Vendetta behind Hadi’s murder in B’desh, reveals chargesheet Student leader Sharif Osman Hadi was killed due to ‘political vengeance’ at the behest of the Awami League, the police said. Hadi was killed on the instructions of Md Taijul Islam Chowdhury Bappi, a former councillor, said Shafikul Islam, addl commissioner of the Detective Branch of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, The Daily Star reported. The chargesheet mentions 17 people | P11 bengaluru l Wednesday l January 07, 2026 l `9.00 l PAGES 24 l late city EDITION 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 1 in 5 out of draft poll rolls in UP after first phase SIR 2.89 crore deletions; voter count down by 18.7% compared to 2025 M U K E S H R A N J A N @ New Delhi About one in five voters in Uttar Pradesh found their names deleted in the draft electoral rolls published on Tuesday as part of the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR). In all, names of 2.89 crore voters stood deleted from the list of 15.44 crore electors in the politically sensitive state as on October 27 last year. The draft list cut the voter count by as much as 18.7%. The deletions included around 46.23 lakh of the deceased (2.99%), shifted 2.17 crore (14.06%) and duplicate voters 25.46 lakh (1.65%). The final electoral list will be published on March 6. The Election Commission of India said genuine electors from can still be added back in the electoral roll during the claims and objection period (0601-2026 to 06-02-2026) by filling up Form 6 along with the declaration form and other relevant documents. The poll body recently concluded the first phase of SIR in Tamil Nadu and Gujarat, where the electoral roll deletions were 97 lakh and 74 lakh voters, respectively . While the first phase was originally scheduled to end on December 11, the state sought 15 days more after noticing that the names of a large number of voters, nearly 2.97 crore, were Figure it out Electors as on October 27, 2025 15.44 crore Electors in draft electoral rolls Deceased 46.23 lakh (2.99%) Shifted 2.17 crore (14.06%) Duplicate 12.55 crore 25.46 lakh (81.30%) (1.65%) Total deletions 2.89 crore (18.7%) getting excluded from the draft list. The poll body then extended the enumeration phase till December 26. The officials said, December 31 was initially fixed as the publication date of the draft roll, but parallel fieldwork and ECI instructions to rationalise polling stations led to a delay. “The Commission has capped voters per polling station at 1,200 instead of the earlier 1,500. To meet this requirement, around 15,030 new polling stations were created across the state,” a senior ECI official said, adding that it was approved on December 23. It then took about a week for the data to be migrated to online servers. Six more days were sought and the draft roll was published on January 6. ‘Art 324 grants ECI control over poll roll’ S U C H I T R A K A LYA N M O H A N T Y @ New Delhi THE Election Commission of India (ECI) has the power and competence to undertake Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls, the poll panel told the Supreme Court on Tuesday. Besides, it argued, there is a constitutional duty to ensure only Indian citizens are registered as voters. Appearing for the ECI, senior lawyer Rakesh Dwivedi told a bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi that Articles 324 and 327 of the Constitution separately give the Commission “control of the preparation of the electoral rolls”. “Citizenship is at the core of the electoral exercise. The EC has the power to check,” Dwivedi argued. The arguments were made during the hearing of a batch of pleas challenging ECI’s power to conduct SIR. The petitioners claimed only the Centre has the power to do the exercise. The arguments were inconclusive on Tuesday and would continue on Wednesday . Don says Modi not that happy with him R A K E S H K U M A R @ New Delhi A day after US President Donald Trump threatened to raise tariffs if India continues to buy Russian oil, Reliance Industries on Tuesday denied a Bloomberg report that claimed that it continues to import crude oil from Russia. Hours later, Trump said his tariff action on India seems to express read Confident of completing full term, says Siddu MYSURU: Siddaramaiah, who has become the state’s longestserving CM, expressed confidence that he will complete full term, even as he said the final decision rests with Congress top brass | P4 Stampede: CBI summons Vijay for questioning NEW DELHI: The CBI has summoned TVK leader and actor Vijay, asking him to appear for questioning in the Karur stampede case, in which 41 people died in September last year | P7 be working though it may have strained ties. “He (PM Modi) is not that happy with me because they’re paying a lot of tariffs now because they’re not doing the oil but they are... they’ve now reduced it very substantially, as you know, from Russia,” Trump said. A day ago, Trump had said “Modi knew I was not happy” with India’s trade with Russia, threatening to raise tariffs on New Delhi “very quickly”. RIL stated, “A news report in Bloomberg claiming ‘three vessels laden with Russian oil are heading for Reliance Industries’ Jamnagar refinery’ is blatantly untrue.” The report had cited oil-tracking firm Kpler to claim three tankers carrying 2.2m barrels of Russia’s crude were headed to Jamnagar. Hoax bomb threats target K’taka cities E x p ress N e w s S er v i c e @ Bengaluru Various courts across Karnataka, including the High Court bench in Dharwad and district courts in Mysuru, Gadag and Bagalkot were put on high alert after receiving emails warning of bomb explosions inside the court premises on Tuesday morning. In Bengaluru, Regional Passport Office located at Koramangala received a similar threat email.The threats, however, turned out to be a hoax. In Dharwad, court proceed- People gather outside the old court premises following a hoax bomb email, in Mysuru on Tuesday | Udayashankar S ings were resumed after police and bomb squad sanitized the campus in a three-hour-long in- spection. The email had warned of an explosion around 1.55 pm in the court premises. Police Superintendent Gunjan Arya said the threat was a hoax. At the Mysuru District Court, an email was received around 10.30 am at the office of the Mysuru Principal and District Judge, Usha Rani, warning of three blasts between 12.30 pm and 1.30 pm, targeting both cour t complexes—one on Krishnaraja Boulevard and the main court complex at Malalavadi in Kuvempunagar—triggering anxiety across the premises.  CONTINUED ON P4 ISL dribbles past ‘paywall’ to set February 14 date i n d ranee l d as @ Chennai AFTER months of uncertainty , the Indian Super League (ISL) is back on track and this time it seems to be with purpose. This was possible after a meeting between sports ministry, the All India Football Federation (AIFF) and representatives of clubs on Tuesday . Sports Minister Mansukh Mandaviya was quite clear during the meeting with the clubs that the league has to take place and they have to cooperate. He also said that because of Supreme Court intervention, there were impediments but AIFF has found a way to resolve the crisis. ISL will begin on February 14 and will run until June 15. There will be 91 matches and they will be played on home and away basis. The ISL that was supposed to begin in October was delayed after FSDL, the commercial arm of the AIFF that runs the league did not want to continue with the contract in its existing form especially paying an annual fee of Rs 50 crore to AIFF. Mandaviya told the clubs and AIFF they may not have a commercial partner but they should not worry about media rights either. He told the clubs that he would request Doordarshan to air matches live.  P19