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KOLKATA | NEW DELHI | SILIGURI | BHUBANESWAR

DONALD TRUMP AT LEWIS FUNERAL, PLANNING SPORT

‘NO POLL WHEN LIFE
DOES U-TURN ON OBAMA SEEKS BOOST IN THE TIME OF
IS UNCERTAIN’
DELAYING ELECTION TO VOTING RIGHTS THE PANDEMIC

P10 P10 P7 P12

WEATHER
55K jump in Covid cases Mehbooba’s detention
Partly cloudy sky. One or two spells of
thundershower. Temperature will be in
the range of 35-28 degrees Celsius.
pushes tally past 16.3 L extended, Lone freed
RAINFALL: 0.5 mm STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE
RELATIVE HUMIDITY But case fatality rate progressively declining, now 2.18 pc: Vardhan JAMMU, 31 JULY

Max.91% Min. 56 % STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE The detention of former

TEMPERATURE NEW DELHI, 31 JULY Jammu and Kashmir chief
Max: 35.5°C (+3) Min: 27.7°C (+1) minister Mehbooba Mufti
SUN RISES SUN SETS
under the Public Safety Act

W
05:05 hrs 18:18 hrs
ith as many as (PSA) was on Friday extend-
MOON RISES MOON SETS
01:42 hrs 15:36 hrs
Full moon on 3 August
55,079 coron-
avirus cases ~ 16,38,870 ed by another three months
by the Jammu and Kashmir
the first time government. However, the
the daily case count has Peoples Conference chief

THUMBNAILS
Nakhoda Mosque ahead of Eid al-Adha festival
in Kolkata on Friday. �SNS
August rainfall: July ended with a 10-per cent
rainfall deficiency but monsoon is likely to be
normal in the second half of the four-month
rainfall season, the India Meteorological Dep-
artment (IMD) said. In its Long Range Forecast
for the rainfall during second half (August-Sep-
tember) of the 2020 Southwest Monsoon, the
IMD said August is likely to receive rainfall that
is 97 per cent of the Long Period Average.
Hong Kong polls: Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam
announced Friday that the government will
postpone highly anticipated legislative elec-
tions by one year, citing a worsening coron-
avirus outbreak in the semi-autonomous Chi-
nese city. The Hong Kong government is invok-
ing an emergency ordinance in delaying the
elections.
gone past the 50,000 mark
~ and 779 deaths in the last
24 hours, India’s Covid-19
tally has increased to
16,38,871 total cases and
35,747 deaths on Friday,
according to the Union
Ministry of Health and
Family Welfare.
Union health minister
HarshVardhan, on the other
hand, maintained that
India's Covid-19 case fatal-
ity rate is progressively dec-
lining and now stands at 2.18
per cent, one of the lowest
globally, while just 0.28 per
cent of the total active
patients are on ventilator.
He also said of the total
5,45,318 active cases, 1.61
per cent patients need ICU
care and 2.32 per cent are
on oxygen support.
Chairing the 19th meet-
ing of the Group of Minis-
ters (GoM) on Covid-19
through video-conference
on Friday, Vardhan said
India has achieved the
milestone of more than 10
lakh recoveries, a recovery
rate to 64.54 per cent.
“This shows that the
active cases under medical
supervision are only 33.27
pc or approximately 1/3rd
of total positive cases, he
P9 was quoted as saying in a
A medical staff takes a swab sample from a man during an
India-Israel Non-Invasive Raid Covid-19 test study camp at
Ram Manohar Lohia hospital in New Delhi on Friday. �AFP
Int’l flights to stay suspended
NEW DELHI, 31 JULY
Aviation regulator DGCA
on Friday said the suspe-
nsion of scheduled inter-
national flights to and
from the country has been
extended till August 31
amidst the coronavirus
pandemic.
The suspension of
scheduled international
commercial services was
till July 31. In the wake of
the pandemic, overseas
health ministry statement.
As many as 16 states and
UTs have a recovery rate
more than the national
average of 64.44 per cent.
Delhi, Ladakh, Haryana,
Assam, Telangana, Tamil
Nadu and Gujarat have
the highest number of
recovered patients.
flights were suspended
in late March, while cargo
flights and those approved
by the DGCA have been
permitted to operate.
In a statement, the Dir-
ectorate General of Civil
Aviation (DGCA) said the
government has decided
to “extend the suspension
on the Scheduled Inter-
national Commercial Pas-
senger Services to/ from
India up to 2359 hours
IST of 31st August”. PTI
More than six lakh tests
were done in 24 hours on
Thursday, said the min-
istry, adding that the test-
ing infrastructure has
increased and almost one
crore tests were conduct-
ed over the last one month.
Maharashtra remains
the worst-hit state and has
5,45,318
55,078
37,223
35,747
UNION HEALTH MINISTRY
FIGURES AS OF 08.00 A.M.
FRIDAY 31 JULY 2020
4,11,798 total cases, includ-
ing 2,48,615 recovered cases
and 1,48,150 active cases.
It is followed by Tamil Nadu,
which has 2,39,978 cases
and then Delhi, which
logged 1,34,403 cases.
On the global front, the
total number of global
coronavirus cases has
topped 17.2 million, while
the deaths have increased
to more than 6,71,000, acc-
ording to Johns Hopkins
University. As of Friday
morning, the overall num-
ber of cases stood at
1,72,37,642, while fatali-
ties rose to 6,71,909, the Uni-
versity said.
Sajad Lone was freed from
detention this afternoon.
An order extending
Mehbooba's detention was
issued by the Union terri-
tory’s home secretary
Shaleen Kabra.
Mehbooba's detention
was scheduled to end on 5
August. She was detained
under the PSA on 5 August
last year along with sever-
al other opposition leaders
when the Modi govern-
ment abrogated Article 370
of the Constitution that
provided special status to
Jammu and Kashmir.
She was recently shift-
ed to her home from a
guest house where she was
detained on 5 August 2019.
Lone's release has come
a day before the Eid festi-
val. Lone, who was a min-
ister in the PDP-BJP gov-
ernment was among the
political leaders detained
on 5 August last year. He was
detained at his home.
Soon after his release,
Lone tweeted; “Finally 5 days
short of a year I have been
officially informed that I am
a free man. So much has
changed. So have I. Jail
was not a new experience.
Earlier ones were harsh
with usual doses of phys-
ical torture. But this was psy-
chologically draining. Much
to share hopefully soon".
Two other former chief
ministers, Farooq Abdullah
and Omar Abdullah, were
recently freed from deten-
tion.
The Peoples Democra-
tic Party (PDP) termed the
extension of Mehbooba
Mufti’s detention “a high-
ly undemocratic, unconstit-
utional and inhuman app-
roach of the government”,
while reiterating that such
vindictive measures will
not deter the PDP from
pursuing its core agenda
and speaking the truth.
According to the party
spokesman and media
advisor Syed Suhail Bukhari,
such measures are aimed
to intimidate, which will
have far-reaching consequ-
ences and are bound to only
increase the level of alien-
ation and frustration among
the people who have been
plundered of their identi-
ty last year on 5 August.
He added that it is bizarre
that for the past six months,
while the petition against
the illegal detention of
Mehbooba is pending in the
Supreme Court, the gov-
ernment here is hell-bent
to hound the PDP president
through such “illegal, uneth-
ical and undemocratic mea-
sures”. The party spokesman
said that the PDP has a
clear stand that ideas can-
not be chained, banned or
killed and that in democ-
racy, ideas are allowed to flo-
urish and not choked. “No
quantum of pressure and
intimidation can push us
into submission and to give
up on our the resolve to fight
for the honor and dignity
of the people of J&K.”
Meanwhile, the Jammu
and Kashmir Pradesh Con-
gress Committee has ter-
med the restrictions on
the movement of former
Union minister and veter-
an party leader Prof. Sai-
fuddin Soz as “totally ille-
gal and arbitrary and against
all norms of democracy”.
Terming the govern-
ment's claim to the con-
trary, as “totally false and
misleading”, JKPCC chief
spokesperson Ravinder
Sharma has said that the
continued restrictions on
Prof. Soz, even after the reply
of the government in the
Supreme Court denying
the same, is a very unfor-
tunate chapter in the his-
tory of democracy.

Sushant Rajput’s Cong shifts Rajasthan Top court halts BS-IV Dr T K Banerjee
passes away
death: ED files case MLAs to Jaisalmer hotel vehicles registration KOLKATA, 31 JULY

against actress
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA
NEW DELHI/MUMBAI, 31 JULY
Actress Rhea Chakraborty faces
more trouble as the Enforce-
ment Directorate (ED) on Fri-
day filed a money laundering
case against her and her fam-
ily on the basis of a Bihar
police FIR in which Sushant
Singh Rajput's father has
accused them of abetting the
Bollywood actor's suicide.
Chakraborty, 28, mean-
while, broke her silence over
the FIR filed against her to say
Satyamev Jayate' (truth shall
prevail), and that she had
immense faith in god and the
judiciary. She said this in a brief
video statement released
through her lawyers.
The chorus for a probe by
the CBI into Rajput's death case
which was getting murkier by
the day also grew louder with
Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) leader
and Union minister Ram Vilas
Paswan saying only the cen-
tral agency can do justice in
the matter amid what he called
a “tussle” between the Bihar
and Mumbai police. Union
minister Prakash Javadekar
said he expects a free and fair
probe into the death case to
ensure that truth comes out.
A Bihar Police team which
is in Mumbai to investigate the
FIR registered in Patna against
Chakraborty, recorded the
statement of Rajput's ex-girl-
friend Ankita Lokhande, in
which she is reported to have
said the late actor was not under
depression, a police official said.
The 34-year-old actor, who
was dating Chakraborty, was
found hanging in his apartment
in Mumbai's Bandra area on
June 14.
The ED had called for the
Bihar police's First Informa-
tion Report (FIR) registered on
Tuesday and after studying it,
the probe agency decided to
slap charges under the Pre-
vention of Money Laundering
Act (PMLA), officials said.
They said an Enforcement
Case Information Report
(ECIR) has been filed against
the accused named in the
FIR that includes Chakraborty,
her family and six others.
Chakraborty and some others
are expected to be called for
questioning soon.
The ED is understood to
have taken up the case after
it analysed the contents of the
FIR filed on the basis of the
complaint by Rajput's father
and gathered some indepe-
ndent information about the
dead actor's income, bank
accounts and companies.
More such details and anoth-
er FIR filed by the Mumbai
Police to probe Rajput's death
will be part of the ED's probe,
according to the officials.
Rajput's father Krishna
Kumar Singh (74), who resides
in Patna, has also alleged that
the actress was aided by her
family members, including
parents, since they all were
looking to purloin the assets
of his son worth crores of
rupees and started interfering
in all aspects of his life.
The father also said he
wanted a police investigation
to ascertain where the Rs 15
crore deposited in a bank
account held by Rajput was
transferred.
Officials said the ED will
probe allegations of mishan-
dling and purported diversion
of Rajput's money and oper-
ation of his bank accounts. The
agency will probe if anyone
used Rajput's income and his
companies for money laun-
dering and creating illegal
assets, they said.
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA
JAISALMER/JAIPUR, 31 JULY
Congress MLAs loyal to
Rajasthan chief minister Ashok
Gehlot shifted from a Jaipur
resort to Jaisalmer on Friday,
prepared to spend at least the
next fortnight holed up in a
hotel there.
Chief Minister Ashok
Gehlot boarded one of the five
chartered flights to the city,
550 kms away from the state
capital by road. But he indi-
cated he will be back.
He told reporters at the air-
port there will be no com-
promise with the govern-
ment's work as he and the min-
isters will remain in Jaipur.
In Delhi, the Congress
approached the Supreme
Court against the Rajasthan
High Court order restrain-
ing the assembly Speaker
from acting on the disquali-
fication notices issued to
Sachin Pilot and 18 other dis-
38 die in Punjab hooch tragedy, Amarinder orders probe
STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE
CHANDIGARH, 31 JULY
Punjab chief minister Ama-
rinder Singh on Friday ordered
a magisterial inquiry by the divi-
sional commissioner, Jaland-
har, into the suspicious deaths
of 38 people, allegedly due to
consumption of spurious
liquor, in Amritsar, Batala and
Tarn Taran.
The inquiry will look into
the facts and circumstances
leading to the incidents, as well
as into any other issue con-
nected or relevant to the inci-
dent and the circumstances
leading to it, an official
spokesperson said.
The chief minister promised
strict action against anyone fou-
nd complicit in the case.
Amarinder also directed police
to crack down on any spuri-
ous liquor manufacturing
units that may be operating in
sident MLAs.
AICC general secretary
Avinash Pande and spokesper-
son Randeep Surjewala also
travelled to Jaisalmer with
the MLAs. The party claimed
about 100 people including
MLAs from the Congress,
allies and independents
boarded the flights.
The MLAs had remained
confined to Fairmont hotel on
the Delhi-Jaipur highway
since July 13, as the infight-
ing between the Gehlot and
the Sachin Pilot factions in the
Congress escalated.
The Gehlot camp is keep-
ing the MLAs together for a
the state.
The death toll in the inci-
dent was initially reported as
21, but officials later said this
has risen to 38. According to
government officials, while
19 people died in Tarn Taran,
spurious liquor claimed 10
lives in Amritsar and nine in
Batala since Wednesday night.
In a crackdown on Friday,
Punjab Police arrested seven
bootleggers in over 40 raids in
Amritsar, Batala and Tarn
Taran. Police also arrested
Balwinder Kaur, a resident of
Muchhal village in Tarsikka area
of Amritsar. The SHO of the Tar-
sikka police station, Bikramjit
Singh, has been suspended,
Amritsar's SSP (Rural)Vikramjit
Singh Duggal said.
The post mortem of four
persons will be conducted
today to ascertain the exact
cause of the deaths.
Giving details of the case,
possible vote of confidence
it has indicated it will seek
when the state assembly
meets from August 14.
Gehlot repeated his alle-
gation that there was a sharp
increase in the money being
offered to the MLAs for switch-
ing sides after the announce-
mentWednesday of the assem-
bly session.
He said the MLAs and
their family members were get-
ting threatening calls.
At Jaisalmer airport, the
MLAs boarded buses to Surya-
garh hotel, a few kilometers
outside the city, amid strict
security.
While Gehlot flashed the
victory sign at Jaipur airport,
the opposition BJP mocked the
Congress move, coming when
it claims that its MLAs are unit-
ed. What after this? Pakistan
lies ahead, BJP's Rajasthan
president Satish Poonia said
in a statement referring to
Jaisalmer's location.
Director General of Police
(DGP) Dinkar Gupta said the
first five deaths were report-
ed from villages Mucchal and
Tangra in Tarsikka on the night
of 29 July. On the evening of
30 July, two more persons
died in suspicious circumsta-
nces in Muchhal, while one per-
son was hospitalised in criti-
cal condition and later died at
Sri Guru Ramdas Hospital.
Later, two more deaths
were reported from village
Mucchal, while another two
people reportedly died in
Batala city, also due to spuri-
ous liquor consumption.
Today, five more persons
died in Batala, taking the toll
in the city to seven, while one
person has been referred to Civil
Hospital, Batala in critical
condition. Four more similarly
suspicious deaths have also
been reported from Tarn Taran.
(With PTI inputs)
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA
NEW DELHI, 31 JULY
The Supreme Court on Fri-
day directed that no BS-IV
vehicles would be regis-
tered by the authorities till
it decides the issue of sale
of such vehicles during the
Covid-19 induced lockdown
period in March.
“We direct all the author-
ities not to register any BS-
IV vehicles till we decide
this,” a bench headed by Jus-
tice Arun Mishra said dur-
ing the hearing conducted
through video-conferenc-
ing.
The Supreme Court
was earlier irked over the
violation of its order and
had pulled up automobile
dealers association by
saying that more BS-IV vehi-
cles were sold during the
Covid-19 induced lockdown
period in the last week of
March and after March 31
also.
10 people dead after consuming
sanitiser in Andhra village
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA
AMARAVATI, 31 JULY
At least ten alcohol addicts,
including three beggars, died
after allegedly consuming
sanitiser as an alternative to
liquor in a village under Co-
vid-19 lockdown in Prakasam
district of Andhra Pradesh,
police said on Friday.
The victims of Kurichedu
village had been drinking
sanitiser for the past few
days, mixing it with water and
soft drinks, Prakasam dis-
trict Superintendent of Police
Siddharth Kaushal told PTI
over phone.
Two people died on Thurs-
The apex court had on
July 8 recalled its March 27
order by which it had allowed
sale of BS-IV vehicles for 10
days across India, except in
Delhi-national capital region
(NCR), after lifting of the
lockdown.
During the hearing on
Friday, the apex court asked
the automobile dealers asso-
ciation to explain in detail
how many transactions
have taken place till March
31 during the lockdown
period with regard to either
online or direct sale of BS-
IV vehicles.
“You are in great trouble.
We will prosecute some-
body,” the bench told the
counsel appearing for deal-
ers association.
“We will take appropri-
ate action against these fel-
lows,” the apex court said
while referring to the surge
in the number of BS-IV
vehicles sold especially on
March 29, 30 and 31.
day night and the other eight
since Friday morning, the
SP, who visited the village
where liquor outlets are also
closed for the past few days
due to extended Covid-19
lockdown, said.
“We are investigating
whether the sanitiser had
any other toxic content. We
have sent the stocks for chem-
ical analysis,” Kaushal said.
The SP said illicitly-distilled
arrack was not involved in the
“sad incident”.
The deceased were addict-
ed to alcohol and its non-avail-
ability due to the extended
Covid-19 lockdown in
Kurichedu village forced them
Renowned physician Dr Tapan
Kumar Banerjee passed away
today in a city hospital from mu-
lti-organ failure after being in-
fected with the novel coronavirus.
He was 78 and is survived by his
wife Binita and two sons, Arnab
and Arpan.
Dr Banerjee was Senior Con-
sultant Physician at the Cal-
cutta Medical Research Institute,
Apollo Gleneagles Medical Cen-
tre and Sri Aurobindo Seva Ke-
ndra. A Fellow of the Royal Co-
llege of Physicians of both Lon-
don and Edinburgh, Dr Baner-
jee had been for many years an
International Adviser to the
Royal College of Physicians,
London and was closely involved
with the conduct of the MRCP
examination in India.
A genial, reassuring and eve-
r-smiling person, Dr Banerjee
was loved by his many patients
in the country and overseas,
many of whom travelled to
Kolkata from distant places to
be treated by him. SNS
FINE PHYSICIAN, WONDERFUL FRIEND, P3
to go for sanitiser that had alco-
holic content, police said.
Apart from the beggars, the
other deceased were poor
rickshaw pullers and porters.
Two beggars near a tem-
ple were the first to fall vic-
tim on Thursday night. While
one of them was found dead
at the spot, another died in
the government hospital in
nearby Darsi town. A third
man was also taken to the
Darsi hospital late on Thurs-
day night after he fainted, but
declared brought dead.
Another seven, who fell ill
after allegedly consuming
sanitiser, succumbed on Fri-
day.

CMYK