New Delhi, April 14
Rescuers could not save a 10-year-old boy who fell into a manhole in Dwarka area of south west Delhi this morning.

According to information, Nand Kishore, a Class III student fell into a 35-feet-deep manhole in the DDA sewage pumping station in Dwarka’s Sector 7. Efforts to pull him out alive proved futile as the machine employed to pump out water broke down due to power failure. The generator kept at the plant was also found to be non-functioning. As a result, the body of Nand Kishore, who lived in the nearby Vijay Enclave, could only be recovered hours after he was dead. The body has been sent for postmortem at Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital.

According to Nand Kishore’s father Choubey Kishore Singh, an autorickshaw driver, his son accompanied his friend Rahul in the morning to deliver food package to Rahul’s uncle Sanju who works as a pump operator at the compound. Rahul and Nand Kishore study in the same school in the Palam area. Although Rahul delivered food every day, it was the first time that Nand Kishore accompanied him.

As per Sanju, the two boys after giving him food went to relieve themselves in the compound itself. However, while Rahul returned soon, Nand Kishore did not come for about ten minutes.

“Nand Kishore had fallen into a manhole and although we could not see him we heard him calling for help. We tried to pull him out ourselves, but had to call fire officials and police after we failed,” said Sanju.

He further said that the rescuers decided to dry the manhole to locate the boy. But even as the pumping machine was used to pump out water the power supply went off. “When the rescue workers were draining and pumping out the water to get down to the bottom of the manhole, the power supply went out for nearly an hour. The generator was not working either,” Sanju said.

Although, no case has been registered yet, the Dwarka police is investigating the matter. Nand Kishore was the youngest son of Choubey Kishore Singh. 

New Delhi, April 14
The dissidents who are not happy with their party’s choice of candidate in their constituency or who themselves aspire for the ticket, but do not get it, usually work towards the defeat of their own party candidate. It makes political sense and boosts their chance of getting the party ticket next time around.

However, to avoid such a scenario and expose the ‘party traitors’, several candidates contesting for the forthcoming general elections in Delhi have hired the services of professional detectives to provide proof of any anti-party activity of these leaders.

“There are people within your own party who want to sabotage your chances of winning. The need is to be wary of such people and expose them to the party high command. While we can concentrate on canvassing, professionals can deal with collecting proof against such people,” said a candidate of a national party contesting from Delhi.

He added that almost every candidate these days employs detectives to keep an eye on the rival candidates as well as on some of their so-called well-wishers.

The CEO of Secret Watch Detectives, Rahul Rai Gupta said that spending a few lakhs to keep an eye on rival candidates as well as on your own partymen does not pinch a candidate especially when his crores are at stake.

“We have three clients this election season. We charge Rs 3 to Rs 4 lakh depending upon the need. Some candidates have also asked us to spy on the rival candidates, their poll strategy and especially to catch them violating the election code of conduct,” said Gupta.

He revealed that candidates also seek their services to check out their image in a particular area and the local problems. According to Gupta, a team of about six to seven persons is deployed to work for a candidate and it does not shy away from a sting operation, if need be.

Sanjay Singh, chief of Indian Detective Agency, revealed that he has four candidates at present for whom his agency is working. Tracking the activities of rival leaders, their movement, and people in the constituency and violation of election code of conduct are part of the assignment.

“We are working 24x7 to assist our clients in all possible manners. A daily report is sent to the client about our findings,” said Singh. According to him, the fee varies from thousands to lakhs of rupees depending upon the days of services and equipment used in surveillance.

Bound by the contract to maintain utmost secrecy, Singh refrained from naming any of his clients but stressed that all the four belong to the two big national parties contesting in the country. 

New Delhi, April 14
The Delhi Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Election Campaign Committee chairperson, Vijay Kumar Malhotra, today appealed to voters to defeat the Congress with heavy margin in the coming elections.

He said the rate of inflation and unemployment had increased during the reign of Congress-led UPA government. The UPA does not have any mechanism to reduce the rate of inflation and it has no scheme to generate employment. As youths do not have jobs, they are forced to do petty crimes, he added.

Malhotra appealed to the electorate to dethrone the UPA government to control the menace.

He added prices of day-to-day commodities like — onion and sugar were rising. A few days ago onion was priced at Rs 16 per kg and the rate has shot to Rs 18 today. Likewise, sugar is being sold at Rs 23 per kg in retail market.

Malhotra further alleged the knowledge of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh about the price spiral is such that in a press conference of women journalists he admitted he did not know at what rate basic goods like — flour, pulses, fruits, vegetables, salt and oil — were being sold.

He questioned what steps would the Prime Minister take, if he did not know how much costlier food items had become. 

New Delhi, April 14
The Delhi BJP got a boost in confidence after getting back the support of dissident leader Parvesh Verma who came on board with party’s official nominee Ramesh Bidhuri, along with his Jat supporters.

The party also roped in two of its Jat MLAs — Dharam Dev Solanki and Satya Prakash Rana — to campaign for the BJP candidate from South Delhi seat. Parvesh Verma, son of former Delhi Chief Minister Saheb Singh Verma, had earlier led a rebellion with the support of the Jat community, after he was denied ticket from the seat.

The BJP, which is sensing an electoral advantage after the Congress withdrew its nominee and sitting MP Sajjan Kumar and Jagdish Tytler following the uproar over the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, had been lately struggling to sew the caste equations.

Verma said he has extended his support to the party and has appealed his supporters to rally for the party candidate.

Portraying a united house, the BJP leaders said the party candidate enjoyed support of the workers in the area.

“The Jat community holds a formidable position in the South Delhi Lok Sabha seat, which constitutes largely of the Outer Delhi areas. The community is reportedly miffed at the Congress withdrawing Sajjan Kumar out of the electoral fray,” said Verma.

Bidhuri, who hails from the Gujjar community, had earlier been facing opposition from the party MLAs from Palam —Solanki and Rana.

“Now that the party’s Jat leaders have come on the board, the party is in a formidable position to win this constituency,” said a senior BJP leader.

New Delhi, April 14
The new domestic terminal at Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport will start commercial operations from April 19, it was announced today.

Built at a cost of Rs 500 crore ($100 million), the new terminal will handle 10 million passengers annually and is equipped with 72 check-in counters, its developers said.

The terminal, called 1D, has been built by the Delhi International Airport Pvt Ltd (DIAL) — a joint venture between the state-run Airports Authority of India and a consortium led by the Bangalore-based infrastructure major GMR.

Jet Airways, Kingfisher, SpiceJet, IndiGo JetLite and Kingfisher Red are among the scheduled domestic carriers that will operate from terminal ID.

Currently, all these airlines operate from terminal 1B.

The terminal was earlier inaugurated on February 26 by union civil aviation minister Praful Patel.

The Delhi International Airport Pvt Ltd officials said hectic trials were going on before terminal 1D becomes fully operational from April 19.

Similar trials have been going on for over four months.

“Our staff from all areas of operations have been exposed to the new working environment, baggage handling, IT systems and the processes required for day-to-day operations,” said an official.

While all scheduled carriers like Air India, Kingfisher and Jet Airways will shift to the upcomi-ng T3 integrated terminal that is scheduled to be completed by the end of this fiscal, all low-cost carriers will continue to operate from 1D. — IANS

New Delhi, April 14
The Delhi police today filed a fresh charge sheet against a suspected Hizb-e-Islami militant and sought a retrial, nearly three months after he was acquitted by a court here.

Ayaz Ahmed Shah, a suspected militant, was acquitted by a city court in January after the special cell of the Delhi police failed to take necessary sanctions for charging him with waging war against the country under the Indian Penal Code and possessing explosives under the Explosive Substance Act.

In the fresh charge sheet, the police submitted to the court that it had obtained requisite sanctions in accordance with the law for the prosecution of the accused.

Taking cognisance of the charge sheet, chief metropolitan magistrate Kaveri Baweja summoned the accused before the court on May 27.

Shah, a resident of Anantnag, was arrested from a Metro station in East Delhi on January 22, 2004, by a special cell team led by inspector M.C. Sharma — who was killed in the Batla House shootout on September 19, 2008.

The police had arrested Shah allegedly while he was carrying Rs 3 lakh hawala money, and had accused him of acting on the direction of Pakistan-based Asif.

However, the court had cleared him of all charges giving him the benefit for lapses police officers committed while investigating the case.

The court, acquitting the accused, had then noted, “It appears that the officers of the special cell were not vigilant enough in procuring the required sanction and treated the present case as an ordinary one under the Arms Act and that has resulted in the lapses which are apparent on records.”

The police officers had taken the sanction from the police commissioner who is not authorised to do so. — IANS

Greater Noida, April 14
A rare and highly valuable ancient statue of Lord Buddha, made of an alloy of eight metals, has been seized by the Surajpur police late on Sunday night.

Two employees of railways were trying to sell the statue weighing about 3.75 kg for Rs 20 lakh. But officials said the statue was worth Rs 1 crore in international markets. Its value is being assessed from experts in archeology department.

The police say the two railway employees were a mere conduit for selling the smuggled goods. Circle officer police Ranjan Kumar Singh said three months ago police had learnt about a gang, which was involved in black-marketing of highly valuable ancient statues in the region. The gang used to steal art pieces from ancient temples situated in far-off southern and eastern cities and towns and would sell them off in NCR.

An informer had alerted the police on Sunday afternoon that two peddlers would try to sell an ancient Buddha statue, which was made of alloy of eight minerals near Hindustan petrol pump. Two cops were sent to the petrol pump in plain clothes from Surajpur police station as dummy customers. A bargain for Rs 20 lakh was struck with the peddlers. The policemen in mufti then called their colleagues in uniform and both the sellers were arrested and the rare and highly precious statue seized.

The statue depicts Lord Buddha sitting in a meditation pose.

The peddlers identified themselves as Hira Lal, son of Siali Ram of Nangla Dyarli and Laxman Prasad Pathak, son of Toka Ram of Nangla Bindu Bariely.

Police said Hira Lal is a railway gang man, while Laxman Prasad was a railway clerk in Hathras.

They told the police that while they were on duty, one Santosh came and told them that statue was their family possession, which had come down from his forefathers. He handed over the statue to them for selling it, promising that he would give them 50 per cent of the price at which the rare figurine was sold.

The police has sent a letter with photographs of the statue to the archeology department for assessing its price, the period of its creation and proper identity and description of the statue.

Ghaziabad, April 14
Six persons, including five of a family and the driver, were killed when a van rammed into a stationary truck on Meerut-Modipuram national highway near Daurala on Sunday.

The inmates of van were returning from Hardwar after a dip in the holy Ganga.

A woman of the family, admitted to a hospital, is in critical condition.

Members of the family, which belonged to Dasrathpur village, are waiting for their relatives from outstation before the postmortem of the bodies is conducted.

Saurabh Chand Shahu, 65, his son Sangram Singh, wife Pratibha and two kids Roshan and Roshini were from Delhi. Saurabh Chand Shahu and his wife Manjani Shahu had come to Delhi from Orissa.

Two days ago family made a programme for Ganga Isnan at Haridwar for which Sangram Singh had arranged a van from his carrier company.

The group had started in a Wagon R with driver Dilip, a resident of R.K. Puram in Delhi.

They were returning to Delhi late on Sunday night when the fateful accident took place, killing five of their members.