What’s Behind The Remarkable Conviction Record of the National Investigation Agency?; Amit Shah and Rahul Gandhi Spar Over ‘Vote Chori’; Delhi HC Pulls Up Govt on IndiGo Crisis

India’s Quick Commerce Sector is Burning Cash and Making Losses, No Data on Deaths Due to Air Pollution, Says Govt, US to Fund Over 1.25 Billion in Balochistan Mining Project

A newsletter from The Wire | Founded by Sidharth Bhatia, Siddharth Varadarajan, Sushant Singh, Seema Chishti, MK Venu, Pratik Kanjilal and Tanweer Alam | Contributing writer: Kalrav Joshi, with additional inputs by Anirudh SK

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Snapshot of the day

December 10, 2025

Sidharth Bhatia

With its claimed 100% conviction rate in 2024 (and ‘only’ 94-95% until then), the relatively young National Investigation Agency appears to have an enviable track record, unlike some of its other Union government-run peers. It may seem like the agency dots all its i’s and crosses its t’s, but there is more to it than meets the eye, finds Sukanya Shantha after two years of analysing NIA cases. Of the 633 cases the agency has registered since its creation, verdicts were given in 133, of which 79 in turn saw a full trial. The remaining 54 involved guilty pleas. Shantha’s Pulitzer Center-backed investigation indicated that these pleas are “offered as the only path to freedom after years of detention”, with the anti-terror Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) making bail extremely difficult to secure. She also finds that the men who made the guilty pleas came disproportionately from ‘lower’ Muslim castes.

Speaking of the UAPA, the Supreme Court has reserved its verdict on petitions filed by Umar Khalid, Sharjeel Imam, Gulfisha Fatima, Meera Haider, Shifa Ur Rehman, Md. Saleem Khan and Shadab Ahmed seeking bail in the Delhi riots larger conspiracy case who have been languishing in jail for more than five years now.

Sparring over vote chori (theft) continued in parliament today with Union home minister Amit Shah and Lok Sabha leader of opposition Rahul Gandhi having a heated discussion on the topic. While Gandhi ‘challenged’ the minister to engage in a debate on his allegations raised during his press conferences, Shah claimed that the Congress indulged in vote theft when Jawaharlal Nehru was chosen as the party’s prime ministerial candidate over Sardar Patel with fewer votes within the Congress, when Indira Gandhi imposed the Emergency after a court declared her election invalid, and when Sonia Gandhi was allegedly made a voter before she became a citizen (Congress MP K.C. Venugopal said she had never voted before acquiring Indian citizenship).

At least six executives from top Indian arms makers, including Adani Defence and Bharat Forge, attended rare meetings in Russia this year to explore potential joint ventures, Reuters reports, citing sources. This marked the first visit by India’s defence industry leaders to Russia since Moscow’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, and the visit had not been previously reported. The Indian government aims to shift its long-standing defence ties with Russia toward joint weapons development, but collaboration risks slowing efforts to develop Western arms, a key part of Prime Minister Modi’s plan to make India a global arms manufacturing hub. Western diplomats have noted that India’s extensive Russian-origin arsenal, around 36% of its military, remains a barrier to transferring sensitive military technology.

With eyes on Pakistan’s critical minerals, the United States President Trump administration