New Delhi, July 11
A former banker has been arrested for allegedly duping more than 75 people of over Rs 4 crore.

Ravi Kumar Sindhu (23) was arrested on Wednesday after a complaint was registered against him at Sarojini Nagar police station in April.

Seven fake identity cards, five credit cards and 16 forged letters on behalf of M/s Blue Dart Express, a car, split ACs, LCD TV sets, cameras, mobile phones, a wrist watch, branded clothes, juicer-mixer-grinder, deep freezer, a computer and furniture worth Rs 15 lakh have been seized.

According to the police, Sindhu allegedly purchased the items using the credit cards of others.

Sindhu, who runs a cafeteria at a hospital in Faridabad, has worked as an assistant manager in Citi Bank and Barclays Bank for four years.

In his complaint, Samir Gupta had alleged that he had applied for a Standard Chartered credit card. A courier boy from Blue Dart Express delivered it on April 27.

Immediately, after he received the card, Sindhu impersonating as Harsh Kumar, an senior employee of Blue Dart Express, requested him to return the card as some correction was required. He promised to return it after two hours.

Believing Sindhu, Gupta gave him the card. But after a few hours, he received a message that he had been duped him of Rs 40,000. When Gupta enquired, he learnt his card had been used to pay bills at shops in Sarojini Nagar Market.

DCP (south) HGS Dhaliwal said Sindhu was arrested with the help of officials from nationalised/ multinational banks that use services of Blue Dart Express and radio taxi operators.

“The accused has used 10 mobile phones and 56 numbers during the last eight months. He has duped more than 75 credit card holders of various multinational/ nationalised banks in Delhi, Faridabad, Gurgaon and Noida. He was arrested while he was planning to dupe another credit card holder,” said Dhaliwal.

Dhaliwal added Sindhu used his banking experience to commit the crime. Besides, he knew the functioning of credit card division and delivery pattern of M/s Blue Dart Express.

He targeted one area a day. After zeroing down the courier boy of the courier company, he used to impersonate himself as a senior representative of the company and used to ask the delivery details from the courier boy. After getting the details, he used to strike at a house with an identity card of Blue Dart Express. After gaining the trust of the credit card holder, he took his credit card and made quick and costly purchases sometimes to the tune of Rs 1.5 lakh. 

New Delhi, July 11
Two persons have been arrested for running an agency in the name and style of M/s B.K. Jewellers House Marketing Pvt. Ltd which attracted investors for multi-level marketing and then allegedly siphoned off the money for illegal gains.

The company was being run from Tilak Nagar by Chetan Malik and Rajesh Malik, both of whom have been arrested.

According to officials, they had received more than 150 complaints from investors alleging that the company had floated lucrative schemes of investments and later duped them. In the scheme, a person could join as a investor by paying Rs 3,533, Rs 13,444 (silver investor), Rs 68,216 (gold investor) and Rs 3,36,738 (platinum investor).

The company promised to give huge returns not only on the investment made but also commissions were offered for bringing in more investors.

For the investment of Rs 13,444 the investor was promised returns varying from 26,000 to 26,00,000 in 12 months, depending upon the company’s growth. The alleged company even conducted conferences on its premises and other places for attracting new investors.

“It has come to the notice during investigation that the accused had made a large number of dummy investors to siphon out money from the company for illegal gains. The directors of the company were evading their arrest for last two months by shifting their locations continuously. Raids were being conducted at their hideouts as per investigation. The accused could not sustain the persistent pressure and raids by the police and they surrendered to the police yesterday. As the number of complainants is likely to go up, therefore, auditors have been appointed to assess the exact dimension of the scam,” said the officials. 

New Delhi, July 11
Forget about the more “fancy” broccoli or mushroom, even the humble potato, tomato and onion are inching away from the common man’s home budget. Due to the scanty rains, vegetable prices in the Capital have soared so much that many families are cutting down on having more than one variety of vegetable on the table.

Much to peoples’ dismay, the prices of vegetables like potato and onion, which is used in almost every meal, have increased over the last few days to as much as Rs 18 and Rs 20 a kg, respectively, in the Capital.

The price of tomatoes, another veggie used regularly in Indian meals, has similarly shot up to Rs 40 per kg.

Sarita Das, a housewife, lamented that her monthly budget had gone haywire because of sudden increase in vegetable prices.

“The prices are simply impossible! After a lot of haggling, I bought a kg of tomatoes today for Rs 38... Earlier, with that amount I would have bought a whole lot of vegetables. But what option do I have? I have to feed my family,” said Das.

Sarika Jain, another home maker, spoke in a similar vein, “My husband is a salaried man and we have to run the house on a fixed budget. When prices of essential commodities like vegetables or groceries go up, we are definitely affected.”

“You can cut down on other luxuries but how can you tell your child to eat less? We now have to make do with just one variety of vegetable in one meal and try and compensate that in the next. The government must do something about this,” Jain added.

And even as they pay double the amount for vegetables, people complain that the quality of the vegetables has deteriorated.

“Either way we are getting the rough end of the deal,” Das said.

For Aamra, a student who is sharing a room with two friends, the high vegetable prices have made her rethink on the decision to cook meat once a week.

“I was tired of eating the usual bhindi (ladies finger) and lauki (gourd) and decided to buy beans. I was shocked when I asked the price of beans – Rs 80 a kg. I realised I should eat more of non-veg now. Dressed chicken costs Rs 130 a kg, so there is hardly any difference in the prices. We would eat non-veg once in a while thinking it is more expensive,” said Aamra.

According to Ashok Raj, a vegetable vendor at Azadpur wholesale vegetable market, scanty rainfall is the main reason for the soaring vegetable prices.

“The delay in monsoon and scanty rainfall has dried the fields and affected the crops. This in turn has led to a rise in prices of vegetables,” Raj said.

According to the latest estimates of the India Meteorological Department (IMD), the seasonal rainfall during this year’s monsoon so far has been 43 per cent below the long-term average.

Out of India’s 36 meteorological sub-divisions, rainfall was deficient or scanty in 29.

The IMD has announced the monsoon in the country to be “below normal” this year.

Agriculture minister Sharad Pawar admitted that the delayed monsoon was a “serious problem” in north India.

Ravi, another vendor, added, “Apart from the scanty monsoon, big vegetable outlets are also responsible for the hike in prices because they buy vegetables directly from farmers at low prices and sell them at double the amount.” — IANS

Noida, July 11
A majority of residents here have decried the Noida Authority’s bid to convert a piece of green land—between Naya Bans, DND toll bridge and Pushta Road—into a commercial hub. The land is less than a km from the Delhi-Noida border and just 70 metres from the Okhla Bird Sanctuary

Besides, the representatives of the Federation of Noida RWAs (FONRWA), NGOs and social activists, many others have also sent in objections to the Noida Authority. The land in question is a notified protected area close to the Yamuna.

It may be mentioned that Noida Authority Board had taken a decision to change the use of this land at its recent meeting.

According to officials, the land would be put under mixed-use category and sold to private developers. The Noida Authority had also put a legal notice on its website and invited suggestions and objections from the public.

However, the majority of residents of Noida want the land in question to remain as a water body and green cover.

Any change in its use would have disastrous effects on the ecology and environment, they have contended.

“The Okhla Bird Park and Wildlife Sanctuary (OBPWLS) is home to over 400 species of birds. It is the largest breeding ground for bitterns, which come here during summer. The bird sanctuary lies just next to this area. Any construction here would significantly reduce the number of the migratory birds. Besides, construction here would violate the Wildlife Protection Act,” says A.N. Dhawan, senior vice-president of Federation of Noida Resident Welfare Assoication (FONRWA).

“It is also a known fact that the land area falls in seismic zone 4. Any construction on the flood plains, which are nothing but deposits of sand in layers, could have disastrous consequences in terms of loss of life and property. Hence, the proposed area should be left as it is and the land use should not be changed at all,” says Batra.

“This land is a part of the Yamuna flood plain and has originally been identified and earmarked for irrigation purpose only. Moreover, there are Supreme Court and Delhi High Court orders against construction in the river plains,” says Vineet Choudhary of the NGO, Hai Umeed.

“The state government has already ravaged the Yamuna river front parks with concrete structures,” he adds.

“Noida residents are heavily dependent on groundwater and already facing an acute water shortage. Such steps by the authority will deplete the underground watertable and cause more problems,” says social activist Lokesh K. Batra.

“Two huge tubewells are located very near the old Pushta Road. Any concretisation of the flood plain area would result in loss of underground water,” he points out.

“Besides, such a step which will further destroy trees and greenery also expose the entire Noida and its adjoining areas to the risk of floods. It is strange that rather than conserving green areas to check global warming, the Noida Authority is bent on destroying it further,” he adds.

Gurgaon, July 11
As part of their community outreach programme, the Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals organised a cardiac screening camp at Bharat Petroleum Corporation India Ltd here yesterday.

Over 150 people underwent the screening, which include electrocardiogram (ECG) and echocardiogram (ECHO) tests, free of cost.

The camp also offered free registration and a discount of Rs 5,000 on angiography. Further, a discount of 10 per cent on treatment was announced in case people required treatment at the Apollo Hospitals.

Besides, the cardiac experts also informed local doctors about the latest trends in the field. 

Noida, July 11
Special secretary industrial development, UP, and chief executive officer of Noida Authority, have been served with contempt of court notices by the Allahabad High Court.

The high court had stayed the razing to ground of a house on a piece of land that had been acquired by the district authorities. But the house had been razed, ignoring high court orders.

The high court has issued contempt notice against special secretary industrial development UP, Arvind Manekar, GB Nagar additional district magistrate (land acquisition) Manmohoan Chaudhary and chief executive officer of Noida Authority, Mohinder Singh.

These officers have also been called upon to submit an action taken report on the implementation of the court order dated June 2, 2008. The next hearing of the appeal has been fixed for August 17, 2009, it is learnt.

The contempt notice has been issued by the court of Justice Sabhajit Yadav and Justice Ankur Verma. The court has ordered the officers concerned to explain personally in the court as to why the court orders were disobeyed, in case they cannot submit the action taken report on the order. They should explain as to why action should not be taken against them for contempt of the court.

It may mentioned that Maan Singh and others had pleaded that they had purchased the land and converted it into residential area. Later when the government acquired this land the applicants requested that their land may be separated from the acquired land. The high court had ordered maintenance of status quo on the land.

The appellants had alleged contempt of high court orders on their land where their houses had been razed to ground by the authorities, ignoring the stay ordered by the court.

Gurgaon, July 11
Apart from solving cases of crime and nabbing notorious criminals, the local police has been facing another challenge these days — that of false complaints.

According to senior police officials, several cases of miscreants lodging false complaints to cover up their wrongdoings and shift the focus elsewhere to mislead the police have come to light in the millennium city.

In a recent case, Naresh Saluja, who worked as a salesman with some detergent distributor, lodged a complaint that some miscreants had snatched Rs 3 lakh from him at pistol-point when he was going to deposit the said amount in a bank.

“However, our investigations revealed that Naresh had himself asked his friends to stage a snatching drama to get easy money,” DCP (West) Rakesh Arya disclosed here today.

Arya said in a bid to cover up his ploy, the youth tried to mislead the police by telling a false and fabricated story. “During the course of investigations, we discovered that another servant of the distributor used to accompany Naresh to bank to deposit cash in the bank. However, on that day, Naresh refused to take the servant along. We worked on this angle and the case was solved,” said Arya.

The DCP said the accomplices of the accused had been arrested and the cash recovered from their possession.

In another case, a local resident, Rinku Gupta, recently lodged a complaint with the police that some car-borne persons took him near Leisure Valley forcibly and looted Rs 63,000 in cash from him.

“In this case, we smelt something fishy as the alleged looters had not taken away the complainant’s cell-phone. On being questioned about it, he could not give a reasonable explanation. We got the call record examined, which revealed the truth,” Arya maintained.

The DCP said actually, Gupta had committed to pay a certain amount to one Vipin Kumar. “It seems that he could not arrange the required money and was beaten up by Vipin and his friends for not making the payment as per his commitment. Following this, Gupta cooked up a story and lodged a complaint with the police that he was kidnapped and looted,” he asserted.

As of now, legal action is being taken against the accused for misleading the police by lodging a false complaint.

New Delhi, July 11
In a surprise check against drunken driving conducted by Delhi traffic police last night across the city, a total of 384 persons were challaned for drunken driving.

According to Delhi traffic police, the checking which was carried out across 40 points, one point in each traffic circle mainly around pubs, bars, restaurants and major thoroughfares caught many unawares. “The checking which was conducted between 9 pm and 12 midnight caught drunk drivers off guard.

As a result of the drive, a total of 573 persons were challaned, including 384 for drunken driving, 77 persons were challaned for dangerous driving while 46 vehicles were impounded,” said S.N. Shrivastava, jt. commissioner (Traffic).

This year 5,655 persons were challaned by traffic police till June 30, 2009 as against 3,818 persons during the corresponding period last year.

New Delhi, July 11
The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) intercepted a person near Tikri border in the capital last night and recovered 16.5 kg of heroin worth Rs 17 crores in the illicit international market from his possession.

According to DRI officials, the accused has been identified as Mathar Khan (38) and is a resident of Jaisalmer in Rajasthan.

“We nabbed Khan on the basis of specific intelligence. Apart from heroin, Rs 1.40 lakh worth of Indian currency was also recovered from his possession,” said a DRI official.

This is the fifth heroin seizure done by them in Delhi in the past 40 days and the total quantity of seized heroin in nearly 72 kg.

Preliminary investigations reveal that the heroin so seized in the past few cases is of Afghanistan/Pakistan origin which found its way to Delhi through the Indo-Pak border in Punjab, Jammu and Rajasthan regions.

It is believed that most of this heroin is meant for ultimate destinations in Europe, Canada and Africa, with Delhi being a transit point.

New Delhi, July 11
Residents continued to sweat due to high humidity after a brief spell of rain yesterday.

The maximum temperature recorded today was 38.2° C, which was two degrees above normal. The minimum remained two degree above normal at 29.1° C. The humidity level was high with maximum 83 per cent and minimum 59 per cent.

Met officials predict light showers in the night or tomorrow morning but there is still some time to go for heavy rains.