FRIDAY 11 APRIL, 2025 epaper.morningstandard.in facebook.com/TheMorningStandard X.com/TheMornStandard RUSSIA, US WHITE HOUSE CLARIFIES TARIFFS ON CHINA ARE NOW AT 145% SWAP PRISONERS AMID TENSIONS The US-China trade war intensified on Thursday, sending the global economy into a tailspin after US said Chinese imports will face 145% taxes Moscow freed a Russian American convicted of treason in exchange for a Russian German man jailed on smuggling charges in the US. E.U. SUSPENDS ITS TARIFFS ON U.S. FOR 90 DAYS A CAPITAL VIEW OF NEWS PAGE 9 NIA TAKES FORMAL CUSTODY OF 26/11 CO-CONSPIRATOR AT PALAM AIRPORT  NEW DELHI  J8.00 SEEKS 20-DAY CUSTODY OF ACCUSED, SPECIAL COURT RESERVES DECISION TAHAWWUR RANA ARRIVES TO FACE FULL FORCE OF LAW MUKESH RANJAN AND S H E K H A R S I N G H @ New Delhi TAHAWWUR Hussain Rana, a key accused in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, landed in Delhi on Thursday, ending years of diplomatic and legal efforts for his extradition from the US. The 64-year-old Canadian citizen of Pakistani descent arrived aboard a special chartered flight under tight security escorted by a joint team , of Indian investigators. As part of the extradition arrangement, India gave broad assurances to US authorities concerning Rana’s treatment while in custody According to . sources, these assurances include guarantees that he would not be subjected to torture, receive adequate protection in prison, and prosecuted solely for the charges on which the extradition is based. Rana provided crucial support to Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) operative David Coleman Headley by facilitating travel documents and shelter through his immigration business in Chicago, which was allegedly used as a front for terror planning. The NIA took custody of Rana as soon as he emerged from the aircraft at the Palam technical area. His medical examination was done at the airport due to security reasons before he was produced before Special NIA judge Chander Jit Singh at the Patiala House courts 20 km away later. Senior advocate Dayan Krishnan and special public prosecutor Narender Mann represented the NIA. They told the court that Headley had shared the full scope of the 26/11 plan with Rana prior to traveling to India. Anticipating complications, Headley had emailed Rana a list of his possessions and resources. In the same mail, he also disclosed Consider waiving loans of Wayanad landslide victims, HC tells Centre E X P R E S S N E W S S E R V I C E @ Kochi THE Kerala High Court has directed the Union government and NDMA to check whether the Disaster Management Act provisions can be invoked for waiving loans availed by victims of Wayanad landslides. “Kerala Bank has waived the loans of the affected persons completely Considering the na. ture of the disaster and its categorisation by the Union government as a ‘severe disaster’, one would expect the banks concerned to emulate the example of Kerala Bank and write off the loans availed by people of the affected area,” said a division bench comprising Justice A K Jayasankaran Nambiar and Justice Easwaran S while hearing a case initiated suo motu following the Wayanad landslides. The HC directed the Centre and the NDMA to deliberate on whether the provision of section 13 of the Disaster Management Act can be invoked to direct banks to waive the loans advanced to landslip survivors. TERROR FOOTPRINT COMMUNICATION WITH HEADLEY Headley visited India 8 times, and remained in touch with Rana, making over 200 calls Tahawwur Rana in NIA custody after landing in Delhi upon his extradition from the US | PTI CALLS DURING VISITS 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 6th Rana helped David Headley obtain an Indian visa by providing fake documents Established ‘Immigrant Law Centre’ in Mumbai, which served as a front for Headley’s ops and snooping 8th 32 23 40 37 33 66 Initial plans included targeting Chabad Houses across India, as ISI suspected they were Mossad bases PAK DISOWNS HIM, SAYS CANADIAN NATIONALITY CLEAR the roles of terrorists Ilyas Kashmiri and Abdur Rehman in the plot, the NIA said. While the NIA sought 20-day custody , the court reserved its order. A 12-member NIA team led by its director general Sadan- INTEL LINKS RANA WAS IN COMMUNICATION WITH ISI Hours before Rana’s arrival, Pakistan’s Foreign Office disowned him, saying he had not renewed any Pakistani documentation in the last two decades and that his Canadian nationality was very clear. After working in Pak Army’s medical corps, he had relocated to Canada and Date will interrogate Rana. Date, a 1990-batch IPS officer from the Maharashtra cadre was injured during the 2008 Mumbai attacks. He was among the first responders to confront terrorists Kasab and Ismail. Years later, his leadership at the NIA was a key factor in securing US approval for Rana’s extradition. A veteran of the Mumbai Police and the CBI, Date received the President’s Police Medal for Gallantry P7 . Offices of MLAs to be linked with Secretariat for grievance redressal A N U P V E R M A @ New Delhi IN keeping with the government assertion that the legislature will go paperless from the Monsoon session, the offices of the MLAs are to be connected to the Assembly through IT. The integration is likely to reduce jurisdictional loopholes by ensuring centralised monitoring of grievances the MLAs receive from the public. “Additional staff will be employed at the MLAs’ offices to facilitate grievance redressal,” sources told this newspaper. “The MLAs raise issues related to their constituencies in the House under Rule 280. Linking Meet on CAG reports Assembly Speaker Vijender Gupta has convened a meeting on Friday to discuss the CAG reports tabled during the Budget Session on the performance of the previous AAP government. their offices with the Assembly will make it convenient to raise issues in the House, as the Assembly staff will also be clued in. The majority of issues are related to multiple agencies, and area representatives alone can’t handle them. If such is- PAGES 12 sues come to the notice of the Assembly, coordination between various agencies can be ensured. The Secretariat will monitor and ask ministers and bureaucrats to resolve issues, acting as a bridge between MLAs and the government,” the sources said. In the recently concluded Budget session, many legislators from the ruling and the opposition benches demanded enhancing staff in their offices. Speaker Vijender Gupta formed a five-member committee to look into their requests, including revising the remuneration of data entry operators provided to the MLAs. N A M I TA B A J PA I @ Lucknow THE Allahabad High Court has granted bail to a man accused of raping a postgraduate student of a top private university campus in Noida, stating that the survivor had “invited trouble” upon herself. The accused was arrested in December 2024 for allegedly raping the woman twice at a relative’s apartment in Gurgaon after getting her intoxicated. The court said the woman, a post graduate student, was competent enough to understand the “morality and significance of her act” as disclosed by her in the FIR. As per the survivor’s version, she, of her own volition, went to a bar in Delhi along with three female friends, where they consumed alcohol. She remained at the bar till 3 No criminal record The judge said the accused, with no criminal record, had been in the jail since December 2024 and if granted bail, he would cooperate in the early disposal of the case am and during her time there, the accused kept on insisting that she should accompany him to his house. As she was in need of rest due to her condition, she agreed to go with him to his house, the FIR said. She alleged that the accused, Nischal Chandak, touched her inappropriately on the way and instead of taking her to his home in Noida, he took her to a relative’s flat in EXCLUSIVE MUDA SCAM: COPS ACCEPT VERSIONS OF ALL ACCUSED THE Lokayukta police, who recently filed a closure report in the MUDA site allotment scam, seem to have “accepted” all explanations given by the accused, including Chief Minister Siddaramaiah. The ‘B’ (closure) report, which has been challenged by the Enforcement Directorate before the court, states that Siddaramaiah, his wife Parvathy BM, his brotherin-law Mallikarjunaswamy and Devaraju J were asked 76 questions. The Lokayukta police report said they found the explanations ‘acceptable’, ‘accepted’ or ‘can be accepted’. There is no mention of cross-questioning as is done in other cases. This has raised eyebrows as they accepted the explanations or contentions of the accused ‘as they are’. Around 24 questions were posed to Siddaramaiah, 14 to Parvathy, 16 to Mallikarjunaswamy and 20 to Devaraju and their statements were recorded. Snehamayi Krishna, the complainant, and the ED protested against the final report that gave a clean Chief Minister Siddaramaiah chit to the accused. In the report, the Lokayukta police concluded that the charges were not proved against the accused, but recorded that financial losses were caused to MUDA through allotment of compensatory sites to Parvathy by Natesh, the then MUDA commissioner. This apart, the total loss caused to MUDA can be assessed by undertaking a comprehensive probe into allotment of sites to various persons illegally by predecessors and successors of Natesh between 2016 and 2024, before and after allotment of sites in the ratio of 50:50 to Parvathy, the report stated. The report flagged many instances of MUDA developing residential layouts without following land acquisition procedure, causing huge losses to land owners. EXPRESS READ FIR lodged as Maya kin alleges dowry harassment Following a complaint filed by BSP chief Mayawati’s niece, an FIR was lodged on Thursday against Hapur Municipal Council chairperson and six of her family members on charges of dowry harassment. The woman married son of Hapur Municipal Council chairperson in 2023. Cloudy sky, drizzle bring relief amid heatwave The weather experienced a sudden change on Thursday evening as the sky turned cloudy, followed by drizzle and duststorm in parts of city, providing much-need relief to Delhiites amid a heatwave. | P4 Menstruating student made to sit outside classroom for exam EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ Coimbatore A private school principal in Coimbatore was suspended on Thursday after a Dalit girl was forced to sit outside her classroom on the stairway and made to write annual exam as she was menstruating. After the video of the incident that happened on Wednesday sparked outrage, Chief Education Officer R Balamurali and District Education Of- ficer for private schools Punitha Anthonyammal conducted an inquiry with the school authorities. Based on the inquiry, the school correspondent temporarily suspended principal M Anandhi for violating provisions of the Right to Education (RTE) Act of 2009. Based on a police complaint filed by the girl’s parents on Thursday evening, the police registered cases against the principal, office assistant Shanthi, and correspondent Thangavelpandian under various sections of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989. The girl’s father told this newspaper that his daughter had missed school last week due to discomfort associated with menstruation. Despite informing the school administration in ad- POINTS DIP FOR DOW JONES AFTER U.S. CLARIFIED 145% TARIFF ON CHINA Rape survivor ‘invited trouble’, claims Allahabad HC order YAT H I R A J U @ Bengaluru RENT EXTENSION OF PROPERTY IN MUMBAI Rent extension of ‘Immigrant Law Centre’ in July 2008 was arranged to support Rana’s India visit, showing coordination with LeT handlers  Amid questions over how far Trump is ready to push, the European Union welcomed the US president’s partial row-back on his original threat to impose 20 per cent tariffs against the bloc. The 27-nation grouping suspended for 90 days its proposed tariffs on US goods. “We want to give negotiations a chance,” EU chief Ursula von der Leyen said | P9 1,700 vance about her condition and requesting a separate desk for her to write the exams in the classroom, the father said the facilities were not provided. “When she went to school on Monday to write Social Science exam, the principal forced her to sit on the steps outside the classroom. As she wrote the exam for two and a half hours on the steps, she felt leg pain,” he said. On Wednesday, the parents revisited the school and found their daughter was again made to write exam outside. The father said, “When we inquired with the principal, she said, ‘Is this a big problem?’” Director of Matriculation Schools A Palanisamy announced that educational officers were instructed to submit a probe report and issue a showcause notice to the school. A senior police officer, who visited the school, said that a fair inquiry would be conducted. Gurgaon and raped her. “Even if the allegation of the victim is accepted as true, it can be concluded that she herself invited trouble and was also responsible for the same. Similar stand has been taken by the victim in her statement. In her medical examination, her hymen was found torn but doctors did not give any opinion about sexual assault,” Justice Sanjay Kumar Singh observed, while granting bail to Chandak. While the incident took place on September 21, 2024, the victim filed an FIR on September 23 in Gautam Budh Nagar. Justice Singh said even if her allegations were true, the “victim’s actions, including going to a bar and consuming alcohol with friends, contributed to the situation.” $1.38 BN PRADA AGREES TO BUY RIVAL VERSACE Italian fashion house Prada announced it had reached a deal with US group Capri Holdings to buy Versace for 1.25 bn euros ($1.38 bn). The acquisition will create a luxury group with revenues of over 6 bn euros. | P9 India, Pak hold flag meet to ease border tensions F AYA Z W A N I @ Srinagar THE armies of India and Pakistan held a brigade commander-level flag meeting on Thursday along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch district to ease border tensions even as two anti-militancy operations launched by security forces in Udhampur and Kishtwar district of J&K continued for the second day . The flag meet was held at the Chakan-Da-Bagh cross-point in the Poonch sector. “Our side raised the issue of infiltration attempts, planting of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) near the border, using drones to drop weapons and drugs and sniper firing from across the border. We told them clearly that any violation of the border ceasefire will be met with heavy retaliatory action from our side,” a Jammu-based defence spokesman said. He added that flag meetings are routine on the LoC for border management process in accordance with an understanding between both the sides. “Today’s meeting was conducted to discuss routine issues along the LoC,” he said. This is the second flag meeting between Indian and Pakistan army officials at Chakan-DaBagh crossing point in Poonch this month. Earlier, on April 2, the flag meeting was held during which both sides stressed the need to adhere to the November 2003 border ceasefire pact. Meanwhile, security forces continued anti-militancy operations on Thursday in Jopher forest of Udhampur district and Chatroo area of Kishtwar district province after receiving inputs about the presence of three militants.