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DEHRADUN: A memo meant for trustees at The Doon School has stirred up a hornet’s nest, prompting the school management to clarify that there has been no decision at all on the venerated boys-only institute turning co-ed.
A message sent by headmaster Dr Jagpreet Singh on March 17 to members of the Indian Public Schools’ Society – the school’s governing body – included a four-page document outlining the logic for exploring a co-ed model.
However, alumni expressed their concern over a shift to a co-ed system and its likely impact on the cultural DNA of the institute founded in 1935. To allay the worries, the school management issued a note saying that “no decision has been taken regarding the school becoming co-ed”.

What was meant to be an internal discussion about a potential shift to co-education, quickly snowballed into a public controversy, prompting school authorities to clarify that the message sent by headmaster Jagpreet Singh on March 17 to the school’s governing body was not a declaration, but an invitation to deliberate, reconsider, and reimagine what the future of the school might look like.
Accompanying the headmaster’s memo was a four-page document, outlining the rationale for exploring a co-ed model. Citing research that challenged the academic benefits of same-sex education, the memo acknowledged a changing educational landscape and called for feedback to help navigate a possible transition.
“Over the years, many schools have made the transition to co-education,” the document noted. “Researchers claim that there is no significance of same-sex education on academic performance.”
However, even before a dialogue could take shape, the memo had moved beyond its intended audience. Alumni, many of whom see The Doon School as not just as a place, but as a part of personal identity, responded with unease. Sensing this disquiet, the school management issued a follow-up communication on April 7 from Anoop Singh Bishnoi, chairman of the board of governors, to IPSS members, most of whom are alumni.
“The document and communication in question were intended solely as a discussion note, shared internally with members of IPSS,” Bishnoi wrote. “The purpose was simply to initiate preliminary thought, invite inputs for discussion and dialogue among the members.” Offering reassurance, he added: “I want to personally assure you that no decision has been taken regarding the school becoming co-ed. Further, having received your valuable feedback, we will not be taking any decisions in this regard unless it finds favour with most of you.”
While the idea of admitting girls has surfaced in conversations around the school for years, there has never been a public plan or timeline – only murmurs and conjectures.
The document also raised questions: how to build infrastructure to accommodate female students, how to ensure their safety and wellness, and how to fund these changes.

NEW DELHI: Tahawwur Hussain Rana, who played a key role in plotting the 2008 terror attack on Mumbai that claimed 166 lives, was arrested by NIA here on Thursday after his arrival from US on a special flight.
The Pakistani-Canadian terrorist was produced before special NIA judge Chander Jit Singh, who held an in-camera hearing on NIA counsel and special public prosecutor Narender Mann’s plea for a 20-day remand. Rana was represented by Piyush Sachdeva, provided to him by Delhi Legal Services Authority. After the hearing, the court sent Rana to 18-day NIA custody.
Rana’s extradition process was nothing short of a nail-biter with fears of sabotage looming till the flight touched down at Palam airport’s technical area. The home ministry and the office of NSA, along with Intelligence Bureau, constantly monitored the flight ferrying Rana, taking precautions to thwart any attempt to stop him from landing in the grasp of Indian agencies.

Exercising utmost caution in extraditing Tahawwur Hussain Rana, a dummy code was generated for the chartered aircraft, a Gulfstream G550, ferrying him to India to avoid detection on public flight trackers and alleviate threats of an attack. The aircraft took off from Los Angeles in the early hours of Wednesday and landed in New Delhi around 6 pm, after a pit stop in Romania.
Rana, along with his close school friend and fellow jihadi Daood Gilani aka David Coleman Headley, had left Mumbai on Nov 19, 2008, just a week before a gang of jihadi terrorists belonging to and motivated by LeT and trained by serving officers of Pakistan army landed on the Worli shore to carry out an attack in which 166 people were killed and which left the nation traumatised. The massacre marked the execution of a plan that Rana and Headley helped draw by selecting the targets to be struck.
As Rana stepped on the tarmac in prison browns with NIA personnel clinging to him, he looked far from the unassuming businessman he had posed as when he checked into a Powai hotel in Mumbai in 2008. He had also visited Agra, Hapur, Kochi and other cities during this trip, supposedly to promote his immigration business, though NIA suspects the trips may have been a cover to scout for potential terror recruits for LeT.
Rana, for long a strategic asset for Lashkar-e-Taiba and Pakistan’s military intelligence complex, was placed under arrest at the airport, made to undergo a medical examination and whisked to court through a green corridor amid heavy security comprising a 20-vehicle cavalcade and SWAT commandos.
On the plane back to India, Rana was seated in the middle with NSG commandos on all seats surrounding him, followed by senior NIA officials. Just after touchdown, the NIA acknowledged the assistance of US Sky Marshals who are assigned with secure transportation of federal prisoners, including inmate transfers via air.
In a statement, the NIA termed Rana a key conspirator and confirmed his extradition. “Rana was being held in judicial custody in the US pursuant to proceedings initiated under the India-US extradition treaty. The extradition finally came through after Rana exhausted all legal avenues to stay the move. The district court for the Central District of California had ordered his extradition on May 16, 2023. Rana then filed multiple litigations in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, all of which were rejected,” it said.
Extradition proceedings were initiated between the two countries after India eventually secured a surrender warrant for the wanted terrorist from the US govt.
The extradition finally came through after Rana’s various litigations and appeals, including an emergency application before the US Supreme Court, were rejected with the active assistance of the US department of justice’s Office of International Affairs, US Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California, US Marshals Service, FBI’s Legal Attache Office in New Delhi, and US department of state’s Office of the Legal Adviser for Law Enforcement, the NIA said.
For NIA investigators, the challenge will be to get Rana to reveal more than what he has already told US authorities. His interrogation will be aimed at getting to the bottom of the Mumbai attack conspiracy and exposing the role of Pakistan-based LeT masterminds like Hafiz Saeed, Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi and others in planning and remote-controlling one of the deadliest terror strikes against India.

A helicopter crashed into the Hudson River in New York on Thursday, emergency services said, as local media reported multiple deaths in the incident.

Several people were pulled from the water and taken to a hospital in New Jersey, the NBC4 broadcaster reported citing law enforcement at the scene, adding that four had died.

ABC7 reported three fatalities, although emergency services had yet to confirm any toll.

Images showed the chopper’s landing skids protruding from the river beside Manhattan’s West Side Highway as several boats clustered around the impact site.

Police from both New York and New Jersey, which is on the opposite side of the river from Manhattan, were at the scene along with fire department vessels.

The NBC4 channel reported that its own helicopter was unable to take off because of conditions, with the weather in New York on Thursday windy under thick cloud cover.

Witnesses told the outlet that the main rotor blade had come loose from the aircraft, while footage on social media showed pieces of the aircraft breaking off and the helicopter plunging into the waterway.

“A Bell 206 helicopter crashed and is submerged in the Hudson River in New York City,” the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement.

“The number of people on board is unknown at this time. The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board will investigate.”

– ‘Heartbreaking’ –

The river is a busy shipping channel and the scene of a dramatic 2009 incident when a US Airways jet safely landed in the water. All 155 people on board escaped with their lives in an event dubbed “Miracle on the Hudson.”

The river is as deep as 200 feet (60 meters) at points, and an AFP correspondent saw what appeared to be floatation devices deployed on the aircraft’s skids.

The average temperature of the river is 46 degrees Fahrenheit (8 degrees Celsius) at this time of year, according to the US Geological Survey.

There is a heliport close to the Hudson Yards development but it was unclear if the aircraft was heading to or from the facility.

“Due to a helicopter crash in the Hudson River, in the vicinity of the West Side Highway and Spring Street, expect emergency vehicles and traffic delays in the surrounding areas,” the New York Police Department wrote in a statement.

A fire service spokesperson said that “we got the call at 3:17 pm (1917 GMT)” about a “helicopter in the water,” but was unable to give other information.

New Jersey State Police did not immediately respond to an AFP request for comment.

There have been around 30 helicopter crashes in New York since 1980, Brooklyn Borough President Mark Levine told reporters, calling for tighter restrictions on helicopter traffic in the city.

New York Mayor Eric Adams called the incident “heartbreaking.”

“The team is on the scene at the heartbreaking and tragic crash in the Hudson River,” he wrote on X.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

NEW DELHI: Tatas-owned Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) entered the Top 3 luxury car ranking by surging ahead of German Audi, with the category crossing the psychological 50,000-unit mark in FY25 for the first time by registering 3% growth in the financial year.
While sales have started to slow down from Jan-March ’25 quarter as the stock markets took a beating and some concerns started to build up around the economy, the industry still managed to post growth for full fiscal, registering sales of 51,406 units.
JLR has shown healthy performance, despite near absence of Jaguar models with availability of only a few units of F-Pace. SUVs of Land Rover led the growth. JLR sold 6,183 units in FY25 at a growth of 40% (4,417 units in FY24), ahead of Audi’s 5,990 units, where numbers declined by 15% (7,027 in the previous year).

“In FY25, Defender was the highest selling-model with a growth of 90%, followed by the locally-manufactured Range Rover and Range Rover Sport at 72% and 42% respectively,” Rajan Amba, MD of JLR India, said. The company is hopeful of continuing the growth momentum in FY26. Sources in VW group, owner of Audi, said the brand was impacted by “supply constraints and red sea crisis” last year. “In spite of limited product offerings, the company has started 2025 with growth in quarter one. However, long-term outlook remains challenging until new products arrive.”
JLR was behind Mercedes-Benz and BMW, who occupied top two positions in the luxury car market respectively. Mercedes sold 18,928 units at a growth of 4%, while BMW saw numbers move up 5% on sales of 15,266 units.
Mercedes MD & CEO Santosh Iyer said the company’s volumes were led by new product launches, as well as upgradation of network. “Strong performance of core and top-end luxury segment remained the highlight of last fiscal,” he said.
Vikram Pawah, president and CEO of BMW India, said the brand continues to see healthy demand, and has seen strong performance of its electric vehicles range. “We see healthy adoption of electrics in our portfolio and are confident to grow this share further.”

Prayagraj: Granting bail to a rape accused, the Allahabad high court, in its recent order, has said that the ‘victim herself invited trouble and was also responsible for the alleged act’.
As per the submission of the survivor, a postgraduate student, she went to a bar in Delhi’s Hauz Khas along with her female friends. Some other male acquaintances of her friends and the accused met them at the bar. After they got intoxicated, the accused took her to his relative’s place in Gurgaon and raped her twice. She lodged an FIR in Gautam Budh Nagar and the accused was arrested in December 2024. He later moved the high court for bail.
Justice Sanjay Kumar Singh in his order dated March 11 said: “This court is of the view that even if the allegation of the victim is accepted as true, then it can also be concluded that she herself invited trouble and was also responsible for the same. Similar stand has been taken by the victim in her statement. In her medical examination, her hymen was found torn but doctor did not give any opinion about the sexual assault.”
The court also added that as an MA student, the victim was competent enough to understand the “morality and significance of her act” as disclosed by her in the FIR.
As per the victim’s version, she, along with some female friends went to a bar in Delhi where she met the accused and some other male friends. They consumed alcohol at the bar, due to which she became intoxicated.
She further claimed that she remained at the bar until around 3:00 am and during this time, the accused kept on insisting that she should accompany him to his house. As she was in need of support due to her condition, she agreed to go with him to rest, her submission said.
However, she further alleged, the accused touched her inappropriately on the way and instead of taking her to his residence in Noida, as she had expected, he took her to a relative’s flat in Gurgaon, where he raped her.
An FIR in this connection was lodged by the survivor on Sept 23,2024 at in Gautam Budh Nagar.
Seeking bail in the case, the accused moved the high court, wherein his counsel argued that even if all the allegations are taken to be true, it is not a case of rape but may be a case of consensual relationship between two persons.
It was also argued that the accused has been languishing in jail since December 2024, despite having no criminal history, and that if he was released on bail, he would not misuse the liberty of bail and would cooperate in the early disposal of the case.
On the other hand, the additional government advocate for the state opposed the bail plea in the light of the FIR, but he did dispute the above factual aspect of the matter as argued on behalf of the applicant.
Against the backdrop of these submissions, the court granted bail to the accused applicant. “Considering the facts and circumstances of the case as well as keeping in view the nature of the offence, evidence, complicity of the accused and submissions of the counsel for the parties, I am of the view that the applicant has made out a fit case for bail. Hence, the bail application is hereby allowed.”

The extradition of 26/11 plotter Tahawwur Rana has ripped the band-aid off the wounds of many who lived through the three-day mayhem in Mumbai 16 years ago. For others, it was an occasion to remember the massive pressure they came under to save the lives of others — at great risk to themselves. 

One such hero is nurse Anjali Kulthe, who managed to save 20 pregnant women admitted at Mumbai’s Cama hospital and ensured safe delivery for one of them — a high-risk patient of hypertension.  

It was around 9.30 pm on November 26, when they got information that terrorists who were attacking the CST station were moving towards the Cama hospital, Ms Kulthe told NDTV in an exclusive interview. Minutes later, they heard gunshots from a lane at the back of the hospital. 

“Looking out of the window, we could see two terrorists running and the police firing at them. Then the terrorists vaulted over the low gate and entered the hospital premises. I saw they had shot the two security guards, who were lying in a heap. When they spotted us at the window, they opened fire at us and one of our workers got injured. I took her to the casualty and informed everyone that the terrorists had entered the hospital,” she said. 

On her return, the nurse shut the main doors of the ward and took the 20 patients to a 10×10 pantry. Cellphones and lights were switched off and they sat in the dark. 

Soon after, the hypertension patient started getting labour pain. The doctor refused to come to the ward, for by now, the gunbattle was raging inside the hospital. 

Ms Kulthe said she took the patient to the labour room by the staircase, going up one step at a time, staying close to the wall.  By the morning, she had given birth to a baby girl, who was named ‘Goli’ in the memory of that night, Ms Kulthe said.

The hospital was under attack for five hours that night. Besides the two security guards, one more hospital worker died. 

Asked if she had got over the fear and trauma of that night, Ms Kulthe said, “not a single one of us who worked at the hospital – doctors, nurses or other staff — will ever forget that night”.

“The way they threw hand grenades, opened fire, killed people, none of us can ever forget it. For the whole country, it was a night of sadness and horror,” she added.    

Tahawwur Rana, who was extradited, is accused of playing a key role in the 2008 attacks that cost 166 lives. Pakistani-American terrorist and prime accused in the case, David Coleman Headley, said Rana had extended logistical and financial support for the terror operation. He has been charged with criminal conspiracy, waging war against the government of India, murder and forgery and under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

The three-day attack that devastated India’s financial capital in 2008 had seen hotels, a train station, a Jewish center, and other spots targeted.

Of the 10 terrorists who took part in the attack, only one, Ajmal Kasab, was caught alive and was hanged on November 21, 2012. India has said Pakistan-based terror group  Lashkar-e-Taiba had orchestrated the attacks.

Tahawwur Hussain Rana, a terrorist who was jailed in the US for his role in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, has been extradited to India and will be put to trial for his role in the attacks that shook the nation to its core in 2008. 

Sixteen years after the attacks, survivors recounted the horror they experienced on the night of November 26. Ajay Bagga, a startup mentor and a long-term investor, recalled what happened inside the Taj Hotel when he and his wife, Rajita Kukarni, were caught in the line of fire. 

“Rajita and I were at the Taj at the Masala Craft restaurant. One of our friends, a German member of the European Parliament, was visiting with a big parliamentary delegation.”

“We were just starting dinner at about 9:30 pm, the first firing started, and I just looked out and I saw somebody shooting into the Golden Dragon restaurant, which is about 30 meters from where we were. Luckily, that door used to look like a steel wall, and there was no latch inside. I just tied up the door with napkins, tableware, and people were not ready to move. We were told there is a shooting outside.”

Read more: “Bringing Back Memories”: Survivor Spots Herself In NDTV’s 26/11 Footage

Mr Bagga told NDTV that his friend had been in a terror hostage situation in Sri Lanka earlier. So she was well trained and told them that “It is now becoming a hostage situation.”

‘People Killed On Both Sides’

Mr Bagga and his wife were spotted in the NDTV footage from 16 years ago, which was taken shortly after the firing began.

“On both sides, there were people killed. On the right was the Shamiana 24/7 coffee shop, and on the left was Golden Dragon. There was nobody who survived. Everyone was killed there,” Mr Bagga told NDTV. 

“We were providentially safe in Masala Craft. And then after two hours, the hotel moved us to the chambers through the basement area of the staff entrance. We were moved out to the chambers, and we were there. About 200 people were there.  A politician gave a media interview, and he said 200 CEOs and very senior people of Mumbai are trapped here in chambers… They entered chambers and opened fire,” he recalled.

“Just then, our evacuation started from the fire escape. One old woman fell. I bent down to pick her up, and I told my wife that we would not push. People were pushing and running down. I said, we’ll not push. We’ll wait for our turn, and all of a sudden, in front of us, there was nobody alive.”

‘Taj Staffer Saved Our Life’

Mr Bagga, who was stuck in the Chambers and was awaiting his turn to get rescued, said a staff member from the Taj saved his and his wife’s lives. Mr Bagga said, the staffer “Took bullets in his back and we hid in a conference room, lying on the ground for the next about seven hours. Through the night, he (the staffer) was crying. We had nothing but aspirin and whatever people had. There were two doctors with us.

“We tied up his wounds as well as we could, and he made it to the hospital, but he did not survive.”

“We were all lying down in the room and the other conference rooms. I thought it was over because huge smoke started coming in. They were throwing grenades from the top to try to break the building…very heavy smoke came in, and we couldn’t breathe. I thought it was over because there was a flimsy door between us and them,”

“The National Security Guard (NSG) came at 10,” Mr Bagga said, adding that the gunfight continued between the commandos and the terrorists, and “somehow the god was kind” and he was out of the danger zone by 10 pm.

‘We Hugged Taj Employees Who Survived’

Mr Bagga said he had to go back to the Taj hotel after a month since he was a member of the chambers and relive the near-death experience he had inside the hotel.

“I went through the entire route that we had taken, right from Masala Craft, through the basement, the staff entrances, and to the chambers. And we went and hugged all the employees who survived. A lot of Taj employees gave up their lives to save us.”

He recalled that when the NSG came to their rescue, they didn’t know if it’s the terrorists pretending to be “the Black Cat commandos or it’s really the NSG but then they said, stand back. We are breaking through.”

“They (NSG) had to break the door because we had tied it up with all the tablecloths. There were no latches in any of the doors,” he added.

Mr Bagga’s wife, Ranjita Kulkarni, also spoke to NDTV and said, The extradition of Rana is a “monumental achievement for our country”. She thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi, External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar, US President Donald Trump and the US Supreme Court for making this possible. “I am quite sure it will bring justice. This is a huge day for all martyrs who sacrificed their lives, survivors and their families,” she said.

Tahawwaur Rana’s Role In 26/11 Attacks

The former Pakistan Army doctor provided logistic, financial and other assistance to David Headley — a key conspirator in the terror attack. Rana is charged under sections relating to criminal conspiracy, waging war against the government of India, murder and forgery and relevant sections under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. He also travelled to various places in India as they identified targets to strike, the chargesheet says.

It was a case to trump all detective stories and left the Bareilly police scratching their heads. A woman came in complaining that her aunt was gangraped and shot. But a day’s investigation left the police with a completely different picture – that of a cooked-up story. What astounded them was the length to which the alleged victim – Shamouli – could go to establish it. It needed a bullet, a coin, a quack and extensive imagination. 

On the night of March 29, the Bareilly police received information about a woman being shot near Gandhi Udyan, said Manush Parikh, the city police chief.

The next day, her niece lodged a complaint, saying the woman was coming out of a medical store near a 300-bed hospital after making a purchase, when five men in a black car kidnapped her. She was later gang-raped, shot and thrown near Gandhi Udyan, she alleged.

It got the police force of the entire city to sit up and get busy with a manhunt – till the medical report came in.

The report made it clear that the bullet in the woman’s body was not the result of a firearm injury. It was inserted through an operation and the surgical scars were still there. 

To confirm their growing suspicion, the police checked all the footage from roadside CCTVs. It turned out that woman was travelling in an auto-rickshaw at the time when she was supposed to have been kidnapped.

The police said during interrogation, the woman confessed that she had earlier blackmailed a public representative and his son. The case was in court and a judgment was expected soon. To avoid that, she had come up with this plan, which had this added advantage of trapping her adversary again.

The police said the woman got an employee of the district hospital and a quack from Sanjaynagar to insert the bullet. She then singed the area with a hot coin to mimic the powder burn from a bullet.

The police said at least three people were involved and the police are investigating the matter further. 

Two of the accused have been arrested and are in custody. The possibility of more people being involved cannot be ruled out, the police said.