COIMBATORE  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 | P9 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 Covers air-defence, air-to-air missiles & battlefield-strike weapons 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 J A V A R I A R A N A @ New Delhi per applicable qualifications, certifications and regulatory THE government on Tuesday requirements”, the ministry cleared the transfer of technol- said. The DRDO will retain reogy for all conventional missile sponsibility for design certifisystems developed by the De- cation and quality assurance. fence Research and DevelopIt marks a further shift away ment Organisation (DRDO) to from the traditional model unIndian industry for domestic der which a DRDO missile, afproduction, opening a wide ter completing development swathe of the country’s indig- and user trials, was assigned to enous guided-weapons portfo- a nominated production agenlio to private manufacturers. cy for series manufacture, a Defence minister Rajnath role state-run Bharat DynamSingh approved the transfer, in ics Ltd (BDL) has traditionally what his ministry described as held for much of the indigean “important milestone” in nous missile portfolio. expanding industry It also follows the participation in the government’s decision defence ecosystem. earlier this year to The ministry however, , open tactical missile did not specify the inproduction to the pridividual systems covvate industry under ered by the decision. the Development-cumOfficials in the deProduction Partner fence establishment (DcPP) model, which said the conventional brings companies into portfolio includes the The initiative aims a programme during to enhance Akash and Akash-NG development rather operational surface-to-air systems, capability, reduce than after it. DRDO VSHORADS, Astra import dependence has distributed around air-to-air missiles, the 10 to 12 tactical missile and increase domestic value Rudram anti-radiation programmes among addition family, anti-tank syspublic and private tems such as Nag, firms, with Adani DeDefence ministry SANT and the manfence and Aerospace, portable ATGM, the Bharat Forge, ICOMM NASM-SR anti-ship missile, in- Tele and Solar Defence and Aerdigenous land-attack cruise ospace as DcPPs. missiles and Pralay, the quasiAdani Defence is the DcPP ballistic weapon geared for con- for the Rudram anti-radiation ventional 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 on governed by separate arrange- a `2,500-crore missile complex ments,” the official said. at Shivpuri in MP, with comCompanies will be able to posite-propellant and TNT promanufacture the systems “as duction planned at the site. Coerced over fake harassment CWMA upholds order directing plaint: Student K’taka to release 9K cusecs to TN New Delhi: The CWMA on Tuesday upheld the CWRC’s recommendation directing the tries to kill self Karnataka govt to release water from its 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. She is under treatment and her condition is stable. Police sources said the headmaster had earlier lodged a complaint with higher officials of the education department alleging that a teacher had sexually harassed female students, claiming that five students had complained to him about the teacher’s alleged inappropriate behaviour towards them. The school education department conducted an inquiry into the complaint last month with the five students and several others. Sources said some students denied the allegations against the teacher during the inquiry , and that it later emerged, according to sources, that they had allegedly been pressured to file the complaint against the teacher at the HM’s instruction. Sources said the girl who attempted suicide on Tuesday was one of the students who deposed P7 before the inquiry team. reservoirs and ensure a flow of 9,000 cusecs at the Biligundulu border point to Tamil Nadu for 15 days. Tamil Nadu is expected to receive approximately 11.66 tmcft of water | P2 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 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 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 secretary Jairam Ramesh said the government’s current efforts towards a caste census are just a “whitewash”. 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 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 format to record caste details in the census, which is misleading. Under this method, what- ever 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 Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. Such a list can be easily compiled based on existing government lists such as those for Socially and Educationally Backward Classes and the list from the Anthropological Survey of India,” they said. Bengaluru: The Karnataka govt 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 House seeks TET relief for teachers appointed before 2010 Chennai: The TN Assembly on Tuesday unanimously passes a resolution, urging the centre to permanently exempt teachers appointed before August 23, 2010, from TET, citing their long service and job security. The resolution noted that 3.29 lakh TN govt school teachers would have to clear the exam | P4 (PCR) cases in Madurai in June 2026 (the case is now pending beTHE final report filed by the Ma- fore the Sivaganga District durai CBCID in the custodial Court). Aakash was admitted by death case of R Aakash Delison the Sivaganga police to the Govhas established that “his leg was ernment Rajaji Hospital on broken by the policemen in March 6 with a fracture in a well-executed plan”. the right leg and died two The report, which was days later. In the remand shared with his family report recorded by the nearly a month after it Manamadurai Judicial was filed in court, said Magistrate on March 7, the injury led to the deDelison stated that police velopment of a fat empersonnel had assaultFabricated bolism that cost him ed him with an iron narrative his life. The prosecurod, causing fractures, The CBCID said tion had earlier stated bleeding and severe that six police in court that the suspain. personnel had pect sustained the fracIn the final report, ture after allegedly fabricated a false the CBCID added that jumping from a rail- narrative that the Aakash was taken to way bridge while at- suspect had fallen the outskirts of Manfrom a bridge tempting to evade ara m p a k k i v i l l a g e, while trying to rest on March 5. where the policemen A selective portion escape from them broke his leg. Regardof the copy of the reing the offences comport, available with TNIE, was mitted by the six policemen, the given to Aakash’s family on CBCID said that the officers fabMonday after it was submitted to ricated a false narrative that he the II Additional District Judge had fallen from a bridge while P7 for Protection of Civil Rights trying to escape. V I G N E S H V @ Madurai Police personnel use water cannons to disperse protesters in Patna on Tuesday | PTI on security personnel. Police personnel first used water cannons to disperse the crowd but later resorted to baton charge as the protesters refused to relent. In the melee that followed, several protesters and security personnel were injured. A female demonstrator was seen lying unconscious. Several protesters were also detained. Later, an eight-member delegation of job aspirants met Bihar Chief Secretary Pratyaya Amrit in his office with a memorandum containing 15-point charter of demands. The chief secretary told the delegation that he would discuss with Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary and promised the matter would be settled in the next couple of days. FlightRadar24 spotted C-17’s arrival in Moscow’s Vnukovo international airport. CIA boss John Ratcliffe was its pax | P11 US sanctions 4 India-based entities over Iran imports @ New Delhi Tamils killed in firing: K’taka govt transfers probe to CID R A M A S H A N K A R @ Patna CIA CHIEF IN MOSCOW FOR RARE IN-PERSON TALKS EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE EXPRESS READ Patna erupts in chaos as job aspirants TN police torture led to march to CM’s house, clash with cops Aakash’s death: CBCID 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. The march, which started from the historic Gandhi Maidan that has witnessed many upheavals in the past, saw participation by a number of Left-wing activists affiliated with AISF and DYFI. Members of NSUI were also present. The protesters pulled down the metal barricades and tried to break the security cordon. Some protesters pelted stones 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. 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 facilitated the import of Iranian petrochemical products, according to the US State Department. The other India-based entities 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. Sadashiva Overseas imported Iranian-origin petroleum products worth $69 million from multiple companies, while PP Softtech and Prakrutees Infra each imported products worth $25 million, the US said. The companies were designated for “knowingly engaging in a significant transaction for the purchase, acquisition, sale, transport, or marketing of petroleum or petroleum products from Iran”. The sanctions are part of ‘Operation Economic Outcast’, announced by US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Monday. The fresh measures are aimed at cutting off potential sources of revenue for Iran. The US has also warned countries to reduce economic ties with Tehran or face action. Bessent termed the move an unprecedented campaign to sever Iran’s financial lifelines. Entities that continue to do business with Tehran may attract secondary sanctions.