22082026-TTB-01.qxd 8/22/2026 12:03 AM 13 DMK DECLINES FREE GOVT CARS FOR MLAs NATION /thetribunechd Page 1 IRAN PUSHES FOR TRADE IN LOCAL CURRENCY WORLD CHANDIGARH | GURUGRAM | JALANDHAR | BATHINDA | VOL. 146 NO. 231 | 24 PAGES | ~7.00 | REGD. NO. CHD/0006/2024-2026 ESTABLISHED IN 1881  DELHI saturday | 22 august 2026 /thetribunechd www.tribuneindia.com FIR filed over pellet injury Rashtrapati Bhavan AfterGMADA,powercorptohire makes rare retraction merchant banker to raise ~10K cr after Rahul’s 7-hr dharna on Bangla PM’s visit THE TRIBUNE EXCLUSIVE Case registration only ‘first step towards justice’: LoP Ruchika M Khanna Tribune News Service Tribune News Service New Delhi, August 21 After a seven-hour drama involving a sit-in by Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi and 19-year-old pellet-injury victim Sahil Lochab outside the Parliament Street police station, the Delhi Police finally registered an FIR on Friday evening. Lochab was injured during the students’ protest at Jantar Mantar last month. The FIR was registered under Section 118(1) of the BNS, which deals with voluntarily causing hurt or grievous hurt by dangerous weapons or means. Rahul, who arrived with Lochab, his mother and their lawyer around 11.30 am, remained at the police station until evening after talks with senior police officers failed to break the deadlock. Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra later joined him and held multiple rounds of discussions with Deputy Commissioner of Police (Central) Sachin Sharma before the FIR was registered. The dramatic face-off ended shortly before 7 pm when Lochab and his mother New Delhi, August 21 In a rare retraction on Friday, the President House withdrew a statement issued earlier in the day linking the cancellation of a customary Saturday event at the Rashtrapati Bhavan with preparations for Bangladesh Prime Minister Tarique Rahman’s proposed India visit. Rahman’s visit has not yet been confirmed, with Bangladesh insisting on former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s extradition for the visit to proceed. The first statement from the Rashtrapati Bhavan, issued at 2.13 pm and titled, “No change of guard ceremony this Saturday”, read: “The change of guard ceremony at the forecourt of the Rashtrapati Bhavan will not take place this Saturday (August 22) due to the full rehearsal for the ceremonial welcome of the Prime Minister of Bangladesh.” About an hour later at 3.28 pm, the Rashtrapati Bhavan issued a retraction, saying the “press release issued on the subject, ‘No change of guard ceremony this Saturday’, which was issued on August AMRITSAR: Three members of a family sustained minor shrapnel injuries when two suspected hand grenades exploded at their house in Jatta village near the India-Pakistan border in the Ramdass area, triggering a political storm over law and order in Punjab’s border belt. Amritsar (Rural) SSP Kanwalpreet Singh Chahal said investigation was underway to identify the attackers. — TNS PoliceseekInterpol helptoservenotices on26/11accused MUMBAI: The Mumbai police have approached the Ministry of Home Affairs to serve the court proclamation orders via Interpol against six absconding accused, including Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) founders Hafiz Saeed and Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, setting the stage to try them in absentia for their role in the 26/11 terror attacks. — PTI LoP in LS Rahul Gandhi and Sahil Lochab, who sustained pellet injuries during the CJP protest, hold a copy of the FIR lodged by the Delhi Police. BID TO SHIFT FOCUS FROM VANDE MATARAM ROW: BJP CJP TEAM ATTACKED IN RAJASTHAN VILLAGE The BJP on Friday accused Rahul Gandhi of indulging in “cheap and anarchic” politics by staging a dharna, alleging it was an attempt to divert attention from the party’s stand on the Vande Mataram issue. A CJP team that had gone to inspect a government school in a Rajasthan village on Friday was attacked allegedly by locals. The CJP warned of a bigger protest if the attackers were not arrested within 48 hours. INSIDE emerged from the DCP’s office carrying a copy of the FIR. “Today, with the support of Rahul, we were able to get the FIR registered. It has been a month since the incident. Sahil has pellets in his body and injuries in his eyes. The police have taken so long to get even the FIR registered,” Lochab’s mother said. Lochab and his mother said they had been approaching the police since August 14. Referring to what, they continued on page 6 NEW DELHI: Fresh law graduates will no longer have to wait for three years to appear for judicial service examinations, with the Supreme Court on Friday modifying its May 2025 verdict by reducing the mandatory legal practice requirement from three years to one year. The court said the selected candidates will have to undergo training at the judicial academy and complete a one-year clerkship. BACK PAGE 21, stands withdrawn.” Both statements came under the signatures of Navika Gupta, Deputy Press Secretary to the President. The Tribune has learnt that the President House retracted the statement after a red flag from the MEA. How the statement got issued despite a pending confirmation of the state visit of Rahman remains unclear as does the question about the level at which the lapse occurred. Under President House protocols, the cancellation of any scheduled public event customarily held at the Rashtrapati Bhavan is the remit of the ceremonial division headed by the Military Secretary to the President. The ceremonial division routinely communicates public event cancellation notices to the press office of the President, which then disseminates this information for public consumption through the media. The press office has in the past attributed cancellation of Rashtrapati Bhavan’s continued on page 6 Chandigarh, August 21 After the Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA), Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) is set to hire a merchant banker to raise Rs 10,000 crore through a bond. The selected banker will be paid an arranger fee ranging from Rs 150 crore to Rs 177 crore. Earlier this week, The Tribune had highlighted that the cash-strapped Punjab Government had given its goahead to GMADA to raise Rs 15,000 crore through a longterm development bond. The merchant banker chosen for the purpose is to be paid an arranger fee of Rs 191 crore. The proposal to raise funds for the PSPCL through nonconvertible debentures (NCDs) or bond—with a merchant banker acting as an intermediary between the power corporation and lending institutions—was discussed at a meeting of the Board of Directors held on Thursday. When contacted by The Tribune, PSPCL Chairman-cumManaging Director Dr Basant Garg said he could not comment on what transpired at the meeting until its minutes were n The funds are to be raised in finalised. Official sources, however, said the proposal was yet to be approved by the Board and had been referred to the accounts committee. Garg acknowledged that three bidders had qualified for the tender to raise the development bond. The Tribune has learnt that the bidders are AK Capital Services Limited, Trust Investment Advisors Private Limited and Real Growth Securities Private Limited. The lowest bid was submitted by AK Capital, which has asked for an arranger fee of 1.5 per cent of the total Rs 10,000 crore fund mobilisation, amounting to Rs 150 crore. The other two bids quoted 1.73 per cent (Rs 173 crore) and 1.77 per cent (Rs 177 crore). All the three entities are SEBI-registered Category-1 merchant bankers. The tender was floated on June 15, with July 29 set as the last date for submitting bids. Technical bids were opened on July 30. The objective of raising funds through a bond or NCDs, as mentioned in the request for proposal (RFP), is to meet the power utility’s capital expenditure requirements. The funds are to be raised in two tranches of Rs 5,000 crore each. The merchant banker selected for the purpose will have to provide “structured financial solutions, with or continued on page 6 ‘People want us together’: SAD backs pact with BJP Markets shut, traffic hit during Pb bandh Aditi Tandon Jalandhar, August 21 With various Sikh organisations, gurdwara committees and farmers laying a siege to highways and internal roads, a near-complete bandh was observed across Punjab on Friday on a call given by the Qaumi Insaaf Morcha for the release of Bandi Singhs. The seven-hour bandh started at 7 am, with Nihangs, farmers and Sikh bodies blocking highways by parking trucks and tractors in the middle of roads and starting sit-ins. No attempt was made by the state police to evict the protesters and clear the routes. Instead, multiple nakas were laid ahead of every blockade to divert commuters towards alternative routes. Most commercial establishments remained shut. Those who had kept their shutters Tribune News Service New Delhi, August 21 For the first time since parting ways with the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in September 2020, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) today batted for a reunion with its former partner saying the “people of Punjab wanted the SAD and the BJP to come together for the sake of peace and harmony in the state”. Making a pro-alliance pitch, SAD general secretary Bikram Singh Majithia cited the “successes” of the erstwhile coalition in Punjab and the Centre, and echoed his sister and Bathinda MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal’s remarks on the issue. Speaking on the 41st martyrdom anniversary of Harchand Singh Longowal in Sangrur yesterday, Harsimrat had hint- BJP’s BL Santosh to visit Punjab from Aug 23-26 ed at a possible realignment between the estranged allies. “It is not my remit to speak, so I will stay quiet. You will all come to know by yourselves.... May the alliances and agreements that powered Punjab’s development and progress in the past reemerge so that your work can be done just as it was done earlier by Delhi. Once more, the foundations of development and progress should be laid in Punjab so that people and the state can benefit,” Harsimrat had said. Majithia today dubbed his sister’s statement as a “call by the people of Punjab”. “What Harsimrat jisaid is what people want. (Atal Bihari) Vajpayee ji continued on page 6 Deepkamal Kaur Tribune News Service two tranches of ~5,000 crore each; will be used to meet PSPCL’s expenditure needs 2 vessels with 22 Indians hijacked; MEA says all safe Tribune News Service Qaumi Insaaf Morcha supporters block the Amritsar-Delhi NH following a ‘Punjab bandh’ call in Jalandhar. open were forced to pull them down by Sikh activists, who moved unchecked across cities in bikes and open jeeps, carrying canes, swords and other sharp weapons. Videos of alterca- tions between commuters and the Sikh activists were reported from some places. Almost all government and private buses remained stranded in bus stands till 2 pm, with commuters remain- ing stuck till the afternoon. Even internal roads in Jalandhar, Amritsar, Ludhiana, Ropar, Ferozepur, Patiala and Bathinda witnessed lighter traffic than usual. continued on page 6 New Delhi, August 21 Two foreign-flagged commercial vessels carrying 22 Indian seafarers have been hijacked by armed pirates in separate incidents off Somalia and Yemen this week. Meanwhile, the Ministry of External Affairs on Friday asserted that all Indian nationals were safe. The incidents have renewed concerns over a resurgence of Somali piracy in the western Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden. MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said 16 Indian seafarers were aboard one vessel and six on the other. “From what we have gathered so far, these 22 Indian citizens — our seafarers — are safe. We are in touch with the relevant officials regarding this matter to continued on page 6 Centre stops Revanth from flying to US over ‘Mamdani meet’ Imran taken back to jail after check-up at hospital Ujwal Jalali Tribune News Service SC cuts practice period to one year for judicial exams Move follows ‘red flag’ from MEA bidders have qualified for the process n Lowest bid of ~150 crore has been submitted by AK Capital Services Limited n The other two bids are for ~173 crore and ~177 crore MALKIAT SINGH Threeinjuredastwin grenadeblastsrock Punjabbordervillage MANAS RANJAN BHUI Shekhar Singh Tribune News Service Aditi Tandon & Ujwal Jalali UP TO ~177 CR ARRANGER FEE LIKELY n Three New Delhi, August 21 A proposed meeting with New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani was among the factors that led the Centre to deny political clearance to Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy’s proposed visit to the US, top diplomatic sources told The Tribune on Friday. The MEA, however, did not officially spell out the reasons for withholding clearance, saying only that Reddy’s proposed programme in the US was not considered appropriate for his office and the purpose of the visit. “Visits by Chief Ministers, as well as other dignitaries, are assessed by the Ministry of External Affairs for the purpose of granting political clearance. The proposed programme in such cases must be appropriate to the office held and the purpose of the visit. In this specific instance, that was not the case regarding the visit to the United States, and therefore, clearance was denied,” MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said at the weekly briefing. He added that clearance had been granted for Reddy’s visit to the UK. Top diplomatic sources said a proposed interaction with Mamdani, among other Revanth Reddy, Telangana CM Proposed visit not appropriate to the office held: MEA aspects of the US itinerary, had become a key concern for the Centre. The sources, however, did not suggest that it was the sole reason for the denial. Mamdani, who has been critical of the Narendra Modi government, has previously made pointed remarks about the current Indian dispensation and its leadership. His interactions on Indian political and judicial matters have also drawn a sharp response from New Delhi. In January, India had strongly rebuked Mamdani after he wrote a personal letter to jailed activist Umar Khalid. New Delhi had, at that time, stressed that public representatives should respect the independence of the judiciary in other democracies and refrain from expressing personal views on foreign legal matters. Today’s issue is of 24 pages, including four-page Delhi Tribune. c m y b According to the Telangana Chief Minister’s office, Reddy was scheduled to travel from the UK to Boston as part of a delegation to forge partnerships with leading educational institutions and promote Telangana as a global knowledge and skills hub. The delegation had already reached the UK when the state government was informed that political clearance for the US leg would not be granted, the CMO said. It described the decision as a “denial on political grounds”, saying the US visit was intended to attract worldrenowned educational institutions to Telangana. Islamabad, August 21 Shifa hospital following a Former Pakistan PM Imran Supreme Court order. Khan was shifted back to AdiThe Supreme Court had on ala Jail in Rawalpindi on Friday August 18 directed that Khan morning after under(73) be taken to the going a medical examihospital within two nation at a state-run days following a medhospital where docical report submitted tors from privately before it which said he owned Shifa Internawas suffering from tional Hospital were “level three plus” anxialso present, the govety. Level three plus Imran Khan ernment said. anxiety refers to highEarlier in the day, Khan’s level or severe anxiety where international media spokesper- worry overwhelms daily tasks, son Zulfi Bukhari had said that triggers intense physical strain the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and disrupts clear thinking. continued on page 6 (PTI) founder was shifted to