MADURAI l tuesday l april 07, 2026 l `9.00 l PAGES 14 l late city EDITION three academics caught in ncert row approach supreme court The three academics in the NCERT book row moved the Supreme Court on Monday and said drafting of the content was a collective process trio has lots of credibility: defence special committee to vet revised chapter A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi was told the three experts, Professor Michel Danion, Suparna Diwakar and Alok Prasanna Kumar, were not fly-by-night persons and had credibility. On February 26, the court banned NCERT’s Class 8 social science book which contained ‘offending’ contents on corruption in the judiciary ■ ■ On March 11, acting tough against the three experts involved in the drafting of the controversial chapter, the top court had directed the Centre and all state governments to disassociate from them The court was informed Monday that a committee comprising former SC judge Justice Indu Malhotra will review the revised chapter 14 days is when the supreme court bench meets again to hear the case 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 Both sides reject Pak proposal on truce, Israel hits South Pars again Trump calls ceasefire plan ‘very significant’ but not enough to end the ongoing conflict day The convicts in the Sathankulam custodial death case being taken away from the court premises on Monday evening (top); Kin of the victims speaking to reporters | k k sundar Sathankulam case: All nine policemen sentenced to death J E G A D E E S W A R I PA N D I A N @ Madurai In a groundbreaking verdict, the 1st Additional District and Sessions Judge of Madurai, G Muthukumaran, on Monday, imposed the death penalty on all nine policemen who were convicted for the custodial torture and death of two traders — P Jeyaraj and his son Beniks — at Sathankulam in Thoothukudi in 2020. The nine convicts were identified as, then ‘Policemen inspector S Sridhar, then sub inspectors P should have Ragu Ganesh and K Balakrishnan, then head spoken up’ constables S Murugan and A Samidurai and The trial court constables M Muthuraja, S Veil Muthu, S judge said he Chelladurai and X Thomas Francis. cannot distinguish Referring to similar incidents, including who among George Floyd’s murder in the United States the convicts and recent killing of Ajithkumar in Ma- had beaten the dapuram, the judge observed that custodial deceased more, nor killings are a social evil and an assault on could he accept human rights. “When there is power, there the explanation should be responsibility. The policemen in- that some convicts volved misused their power and like the fence engaged in the eating away at grass, they took the life of two crime out of fear of higher officials. common men, a father-son duo, by stripping They should have them of their clothes and beating them spoken up, he throughout the night, merely because Jeyaraj added scolded them and Beniks tried to prevent them from assaulting his father,” the judge said, adding that the judgment should serve as a warning so that such incidents do not recur. Clarifying why a life sentence is not enough in such cases, Muthukumaran said, “If a life sentence is given, police officials may get emboldened that they can come out of jail after serving it.”  P5 CBI tasked with probing CM nepotism S U C H I T R A K A LYA N M O H A N T Y @ New Delhi The Supreme Court on Monday directed the CBI to conduct a preliminary inquiry into allegations that various government contracts in Arunachal Pradesh were awarded to firms linked to Chief Minister Pema Khandu’s family . “We order CBI to conduct a preliminary inquiry The CBI to . submit a status report within 16 weeks on whether an independent investigation is required or not,” said a bench headed by Justice Vikram Nath. The court was hearing a PIL filed by two NGOs, Save Mon Region Federation and Voluntary Arunachal Senaa, alleging that most government contracts in the state were being illegally awarded to the Khandu family . The NGOs sought a probe by a Special Investigation Team into the charges. The court in its order said the CBI’s preliminary inquiry shall cover awards of contracts from 2015 to 2025. Senior Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the petitioners, had during the arguments pointed out that 31 contracts had been awarded in 11 years to Brand Eagles, owned by the CM’s wife. Another company called Frontier Associate, owned by the CM, got 91 contracts with a total value of `145 crore, he said. anti-CEC notice rejected in both Houses Rajya Sabha Chairman and Lok Sabha Speaker rejected notices for a motion for the removal of CEC Gyanesh Kumar | P9 38 A g encies @ Dubai IRAN and the United States received a draft proposal late Sunday calling for a 45-day ceasefire and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. The proposal, tentatively dubbed the ‘Islamabad Accord’, came from Egyptian, Pakistani and Turkish mediators, hoping the 45-day window would provide enough time for talks to reach a permanent ceasefire. It was sent to Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and US Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff. Iran on Monday rejected the proposal. News agency IRNA said, “Iran... has rejected a ceasefire and insists on the need for a definitive end to the conflict.” Iran’s refusal for truce came after the head of intelligence for Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, Maj Gen Majid Khademi, was killed in an attack targeting him in Tehran. File photo of the South Pars gas field in the southern Iranian port town of Assaluyeh, which was hit by an Israeli missile strike on Monday | AFP Oil refiners to postpone maintenance shutdown Two more LPG tankers sail through Hormuz Indian oil refiners are planning to postpone maintenance shutdowns of their units to meet domestic production of LPG, petrol, and diesel. According to a top official, some refineries of Indian Oil Corporation and BPCL have already planned shutdowns. Two more Indian-flagged LPG tankers have crossed the Strait of Hormuz and are headed for Indian ports even as 16 other vessels remain stranded. Green Sanvi carrying 46,650 tonnes of LPG will reach India on April 7 while Green Asha with 15,500 tonnes will reach on April 9. For his part, US President Donald Trump said the truce proposal was a “very significant step,” but not enough yet to end the conflict. The Revolutionary Guards s a i d t h e y w i l l av e n g e Khademi’s killing, adding preparations were on to enforce new operating conditions 55% of voters remain excluded even after review: West Bengal Bengal, said the appellate tribunals should pass interim orders for those prima facie found THE West Bengal government wrongly excluded. on Monday told the Supreme The bench, however, declined Court that as many as 55% of the submissions and refused to voters whose names were re- set any deadline for the tribumoved from the electoral rolls nals to decide on the appeals. stand excluded even after the The court noted the electoral adjudication of claims list needs to be frozen and objections. at some point in view “Out of these 60 lakh of the upcoming Ascases, available data of sembly elections, but 40 lakh cases indicates it was leaving the decithe exclusion rate is sion to the appellate 55%,” said senior lawtribunals. yer Shyam Divan, apThe CJI asked the pearing for West BenCalcutta High Court gal Chief Minister Tribunals will go on chief justice to conMamata Banerjee. hearing and we do stitute a three-memA bench headed by not want to rush it, ber panel of former but we need to Chief Justice Surya senior judges to frame freeze the list Kant and comprising uniform procedures somewhere... j u s t i c e s Jo y m a l ya for these tribunals. Bagchi and Vipin Pan- Appellate process “Let the committee can take a month choli, noted that 59.15 prescribe the proceor even 60 days lakh out of 60.06 lakh dure by tomorrow Supreme Court cases were decided by (Tuesday) so that adApril 6 noon. judication of appeals Divan argued that the rejec- can be expedited,” it said and tion rate is very high despite fixed the matter for further the judicial safeguards. “These hearing to April 23. were mapped individuals. SevIn another decision, the court en lakh objections have already directed the NIA to take over been filed and several lakh ap- the probe into the gherao of jupeals are in the process of be- dicial officers engaged in SIR ing filed,” he said. work in Malda after noting seSenior advocate Kapil Sibal, rious allegations against the appearing for the State of West local police. S U C H I T R A K A LYA N M O H A N T Y @ New Delhi in the Strait of Hormuz. Iran’s central military command warned of “much more devastating” retaliation if enemies hit civilian targets. Word of Iran’s rejection came while Trump addressed an Easter event on the White House lawn. Asked if Tuesday at 8 pm Washington time was his final deadline for Iran, Trump replied, “Yeah.” Israel’s defence minister Israel Katz said they struck a petrochemical facility in Iran. “The IDF has now strongly attacked the largest petrochemical facility in Iran located in [Asaluyeh],” he said, adding the facility in the Pars region services Iran’s South Pars natural gas field, and produced around half of the country’s petrochemicals. Strikes on cities across Iran killed more people on Monday , while in Israel’s Haifa, victims were found dead in rubble following an attack. Israel said four people were killed in Haifa. Oil prices fluctuated, with North Sea Brent at $109 a barrel and US West Texas at $112.  ‘Islamabad Accord’: P11 eleventh hour DMK’s Gandhi files nomination despite party naming his son N imisha S Pra d ee p @ Ranipet In an unusual turn of events, Handlooms Minister and Ranipet MLA R Gandhi filed his nomination papers to contest from the Assembly constituency for the seventh time on Monday, despite the ruling DMK dropping his name from its candidate list in favour of his son. Although the DMK has maintained radio silence on the unannounced change in candidate for the constituency, Gandhi told reporters he was filing his papers as per the party leadership’s instructions. “My son has also come with me to file my nomination. There are so many unnecessary comments spreading on social media,” he said. Just hours earlier, his son Vinod Gandhi, who was announced as the DMK’s Ranipet candidate last week, confirmed he would not be contesting. “Considering my father’s strong desire to contest once again, I have decided to respectfully step aside and return this opportunity to him,” he said in a Facebook post.  P5 Half of 6.7K nominations comes on ‘auspicious’ last day; EPS & OPS too join E x p ress N e w s S er v ice @ Chennai Mamata Banerjee addresses a public meeting in Nadia on Monday | pti ‘Stalin, Congress in cahoots with BJP’ Kolkata: Mamata Banerjee on Monday alleged that the BJP had entered into a “tacit understanding” with the Congress and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin, saying many officers from Bengal had been sent to the southern state as poll observers. Also, the EC transferred around 500 officers in Bengal compared with a handful in other pollbound states, she alleged As of Monday, the last date for filing nominations for the upcoming Assembly election, over 6,700 nominees have entered the fray to contest from 234 seats in Tamil Nadu. On Monday alone, over 3,300 candidates submitted their nomination papers. Of the 6,740 nominations uploaded to the ECI website by 10 pm on Monday, 5,497 were from men and 1,241 from women. Two nominations were filed by trans persons one from the Villivakkam Assembly constituency and the other from the Radhapuram seat. A host of leaders of various political parties, including AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami, former CM O Panneerselvam, Union Minister L Murugan, DMDK general secretary Premallatha Vijayakant, DMDK youth wing secretary Vijaya Prabhakaran, BJP state president Nainar Nagenthran, PWD Minister Duraimurugan, IT Minister Palanivel Thiaga Rajan, HR&CE Minister P K Sekarbabu, Handlooms and Textiles Minister R Gandhi, former minister S P Velumani, TNCC president K Selvaperunthagai, BJP women’s wing president Vanathi Srinivasan, former BJP state president Tamilisai Soundararajan and PMK candidate Sowmya Anbumani, filed their nominations on Monday. After filing his papers for the Edappadi constituency, Palaniswami told reporters that the AIADMK’s electoral prospects are bright and that the AIADMK-led NDA alliance will win 210 seats.  P5 Palaniswami filing his nomination for Edappadi seat | PTI Final list to be out on April 9 Scrutiny of nominations will be held on April 7. The last date for withdrawal of nominations is April 9, when the final list of candidates will also be announced Assembly elections symbolic test for udhaya at chepauk I P6 Rahul bats for puducherry’s statehood I P4 Security scare at Delhi Assembly as private car breaks through the iron gate E x p ress N e w s S er v ice @ New Delhi IN a major security breach at the Delhi Assembly on Monday afternoon, an unauthorised private car entered the premises after ramming through one of the boundary gates. The car with an Uttar Pradesh registration number stayed inside briefly and came out. The driver of the Tata Sierra placed a flower bouquet in the Speaker’s official car parked on the porch before fleeing, triggering a a major security scare at the Vidhan Sabha. The intruder hit a big gate and a boom barrier before en- Accused followed farmers’ agitation: Police Police sources said the accused, identified as 37-year-old Saravjeet Singh, a resident of Pilibhit in Uttar Pradesh, is believed to be a follower of the farmers’ agitation. Uttar Pradesh Police reached the residence of Singh in Pilibhit and questioned his family members, who claimed he was suffering from mental health issues and was undergoing treatment tering the area via gate number 2, which is a VIP gate. Several police teams, including the bomb squad and dog squad, rushed to the spot. A Forensics team also came to the spot and lifted the exhibits from near the gate and the area where the bouquet was placed. The bouquet was also checked. Police checked the CCTV footage and intercepted the car at Roop Nagar area in north Delhi. Three persons, including the driver identified as Sarabjeet Singh, were intercepted. Forensic team inspecting Delhi Assembly premises on Monday | Sayantan Ghosh Deputy Commissioner of Police (north) Raja Banthia said that around 2.10 pm, a whitecoloured Tata Sierra bearing re gistration number UP26AZ8090 forcefully entered the premises of the Delhi Assembly through gate number-2. “One individual alighted from the car and proceeded towards the porch area carrying a bouquet and a garland of marigold flowers. The Vidhan Sabha was not in session. During the incident, the accused drove the vehicle in a dangerous manner with intent to run over security personnel on duty thereby endangering their , lives,” the DCP said.