cHENNAI l sunday l july 20, 2025 l `12.00 l PAGES 28 l LATE CITY EDITION Monsoon mayhem: 18 dead in uttar pradesh, alert for kerala Rain-related incidents in UP claimed 18 lives on Saturday while IMD issued alerts for heavy rain in U’khand, Himachal Pradesh, Bengal and Kerala landslides in arunachal pradesh, sikkim While torrential rain caused a flood-like situation in parts of Rajasthan, heavy rainfall and landslides in some areas of Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim affected normal life and disrupted traffic movement. In Uttar Pradesh, of the 18 people who died due to rain-related events, eight died of drowning, while two died of snakebites, officials said ■ 23.4 cm red alerts for u’khand, parts of kerala ■ In Uttarakhand, a ‘red alert’ for heavy rain on Sunday in parts of the Kumaon region has been issued by the meteorological department In Kerala, IMD has issued a ‘red alert’ for rain in five northern districts — Malappuram, Kozhikode, Wayanad, Kannur, and Kasaragod — where incessant rains lashed several areas, causing inundation of rain was recorded in Nainwa of Bundi district in rajasthan 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 New road to Daulet Beg Oldie near LAC by next yr-end M AYAN K S I N G H @ New Delhi C hi n a Daulet Beg Oldie Saser Murgo Sasoma Ladakh Shyok Leh India Durbuk Map not to scale A new road to the strategically significant Depsang and Daulet Beg Oldie (DBO) near the Line of Actual Control along the China border in Ladakh is expected to become fully operational from November 2026. The new road, which runs almost parallel to the existing Darbuk-Shyok-Daulet Beg-Oldie (DSDBO) road, follows the alignment of Sasoma-Saser LaSaser Brangsa-Gapshan-DBO. The under-construction road is Plans afoot to make it an all-weather road about 130 km long and has nine Plans are on to make it an all-weather road. The BRO is working on a bridges of 40 tonne capacity . At present, the DSDBO is the 8-km-long tunnel at Saser La. Currently it is at the detailed project report stage. It will take 4-5 years to complete the tunnel project only road link to DBO. But parts of the road are under the direct observation of Sources said, “We October-November next year.” Sunday have completed everythe Chinese forces. BeFor the forces, the new road sides, it has around 37 Special thing from Sasoma to will facilitate faster troop-arbridges of various lengths Saser Brangsa and mament movement away from and widths, making it that ahead of it towards east- the enemy’s line of sight. “Almuch more vulnerable. The ward — Murgo and Gap- most all artillery weapons, in255-km DSDBO road ends at shan. Over 70% work is done. cluding Bofors howitzers, were DBO, which is about 20 km away We are certain that the entire moved on this axis till Saser from the Karakoram Pass. stretch will be operational from Brangsa to test its load carry- Worrying rise in violence against women; private university’s student blames teachers for death Miscreants set 15-yr-old girl on fire in Odisha Asis h M e h ta / R a j K u m a r M o h a n t y @ Bhubaneswar/Puri Accused won’t be spared: CM Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi said stringent action will be initiated against perpetrators of the crime. “Her health condition is being monitored. If needed she will be airlifted to Delhi Criminals have become emboldened under this government and are not worried about punishment Naveen Patnaik, Former CM THE horror run of atrocities against women continued as Odisha woke up to the shocking attack on a 15-year-old girl who was set on fire by a group of miscreants in Puri district on Saturday morning. The minor girl, who suffered over 70 per cent burn injuries, was rescued by locals and shifted to AIIMS-Bhubaneswar. Preliminary investigations suggest the attack was premeditated. The girl was on her way to a friend’s house in a village under Balanga police station limits, 37 km from Bhubaneswar, when three youths gagged her with a handkerchief and abducted her on a bike, police said. They took her to the bank of Bhargavi river where she was doused with inflammable substances. In a bid to save her life, the girl ran towards nearby houses and cried for help, when a local resident came to her rescue and doused the flames before alerting police. The girl belonged to a minority community . The girl’s parents lodged an FIR with Balanga police station, police said, adding she was a Class 8 dropout and her father works at an automobile repair workshop. The incident comes close on the heels of the self-immolation by a 20-year-old student in Balasore. Executive director of AIIMS-Bhubaneswar Dr Ashutosh Biswas said the girl suffered 70 per cent burn injuries. “She is in ICU but without ventilator support... The next 72 hours are very crucial,” he said. Odisha Director General of Police Y B Khurania said special teams have been formed to nab the perpetrators. Court says ED not ‘super cop’, unfreezes `901cr in money laundering case R S I V A K U M A R @ Chennai Congress activists raise slogans after the girl’s suicide in Greater Noida | PTI BDS student dies by suicide, faculty held N a mi ta B a j pa i @ Lucknow A second-year BDS student died by suicide due to alleged harassment by faculty members at Sharda University in Greater Noida on Friday . Soon after the university suspended two faculty members, both were arrested by police on Saturday since Jyoti Sharma, 21, had named them in her suicide note. The student from Gurugram took the extreme step in her hostel room inside the university . A suicide note was recovered from the scene in which the student accused her teachers, from PCP and Dental Materials department, of harassment and humiliation, and held them responsible for her extreme step. “If I die, Mahendra Sir and Sherry Mam will be responsible for my death. They tortured me mentally and humiliated me. I have been in depression because of their behaviour for a long time. I want them to suffer the same The two teachers named by the student in her suicide note | PTI way as I am. …Sorry I cannot .. bear it anymore,” the student wrote in her note. Dr Ajit Kumar, director, PR, Sharda University, assured that the guilty would be punished. “Two teachers named by the victim have been suspended and a probe committee has been set up,” he said. The matter is currently under investigation, said Sudhir Kumar, additional DCP Great, er Noida. The student was found hanging by her roommates who alerted the hostel warden after receiving no response at her door, following which police were alerted. express read Kidney sale racket: Six suspected victims identified Namakkal: Namakkal health officials on Saturday said hospital sources provided names and addresses of six Pallipalayam residents, who are suspected to have donated organs in the alleged kidney sale racket. One victim has been traced and steps are on to find others | P5 Ajith death: CBI finds fake number plate in police van Madurai: The CBI has found a fake number plate in a police van used by the Manamadurai crime team to interrogate custodial death victim B Ajithkumar. The number plate had a different district code, but other details matched the van’s original number plate, sources said | P4 ing capacity sources said. ,” The new road will also beef up the Siachen battlefield as it branches off from Sasoma in the Nubra Valley, which is on the route to the Siachen Base Camp from Leh. The route will converge with the DSDBO at Murgo, reducing the distance from Leh to DBO by 79 km — from 322 km via DSDBO road to 243 km via the new road. It will also reduce the travel time from two days to 11-12 hours. The Madras High Court has come down heavily on the Enforcement Directorate, saying the agency is neither a “super cop” to investigate anything and everything that catches its eyes nor is a “drone” to attack at will on any “criminal activity”. A division bench of Justices MS Ramesh and V Lakshminarayanan made these observations while ordering the release of `901 crore fixed deposits of Chennai-based RKM Powergen Private Limited. The company filed petitions in the court, challenging the central agency’s order on January 31 this year to freeze the amount. The ED had proceeded against the company under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) based on a 2014 FIR registered by the CBI over allocation of coal blocks for running a thermal power plant in Chhattisgarh in 2006. CBI registered the cases under relevant sections for criminal conspiracy cheating, and under the , Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA) as per the apex court’s directions, which cancelled the coal allocation based on a PIL. The ED registered an ECIR under PMLA in the same year. While CBI filed a closure report in July 2017 finding no material of foul play in allocation of coal blocks, the special court for CBI cases (Patiala House Courts, Delhi) did not accept the same and wanted further probe on certain aspects, including the environmental clearance. Subsequently in August 2023, , CBI filed a supplementary final report finding incriminating materials for prosecution for criminal conspiracy, cheating and corruption.  P7 muthu ELDEST son of ex-cm Karunanidhi dies The 77-year-old brother of CM Stalin passed away due to age-related issues at his house in Injambakkam, Chennai, on Saturday | P4 WITH THIS ISSUE Holidays in Hell PLUS 12 P AGES Trump’s latest: ‘5 jets were shot down’ during India-Pak conflict J aya n t h J a c o b @ New Delhi After again claiming he brokered peace between India and Pakistan during the four-day standoff following Operation Sindoor, a claim repeatedly denied by the Indian government, US President Donald Trump has now said that “five jets were shot down” during conflict in May . He, however, did not clarify whether the losses were suffered by one side or both. Speaking at a White House dinner for Republican senators on Friday, Trump said: “We stopped a lot of wars. And these were serious, India and Pakistan that was going on. Planes were being shot out of there. I think five jets were shot down, actually These are two serious . nuclear countries, and they were hitting each other.” Trump again claimed that the US defused the situation using trade leverage. “But India and Pakistan were going at it, and they were back and forth, and it was getting bigger and bigger, and we got it solved through trade.” New Delhi has consistently dismissed Trump’s repeated assertions, maintaining that the ceasefire on May 10 was achieved through direct communication between Indian and Pakistani military officials, without any foreign involvement. The brief conflict followed Operation Sindoor, launched by India on May 7 in response to a deadly terror attack in J&K’s Pahalgam. Since then, Trump has repeatedly said that his administration played a key role in ending the standoff and preventing further escalation. Hours later, he described the BRICS as a little group that wants to take over the “dominance of the dollar”. “And I said anybody that’s in the BRICS consortium of nations, we’re going to tariff you 10%,” Trump told reporters at the White House. Annamalai may be made BJP gen secy State govt suspends DSP, B a l a C h a u h a n @ Bengaluru faith beckons A fresh batch of 6,365 pilgrims, including 1,499 women, leave the Bhagwati Nagar base camp for Amarnath, in Anantnag of Jammu & Kashmir on Saturday | PTI Former Tamil Nadu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president K Annamalai is likely to be elevated to the post of BJP general secretary soon. “The announcement will be made after the selection of the party president next month,” sources privy to the development told TNIE on condition of anonymity . When asked, the 40-year-old former IPS officer of Karnataka cadre refused to comment. “When he (Annamalai) stepped down from the post of Tamil Nadu party president in April this year to facilitate the BJP-AIADMK alliance, he was assured that he will be given a national role in the party. He was succeeded by MLA Nainar Nagenthran as Tamil Nadu’s BJP chief. Though BJP drew a blank in Tamil Nadu in the 2024 Parliament election, the credit for increasing the party’s vote-share from 3% in the previous general election to 11% without having any alliance with either the DMK or the AIADMK goes to him, and this has not gone unnoticed,” sources said. Union Minister Amit Shah, on several occasions, had made it amply clear that Annamalai will play an important role in state politics and will also be given responsibilities at the national level. Annamalai was appointed as the member of the party’s national council a day after his resignation as state chief. Tamil Nadu BJP vice-president Narayanan Thirupathy recently gave broad indications on the same when he said that national office-bearers would be appointed after the election of national p re s i d e n t , a n d t h at the party “believes that Annamalai is worthy of it.”  P7 officer says life is in danger M o h a m e d S a l a h u d e e n @ Mayiladuthurai Mayiladuthurai Prohibition Enforcement Wing Deputy Superintendent of Police M Sundaresan, who had accused senior police officers of harassment, has been placed under suspension. Speaking to reporters earlier on Saturday, the officer requested the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to “take up a suo motu case” and give him justice as his “life is in danger”. The order issued by Home Secretary Dheeraj Kumar dated July 19 said Sundaresan violated M Sundaresan conduct rules and made baseless allegations against Mayiladuthurai SP “He deliberately at. tempted to portray himself in front of the media as if injustice was done to him by not providing government vehicle, which was withdrawn for VVIP bandobast duty on July 11 along with 44 other vehicles from the district,” the order said.  P7