BHUBANESWAR l sunday l july 05, 2026 l `12.00 l PAGES 24 l late CITY EDITION Incessant Heavy rains paralyse mumbai; schools, colleges shut Incessant rainfall lashed Mumbai on Saturday, disrupting road and rail traffic and prompting the authorities to close schools and colleges Red alert in mumbai, thane and palghar people urged to avoid unnecessary travel Heavy rains continued throughout the day, virtually paralysing the financial capital with roads and railway tracks submerged in flood water. Heavy water-logging was reported from several low-lying areas, including Andheri, Kurla, Sakinaka, Chembur, Santacruz, Goregaon and Powai. The weather office has issued a red alert for Mumbai, Thane and Palghar ■ ■ At least three people were injured in Mumbai’s Byculla area when a two-storey structure collapsed. Heavy rains lashed Thane and Palghar, too. In Thane, a falling tree injured two motorists Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis urged people to avoid travel to prevent accidents caused by heavy rain and storms 100 mm of rainfall in parts of mumbai since Friday morning CHENNAI ■ MADURAI ■ VIJAYAWADA ■ BENGALURU ■ KOCHI ■ HYDERABAD ■ VISAKHAPATNAM ■ COIMBATORE ■ KOZHIKODE ■ THIRUVANANTHAPURAM ■ BELAGAVI ■ BHUBANESWAR ■ SHIVAMOgGA ■ MANGALURU ■ TIRUPATI ■ TIRUCHY ■ TIRUNELVELI ■ SAMBALPUR ■ HUBBALLI ■ DHARMAPURI ■ KOTTAYAM ■ KANNUR ■ VILLUPURAM ■ KOLLAM ■ TADEPALLIGUDEM ■ NAGAPATTINAM ■ THRISSUR ■ KALABURAGI Khalid, Sharjeel fail to get bail, again No option but to follow Jan 5 SC order, says trial court u d aya n k i s h o r e @ New Delhi A Delhi trial court on Saturday rejected the bail applications of activists Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam in the larger conspiracy case linked to the 2020 northeast Delhi riots, saying the Supreme Court had already junked their pleas moved on similar grounds. Additional Sessions Judge Sameer Bajpai said the court had “no option but to follow” the Supreme Court’s January 5 order and, therefore, “could neither entertain the pleas nor grant them the relief.” The judge added that the bail pleas were not even maintainable in the trial court. “Although the applicants had argued that there was a change in circumstances following a division bench judgment of the top court in the case of Syed Iftikhar Andrabi, the issue concerning the divergence of opinion between that verdict and the Supreme Court’s judgment in Gulfisha Fatima versus State has already been referred to a larger bench. Unless the issue is settled, the court cannot con- WITH THIS ISSUE Bheja Fry PLUS 12 P AGES Morocco in last 8 T h e g r e at e s c a p e Blockbuster in Miami Own goal decides thriller Cape Verde rocked Lionel Messi’s Argentina with two stunning equalisers to raise the prospect of pulling off the greatest upset in WC history. But a Diney Borges own goal, under pressure from Cristian Romero, in the 111th minute broke the resistance Salah vs Messi next Egypt posted their first victory in a knockout round of the World Cup. They made history by beating Australia 4-2 on spot-kicks to reach the last 16. Egypt will face Argentina on July 7. Colombia, meanwhile, ended Ghana’s run with a 1-0 victory Azzedine Ounahi scored a double as Morocco became the first side to book a quarterfinal spot. The African side beat co-hosts Canada 3-0 at Houston Stadium on Saturday. The 26-year-old midfielder netted the opening two goals before Soufiane Rahimi’s strike in injury time Today’s matches: Brazil vs Norway | 1:30 AM*; Mexico vs England | 5:30 AM* (*IST Monday) CM majhi invites state’s Padma awardees to Rath Yatra Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi on Saturday invited all Padma awardees from Odisha to participate in this year’s annual Rath Yatra in Puri | P3 Ultimatum to Telegram app to curb film piracy Pa r v e z S u lta n @ New Delhi The Centre has issued an ultimatum to Telegram, directing it to curb the widespread circulation of pirated films, overthe-top (OTT) content, and other copyrighted audiovisual material on the messaging platform. According to official sources, the I&B ministry directed the company to submit an Action Taken Report within 15 days, detailing the measures it has initiated to comply with the directive. “Telegram has been asked to strengthen systems for detection, reporting, disabling access to and removal of pirated films and infringing audio-visual content. The ministry has sought details of Telegram’s grievance redressal system for producers,” sources said. Umar Khalid Sharjeel Imam Lens on Jan 5 order Umar Khalid’s lawyer, Trideep Pias, questioned the SC reasoning in the case of Gulfisha Fatima, who was granted bail in the same case on Jan 5 along with Meeran Haider, Shifa Ur Rehman, Mohd Saleem Khan and Shadab Ahmad sider the present applications,” the judge said. The court further said it cannot even examine whether there is any change in circumstances, as it is bound by the Supreme Court’s January 5 order dismissing the bail pleas of both the applicants. A bench of Justices Aravind Kumar and N V Anjaria had on January 5 observed that there was a primafacie case against Khalid and Imam under the UAPA and held that all accused could not be treated equally in view of the “hierarchy of participation”. On May 18, a division bench of justices B V Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan had expressed reservations about the January 5 verdict, saying it did not follow the judgment given by a three-judge bench in 2021 in Union of India versus KA Najeeb, which said long delay in trials is a valid ground for bail even in cases under the stringent UAPA. Subsequently a di, vision bench led by Justice Arvind Kumar, while accepting there was “perceived conflict” among benches, referred the matter to a larger bench. Lady IIC found hanging in restroom of Cuttack police station, probe on E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Cuttack A 41-year-old lady police inspector was found hanging inside her official restroom on the first floor of Chauliaganj police station on Saturday morning. The deceased was identified as Beauty Mohanty, inspector in-charge (IIC) of Chauliaganj police station. Police sources said she resided in the office quarter alone as her husband Samir Swain, a software engineer, stayed in Mumbai while her parents reside in Cuttack Sadar area. Sources said Mohanty was earlier posted at the Mahila poBeauty Mohanty lice station from where she was transferred to the Chauliaganj police station two months back. Before taking charge of Mahila police station, she was the IIC of Pahala and Markat Nagar police stations. As per reports, she spent the night at the restroom on the first floor of the police station where she was found hanging. The staff of the police station raised suspicion when their repeated phone calls to Mohanty went unanswered. They then went to her restroom and knocked on the door but to no avail. On being informed, senior police officers reached the spot and broke open the door of the restroom only to find Mohanty hanging from the Continued on P5 ceiling.  hist o r i c d e b ut The youngest: Sooryavanshi arrives at international stage g o m e s h s @ Chennai 15 years, 99 days. T20I cap No 122. These two numbers will remain in cricketing folklore and part of trivia for decades to come. Vaibhav Sooryavanshi is now the youngest male cricketer to represent India, surpassing Sachin Tendulkar who made his debut at 16 years, 205 days against Pakistan in 1989. It could have happened sooner, in Belfast against Ireland last week or in Durham against England in the first T20I. But it is better late than never. Sooryavanshi’s childhood coach Manish Ojha felt that it could have happened in Belfast. “It came as a surprise for us today. Very proud moment,” he said. The cricketing world was waiting for Vaibhav Sooryavanshi made his debut in Manchester | ap this moment. Such is the manner in which the teenager from Bihar had stirred the imagination of the nation. This is not his first youngest. There are quite a few more written against his name — Ranji Trophy, IPL debut, IPL century, etc. This could also be the first time the BCCI sent parents with a player where he had to use separate change rooms. Now, the focus shifts to international arena where more records are under threat. However, his approach on the field has remained the same as he got on his knee to scoop Jofra Archer for a six before falling for a 10-ball 14. But these are the first pages. For Sooryavanshi is not a footmark, but a new chapter in Indian cricket history . Monsoon session starts from July 20 r a j e s h k u m a r t h a k u r @ New Delhi UNION Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju said on Saturday that the Monsoon Session of Parliament will be held from July 20 to August 13. The upcoming session, expected to be stormy, could see the government introduce several key bills, including the 130th Constitutional Amendment Bill, which seeks to sack the PM or CM or ministers if they fail to secure bail within 30 days of imprisonment. Opposition parties are most likely to raise the issue of donation theft at the Ram temple in Ayodhya, among other matters. The government, however, is expected to make another push for a Key JPC Constitutional amendment bill promeet on viding 33% reservation for women in July 17 Parliament and Assemblies, along with the contentious Delimitation The Joint Parliamentary Bill. On the Opposition side, the issue of Committee privilege proceedings against Deon the 130th Constitutional fence Minister Rajnath Singh may get Amendment Bill, raised during the session. Both Houses are expected to witheaded by former IAS officer and ness a changed political arithmetic BJP MP Aparajita following defections from the TrinaSarangi, is likely mool Congress (TMC) and Shiv Sena to meet (UBT). A closely-watched developon July 17 to adopt ment will be Lok Sabha Speaker Om its report Birla’s decision on the proposed merger of the 20 rebel Trinamool MPs with the lesser-known NCPI. The Speaker is also expected to take a final call on merger of six Uddhav Sena MPs with Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena. Amid these defections, the DMK has also requested separate seating for its MPs away from the P7 Congress.  Man slips into drain in capital, goes missing E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Bhubaneswar A 35-year-old man went missing after he fell into a swollen drain even as heavy rain triggered by a low pressure battered the state capital for the third day in a row. As per reports, Anil Singh from the nearby Patharbandha slum remained untraceable after falling into drainage channel no 4 near Vani Vihar while picking plastics from a garbage pile. On being informed, two fire services teams and a striking force from the fire services wing rushed to the spot and launched a rescue operation. However, Singh was not traced till late in the evening. Mayor Sulochana Das, Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) commissioner Chanchal Rana and other officials visited the site to take stock of the situation. Rana told mediapersons that the drainage site where the mishap took place remained inaccessible to general Continued on P5 public.