tiruchy l wednesday l november 19, 2025 l `9.00 l PAGES 14 l late city EDITION Baba Siddique murder: Gangster Anmol Bishnoi being deported baba siddique mutiple cases lodged across country Bishnoi, also a wanted accused in the case related to a firing on Bollywood star Salman Khan’s residence, is expected to land in Delhi on Wednesday. Mumbai Police had sent two requested for his extradition to the US. There are multiple cases registered against the gangster across the country. The Centre will decide which agency gets his custody first Gangster Anmol Bishnoi, a key accused in the gunning down of NCP leader Baba Siddique, is being deported to India from the US, police said ■ 2024 U.S. tells baba’s son of anmol’s expulsion ■ NCP leader and Baba Siddique’s son Zeeshan Siddique told a news agency on Tuesday that he had received an email informing that Anmol Bishnoi had been “removed” from the United States Baba Siddique, a former Maharashtra minister, was shot dead on October 12, 2024, in front of his son Zeeshan’s office in Bandra in april last year, anmol’s gang fired on salman khan’s residence 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 strained ties India-B’desh women series postponed G o m e s h S @ Chennai Amidst diplomatic strain between the two countries, the women’s cricket series between India and Bangladesh slated for December has been postponed. Interestingly this comes a day af, ter for mer Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was handed a death sentence by a tribunal court in the country for alleged crimes against humanity. Earlier in August 2025, India had also postponed men’s bilateral series to September 2026. The women’s series would have been the first assignment after winning the World Cup for Harmanpreet Kaur and Co. As per the ICC Future Tours Programme, Bangladesh women were supposed to tour India for a white-ball series against India in December. “As far as the Bangladesh series is concerned, it is postponed,” a BCCI source told this daily. No official reason was given but it is understood that the tense diplomatic relations between the two nations could have led to the decision. The interim government in Dhaka has been demanding the extradition of Hasina who has been in India since fleeing the country last year. On the other hand, Bangladesh teams have visited India for multi-nation sporting events including the Men’s Hockey Asia Cup in August and women’s Cricket World Cup in October this year. e x p r e s s r e ad Mixed reaction for SIR boycott call on Day 1 Chennai: The first day of the indefinite boycott of SIR work started by the TN revenue officials’ federation elicited mixed reactions on Tuesday, with the poll work largely unaffected in major cities and other parts of TN witnessing moderate impact | P4 Egg price hits record `6 apiece in Namakkal Salem: For the first time, egg price in Namakkal have touched a record high of `6 apiece on Tuesday. Namakkal produces nearly 6.5 crore eggs a day, and houses the National Egg Coordination Committee which regulates the price of the poultry product | P4 BJP may retain Speaker; JD(U) Home Nitish to resign today RA J E S H KUMAR THAKUR a n d R a m a s h a n k a r @ New Delhi/Patna Amid hard bargaining among NDA allies over plum portfolios in the new Bihar ministry on Tuesday the Speaker’s post is ex, pected to stay with the BJP while , Chief Minister Nitish Kumar may retain Home despite the BJP pressing him to part with it. Sources said on the names of two prominent BJP leaders for the position of Speaker have already been considered, one of whom will be finalised at Wednesday’s BJP legislature party meeting in Patna. While earlier it was speculated Nitish will resign as head of the outgoing govt on Wednesday to start the formal process of forming a new government, which will take its oath of office the following day that Chirag Paswan’s party might get a deputy CM’s post, it now appears that the BJP would pocket both deputy CM posts, with the party considering appointing new faces for that position. Initially, the JD(U) wanted the Speaker’s post. It however, yielded and then pitched for a deputy CM’s post. 43 Maoists arrested in joint operation across AP Madvi Hidma Soon after the encounter in which Madvi Hidma was killed, security forces on Tuesday arrested 43 Maoists in a joint operation at Vijayawada, Eluru, and Kakinada Dreaded Maoist Hidma killed in encounter in AP Five others, including his wife, gunned down by security forces near C’garh-Andhra border E J A Z KAI S ER & DHARMENDRA RE G ANA @ Raipur / Visakhapatnam Dreaded Maoist commander Madvi Hidma, the mastermind behind some of the deadliest Naxal attacks including the 2010 Tadmetla attack, which killed 76 security personnel, was killed in an encounter near the Chhattisg arh-Andhra Pradesh border on Tuesday . Security forces gunned down Hidma (51), his wife Madkam Raje, and four other Naxalites in Maredumilli forest in Andhra Pradesh’s Alluri Sitarama Raju (ASR) district. The other slain Maoists were identified as Deve, Lakmal alias Chaitu, Malla alias Mallalu, and Kamlu alias Kamlesh, officials said. Speaking to media persons, Andhra Pradesh Intelligence Chief Mahesh Chandra Laddha said ASR district police launched a combing operation at Papikonda National Park at 6.30 am on Tuesday, which led to the encounter. A native of Chhattisgarh’s Sukma district, Hidma was also known as Hidmanna, Hidmalu, and Deva. He joined the CPI (Maoist) in 1991 as a Bal Sangham member, and rose through the ranks to become commander of Peoples’ Liberation Guerrilla Army Battalion No 1, secretary of the Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee, and Central Committee Member in 2023. Hidma, who had a cumulative bounty of over `1 crore across states, orchestrated numerous attacks in the past two decades. According to Chhattisgarh intelligence officials, every major Maoist attack in the state had his imprint. Despite repeated appeals by the government to surrender, Hidma remained committed to the violent ideology. Last week, his mother Punji Madvi also asked him to lay down arms, but it did not yield any results. Hidma and his close aides were on the run after security forces stepped up pressure in Naxal strong holds, forcing them to leave their traditional hideouts, sources said. “The end of Hidma’s chapter is a breakthrough to wipe out the Maoist outfit. The few Naxal cadres now have no option except to shun violence and join the social mainstream,” said Sundarraj Pattlingam, Bastar Range IGP . No metro for Coimbatore and Madurai, centre cites population as prime reason C S h i v a k u m a r @ Chennai The union housing and urban affairs ministry has rejected Tamil Nadu’s proposals to build metro rail systems in Coimbatore and Madurai, arguing that both cities fall short of the population and ridership norms laid out in the 2017 Metro Rail Policy. The detailed project reports (DPRs) submitted by TN overstate demand and underestimate engineering constraints, the ministry’s missive to the state government, accessed by TNIE, said. The ministry in its letter dat, ed November 14, said it had conducted a “careful and thorough” appraisal of the DPRs Representative image after TN sought approval for the projects under a 50:50 equity-sharing arrangement with the centre. A senior state government official also confirmed the rejection. For Coimbatore, the ministry said the proposed 34-km network is unlikely to attract the 5.9 lakh daily passengers projected in the DPR — a figure higher than the 4 lakh riders that Chennai Metro’s 55km Phase I system recorded in February 2025. The ministry noted that average trip lengths in the city are relatively short, typically 6-8 km, reducing the time-saving advantage of a metro. With road traffic speeds already approaching those of the proposed system, “it is most unlikely that there will be a shift to the metro from other modes,” the appraisal said. It also flagged engineering and design concerns, stating that many stretches along the alignment sit on roads as narrow as 7–12m, making elevated structures and 22m-wide stations technically challenging without costly demolitions. P5 Prem Kumar, an eight-time BJP MLA from Gaya Town, is the frontrunner for the post of Speaker. Potential candidates for the deputy CM include Mangal Pandey, who has the backing of the RSS and served as health minister in the outgoing government, and Sanjiv Chaurasia or Vijay Kumar Sinha. After a three-hour meeting JD(U) leaders had with home minister Amit Shah, a formula for ministerial berths was agreed in principle. Apart from the CM, the ministry will have 16 from the BJP, 14 from JD(U), three from Chirag’s LJP(RV) and one each from Jitan Ram Manjhi’s Hindustani Awam Morcha and Upendra Kushwaha’s Rashtriya Lok Morcha. Nitish visited Gandhi Maidan to inspect preparations of the oath-taking ceremony on November 20. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union home minister Amit Shah and others are expected to attend. umar Video glorifying suicide attack unearthed car blast: ed arrests al falah chairman of the Red Fort suicide bomber, Dr Umar-un-Nabi, and the exTHE Enforcement Directorate tracted data has provided chill(ED) on Tuesday arrested Jawad ing evidence to show that he had Ahmed Siddiqui, chairman and prepared a video justifying the founder of the Al Falah group, as suicide attack as a ‘martyrdom part of an ongoing money laun- operation’. dering probe linked to the car The video’s authenticity could blast near Delhi’s Red Fort. not be independently verified by Siddiqui’s arrest follows this paper. The critical eviED raids conducted at over dence was unearthed after 25 locations associated the detention and subseRed with the Al Falah group quent interrogation of fort and its Faridabad-based Zahoor Illahi, brother attack Al Falah University, of Umar. which is at the centre of Illahi cracked under the probe into a suspected sustained questioning and “white-collar” terror module imtold his interrogators that plicated in the November 10 Del- Umar, who was in the Kashmir hi blast that killed 13 people. Valley between October 26-29, The agency also seized `48 had handed him the phone with lakh in cash during the searches explicit instructions to “dump it that began around 5.15 am, ac- in water” if any news about him cording to sources. surfaced, officials said. The Jammu and Kashmir Police phone was handed over to Nahave recovered a mobile phone tional Investigation Agency . e x p r e ss n e w s s e r v i c e @ New Delhi Stalin urges PM to relax paddy procurement norms for TN EXPRE S S NEW S S ERVICE @ Chennai Chief Minister MK Stalin on Tuesday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is on a visit to Coimbatore today to , allow Tamil Nadu to increase the paddy procurement target for the Kharif season and relax the moisture norm for purchasing the foodgrain from farmers affected by unseasonal rain. In a release, the government said the key demands raised by the CM in his letter to the PM included immediate approval for increasing the permitted moisture limit for procurement of paddy from 17% to 22%, permitting TN to increase the paddy procurement target for the Kharif Marketing Season of 2025-2026 from 16 lakh metric Tamil Nadu has tonnes (MT) to 20 lakh procured 14.11 MT, considering the lakh tonnes of record production of paddy compared paddy this year, and to 4.83 lakh tonnes bought relaxation of norms last year for testing of samples for fortified rice. The CM MK Stalin delay in sample testing is hindering the movement of milled rice, the CM said. As of November 16, paddy procurement has increased to 14.11 lakh metric tonnes in the current year compared to 4.81 lakh metric tonnes in 2024–2025, the CM said. Tamil Nadu has significantly expanded paddy procurement by operating 1,932 direct procurement centres and buying 14.11 lakh tonnes of paddy from 1,86,674 farmers for `3,559 crore, compared to 4.83 lakh tonnes bought through 1,095 centres for the same period last year, the letter said. P5 ed raids continue Terror suspect Dr Saiyed beaten up in Sabarmati jail D i l i p S i n g h Ks h at r i ya @ Ahmedabad Two minute long video In the two minute long video shot in April, Umar says, “...Suicide bombing ...is a martyrdom operation. There are multiple arguments and contradictions that have been brought against it.” Dr Ahmed Mohyuddin Saiyed, one of the three terror suspects recently arrested in an alleged ISIS plot, was on Tuesday assaulted in Sabarmati Central Jail during an early-morning brawl with three undertrial inmates. Dr Saiyed suffered severe eye and facial injuries. He filed an FIR, prompting a high-level internal probe and fresh scrutiny over the security of high-risk prisoners. After a verbal spat around 7 am, the doctor was beaten to pulp until he collapsed with injuries to his eye, face and other body parts. Prison staff took him to the Ahmedabad Civil Hospital for treatment. The assailants were lodged in the same barrack. They used a kind of belt to beat up Dr Saiyed. Gaurav Agrawal, SP of Sabarmati Central Jail, said: “The reason for the attack is unclear.”