Top News Today Daily Briefing

A US federal judge has dismissed a criminal fraud and bribery case against billionaire Gautam Adani, who was accused of paying bribes to Indian officials to secure solar-energy contracts and misleading US investors about his company’s anti-corruption practices. Judge Nicholas Garaufis approved the Justice Department’s request to drop the charges, but questioned whether Adani’s earlier $10-billion US investment pledge had influenced the decision – a claim prosecutors denied. The judge criticised the way the case was handled, saying a Justice Department official worked directly with Adani’s lawyers while excluding prosecutors who had built the case. Garaufis called the “irregularities” concerning and stressed that the dismissal did not mean the original charges lacked merit.

On that note, let’s get to the rest of today’s edition. 👇

Meanwhile, thousands of job aspirants and students in Ranchi marched towards the Jharkhand Assembly on Monday, protesting alleged irregularities in state recruitment exams and demanding a CBI probe. As protesters breached multiple layers of police barricades, including those reinforced with barbed wire, police used water cannons, lathicharge and tear gas to stop them. A protester suffered a head injury during the lathicharge, while several students were seen falling ill and collapsing amid the intense heat. The protest came a day after the Jharkhand government agreed to cancel three examinations, including the preliminary exam of the 14th JPSC Combined Civil Services Examination, and ordered an ED probe into alleged financial irregularities. Devendra Nath Mahto, who had been on a 10-day hunger strike, also joined the march, carrying the Tricolour and a portrait of former Jharkhand chief minister Shibu Soren.

In today’s opinion piece, former Congress President Sonia Gandhi revisits the legacy of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, arguing that history may judge him very differently from the way he was portrayed during his time in office. Writing against the backdrop of Singh’s recent clean chit in the coal allocation case, Gandhi reflects on the controversies that once dominated the political narrative around his government. She also takes on the familiar portrayal of Singh as a weak Prime Minister, pointing instead to his record in office and the leadership style that defined his tenure. At the heart of her argument is a question of what and who history chooses to remember.

A free pass?: A Delhi court, while acquitting former Wrestling Federation of India chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh in a sexual harassment case involving six women wrestlers, said discrepancies in the complainants’ accounts were “fatal” to the prosecution’s case. The court noted inconsistencies and incorrect details in their statements about the alleged incidents, raising doubts over the prosecution’s ability to establish the charges beyond reasonable doubt. The allegations against Singh had triggered the 2023 wrestlers’ protest, with several prominent wrestlers demanding action against him.

Nearly 83,700 sq ft of forest land, including mangrove areas in Raigad, has been cleared by the Maharashtra government for two projects involving Adani Group companies. The larger area, around 69,933 sq ft in Alibag taluka, comprises reserved forest, nala mangrove forest and creek mangrove forest land and will be used by Adani Cementation for a cement bulk terminal, including a berthing jetty, conveyor corridor and approach road. In Amravati, another 13,788 sq ft of reserved and identified forest land has been approved for Adani Total Gas to lay an underground steel pipeline for a natural gas distribution network. The two projects together involve about 0.78 hectare of forest land. The Raigad approval comes with a condition that forest officials must have unhindered access to the site, failing which the permission can be withdrawn. Notably, the government orders do not specify compensatory afforestation measures or other conditions beyond those mentioned in the approvals.

A Blinkit dark store in Mumbai’s Malad West has been barred from providing services after an FDA inspection found cockroaches crawling over fruits and vegetables, expired stock and an “extremely unclean” facility. The Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration (FDA) suspended its food licence with immediate effect following the August 7 inspection at the Ramchandra Lane facility. Officials also flagged several other hygiene violations and concerns over possible contamination. The suspension applies only to the inspected store, which cannot sell or distribute food until further orders. In a separate case, the FDA inspected a Reliance Retail outlet in Buldhana following a complaint about fungus and live insects in kaju katli. The action comes amid a wider crackdown on milk and dairy adulteration, during which the FDA said it seized nearly 14,378 kg/litres of dairy products worth Rs 93.26 lakh.

🎧 In today’s 3 Things podcast, we discuss Tarun Tejpal’s conviction in a 2013 rape case, protests disrupting Maharashtra’s healthcare system, including attacks on medical workers, and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir’s indefinite postponement of voting for seven seats amid violent protests.

That’s all for today, folks! Until tomorrow,