WEDNESDAY X 04 FEBRUARY, 2026 DENIED THE CHARGES AND TERMED THE INVESTIGATION ‘POLITICALLY MOTIVATED’ epaper.morningstandard.in facebook.com/TheMorningStandard X.com/TheMornStandard AFTER TENSIONS TRUMP TO HOST COLOMBIA’S PETRO PARIS PROSECUTORS RAID X OFFICES The search at the offices of Elon Musk’s social media platform was part of a preliminary probe into a range of offences, including child porn The President is set to welcome his Colombian counterpart for talks weeks after accusing Gustavo Petro of pumping cocaine into the US. CHARGES INCLUDE DENIAL OF THE HOLOCAUST A CAPITAL VIEW OF NEWS PAGE 9 BIG DEAL Sensex soars 2,072 points, investors richer by `12 lakh cr No word from India yet on halting oil purchases: Russia The equity markets gave a thumbs up to the US tariff cut with the Sensex zooming 2,072 points and the broader Nifty closing above 25,700 on Tuesday. Stock investors’ wealth surged by `12.10 lakh crore following the sharp rally in equities in response to the positive news | P10 Russia has not heard from India about stopping Russia oil purchases, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. He added that Russia will continue to develop its relations with India. Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said that Kremlin is closely monitoring the situation | P7 Jt statement soon, not opening up agri, dairy to US: Goyal P U S H P I TA D E Y @ New Delhi INDIA’s sensitive sectors, including agriculture and dairy, will remain protected under the trade deal with the US, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said on Tuesday . “Interests of farmers have been safeguarded. There has been no compromise on sensitive sectors like dairy and agriculture,” Goyal said, adding that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has consistently paid attention to the welfare of stakeholders in these sectors. Goyal’s clarification came after US Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins claimed in a social media post that the new deal would allow exports of more American farm products to India’s massive market, thus lifting prices and pumping cash into rural America. A commerce ministry official said that no new items of agriculture will be allowed to be imported; the deal will include only some products that are currently allowed, such as dry fruits. On Monday Trump announced that , the US tariff on Indian goods would be cut from 25% to 18%. He said Washington would also remove the additional 25% tariff imposed on New Delhi as a penalty for buying Russian oil. Trump also said India has agreed to $500 billion worth of imports from the US. In a clarification, India’s commerce ministry said the $500 billion imports would be spread over five years, primarily driven by imports for India’s data centres and global capability centres. Thus, imports from US could touch $100 billion annually — up from $45.62 billion merchandise imports in 2024. Goyal said the deal will open up huge opportunities for India’s labour-intensive sectors. A joint statement is likely this week followed by a fact sheet. According to sources, as of now only the framework addressing the tariff challenges has been negotiated. Quad gets lifeline, Trump may visit India this year J AYA N T H J A C O B @ New Delhi EVEN as the fine print of the India-US trade deal is awaited, key political and strategic doors appear to be opening from the revival of Quad momentum to the possibility of US President Donald Trump visiting India later this year. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio are set to hold talks in Washington, DC on Tuesday at 3.30 pm EST (around 2 am IST on Wednesday), amid heightened anticipation over the India–US trade deal. At the heart of the announcement is Trump’s claim that India’s “reciprocal tariff ” rate would be reduced from 25% to 18% under the deal. White House sources have also indicated that the additional 25% duty imposed on India in August for purchasing Russian oil would be eliminated. However, as of now, there is no executive order, legally required for tariff changes to take effect. New Delhi, for its part, has remained cautious. There has been no formal response to Trump’s assertion that India has stopped buying Russian oil, and officials are waiting for the Office of the US Trade Representative to share the detailed contours of the agreement. The proposed 18% headline tariff places India in a relatively favourable position compared to competitors Vietnam, Bangladesh, Malaysia, and China. But experts say the real impact will depend on the fine print. “Purchase of oil is largely left to the companies and many of them are in the private sector. They will purchase oil which is most cost-competitive,” said ex-foreign secretary and Rajya Sabha MP Harsh Vardhan Shringla.  NEW DELHI  J8.00 PAGES 12 Martial artist to be Manipur CM P R A S A N TA M A Z U M D A R @ Guwahati MARTIAL artist-turned-politician Yumnam Khemchand Singh (62) of BJP is set to become the new chief minister of Manipur. He may have a woman Kuki leader, Nemcha Kipgen, as the deputy chief minister to bridge the ethnic divide. The swearing-in is expected on Wednesday . The state’s BJP MLAs, who met in New Delhi on Tuesday, elected Khemchand — a two-time MLA, former minister and former assembly speaker representing Singjamei in Imphal valley — as the BJP legislature party leader. A subsequent meeting of the NDA at Manipur Bhavan endorsed the BJP’s decisions. The NDA includes six MLAs of National People’s Party, five of Naga People’s Front and three Independents. The day’s developments signalled the withdrawal of President’s rule that was imposed on February 13 last year for six months and later, extended by another six months. It will expire on February 13. Khemchand’s attempt to break the ice in the ethnically partitioned state by visiting Kuki-Zo villages in Naga-majority Ukhrul and Kamjong districts was the first hint on him being the chosen one for the next CM. P R E E T H A N A I R @ New Delhi WITH the face-off between the government and the Opposition sharpened over blocking Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi from speaking in the Lok Sabha on the Sino-Indian border issue, seven Congress members and one CPI-M MP were suspended on Tuesday for ‘throwing papers’ at the Chair. The suspended members are Gurjeet Singh Aujla, Hibi Eden, C Kiran Kumar Reddy, Amarinder Singh Raja Warring, Manickam EXPRESS READ Mamata to argue in SC today on SIR challenge West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee will be present in the Supreme Court on Wednesday during the hearing on the petitions challenging ongoing special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the state. According to sources, Banerjee, who has an LLB degree, will argue in the case in CJI’s court as she herself is the petitioner, in which she has made the EC a party. | P8 BJP keeps poll promise on free LPG cylinders Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta on Tuesday announced that all ration card-holding families in the national capital will be provided financial assistance equivalent to the cost of two LPG cylinders per year. This assistance will be extended on the occasions of Holi and Diwali, she said. She said the prescribed amount will be provided through direct benefit transfer. | P3 Tagore, Prashant Padole and Dean Kuriakose (all Congress) and S Ventakesan (CPI-M). There was a massive uproar after Rahul was stopped by the Chair from continuing with his reference to an article on former Army Chief Gen M M Naravane’s unpublished memoir in his reply to the Motion of Thanks to the President’s Address. He resumed his speech after authenticating the magazine article with the Chair. EXPRESSING serious concern over data sharing by social media platforms WhatsApp and Meta, the Supreme Court on Tuesday came down heavily on the companies, saying, “You can’t play with the right to privacy in this country”. Hearing a batch of appeals filed by WhatsApp and Meta, a bench headed by CJI Surya Kant said, “You (WhatsApp and Meta) have to follow the rules. We will not allow you to share a single piece of information. You can’t play with the right to privacy in this country You might have . taken the data of millions of people. This is a decent way of committing theft of private information. We will not allow you to use it.” The bench said that the manner of data sharing amounted to a “mockery of constitutionalism” and questioned how user consent could be considered valid when acceptance of the policy was compul- DRDO successfully tests long-range supersonic missile | P7 ‘Romeo-Juliet law for consensual teenage ties under Pocso’ | P8 Only 273 availed funds for poor prisoners in two years | P7 BAD BRUSH Wingtips of Air India and IndiGo planes that brushed each other at the Mumbai airport on Tuesday. Both aircraft suffered damages (inset) and were grounded | SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT Should cops not retaliate if criminals open fire, asks Yogi | P8 3 delivery boys beat bizman with helmet, batter him to death AN outing in Connaught Place ended in tragedy for a 36-yearold east Delhi businessman, when he was killed by three delivery boys allegedly with a helmet. The incident took place on the intervening night of January 2 and January 3. The police filed an FIR on January 4. The deceased has been iden- lice about a bleeding man lying unconscious on the road. According to the FIR, the caller informed the police that three men on a motorcycle had attacked a person with a helmet and fled from the spot. When police reached the spot, the caller informed them that he had not witnessed the incident, but called the police when he saw a crowd gathered there and While he tried to address the points without directly quoting the article, Krishna Prasad Tenneti, who was in the chair, objected and called the names of the next speakers from the Opposition side. However, the Opposition members refused to speak. Amid the chaos, the House was then adjourned till 3 pm as Opposition members protested, raising slogans and throwing papers. Earlier, though Speaker Om Birla called a meeting of the Opposi- tion and the treasury benchs to break the deadlock, it did not yield any result. Both sides remained firm on their stance regarding Rahul’s reference to the article quoting Gen Naravane. As soon as the House met at 3 pm, Dilip Saikia, who was in the Chair, named the eight ‘unruly’ members. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju then read out a resolution seeking their suspension for the remaining period of the Budget session. The resolution was passed by a voice vote. ‘Take it or leave it’ S U C H I T R A K A LYA N M O H A N T Y @ New Delhi PRESS INTAKE tified as Shivam Gupta, a resident of Laxmi Nagar, who had gone to Connaught Place with a friend on January 2. Later, an altercation seemed to have broken out between him and some delivery boys near E-Block, during which he was attacked by them. The Police Control Room received a call at around 1.30 am on January 3, informing the po- Khemchand was recently awarded a fifth-dan black belt by the Global Traditional Taekwondo Federation (GTTF) in Seoul, South Korea. He is the only Indian to get a fifth-dan black belt from GTTF SC comes down heavily on WhatsApp, Meta, says ‘can’t play with data of Indians’ OFFENDER EPSTEIN PROBE TO AVERT CONTEMPT N I T I N R A W AT @ New Delhi Fifth-dan black belt holder LS suspends eight ‘unruly’ Opposition MPs CLINTONS WILL TESTIFY IN SEX Former US President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton agreed to testify in a House investigation into Jeffrey Epstein, but the Republican leading the probe said that an agreement had not yet been finalised | P9  The investigation was opened in January last year. It is looking into alleged “complicity” in possession and spreading of pornographic images of minors, sexually explicit deepfakes, denial of the Holocaust—which is a crime in France—and manipulation of an automated data processing system. came to know about the matter. The CCTV footage showed three people being involved in the incident. Shivam was rushed to Sucheta Kriplani Hospital. Victim’s father Anil Kant Gupta, who has two shops in Paharganj, said Shivam was shifted to another hospital on January 4 and underwent surgery. However, he died on January 19. Fight broke out at E-Block of CP A passerby called PCR and told the police that an unconscious man lay bleeding in Connaught Place. The police scanned CCTV footage and found an altercation between the victim and three other men. The top court was hearing appeals arising from the CCI order imposing a penalty of `213.14 crore on Meta for WhatsApp’s 2021 “take it or leave it” privacy policy. The SC was hearing a separate appeal filed by the CCI challenging the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal’s findings. sory The court noted that what had . been held against the companies was that the consent obtained was “manufactured consent.” The observations were made while hearing appeals arising from the CCI order imposing a penalty of `213.14 crore on Meta for WhatsApp’s 2021 “take it or leave it” privacy policy The court was hearing . a separate appeal filed by the CCI challenging the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal’s findings. Citing an example, the court asked whether a poor woman selling fruits on the street would under- stand the terms of the privacy policy. “You know your commercial interest, and you also know how you have made consumers addicted to the app, the bench said. Raising concerns about opt-out mechanisms, the court asked, “If the users have a right to opt-out, how will the users know this right exists? When it comes to opting out, the information is in a newspaper. How will a person know?” The SC asked WhatsApp to file an affidavit explaining its privacy policy and data sharing, and listed the matter for hearing on February 9. ‘Fabricated chargesheet’: 6 acquitted in 2020 riots case U DAYA N K I S H O R E @ New Delhi A city court has acquitted six accused in a 2020 northeast Delhi riots case, saying that the prosecution had “miserably failed” to prove the charges. It stongly criticised the police for record tempering and directed the Commissioner of Delhi Police to initiating action against police personnel who were allegedly responsible for filing a “fabricated chargesheet”. Additional Sessions Judge Parveen Singh passed the direction while acquitting Prem Prakash, Ishu Gupta, Rajkumar, Amit, Rahul, and Hariom Sharma, accused of being part of a violent mob during the riots that allegedly committed arson, vandalism, and looting near Azizia Masjid in Sudamapuri on February 25, 2020. The judge said, “I find that the prosecution has miserably failed to prove its case against the accused, and all the accused are acquitted of all the charges framed against them.” The judge observed that the case was built on “manipulated state- ments” and “unreliable testimonies”, while directing that the copy of the court order be placed before the police commissioner for initiating action against those responsible. “I must observe that the audacity and impunity with which the record was tampered with reflect a complete breakdown of the supervisory mechanism, because the fabricated chargesheet was forwarded by the supervisory officers,” the judge said in the order passed on January 31. The judge noted that several witnesses who initially said that they had not seen any rioters, later claimed to have identified specific accused by their names. He said that the video evidence relied upon by the prosecution was not proved in accordance with the law, lacking the mandatory certification under the Evidence Act. The judge added, “Had that mechanism worked as it is expected to work, the rights of the accused and the expectation of the society at large that criminal cases are investigated fairly would not have been bulldozed and pulverised.