New Delhi, Mar 16: BCCI secretary Jay Shah on Saturday dismissed speculation that the IPL would be shifted to the UAE due to the upcoming general elections in the country between April 19 to June 1.

There were endless rumours about the IPL being shifted to the Emirates due to the elections which will be held in seven phases with the reports filling social media about players being asked to deposit their passports with respective franchises.

However, Shah set the record straight.

"The entire IPL will be held in India. We will be formulating the remaining schedule very soon and announce it," Shah told PTI.

The schedule for the first two weeks has been already released with defending champions Chennai Super Kings taking on Royal Challengers Bangalore at home on March 22.

In earlier conversations with PTI, BCCI secretary Shah had categorically maintained that the full tournament will be held in India, just like it happened in 2019, the year of previous Lok Sabha election. They were only waiting for the Election Commission to announce the poll dates.

In the morning, IPL chairman Arun Dhumal had also said there was no chance of shifting the IPL out of the country and all the reports of the tournament being held in UAE were baseless.

However, the league was moved out of the country during the general elections in 2014 when the UPA government was in power. Then the first phase was held in the UAE before returning to India for the second phase.

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Bengaluru: A 23-year-old Capgemini employee was killed and three others were injured after a commercial gas cylinder exploded at a paying guest accommodation in Bengaluru’s Kundalahalli on Monday evening, police said.

According to a report published by NDTV, the incident occurred around 6.15 pm at the Seven Hills Sai Co-Living PG, a seven-storey building with 43 rooms. The explosion took place on the ground floor of the building.

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"There was some smoke on the ground floor. The victim and two others, who were on the terrace, came down to check what had happened. It is believed that the blast occurred at that time, killing Aravind. Among the injured, two are employees of private companies, and one works as a helper at the PG," NDTV quoted K Parashurama, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Whitefield) as saying.

Aravind, a native of Ballari district in Karnataka, was working as a senior analyst with Capgemini. Among the injured are 28-year-old Venkatesh from Kurnool, 23-year-old Vishal Verma from Uttarakhand, and 25-year-old CV Goel, a woman from Uttarakhand. Two of the injured are employees of private firms, while one works as a helper at the PG.

As per the report, as soon as fire and smoke were detected, an emergency response was initiated. Fire and police teams rushed to the spot and contained the situation. All the injured were shifted to Brookefield Hospital, where they are undergoing treatment.

Police have registered a case and launched an investigation to ascertain the cause of the explosion. We are examining the building for violations. We have already noticed that there was no setback provided during construction, and we are verifying whether other rules were also defied, Parashurama added.

The PG building is owned by a person named Vishnu from Andhra Pradesh and is locally managed by a woman identified as Roja. Further investigation is underway, police said.