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Buddha Park rape case
B’day bash turns sour; cash, jewellery worth Rs 5 lakh robbed
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Rs 1-cr medicines seized, 5 held
Rs 20 lakh snatched from trader outside bank
7 more fall victim to swine flu
Govt agencies owe Rs 800 cr to MCD
City to use new technology to check pollution
Rs 2.3 m for mishap victim’s family
Woman delivers in front of health centre
Rajnath warns govt over spiralling prices
Mewat samiti members court arrest against police atrocities
Vikaspuri, Okhla bypoll in Sept
Light showers cheer Delhiites
Three banquet halls razed
Contract killer held
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Buddha Park rape case
New Delhi, August 17 Harpreet Singh and Satender Singh were found guilty of raping a 17-year-old student of a Delhi University college while Kuldeep Singh and Manish Kumar were convicted for helping them in commission of the offence. Additional sessions judge S.K. Sarvaria announced the date of hearing on the quantum of sentence against the accused for August 22. The four have been found guilty under Sections 394 (robbery), 366 (kidnapping) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code. However, Harpreet and Satender have also been convicted for gang rape under Section 376(2)(g) of the IPC. The victim who had gone with her friend Ashish to the park near Rashtrapati Bhavan on October 6, 2003, was raped by Harpreet and Satender while the other two accused Kuldeep and Manish kept a watch. The prosecution, which examined 25 witnesses to establish the rape charge, said the accused had raped the victim when she had gone there with her friend for sight-seeing. The four first roughed up the girl’s friend and then took her to a secluded place inside the park where they raped her, the prosecution alleged. Then President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam had lost his cool when he got to know about the rape case. “Kalam, normally composed, was more angry than I had ever seen him,” writes P.M. Nair, his then secretary, in his book ‘The Kalam Effect’. Ranbir Sharma, counsel for Harpreet expressed displeasure to the court’s findings and said: “The evidences were planted and all the recovery of the articles such as the girl’s handkerchief and a doll, that was recovered two days after the incident were never admitted by the victim.” Maninder Singh, advocate appearing for Manish said: “He was not at all involved in the case directly and the case was based on the test identification parade (TIP) where the victim failed to identify my client and this is why he was not convicted under rape charges.”
— IANS |
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B’day bash turns sour; cash, jewellery worth Rs 5 lakh robbed
New Delhi, August 17 According to information, the heist took place at Surender Dadwal’s house at around 10:30 pm when the party was in full swing and guests were still in the house. Dadwal’s family said five armed men walked into the house and demanded Rs 50 lakh from the businessman. But when he said it was not possible to pay that much at that time they manhandled some of his family members. “They barged in and pointing gun towards Sandhya, the birthday girl, they demanded Rs 50 lakh. When denied, the robbers manhandled the hosts and guests. Later they managed to get away with cash and jewellery worth Rs 5 lakh,” said a police official quoting the victim. He added the men had pulled masks on their heads and after huddling the people in one room at gunpoint, they ransacked the whole house. After collecting the loot, the robbers locked the people in the room and took away their mobile phones so that they could not inform the police about the incident. The police was informed at around 11 pm. A case of robbery has been lodged at Vivek Vihar police station. A senior police official said the fact that the robbers demanded Rs 50 lakh straightaway points that they had prior information about the money in the house. “You do not expect somebody keeping Rs 50 lakh in his house. Surely, somebody tipped the robbers about this. We are questioning people close to the family,” the police official added. |
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Rs 1-cr medicines seized, 5 held
New Delhi, August 17 The police said the gang specialised in committing robberies at gunpoint and had recently looted a truck containing medicines worth over Rs 1 crore from Delhi Cantt. The accused have been identified as Salim (52), Rakesh (27), Ravi (35), Brahamchari (45) and Netrapal (46). They have admitted to have robbed medicines worth Rs 1 crore loaded in a truck a week ago in Delhi Cantt. The police seized the medicines from a godown in Laxmi Nagar. “We were informed that members of the gang would come in a truck from GT Karnal Road to Sanjay Gandhi Transport Nagar on August 15. A police team intercepted a truck at Transport Nagar. Five persons in the truck fired at the police and tried to flee, but all were caught,” said DCP Neeraj Thakur. Two countrymade pistols and live cartridges were also seized, he added. He added the gang used to select the target, which was either a godown or a moving truck containing consumer goods like soaps, medicine. “After committing the robbery, the articles were hidden at rooms hired in outer areas of Delhi. The gang leader, Saleem, then searched for suitable receivers for the robbed articles,” Thakur said. The medicines were dispatched to towns in UP for sale. Other consumer articles were sold by organising “clearance sales” in Delhi and NCR. |
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Rs 20 lakh snatched from trader outside bank
New Delhi, August 17 According to information, the incident took place just outside Vijay Bank in Savitri Plaza Complex, where the victim, Mohammad Arif, had encashed a cheque of Rs 20 lakh, and was on his way to his parked car. “Arif had withdrawn Rs 20 lakh when three armed men snatched the money bag from his hands and ran away. The incident took place almost on the bank premises when Arif came down from the first floor of the bank and was on his way to his car,” said the police. According to reports, the robbers, after snatching the bag, ran away from the spot, but after running some distance, robbed a motorcycle and sped off on it. According to the police, Arif resides in Hapur and supplies meat to Shahibad and other areas of Ghaziabad and Delhi. He had withdrawn such a large amount because he had to distribute money to his suppliers. According to the police, the robbers, on gunpoint, snatched motorcycle of a passerby named Kuldeep. In his statement to the police, Kuldeep said the men were in their mid-20s and that he could recognise at least one of them. A case of robbery has been lodged at the Mandawali police station and investigation in the matter is on. At least five incidents of robbery outside banks have been reported in east Delhi area in the past two months. |
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7 more fall victim to swine flu
New Delhi, August 17 Nodal officer Anjana Prakash said five patients have been admitted to the RML Hospital, of which two are schoolchildren. The other two have been admitted to the Lady Harding Hospital. However, 11 cases were reported on Sunday, of which 10 were indigenous ones and one is of a 14-year-old boy who has returned from Britain. Three schoolchildren were also tested positive yesterday. “Two patients were discharged yesterday. Presently, 10 persons are undergoing treatment here, five were admitted yesterday and five today,” said RML Hospital MS Dr N.K. Chaturvedi. “Overall there has been a considerable reduction in the number of patients turning up at our counselling centres and panic seems to have abated quite a bit,” he added. Meanwhile, a couple of schools that had shut for a week as a precautionary measure opened today. |
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Govt agencies owe Rs 800 cr to MCD
New Delhi, August 17 The other government bodies with outstanding payment of property tax amounting to crores are Delhi Transco, which has to pay around Rs 1.82 crore; Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) has Rs 5.25 crore pending on its name; Sports Authority of India has Rs 3.24 crore; Indian Habitat Centre, Rs 1.12 crore; MTNL, Rs 1.53 crore; and Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) has a pending amount of Rs 2.12 crore. The tax collection in the MCD has already fallen Rs 400 crore short of target in the previous fiscal year, that is 2008-09. The civic body earned Rs 1063.73 crore in revenue from property tax in 2008-09 against the target of Rs 1462.09 crore. “We are contemplating various measures to bring more properties under the tax net and identify evaders,” said Delhi Mayor Kanwar Sain. While there are some 25 lakh properties in the city, only 8.5 lakh are paying the property tax, said a senior MCD official. “The corporation adopted an amnesty scheme under which taxpayers evading tax since the introduction of new unit area method five years ago will get waiver of penalty and interest if they pay the total amount due from April 1, 2004 by October 31 this year,” he said. However, even after making several attempts of promising a slew of rebates for Delhi residents who have been evading the payment of property tax, the civic body has been unable to increase the revenue and the number of tax payers in the last few years. Some people have made allegations that they have been charged extra money by some civic body staff as they were paying in cash. The MCD officials said that they are now conducting a survey to identify the number of people who have not paid their property tax and the number of properties under its jurisdiction. |
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Commuters suffer as autos go off road
New Delhi, August 17 Passengers were seen at Old and New Delhi railways stations looking for autos. When they came to know that auto drivers were on strike, they hired taxis at exorbitant rates. The same was the condition at airport. At ISBT Kashmiri Gate, Navin kumar had to board a bus to Mayur Vihar after he waited for half an hour looking for an auto. Yoginder, a Blueline bus driver on route number 405 from Badarpur to Old Delhi railway station, said that today was a lucky day for him as passengers were in large numbers at every bus stop. All the buses were almost packed. Metro rails of all routes were also seen packed. The strike call was given by Bhartiya Tipahiya Chalak Sangh, autorickshaw union, Jai Hind Auto Driver Union and a few others. They were demanding from the government to reduce the challan amount. Transport officials should not ask for bribe while issuing fitness certificates and other documents. The transport cell dealing with the autorickshaw drivers is closed due to lack of staff. It should be opened immediately, demanded the unions. Meanwhile, a meeting called by the Delhi government to settle the matter could not take place as transport minister Arvinder Singh Lovely was busy. Chairman of all Delhi Auto Federation, Ratan said, “We went to meet transport minister Arvinder Singh Lovely. But he was busy and could not spare time for us. Tomorrow we will be on strike again. Now we will not go to him until he calls us,” Rattan added. He said that if an autorickshaw driver has left his licence at home by mistake, he has to pay a fine of Rs 20,000. This is not fair. There are 55,000 autos registered in Delhi and they all have licences and other documents. If once they forget to carry the documents, they should not be fined so heavily, he said. |
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City to use new technology to check pollution
New Delhi, August 17 “Our government is committed to develop pollution-free transport system in Delhi. Remote sensing technology is a world-class technology which measures pollution from all type of vehicles like petrol, diesel, CNG and LPG with 100 per cent accuracy through ultra-violet and ultra-sonic rays,” said Delhi transport minister Arvinder Singh Lovely. The transport department demonstrated the new technology near Chandgi Ram Akhara (Ring Road). Apart from Lovely, transport commissioner R.K. Verma and other senior officials of the department were present. “This technology neither requires a particular vehicle to be stopped or slowed down nor requires a physical connection to exhaust pipe to measure pollution level in it,” he added. Lovely said the remote sensing technology measures HC (hydro-carbon), CO (Carbon-Monoxide), CO2 and NOx emitted from individual vehicles running on the road. “In addition to pollution levels, vehicle speed and vehicles picture is also recorded in the computer system,” the minister said. He added, “The picture of vehicles would also help the department in keeping a check on vehicles overloaded with passengers or goods.”
— IANS |
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Rs 2.3 m for mishap victim’s family
New Delhi, August 17 Ashok Pant, who was a chef working with the Taj Group of Hotels in Japan, was travelling in an auto-rickshaw with his wife when an air force vehicle hit them on September 9, 1998. Ashok succumbed to injuries on September 17, 1998, at the AIIMS. Justice J.R. Midha enhanced a lower court’s compensation of Rs 1 million to Rs 2.3 million and said: “The future prospects of the deceased should be taken into consideration while assessing compensation for the family.”
— IANS |
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Woman delivers in front of health centre
Ghaziabad, August 17 The community centre had referred the woman to district hospital, where doctors sent her back to health centre. In this process, precious time had been wasted. However, the baby delivered in the open was promptly picked up by a health official who got her admitted to the hospital. Allauddin of village Sanauli in Muradnagar took his wife Shabnam for delivery to the health centre on Sunday afternoon. According to Allauddin, there was no doctor in the health centre at that time. The staff nurse referred Shabnam to district hospital saying she was anaemic. But there also, doctors did not admit her and sent her back to health centre. As Allauddin reached the health centre, Shabanam’s birth pangs started and she had to deliver the child in the open just in front of the health centre. The delivery of the girl in this manner sent the medical staff into a tizzy. Health official Pushpa Devi promptly picked up the newborn baby and admitted the mother and child to the health centre. Locals said this was not the first such incident as many children had been delivered in the health centre’s compound earlier. Dr Sanjay Agarwal, incharge of the Community Health Centre, Muradnagar, defended sending Shabanam to district hospital as she was anaemic. |
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Rajnath warns govt over spiralling prices
New Delhi, August 17 The government is being run by an economist Prime Minister but the economy is not improving at all. Agricultural production is not increasing. Industries are being shut down and people are being rendered jobless. The economy has lost its internal strength, he said. Addressing party workers who had gathered to protest against the rising inflation, Singh said people should not expect any development in such a situation. He added the price spiral that the common man was facing today had not been experienced for the past several decades. Rajnath claimed during Atal Behari Vajpayee government essential commodities were available in sufficient quantity at lower prices. He warned if the government did not take steps to control rising prices, the BJP would start a nation-wide movement against the Congress-led government. BJP national general secretary Arun Jaitly alleged the cause of rising inflation was the present government’s directionless economic policy. He added if the government did not connect its economic policies with common people, it would be difficult to control both inflation and recession. Delhi BJP president Om Prakash Kohli said that installing counters for selling pulses on control rates was nothing but a drama of the Delhi government to control the prices. The government has installed 80 counters for selling pulses at control rate. |
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Mewat samiti members court arrest against police atrocities
Mewat, August 17 The Haryana police had offered to send them to a government rest house, but they asked the police to take them to Bhondsi Jail in Gurgaon like a common man. A large demonstration was orgainsed in front of the deputy commissioner office, here, by members of all communities of Mewat against alleged police atrocities. On August 2, the Haryana police had mercilessly beaten up women at Badkli Chowk in Mewat, and when the local people resisted the beatings, an altercation broke out between them and the police, after which, police force from the entire Mewat district had gathered at Badkali Chowk. The police then lathicharged everyone present there and dragged out people from their houses and shops. Several women, children and shopkeepers had sustained injuries in the incident. Further, to add salt to the wounds, the police registered a case against innocent people and even chargesheeted them. Later, in a panchayat held on August 13, it was unanimously demanded that the case against innocent people be withdrawn and an FIR should be lodged against erring officials of the Haryana police. A memorandum in this regard was also handed over to the Governor of Haryana. It was also decided that if their demands were not met, members of the Mewat Sangarsh Samiti would court arrest and would remain in Bhondsi Jail till the innocent people were also freed. The members claimed that the police first asked the eleven arrested persons to fill bail bonds. But they refused to do so, and insisted on being sent to jail. However, in the evening, the police left them at Jail Complex in the outskirts of Mewat and Gurgaon and went away saying they have been discharged. The Samiti has now decided that from tomorrow onwards the demonstration would be held more strongly and 22 people would court arrest tomorrow. There is huge anger among the people of Mewat against the alleged atrocities by the Haryana police. In a similar way, the Haryana police had earlier also beaten up villagers in Alawalpur village of Mewat as well as at Jama Masjid in Gurgaon. None of the officials was available for comment. |
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Vikaspuri, Okhla bypoll in Sept
New Delhi, August 17 The seats fell vacant after Vikaspuri MLA Mahabal Mishra was elected as Lok Sabha MP from West Delhi and Parvez Hashmi from Okhla was elected to the Rajya Sabha. Election Commission spokesman said nominations for Vikaspuri seat would be held on August 24, scrutiny of nomination papers on August 25 and withdrawal of candidature on August 27. As far as Okhla is concerned notification will be held on August 21, nominations on August 28, scrutiny on August 29 and withdrawal of candidature on August 31. The code of conduct has come into force from today in both the assembly constituencies. It will be applicable on all candidates irrespective of political parties, state government and governments, he informed. |
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Light showers cheer Delhiites
New Delhi, August 17 The sky remained partly cloudy, however, the sun continued to play hide-and-seek bringing down the overall temperature. Delhi received 1.7 mm rainfall till 5.30 pm, bringing down the maximum temperature to 31.6 degrees . The minimum temperature was recorded at 25.0 degrees. “The Capital may receive more rains during the week and skies will remain cloudy. The maximum and minimum temperatures will settle below the average tomorrow,” predicted weathermen. |
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Three banquet halls razed
Ghaziabad, August 17 According to information, Moti Goel is accused of violating law by using the residential land for commercial purposes. Hence, an anti- encroachment action had been taken. However, Sanjay Tiwari, manager of Moti Goel’s company, said the government had not sent any notice, thus, it was a unilateral action. The anti-encroachment squad of the Avas Vikas Parishad and a posse of the police under Additional City Magistrate Prem Prakash had reached Vasundhra, Sector-8. Police circle officer Rahul Srivastava led the Indira Nagar Kotwali police team, which was part of the squad. Six bulldozers were used to demolish the structures. Prem Prakash said Moti Goel had occupied nearly 4-acre (16,000 sq mt) land of the Avas Vikas Parishad that was lying vacant at Vasundhra, Sector-8. A portion of the land had been allotted to Moti Goel for constructing residential buildings, but he had encroached upon the parishad’s land too. The authorities had been receiving complaints that the company was illegally encroaching upon the land that were later found correct. Additional residential commissioner Vimal Kumar Sharma and executive engineer of Avas Vikas Parishad EK Jain also reached the site. |
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Contract killer held
New Delhi, August 17 According to Alok Kumar, DCP (special cell), Raju was held yesterday from near Escort Hospital in south Delhi.
— TNS |
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