Omar un Nabi, the main accused in the Red Fort car blast

New Delhi: The National Investigation AgencyThe (NIA) investigation into the deadly car blast at Delhi’s Red Fort revealed how the key accused had allegedly used fake identities and a makeshift laboratory in Faridabad to procure chemicals and experiment with explosive material, official sources said on Tuesday.The agency had recently filed a 7,500-page chargesheet against 10 accused in connection with the high-intensity vehicle-borne IED blast that occurred in the national capital on November 10 last year, in which 11 people were killed and several others were injured.According to the investigation, the main accused Dr. Umar Un Nabi, who was driving a car loaded with explosives and died in the blast, had researched offline and online resources related to various chemicals. Umar used a fake identity under the name “Mr. Rahul Bhatt” on the IndiaMart commercial platform to purchase materials required for the experiments. Under the account, they listed their “products of interest as fertilizer bags, acetone solvent, anodes and chemicals, etc.”He had also set up a makeshift laboratory in his flat at Al Falah University, Faridabad, where he conducted experiments aimed at manufacturing prototype explosive materials, investigators quoted by PTI said.Investigators said Umar contacted a Mumbai-based businessman in August 2024 and paid Rs 25,000 through digital payment platform PhonePe for a customized mixed metal oxide (MMO)-coated titanium anode, a special electrode used in the electrolysis process.During the investigation, NIA sleuths recovered a delivery challan dated September 25, 2024, from the businessman, which helped them trace the supply chain used to procure the explosive-making material.The challan revealed that although Umer had purchased the anode, the name and mobile number of the buyer mentioned in the document belonged to someone else. According to the charge sheet, the businessman later sent the anode through a courier company to a location outside Al Falah University, from where Omar collected it.According to revelations made during the interrogation, an electrolysis process was conducted in Omar’s flat to produce chlorates and perchlorates from common salt solutions, a technique he had learned through his research.Chlorates and perchlorates are explosive substances commonly used in fireworks.Using the same fake identity, Omar later negotiated for 10 more anodes, but the deal did not fall through after the alleged Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind (AGUH) interim terror module linked to al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) was busted, the investigation revealed.The investigation also found that Umar and co-accused Dr Muzammil Shakeel had traveled to Ahmedabad, Gujarat on April 12 last year to purchase chemicals to make explosives. After praying at a nearby mosque, they returned to Al Falah the next day.According to officials, the accused followed radical Jihadi literature while carrying out these experiments. Later during investigation, material was recovered from their mobile devices.

New Delhi: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Vijay on Tuesday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging the Center not to allow the construction of Mekedatu Dam by the Karnataka government.This comes days after the Congress-led Karnataka government proposed to build the Mekedatu Dam project on the Cauvery river.In the letter, Vijay said the project proposed by Karnataka is a “clear violation” of the Supreme Court judgement. He also expressed concern over the remarks of Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar.Earlier on Monday, Vijay chaired a meeting to uphold “state rights” and protect the welfare of farmers.“Taking into account the details of the Supreme Court judgment and detailed legal advice, CM Vijay advised that immediate follow-up legal measures should be taken expeditiously,” a statement issued by the Tamil Nadu government said.The statement further said that since the proposed Mekedatu Dam is contrary to the Supreme Court judgment, the then Tamil Nadu government had filed petitions in the apex court on November 30, 2018 and June 7, 2022, opposing the project.It further said that during the hearing held on November 13, 2025, the Supreme Court had not given permission for the Mekedatu Dam and had observed that the project is in the initial stage. The court also said that only the expert body, the Central Water Commission, can determine whether the project falls within the scope of its earlier decision or not, and accordingly ordered closure of the cases.Vijay’s meeting came after Shivakumar said that the detailed project report (DPR) for Mekedatu would be submitted to the Center soon, adding that the foundation stone ceremony would be planned after getting the central government’s approval.Shivakumar told reporters, “The DPR for the Mekedatu project has been prepared, and a project office has been opened. We are identifying alternative land to compensate for the forest area that is going to be submerged. The DPR will be submitted to the Center soon. After getting the Centre’s approval, we will conduct the bhoomi puja for the project.”Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and the Union Territory of Puducherry have long been in dispute over the waters of the Kaveri River, with the issue being particularly sensitive in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka and sometimes triggering violent protests.

AIADMK political crisis: Speaker accepts resignation of fourth MLA, latest blow

New Delhi: Tamil Nadu Assembly Speaker JCD Prabhakar on Tuesday accepted the resignation of Ambasamudram AIADMK MLA Esakki Subaya, further escalating the political turmoil within the opposition party.The Speaker had initially rejected Subaya’s resignation and asked him to submit a handwritten copy.According to news agency PTI, Subaya immediately withdrew the typed letter and submitted a hand-written resignation letter, which was later accepted by the Speaker.With Subaya’s exit, the total number of resignations from the AIADMK camp in two days has increased to four, reducing the party’s strength to 43 MLAs in the 234-member Tamil Nadu Assembly.

The crisis within AIADMK deepens

The latest resignation comes a day after AIADMK MLAs Maragatham Kumaravel, P Satyabhama and S Jayakumar resigned from the Assembly and later joined the ruling Tamilaga Vetri Kazhagam (TVK) led by Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay.According to news agency ANI, 27 AIADMK MLAs are currently supporting the party general secretary. Edappadi K PalaniswamiWhile 16 MLAs are associated with senior leaders SP Velumani and C Ve Shanmugam.Subaya also belongs to the rebel camp and voted in favor of the TVK government during the May 13 confidence motion.He is also expected to join the ruling party.

AIADMK urges Speaker to reject resignation

Earlier, senior AIADMK leaders met Speaker Prabhakar and filed a petition urging him not to accept the resignations of the rebel MLAs, arguing that anti-defection proceedings were already pending against them.AIADMK leader IS Inabadurai said the resignations violated the anti-defection law. “The speaker should not accept the resignation as it is against the anti-defection law,” he told reporters.The AIADMK had earlier sought disqualification of 25 rebel MLAs for allegedly disobeying Palaniswami’s instructions and supporting the TVK government during the floor test.AIADMK leader Thalavai N Sundaram warned that the party would move court if the Speaker failed to properly investigate the resignations. He said, “If no solution is found from the Speaker, we will go to court.”Responding to the criticism, Speaker Prabhakar said he was working strictly within the legal framework. “My job is to see if the letters are appropriate and to work within the legal framework to get it accepted,” he said.

The issue of ‘horse-trading’ has intensified

The resignations have led to allegations of “horse-trading” on both AIADMK and DMK.On Monday, DMK chief MK Stalin accused the ruling TVK of orchestrating the defections at “horse speed”, while Palaniswami termed the developments as a “pre-planned conspiracy”.Congress MP S Jothimani criticized the developments and said the Congress could not support “horse-trading” in Tamil Nadu while opposing it elsewhere.The number of vacant assembly constituencies in Tamil Nadu has now increased to five, including Tiruchirappalli East, which was earlier vacant after Vijay won by two seats. By-elections are expected to be held in all the vacant constituencies.

New Delhi: The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has warned that heatwave to severe heatwave conditions are likely to persist over large parts of central and northwest India during the next 4-5 days and over eastern and adjoining peninsular India during the next 3-4 days, although maximum temperatures are likely to decline gradually from May 29 over most areas except parts of Rajasthan.In its press release issued at 1450 hrs IST on May 25, the IMD placed several areas under red, orange and yellow heat alerts, indicating varying degrees of heat-related risk.

Source: IMD

red alert area

The IMD said there is a possibility of severe heat wave in Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh and some areas of Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, West Rajasthan, East Madhya Pradesh and Vidarbha during this period.Under the red alert, the department warned of a very high probability of heat illness and heat stroke in all age groups, calling for extreme caution, especially for vulnerable populations.

Orange alert areas

Areas under orange alert include Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Vidarbha, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Jharkhand, Telangana and parts of coastal Andhra Pradesh and Yanam, where heat wave is expected.The IMD said the orange alert indicates high temperatures, increasing the likelihood of heat-related illness, especially for people exposed to heat for prolonged periods or engaged in heavy outdoor work. It advised people to avoid heat exposure, stay hydrated and take preventive measures.

yellow alert area

Yellow alerts have been issued for other areas where temperatures are expected to remain above normal, causing moderate health concerns, especially for infants, the elderly and people with chronic diseases. The IMD advised the public to remain vigilant, avoid unnecessary heat exposure and follow basic heat-safety precautions.

current temperature conditions

On May 24, the maximum temperature was recorded between 43°C and 47°C over northwest India, central India, adjoining Uttar Pradesh and parts of east and north Peninsular India, while most other areas except Northeast India, western Himalayan region and parts of west south Peninsular India remained between 40°C and 43°C.Brahmapuri in Vidarbha recorded the highest temperature of 47.2 degrees Celsius. Night temperatures were recorded well above normal in many areas, leading to warm nights in isolated areas of Uttar Pradesh, Vidarbha, Madhya Pradesh and Odisha.

Forecast and relief outlook

The IMD said no significant change in maximum temperatures is likely over many parts of northwest and central India till May 28, followed by a gradual decline of 6-8 degrees Celsius over northwest India and 2-4 degrees Celsius over central and eastern India between May 29 and May 31.However, heat wave conditions are expected to persist in some parts of Rajasthan, while temperatures will drop elsewhere.

Rain and severe weather warnings

The IMD has also predicted heavy to extremely heavy rainfall at isolated places over Northeast India during the next six to seven days, with extremely heavy rainfall at isolated places over Assam and Meghalaya on May 25.Heavy rain is also likely over Kerala and Mahe, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Karaikal during the next few days, along with thunderstorms, lightning and gusty winds reaching 40-60 kmph, with gusty winds reaching 70-80 kmph in some areas.Hail activity has been predicted at isolated places over Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and North Interior Karnataka.The IMD said conditions are favorable for further advance of Southwest Monsoon into remaining parts of southwest and southeast Arabian Sea, Comorin area, Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea during the next two to three days.

Counseling

The department has advised people to avoid prolonged exposure to heat, wear light cotton clothes, stay hydrated and follow local advisories. It also issued agro-meteorological advisories, warning of potential stress on crops and livestock due to heat, heavy rainfall and strong winds.Fishermen have been advised not to venture into specified areas of the Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal during the forecast period due to adverse sea conditions.The IMD said it would continue to monitor the situation and update warnings as necessary.

CHENNAI: Assembly Speaker JCD Prabhakar on Tuesday accepted the handwritten resignation letter of former minister and sitting Ambasamudram MLA Esakki Subbiah, after initially rejecting the typed version.Subbaiah is expected to join the ruling Tamilaga Vetri Kazhagam (TVK). This follows the resignation on Monday of three MLAs from the rebel camp led by former AIADMK ministers C Ve Shanmugam and SP Velumani – Madurantakam (Reserved) MLA Maragatham Kumaravel, Dharapuram (Reserved) MLA P Sathyabama, and Perundurai MLA S Jayakumar. Due to this, the number of MLAs in the rebel camp reduced from 25 to 16.After accepting Subbaiah’s resignation, Prabhakar told reporters that he would accept the resignation letters only if they were presented by the MLAs in person and in the proper format. Prabhakar said, “My decision on accepting the resignation letters of the MLAs is final. No time limit can be set for me to take a decision on this issue.” He said that he is working as per legal provisions.Earlier in the day, a delegation led by former ministers Agri SS Krishnamurthy and OS Manian submitted a representation on behalf of party general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami, urging the Speaker not to accept resignations from the rebel camp. He also appealed to the Speaker to cancel the government order declaring Madurantakam (reserved), Dharapuram (reserved) and Perundurai constituencies vacant after the recent resignations.“Accepting these resignations is encouraging horse-trading by the ruling TVK,” Agri Krishnamurthy told reporters after meeting the speaker. “The TVK government is horse-trading at an alarming pace. Referring to the drama that took place at the secretariat on Monday, he said, “The MLAs who have resigned are included in the TVK and membership cards are issued within five minutes.”The delegation also argued that accepting resignations from MLAs facing anti-defection proceedings is a violation of the Constitution. AIADMK RS MP IS Imbadurai said, “When the representation of the party leader (EPS) is pending before the Speaker, the resignation of MLAs facing legal action should not be considered.”Meanwhile, former Speaker M Appavu expressed surprise at the need for the current Speaker to show so much promptness on the resignation letters of newly elected MLAs.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday termed as “very serious” the forced recruitment of minor girls in orchestras mainly in Bihar and West Bengal and massage parlors in Delhi and Rajasthan and their subsequent sexual exploitation and trafficking and sought a comprehensive response from governments on steps for their safety.Senior advocate HS Phulka, appearing for NGO ‘Just Rights for Children Alliance’, told a bench of CJI Surya Kant, Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi that girls aged 10-16 years are forcibly employed in orchestras, spas and massage parlors to repay the debts of their parents and subsequently under the Child and Adolescent Labor (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, They are sexually exploited and trafficked in clear violation of the 1986 Act, which bans their employment. Hazardous industries.To get around the law, Phulka said, many sectors – orchestras, dance bars, dance troupes, gimmick performances, massage parlours, spas and salons, which are not listed in the hazardous category – have evolved over the years to become organized industries of child trafficking, sexual exploitation and abuse. The bench also issued notice to NCPR and NHRC.The NGO said that in the March-December period last year, more than 200 minors were rescued from orchestras, dance troupes and nautanki groups from various places in Bihar and West Bengal, while more than a dozen were rescued from massage parlors and spas in Delhi and Rajasthan.“Children often aged between 10 and 16 are lured and recruited from poor, tribal and marginalized communities through deception and promises of employment, glamour, dance training, marriage or economic upliftment,” it said.“These children are trafficked across districts, states and international borders, confined in overcrowded and unsanitary conditions, deprived of education and freedom of movement, and forced into forced labour, explicit sexual performance and commercial sexual exploitation, in gross and flagrant violation of their constitutional and fundamental rights.”The NGO said orchestras and gimmick groups, which were originally conceived as indigenous cultural entertainment at weddings and social gatherings, now operate in an almost complete regulatory vacuum, enabling organized criminal networks to flourish with effective impunity.“Minor girls, mainly from poor, migrant, tribal and marginalized communities, are systematically deceived and lured through false promises of employment, glamour, artistic performance or marriage,” it said. In many cases, the families themselves are duped or financially forced to surrender their children in conditions of severe economic distress and insecurity.”“As a result, girls under the age of 12 are trafficked, bought for nominal sums, transported across district and state borders, and sold to orchestra conductors, generating substantial criminal profits for traffickers and conductors alike,” it said.Describing the plight of the trapped girls, the NGO said these minors are forced to perform in sexually provocative attire, are forced to dance to obscene music in front of an intoxicated audience, and face extreme violence including molestation, rape, threats and sometimes violence using weapons.

New Delhi: The BJP leadership has moved to set its house in order in Karnataka, where its state unit is plagued by dissonant voices, and is setting its sights on the only southern state where the party is in power amid a perception that it has not been able to effectively harness “anti-incumbency” sentiments against the Congress government even as its leadership has been openly at loggerheads for several months at the cost of governance.BJP President held a series of meetings with party officials including MPs and MLAs besides organizational officials. Nitin Nabin Was clear in emphasizing the need for unity.Describing Nabeen as a practical and approachable person, a party official said, “His main message was that everyone should work together in the interest of the party and keep aside any doubt on one’s senior or junior status in view of the upcoming challenges.”After losing to the Congress in the two recent assembly bypolls, the BJP is now keen to make its mark in the upcoming local body elections, including the prestigious Greater Bengaluru Authority, to script a victory story for the 2028 state elections.Karnataka has posed a unique set of challenges for the party, which have been further heightened by the withdrawal of former CM and the state’s tallest leader BS Yediyurappa from electoral politics and the emergence of his younger son Vijayendra as his political successor.Vijayendra was made the state BJP president in November 2023, but a section of senior party functionaries were less happy with his leadership.While the party has elected its presidents in most states after its membership drive, which is a traditional process, not in Karnataka as its national leadership navigates claims and counterclaims while trying to maintain a fine balance.Though Yediyurappa, the state’s biggest Lingayat face, often faced challenges within the BJP, his stature and political acumen helped him keep him on the periphery.The BJP was forced to expel Yediyurappa’s rival Basanagouda Patil Yatnal, who had become increasingly vocal after his son took charge of the party last year, and oust two more MLAs for not voting for its candidate in the Rajya Sabha elections, almost unthinkable in its other state units.While the party’s reach in North, West and East India is wider than before, it is now expanding its influence in South India, where four states are ruled by opposition parties, while its ally TDP is the dominant party in Andhra Pradesh.

New Delhi: A special CBI court in Delhi has acquitted former Union minister Subodh Kant Sahay’s brother and others in the coal block allocation case, strongly criticizing the prosecution’s investigation and evidence.The former minister’s brother, Sudhir Kumar Sahay, was one of the directors of SKS Ispat and Power Ltd, an accused in the case.“The entire case of prosecution for the offense of criminal conspiracy is based on conjectures and conjectures without any solid basis,” Special Judge Sunena Sharma said in her 271-page judgment last week. “The prosecution has miserably failed against all the accused in the absence of direct or indirect evidence to prove conspiracy under section 120B of the IPC,” the judge said.The case, one of 53 under the so-called “coal scam”, arose out of a 2012 reference by the Central Vigilance Commission into alleged irregularities in coal block allocation between 2006 and 2009.The CBI had alleged that SKS and its officials wrongly inflated the company’s investment, land possession, production capacity and environmental clearance to secure the allotment of Vijay Central Coal Block in Chhattisgarh. It also alleged that Sudhir Kumar Sahay misrepresented himself as a director and attempted to influence the process through recommendation letters, including one sent through his brother.However, given that the mining rights were held by Coal India Limited and not SKS, the court questioned how the private company could dishonestly obtain any ill-gotten gains and held that the allotment letter “cannot be construed as a grant of largesse” and was “more in the nature of coal linkage.”Rejecting the allegations of inflated financial muscle, the court said that the figures relied upon by SKS came from “audited balance sheets/annual reports” and were never alleged by the CBI to be fake.On the question of recommendation letters, Sahay’s lawyer, Neeraj Chaudhary, argued that “they were never considered by the coal or screening ministry”. The court agreed, saying there was “no evidence on record” to show the screening committee was influenced by the letters. It termed the prosecution’s interpretation of land and environmental clearance as “far-fetched” and “wholly unreasonable”.In 2014, the Supreme Court had quashed 214 coal block allocations made between 1993 and 2010, ordering a trial before a special CBI court.