Police is one of the biggest violators of human rights. A function organized by the International Human Rights Protection Council arrived at this conclusion after daylong deliberations on human rights and their violations.

The overwhelming view emerging from this discussion was that most of the times the police arrests either innocent people or those involved in petty crimes and these hapless people mostly coming from the deprived sections of society languish for years in jail, sometimes without a trial.

New Delhi, December 10
Delhi, the national Capital, will turn 100 years old this week as it was on December 12 in 1911 when King George V declared the shift of the Capital of British India from Calcutta to Delhi.

But city's importance lies not just in its past glory as the seat of empires and magnificent monuments, but also in the rich and diverse cultures. And to mark these cultures, the Delhi tourism has been organising a slew of festivities for the last one month at various famous tourist spots of the city with its concluding programme on December 11.

The colourful celebration of the 100th year of Delhi included festival like 'qawali', 'mushaira', kite flying, 'Dilli ke pakwan', traditional folk dances, etc., at Delhi Haat in INA and Pitampura, Garden of Five Senses, Connaught Place and India Gate.

The 'qawali' and 'mushaira' festival, organised by the Delhi tourism last month in the open-air amphitheater and natural surroundings of the Garden of Five Senses, won great appreciations from the people. The festival began with enchanting of 'qawalis' by some famous 'qawals' from Pakistan. The aura and ambience of the gardens complimented the music and left the listeners mesmerised and swaying with the tunes of the harmoniums.

"Over the centuries, several 'shayars' have left their beautiful verses for us to cherish. But, unfortunately, youth in urban India does not always get the opportunity to come close to the language and its abundant literature. And that is a huge cultural loss for our society. In such an environment, any attempt to bring the language back to the masses is commendable," said Manish Chatrath, chairman of the Delhi tourism.

Also, to mark the people of Delhi's inherent wish to fly high, a kite festival was organised at the lawns of India Gate. "Kite flying is one of the most popular sports in Delhi as it involves a lot of fun and is loved by both classes and masses. So, we thought it would be a good option to add it in the list of our events," said Chatrath.

And the most hit in the series, after the spectacular kite flying festival and the 'qawali' and 'mushaira' festival, was the Punjabi 'mehfil' organised at Dilli Haat, Pitampura and 'Dilli ke pakwaan' at Baba Kharak Singh Marg.

The 'Dilli ke pakwan' celebrated the palate of the city. Street food which is the soul of the culture of Delhi and no celebration can be complete without the quintessential chaat, kulfi, biryani, kebabs sold in the labyrinth of old Delhi. To venerate this inseparable aspect of city, the Delhi tourism brought the culinary delights of the age-old shops of Purani Dilli out into the open for everyone to enjoy.

Delhi is a city that bridges two different worlds. Old Delhi, once the capital of Islamic India, is a labyrinth of narrow lanes lined with crumbling 'havelis' and formidable mosques. In contrast, the imperial city of New Delhi created by the British Raj is composed of spacious, tree-lined avenues and magnificent government buildings.

Delhi has been the seat of power for several rulers and many empires for about a millennium. Many a times the city was built, destroyed and then rebuilt here. Interestingly, a number of Delhi's rulers played a dual role, first as destroyers and then as creators.

New Delhi, December 10
The Implementation Committee of The Master Plan of Delhi (MPD)-2021 today approached LG Tejendra Khanna to look into the requirement of space for warehouses, godowns and clod storages in the city.

The chairman of the committee, Ved Prakash Gupta, today wrote a letter to the LG seeking his intervention to resolve the difficulty of traders in finding space of storage, gowdowns, warehouses and coldstorage. He said as per the redevelopment plan in MPD-2021, the wholesale trade from Old Delhi markets such as Naya Bazar, Khari Baoli, Karol Bagh, Chandni Chowk, Lajpat Rai Market, etc., were supposed to be shifted to the outskirts of Delhi. The areas which were identified for the purpose included Loni Road, Rohini Phase IV and V, Dwarka and Narela sub-cities.

As per the MPD-2021, the wholesale trade may increase to about 67,000 by 2021 leading to increase in the employment to about 2,85,000 persons. The major commodities involve wholesale trade of textile and related products, food items, auto parts and machinery, hardware and building material, paper and stationary, fruits and vegetables, iron and steel, etc., said Gupta.

He said for about 20 per cent of wholesale trade enterprises are located in Walled City accounting around 12 per cent of the employment. In order to decentralise the wholesale trade, the planned markets have been developed at Azadpur, Naraina, Okhla, Narela, Keshopuram, etc.

"Delhi is a centre of commerce for the traders coming from all over the country. After notification of the MPD-2021, the storage and godowns, warehouses, cold storage, ice factories, gas godowns were supposed to be rehabilitated and the redevelopment code should have been prepared to accommodate such activities. But nothing has done," he said.

According to the economic survey of Delhi 2001-02, there are 37,000 wholesale enterprises which are providing employment to 1,60,000 persons. In addition to this, there are about 6,500 enterprises of storage and warehousing providing employment to 27,000 persons.

New Delhi, December 10
Delhiites can look forward to the usual wintry time in the next few days once the impact of the western disturbance reaches the city. The foggy spell that started last night following rain would see a break with the northwesterly winds currently blowing from Himachal Pradesh.

"The northwesterly winds coming towards Delhi and then crossing Uttar Pradesh would pull down the temperatures and the minimum would settle around 8 degrees Celsius," Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) officials said.

Today, the weather was pleasant with the mercury levels recorded at 23.4 degree Celsius for the maximum and 15.4 degrees for the minimum, 1 degree less than yesterday's low and an upward departure of 7 degrees from the average.

The dip in minimum temperature and the fog have been due to the rainfall on Thursday, gauged at 0.6 mm by the weather department. Today there was no rainfall while the relative humidity oscillated between 94 and 41 per cent respectively. Early in the morning today, the residents of the city woke up to a foggy start.

For tomorrow, IMD officials have forecast a similar weather, with mainly clear sky, mist or shallow fog in the morning and the maximum and minimum temperatures are expected to hover around 23 and 12 degree Celsius respectively. 

New Delhi, December 10
Two loaders at the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport have been arrested here after a passenger complained that his credit and debit cards had been stolen from his luggage.

The accused are Anil Tomar (19) from Madhu Vihar and Sushil Kumar Rohilla (27) of Najafgarh. They were employed through a private outsourcing company, Neha Aviation. It has been found that fake addresses were written on their 'airport entry passes' issued by the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS).

The accused were arrested after the senior manager (security), Air India, received a complaint from N Dilip. Dilip, who was travelling from Mumbai to Ranchi via Delhi, said the lock of his baggage was broken when he received it at the Ranchi airport. He claimed that his credit and debit cards were missing. Dilip had also received a SMS that informed him that a transaction worth Rs 25,000 had been done from one of his cards in Dwarka.

"The accused had assumed that Dilip would file a complaint either in Mumbai or Ranchi. However, the transaction done by them in Dwarka provided us a clue," said deputy commissioner of police (IGIA) RA Sanjeev.

The police said the accused had revealed that they used to open the chains of suitcases using a sharp-edged object. After stealing valuables, they would close the suitcases.

The accused had bought a home theatre, washing machine and a pair of shoes from the money withdrawn from Dwarka, said the DCP.

Now, the police plans to write a letter to the CISF, requesting it to ensure that airline operators keep a tab on the loaders while they are at work.

The police has asked the CISF to mark the entry and exit points for the workers where they will be frisked. 

New Delhi, December 10
An accountant of a guesthouse in Saket was arrested yesterday for allegedly using internet banking to transfer lakhs of rupees in small amounts from the firm to his own bank account since July last year.

The police arrested him after the guesthouse owner gave a bank statement which mentioned that Rs 25 lakh to Rs 30 lakh was transferred into the account of the accused.

The accused, Tirupathy Bhardwaj had been working as an accountant with "Khanna Residency" since December 2008. The guesthouse located at G-4, Saket, is owned by Kailash Chandra Khanna.

A police official said, "Khanna had gone out of Delhi for a five-day vacation. When he returned to the city yesterday, he asked Bhardwaj to give him the password of guesthouse's bank account. The accused started making excuses. This made Khanna suspicious, who then withdrew a bank statement of the guesthouse's account."

"When he was examining it, he saw that an amount of Rs 25 lakh to Rs 30 lakh was transferred into Bhardwaj's account. He reported the matter to us yesterday and we registered an FIR. Based on the bank statement, we arrested Bhardwaj from the guesthouse on the same day. He also confessed to committing the crime. Following this, we raided his residence in Ghaziabad," he said.

The police recovered several items, including one LCD television, one LED TV and a washing machine from his residence. According to the official, the items were worth Rs 10 lakh and bought by the accused from the stolen money.

As Bhardwaj was the guesthouse accountant, Khanna never learnt of his misdeeds, according to the official.

Bhardwaj was married in 2011. He lives with his wife in Ghaziabad. The official added that no other person seems to have conspired with the accused.

Ghaziabad, December 10
A man posing as a journalist was arrested along with a police constable here for allegedly blackmailing a health official by claiming that they had a CD that showed him in a compromising position with a woman, according to the police.

Ravi Shukla and constable Vinesh Kumar, posted in Agra, yesterday went to additional chief medical officer Rameshwar Dayal's residence and demanded Rs 5 lakh from him.

Rameshwar Dayal, however, called his neighbours for help, following which the duo was beaten up and later handed over to the police, SP (city) JK Shahi said, adding that the accused had confessed to their crime.

Additional chief medical officer Rameshwar Dayal, meanwhile, has denied any involvement with any woman, said the SP. — PTI

New Delhi, December 10
The Delhi police today arrested five persons for being allegedly involved in stealing silver ornaments worth Rs 1.6 crore.

The police has claimed to have seized 274 kgs of silver from their possession. Ashok Chand, Deputy Commissioner of Police, (Crime and Railways), said and added that the accused have been identified as Nawab (40), Vijay Sharma (22), Eid Mohammad (32), Umesh Kumar Saini (29) and Manoj Kumar (32).

"A consignment of silver slabs, which had come from Gujarat, was being taken to be delivered at Chandni Chowk. The accused

who were posing as policemen intercepted it near Delhi Public Library. They looted the valuables and fled the scene," said Chand.

All the five accused were arrested from Majnu-Ka-Tilla at Civil Lines on Friday on a tip-off that they would gather to dispose of the silver. Four other accused are absconding. They have been identified as Sunil Kumar, Gulab Khan, Suryanath and Brija Yadav, said Chand.

During interrogation, they told the police that Sunil Kumar was the mastermind behind the robbery and Brija Yadav, an employee of Salasar Cargo, gave the information to him about the parcel.

Six mobile phones, one Tavera car and one Indica car have been recovered from them. The rest of the looted amount is said to be with Gulab Khan and Suryanath. Nawab and Sharma are part-time property dealers, Eid owns a colouring unit where garments for export are coloured and Saini is a driver.

Their arrests came following a complaint lodged by Rajesh Puri, a resident of Patan in Gujarat, on November 27. Puri is an employee of Salasar Cargo which deals in cargo delivery at Old Delhi Railway Station.

The silver slabs had been sent from Gujarat to Delhi through Salasar Cargo. Puri in the complaint told the police that he along with his co-workers had taken delivery of six parcels containing huge quantity of silver from the parcel yard of Old Delhi Railway Station and were taking them in a handcart to an office at Cloth Market in Chandni Chowk.

New Delhi, December 10
A 55-year-old woman and her 25-year-old son allegedly committed suicide after consuming some poisonous substance at their residence in Samaypur Badli on Thursday.

Sources said that before the suicide, Manoj's wife had returned to her parent's home after an altercation with him. Following this, the woman's relatives beat up Manoj and his mother, Roshani.

According to sources, the incident took place about 4 pm on November 8. Manoj and his mother were found unconscious at home with froth coming out of their mouths. They were taken to a nursing home, where they were pronounced dead.

Sources said Manoj worked in a private factory. He stayed with his wife, mother and two children. A few days ago, he had an argument with his wife who then came to her parent's house. Thereafter on November 8, the wife's relatives bashed Manoj and Roshani.

The police is investigating the motive behind the suicides. Sources said that a suicide note was not recovered. The police is questioning the woman and her parents. 

New Delhi, December 10
Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, who was expected to be discharged from hospital this evening, will now be discharged tomorrow, according to sources.

She was admitted to Escorts Heart Institute on Monday with viral fever.

According to reports, Dikshit has been doing her official works and conducting meetings at the hospital itself.