Misusing RTI can prove costly 1,886 RTI hubballi l saturday l november 07, 2026 l `9.00 l PAGES 16 l city EDITION Panel bins queries, asks him not to misuse Act or he could face 1-yr ban on filing RTI queries Youth files 1,886 RTI queries seeking info about a woman in 97 petitions Police say repeated applications unnecessarily burden and divert them from official duties State info commissioner sees several queries unrelated to public interest Panel says RTI Act should not become a tool to intimidate public officials or obstruct their work | P9 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 h o rr o r h o u s e Cabbie kills 7 of his kin with daughter’s help E x p ress N e w s S er v i c e @Bengaluru In a chilling incident, a 52-year-old cab driver allegedly murdered his wife and six members of her family with a grindstone, over a span of 15 days at his house in Rajajinagar, Bengaluru, and dumped their bodies at different locations in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. The dead included a seven-year-old boy . His 17-year-old daughter is also accused of helping him pack and dispose of the bodies. Both the accused were arrested by Rajajinagar police. While a prolonged marital dispute is suspected to be a reason for the murder spree, police are also probing whether any property dispute is involved. The body of the boy was retrieved near Nandi Hills on Friday, while six other bodies are yet to be traced. The accused, identified as S Indushekar alias Arjun Indushekar, a resident of Bashyam Circle in Rajajinagar, allegedly committed the murders between October 16 and 31 after inviting the victims to his house for food. Indushekar then bludgeoned them to death with a grindstone and allegedly transported the bodies in his car and dumped them in Yercaud Ghat near Salem in Tamil Nadu, in Chamundi Hills, Nandi Hills and Shiradi Ghat. The victims have been identified as Indushekar’s wife Sunitha (40), her mother Roopavathi (65), brothers S h iv a k u m a r ( 3 0 ) a n d Shankar (44), their wives Divya (30) and Nalini (29) and Shivakumar’s seven-year-old son Puneeth.  P7 Left-out voters get another shot EC order for 7 states, including AP, Telangana s u m i t k u m ar @ New Delhi Cong calls it a U-turn The Congress on Friday termed the Election Commission’s move a “U-turn” and said this is a “belated admission that wrongful deletion and exclusion” has indeed taken place. FACING sharp questions in the Supreme Court over forcing deleted voters to file Form 6 for inclusion in poll rolls, the Election Commission on Friday said it is providing another shot to voters in seven states whose enumeration forms were issued but were not received by it, resulting in their exclusion from the rolls during the ongoing SIR exercise. In a letter, the EC asked chief electoral officers of Delhi, Maharashtra, Haryana, Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, Telangana and Naga- land to facilitate inclusion of voters marked ‘Absent, Shifted, Dead or Duplicate’ (ASDD) in the final rolls. The relief covers those who were handed enumeration forms that EC didn’t get back. Booth-wise lists of deleted voters, with reasons for exclusion, will be displayed at polling stations and government offices and also uploaded on websites of chief electoral officers. Booth Level Officers must give fresh forms to these voters and reach them through house visits, WhatsApp, e-mail and SMS. In all, 4,51,76,997 voters were left out in 7 states. `29L cr bonanza as festive cheer lifts Dalal Street A R S H A D K H A N @ New Delhi INDIAN stock markets on Friday rallied for the seventh consecutive session, defying the global market rout and bringing early Diwali bonanza for investors, with benchmark indices recording their sharpest weekly gains in recent years. The Sensex surged 1,718 points (2.17%) to close at 81,028 on Friday, while the Nifty surged 493.75 points (2.01%) to settle at 25,030. The rally was buoyed by robust foreign institutional investor inflows, easing crude oil prices, and strong corporate earnings. Diwali airfares soar Airfares have shot up due to the Diwali rush, with the Mumbai-Ahmedabad route commanding `23,000 against `3,800-`5,000 last year. Similarly, Delhi-Mumbai tickets have climbed to `26,500 In the past seven sessions, the Sensex has advanced 7,782 points while the Nifty gained 2,331 points. The rally added `29 lakh crore to investors’ wealth during the week as the market capitalisation of BSE-listed firms swelled from `475.34 lakh crore to over `504 lakh crore. P15 press Intake Finance dept cautions govt over rising burden | P4 KRS reservoir storage level falls to 21.9 tmcft | P7 Sonia recalls first culinary encounter with India | P9 Pawar leads NCP merger talks in hospital | P10