New Delhi, December 10
Even as senior leaders of the Aam Aadmi Party defended the newly elected legislator Dharmender Singh Koli who is charged with molestation and rioting in Seemapuri constituency, the party today instructed its winning candidates and volunteers not to go overboard in celebrations and keep it a simple affair.

Also, following an assessment of its poll performance in the wake of a prevailing uncertainty over the formation of the next Delhi Assembly, the party is going to send a request to the Election Commission tomorrow for removing certain election symbols from the list which have a close resemblance to broom.

The basis lies in their argument that certain poll symbols displayed in black and white print such as torch and bat had a striking resemblance with AAP's election sign broom and voters might have missed it, reasoned senior party leaders.

In the matter of AAP's youngest winning candidate Dharmender (25) against whom allegations were levelled yesterday by the wife of the former three-time Congress MLA Veer Singh Jhingan, the party which considers "aam aadmi" its strength has made it clear to all its workers that victory celebration should be kept simple and they should refrain from bursting crackers.

The issue was discussed in a meeting today by the AAP's political affairs committee following which senior party leaders have rubbished all charges as the result of 'political vendetta'.

"It is nothing but attempts to malign image of our candidates whom people have elected as their representatives. It is a political conspiracy. We have conveyed the message of the Aam Aadmi Party to all our workers," said Manish.

The incident occurred when the AAP winning candidate and his supporters burst crackers during a victory march in the Tahirpur area. Apparently supporters of both the AAP and Congress clashed in Tahirpur close to the Dhinghan's residence while both sides accused each other of inciting violence.

"We carried out a victory procession through several localities such as Seemapuri, Gopulpuri and got to know about this later. The quarrel had happened in the daytime and this is one that has come as an afterthought in the evening when the FIR was filed. They have lost and out of frustration have resorted to this dirty game," said Abid, Dharmendra's campaign manager.

The party which has made a spectacular debut in Delhi is currently engaged in the poll performance analysis like the Congress and BJP in the wake of the hung verdict.

New Delhi, December 10
Stung by the massive defeat, Congress' Delhi unit chief J P Agarwal today said the party would analyse the reasons for the debacle, but refused to respond to criticism by Sheila Dikshit who has accused him of not backing her fully in the polls.

Agarwal, who is not known to have a good equation with the outgoing Chief Minister, said the nature of defeat was "totally unexpected" which will be thoroughly examined by the party.

"Dikshit is a senior and respected leader of the party," said Agarwal when asked about Dikshit's comment yesterday that he did not back her fully in the elections.

Giving reasons for the defeat, she had also said that the party was not active and that there was lack of coordination between it and the government in Delhi.

Asked if she was blaming Agarwal, she had responded tersely, "Well, if I am head of the government, I have to take that responsibility," suggesting that the DPCC chief should do the same. "I don't think so," she had replied when asked if Agarwal was fully with her.

When asked if this was deliberate, Dikshit said, "I would not like to assume these things. But yes, I think there should have been a little more activity (on the part of the party unit)."

The Congress faced a humiliating defeat in the polls, winning only eight seats in the 70-member assembly which was way behind BJP's 31 and newcomer Aam Aadmi Party's 28.

Dikshit herself faced an ignominious defeat in the New Delhi constituency by a huge margin of over 25,000 votes at the hands of Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal.

New Delhi, December 10
A man working for the Indian Army has been arrested by the Delhi Police for allegedly selling cheap liquor at high rates by sticking labels of the canteen on them, in central Delhi's Anand Parbat area on Sunday night.

The accused has been identified as Lal Babu, who works for the Army's Military Engineers Services (MES) as a pump operator.

He lives with his family at the military residential quarters in Anand Parbat.

The police were tipped off that Babu had been selling liquor illegally for the past many years. Investigators believe that there could be more persons involved in this racket.

According to the police, Babu would allegedly procure liquor bottles from Punjab and Haryana and stick the Canteen Stores Department (CSD) labels on them. The labels mentioned- 'Not for sale'. He would then allegedly sell the bottles at high rates. The police seized several such labels from him. They suspect that he may have arranged it from a local market.

Babu allegedly disclosed to the police that he was provided a room on the army premises at Anand Parbat. He allegedly stored the liquor bottles in that room after procuring them from Punjab and Haryana.

"Observing that the elections would be the perfect time to earn fast money, Babu stored the bottles in his room in a large quantity. He would stick the CSD labels on them so that he could show that they are of high value, because only army personnel can buy liquor from the CSD," said a police officer. 

New Delhi, December 10
An 18-year-old boy was shot dead while his two friends were attacked by five unknown assailants in the Seelampur area last night. According to the police, the incident took place at 9.30 pm near a gurdwara in G-Block of Seelampur.

The teenager, Zishan, was returning home with his friends Raju and Ramiz, when they were accosted by five men.

"Zishan was having an argument with the assailants. It turned ugly and one of them took out a pistol and fired at him," said a police officer.

Zishan suffered a bullet wound in his abdomen and fell to the ground. His friends intervened, but were thrashed by the accused. A passerby informed the police and the assailants then fled the site of the incident.

The police took the victims to Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital in Shahdara, where doctors declared Zishan dead. His friends were discharged after the treatment.

The police suspect that Azhar, who is a resident of Seelampur, could be behind the murder.

"About two days ago, Azahar had threatened Zishan with dire consequence. We are conducting raids to find him," said the officer.

In another incident, a 25-year-old man was shot at by motorcycle-borne assailant in Nand Nagri this morning.

The victim has been identified as Mahender, who works as a driver. He has been admitted to a government hospital.

"Mahender was walking when a motorcyclist came near him in Nand Nagri. Before Mahender could understand what was happening, the biker opened fire at him. He suffered a bullet injury in his leg. The assailant fled from the spot," said another police officer.

A case of attempt to murder has been registered in regard to the incident and the police have begun investigations.

New Delhi, December 10
The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) will start trial runs on the first section of Phase III, between Central Secretariat and Mandi House from December 30, said senior Metro officials.

DMRC workers seen at a Metro station under construction in New Delhi on Tuesday. Tribune photo: Manas Ranjan Bhui

The construction work for this 3-km underground stretch which is part of the Central Secretariat-Kashmere Gate Metro Line is almost complete and is expected to be opened for commuters by end of March 2014 after trials.

"The trail runs are expected to continue for a couple of months. The opening of this stretch has been advanced by about six months as this stretch will help a lot in decongesting the busy Rajiv Chowk Metro Station as the commuters of the Badarpur-Central Secretariat Line bound for NOIDA and Vaishali will be able to change trains at Mandi House without changing them twice at Central Secretariat and Rajiv Chowk," said a DMRC spokesperson.

The commissioning of this section before the scheduled date will benefit the public in a major way and ease pressure on Rajiv Chowk. This section will provide interchange facility at two stations - Central Secretariat and Mandi House.

"Civil engineering, track fitting, electrification, signalling and telecommunication works are in an advanced stage of completion and in view of the fast pace of construction of the DMRC, the managing director, DMRC, Mangu Singh has decided to start trial runs by December 30 with the intention of opening this section for the public use by March 2014 which is six months ahead of the original planned date of October 2014," he said.

The Mandi House station will be the first interchange station of Phase-III. It is currently being expanded to cater to the additional passengers who will use the station after the commissioning of this corridor. Approximately, 70,000 new passengers are expected to use the station by the year 2016.

During the trial runs, the interaction of the Metro train with physical infringements (civil structure) will be checked to ensure that there is no physical blockage during the movement of the train on the track. The entire signalling system will also undergo rigorous testing.

New Delhi, December 10
In a bid to instil values in students, the Central Board of Secondary Education has come together with Ramakrishna Mission, founded by Swami Vivekananda to initiate Value Education Programme for classes VII, VIII and IX. This initiative--"The Awakened Citizen Program" is marked as part of Swami Vivekananda's 150th Birth Anniversary celebrations.

The mission is developed as a comprehensive three-year programme based on Swami Vivekananda's message of infinite potential in every individual. Value education in context to CBSE refers to explicit formulations of the ways in which students are expected to be changed by the modern educative process.

The programme consists of 48 sessions of 45 minutes each. Ramakrishna Mission will train the teachers nominated by their schools for this purpose and facilitate them with every tool and material required during the training period. In the first year, 700 teachers from about 350 CBSEschools in Delhi and NCR will be oriented followed by similar batches in subsequent years.

New Delhi, December 10
Digging deeper into the Maruti Suzuki job racket, the Delhi Police have arrested three more men, including two Nigerians, who allegedly cheated people on the promise of giving them employment in the company in return for a security deposit.

The three men have been identified as Ndubuisi Charles (28), Chinedu Cyprial (24), both Nigerians and alleged masterminds of the racket and Satpal (26). They were caught by the Crime Branch.

A total of 12 persons, including the three men, have been arrested for their alleged involvement in the racket.

"The others are a distributor of TATA Company, sales executives of Tata and Vodafone companies and retailers of mobile phone SIM cards," said Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime) Ravindra Yadav.

In November, the Crime Branch had arrested nine persons, including the distributor of TATA and the sales executives.

According to Yadav, the accused had allegedly cheated people who had applied for jobs and uploaded their resumes on the employment websites, 'naukri.com' and 'monster.com'. These people had received emails with the subject 'Maruti Suzuki Interview Call'. They were lured for the post of engineer and executive manager for the salaries ranging from Rs 50,000 to Rs 4 lakh per month.

The victims were also told by the accused that the company is recruiting people for its plants in Pune, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad and Mumbai. They were informed about an interview at the company's HR office at Nelson Mandela Road in Vasant Kunj on June 2 this year. The victims were further told that their offer letters and air tickets would be sent through courier.

"Through email, the victims were asked to deposit a refundable security of Rs 15,990 in favour of the company's HRD Accountant's name through a State Bank of India branch. Later, they learnt that they have been cheated as they didn't receive the job-offer emails," said Yadav.