MADURAI  WEDNESDAY  AUGUST 26, 2026  `9.00  PAGES 14  LATE CITY EDITION SUPREME COURT DIRECTS TEJPAL TO SURRENDER WITHIN THREE WEEKS SC directed journalist Tarun Tejpal to undergo his 10-year rigorous imprisonment in a 2013 rape case in which he was convicted by the Bombay High Court APPEAL AGAINST HC ORDER TO BE HEARD IN SEPT HEARING SUBJECT TO SURRENDER CERTIFICATE A bench of Justice Alok Aradhe dismissed Tejpal’s plea seeking exemption from surrendering. “The application seeking exemption from surrendering is rejected. However, the appellant is granted three weeks’ time to surrender and file surrender certificate before this court,” the bench said in its order. SC posted his appeal challenging his conviction and sentence on Sept 22 ■ ■ “In case the surrender certificate is filed on or before September 21, 2026, the registry shall list the criminal appeal for hearing on September 22, 2026 before the regular court,” the bench said The former editor of Tehelka magazine was convicted of raping a junior colleague inside a hotel elevator in 2013 in Goa | P11 AUGUST 6 WHEN BOMBAY HC CONVICTED TEJPAL TO 10 YEARS RIGOROUS IMPRISONMENT 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 Missile tech transfer to Govt to retain, repurpose Parandur land pvt sector gets approval C S H I V A K U M A R @ Chennai 1 Several DcPP programmes have moved forward. At a salvo launch of NASM-SR from Sea King helicopter in April, two missiles were fired in quick succession 2 The DRDO conducted first flight trial of TARA from a Jaguar, converting a 500-kg bomb into a guided stand-off weapon. Gaurav has completed release trials from Su-30MKI 3 File photo of a Pralay test-fire, a quasi-ballistic missile | PTI Astra Mk-2, with a range of 200+ km, is also learnt to be among the first major systems to be offered to pvt firms. COMM, Adani, Bharat Forge, Tata and Mahindra are among contenders Fake harassment plaint: Student tries to kill self EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ Mayiladuthurai A Class 12 student of a Government Higher Secondary School in Mayiladuthurai allegedly attempted to die by suicide on the school premises on Tuesday after the headmaster, Indhirakumar, allegedly scolded her for not backing his sexual harassment complaint against a teacher of the school. After being alerted by other students about her attempt to end her life, teachers rushed her to Mayiladuthurai GH. Her condition is stable. Sources said the HM had earlier lodged a complaint with the education department officials alleging that a teacher had sexually harassed female students, claiming that five students had complained to him about the teacher’s alleged inappropriate P7 behaviour towards them. CIA CHIEF IN MOSCOW FOR RARE IN-PERSON TALKS FlightRadar24 spotted C-17’s arrival in Moscow’s Vnukovo international airport. CIA boss John Ratcliffe was its pax | P11 J A V A R I A R A N A @ New Delhi manufacture the systems “as per applicable qualifications, THE government on Tuesday certifications and regulatory cleared the transfer of technol- requirements”, the ministry ogy for all conventional missile said. The DRDO will retain resystems developed by the De- sponsibility for design certififence Research and Develop- cation and quality assurance. ment Organisation (DRDO) to It marks a further shift away Indian industry for domestic from the traditional model unproduction, opening a wide der which a DRDO missile, afswathe of the country’s indig- ter development and user trienous guided-weapons portfo- als, was assigned to a nominated lio to private manufacturers. production agency for series Defence minister Rajnath manufacture, a role state-run Singh approved the transfer, in Bharat Dynamics Ltd (BDL) what his ministry dehas traditionally held scribed as an “imporfor much of the indigetant milestone” in exnous missile portfolio. panding industry It also follows the govparticipation in the ernment’s decision eardefence ecosystem. lier this year to open The ministry however, , tactical missile producdid not specify the intion to the private individual systems covdustry under the DevelThe initiative ered by the decision. aims to enhance opment-cum-ProducOfficials in the detion Partner (DcPP) operational fence establishment capability, reduce model, which brings import said the conventional companies into a proportfolio includes the dependence and gramme during develAkash and Akash-NG increase domestic opment rather than afvalue addition surface-to-air systems, ter it. DRDO has Defence ministry VSHORADS, Astra distributed around 10 to air-to-air missiles, the 12 tactical missile proRudram anti-radiation family, grammes among public and prianti-tank systems such as Nag, vate firms, with Adani Defence SANT and the man-portable and Aerospace, Bharat Forge, ATGM, the NASM-SR anti-ship ICOMM Tele and Solar Defence missile, indigenous land-attack and Aerospace as DcPPs. cruise missiles and Pralay the , Adani Defence is the DcPP quasi-ballistic weapon geared for the Rudram anti-radiation for conventional strikes. series, including the hyperson“Strategic missiles are a sepa- ic Rudram-II, which is to be rate category and will continue built at its Hyderabad facility, to be dealt with separately. and for NASM-SR. Bharat Hence, Agni and the K-series are Forge is a DcPP for the 1,000-kgnot part of this transfer. Simi- class Gaurav long-range glide larly BrahMos and MRSAM in- bomb and the TARA glide kit. , volve foreign partners and are It broke ground last month at governed by separate arrange- Shivpuri in MP, with composments,” the official said. ite-propellant and TNT producCompanies will be able to tion planned at the site. THE fate of 1,802 acres acquired for the now-scrapped Parandur air port project emerged as a fresh flashpoint in the Tamil Nadu Assembly on Tuesday, with the government indicating that it may not return the land to the original owners and would repurpose it for other uses. Industries Minister S Keerthana, in her reply cited Clause , 99 of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013, to contend that the acquired land could be put to an alternative public use. She said the land could be used for indus- Members of the Parandur Greenfield Airport Opposition Joint Movement met Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay at the Secretariat on Tuesday | EXPRESS trial projects that would not harm the environment or people living in the region, while g enerating employment. Though Clause 99 states that CALL TO REWORK IT AFTER CONSULTATION Kharge, Rahul demand scrapping of Census questionnaire on caste P R E E T H A N A I R @ New Delhi REITERATING the party’s demand for a drop-down list of castes, Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi have written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi demanding the scrapping of the existing questionnaire for it in the ongoing Census exercise and formulate a new one after consulting political parties, experts and the general public. Both leaders said they do not accept the caste census being conducted in the current manner and urged the government to take its cue from the caste surveys done in Telangana and Bihar. Briefing reporters on the letter, Congress general sec- The conundrum The same caste is known by different names, sub-castes, and linguistic variations across regions. If members of the same caste are recorded under different names, the caste could be fragmented into thousands of distinct names retary Jairam Ramesh said the government’s current efforts towards a caste census are just a “whitewash”. Ramesh said this is the third letter written by the Congress leadership to Modi over the issue but have not received any reply . “Your government has opted for an open-ended question Bihar job aspirants march to CM’s house R A M A S H A N K A R @ Patna PATNA witnessed dramatic scenes on Tuesday as thousands of students and job aspirants clashed with police after they were stopped from marching towards the chief minister’s residence to press for their key demands, which included a single-stage exam for teacher recruitment instead of holding separate Prelims and Mains. The protesters were also seeking the cancellation of Combined Competitive Exams held by Bihar Public Service Commission earlier this year, alleging irregularities. Police personnel use water cannons to disperse protesters in Patna on Tuesday | PTI The protesters pulled down the metal barricades and tried to break the security cordon. Some protesters pelted stones on security personnel. TN police torture led to Aakash’s death: CBCID V I G N E S H V @ Madurai THE final report filed by the Madurai CBCID in the custodial death case of R Aakash Delison has established that “his leg was broken by the policemen in a well-executed plan”. The report, which was shared with his family nearly a month after it was filed in court, said the injury led to the development of a fat embolism that cost him his life. The prosecution had earlier stated in court that the suspect sustained the fracture after allegedly jumping from a railway bridge while attempting to evade arrest on March 5. A selective portion of the copy of the report, available with TNIE, was given to Aakash’s family on Monday after it was submitted to the II Additional District Judge for Protec- tion of Civil Rights (PCR) cases in Madurai in June 2026 (the case is now pending before the Sivaganga District Court). Aakash was admitted to the Government Rajaji Hospital on March 6 with a fracture in the right leg and died two days later. In the remand report recorded by the Manamadurai Judicial Magistrate on March 7, Delison stated that police personnel had assaulted him with an iron rod, causing fractures, bleeding and severe pain. In the final report, the CBCID added that Aakash was taken to the outskirts of Manampakki village, where the policemen broke his leg. Regarding the offences committed by the six policemen, the CBCID said that the officers fabricated a false narrative that he had fallen from a bridge P7 while trying to escape. there can be “no change from the purpose or related purposes” for which land was originally acquired, it allows the government to use the land for Later, an eight-member delegation of job seekers met Bihar Chief Secretary Pratyaya Amrit, who said the matter would be cleared in two days. Water, baton charge Police first used water cannons to disperse the crowd but later resorted to baton charge as the protesters refused to relent and continued with their protest march US sanctions four India-based entities over Iran imports E X P R E S S N E W S S E R V I C E @ New Delhi HOURS after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced ‘Operation Economic Outcast’, the US on Tuesday sanctioned four India-based entities for importing petroleum and petrochemical products from Iran. Among those facing action is customs broker Portease Partners, along with its partners Indrismiya Ashrafmiya Sheikh and Harish Ramachandra Rangi. They allegedly facilitated the import of Iranian petrochemical products, according to a press note issued by the US State Department. The other firms are Sadashiva Overseas, PP Softtech and Prakrutees Infra Impex. PP Softtech director Prashant Garg has also been sanctioned. Sheikh, Rangi and Garg are Indian nationals, says the release. Sadashiva Overseas imported Iranianorigin petroleum products worth $69 million, while PP Softtech and Prakrutees Infra each imported products worth $25 million. The US alleged these firms were knowingly engaging in trade activities related to petroleum products from Iran. format to record caste details in the census, which is misleading. Under this method, whatever name an individual provides for their caste will be recorded as it is,” the leaders said in their letter. In India, the same caste is known by different names across different regions, they pointed out. Recording them as is would result in a list of hundreds of thousands of caste names, rendering the entire dataset useless. “An easy solution already exists: a drop-down list of castes should be created. This is the method adopted for the enumeration of SC/STs. Such a list can be easily compiled based on govt lists for Socially and Educationally Backward Classes,” they said. another public purpose if it becomes unusable for the original purpose due to a fundamental change arising from unforeseen circumstances, officials said. Speaking in the Assembly, Law Minister C T R Nirmal Kumar said that only 48% of the land required for the project had been acquired, rejecting former DMK minister Thangam Thennarasu’s claim that 90% of the land, including government and private land, had been acquired. “The total land required for the project is 5,846 acres, of which 3,774 acres is patta land and only 1,802 acres have been acquired so far. Of the 1,972 acres shown as government land, 1,558 acres are P7 waterbodies,” he said. EXPRESS READ Tamils death: K’taka transfers probe to CID Bengaluru: The Karnataka government on Tuesday has transferred four cases related to the shooting of three suspected poachers in Chamarajanagar district and the subsequent violence to the CID for further probe. John Rose Peter, Sebastian David Kumar and Anthony Swamy, all Tamils, were shot dead in the forest on August 15 | P7 TN passes resolution seeking TET exemption Chennai: The Tamil Nadu Assembly on Tuesday unanimously passes a resolution, urging the union government to permanently exempt teachers appointed before August 23, 2010, from TET, citing their long service and job security. The resolution noted that around 3.29 lakh TN government school teachers would have to clear the exam for promotions following the Supreme Court order | P4