Delhi communal riots continue to dominate the front page as the death toll soared to 38, with some bodies even being found in drains, according to The Times of India.

One point of focus is AAP’s Tahir Hussain, accused of murder after stones and petrol bombs were allegedly pelted from his roof. Justice S. Muralidhar’s overnight transfer from the Delhi High Court also sparks outrage — he had pulled up the Delhi Police for inaction during the riots.

TOI leads with a heartbreaking photograph of a young boy crying after his father succumbed to injuries sustained during the riots. The lead, ‘Riot toll rises to 38 as bodies…’ does offer some hope though — “No incident of violence has been reported since Tuesday night and life is slowly returning to normal. Prohibitory orders imposed under Section 144 will be relaxed for 10 hours on Friday in view of the improvement in the ground situation.” 

‘Booked for IB officer’s death…’ deals with the charges against  Hussain and his aides who have been “booked in the case of murder of Intelligence Bureau (IB) official Ankit Sharma.” Sharma was stabbed multiple times and his body was found in a drain Wednesday.  

The violence in the capital got international attention as well. ‘Sanders attacks Trump…’ highlights presidential candidate and Democratic senator Bernie Sanders’ tweet about Trump’s reaction to the riots at the press meet in Delhi Monday, calling it a “failure on human rights leadership”. 

The odd news of the day is in `Day after judge sought FIRs for hate speech…’ — a day after a Delhi high court bench, headed by Justice Muralidhar, “pushed urgently for the prosecution of three BJP functionaries for their alleged hate speech, a changed bench… accepted the stand of Delhi Police that the situation at present was not ‘conducive’ to register FIRs”. 

Good news for comediain Kunal Kamra: IndiGo has reduced his ban from six months to three. The report,  ‘Indigo halves Kamra flying ban…’ adds “The HC disposed of Kamra’s plea challenging his suspension by the airlines and asked the DGCA to take a decision on his petition in eight weeks.” 

Express leads with the contradictory stand taken of the Delhi High Court in the hearing regarding BJP leaders’ hate speeches in ‘High Court gave Delhi Police…’. It notes that the bench of Chief Justice D.N. Patel has now granted “a four-week breather” to the police. The report notes that Justice Muralidhar’s transfer was notified late Wednesday —  a few hours after he pulled up the government and Delhi Police.

An exclusive report ‘At least 82 have bullet injuries…’, pegs the number of people who sustained bullet injuries during the riots in northeast Delhi at 82. “Of them 21 people succumbed to their injuries, including Head Constable Ratan Lal…” the report notes. 

Also, for the first time ever, India “will send its envoy to the signing of the peace pact between the US and Taliban in Doha on Saturday”. The page 1 report ‘Shift in geopolitics…’, quotes sources who said that “India received as ‘invitation’ from Qatar” following which the government decided to send India’s Ambassador to Qatar P Kumaran.

Read the anchor story, ‘16-year-old storms T20 World Cup…’, a heartwarming story about 16-year-old Shafali Verma who’s been taking the women’s T20 cricket tournament by a storm. “For long, the women’s game hasn’t been known to throw up big-hitters but Shafali with eight sixes in three games is changing that,” says the report.

Hindustan Times covers reactions of political parties and how damage control is being done in its lead ‘Political battle after street fights’. The paper notes, “Most of the (northeast Delhi) region reported a nervous peace while much of the focus shifted to a political slugfest between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Congress, and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).” 

Noting the global pressure on the government, the second lead ‘Global pressure over CAA-driven…’, covers the criticism India is facing with calls “to protect religious freedom and the safety of its citizens from across the world” by several people including two US presidential candidates and the UN human rights chief.

The Hindu reports that normalcy is limping back to Delhi in its lead ‘Toll rises to 38, Delhi limps…’. As of yesterday, “The national capital was, however, spared any major clashes, shifting the focus to investigation, relief and rehabilitation.” The paper adds, “48 FIRs had been registered and 514 suspects arrested or detained for questioning so far.” 

In an eyewitness ground report, ‘The Delhi Police were missing, Hindus and Muslims agree’, there’s a troubling picture of what the affected areas look like now: “Some shops are still slowly smoking, in others people could be seen examining what is salvageable. Charred vehicles litter the road at the crossing of Mustafabad-Shiv Vihar in north-east Delhi. Even once mighty steel almirahs dot the patchy road.” 

Shiromani Akali Dal MP Naresh Gujral’s letter to the Home Minister expressing his expressing his concerns about the “unresponsive attitude of the Delhi police to distress calls, after his pleas on behalf of an acquaintance were ignored” in ‘Gujral complains to Shah…’ 

The Telegraph draws a “chilling coincidence” between Delhi 2020 and Gujarat 2002. Like Shiromani Akali Dal MP Naresh Gujral’s call for help, a similar one had been made in 2002 to then chief minister Modi by Congress MP Ehsan Jafri. The papers notes, “Jafri’s cry for help fell of deaf ears”, much like what happened with Gujral. 

The change in HC bench makes headlines here as the report (‘Timing of judge shift…’) notes: “Senior advocate Dushyant Dave, who is also president of the Supreme Court Bar Association, questioned the urgency of shifting the Delhi High Court judge when he was in the middle of the hearing and said the transfer at this time amounted to ‘obstruction of justice’.” 

Schools and shrines become collateral damage in north east Delhi’s communal violence. The paper’s anchor story, ‘Scarred, school and shrine’, says, “A heap of ash from a bonfire of books lies on the floor of the library of Arun Modern Senior Secondary School in northeast Delhi.”

The New Indian Express focuses on Intelligence Bureau officer Ankit Sharma’s murder, emphasising that he had been stabbed over 250 times (‘Horror as rioters stabbed…’). The report notes that Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal “could claim the high moral ground putting BJP under pressure” after taking swift action against Aam Admi Party councillor Tahir Hussain, who’s been booked in the murder.

In more grim news, ‘Families search for missing relatives’ notes that as the situation calms down in the riot-hit areas, families are now searching for their missing relatives.” A Class 8 student who had gone to her school….remains untraceable,” and so “a resident of Vijay Park in Maujpur,” the report highlights.

There’s also a graphic with the updated death toll in the coronavirus outbreak, which surged to 2,810 while the number of cases reached 82,549.

The Tribune’s report ‘Blame game on…’ focuses on the political storm raging over the riots with BJP leader Prakash Javadekar firing at the Congress and Aam Aadmi Party for “politicising the violence”. He said that both parties were “attempting to give it a religious colour”, the report highlights. 

Also, a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General found that the Punjab state government departments allowed wheat worth Rs 607 crore  “to rot in four years owing to inadequate storage arrangements”.

Amid news of violence and bloodshed, Punjab’s Muslim majority town Malerkotla “has set an example”, according to the anchor story, “with Hindus and Muslims offering prayers in a temple and mosque that share a common wall”.

The Economic Times leads with news about the mobile phone operators preparing to approach the telecom tribunal “if the department of telecom (DoT) demands higher adjusted gross revenue dues” in ‘Operators to move tribunal’. According to the report, the companies are “finding huge discrepancies in the way DoT has calculated AGR dues” which they say is “far higher than their own assessments”.

Also, a capital crunch could be in the offing for the country’s largest e-commerce companies Flipkart and Amazon once the budget proposal to levy 1 per cent tax deducted at source comes into place. This “would mean these vendors will have to fork out excessive amounts as tax deducted at source (TDS),” the report highlights.

The paper’s flap carries an important story about the embattled state discoms ‘Tatas may Snap Mundra Power Lines to 5 states?’. “Tata Power, which runs one of the country’s largest power plants at Mundra in Gujarat, has threatened to stop supply from the plant to five states beginning March if they don’t agree to tariff increases,” according to the report. 

Mint takes a different look at the telecom industry’s crisis, focusing on RBI’s concerns over the fallout of the Supreme Court order (‘RBI flags risk…’). “The central bank is worried that further tariff hikes, as sought by telecom operators, could be inflationary”, and “the impact of the court order on banks, which have substantial exposure to telecom companies”, the report states.

This is flagged by the report about Vodafone Idea asking for a steep hike in mobile data tariffs, urging “the government to set a minimum price of ₹35 for 1 gigabyte (GB) of mobile data, besides ₹Rs 50 a month as connectivity charges”.

And in bad news for government offices, there are the finance ministry’s directions to the “central government departments and ministries to limit expenditure in March to 10 per cent of their budget allocations”. 

The report is alarmed by this this move as it “could constrain expenditure plans of laggard ministries with huge resource allocations”. 

Business Standard  highlights the Singapore government’s investment company Temasek Holdings talks with Lakshmi Vilas Bank for a controlling stake.

“Temasek has approached the corporate affairs and finance ministries for their approval to buy a 51 per cent stake,” the report notes.

And here is good story about the rich parting with their money:  ‘Individuals lead the way in philanthropy’, says private funds raised for philanthropy hit a record high of Rs 70,000 crore in 2017-2018, which grew at the rate of “14-18 per cent over the last eight years”. It says individual contributions amounted to Rs 43,000 crore and singles out 11 families, including those of Kiran Majumdar-Shaw, Dr Romesh and Kathleens Wadhwani, and Azim and Yasmeen Premji for their contributions.

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