HYDERABAD l sunday l november 16, 2025 l `12.00 l PAGES 24 l late city EDITION Trump scraps tariffs on some items including coffee, fruits The abrupt retreat from his signature tariff policy comes amid mounting pressure on his administration to combat high consumer prices Admits levies causing prices to shoot u-turn after party’s election losses The president signed an executive order on Friday that removes tariffs on coffee, tea, beef, fruit juice, cocoa, spices, bananas, oranges, tomatoes, and certain fertilisers imported into the US. “We’ve just made a slight rollback on some foods,” Trump said. He acknowledged that his tariff policy has contributed to a rise in consumer prices in “some cases” | P10 ■ ■ The reversal comes after voters in off-year elections this month cited economic concerns as their top issue, resulting in big wins for Democrats in Virginia, New Jersey and other key races around the US “The president is finally admitting what we always knew: his tariffs are raising prices for the people,” senior Democrat Don Beyer said $2,000 The amount trump proposed to give each American as tariff dividend 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 CM expected to dissolve House, stake fresh claim on Monday daughter quits lalu family, politics B K a r t h e e k @ Hyderabad R a m a s h a n k a r @ Patna A day after the Rashtriya Janata Dal-Congress-led Mahagathbandhan’s crushing defeat in the Bihar Assembly elections, a feud erupted within RJD leader Lalu Prasad’s family, with his daughter Rohini Acharya announcing that she was quitting politics and severing all ties with the family . “I am quitting politics and also disowning my family. This is what Sanjay Yadav and Rameez had asked me to do. I am taking all the blame,” Acharya wrote on X. Sanjay Yadav is an RJD MP and a close confidant of Lalu’s younger son, Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, while Rameez is Tejashwi’s friend from neighbouring Uttar Pradesh. Neither Sanjay nor Rameez reacted, deepRohini Acharya ening the mystery and fuelling speculation of pressure within the party and the family . Rohini Acharya had previously made headlines when she donated one of her kidneys to her ailing father, Lalu Prasad. Responding to Rohini’s announcement, her brother Tej Pratap, who himself was expelled from the party a few months back, said: “Those who are trying to harass my sister will not be spared. ‘Jai Chand’ (traitor) will be taught a lesson at an appropriate time.” JD(U) MLC Neeraj Kumar said, “The daughter who saved the life of Lalu is now saying in pain that she is stepping down from politics and snapping ties with the family It is a big question on . Lalu and Rabri Devi.” Rahul to review Jubilee Hills byelection result with ministers LJP(RV) chief Chirag Paswan greets Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in Patna | PTI Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi is believed to have asked Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy about his plans for Cabinet expansion and indicated that a further meeting would be held on the matter. Rahul also told the chief minister that he would meet members of the Cabinet to review the Jubilee Hills byelection result. A day after the Congress won the high-stakes Jubilee Hills contest, the chief minister, accompanied by TPCC president B Mahesh Kumar Goud and Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, met Rahul, Mind games by Nitish before 10th term shot More arrests in terror module case RA J ESH K UMAR THA K UR @ New Delhi A day after the NDA registered a stunning landslide victory in the Bihar elections, there was no doubt in anybody’s mind that Chief Minister Nitish Kumar will get a record 10th term at the government’s helm. But Nitish being Nitish, he could suggest to the BJP that it should lead the government since it emerged as the single-largest party For its . part, the BJP could graciously insist that the mandate was for Nitish in the hot seat and should stay that way . In 2024, when he returned to the NDA after walking out of the Mahagathbandhan, Nitish enacted the same drama of asking the BJP to stake its claim for chief ministership, but the BJP respectfully turned it down. Of course, the final call will be taken by the BJP’s national leadership. “But, there is no chance of the BJP leading the government; it will send a wrong message within the NDA. The current arrange- ment is working fine,” remarked a senior BJP leader. The swearing-in ceremony is tentatively expected between November 18 and 21, depending on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s availability . Given the solid performance of Chirag Paswan’s LJP(RV) at the hustings — 19 out of 25 seats it contested, it could be rewarded with a deputy chief minister’s position. As for the BJP, it could name a Yadav leader from the party like Ram Kripal Yadav for the second deputy CM’s slot. The idea is to consolidate the BJP’s position among Yadav voters, especially after making inroads into this demographic this time around. A state cabinet meeting on dissolving the outgoing assembly is expected on Monday, after which Nitish will submit his resignation to the Governor. Later, a meeting of the NDA legislative party will elect Nitish as its leader. Nitish will then return to Raj Bhavan and stake his claim to form the new government. BJP suspends RK Singh | P8 MHA probe into nowgam blast The Home Ministry (MHA) said a probe has been ordered to determine the cause of the Nowgam police station ‘accidental’ blast that killed 9 people, including cops, on Friday n  revenue from betting and Ad gaming platforms routed through offshore servers n  Quick-release leaks boosting traffic spikes immediately after OTT premieres n  Multiple mirror domains used to retain viewership even after blocks n  Caribbean-based operations enabling transfer of illicit earnings beyond Indian jurisdiction n  Estimated industry loss of about `3,700 crore in 2024 due to widespread access to pirated content n  Monthly web traffic in millions converting directly into highvalue ad deals C h i t h a l u r i R e v a n t h @ Hyderabad In the end, it was a domestic issue that handed the Hyderabad cybercrime police one of their biggest catches, Immadi Ravi, who operated the website iBomma. The police had been tracking him for months as he ran a high-speed piracy network that leaked films, mostly in Telugu but also in other languages, within minutes of their release on OTT platforms. iBomma and its linked site Bappam went offline soon after his arrest. Officials said Ravi flew into Hyderabad on Friday amid ongoing divorce proceedings. While officers remain tightlipped about the source of the tip-off, the rumour is that it may have come from someone close to him who had a grievance against him. The only certainty , investigators said, was that Ravi was now in police custody after a prolonged search. Investigators estimate that Ravi earned crores through advertising deals with online betting and gaming platforms placed across his websites. They suspect he operated from a Caribbean island to avoid enforcement scrutiny His sudden . appearance in Hyderabad, despite running operations from abroad, has prompted police to examine whether he main- AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge and AICC general secretary KC Venugopal in Delhi. AICC Telangana in-charge Meenakshi Natarajan and Jubilee Hills MLA-elect V Naveen accidental explosion: dgp The explosion at Nowgam police station on Friday in Srinagar has raised serious questions on handling of explosives by police. DGP Nalin Prabhat said it was an “accidental explosion” | P8 A police woman consoles relatives of Mohammad Shafi Parry, a tailor who was among the nine killed in the explosion at Nowgam police station | Zahoor punjabi iBomma chief held; website goes offline Free-for-all and illegal Rahul Gandhi with TPCC leaders A Revanth Reddy, Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, Meenakshi Natarajan, Mahesh Kumar Goud, V Naveen Yadav and C Rohin Reddy tained parallel access points or support contacts in India. Ravi was produced before the Nampally court on Saturday and sent to judicial custody A senior . officer said documents and hard disks were seized and that teams are assessing his financial trail. The police are also expected to seek assistance from foreign agencies as parts of the operation appear to have been routed through offshore servers. Police are also examining whether Ravi acted alone or as part of a wider network that ran dozens of mirror sites. The Telugu Film Chamber of Commerce estimates that online piracy caused a loss of about `3,700 crore to the Telugu film industry in 2024. Yadav were also present. The discussions covered a range of sociopolitical issues related to Telangana, including the conduct of local body elections.  continued on p4 express news service @ Kolkata/Chandigarh/Srinagar MORE arrests continue in the Delhi car blast case with the National Investigation Agency (NIA) detaining Zanishar Alam, a 2024 MBBS graduate of Al Falah University, from his village in Suryapur market of Dalkhola in West Bengal’s North Dinajpur district on Saturday . Alam was released late in the evening, NIA officials said. He had returned home on November 12 to attend a wedding. NIA officials traced him from Ludhiana, where his father lives. Acting on a tip-off, officials contacted Touhid in Ludhiana and collected details of his son. “He was released after questioning. His mobile phone has been seized, and he was told to be present if summoned again,” the officer said. Meanwhile, a surgeon from Pathankot linked to Al Falah University and two doctors and fertiliser store owners from Haryana were also detained. Sources said that 45-year-old Dr Rayees Ahmad Bhat, presently associated with White Medical College in Pathankot, was de- RRR alignment changed to benefit Harish: Kavitha E x p r e s s N e w s S e r v i c e @ Medak Alleging that the alignment of the Regional Ring Road (RRR) was changed to save thousands of acres of lands belonging to former ministers T Harish Rao and Gangula Kamalakar, MLC K Kavitha on Saturday claimed that “prominent leaders in the BRS accumulated huge assets by misguiding former chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao”. Kavitha claimed the revised alignment, along with routes linked to the Ka- leshwaram canal and high-tension power lines, had affected farmers in 13 villages. She further alleged that benami companies said to be linked to Harish Rao had “connections with Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy”. The Telangana Jagruthi president questioned how leaders such as Harish Rao, G Jagadish Reddy, V Prashanth Reddy, G Niranjan Reddy and former MLA Madan Reddy “were able to acquire assets worth crores”.   continued on p4 trading zone tained by NIA on Saturday and is currently being questioned after investigators found that he was allegedly in touch with Dr Umar Un Nabi, the Delhi blast kingpin. Sources said Bhat was taken into custody to ascertain whether he was part of the “white-collar” terror module managed by Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed and Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind. The NMC has cancelled the registrations of the four doctors — Dr Muzaffar Ahmad, Dr Adeel Ahmad Rather, Dr Muzamil Shakeel and Dr Shaheen Saeed with immediate effect — for their alleged involvement in the terror module. WITH THIS ISSUE Devil’s Doctor d e M in e th Insid of the Urban Terrorist PLUS 12 P AGES E x p r e s s Re a d Base price of ‘lucky’ No. plates increased sharply Hyderabad: Booking a fancy registration number for vehicles in Telangana will get more expensive henceforth. A GO was issued on Saturday. Accordingly, the popular ‘9999’ number, which previously came with a base price of `50,000, has now been revised to `1.5 lakh | P3 Arjun in quarterfinals of Chess World Cup Panaji: Second-seeded Arjun Erigaisi defeated Armenia’s Levon Aronian, a two-time World Cup winner, in the pre-quarterfinals of the FIDE Chess World Cup in Goa on Saturday and will face Wei Yi of China in the quarterfinals. P Harikrishna drew 1-1 in the classical games against Mexico’s Jose Martinez | P11 Samson to CSK, Jadeja RR dominate buzz; KKR brace for auction E x p r e s s N e w s S e r v i c e @ Chennai The trading window of the IPL has shown signs of maturity as the tournament has evolved over the years. With the window closing on Saturday, most teams seemed to have covered their bases, especially Mumbai Indians, Punjab Kings and Royal Challengers Bengaluru making the most of it. Going by the money left in the purse, Kolkata Knight Riders, after a poor outing last season, are looking to rebuild the team. CSK too are following a similar script. The two are expected to engage in a fierce battle to secure the choicest of players, especially Australian all-rounder Cam Green. Interestingly, most of the players released by teams will go into the auction pool. KKR are looking for a captain as well. The central figures on the last day of trading were Sanju Samson and Ravindra Jadeja. The wicket-keeper batter was traded with the left-armspinning all-rounder. Samson landed with CSK for a figure of `18 cr while Jadeja left for Rajasthan Royals, surprisingly on a pay cut — `14 crore. For CSK, the move would help consolidate their fanbase and fortify their keeping with icon Mahendra Singh Dhoni, at 44, not growing any younger. CSK’s Sam Curran’s move to RR too was part of the deal. CSK have managed to free up some `40 crore after releasing a host of players, including stars like New Zealand’s Devon Conway and Rachin Ravindra, Deepak Hooda and Matheesha Pathirana. Similarly, KKR have 13 slots open, including six Purse `64.3 cr Remaining KKR `25.5 cr SRH overseas. Mohammed Shami was bought in an all-cash deal by Lucknow Super Giants from Sunrisers Hyderabad. Though MI, the five-time champs, have a smaller purse (`2.75 cr), they have already got a balanced team after securing Shardul Thakur, Sherfane Rutherford and Mayank Markande. Same is the case with RCB and PBKS. Auction will be held at Abu Dhabi on Dec 16. rana questioned by SIT in online betting apps case|P5