HYDERABAD l tuesday l september 22, 2026 l `9.00 l PAGES 16 l late cITY EDITION key infra sectors’ growth slows to three-month low of 4.8% in Aug The output of nine sectors slowed to 4.8% in August amid fall in coal, natural gas, crude oil, and fertiliser production, official data showed Four sectors register negative growth Fertiliser output down for 6th mth in row Production of coal, natural gas, crude oil, and fertiliser contracted by 3.8%, 4.9%, 3.6% and 12.4% respectively, compared to the same period last year. Output in the refinery products, steel, and iron ore sectors grew, albeit at slower rates of 2.6%, 3.4% and 5.5% respectively, as against 3.4%, 15.3% and 7.9% in August 2025, the government data showed ■ ■ Cement and electricity production grew by 12.5% and 11.6%, respectively, in August. Fertiliser output contracted for the sixth consecutive month in August amid the West Asia crisis The deceleration was broad-based, with six of nine sectors reporting a deterioration in performance, Rahul Agrawal of ICRA Ltd said 5-6% Predicted drop in the Index of Industrial in August 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 Sonia’s poll roll entry case back under judiciary’s lens Article 22(1), (2) SC adds more safeguards for re-arrest Special judge raps magistrate’s ruling, says it mustn’t flirt with facts s u c h i t r a k a lya n m o h a n t y @ New Delhi u d aya n k i s h o r e @ New Delhi Express Read Disqualification: SC to hear Danam plea on Wednesday Hyderabad: The Supreme Court will hear on Wednesday the petition filed by Danam Nagender challenging the Telangana High Court order disqualifying him as an MLA. On Monday, senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for Nagender, sought an urgent hearing before the apex court, citing the possibility of the Election Commission of India taking steps to fill the vacant Khairatabad Assembly seat. The bench headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant agreed to list the matter on Wednesday. A Delhi court on Monday set aside a magistrate’s order that had declined to direct a probe into allegations that Congress leader Sonia Gandhi’s name was entered in the electoral roll three years before acquiring Indian citizenship in 1983, and sent back the matter for fresh consideration. Special Judge Vishal Gogne, while hearing a revision petition by advocate Vikas Tripathi, vice-president of the Central Delhi Court Bar Association at Rouse Avenue courts, held that the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate (ACJM) had passed a “non-speaking order” that “suffers from a manifest error in law”. Tripathi’s complaint alleges that Sonia’s name was unlawfully entered in the electoral roll of the New Delhi Parliamentary Constituency in 1980, Casual dismissal The court said rather than finding if the allegations constituted a cognisable offence, the ACJM “casually dismissed the extract of the electoral roll as being a photocopy of the photocopy of uncertified roll of 1980.” though she acquired citizenship only on April 30, 1983. The name was deleted in 1982 but re-entered in 1983, before she became a citizen, the complaint said. “An order of the court must maintain fidelity towards the law, and not flirt with facts,” the judge said. “The sanctity of the electoral roll is an article of f a i t h fo r every citizen in a parliamentary democracy Gogne said any .” allegation of fraudulent inclusion of a non-citizen or use of false documents “merits a reasoned order”. The judge said the ACJM did not discuss the sequence of inclusion, deletion and re-inclusion of Sonia’s name in 1980, 1982 and 1983. He also found that the magistrate did not hear the police or call for a status report, as Section 175(3) of the BNSS requires before ordering an investigation. The magistrate also failed to weigh two options open in law: directing an FIR, or examining the complainant and witnesses. The matter, posted for September 29, was sent back to ACJM cour t for a fresh hearing. IIT Bombay apologises for cheating charge on Sahil S u d h i r S u r ya w a n s h i @ Mumbai Faculty forum backs professor IN the face of student protests, IIT Bombay on Monday apologised and withdrew its earlier statements on the death of Sahil Wakode. It also removed Suryanarayana Doolla, booked for abetment of suicide and under provisions of the SC/ST Act, from the post of Dean of Administrative Affairs. The institute on Saturday claimed that Sahil, a secondyear engineering student, had been caught using ChatGPT by Doolla in an exam hours before he died by suicide. The Maharashtra government has handed the probe into the death to the IIT Bombay’s Faculty Forum on Monday issued a statement backing Doolla (pic), saying he was merely carrying out his duties under Senateapproved academic regulations. The IIT Madras Faculty Association too expressed solidarity with Doolla while condoling the death of Sahil Wakode Mumbai Crime Branch. In a statement posted on X on Monday the institute said, “We , apologise for the statements contained in our earlier communication concerning the circumstances surrounding the unfortunate demise of Sahil.” “In view of the ongoing investigation, it was inappropriate to have set out or character- ised details relating to the events preceding his demise before they had been duly established through the appropriate investigative process,” the institute said. IIT Bombay also clarified that its director, Shireesh Kedare, had not resigned. The institute has agreed to discuss and act on an 18-point charter of demands raised by student protestors, following a latenight meeting between Kedare and protesters on Sunday . The 18 demands include suspension of Doolla, who was invigilating the exam, an independent inquiry with student and external representation, greater administrative accountability, mental-health reforms, and assurances that no action will be taken against protesting students. Sahil’s is the fourth death by suicide at IIT Bombay in seven months. His father Ravindra Wakode has alleged that his son had been subjected to caste discrimination. (From left) Himanshu Dhillon, Rudrankksh Patil and Parth Rakesh Mane after winning silver medal in the 10 metre rifle men’s team event in the ongoing 20th Asian Games 2026, in Nagoya, Japan on Monday | pti Row in rowing camp after changes in eleventh hour I f true, this is something unheard of during any Games, let alone something as big as the Asian Games. The athletes are confused and have threatened to stay away from practice if the need arises. According to sources, some of the rowers have been shifted from their pet events while another athlete, a reserve at first, is in line to feature. This seemingly happened after the morning practice on Monday A small recap. . Initially the rowing events were scheduled to start on Mon, day However, with an impending weather system threatening . to hit the city the start was pushed back to Wednesday Mean, . while, the team management shunted athletes from one category to another, which according to some, is not possible because the rules do not allow it. There is a section that says changing team composition is a norm depending on the Indraneel Das conditions. Officials close to the develExpress @ asian games opment said the case is not Nagoya what it looks like. There is another section that says things might change on Tuesday as combinations have not been finalized yet. A top official explained that the change was made in consultation with the foreign coach Antony John Patterson. The logic is simple. The schedule got truncated because of the presence of a typhoon. In a late development here, officials are even saying that the number of combinations may reduce by Tuesday . One of the officials said that they made the changes to increase the chances of winning medals. “Because the tournament days have been reduced, it would be impossible for the rowers to compete multiple times since rowing is an exhausting sport,” said one official. “The change in combination was based on the truncated schedule and the weather conditions,” said an official who is part of the team.  P11 IN a far-reaching order, the Supreme Court on Monday said if a person is not informed of the grounds of his arrest in writing and in a language understood by the accused, it would amount to a violation of his fundamental rights, rendering the arrest illegal. “An arrested person must be provided the grounds of arrest by the probe agency at the time of arrest and it must be in written form and in language understandable to the arrested person,” said a two-judge bench of justices Ujjal Bhuyan and Atul Chandurkar. The court, further, ruled disciplinary proceedings be initiated against any police officer who arrests a person without furnishing the grounds of arrest in writing. The court made these observations while holding as illegal the arrest of Jaskaranjit Singh, Shiromani Akali Dalaffiliated Mullanpur Dakha constituency in-charge, in a case of alleged sexual assault of a minor. The court said the grounds of arrest were not furnished to Singh, adding its orders have to be followed for offences even under PMLA and UAPA cases. It also held that police must seek a magistrate’s permission to re-arrest a person released by a court for not furnishing grounds of arrest in writing. Articles 22(1) and 22(2) of the Constitution, which say no person can be arrested without being provided grounds of arrest, and that every person arrested be produced before a magistrate within 24 hours, can’t be tinkered with, the court said. Land records missing, Erravalli farmers seek passbooks Express News Service @ Siddipet revelry & remains GHMC sanitary workers sweep up confetti scattered during a Ganesh idol immersion procession on NTR Marg in Hyderabad on Monday | SRI LOGANATHAN VELMURUGAN Pointing out that they have been unable to avail bank loans or access government schemes after details of their lands went missing from the Dharani portal, farmers of Erravalli and surrounding villages have urged the authorities to issue them new pattadar passbooks. The farmers said that after the previous BRS government introduced the Dharani portal, details of their lands disappeared from the website and they were not issued new passbooks. As a result, they said, they were unable to access bank loans, Rythu Bandhu and Rythu Bima for nearly 10 years. Their demand comes as the Erravalli farmers show the notices asking them to produce their land documents land survey in Survey No. 325, adjacent to former chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s farmhouse in Erravalli, continued for the fourth consecutive day on Monday . Officials have already identified the total extent of Survey No. 325 and established its outer boundaries. They are now fixing individual boundaries for farmers cultivating the land. Survey No. 325 covers about 388 acres and is associated with 225 farmers. In accordance with revenue records, officials issued notices to farmers asking them to appear at their respective lands with available documents so that their claims could be verified and boundaries fixed. Following the notices, farmers arrived at the survey site with their old pattadar passbooks and other documents, following which the boundaries of their lands were fixed. While some farmers had initially opposed the survey, questioning its purpose, they are now asking officials to complete the exercise, fix the boundaries and issue new pattadar passbooks. The survey of land belonging to around 80 farmers was completed on Monday. Officials said the remaining work was likely to be completed within the next one or two days. Meanwhile, the boundaryfixing exercise has also triggered objections from residents of neighbouring Shivar Venkatapur and Damarakunta villages. For the past two days, residents of Shivar Venkatapur have alleged that land belonging to their village had been included in Survey No. 325. On Monday, farmers from Damarakunta also approached the officials, alleging that land belonging to their village had been merged with Erravalli. They submitted a representation to the officials, demanding that the survey numbers corresponding to the lands in their villages be surveyed separately and that the lands be restored to their respective village records. Auto driver beaten to death Not official entry, but Angh enters Oscars race with Toronto win over change for `20 fare a l t e r n a t iv e r ou t e B H H a r s h @ Mumbai Had lost out to Marathi film Gondhal as official pick Nagaland film Angh, which was in the running for India’s official Oscar entry but lost to Gondhal, has now earned a direct qualification for the 99th Academy Awards after it won the Platform Prize at the 2026 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). The Platform jury, led by filmmaker Pablo Trapero, awarded the film the festival’s top prize in the section. Angh, directed by Naga filmmaker Theja Rio, had lost out to Marathi film Gondhal, directed by Santosh Davakhar, in the race to become India’s official entry for the Oscars 2027. Another film in the running was Imtiaz Ali’s Main Vaapas Aaunga. The 99th Academy Awards will be held in Los Angeles in March next year Under the new eligibility rules introduced by the Academy this year, any non-English language film can enter the International Feature Film Competition if it wins a designated award at any one of the six prominent international film festivals — the Golden Bear for Best Film at Berlin, the Busan Award for Best Film at Busan, the Palme d’Or at Cannes, the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize at Sundance, the Plat- form Award at Toronto and the Golden Lion at Venice. With its Platform Award at Toronto, Angh now stands eligible for a nomination in the International Feature Film category next year at the 99th Academy Awards that will be held in March 2027. Set in the early 1960s in Nagaland, Angh tells the story of a former village chief and his young son who are part of one of the last communities holding on to an ancient way of life. Their solitary and alienated existence is disrupted by the arrival of an American missionary compel, ling them to confront questions of faith, cultural identity and a changing world in their relationship. Express News Service @ Hyderabad A 42-year-old auto-rickshaw driver died after allegedly being assaulted by a group of men following an argument over change for a `20 fare at Vattepally under Falaknuma police station limits on Sunday evening. The victim, Mohammed Mukarram, was a resident of Vattepally Police have taken . two persons, Azeem, 30, and Shoaib, 28, into custody in connection with the incident. According to Falaknuma police, Mukarram was travelling with his wife and daughter when a woman hailed him near Ayaan Darbar Hotel to go to Nice Hotel in Vattepally on ride sharing basis. The fare was `20. On reaching the destination, the woman allegedly offered a `200 note and later a `100 note. Mukarram told her he did not have change.  continued on P5