Overnight rain leaves Bengaluru waterlogged, IMD predicts more showers
Bengaluru (PTI): Heavy overnight rains battered Bengaluru, bringing the city to a standstill on Friday with waterlogging in several low-lying areas and traffic snarls on key stretches.
The downpour, which began late Thursday night, continued intermittently on Friday morning.
Bengaluru city recorded 65.5 mm rainfall in the past 24 hours till 5.30 am, with the city’s Automatic Weather Station (AWS) reporting 66 mm. Doddaballapura received 60 mm, Chandurayanahalli in Ramanagara 46 mm, and Hessarghatta in Bengaluru Rural 43 mm.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued a yellow alert for Bengaluru, predicting light to moderate rain or thundershowers accompanied by lightning and gusty winds reaching 30–40 kmph at isolated places. Vijayapura, Bidar, Kalaburagi, Tumakuru, Kolar, and Chikkaballapura are also under yellow alert.
Significant rainfall was reported across Karnataka.
According to Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre (KSNDMC), Kanagamakalapalli in Chikkaballapura district recorded 130 mm, followed by Tirumani (114 mm), Beechaganahalli (114 mm), Chelur_1 (101 mm), and Bhandarkumtha in Bidar district (112 mm). Gadag received 51.9 mm, Ramanagara’s Chandurayanahalli 46 mm, Tamaka in Kolar 21.5 mm, while Mangaluru reported 20.7 mm. Gulbarga Observatory reported dry thunder.
The IMD cautioned that heavy rain could cause temporary power outages, waterlogging, and uprooting of weak tree branches.
“Take safe shelters; do not take shelter under trees. Unplug electrical and electronic appliances immediately. Get out of water bodies and stay away from objects that conduct electricity. Drive carefully if you are travelling,” the IMD advisory said.
The continuous rainfall has led to new potholes, further inconveniencing commuters, particularly two-wheeler riders.
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Gurugram Police arrest BJP Yuva Morcha member for spreading fake murder story on social media
New Delhi: Gurugram Police have arrested BJP Yuva Morcha member Hariom Mishra, for allegedly spreading a fabricated and communally sensitive story on social media about the murder of a college student in Gurugram.
Mishra who is also known as Shaurya Mishra had shared a collage of four photographs on his X handle earlier this month. He claimed that a 24-year-old college student, identified as Nikita Agarwal, had been murdered by her classmate Arif Khan in Gurugram. In the post, he alleged that the woman was blackmailed, forced into prostitution, gangraped, and eventually killed. He also claimed that Arif dumped her body in a forest. The claims were presented as being based on police sources.
The post went viral and garnering over 1.5 lakh views, and was amplified by several right-wing social media handles across X, Facebook and Instagram. A verification of the claims revealed that no such incident had taken place in Gurugram. A search of credible news reports showed no record of any such murder. The police said this news would have inevitably attracted media attention if it were true.
On December 11, Gurugram Police publicly refuted the claims through their official X handle. They stated that the information which was being circulated was completely false. The police warned that legal action would be taken against those spreading misinformation. Despite the warning, Mishra neither deleted the post nor issued any clarification.
Police in Gurugram confirmed Mishra's arrest on December 16. The police said a FIR was filed after he continued to spread false information about the alleged murder of a Hindu woman by Muslim man. Police said Mishra, a resident of Uttar Pradesh's Kaushambi district, is now being investigated.
Gurugram Police spokesperson Sandeep Singh told The Print that the accused had deliberately misrepresented facts and used objectionable content to spread hatred along religious lines. “Such posts can create serious disturbances in society, and the police take these matters very seriously,” he said.
A reverse image search conducted by fact-checkers at Alt News, revealed that the photographs used in the viral post were unrelated to the claims, while two of the images were traced to a Pinterest account belonging to influencer Maulik Chopra and another image was sourced from an Instagram post by influencer Shivam Thakur featuring a woman named Deepanshi Rawat. The fourth image was found on an unrelated Instagram page. The images depicted different individuals and had no connection to any crime.
Police said they are also investigating Mishra’s motive behind sharing the false and provocative content.
