BENGALURU  SUNDAY  APRIL 20, 2025  `12.00  PAGES 28  LATE CITY EDITION 24 GET 100 PERCENTILE IN JEE-MAIN, RAJASTHAN HAS MOST TOPPERS Twenty-four candidates scored a perfect 100 in JEE (Main), results of which were announced by the National Testing Agency on Saturday FILE PHOTO T’GANA, U.P., MAHARASHTRA DO WELL TOO 21 TOP CANDIDATES FROM GENERAL LIST Rajasthan, India’s coaching hub, had the highest number of candidates with a perfect score with as many as seven scoring 100 percentile. Next in line, three toppers each are from Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, followed by two toppers each from Delhi, West Bengal and Gujarat. One topper each is from Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, as per NTA I I While 21 top-scoring candidates are from general category, the list includes one candidate each from SC, ST and OBC categories The examination was held in April across nine shifts at 531 centres in 300 cities, including 15 outside India. Results of 110 candidates found using unfair means, including forged documents, were withheld 9,92,350 APPEARED IN THE SECOND EDITION OF JEE MAIN EXAM 2025 CHENNAI I MADURAI I VIJAYAWADA I BENGALURU I KOCHI I HYDERABAD I VISAKHAPATNAM I COIMBATORE I KOZHIKODE I THIRUVANANTHAPURAM I BELAGAVI I BHUBANESWAR I SHIVAMOGGA I MANGALURU I TIRUPATI I TIRUCHY I TIRUNELVELI I SAMBALPUR I HUBBALLI I DHARMAPURI I KOTTAYAM I KANNUR I VILLUPURAM I KOLLAM I TADEPALLIGUDEM I NAGAPATTINAM I THRISSUR I KALABURAGI B’lurean gets 100 percentile in JEE Main EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ Bengaluru KUSHAGRA Gupta from Bengaluru has emerged as JEE Main 2025 topper, scoring 100 percentile in Session-2 of the nationallevel engineering entrance exam. He is a student of Narayana CoKaveri Bhavan College in Kasavanahalli, Bengaluru. The National Testing Agency (NTA) announced the results of JEE (Main) 2025, Paper 1 (BE/ BTech) for Session-2 late on April 18. Kushagra is the only student from Kar nataka to have secured the highest possible score in the exam, which is the gateway to premier technical institutions like IITs and NITs. Earlier too, in session 1, paper 1, held in January Kushagra had , scored a 100 percentile. He is one of the 24 students from across the county to have secured a 100 percentile. Of the total 24 candidates, Rajasthan had the highest number of four students, Maharashtra three, Telangana and UP two each. NTA conducted the exam from April 2 to 8. Out of 10,61,840 registered candidates, 9,92,350 appeared for the exam. Putin springs a short Easter truce surprise our example.” Ukraine has been wary of short-term truces, having preAMID growing frustration in viously rejected a January 2023 Washington over stalled peace ceasefire. Zelenskyy wrote on X efforts, Russian President that the truce plan came as air Vladimir Putin announced a raid alerts were announced in surprise Easter truce in Ukraine due to drone the conflict in Ukraine. attacks. The truce will pause The ceasefire an“all hostilities” from 6 nouncement follows pm Moscow time on Satfresh Russian claims of urday (11 am Eastern territorial gains, includTime) until midnight ing the capture of anon Monday (5 pm ET other settlement near Sunday). the Kursk border reThe announcement gion. President Putin came on the same day suggested the truce as Russia, Ukraine Our troops must would serve as a test of be ready to swapped hundreds of Ukraine’s sincerity repel violations prisoners in the war’s about wanting peace. of the truce largest exchange. RusUS Secretary of State and any sia said 246 Russian Marco Rubio had sigprovocations service members were nalled growing impareturned from territory —Vladimir Putin tience with the peace controlled by Kyiv, and process. that ‘as a gesture of goodwill’ On Friday, he warned that 31 wounded Ukrainian prison- the United States is prepared to ers of war were transferred in “move on” from its role in broexchange for 15 wounded Rus- kering peace talks unless there sian soldiers. are tangible signs of progress Putin said he expects Ukraine in the coming days. “We can’t to reciprocate: “We assume that keep chasing a breakthrough the Ukrainian side will follow that isn’t coming,” he said. EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ New Delhi First in-person trade talks with the US from April 23 D I PA K M O N D A L @ New Delhi AIMING to quickly wrap up the first phase of the Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) with the US before the September-October deadline, India is sending a small delegation of five-six negotiators to the US on April 23. The delegation is li kely to st ay there for three days, commerce ministry sources told this newspaper. US vice-president J D Vance is due to arrive in India on Monday April 21. The , Indian delegation’s visit a couple of days later indicates the mutual urge to expedite @ Bengaluru RICKY Rai, son of former underworld don-turned-social activist late Muthappa Rai, survived a murder attempt in the early hours of Saturday after an unidentified assailant opened fire at his SUV outside EXPRESS READ Protests across state against janivara row Bengaluru: A storm of protest has engulfed Karnataka following reports that students were allegedly forced to remove their Janivara before entering CET examination halls in Bidar and Shivamogga, triggering a fierce backlash from religious groups, political leaders, and civil society alike. P6 No CET for students with IIT, NEET seats BENGALURU: The KEA announced that students under Karnataka domicile who have ‘secured’ seats in colleges across India through NEET or ‘gained admissions’ into premier tech institutes like IITs via JEE, will no longer be allowed to participate in the state’s CET counselling. P4 Bengal governor meets riot victims KOLKATA: Amidst patrolling by central and police forces in riot-hit parts of Murshidabad district, West Bengal Governor CV Ananda Bose and National Human Rights Commission and National Commission for Women teams on Saturday visited the affected areas and interacted with the victims, assuring them of all help. P10 WITH THIS ISSUE THE GREAT NEW ADVENTURES PLUS 12 PAGES his sprawling bungalow in Bidadi in Ramanagara district, near here. The police have booked four persons, including Muthappa Rai’s second wife Anuradha. T he shooting occur red around 12.50 am. Ricky, his driver Basavaraju and gunman Rajpal were heading to Ben- galuru in a black SUV . When the vehicle came out of the compound, the miscreant who was hiding behind the compound wall of another private property allegedly opened fire at the front door. Both Ricky and Basavaraju sustained injuries. CONTINUED ON P5 Though some reports suggest both sides have agreed to have the discussions covering 19 chapters, including tariffs, non-tariff barriers, and customs facilitation, the ministry official quoted earlier denied chapter-wise discussions would be held during the visit of the delegation. He said chapter-wise discussion would begin in the second half of May. “The texts and contours of those discussions are being prepared currently the official said. ,” “The September-October timeline is a deadline, not a target. If negotiations can be concluded earlier, it will benefit both,” said a commerce ministry official. India condemns Hindu leader’s murder in B’desh J AYA N T H J A C O B @ New Delhi IN a sharp escalation of tensions over attacks on Hindu minorities in Bangladesh, India on Saturday condemned the brutal killing of community leader Bhabesh Chandra Roy as part of a “systematic persecution” and firmly urged Dhaka to protect its minorities without offering excuses or Muthappa Rai’s son injured after man opens fire EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE the talks. Earlier, the ministry had indicated that physical negotiations will begin only in the first week of May “While vir. tual negotiations have started, we thought we will send a small delegation to the US to carry forward the discussions,” a commerce ministry official told this newspaper. India’s chief negotiator — additional secretary in the Department of Commerce Rajesh Agrawal — will lead the team for the first in-person talks. He was appointed the next commerce secretary on April 18. He will assume office on October 1. Ricky Rai justifications. ter he received a suspiBhabesh Chandra cious call around 4.30 Roy, 58, a prominent pm. They took him to Hindu leader and viceNarabari village, where president of the Biral h e w a s s av a g e l y unit of the Bangladesh assaulted. Puja Udjapan Parishad, The attackers later Bhabesh C Roy dumped the unconwas murdered in Dinajpur, Bangladesh. Local scious Roy at his home media reports said Roy was ab- in a van. He was taken to hospiducted from home by four men tal, where he was declared on motorcycles half-an-hour af- dead. “We have noted with dis- tress the abduction and brutal killing of Shri Bhabesh Chandra Roy a Hindu minority lead, er in Bangladesh,” External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said. “This killing follows a pattern of systematic persecution of Hindu minorities under the interim government, even as the perpetrators of previous such events roam with impunity .”