactions. “I find that the allegations made against noticees are not established. Considering the above, the question of devolvement of any liability on the noticees does not arise and hence the question of determination of quantum of penalty also does not require any deliberation,” Sebi’s whole-time member Kamlesh Chandra Varshneya said in the final orders passed on Thursday . Accordingly Sebi decided to , “dispose of the instant proceedings against noticees (Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone, Adani Power, Adicorp Enterprises, Gautam Adani and his brother Rajesh) without any direction”. The Adani group has repeatedly denied all the allegations made in the Hindenburg report released in January 2023. Reacting to the order, Gautam Adani said Gautam Adani said: “The Sebi orders have reaffirmed what we have always maintained that the Hindenburg claims were baseless. We feel the pain of the investors who lost money because of this fraudulent and motivated report. Those who spread false narratives owe an apology .” INDIA on Thursday said it would assess the security implications of the newly signed Strate gic Mutual Defence Agreement between nucleararmed Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, amid concerns over shifting power dynamics in the Middle East and South Asia. The pact, signed on Wednesday during Pak Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif ’s official visit to Riyadh, marks a major upgradation of defence ties between the two countries. It includes a mutual defence clause that says “any aggression against either of the two countries shall be considered as an aggression against both”. The accord was signed in the presence of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom’s de-facto ruler, and Pakistan’s powerful army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir, highlighting its strategic weight. The agreement, finalised days after Israeli airstrikes on Qatari soil targeting Hamas leaders, has the potential to reshape regional security alignments as many Gulf states are now questioning the long-term I m p l i c at i o n s f o r I n d i a India to assess the Pak-Saudi deal’s impact on national security and regional stability 1 Future military conflicts with Pak could technically evoke a response from Saudi Arabia 2 India worried about nuclear proliferation as Pak is expected to provide N-cover to the Saudis 3 Energy security, diaspora safety India is expected to weigh not just the military dimensions of the pact and also its broader strategic implications on energy security, diaspora safety, and the evolving balance of power in the Gulf. Over 8 million Indians live and work across the Gulf, with a substantial population in Saudi Arabia Pak PM Shehbaz Sharif (left) with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman after signing a pact in Riyadh | AP reliability of the US as a security guarantor. It also comes months after the military conflict between India and Pakistan following Phagalgam attack. Reacting to the development, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) offered a measured response. “We have seen re- ports of the signing of a strategic mutual defence pact between Saudi Arabia and Pakistan,” MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said. Pakistan’s decades-old alliance with Saudi Arabia, home to Islam’s holiest sites, is deeprooted in shared faith, strategic interests, and deep econom- six still missing, 2 dead as rain batters uttarakhand SDRF personnel during a search operation in Nanda Nagar area of Chamoli district in Uttarakhand on Thursday | pti na r e n d r a s e t h i @ Dehradun TWO people were killed, five rescued alive while six people are missing as landslides and flooding triggered by heavy rain flattened more than 40 houses in four villa g es of Uttarakhand’s Chamoli district on Thursday . The deceased were identified as Narendra Singh (42) and Jagdamba Prasad (70). Of the six people still missing, four are from Kuntari Lagaphali and one each is from Kuntari Lagasarpani and Dhurma. All four affected villages — Kuntari Lagaphali, Kuntari Lagasarpani, Sera and Dhurma — come under the Nandanagar area, 260 km from Dehradun. Nandanagar is already reeling from land subsidence. Four people were rescued alive in Kuntari Lagaphali and one in Dhurma village, the State Emergency Operation Centre (SEOC) in Dehradun said. Chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami directed officials to ensure adequate arrangements is made for shelter, food and water and other amenities for those affected. Those seriously injured, including a child, were airlifted to AIIMS in Rishikesh. Trouble mounts for Deepak with lens on 1st wife’s death A s i s h M e h ta @ Bhubaneswar A day after Commissionerate Police unraveled the gruesome murder of traffic constable Subhamitra Sahoo at the hands of her husband, Deepak Rout, his first wife’s sister lodged a complaint with police and sought a thorough probe into her sibling’s death in a road mishap. Subhamitra’s murder brought the focus back on the accidental death of Deepak’s first wife, Aparna Priyadarshini, who was a revenue inspector (RI). Aparna’s younger sister, Rojalin Rout submitted a complaint to police commissioner S Dev Datt Singh alleging that Deepak had possibly killed her to receive the insurance policy payout of `1.5 crore. Aparna and Deepak had married in April 2018. “He started harassing my elder sister three to four months after their marriage. Aparna had even lodged an online complaint with the Commissionerate Police back then. At about 8 pm on March 17, he telephoned us and informed us that she had sustained injuries in an accident near Khuntuni,” read Rojalin’s complaint. It further alleged that Deepak had shifted Aparna to a private hospital in Cuttack, where she succumbed. “We suspect it was a planned murder by Deepak to receive the insurance policy payout,” said Rojalin. She requested the city police to probe her sister’s death. Meanwhile, DCP Jagmohan Meena placed Deepak under suspension on Thursday Police . also arrested his relative and an associate on the day for assisting him to dispose of the vicContinued on P5 tim’s body  . ic interdependence. It also includes a longstanding military partnership. Between 1,500 and 2,000 Pakistani troops are currently deployed in Saudi Arabia, providing operational, technical, and training support, including to the kingdom’s air and land forces. While defence cooperation between the two nations is not new, formalising it into a mutual defence pact to include the nuclear umbrella marks an escalation that is likely to trigger close scrutiny in New Delhi. A senior Saudi official, speaking to the international media, acknowledged the complexities involved regarding India — a key Saudi partner.“Our relationship with India is more robust than it has ever been. We will continue to grow this relationship and seek to contribute to regional peace whichever way we can,” the official was quoted as saying. When asked whether Pakistan would provide Saudi Arabia with a nuclear umbrella, the official said: “This is a comprehensive defensive agreement that encompasses all military means.” Such comments are likely to be watched closely in India. Chabahar port in trouble as US ends sanctions waiver India’s key strategic connectivity project to Afghanistan and Central Asia is under a new challenge as the United States announced it will revoke the sanctions exemption for operations at Iran’s Chabahar Port from September 29 | P7 P r e e t h a N a i r @ New Delhi In yet another exposé on ‘vote theft’, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday claimed large-scale irregularities in Karnataka’s Aland constituency, accusing Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar of ‘protecting those murdering democracy’. Rahul charged that 6,018 voter names were deleted in Aland in a systematic manner using software, adding the CEC was complicit in the deletion as he refused to provide crucial data and take any action despite repeated requests from the Karnataka CID. However, the Office of the Chief Electoral Officer in Karnataka claimed it had handed over all information required for the probe to the Superintendent of Police, Kalaburagi district on Sept 6, 2023. In Delhi, the ECI said, “No deletion of any vote can be done online by any member of the public, as misconceived by Gandhi.” The fraud was exposed by chance when a booth-level officer discovered that her uncle’s vote had been deleted after a neighbour applied for the deletion of his vote, said Rahul. “However, the neighbour denied it. Some other force hijacked the process,” he added. Although the Karnataka CID sent 18 letters to ECI in a span of 18 months seeking destination IPs, device ports and OTP trails of the fake Form 7 applications, the poll body has not responded so far, he alleged. The deletions, he added, were at the top 10 booths where Congress holds strong influence and had won eight of them. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi at a press conference in Delhi | Parveen Negi ECI must stop protecting vote thieves. They should release all evidence to the CID within a week Rahul Gandhi, Cong leader Rahul said that an automated program chose the first name from each booth to delete votes, with mobile numbers from outside the state used to file fake applications. “Someone set up a centralised criminal operation to steal elections. In Aland, this operation filed 6,018 deleted applications by impersonating voters using automated filling of online EC forms,” he said. Suryakant, a Karnataka resident, said his identity was used to delete 12 voters in 14 minutes; however, he was unaware of the deletions. Rahul alleged that a fake login under the name ‘Godabai’ was used to delete the names of 12 neighbours, and the OTPs were sent to phones registered outside Karnataka. In another revelation, Rahul said he is getting help from people in the ECI in exposing the voter roll irregularities across the country . Congress gives notice for no-trust motion against BJP govt in Odisha Express News Service @ Bhubaneswar Just 15 months in power, the BJP government in the state is facing a no-confidence move with the Congress submitting a notice on the first day of the monsoon session of the Assembly, on Thursday . A delegation of Congress MLAs and the lone CPM MLA Laxman Munday submitted the notice for moving no-confidence motion to the Assembly secretary Satyabrata Sahu under section 117 (1) of the rules and procedures of the House. The notice said, “This House expresses no confidence in the present Council of Ministers led by Mohan Charan Majhi.” Leader of the Congress legislature party (CLP) Rama Chandra Kadam told mediapersons that they have submitted the notice of no-confidence against the gover nment and urged the Speaker to accept it for moving a no-confidence motion. He said that the notice has the signature of all the 14 Congress MLAs and Ready to face Opposition, retorts BJP Bhubaneswar: Even as the Congress moved a non-confidence motion notice against the government, the ruling BJP said it was ready to face the opposition on every issue. After a meeting of the BJP legislature party chaired by Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi, Parliamentary Affairs minister Mukesh Mahaling said the BJP has the numbers and the move by Congress was just a political stunt. “The government is working hard to fulfil the aspirations of people and welcomes every discussion in their interest but the Opposition has some other agenda,” he said. The BJPLP meeting was attended by the party’s national general secretary Tarun Chugh and state unit president Manmohan Samal. Cong members submitting no-confidence motion notice to Assly secy on Thursday one member of the CPM. Congress has also sought the support of BJD, the main opposition party, on the motion. “We had requested the BJD to bring a no-confidence motion against the government in the House. However, Congress has taken the initiative as the BJD did not make any move in this regard,” he said. Later, Kadam and senior Congress MLA Tara Prasad Bahinipati met deputy whip of the Opposition Pratap Deb and BJD MLA from Balikuda-Erasama Sarada Jena in the Assembly chamber of the leader of Opposition Naveen Patnaik to discuss the issue. However, the BJD does not seem to be interested to support a Congress-sponsored noconfidence motion against the government.  Continued on P5