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Mumbai has received its highest rainfall for the month of May in 107 years. The India Meteorological Department has issued a red alert warning of extremely heavy rains in the city. The southwest monsoon arrived in Maharashtra on Sunday, in what was the earliest onset of the season in the state in 35 years.

The department’s Colaba observatory in South Mumbai has logged 295 mm so far this month, surpassing the previous high of 279.4 mm recorded in May 1918.

Operations on Mumbai Metro Line 3, the city’s first fully underground Metro corridor, were partially suspended after heavy rains flooded the under-construction Acharya Atre Chowk underground station. The second phase of the Metro line had been inaugurated just 17 days earlier.

Heavy rainfall also lashed Kerala, prompting the weather agency to issue a red alert for 11 districts. The rains led to several residents being evacuated to relief camps and safer areas in the districts of Wayanad and Kozhikode.

A holiday for educational institutions was declared in 10 districts of Kerala as a precautionary measure. Read on.

The Assam Police detained several Muslim residents of the state on suspicion of being undocumented migrants from Bangladesh. Many of them were released more than 15 hours later, once their documents were verified.

The detention drive was carried out mostly in the Muslim neighbourhoods of Guwahati, including Hatigaon, Sijubari, Ghoramara and Sonapur.

While the police are yet to confirm the number of detentions, a senior official told Scroll that the “number of people picked up is well below 100”.

One of those detained, Hannan Ahmed, has a voter identity card and his name, along with those of his parents, is in the 2019 National Register of Citizens. Hannan was released by the police around 7 pm.

This came against the backdrop of reports alleging that Indian authorities had forced persons, including Rohingya refugees, into Bangladesh and Myanmar. Read on.

The Delhi High Court has summoned commentator Abhijit Iyer-Mitra in a defamation case that women employees of digital news outlet Newslaundry filed against him for making sexually abusive remarks about them. On May 21, Iyer-Mitra took down the remarks he had posted on social media between February and April after the High Court reprimanded him.

Nevertheless, the plaintiffs told the court that they wanted to go ahead with the case, after which the summons were issued.

Nine Newslaundry employees have filed a defamation suit seeking a public apology and Rs 2 crore in damages from Iyer-Mitra, a columnist at pro-Bharatiya Janata Party outlet OpIndia. Their lawyer told the court on Monday that although he took down the social media posts, he had shown “absolutely no remorse”. More on Scroll.

The National Investigation Agency has arrested a member of the Central Reserve Police Force for allegedly sharing sensitive information with Pakistani intelligence officials. A court in Delhi sent him to the custody of the agency till June 6.

The National Investigation Agency accused the CRPF member, Assistant Sub-Inspector Moti Ram Jat, of passing on classified information to Pakistani intelligence officers, since 2023 in exchange for money.

The Central Reserve Police Force dismissed the assistant sub-inspector from service following the allegations.

Moti Ram’s arrest came two days after a contractual health worker from Gujarat’s Kutch district was held for allegedly sharing sensitive information about military establishments with a Pakistani intelligence operative. Read on.

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