HYDERABAD FRIDAY MAY 17, 2024 `9.00 PAGES 36 LATE CITY EDITION AN INDIAN LEGEND BIDS FAREWELL: CHHETRI SET FOR FINAL MATCH Sunil Chhetri, one of India’s finest footballers, announced that he would be retiring after the World Cup qualifier against Kuwait on June 6 ONLY BEHIND RONALDO AND MESSI In terms of the most goals scored by active international footballers in the men’s game, the forward is only behind Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. While the Indian forward has scored 94 goals, Ronaldo has 128) and Messi 106 A TOTEMIC FIGURE Within a couple of years of making his debut against Pakistan, the forward very quickly became the heartbeat of the side before becoming skipper MAN FOR THE BIG MOMENTS ■ ■ Chhetri has had big moments but the first one that sort of announced his presence on the national stage was the AFC Challenge Cup final in 2008 when he scored a hat-trick in the final against Tajikistan That win helped India qualify for the 2011 Asian Cup, the first time India had reached the continental event since the 1980s | P11 150 APPEARENCES SO FAR. HE IS INDIA’S MOST CAPPED PLAYER 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 FIR against Kejri aide Bibhav Maliwal says she was slapped, punched, adding the chief minister knew about it U J W A L J A L A L I @ New Delhi AAP parliamentarian Swati Maliwal on Thursday gave her statement to the Delhi Police over her physical assault by Bibhav Kumar, close aide of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, at the latter’s residence a few days ago. Top official sources told this newspaper that Maliwal said she was sitting at the drawing room of the CM house when Bibhav Kumar came and started abusing her without any provocation. She alleged that he slapped her, used abusive words in Hindi, and threatened to kill her. Maliwal accused him of then hitting her on her chest, stomach and even lower part of the body. She somehow escaped from the clutches of the attacker, came out and dialled the police for help. She broke down while recording her statement. Maliwal also alleged that Kejriwal was present in the house at the time of the assault and was in complete knowledge of the incident. The police then registered an FIR against Bibhav Kumar, based on Maliwal’s complaint. The FIR was HEARING TODAY Total turnout 66.95% so far, says poll panel M U K E S H R A N J A N @ New Delhi THE Election Commission of India on Thursday put the cumulative turnout in the four phases of Lok Sabha elections at 66.95%. The poll panel in a statement said that the updated voter turnout in the fourth phase on May 13 was 69.16%, which was 3.65% higher than the corresponding phase in the 2019 general elections. This is the only phase where the turnout graph went up. In the third phase, the updated tur nout was 65.68%, about 3% lower than 2019’s data of 68.40%. Likewise, the second phase recorded 66.71% polling as against 69.64% in the 2019 polls, down by about 3%. And the first phase turnout was 66.14% as against 69.43% in 2019, a drop of 3.3%. As many as 45.10 crore voters out of the total 97 crore on the poll rolls in 379 seats across 23 states and Union Territories have voted in the first four phases of elections. Three more phases are due with the last day of polling on June 1. The Supreme Court will on Friday hear a plea of the Association for Democratic Reforms, an NGO, seeking a direction to the Election Commission to upload polling stationwise voter turnout data on its website within 48 hours of conclusion of polling for each phase of the Lok Sabha elections. WITH THIS ISSUE CITY’S BEST WEEKEND GUIDE 36 PAGES, INCLUDING 24 OF INDULGE (TABLOID) INSIDE CAN GLADIATOR OMAR ‘ENGINEER’ BARAMULLA? I P5 TONGUE FOR A FINGER! DOC BOTCHES KID’S SURGERY I P5 XI, PUTIN HINT AT POLITICAL SETTLEMENT TO UKRAINE WAR I P9 The police team at Maliwal’s house and (inset) Bibhav | PTI registered under sections 354 (Assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty), 323 (Punishment for voluntarily causing hurt), 506 (Criminal intimidation) and 509 (Word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) of the Indian Penal Code at the Civil Lines police station. On May 13, Maliwal had alerted the Delhi Police after her assault but did not file a formal complaint. However on Thursday a two, member police team, which included a senior officer from the Special Cell and an Additional DCP-rank woman officer, went to her residence and took around four-and-a-half hours to record her statement. Later in the day Maliwal was taken to the AIIMS , for medical examination. Bibhav Kumar has been summoned by the National Commission for Women to appear in person before it on Friday at 11 am. Maliwal, who remained silent after the assault, finally posted on X that the last few days were very “difficult for her”. She was sarcastic about those who tried to assassinate her character and accused her of doing it on the behest of some other party . “ important election is going on An in the country Swati Maliwal is not , important, the issues of the country are important. There is a special request to BJP people to not do politics on this incident,” she said. What happened to me was very bad. I have given my statement to the police. I hope that appropriate action will be taken. The last few days have been very difficult for me — Swati Maliwal Govt to revise market value of lands EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ Hyderabad IN order to boost its revenues, the state government has decided to revise the market value of lands. Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy on Thursday instructed officials concerned to take steps to revise the market value of lands. The chief minister, along with Ministers Ponguleti Srinivasa Reddy and Jupally Krishna Rao, held a meeting with officials of revenue-generating departments like Commercial Taxes, Stamp and Registrations, Excise and Mining. During the meeting, it was noted that the rates of land have increased dramatically across the state, but the income from registrations and stamps has not risen accordingly . The main reason for this was the disparity between the market value and the actual sale price of land. CONTINUED ON P4 REVISION LONG TIME COMING While the market value of land has to be revised every year, the previous BRS government had last increased the land value & registration charges in 2021 A group of women, left, brave the heavy rain that lashed Hyderabad in the late afternoon of Thursday, while vehicles crawl at a snail’s pace on the Begumpet to Punjagutta flyover | SRI LOGANATHAN VELMURUGAN, VINAY MADAPU Heavy rain brings Hyd to a standstill PLAYING HAVOC The rain forced abandonment of the match between SRH and GT, ensuring Sunrisers go through to the IPL playoffs 90.3 mm in city IMD has issued a yellow alert and forecast light to moderate rains till May 22 in TG, including Hyderabad Five people lost their lives in separate rain-related accidents in erstwhile Medak and Sircilla districts GHMC’s disaster response force receives 82 calls of water stagnation, nala and tree felling in Hyderabad A A R T I K A S H YA P @ Hyderabad A two-hour spell of heavy rain on Thursday afternoon brought Hyderabad to a standstill — citizens stranded, traffic jammed, roads inundated and power cuts galore. As per the Telangana State Development Planning Society (TSDPS), Nalgonda district recorded 102.8 mm, Nagarkurnool district 101 mm, Khariatabad in Hyderabad recorded 90.3 mm, Shaikpet 87.5 mm, Amberpet 85.3 mm and Nampally 83 mm. The rain left commuters struggling with traffic jams at major junctions while most arterial roads and lanes were inundated, making it impossible for traffic to flow smoothly Power . outages were reported from most parts of the city from early afternoon till late evening. Taking advantage of the people’s misery, cab aggregators increased fares sharply However, there was lit. tle relief for those willing to pay the exorbitant amounts since the wait time stretched on and on. R Malathi, who was travelling from Shaikpet to Rajendranagar, had to wait for one hour before she could get a cab and still had to pay a much higher fare than on normal days. A Rajesh, another commuter, said he parked his two-wheeler at a fuel station and booked an auto to reach his workplace. However, the journey appeared to be never-ending as traffic jams were the order of the day . People also took to social media platform ‘X’ to share their agony of being stranded in the rain, power cuts, water-logged streets and several CONTINUED ON P5 other issues.
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