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 ■ ■ 6.50 am: CJP founder Abhijit Dipke leaves Mumbai hotel for Delhi, boards flight with Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka 10 am: YouTuber Dhruv Rathee detained from Gurugram house 10.50 am: Dipke, Das and Ranka detained from the aircraft as their flight from Mumbai lands at IGI Airport in Delhi 11.30 am: Police chase away CJP protesters trying to reach Jantar Mantar. Protesters kept regrouping for the next few hours Several Left members, lawyers march from Supreme Court towards Jantar Mantar, detained Police step up security at Dipke’s home in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar People heading to Jantar Mantar detained and taken to Chhatrasal Stadium in north Delhi Dipke, Das and Ranka sent to three different locations 12.20 pm: Mahatma Gandhi’s greatgrandson detained from his residence in Mumbai 12 30 pm 6 am: Stringent traffic restrictions imposed in New Delhi district, especially on roads leading to Jantar Mantar 12 noon Dawn to dusk BHUBANESWAR l sunday l october 11, 2026 l `12.00 l PAGES 24 l LATE CITY EDITION CJP’s Abhijeet Dipke and Ashutosh Ranka before their detention on Saturday | PTI Contempt plea filed in SC against authorities for violation of the court’s direction to ensure no inconvenience to common people during protest CPM MP John Brittas and former Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan, on their way to Jantar Mantar, detained Delhi interrupted Massive crackdown during CJP-led agitation, its top brass picked up from plane; 7,000 protesters and 4 former CMs detained, special hearing of SC today on detentions Police detain activists during a protest organised by CJP demanding the resignation of CEC Gyanesh Kumar in Delhi; and (inset) Pinarayi Vijayan detained | parveen negi Who is Ajinkya Shinde INSIDE Congress sits out | P7 INDIA bloc plans protest | P7 Sonam Wangchuk’s warning | P7 BJP hits out at Oppn A native of Latur district in Maharashtra, Shinde will lead the next phase of CJP’s agitation. Shinde, 35, hails from Ujani of Latur, and is a computer engineer. He played a key role in planning CJP’s five-week-long July protest. The BJP said the protest meant to take the city “hostage” turned out to be a “flop show”. BJP president Nitin Nabin accused Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Kejriwal and CJP of destabilising the country with the backing of foreign forces. CM Rekha Gupta asserted that Gandhi and Kejriwal are turning Delhi into a battleground. What next: SC hearing, INDIA march The Delhi Police is expected to continue with its deployment on Sunday as well, with the CJP saying the protests would continue “with or without leaders”. Later, Ajinkya Shinde issued a call to CJP followers to assemble at Jantar Mantar at 10 am on Sunday. In a related development, the Supreme Court will hold a special Sunday hearing on a petition by senior advocate Maneka Guruswamy against the detentions the previous day. On Monday, the INDIA bloc has planned to submit a memorandum to Chief Justice of India Surya Kant seeking his intervention in the stir against the CEC, Gyanesh Kumar 1.15 pm: Dipke releases a video that he recorded in the flight, hands over the protest’s command to Ajinkya Shinde 2 pm:AISA national president Neha Bora detained in south Delhi 2.30 pm: Former West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee and other Trinamool leaders detained after dharna in Delhi’s South Avenue 3 pm: Former Delhi CM and AAP convenor Arvind Kejriwal detained; released later at night 5.15 pm: Rahul Gandhi issues statement backing CJP U d aya n K i s h o r e & An u p Ve r m a @ New Delhi THE national capital was placed under siege on Saturday as police launched a sweeping crackdown on protesters attempting to march to Jantar Mantar to demand the removal of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. Police detained Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) leaders Abhijeet Dipke, Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka, YouTuber Dhruv Rathee, and four former chief ministers: Pinarayi Vijayan, Mamata Banerjee, Manik Sarkar and Arvind Kejriwal. In all, about 7,000 protesters were taken into custody . While the government managed to thwart mass mobilisation at Jantar Mantar by putting up barricades at every 50 metres, the Opposition denounced the situation as “worse than the Emergency”. Throughout the day , loudspeakers blared warnings to protesters against assembling amid the deployment of over 30,000 security personnel and waves of barricades in Lutyens’ Delhi, giving it a fortresslike look. CPM general secretary M A Baby, veteran leader Brinda Karat, CPI(ML) Liberation general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya, activist Yogendra Yadav, lawyer Prashant Bhushan and All India Students’ Association (AISA) president Neha Bora were also detained from different places during the day Several Left leaders were de. tained outside Kerala Bhawan, where some CPI(M) leaders had stayed overnight. They raised slogans against the government before being taken away in buses. Dipke, Das and Ranka were de- With the rupee sniffing at 97 a dollar, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Saturday announced a slew of measures in a desperate bid to stem the freefall of the national currency . It drastically slashed the forex derivative positions a bank can hold in the net open position to just $5 million from the already curbed $100 million, to curb speculation. The central bank also barred authorised dealers from rebooking cancelled rupee-linked express read derivative contracts and introduced a 20% cash reserve requirement for large transactions to strengthen market discipline. That apart, it also opened a special dollar window for oil importers. On Friday, it had raised the minimum daily maintenance requirement for the cash reserve ratio (CRR) from 90% to 99% of the prescribed requirement, effective October 16. This was the first time since July 2013 that the RBI had increased the daily CRR requirement following pressure on the rupee, which @ Bhubaneswar moscow/ Kyiv: Russian President Vladimir Putin has told US President Donald Trump about Iran’s position on a possible West Asia peace deal, the Kremlin said on Saturday. The Kremlin said Tehran’s stance was relayed in a phone call held between the two leaders on Friday. It did not say how Trump responded, nor elaborate on Iran’s position. “In coordination with the Iranian president, Putin conveyed the Iranian side’s views on a possible resolution to the conflict to Trump,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Saturday, according to Russia’s state RIA news agency | P9 WITH THIS ISSUE Child’s Play PLUS 12 P AGES The RBI created a special window for oil marketing companies (OMCs) to take the dollar demand away from the spot market. Three state-run OMCs are one of the biggest consumers for the dollar has already lost more than 7% this year after the US Fed began tightening. The measures come amid evolving conditions in the forex market and are aimed at ensuring its orderly function- 1,448 forms received from left-out voters in three-day post-SIR drive E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e Putin relays Iran’s peace stance to Trump OMCs get spl window ing, the central bank said. Under the revised norms, authorised dealers will not be permitted to allow users to rebook any foreign exchange derivative contract involving the rupee, whether deliverable or non-deliverable, if it was cancelled with an authorised dealer after issuance of the directions. Rollover of contracts on maturity will continue to be permitted, subject to existing regulatory requirements. The RBI also tightened documentation requirements to prevent the same underlying exposure from being hedged through multiple authorised dealers. A total of 33,515 Form-6 applications were received during the three-day special drive held across the state from October 7 to 9, following completion of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, the office of the chief electoral officer (CEO) said on Monday . Of these, 1,448 applications were from eligible voters whose names could not be included in the electoral roll during the SIR exercise. Another 32,067 were from new and young voters seeking registration for the first time. The drive was organised on the Election Commission’s di- 1,448 applications were from eligible voters whose names could not be included during the SIR exercise. Another 32,067 were from new and young voters CEO office rections to ensure that no eligible citizen is left out of the rolls. As many as 26,446 special camps were held across districts to spread awareness about voter registration and facilitate submission of applications. The CEO office informed that booth-level officers (BLOs) have been asked to conduct door-to-door visits till the end of October to facilitate registration of left-out electors and new voters as part of the special drive. The BLOs during their doorto-door visit will inform and guide eligible citizens about voter registration, inclusion of names and necessary corrections to electoral rolls. Special attention will be given to those whose names were not included during the SIR process and young people who have recently become eligible to vote, the CEO office stated. Around 20 lakh names had been deleted from the draft SIR roll in Odisha, while another 44,000 electors had been excluded from the final roll published after completion of the SIR process in the state on September 21. 8.15 pm: SC agrees to hear habeas corpus plea by TMC MP and senior advocate Menaka Guruswamy on detention of lawyers on Sunday tained from inside the aircraft as soon as their flight landed at the IGI Airport from Mumbai. “We are here to be arrested, come and arrest us,” Dipke could be heard telling police officers who entered the aircraft. Rathee, who lives abroad and had come to India to join the CJP protest, was detained from Gurugram. The Congress was conspicuous by its absence from the protest. However, Rahul Gandhi, who was in Chennai for the Chhatron Ki Goonj event, urged the youth to “keep protesting” and asserting that “we are going to ensure that this regime and the people who have attacked the Constitution are defeated.” The detentions did not deter the protesters from trying to reach the venue. Left student unions managed to reach the BJP headquarters. However, they were detained as soon as they started protesting. A large number of police personnel detained groups of protesters from several places, including Hanuman Temple, Akashvani Bhavan, Safdarjung Flyover and Kerala House. The police detained a few others who managed to reach the Jantar Mantar site. Around 1 pm, some protesters hurled stones at security personnel near Akashvani Bhavan after jumping barricades, injuring two police personnel. The protesters were quickly detained by security personnel. Police had arranged over 200 buses, being used to detain and transfer protesters. In an unprecedented move, police entered Gurdwara Bangla Sahib, and detained several protesters who had taken refuge there. All mosques and temples in the vicinity of Jantar Mantar were shut. Slew of RBI steps to rescue the rupee Nomination rejections B enn K o c h u v ee d a n @ Mumbai protestors spark campus protests, 3 more colleges closed NIA probes mid-air attack on Captain Machchhar Sudarsan Maharana E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e With the student union elections closing in, tension continued to spread across campuses over various issues including rejection of nomination papers in several colleges, even as three more institutions were shut indefinitely following unrest. The Model Degree College in Nabarangpur district was closed sine die following unrest on the campus after the cancellation of the student union election there. The polls were reportedly called off because eligible candidates were unavailable. Leaders of the Biju Chhatra Janata Dal (BCJD) alleged that two of their candidates had been elected unopposed as president and general secretary but , college authorities refused to recognise the results. In the same district, a dispute over the election at Umerkote College led to a clash between two g roups of non-students, leaving two persons critically injured. One of them was allegedly stabbed and was shifted to Visakhapatnam after his condition worsened. On the other hand, protests erupted at several colleges following publication of final candidate lists, with students alleging arbitrary rejection of nominations and political interference in the election The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has registered a case and launched an investigation into the September 30 hijacking attempt of a Flydubai flight bound for Tel Aviv, in which Indian Captain Smit Machchhar was injured. The probe is to “unearth the larger conspiracy”, officials said. The NIA is empowered to investigate terror cases abroad that involve Indian citizens. The FIR, registered on October 9, invokes Section 3 of the Anti-Hijacking Act, 2016, and Section 16 read with Section 15(1)(a) of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967. It said the information “discloses the commission of offences against an Indian national, Captain Smit Machchhar.” According to the FIR, on September 30, 2026, the Omani first officer of flydubai flight no 1073 stabbed the Indian pilot, Captain Machchhar, mid-air “in an apparent attempt to hijack or cause it to crash”. The case was registered on the direction of the Union home ministry . “Having regard to the gravity of the offence, its grave national and international ramifications, and the need to unearth the larger conspiracy , the matter requires thorough investigation by the National Investigation Agency it said. ,” @ New Delhi @ Bhubaneswar Students sitting on dharna at Ravenshaw University on Saturday process. Owing to student unrest and fear of violence, sine die was declared at two other colleges in Deogarh and Gop. At Nimapara Autonomous College in Puri district, tension prevailed after around 39 of the 53 nominations were reportedly rejected. Agitating students and local leaders locked the main gate of the college and staged a sit-in, demanding a fair and transparent election process. The All India Students’ Federation (AISF) and BCJD leaders along with aspiring candidates joined the protest. Some students alleged that several nominations were rejected despite the candidates having attendance of 75 pc or more. College authorities, however, said many students had crowded the campus to file their nominations after 12.30 pm, despite the nomination window being scheduled from 10 am to 1 pm. CONTINUED ON P5 At least 5 shot dead, houses torched in fresh Manipur Kuki-Naga faceoff P r a s a n ta m a z u m d a r @ Guwahati At least five persons, including a woman and a member of the Gorkha community, were killed in fresh violence in Manipur since Friday night. The deaths occurred in the Naga-majority districts of Kamjong, which border Manipur, and Ukhrul. The violence began after a Kuki woman, 42, was shot dead in the Kuki-dominated Chassad village in Kamjong district on Friday night. Her killing triggered an exchange of fire between Kuki and Naga armed groups, which continued on Saturday morning. A 22-yearold man was killed in the ensuing clashes and about 10 houses were torched. Later in the day, suspected militants shot dead two persons in Ningchou village in Kamjong. In another incident in Ukhrul district, a 40-year- old man identified as Sandeed Rai, a member of the Gorkha community was shot dead near , Chepu Yaolen. Reports of two more deaths could not be offi- Chief Minister Khemchand Singh meets Modi The incidents of violence came on a day Manipur Chief Minister Yumnam Khemchand Singh met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi. Modi assured all possible help to the Manipur government in its efforts to restore peace and normalcy in the state, a statement said cially confirmed. The Working Committee of the Tangkhul Naga Long, a Naga organisation, alleged that a team of the India Reserve Battalion (IRB) opened fire at Kuki militants in Chassad village, leading to a gunfight in which the woman was killed after being caught in the crossfire. It alleged that Kuki militants later launched an armed offensive targeting Naga civilians in Kamjong headquarters and Ningchou village. Meanwhile, the Kuki Students’ Organisation, Kamjong district, condemned the alleged firing by the IRB personnel. It also claimed that Naga militants have infiltrated the IRB to carry out “their nefarious designs against the Kuki community”.