The Evening Wrap: SC agrees to request to adjourn hearing of pleas for independent Pegasus probe

The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to the Centre’s request to adjourn the hearing of petitions for an independent probe into allegations of the government using Israeli-based Pegasus spyware to snoop on citizens. A three-judge Bench headed by Chief Justice of India N.V. Ramana adjourned the hearing to September 13 after Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said he could not meet with officials to discuss the issue. Mehta indicated that the government may be filing an affidavit in the case, and he needed time to meet with the officials concerned. Earlier, in August, the government had filed a two-page affidavit denying “all and any allegations”. “Haven’t you already filed an affidavit?” the CJI referred to the August affidavit. Mehta submitted that the court had left it open for the government to file another, detailed affidavit, if necessary. The court had issued pre-admission in the case on August 17. In fact, on that day, the government had argued against a public hearing of the case, citing national security concerns. The Centre had asked the court, instead, to allow it to form an independent committee of experts to look into Pegasus snooping reports. “As a responsible government, we are submitting that we will form a Committee of neutral experts, whose report will be placed before the Supreme Court… I repeat, it is not my case that I will not divulge anything. All will be revealed before the Committee… Let me do that before a Committee… Permit us to form a Committee… We will place its report before the Supreme Court itself,” Mehta had urged the court on August 17. The court had, however, made it clear that there was no question of compromising national security. “We are not going to ask you to divulge anything that will harm the defence of the nation… We are extremely reluctant to say anything on that. But the question here is that there are some persons of eminence who have come here, saying there has been interception of their phones… That can be done, but with the permission of the competent authority… What is the problem if that competent authority filed an affidavit before us? In the affidavit we don’t want a single word on any aspect that relates to the security of the nation... All we are saying is that we are issuing simple notice… Let the competent authority say to what extent what information can be disclosed,” Justice Surya Kant had explained. Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel's father arrested for 'derogatory' remarks against community The Raipur Police have arrested Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel’s father, Nand Kumar Baghel, from Delhi in a case registered against him for allegedly making derogatory remarks against a community, an official said here on Tuesday. After being brought from the national capital, Nand Kumar Baghel was produced in a local court which sent him to jail under judicial remand for 15 days, he said. The CM had strongly disapproved of the objectionable remarks allegedly made by his 86-year-old father and asserted nobody is above law. “Nand Kumar Baghel was arrested and brought from Delhi to Raipur on Tuesday,” Raipur Additional Superintendent of Police Tarkeshwar Patel said. He was produced in the court of Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC) Janak Kumar Hidko, who sent him to 15-day judicial custody, he added. According to police, the octogenarian did not apply for bail. The case against Nand Kumar Baghel was lodged on Saturday night at the DD Nagar police station in Raipur on a complaint filed by the ‘Sarv Brahmin Samaj’ against him. He was charged under Indian Penal Code Sections 153-A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language) and 505(1)(b) (with intent to cause, or likely to cause, fear or alarm to public, or to any section of public whereby any person may be induced to commit offence against the State or against public tranquility), police had said. The outfit, in its complaint, alleged that the CM’s father recently made a controversial appeal to people to boycott Brahmins by calling them “foreigners”, and asked people to not let them enter their villages. The organisation also accused Nand Kumar Baghel of asking people to “evict” Brahmins from the country. The organisation had said a video of the purported comments of the CM’s father was available on social media platforms. According to the police, Nand Kumar Baghel reportedly made the remarks while addressing an event in Uttar Pradesh recently. After a controversy erupted over the alleged remarks of his father, the Chief Minister had said he was pained and asserted nobody was above law and police will take appropriate action in the matter. “The remarks made by my father Nand Kumar Baghel against a specific class have come to my attention. The comments have hurt the sentiments of the class as well as (affected) social harmony and I am also pained by them,” Bhupesh Baghel had said in a statement. “Nobody is above law under my government even if he is the chief minister's 86-year-old father,” the Congress CM had added. The statement further reiterated that Chhattisgarh government respects every religion, caste and community and their sentiments, and gives equal importance to everyone. I have been placed under house arrest in Srinagar, says Mehbooba Mufti Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chief Mehbooba Mufti on Tuesday claimed that she had been put under house arrest in Srinagar, a day after she alleged that the police had shown disrespect to the body of Syed Ali Shah Geelani. “GOI [Government of India] expresses concern for the rights of Afghan people but willfully denies the same to Kashmiris. I’ve been placed under house arrest today because according to administration the situation is far from normal in Kashmir. This exposes their fake claims of normalcy,” she said in a tweet. The former Chief Minister after a party meeting in Srinagar alleged ‘maltreatment’ of the body of Geelani on September 2. Meanwhile, mobile Internet was restored in Srinagar and Budgam districts on Tuesday, six days after Geelani’s death. Train services also resumed. Taliban disperse Kabul rally, arrest journalists As many Afghans took to the streets staging small, isolated demonstrations in various cities, including the capital Kabul, Herat and Mazar-i-Sharif, the Taliban on Tuesday fired shots into the air to disperse crowds. The protesters, mainly women, had gathered for an anti-Pakistan rally in the capital, the latest protest since the hardline Islamist movement swept to power last month. Tuesday’s demonstration comes after the Taliban claimed total control over Afghanistan a day earlier, saying they had won the key battle for the Panjshir Valley, the last holdout of resistance against their rule. The National Resistance Front of Afghanistan (NRFA), however, rejected their claim and said “the NRF forces are present in all strategic positions across the valley to continue the fight” against the Taliban. “Panjshir, which was the last hideout of the escapee enemy, is captured,” Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid had said in a press conference on Monday. However, Ahmad Massoud, son of a hero of the resistance to the Soviets and the Taliban, remained defiant and said that the NRFA is still fighting strategically and that the valley is still not captured by Taliban. Earlier on Monday, Taliban announced that Mullah Baradar, the militant group co-founder, would head the government. Hours after this announcement, however, the Taliban postponed the formation of the government by a week. With eye-banking services badly hit by Covid-19, AIIMS study to ascertain its presence in various parts of eye The R. P. Centre for Ophthalmic Sciences at AIIMS is conducting a study to ascertain the presence of the coronavirus in various parts of the eye of those who have died due to the infection, the centre’s chief J. S. Titiyal said on Tuesday. Addressing a press conference on the 36th Eye Donation Fortnight celebration by the National Eye Bank (NEB), he said that five eye balls have been collected for carrying out the study. “The research study will help ascertain the presence of the coronavirus in the cornea, optic nerve and retina of Covid-19 infected deceased,” Titiyal said. “These eye balls will be subjected to various molecular tests to detect presence of the coronavirus in these tissues and also look for genetic evidence,” he said. Namrata Sharma of the R. P. Centre said that there is no proven evidence so far which establishes any direct link between Covid-19 leading to blindness. “Because of Covid-19, cases of conjunctivitis have been reported but that does not lead to vision loss. Covid-19 leads to mucormycosis and there have been cases where it has impacted vision and lead to blindness, she said. “There have been isolated cases of retinal and Venus blocks which may lead to sudden diminishing of vision due to thromboembolism. But there has been no proven cause and effect relationship between them so far,” Sharma said. Tissue retrieval is performed only from presumed Covid-19 negative donors, according to established eye banking guidelines, she said. “To ensure maximum safety we perform a post-mortem nasopharyngeal swab RT-PCR testing for all our potential donors. Of the tissues retrieved by us between July 2020 and July 2021, we found that 5.5 per cent of the presumed Covid-19 negative donors tested RT-PCR positive for SARS-CoV2,” Sharma said. The tissues from these donors were not used for corneal transplantation and were subjected to further microbiological analysis, she said. Eye banking services have been one of the worst hit by the Covid-19 pandemic, Titiyal said. Corneal tissue retrieval activities by the NEB, which remained suspended from April 2020 to June 2020 during the nationwide lockdown, were restarted through the hospital cornea retrieval program (HCRP) from July 2020 onwards. Rona Wilson granted 14 days bail for father’s last rites A special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court on Tuesday granted 14 days bail to activist Rona Wilson to complete his father’s last rites. Wilson, accused in the Bhima Koregaon caste violence case, was arrested on March 6, 2018, and is currently lodged at Taloja Central Jail. He will be released on a personal bond of ₹50,000 with one or two sureties. Special Judge D.E. Kothalikar directed that Wilson be released from September 13 to September 27 so that he could go to his home in Kerala and attend a mass for his father scheduled on September 16. Wilson’s father passed away on August 18 and he moved the special court seeking permission on September 1 to go home. His plea, filed through advocate R. Satyanarayan, sought interim bail of two weeks on humanitarian grounds as meeting his family would bring him some solace. The court granted bail on condition that Wilson would submit details of travel to the NIA Superintendent with address of stay at Kerala; he would submit details of at least three blood relations with proof of residential and work addresses; he would surrender his passport before the court; he would mark his presence on September 14 and September 24; and he would surrender on September 27 at 6 p.m. The NIA opposed the plea and said, “Neither is his [Mr. Wilson’s] presence necessary nor has he proved that the ceremonial mass at the church could not happen in his absence. He is simply creating a ground to be released.” Farmers gather in Karnal for mahapanchayat, talks with officials ‘fail’ Farmers gathered in large numbers in Karnal for a mahapanchayat as the local authorities braced themselves for a possible gherao of the district headquarters by protesters after talks between farm leaders and officials appeared to yield no result. Farmer unions had demanded action against officials over the lathicharge against protesters on August 28 in Karnal. Otherwise, they had threatened, farmers will lay siege to the Karnal mini-Secretariat. As farmers gathered for the mahapanchayat, an 11-member delegation was invited by the local administration to discuss their demands and dissuade them from marching towards the secretariat. “The administration did not agree to our demands,” Haryana Bhartiya Kisan Union [Chaduni] leader Gurnam Singh Chaduni told reporters three hours after the talks began. He said the talks had failed to yield results. “Now, the next course of action will be decided at the mahapanchayat,” he said when asked if the protesters will go ahead with their plan to gherao the district headquarters, a few kilometres away. BKU leader Rakesh Tikait told reporters that they had demanded the suspension of the IAS officer who was caught on tape allegedly telling policemen to “break heads” of protesting farmers if they crossed the line. Rakesh Tikait, Balbir Singh Rajewal, Joginder Singh Ugrahan, Darshan Pal and Yogendra Yadav were among the senior Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) leaders who had reached Karnal for the rally being held days after a huge mahapanchayat in Uttar Pradesh’s Muzaffarnagar. Farmers from Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh have been protesting for months over the three farm laws enacted by the Centre, claiming that the legislation will lead to the erosion of the minimum support price (MSP) system. Covid Watch: Numbers and Developments The number of reported coronavirus cases from India stood at 3,30,94,681 at the time of publishing this newsletter, with the death toll at 4,41,428. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow. [logo] The Evening Wrap 07 SEPTEMBER 2021 [The Hindu logo] Welcome to the Evening Wrap newsletter, your guide to the day’s biggest stories with concise analysis from The Hindu. [[Arrow]Open in browser]( [[Mail icon]More newsletters]( Pegasus issue: SC agrees to Centre’s request to adjourn hearing of pleas for independent probe The Supreme Court on Tuesday [agreed to the Centre’s request]( to adjourn the hearing of petitions for an independent probe into allegations of the government using Israeli-based Pegasus spyware to snoop on citizens.  A three-judge Bench headed by Chief Justice of India N.V. Ramana adjourned the hearing to September 13 after Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said he could not meet with officials to discuss the issue. Mehta indicated that the government may be filing an affidavit in the case, and he needed time to meet with the officials concerned. [ ]  Earlier, in August, the government had filed a two-page affidavit denying “all and any allegations”.  “Haven’t you already filed an affidavit?” the CJI referred to the August affidavit. Mehta submitted that the court had left it open for the government to file another, detailed affidavit, if necessary. The court had issued pre-admission in the case on August 17. In fact, on that day, the government had argued against a public hearing of the case, citing national security concerns. The Centre had asked the court, instead, to allow it to form an independent committee of experts to look into Pegasus snooping reports.  “As a responsible government, we are submitting that we will form a Committee of neutral experts, whose report will be placed before the Supreme Court… I repeat, it is not my case that I will not divulge anything. All will be revealed before the Committee… Let me do that before a Committee… Permit us to form a Committee… We will place its report before the Supreme Court itself,” Mehta had urged the court on August 17. The court had, however, made it clear that there was no question of compromising national security.  “We are not going to ask you to divulge anything that will harm the defence of the nation… We are extremely reluctant to say anything on that. But the question here is that there are some persons of eminence who have come here, saying there has been interception of their phones… That can be done, but with the permission of the competent authority… What is the problem if that competent authority filed an affidavit before us? In the affidavit we don’t want a single word on any aspect that relates to the security of the nation... All we are saying is that we are issuing simple notice… Let the competent authority say to what extent what information can be disclosed,” Justice Surya Kant had explained. [underlineimg]  Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel's father arrested for 'derogatory' remarks against community  The Raipur Police have [arrested Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel’s father]( Nand Kumar Baghel, from Delhi in a case registered against him for allegedly making derogatory remarks against a community, an official said here on Tuesday.  After being brought from the national capital, Nand Kumar Baghel was produced in a local court which sent him to jail under judicial remand for 15 days, he said. The CM had strongly disapproved of the objectionable remarks allegedly made by his 86-year-old father and asserted nobody is above law.  “Nand Kumar Baghel was arrested and brought from Delhi to Raipur on Tuesday,” Raipur Additional Superintendent of Police Tarkeshwar Patel said. He was produced in the court of Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC) Janak Kumar Hidko, who sent him to 15-day judicial custody, he added. According to police, the octogenarian did not apply for bail.  The case against Nand Kumar Baghel was lodged on Saturday night at the DD Nagar police station in Raipur on a complaint filed by the ‘Sarv Brahmin Samaj’ against him. He was charged under Indian Penal Code Sections 153-A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language) and 505(1)(b) (with intent to cause, or likely to cause, fear or alarm to public, or to any section of public whereby any person may be induced to commit offence against the State or against public tranquility), police had said.  The outfit, in its complaint, alleged that the CM’s father recently made a controversial appeal to people to boycott Brahmins by calling them “foreigners”, and asked people to not let them enter their villages. The organisation also accused Nand Kumar Baghel of asking people to “evict” Brahmins from the country.  The organisation had said a video of the purported comments of the CM’s father was available on social media platforms. According to the police, Nand Kumar Baghel reportedly made the remarks while addressing an event in Uttar Pradesh recently.  After a controversy erupted over the alleged remarks of his father, the Chief Minister had said he was pained and asserted nobody was above law and police will take appropriate action in the matter. “The remarks made by my father Nand Kumar Baghel against a specific class have come to my attention. The comments have hurt the sentiments of the class as well as (affected) social harmony and I am also pained by them,” Bhupesh Baghel had said in a statement.  “Nobody is above law under my government even if he is the chief minister's 86-year-old father,” the Congress CM had added. The statement further reiterated that Chhattisgarh government respects every religion, caste and community and their sentiments, and gives equal importance to everyone. [underlineimg]   I have been placed under house arrest in Srinagar, says Mehbooba Mufti  [Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) President Mehbooba Mufti. File]  Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chief Mehbooba Mufti on Tuesday claimed that she had been [put under house arrest in Srinagar]( a day after she alleged that the police had shown disrespect to the body of Syed Ali Shah Geelani.  “GOI [Government of India] expresses concern for the rights of Afghan people but willfully denies the same to Kashmiris. I’ve been placed under house arrest today because according to administration the situation is far from normal in Kashmir. This exposes their fake claims of normalcy,” she said in a tweet.  The former Chief Minister after a party meeting in Srinagar alleged ‘maltreatment’ of the body of Geelani on September 2. Meanwhile, mobile Internet was restored in Srinagar and Budgam districts on Tuesday, six days after Geelani’s death. Train services also resumed. [underlineimg]  Taliban disperse Kabul rally, arrest journalists  As many Afghans took to the streets staging small, isolated demonstrations in various cities, including the capital Kabul, Herat and Mazar-i-Sharif, the Taliban on Tuesday [fired shots into the air to disperse crowds](. The protesters, mainly women, had gathered for an anti-Pakistan rally in the capital, the latest protest since the hardline Islamist movement swept to power last month.  Tuesday’s demonstration comes after the Taliban claimed total control over Afghanistan a day earlier, saying they had won the key battle for the Panjshir Valley, the last holdout of resistance against their rule. The National Resistance Front of Afghanistan (NRFA), however, rejected their claim and said “the NRF forces are present in all strategic positions across the valley to continue the fight” against the Taliban.  “Panjshir, which was the last hideout of the escapee enemy, is captured,” Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid had said in a press conference on Monday. However, Ahmad Massoud, son of a hero of the resistance to the Soviets and the Taliban, remained defiant and said that the NRFA is still fighting strategically and that the valley is still not captured by Taliban.  Earlier on Monday, Taliban announced that Mullah Baradar, the militant group co-founder, would head the government. Hours after this announcement, however, the Taliban postponed the formation of the government by a week. [underlineimg]  With eye-banking services badly hit by Covid-19, AIIMS study to ascertain its presence in various parts of eye  The R. P. Centre for Ophthalmic Sciences at AIIMS [is conducting a study]( to ascertain the presence of the coronavirus in various parts of the eye of those who have died due to the infection, the centre’s chief J. S. Titiyal said on Tuesday.  Addressing a press conference on the 36th Eye Donation Fortnight celebration by the National Eye Bank (NEB), he said that five eye balls have been collected for carrying out the study. “The research study will help ascertain the presence of the coronavirus in the cornea, optic nerve and retina of Covid-19 infected deceased,” Titiyal said.  “These eye balls will be subjected to various molecular tests to detect presence of the coronavirus in these tissues and also look for genetic evidence,” he said. Namrata Sharma of the R. P. Centre said that there is no proven evidence so far which establishes any direct link between Covid-19 leading to blindness.  “Because of Covid-19, cases of conjunctivitis have been reported but that does not lead to vision loss. Covid-19 leads to mucormycosis and there have been cases where it has impacted vision and lead to blindness, she said.  “There have been isolated cases of retinal and Venus blocks which may lead to sudden diminishing of vision due to thromboembolism . But there has been no proven cause and effect relationship between them so far,” Sharma said. Tissue retrieval is performed only from presumed Covid-19 negative donors, according to established eye banking guidelines, she said.  “To ensure maximum safety we perform a post-mortem nasopharyngeal swab RT-PCR testing for all our potential donors. Of the tissues retrieved by us between July 2020 and July 2021, we found that 5.5 per cent of the presumed Covid-19 negative donors tested RT-PCR positive for SARS-CoV2,” Sharma said.  The tissues from these donors were not used for corneal transplantation and were subjected to further microbiological analysis, she said. Eye banking services have been one of the worst hit by the Covid-19 pandemic, Titiyal said.  Corneal tissue retrieval activities by the NEB, which remained suspended from April 2020 to June 2020 during the nationwide lockdown, were restarted through the hospital cornea retrieval program (HCRP) from July 2020 onwards. [underlineimg]  Rona Wilson granted 14 days bail for father’s last rites [Rona Wilson’s father passed away on August 18 and he moved the special court seeking permission on September 1 to go home. File.]  A special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court on Tuesday [granted 14 days bail to activist Rona Wilson]( to complete his father’s last rites. Wilson, accused in the Bhima Koregaon caste violence case, was arrested on March 6, 2018, and is currently lodged at Taloja Central Jail. He will be released on a personal bond of ₹50,000 with one or two sureties.  Special Judge D.E. Kothalikar directed that Wilson be released from September 13 to September 27 so that he could go to his home in Kerala and attend a mass for his father scheduled on September 16.  Wilson’s father passed away on August 18 and he moved the special court seeking permission on September 1 to go home. His plea, filed through advocate R. Satyanarayan, sought interim bail of two weeks on humanitarian grounds as meeting his family would bring him some solace.  The court granted bail on condition that Wilson would submit details of travel to the NIA Superintendent with address of stay at Kerala; he would submit details of at least three blood relations with proof of residential and work addresses; he would surrender his passport before the court; he would mark his presence on September 14 and September 24; and he would surrender on September 27 at 6 p.m.  The NIA opposed the plea and said, “Neither is his [Mr. Wilson’s] presence necessary nor has he proved that the ceremonial mass at the church could not happen in his absence. He is simply creating a ground to be released.” [underlineimg]  Farmers gather in Karnal for mahapanchayat, talks with officials ‘fail’  Farmers gathered in [large numbers in Karnal for a mahapanchayat]( as the local authorities braced themselves for a possible gherao of the district headquarters by protesters after talks between farm leaders and officials appeared to yield no result. Farmer unions had demanded action against officials over the lathicharge against protesters on August 28 in Karnal. Otherwise, they had threatened, farmers will lay siege to the Karnal mini-Secretariat.  As farmers gathered for the mahapanchayat, an 11-member delegation was invited by the local administration to discuss their demands and dissuade them from marching towards the secretariat. “The administration did not agree to our demands,” Haryana Bhartiya Kisan Union [Chaduni] leader Gurnam Singh Chaduni told reporters three hours after the talks began. He said the talks had failed to yield results.  “Now, the next course of action will be decided at the mahapanchayat,” he said when asked if the protesters will go ahead with their plan to gherao the district headquarters, a few kilometres away. BKU leader Rakesh Tikait told reporters that they had demanded the suspension of the IAS officer who was caught on tape allegedly telling policemen to “break heads” of protesting farmers if they crossed the line.  Rakesh Tikait, Balbir Singh Rajewal, Joginder Singh Ugrahan, Darshan Pal and Yogendra Yadav were among the senior Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) leaders who had reached Karnal for the rally being held days after a huge mahapanchayat in Uttar Pradesh’s Muzaffarnagar.  Farmers from Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh have been protesting for months over the three farm laws enacted by the Centre, claiming that the legislation will lead to the erosion of the minimum support price (MSP) system. [underlineimg]  Covid Watch: Numbers and Developments  The number of reported coronavirus cases from India stood at 3,30,94,681 at the time of publishing this newsletter, with the death toll at 4,41,428.  [underlineimg]  Evening Wrap will return tomorrow.  Today's Top Picks [[What you need to know about the Nipah outbreak in Kerala | In Focus podcast] What you need to know about the Nipah outbreak in Kerala | In Focus podcast]( [[How the new dowry prohibition system in Kerala is proving a lifeline for many married women] How the new dowry prohibition system in Kerala is proving a lifeline for many married women]( [[Singapore trials patrol robots to deter bad social behaviour] Singapore trials patrol robots to deter bad social behaviour]( [[With Omar Little, Michael K. Williams created one of the most enduring characters in TV history] With Omar Little, Michael K. Williams created one of the most enduring characters in TV history]( Copyright @ 2021, THG PUBLISHING PVT LTD. 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