KOLLAM l friday l september 25, 2026 l `10.00 l PAGES 12 l city EDITION India’s Russian oil imports hold at 1.8 million barrels per day India’s Russian crude imports held at 1.8 mn bpd in September as stronger Chinese buying curbed flows, but West Asian suppliers filled the gap lost volumes replenished by gulf nations giving up russian crude will be pricey India imported 2.82 mn bpd of Russian crude in July, which slipped to 2.08 mn bpd in August, according to global commodities data and analytics firm Kpler. Iraq and Saudi made up for the drop in Russian volumes. Iraq supplied 505,000 bpd of crude this month, up from 163,000 bpd in Aug. Saudi volumes rose to 576,000 bpd in Sept from 347,000 bpd last month ■ ■ The outlook for Russian supplies could become more complicated if the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia Act of 2026 results in tougher restrictions on countries continuing to buy Russian oil Nikhil Dubey, lead analyst at Kpler, said India can technically replace Russian crude, although the shift would come at a higher cost 2022 is when India became an important buyer of Russian crude 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 Demand to sack BJP seeks to corner UDF, LDF in payoff row CEC snowballs, Rahul urges him to turn approver E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @T’Puram Assam rules for compulsory regn of Muslim marriages P r a s a n ta m a z u m d a r @ Guwahati THE assam government on Thursday approved rules for compulsory registration of Muslim marriages and divorces in the state. The rules prohibit registrations that contravene the legal age of marriage—18 years for females and 21 years for males. Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said the government had earlier taken a decision that kazis would not register Muslim marriages. “Today, the Cabinet approved the Assam Muslim Marriage Registration (Compulsory) Rules, 2026. Muslim couples will now be able to register their marriages with the registrars of marriages,” Sharma said. He said the government will allow panchayat officials to register marriages if there are a large number of applications. E x p r e s s Re a d Chipsan Aviation facilitated CM’s flight T’Puram: Putting Chief Minister V D Satheesan further on the defensive, it has now emerged that Chipsan Aviation, a Delhibased company seeking renewal of its helicopter lease agreement with the state government, had facilitated his free air travel from Thiruvananthapuram to Malappuram on Sept 21. P4 Seeking to put both the UDF and LDF in the dock, the BJP cited a page it claimed was from a CMRL “pay-off diary”, purportedly listing the names of prominent leaders from both fronts, including Chief Minister V D Satheesan and Leader of the Opposition Pinarayi Vijayan. BJP state vice-president Shone George, who displayed the page at a press conference in Thiruvananthapuram on Thursday, demanded a CBI probe into the allegations, contending that the state police Pa r v e z S u lta n @ New Delhi The demand to sack Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar gained more momentum on Thursday with Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi suggesting he turn approver as an act of nationalism. The Congress also reached out to the Opposition parties to step on the gas amid the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) issuing a 48-hour ultimatum for Kumar to resign so as to seize the political initiative. Pressure on Kumar built up after a media report revealed that fellow election commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had objected to decisions pertaining to the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls on multiple occasions but the CEC had brushed them aside. Congress sources said the INDIA bloc is set to file a notice in two weeks in both Houses of Parliament seeking removal of the CEC. This will be the Opposition’s third bid to impeach Kumar. In April, 73 Opposition MPs moved an impeachment notice in the Rajya Sabha, accusing the CEC of acting in a partisan manner. The notice is still pending. Meanwhile, the Congress directed its state units to organise protest marches to their respective State Election Commission offices on Friday demanding the immediate arrest and , removal of Kumar and a review of decisions and electoral roll changes made under him. Addressing reporters here, Rahul accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Home Minister Amit Shah of conspiring in ‘vote chori’ (vote theft) that benefitted the BJP in elections. Rahul claimed Modi and Shah would be investigated in due course of time for what they had done to the Indian electoral system, which he termed “anti-national” and an “attack on the idea of India”. “Kumar must resign immediately…This is not just some small rigging of an election. This is an attack on the constitution of India. …And the people who are responsible for this are going to get punished,” he said, warning the CEC to seriously consider the position he’s in. “He should turn approver.” he added. CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke also demanded Kumar resign within 48 hours or the outfit would launch another nationwide agitation on the lines of its Jantar Mantar protest in P7 June this year.  Gyanesh Kumar, CEC We are going to cooperate with the Opposition parties. It is our sacred duty to protect the Constitution and vote Rahul Gandhi, Congress leader ECI refutes charges The ECI on Thursday claimed changes to Form 6 and functioning of its digital platform, ECINET were both in accordance with the law CJP’s 48-hr deadline CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke demanded CEC Gyanesh Kumar resign in 48 hours to ensure free and fair polls. If not, CJP would launch a nationwide agitation Sensex, Nifty tumble to 3-month low 3pm Closing 4pm 73,000.00 73,580.54 Change 1247.71 (-1.67%) sensex 1pm 74,000.00 In the red 11am Stock markets tumbled on Thursday with benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty tanking over 1.6%—the steepest singleday decline in three months— as geopolitical tensions jacked up Brent crude oil prices and US bond yields hit a 19-year high, triggering an across-theboard selling pressure. Nifty 50 fell 1.64% to close at 23,063 while the Sensex slipped 1.67% to 73,580 on Thursday . Global sentiments, too, re- 75,000.00 9am ARSHAD K HA N @ New Delhi main muted as US equities fell sharply amid signs of further monetary tightening. Brent crude oil prices rose 2% to $106/bbl, amid growing uncertainty over US-Iran ties. The US 10-year Treasury yield surged to around 5.11%, its highest level since 2007. Elevated US bond yields mean more risk-free returns for foreign institutional investors, who tend to divert liquidity away from emerging markets. Experts say Indian equities are likely to remain weak in the near term as investor sentiment has turned risk-averse amid lingering uncertainties around inflation and economic growth. In the absence of positive triggers, the sentiment will remain cautious, they add. cannot impartially investigate a case involving the chief minister and other ruling front leaders. Shone alleged that the document, which he said was published by an online news channel, showed that both UDF and LDF leaders received payments from CMRL. However, he dodged a direct question on whether the document had selectively omitted the names of BJP leaders, The government-ordered preliminary inquiry could delay a fullfledged probe and potentially result in the dilution or destruction of evidence — Shone George, BJP state vice-prez Distress or convenience? Gold loans of banks hit record `1.48L cr in state Pledging yellow metal Banks with highest gold loan portfolio as on June 30, 2026 (Dcr) SBI 28,623.32 Canara Bank 25,828.92 Federal Bank 12,202.39 SIB 7,873.67 BoB Source: SLBC-Kerala 6,920.41 CSB Bank 5,444.79 R a j e s h A b r a h a m @ Kochi Households in the state are increasingly turning to their gold for liquidity, pushing bank gold loans to a record `1,47,948.91 crore as of June 30, 2026, even as bankers insist that the yellow metal is rapidly shedding its image as a last-resort source of cash. For the first time, agri-gold loans issued by banks alone crossed the `1-lakh crore mark, reaching `1,06,726.41 crore at the end of June 2026, according to the latest data from the State Level Bankers’ Committee (SLBC). The numbers tell a striking story. Total gold loans provided by the banks — both nationalised and private — in the state jumped by `45,294.31 crore, or 44.1%, in two years, from `1,02,654.60 crore in June 2024. The increase is particularly sharp in the non-agricultural segment, where outstanding loans rose from `25,428.08 crore to `41,222.55 crore — an increase of nearly 63%. Agri-gold loans, meanwhile, rose by nearly `29,500 crore during the period. The surge comes at a time when household budgets are under pressure from rising living costs and gold prices have climbed sharply, offering borrowers a bigger loan amount against the same quantity of jewellery Whether the numbers point to greater . financial stress or simply a change in borrowing habits, the growing dependence on gold as a source of liquidity is hard to miss. Bankers, however, see this as a structural shift rather than distress alone. “Gold loans are now increasingly treated as a mainstream and regular credit product, and are no longer considered a last-resort pledge. Gold loans, historically dominated by informal lending channels, are now moving to organised lenders like banks and dedicated gold loan NBFCs,” said Anto George T, executive vice-president and chief operating officer of South Indian Bank. ● More on P4 Asian games Iran’s rower trained through war, bombings to win gold Indraneel Das Express @ asian games Nagoya I magine training to compete at the Asian Games, in double sculls rowing. An event where your endurance and the precise coordination you have with your teammate, developed through hours and hours spent together in the water, mean everything. Now, imagine doing that, except there is no water and no teammate. All you have is an ergometer. That, and the sound of mis- Kimia Zarei siles dropping outside her home in the Iranian city of Hamadan, was all that Kimia Zarei had to get in shape for the Games in Nagoya. Yet on Tuesday, she and her partner Zeinab Norouzi won gold in the women’s lightweight double sculls. Iran’s rowers are among the strongest at the Games. The war back home could not break their spirit or resolve as Iran won two gold, as many silver and a bronze. “We were bombed everyday,” Zarei remembers her preparation. “When I was training at home, I would hear the sound of bomb explosion. It was close to our home and when you go to the window, you can see everything.” Zarei and her fellow athletes had their practice at Urmia cut short. On the first day of the war, the federation sent athletes back home. Each of them were given an ergometer to train. Hat-trick of Asian Games medals for Roshibina India’s wushu athlete Naorem Roshibina Devi made the most of a second chance at the Games on Thursday. After initially failing to qualify in the selection trials, she bounced back to win a silver medal in the women’s 60kg sanda event on Thursday. In the process, she completed a hat-trick of medals at the Games (2018, 2023 & 2026) saying, “Let that also be inquired.” Shone claimed the page carried the names of several prominent UDF and LDF leaders, along with details of payments. He alleged that the entries suggested the purported pay-offs extended beyond CPM-linked figures already under scrutiny in the CMRL-Exalogic case. UDF leaders are also involved. The BJP leader questioned the credibility of the Crime Branch special investigation team constituted by the state government, arguing that the state machinery could not independently probe allegations involving the CM and other ruling-front leaders. “The government-ordered preliminary inquiry could delay a fullfledged probe and potentially result in the dilution or destruction of evidence,” he said. The demand comes after the state government ordered a preliminary inquiry by a Crime Branch SIT into findings shared by the Enforcement Directorate in the CMRL-Exalog● More on P4 ic case. Hope Chinese companies in US are treated fairly, Xi tells Trump a g en c i e s @ Washington PRESIDENT Donald Trump opened Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s state visit on Thursday by celebrating their ‘truly great friendship’ even as the two confront a crowded list of disputes between the world’s biggest economies. Xi, on his first visit to Washington in a decade, called for the US and China to manage their superpower rivalry and keep artificial intelligence under human control, apart from making a case of ease of access for Chinese companies in the US. “I hope Chinese firms are treated fairly here,” he said. Xi said achieving the “great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and making America great again can go hand in hand.” He also announced an invitation for 1 lakh young Americans to visit China for study exchange programmes over the next five years. “Let us meet the people’s expectations and show our historical initiative, let us keep advancing the cause of friendship between our two peoples and work together to build a better world,” he said. In his opening remarks, Trump said, “Working together, President Xi and I have made tremendous strides on the issues facing our two countries.” P9