MONDAY G7 TAKES AIM AT PUTIN’S WAR CHEST WITH GOLD IMPORT BAN 27 The Group of Seven on Sunday agreed to ban import of Russian gold in a bid to undermine Kremlin’s war efforts JUNE, 2022 MOSCOW TO LOSE ACCESS TO KEY MARKET epaper.morningstandard.in facebook.com/TheMorningStandard Gold is Russia’s second largest export item and a significant source of revenue for President Vladimir Putin and his allies. Since 90% of its gold exports go to G7 countries, especially Britain, the US-led ban will hit Russia hard. It will also hurt Russian oligarchs who have converted their assets to gold in a bid to shield them from Western sanctions twitter.com/TheMornStandard RARE FIND TIP-OFFS HELP FIND ANTIQUITIES Estimated to be around 4,000 yrs old, ancient cultural site found in UP A CAPITAL VIEW OF NEWS PAGE 7  NEW DELHI  J8.00  PAGES 12 MACRON PUSHES FOR CAP ON OIL PRICE To tighten the screws further, French President Emmanuel Macron urged oil producers to cap prices to limit Russia’s gains. The G7’s gold ban comes as Russia made significant gains in Ukraine’s east over the past week, taking full control of Severodonetsk and entering nearby city of Lysychansk | P9 BJP wrests UP seats from SP in LS bypoll Blow for AAP as pro-Khalistan leader wins Sangrur in Punjab; Tripura CM gets elected; Congress wins in Jharkhand E X P R E SS N E WS S E R V I C E @ New Delhi Eknath Shinde welcoming Uday Samant (R), to the rebel camp, in Guwahati | PTI Rebels move SC against disqualification notice S U D H I R S U R YA W A N S H I @ Mumbai THE ongoing power struggle in Maharashtra went up a notch on Sunday with the rebel Shiv Sena MLAs moving the Supreme Cour t against a disqualification notice issued to 16 of them, including Eknath Shinde, by the deputy speaker. A vacation bench of justices Surya Kant and J B Pardiwala is likely to hear the petition on Monday. The deputy speaker had given the rebels time till 5.30 pm on Monday to submit their response in writing. There was action in the Maharashtra Raj Bhavan as well, with Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari getting discharged from hospital after recovering from Covid. Shortly thereafter, he ordered security cover for all rebels and their families. Parallelly, the Centre granted Yplus CRPF security to 15 rebel Sena MLAs and their families following a recommendation by central security agencies to the Ministry of Home Affairs. As for the Sena, it kept up its tough talk amid further desertion. Higher education minister Uday Samant became the eighth minister to defect to the dissident camp. He did so after attending the party’s national executive meeting addressed by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Saturday . “We will never forget these traitors,” Uddhav’s son Aditya Thackeray warned. The eight rebel Sena ministers are Eknath Shinde, Gulabrao Patil, Dada Bhuse, Sandeepan Bhumare, Shambhuraje Desai, Abdul Sattar, Uday Samant and Bacchu Kadu. Another minister Bachu Kadu of Prahar Janshakti Party and an Independent minister from Sena quota, Rajendra Yedravkar, are with Shinde. Aditya is the lone Sena MLA minister left in the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi coalition. The other two Sena ministers who are still with the parent party are Subhash Desai and Anil Parab, but they are MLCs. Aditya claimed about 15-16 MLAs in the rebel camp were in contact with the parent party. “If they return, they would get a warm welcome,” he added. THE BJP wrested two prestigious seats from the SP in Uttar Pradesh while Punjab sent a pro-Khalistan leader to Parliament, dealing a stunning blow to the ruling AAP as results of , the Lok Sabha by-polls came in on Sunday . In the bypolls to seven Assembly seats in four states, the BJP won three on four in Tripura, while the ruling YSRC retained a seat in Andhra Pradesh, AAP in Delhi and Congress in Jharkhand. There were allegations of BJP goons indulging in violence after it lost the Agartala seat in Tripura to the Congress, with at least 19 people, including Tripura Congress chief Birajit Sinha, suffering injuries. In Uttar Pradesh’s BJP’s Dinesh Lal Yadav ‘Nirahua’ won from Azamgarh while Ghanshayam Singh Lodhi snatched the Rampur seat defeating SP’s Dharmendra Yadav and Asim Tripura Congress leader Birajit Sinha was injured during clashes Raja respectively by margins of 8,679 and 42,192 votes. Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and SP leader Azam Khan had vacated their Azamgarh and Rampur seats respectively, hence the bypoll. In Punjab, the ruling Aam Aadmi Party suffered a severe blow as Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) president Simranjit Singh Mann won in the San- grur Lok Sabha constituency, which is the bastion of Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann. Simranjit Singh Mann defeated AAP’s Gurmail Singh in a neckand-neck fight. However, Delhi did not disappoint the AAP as its candidate Durgesh Pathak comfortably retained the Rajendra Nagar Assembly seat by 11,000 votes. In Tripura, BJP Chief Minister Manik Saha won in Town Bardowali constituency, defeating Congress candidate Ashish Kumar by 6,104 votes. He needed a win to continue as the CM. The party defeated CPI(M) in its stronghold Jubarajnagar 4,572 votes. The saffron camp retained Surma while Congress wrested away its Agartala seat. In Andhra, YSRC retained Atmakur assembly constituency with its candidate Mekapati Vikram Reddy defeating BJP rival by 82,888 votes. Congress candidate Shilpi Neha T i rke y wo n J h a rk h a n d ’s P8 Mandar seat. Punjab: After 23 years, 77-year-old ‘Jarnail’ finally prevails from Sangrur H A R P R E E T BA J WA @ Chandigarh LUCK finally found Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) president Simranjit Singh Mann on Sunday after 23 years, as he defeated AAP’s Gurmail Singh in the Sangrur Lok Sabha by-election. His win comes at a time when he was virtually written off as a political force. Dubbed ‘Budda Jarnail’ by some of his critics, the 77-yearold is a former Indian Police Service officer, who resigned in protest against Operation Bluestar in 1984. He was elected to the Lok Sabha from Tarn Taran in 1989 and Sangrur in 1999. In 1989 election, he had won by a margin 4.6 lakh votes despite being lodged in Bhagalpur Jail. He later floundered in his efforts. One more interesting thing about Mann is that he never entered the Parliament as he wanted to attend the House with his sword — his trademark. Mann had contested the 2022 Assembly polls from Amargarh and was defeated by AAP’s Jaswant Singh Gajjanmajra by a margin of 6,043 votes. He however kept fighting elections from Sangrur as he knew the pulse of the area and continued to lose the polls, whether it was SGPC elections, assembly or Parliament. Before the election, he met slain singer Sidhu Moosewala’s father Balkaur Singh. The picture of Singh crying while being embraced by Mann was widely circulated. It perhaps worked for him as people trusted him as someone who feels their pain. Durgesh Pathak celebrates with supporters after winning the bypoll | PARVEEN NEGI AAP trounces BJP to win Rajinder Nagar bypoll I F R A H M U F T I @ New Delhi IN a confidence booster to the Aam Aadmi Party, its candidate Durgesh Pathak on Sunday trounced arch rival BJP’s Rajesh Bhatia in the Rajinder Nagar assembly by-election with a margin of 11,555 votes. While AAP bagged 55.76 per cent votes, the saffron party could muster 39.92 per cent. The Congress finished a distant third with just 2.79 per cent votes. As many as 545 votes went to NOTA’s account. “The counting started at 8.30 am and all 16 rounds were completed by noon. AAP candidate Durgesh Pathak has defeated his immediate rival Rajesh Bhatia (of BJP) by 11,555 votes,” Delhi Chief Electoral Officer Ranbir Singh announced. At the start of counting, Pathak had a slender lead of 1,500 votes over Bhatia, which reduced to around 1,000 votes at the end of the fifth round. After the sixth round, however, Pathak galloped with a margin of 3,000 votes, which rose to over 10,000 by the ninth round. He eventually won the bypoll with a margin of over 11,000 votes. AAP leaders, including the party’s national convenor and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, congratulated Pathak over his victory . The bypoll had taken place on June 23 with a significantly low turnout at 43.75 per cent as compared to 2020 polls. For a single constituency, 14 candidates were in the fray However, it was largely . seen as a battle between AAP and BJP . This by-election was necessitated in the wake of AAP leader Raghav Chadha leaving the seat after being elected to the Rajya Sabha. PM’S EMERGENCY ANNIV SHOT AT CONG IN MUNICH Y E S H I S E L I @ New Delhi POLICE CUSTODY Activist Teesta Setalvad being brought to the Metropolitan Magistrate Court in Ahmedabad on Sunday after she was arrested by the Gujarat Crime Branch over alleged criminal conspiracy in connection with the 2002 communal riots in the state. The court remanded her to police custody till July 2 | PTI | P7 PRIME Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday took a fresh swipe at the Congress, this time in Munich while addressing the Indian diaspora, saying 47 years ago on June 26 an attempt was made to hold democracy hostage by invoking Emergency but peo, ple gave a fitting response. Modi is in Munich ahead of the G7 Summit, for which which he has been invited by Ger man Chancellor Olaf Scholz. “People of India answered all conspiracies to crush democracy. Democracy is our pride and in the DNA of every Indian,” Modi said in his speech at a crowded Audi Dome stadium. Lauding the contribution of the Indian diaspora, he said, “You are both India’s success story and the brand ambassadors of India’s success.” He also spoke about the success India achieved in exports, manufacturing, climate change, vaccination drive and upliftment of the poor. “Today’s India has come out of the mentality of ‘It happens, it runs like this.’ India has taken a pledge that work has to be done on time,” Modi said. “In information technolo- gy digital technology India is , , making its presence felt. As many as 40% of digital transactions in the world are from India. India is making new records in data consumption,” he said. Regarding climate change, the PM said even the youth of India are investing in electronic vehicles and other such pro-climate technologies. “ Sustainable climate practices are becoming a part of the lives of ordinary people of India today he added. ,” Besides, the cleanliness drive in India has been effective and has become part of its lifestyle as even the youth are becoming conscientious. “Tax compliance is increasing, too, which indicates India is getting rid of corruption,” he added. Nambi welcomes former IPS officer’s arrest Former ISRO scientist Nambi Narayanan welcomed the arrest of former IPS officer RB Sreekumar by the Gujarat Police for allegedly giving false information in the Gujarat riots case. Narayanan said he was happy about the arrest as the officer had done the same in his case as well. Narayanan, a scientist in ISRO, was charged with espionage and was probed by Sreekumar. “I came to know that he was arrested today for keeping on fabricating stories & trying to sensationalise them, there was a charge against him. It is exactly what he did in my case,” Narayanan said. ASSAM RAIN FURY 5 more die; flood condition improves Guwahati: The flood situation in Assam improved on Sunday, although five more persons died and over 22 lakh people continued to reel under the deluge across 25 districts. According to the daily bulletin of the Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA), five persons, including four children, drowned at different places of Barpeta, Cachar, Darrang, Karimganj and Morigaon districts during the day. Besides, two are missing in two districts, it said. The total number of people losing lives in this year’s flood and landslides in the state has now gone up to 126. BIRD-HIT IN VARANASI Yogi’s chopper makes emergency landing Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath’s helicopter made an emergency landing after a bird hit it immediately after the take off in Varanasi on Sunday morning. The incident took place as the helicopter left the Reserve Police Lines Ground in Varanasi for Sultanpur. After the emergency landing at Police Lines ground, the CM went back to the Circuit House and proceeded to Lal Bahadur Sahstri airport by road to take the special aircraft to Lucknow. “A bird hit the CM’s helicopter after it took off from here for Lucknow, after which it had to land here,” said Varanasi DM. TRAUMA YET TO LEAVE STAFF AT CREMATORIUMS A total of 13,955 Covid deaths were reported in Delhi within a period of over two and a half months last year. Memories of that period still haunt those working at graveyards & crematoriums PAGE 4 JAB-O-METER EXPRESS READ GUJARAT PROBE SCARS CHOLERA OUTBREAK Pani Puri banned in Nepal capital Kathmandu: Sale of Pani Puri has been banned in Kathmandu Valley’s Lalitpur Metropolitan City as cholera cases have spiked in the Valley with 12 people testing positive. The Lalitpur Metropolitan City (LMC) on Saturday decided to stop the sale and distribution of Pani Puri in the metropolis, claiming that cholera bacteria were found in the water used in Pani Puri. The metropolis has made internal preparations to stop the sale of Panipuri in the crowded areas and in the corridor area, according to Municipal Police Chief Sitaram Hachethu. TRUDEAU WARNS US verdict could mean loss of more rights Toronto: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau warned Saturday that the US Supreme Court decision to overturn a constitutional right to abortion could lead to the loss of other rights and indicated his country would continue to allow Americans to get abortions in Canada. Trudeau called the court’s decision “horrific” and voiced concern that the ruling could someday allow a rollback of legal protections for gay relationships. “We know that this is an extremely, not just scary, but disheartening time for so many women,” Trudeau said at a news conference in Kigali, Rwanda. TAKE YOUR SHOT June 25 11,19,043 doses June 26 2,41,295 doses TOTAL DOSES: 1,97,00,01,961 NATIONWIDE JUNE 25 JUNE 26 Fresh cases Recoveries Deaths DELHI Fresh cases Recoveries Deaths 15,940 12,425 20 11,739 10,917 25 JUNE 25 JUNE 26 666 1,450 06 NA NA NA