HYDERABAD l Friday l January 09, 2026 l `9.00 l PAGES 36 l LATE CITY EDITION Sonam Wangchuk’s speech aimed to quell violence, Wife tells SC Jailed activist Sonam Wangchuk’s wife, Gitanjali J Angmo, told the SC on Thursday that facts are being manipulated to portray him as a criminal ‘not given full grounds of detention’ leh DM sticks to charges against activist Angmo said Wangchuk was neither given the “complete grounds” of his detention, not an opportunity for a representation against his arrest. “The tenor of the speech is not in any sense threatening the security of the state or that I will continue such activities or to propagate violence, but to quell it.” Wangchuk was detained under the NSA unfortunate events of violence in Leh on September 24 cannot be attributed to actions or statements of Wangchuk in any manner ■ The Leh District Magistrate had earlier told the court Wangchuk “indulged in activities prejudicial to the security of the state” ■ Angmo, in her plea through senior advocate Kapil Sibal, said the 12 months is the maximum detention period under the stringent nsa 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 More tariff terror Didi crashes ED’s I-PAC raid party, seizes key documents as Don okay with Russia curbs bill S U B H E N D U MAITI @ Kolkata Trump greenlights bill that could impose 500% levy on India for buying Russian oil Ukraine is making concessions for peace and Putin is all talk, India could face punitive US continuing to kill the innotrade action in the form of tar- cents,” Graham said. iffs as high as 500% after PresiThe bill has been spearheaddent Donald Trump reportedly ed by Graham alongside Demoagreed to let a long-pending leg- cratic Senator Richard Blumenislation on Russian sanctions thal and has accumulated move forward, potentially set- dozens of co-sponsors in the ting up a Senate vote as early as Senate, with a companion measnext week. ure introduced in the House of Republican Senator Lindsey Representatives. Its stated aim Graham said on Wednesday that is to choke off funding for ‘RusTrump had “greenlit” sia’s war efforts’ by the bipartisan bill aftargeting energy revUS exits the ter they met at the Solar Alliance enues that have reWhite House. “Presimained more or less In a setback to dent Trump will allow steady despite earlier global climate the sanctions bill to Western sanctions. move forward,” Gra- cooperation, Trump Under the proposal, ham said, and added formally withdrew the US would impose the US from the that a vote could come tariffs of at least 500% soon, though the bill’s International Solar on all Russian goods Alliance, a flagship and services importfate in Congress rerenewable energy ed into the United mains uncertain. The legislation, for- initiative co-led by States. Crucially, the mally titled the Sanc- India & France | P7 same level of duties tioning Russia Act of would also apply to 2025, seeks to impose steep tar- imports from countries that iffs and secondary sanctions, “knowingly” purchase Russianrunning as high as 500%, on origin oil, gas, uranium and pecountries that continue to do troleum products. business with Russia, particuThe bill also mandates visa larly those importing Russian bans and asset freezes on senenergy. India and China, the ior Russian officials and forworld’s two largest buyers of eign entities found to be supplydiscounted Russian crude since ing defence equipment to the start of the Ukraine con- Moscow, while directing the flict, would be directly in the Treasury Department to sancfiring line. tion Russian state-owned finan“This will be well-timed, as cial institutions. J aya n t h J a c ob @ New Delhi SC slams Cab Sec for not filing affidavit on pvt univ regulation S U CHITRA K A LYA N M O HA N T Y @ New Delhi The Supreme Court on Thursday slammed the Cabinet Secretary to the Union of India for flouting its directions to file an affidavit in connection with the regulation of private universities in the country . “We are really surprised as to how the Cabinet Secretary was under the misconception that despite a categorical order of the court that the affidavit has to be affirmed by him, he has not filed it and has instead been filed by the Secretary of the Higher Education Department,” a bench of justices Ah- sanuddin Amanullah and N V Anjaria said. They had in November 2025 directed a nationwide audit of private universities after it found that Amity University had harassed a student for changing her name. The court said it is getting loads of letters and petitions, some of them with evidence, from across India on the matter. West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee comes out of I-PAC chief Pratik Jain’s house with a green folder in hand, which she said contained her party’s documents | pti She then proceeded to the IPAC office in Salt Lake and spent an hour there. Her security personnel were seen taking away several files. The ED said the raids were not against any political party , adding that simultaneous searches were conducted at 10 locations in Delhi and West Bengal in connection with a multi-crore coal scam. Later in the day, the ED moved the Calcutta High Court against Mamata alleging interference in its investigation. The HC is expected to take up the matter on Friday . G RAM G designed to benefit Adani & Ambani, alleges CM Centralised kitchens for state hostels on the anvil E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Hyderabad Describing the BJP-led NDA government as “anti-poor”, Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy on Thursday said that one of the reasons behind replacing the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) with “G RAM G” was to provide low-cost labour to large corporate houses such as Adani and Ambani. He said the move was aimed at weakening the economic security of the rural poor and curtailing their rights. The chief minister said the Congress planned to take the is- SRI LOGANATHAN VELMURUGAN Hyderabad: Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy on Thursday instructed officials to allocate a higher number of Young India Integrated Residential Schools (YIIRS) to girls and asked them to prepare plans to set up one centralised kitchen for every two Assembly constituencies | P4 sue to the public and announced that senior party leaders Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi would be invited to address a major public meeting in Mulugu as part of a statewide campaign. He said these meetings would focus on safeguarding constitutional values and welfare programmes. Addressing the TPCC extended executive committee meeting at Gandhi Bhavan, Revanth said the BJP-led Union govern- Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy with party colleagues Mahesh Kumar Goud and Meenakshi Natarajan on Thursday | More joy for buyers: No more RTO visit S i d d h a r d h a G at t i m i @ Hyderabad Buyers of new two-wheelers and cars will no longer be required to physically present their vehicles at Regional Transport Offices (RTOs) for first-time registration. Presently only temporary , registration numbers are provided at dealers. Under the new procedure, authorised automobile dealers will submit permanent registration applications online on behalf of vehicle buyers. Dealers will upload key documents including the invoice, sale certificate (Form-21), road-worthiness certificate (Form-22), insurance details, proof of address, buyer’s photograph and signature, and photographs of the vehicle, engine number and chassis number. Applications submitted by dealers will be scrutinised by the registering authority or additional registering authority The . authority will approve or reject the applications and allot registration numbers. The registration certificate (RC) will then be sent directly to the vehicle owner through Speed Post. To ensure compliance and prevent misuse, officials of the Transport department, including Motor Vehicle Inspectors, will be empowered to conduct random inspections of vehicle stock at authorised dealerships.  continued on p5 M a d h av Ga d g i l ( 24 M ay 1 9 4 2 – 7 Ja n 2 0 2 6 ) People’s scientist who gave Nature a voice Dr Vinitaa H Apte Founder & Director, TERRE policy centre M adhav Gadgil, the ecologist many called the people’s scientist, passed away in Pune on the night of January 7, after a brief illness. He was 83. With him goes a rare kind of public intellectual — one who believed that science must walk hand in hand with society That na. ture is best protected when people are trusted as its custodians. Gadgil lived by the ethic he quietly embodied: simple living and high thinking. A Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan awardee, and a recipient of the United Nations’ Champion of the Earth Award, he was globally respected, teaching and lecturing in 16 countries. Yet his work remained deeply rooted in India’s landscapes — its forests, hills and villages — and in the lives of those who depend on them. THE Enforcement Directorate (ED)’s raids at the office of political consultancy firm I-PAC and the residence of its director Pratik Jain in Kolkata on Thursday in connection with a money laundering probe turned into high drama as West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee stormed in and took away some documents. Mamata, who entered Jain’s house at Loudon Street with police escort while the ED searches were still going on, came out with a green folder, which she claimed contained details of TMC candidates for the upcoming Assembly polls. “They were confiscating my party’s documents and hard disks, which have details about our party candidates for the assembly polls. I have brought those back,” she said. I-PAC, which offers political consultancy to the TMC, also manages the party’s IT and media operations. Banerjee alleged ED officials walked away with TMC’s internal strategy documents. “Is it the duty of the ED to collect political party data?” she asked. He founded the Indian Institute of Ecology and was instrumental in shaping India’s environmental consciousness. The Silent Valley movement, widely regarded as the country’s first major environmental movement, bears his imprint. Later, as chairman of the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel, he led the preparation of a report that continues to challenge policy-makers and citizens alike. It asked difficult questions about development, biodiversity and justice — and refused easy answers. What set Gadgil apart was his ex- traordinary accessibility He spoke in . simple, lucid Marathi, translating complex ecological science into ideas communities could claim as their own. Knowledge, he believed, must never remain locked in institutions. His research consistently foregrounded marginalised voices and championed community-led conservation across forests, wetlands and fragile ecosystems. One of his most enduring contributions was the establishment of the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve in 1986, now India’s largest protected area. It reflected his conviction that conservation thrives when people are partners, not obstacles. To students, whom he mentored generously he of, fered the same message: begin with what surrounds you. Observe closely and care deeply . Gadgil is survived by a son and a daughter. His wife, Sulochana Gadgil, a distinguished meteorologist, passed away in July 2025. His final rites were held at Pune’s Vaikuntha crematorium on January 8. ment was using its majority in Parliament to push policies that were against the interests of the poor and marginalised communities. The meeting was held under the leadership of TPCC president B Mahesh Kumar Goud, with AICC state incharge Meenakshi Natarajan, ministers, MLAs, DCC presidents and other party leaders in attendance. Returning to his criticism of the Centre, Revanth said nearly 80% of the country’s population depended directly or indirectly on MGNREGA, which had helped provide livelihood security and dignity to rural households.  continued on p4 35 PJTAU students face action over question paper leak|P2