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 ■ ■ chennai l wednesday l september 30, 2026 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l vellore EDITION Kiran Pahal, Prachi Choudhary, MR Poovamma & Vithya Ramraj celebrate after winning the women’s 4x400 relay final; (R) An ecstatic Neeru Dhanda after capturing a historic gold medal in the women’s trap event on Tuesday | pti Jaishankar’s big SC raps NSA detention of Sambhal accused message to US on Pak policy SU C H I T RA KA LYAN M O HAN T Y @ New Delhi The Supreme Court on Tuesday lit into the Yogi Adityanathled gover nment in Uttar Pradesh for the illegal NSA detention of Sambhal violence accused Mulla Afroz and imposed a cost of `10 lakh on it. Extrajudicial confession cannot be the sole basis for preventive detention, it ruled. A two-judge bench of justices Dipankar Datta and Sheel Nagu said: “Preventive detention cannot be based on inadmissible custodial confession. Custodial JAYAN T H JA C O B @ New Delhi HC quashes charges on SI couple in Kavin murder case JE G A D EES W AR I PAN D I AN @ Madurai Holding that call records and tower location alone are not sufficient to establish charges of criminal complicity the Madurai Bench of the , Madras High Court on Tuesday quashed the chargesheet filed by the CB-CID against K Saravanan and his wife Krishnakumari, both sub-inspectors, in connection with the alleged honour killing of techie M Kavin Selvaganesh in Tirunelveli on July 27, 2025. It also refused to order further probe in the case. The CB-CID had alleged that the sensational murder was a fallout of the intercaste relationship between Selvaganesh, an SC youth, and the daughter of the SI couple, hailing from a dominant backward community Justice R Vijayakumar . passed se parate orders on two petitions filed by the couple.  P5 india’s relationship with the US cannot move forward steadily if Washington does not fully appreciate New Delhi’s concerns over cross-border terrorism, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said amid renewed US engagement with Pakistan. Taking part at a session hosted by the Asia Society in New York, Jaishankar said terrorism remained one of India’s most consequential concerns and that a lack of understanding from a key partner could have a direct bearing on the relationship. “What for us in India is particularly important is the issue of terrorism,” Jaishankar said, adding that India had faced terrorism from a neighbouring country as part of what he described as a “deliberate, conscious policy” over several decades. “If something which matters so deeply to us, there isn’t enough understanding or appreciation or empathy of that, I think that creates a problem too,” he said. “If one of my primary concerns is not fully appreciated by my partner, then clearly there is an impact of that on the relationship.” The foreign ministger’s comments come against the backdrop of a complicated phase in India-US ties, marked by disagreements over tariffs and trade, India’s purchases of Russian energy and US’s renewed outreach to Pakistan. “We would certainly hope for and expect the (India-US) relationship to move on an upward trajectory,” Jaishankar said. “But I have to be real about the issues that we confront, and to the extent we are able to move ahead on some of these issues, I think we’ll have a better relationship.” Jaishankar also described India-China relations as significantly improved compared with the period immediately following the 2020 border standoff. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar addresses an event in New York | PTI Chinese air corridor India is exploring an alternative air corridor through China’s Xinjiang region to reduce the additional flying time and costs faced by Indian airlines due to the restrictions on Pak airspace Essar to build $15 bn plant Essar Group will invest $15 bn to build a steel plant in Iowa. US President Donald Trump said Essarbacked Mesabi Metallics will build “the largest steel plant in American history” confession can’t be the basis for NSA (National Security Act).” It termed the government action “unsustainable in law”. While setting aside the Allahabad High Court order which upheld the detention of Afroz under the NSA, the top court held that preventive detention cannot be founded on a confession allegedly made by Afroz while in police custody . The bench had on September 8 reserved its judgment on Afroz’s appeal against the Allahabad High Court order deny- ing him relief. The HC had initially granted him bail, but after the UP administration arrested him again, this time under the NSA on October 13, 2025, the HC refused to interfere with it. Afroz is alleged to be the mastermind behind the 2024 Sambhal violence that broke out soon after a court-ordered survey of the Shahi Jama Masjid. Four persons were killed in the riots. He was picked up after 54 days allegedly on the basis of his confession while in custody . At CWC meet, Congress seeks Gyanesh’s head, suspension of SIR m u k e s h r a n j a n @ New Delhi DEMANDING the immediate removal of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, suspension of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and restoration of 13.3 crore names allegedly deleted from the voter lists, the Congress on Tuesday stepped up its broadside and sought the resignation of PM Narendra Modi too, stating the CEC could not have done the “match-fixing” of polls sans his nod. The demands were made at a two-and-a-half-hour meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC), chaired by party president Mallikarjun Kharge and attended by for mer party ch i e f s S o n i a Gandhi and EC removal: AAP, DMK on same page Several leaders of the INDIA bloc will skip Wednesday’s meet. AAP and DMK have said they won’t take part, while SP’s Akhilesh Yadav has said he will send a senior leader to the meeting to be held in Delhi’s Constitution Club SC to hear plea against CEC next week The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to hear next week a fresh plea questioning whether Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar could take decisions unilaterally on behalf of the EC without concurrence of the other Election Commissioners Rahul Gandhi, along with senior leaders including Jairam Ramesh, K C Venugopal and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. The INDIA bloc meets on Wednesday to deliberate on the CEC and SIR row. “So, there are two forms of match-fixing: EVM match-fixing and voter list match-fixing, both are hap- pening,” Rahul said. Briefing the media after the meeting, Ramesh said, “Rahul has been raising these issues related to polls in Haryana, Karnataka, Maharashtra and some did not believe him. He has been proven right,” Ramesh said, while alleging “elections in India were neither fair nor transparent since 2014.” The UP government had opposed Afroz release, saying he could again instigate communal violence and disturb public order. On confession, it argued admissibility is to be decided during trial. “The requisite nexus between the material relied upon and the satisfaction recorded by the detaining authority is conspicuously absent... It does not become necessary for us to enter into the question of whether the offences... are of such nature as to fall within the ambit of affecting national security ,” the bench said. e x p r e ss r e a d HC warns of ‘grim’ risks of microplastics Chennai: Citing a TNIE health page article published on Sept 15, the Madras HC on Tuesday said that bio non-degradable microplastics breach human body barriers to get into blood vessels and if they cross the placenta and become part of the embryo, then the situation is indeed grim | P2 Cops facing case: HC seeks report Madurai: The Madras HC criticised the DGP for failing to furnish details of criminal cases pending against serving police officials and directed the Home Department secretary to submit a report with the details by October 1 | P2