INDIA SECURE BRONZE, GERMANY LIFT JUNIOR HOCKEY CROWN THURSDAY 11 India produced a brave-heart performance to nullify a two-goal deficit to beat Argentina 4-2 in the third-place play-off in Chennai on Wednesday DECEMBER, 2025 epaper.morningstandard.in facebook.com/TheMorningStandard X.com/TheMornStandard EPSTEIN ‘RECORDS FROM ’19 CASE CAN BE PUBLIC’ SET PIECE GOALS HELP HOSTS Secret grand jury transcripts from Jeffrey Epstein’s 2019 sex trafficking case can be made public, a judge ruled on Wednesday. A CAPITAL VIEW OF NEWS PAGE 9  NEW DELHI  J8.00  PAGES 12 US gives mixed signals as trade talks resume P U S H P I TA D E Y @ New Delhi AS the US and India look to finalise a broader bilateral trade agreement, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer has said that India’s offers are “the best Washington has received”, though challenges remain in getting New Delhi to open up its agriculture sector. “There is resistance in India for certain crops and meats and products. They are a difficult nut to crack… but they have been quite forward leaning. The types of offers they have been talking to us about are one of the best that we have ever received as a country,” said Greer while speaking at a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing in Washington, DC. The comments came as the US trade negotiation team led by Deputy Trade Representative Rick Switzer commenced the two-day talks in New Delhi on Wednesday. On the first day he held dis, cussions with Commerce Secretary Rajesh Agrawal. Both reviewed the ongoing negotiations for the agreement. Assistant US Trade Representative for South and Central Asia Brendan Lynch is the US’ chief negotiator. India’s chief negotiator is Darpan Jain, REPLY TO OPPOSITION Want to remove all infiltrators: Shah in House J AYA N T H J A C O B @ New Delhi An outstanding speech by Home Minister Amit Shah Ji. With concrete facts, he highlighted diverse aspects of our electoral process and also exposed the lies of the Opposition —Narendra Modi, Prime Minister Oppn seeks poll reforms Opposition MPs on Wednesday sought machinereadable voter lists, a rollback of the 45-day CCTV wipeout rule, access to EVMs, and changes to laws that allow ECI officers to act with impunity | P7 A combative Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday hit out at the Opposition in the Lok Sabha for its campaign against the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, alleging that the INDIA bloc parties wanted to keep infiltrators on the voter list. The Narendra Modi government’s policy, Shah said, was unambiguous — “detect all aliens from the rolls and throw them out of the country.” Shah said that the Opposition had raised the issue only because it could no longer win elections through “corrupt practices,” asserting that “the Congress’ repeated poll defeats stemmed from its leadership and not from EVMs or vote theft.” Intervening in the debate on electoral reforms, Shah rebutted the Opposition’s charges. His 90-minute speech saw frequent interruptions from Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi, who challenged him to a debate on his three press conferences alleging “vote theft” by the BJP. T he heated ex- Union Home Minister Amit Shah changes eventually speaks in the Lok Sabha | PTI led to an Opposition walkout. Seeking to corner the Congress, Shah claimed three episodes of “vote chori” involving party icons, Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi. He said that Nehru became Prime Minister in 1947 despite having fewer internal votes than Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel; that Indira Gandhi granted herself immunity after her election was set aside by courts. He said that the dispute of the third “vote chori” has just reached the civil courts on how Sonia Gandhi “became a voter before becoming a citizen of India,” a remark that invited sharp reactions from the Congress benches. Shah said that SIR was a long-standing administrative exercise to maintain integrity of elections. No party, he said, had opposed SIR between 1952 and 2004. He listed revisions carried out under former Prime Ministers Nehru, Lal Bahadur Shatri, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, A B Vajpayee and the Manmohan Singh government. P7 They have been a tough nut to crack... but they have been quite forward leaning. The type of offers they have been talking to us about have been the best US team during negotiations with Indian officials in New Delhi on Wednesday | X — US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer Joint Secretary in the Department of Commerce. India’s former chief negotiator and current Commerce Secretary Rajesh Agrawal will be supervising the progress of the negotiations. “The two sides exchanged views on matters related to In- Wednesday, Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal reiterated that the ongoing trade negotiations with the US are progressing well. “Talks are continuously progressing. We are moving forward towards a bilateral trade agreement,” Goyal said. A Haryana Police and excise department team raided a liquor shop in Gurugram and found 42,000 bottles of foreign alcohol allegedly smuggled into India, estimated to be worth `10 crore in the black market. “This is the largest illegal stock of foreign liquor ever seized in Haryana. More raids and arrests are expected,” deputy excise and taxation commissioner Amit Bhatia said on Wednesday . Officials said alcohol bottles of premium inter national brands retailing between `5,000 and `1.5 lakh per bottle were seized from The Theka Wine Shop late Tuesday night. They said none of the bottles carried the mandatory Haryana excise hologram, confirming that the consignment was illegal, smuggled into India without paying duty . Bhatia said his team grew suspicious during routine AMAZON TO INVEST $35 BN MORE IN INDIA A day after Microsoft committed $17.5 billion investment in India to help build AI capabilities, Amazon said it will invest $35 billion in India over the next five years to expand its businesses in the country from quick commerce to cloud computing and AI. The $35-billion investment, the company said, would create one million job opportunities and quadruple cumulative e-commerce exports to $80 billion by 2030. Amazon has 1.7 million sellers in India. Of these, over 200,000 export to more than 200 countries and have generated $20 billion in cumulative exports. Since 2010, Amazon has invested $40 P10 billion in India. No interim relief to fugitive Goa nightclub owners Revocation of passports of Luthras E X P R E SS N E WS S E R V I C E @ New Delhi A Delhi court on Wednesday rejected the interim relief plea of Gaurav Luthra and Saurabh Luthra, co-owners of the Birch by Romeo Lane nightclub, hours after the Goa Police arrested their business partner Ajay Gupta in connection with the fire incident in which 25 people were killed pn December 7. Senior advocate Siddharth Luthra appeared for the accused. The court at the Rohini Court Complex refused to grant immediate interim relief to the accused and sought the Goa government’s response to their anticipatory bail plea and post- The thrid co-owner of the nightclub Ajay Gupta was arrested from Delhi, while the MEA received a communication from Goa government requesting revocation of the passports of the Luthra brothers, two other co-owners, under the Passports Act. ed the matter for further hearing on Thursday. The Luthra brothers fled to Thailand within hours after the fire engulfed their Goa nightclub. According to sources, the External Affairs Ministry has received a communication from the Goa government requesting revocation of the passports of the Luthra brothers under the Passports Act. The minis- try is examining the request. The accused lawyer told the court that Saurabh suffered from epilepsy and hypertension and that they were not the owners of the nightclub, but only licencees operating with valid permissions while ownership lay with someone else. The senior advocate urged the court to grant interim relief to the applicants until the next date of hearing. The state’s counsel opposed the plea and requested time to file a detailed status report. The counsel stated that the accused fled the country and a non-bailable warrant had already been issued by a Goa court against them. He argued that other relevant facts needed to be placed on record before the Rohini court. The request was granted. A Saket court granted 36hour transit remand of Gupta to the Goa Police. The court directed the police to take care of Gupta as he faced medical issues. The CBI is waiting for Interpol to issue a Blue Colour Notice against the accused. EXPRESS READ INDIA-ISRAEL TIES Modi, Bibi discuss Gaza peace plan PM Narendra Modi and his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday held a telephonic conversation, with Modi emphasising India’s support for initiatives aimed at achieving a just and lasting peace in West Asia, including the early implementation of the Gaza Peace Plan. PUNJAB Int’l drug cartel busted, 3 nabbed Punjab police have dismantled an organised cross-border drug cartel linked to foreign-based handlers who used WhatsApp communication and dronebased deliveries for smuggling. Three operatives have been arrested, and 4.083 kg of Methamphetamine, commonly known as ICE, and 1.032 kg of heroin have been seized. UTTAR PRADESH SUV rams into car on e-way, 5 killed At least five people were killed and four others were injured after an SUV collided with a stationary hatchback on the Purvanchal Expressway in Haidergarh area here on Wednesday afternoon. Police said both vehicles caught fire due to the impact. An investigation is underway. HC pulls up Centre on IndiGo, asks how can ticket prices be at `35-`38K... E X P R E SS N E WS S E R V I C E @ New Delhi THE Delhi High Court on Wednesday questioned the Centre for failing to prevent the nationwide chaos sparked by mass IndiGo flight cancellations, asking why the crisis was “allowed to precipitate” and leave lakhs of passengers stranded while other airlines hiked fares to shocking levels. “Why at all, this crisis arose, , and what have you been doing?” a bench of Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela said, directing the Centre and IndiGo to take steps to adequately compensate affected passengers. The court asked whether authorities were “helpless” to act when IndiGo failed to implement Flight Duty Time Limitation rules—especially pilot rest norms—by the November 1 deadline, even as the government blamed this non-compliance for the collapse in operations. The bench also pulled up the petitioner for filing a PIL 42K bottles of foreign booze worth `10 cr seized in ‘Theka Wine Shop’ H A R P R E E T BA J WA @ Chandigarh dia-US trade and economic ties, including on the ongoing negotiations for a mutually beneficial Bilateral Trade Agreement,” the Department of Commerce said. Meanwhile, speaking on the sidelines of the Pravasi Rajasthani Divas in Jaipur on On a night when nothing worked for India, they managed to win and convert four deadball situations; three penalty corners and one penalty stroke. Arshdeep Singh won each of India’s first three deadballs in the 4th quarter. Ankit Pal converted the first while Manmeet Singh the second. Shardanand Tiwari struck from the spot while Anmol Ekka scored the last | P11 checks when several bottles were found without holograms. “Upon inspecting the premises, some 3,921 cases of illicit foreign liquor each containing 6-12 bottles along with 176 loose bottles were seized. An FIR has been registered against wine shop contractor,” he said. Officials said that illicit sales caused crores in revenue loss to the state and claimed during questioning of the employees of the liquor vend they reportedly told them that daily the sales were around `50 lakh. ‘Non-compliances’ The counsel for the Centre said statutory mechanism was in place. Additional Solicitor General Chetan Sharma said crisis arose from “various non-compliances of the guidelines”, mainly violations of crew duty-hour norms. “without any research.” They reserved sharp words for the fare spiral. “The ticket, which was available for `5,000, the prices went up to `30,000 to `35,000. If there were a crisis, how could other airlines be permitted to take advantage? How can it go up to `35,000 and `39,000? It’s like a pound of flesh, how could this happen,” the bench asked. The judges directed that if the panel probing disruptions completes its inquiry before January 22, the report must be submitted in a sealed cover. “We appreciate the steps taken by the Ministry of Civil Aviation and DGCA, but what bothers us is how such a situation was allowed to precipitate…” ... IndiGo to rope in external tech experts for help E X P R ESS N E WS S E RV I C E @ New Delhi INDIGO’S top management has broken its silence on the largescale flight disruptions caused by the airline. Late on Wednesday night, the airline’s chairman Vikram Singh Mehta said that external experts would be roped in to ensure no disruption occurs again. “The Board will involve external technical experts to... identify root causes and ensure corrective action so that this disruption never occurs again,” Mehta said. “On 3rd December, an unexpected chain of events led to large-scale flight cancellations... I know how much distress this caused. I want to say, We are sorry!” he said. JUST FOR A GLIMPSE A large number of Ayyappa devotees gather at the Sabarimala Sannidhanam temple in Pathanamthitta, Kerala, on Wednesday. | PTI SOCIAL MEDIA HISTORY FOR ENTERING US SOON The Trump administration plans to order visa-exempt foreign tourists to disclose their social media histories from the last 5 yrs before entering the country, a notice said. | P9 SC orders SIT probe of past CEOs of Noida S U C H I T R A K A LYA N M O H A N T Y Land scam: ‘Farmers won’t face penalties’ T H E S u p re m e C o u r t o n Wednesday directed the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing irregularities in land compensation in NOIDA to investigate the authority’s chief executive officers and top officials over the past 10-15 years. The court granted the SIT an additional two months to complete its investigation. A three-judge bench, headed by CJI Surya Kant and comprising Justices Ujjal Bhuyan and N Kotiswar Singh, made it clear that farmers who received high- A three-judge bench of the Supreme Court made it clear that farmers who received higher compensation, allegedly in “connivance” and “collusion” of Noida officials, won’t face penalties or coercive action. @ New Delhi er compensation, allegedly in “connivance” and “collusion” of NOIDA officials, won’t face penalties or coercive action. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing NOIDA, was allowed to file an affidavit to present the authority’s view. One of the farmers, who allegedly received a higher payment and had approached the SC through senior advocate Siddharth Dave, said he had been receiving notices from the SIT to record his statement. “Kindly protect the farmers, as it is not their fault,” he urged. The case traces back to August 13, when the SC ordered an SIT probe against NOIDA officials for allegedly colluding with builders to pay landowners beyond their entitled compensation. The court had asked recommendations of the SIT to be placed before the UP chief secretary for consideration of converting NOIDA into a “metropolitan council”. Following serious findings, the SC formed a fresh SIT to examine bank accounts and assets of erring officials and beneficiaries, with support from forensic auditors.