A 38-year-old TMC booth chief was found murdered at Minakhan in Bengal’s North 24 Parganas on Thursday. There were signs of torture on his body. His family claimed faction feuds within party led to his killing. Locals came across Kazi Masiur Rahman’s body, wrapped in a blanket, along Haroa-Bhangar road. Preliminary findings suggest he was hacked to death, but only a postmortem will confirm the exact cause, police said.

West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee

KOLKATA: Election Commission’s mass transfer of senior IAS and IPS officers within Bengal was a form of “unpromulgated President’s Rule”, CM Mamata Banerjee said on Thursday.The EC’s action was a “deliberate design to seize control of Bengal through coercion and institutional manipulation”, Banerjee posted on X.

Bhopal: The Supreme Court on Thursday stayed a ruling of the Madhya Pradesh HC’s Gwalior bench that annulled the 2024 bypoll victory of Congress MLA Mukesh Malhotra, reports Suchandana Gupta.The HC had invalidated the assembly bypoll outcome on a plea by Malhotra’s closest rival, BJP’s Ram Niwas Rawat, claiming that the former had not disclosed the criminal cases against him in his poll affidavit.Taking up Congress’s plea challenging the HC ruling, the SC upheld the status of Malhotra as MLA from Vijaypur constituency with conditions: He would not be allowed to cast his ballot during the RS polls, not participate in voting in the assembly polls, and not be able to draw his salary and perks as legislator or access funds under MLALADS. However, he will remain Vijaypur MLA till the SC delivers final verdict. tnn

The businessman’s son said the car wasn’t connected to the charging point when the fire started

Times News NetworkIndore: A survivor of the house fire that killed eight members of an extended family here rejected on Thursday what he termed a “false narrative” about the blaze originating at an EV charging point and electronic locks preventing firefighers from getting into the three-story building.Polymer businessman Manoj Pugalia’s son Saurabh, one among four survivors of the tragedy, said the family’s EV hatchback wasn’t even connected to the charging point when the blaze started around 3.30am Wednesday. “Since the car charger wasn’t connected to the power source, it is unclear how a short circuit could occur at the charging point,” he told reporters.Saurabh also discounted the official theory that rescuers failed to enter the Brajeshwari Annexe building because the opening mechanism of electronic locks got disabled without power supply. He said the source of the fire could be something “external”, citing videos circulating on social media that show an electricity pole outside the building on fire.Pugalia, his daughter-in-law Simran and six relatives from Bihar’s Kishanganj, including a cancer patient and two children, died in the fire.DCP Amrendra Singh said forensic teams are still analysing the charred vehicle and the electrical circuitry of the house to pinpoint the cause of the blaze. “There have been instances of electric vehicles catching fire even when they were not being charged. We are exploring all angles, including what the family members have said, to establish the exact cause of the fire.”CM Mohan Yadav met the survivors and assured them of a scientific probe. “We will wait for the detailed probe report and take appropriate steps so that such tragic accidents don’t recur,” he said.

Israeli foreign minister Gideon Sa’ar spoke with external affairs minister S Jaishankar on Thursday and briefed him about the ongoing conflict in West Asia. “We value our special strategic partnership with India, the world’s largest democracy,” he said on X. Sa’ar said he briefed the Indian minister on developments in Israeli operation against Iran. “I said that the (Iranian) regime is carrying out naval terrorism in the Strait of Hormuz. This is not an American or Israeli issue, it’s a fundamental problem affecting global economy. If this grave phenomenon is not addressed now, it could spread worldwide,” he said.