New Delhi, December 8
Five armed men barged into a bank in the Mayur Vihar area this afternoon and decamped with Rs 7 lakh after holding clients and bank staff hostage.

The incident took place at a Development Credit Bank branch in the New Kondli area of Mayur Vihar Phase-I.

“We are recording the statements of eyewitnesses. Police teams have been deployed around the area. There were five men and they managed to escape with Rs 7.05 lakh. A case of dacoity has been lodged,” said a senior police official from the district.

The police said four masked men barged into the bank waving weapons, while the fifth one was waiting for them. They took the bank’s security guard by surprise and disarmed him.

They then held him and others present there hostage.

“There were over 10 persons, including the bank staff at the time of incident. The robbers were carrying countrymade pistols and held everyone hostage before anyone could tip off the police,” said a police official adding that the robbers then fled with the cash. He said the incident was so fast that the staff had no time to react.

He added there was confusion among the eyewitnesses as regards to the vehicle used by the dacoits. Some said that they used a Maruti car while others said they came on bikes.

There were reportedly no CCTVs installed in the bank. A forensic team visited the bank and collected the finger prints.

The Delhi police was being assisted by the sleuths from Noida Sector-20 police station, as it is believed that the robbers could be from UP. “We are taking the assistance of Uttar Pradesh police. We have reasons to believe that the robbers escaped to UP after committing the dacoity,” said a senior police official.

Noida, December 8
Garments worth Rs 60 lakh were looted from a garment export company here on Sunday night. The company exports ladies’ garments to European countries and the USA.

The company management alleged that half a dozen bandits barged on the company premises and looted cloth rolls and readymade garments worth Rs 60 lakh. The bandits had reportedly come by a truck.

A security guard of the company is reportedly missing after the incident. The police from Sector-20 Kotwali is questioning other security guards regarding his whereabouts.

Rahul Gopal, a resident of Friends Colony in Delhi, runs a garment factory called ‘Fashion Makers’ at Sector-9 in Noida. He said two security guards— Durga Prasad and Avanish Kumar— were on duty on Sunday night. Durga Prasad had informed Gopal about the loot on phone around 8 am next day.

When Gopal reached the company he found cloth rolls and garments scattered all around. But Avanish was missing. The bandits had broken the locks on two basement gates and had committed the crime.

Durga Prasad said that he was on duty at the main gate till 4 am. Later he went for yoga practice. When he returned at 7:30 am the loot had taken place and Avanish was missing.

Rahul informed the Sector-20 police. A police team came and inspected the site. Police said half a dozen bandits had come in a truck to carry away the looted cloth and garments.

New Delhi, December 8
It is going to be a serious space crunch for weddings and other functions happening in Delhi from January 1.

With the court’s order allowing only 150 parks to hold weddings and functions, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) is in a fix to deal with the crisis.

However, the corporation is lined up with a series of bookings for weddings till March. It has thus started hunting for space in its various wards and zones.

“We have written letters to our councillors to send us a list of abandoned sites or places which are not being used in their wards, so that we can use them as alternative venues for the functions. This can either be some old public convenience or school,” said one senior MCD officer.

Currently, the MCD has 675 parks which are function sites out of the total 14,000 parks spread across Delhi.

“Earlier we had one community center in almost every ward. But after election due to the delimitation of zones and wards, the concentration was disturbed. Now there are some wards where we have more than two community centers, while some don’t even have one,” said the officer.

The MCD has also increased its booking rates from Rs 5,000 per function to Rs 30,000 per function. Besides that other charges like fine amount, cleaning charges and security deposits were also raised.

The MCD has a total of 675 parks under its jurisdiction.

New Delhi, December 8
The Delhi government has decided to levy value added tax (VAT) on commodities of daily use and direct-to-home (DTH) cable.

At a recently held cabinet meeting, the Delhi government decided to levy 5 per cent VAT on 176 consumer goods. Further, according to sources, the cabinet has decided to levy Rs 20 per DTH connection as tax.

A resolution in this regard was tabled before the cabinet by the minister concerned. The cabinet has decided to table the resolution before the Assembly during the winter session which begins on Wednesday.

Once the new tax is enforced, tea bags of Rs 260 per kg will be available for Rs 275 and 50 paisa will be raised on each stationery goods. As far as the rate of brick is concerned, it depends on the area.

In protest against the move, the Delhi unit of the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) held dharna at Lahori Gate Chowk near Chawri Bazar today. They tied black strap and placed black placards at their business establishments. The trading community has warned of strike if the resolution is tabled before the House.

Preferring anonymity, a senior officer of the revenue department said the hike would hardly add to the revenue of the government. It is estimated that the hiked taxes would merely give Rs 10 crore extra to the state exchequer.

The officer added that if the government operated the sales tax department tightly, it could generate hundreds of crores of rupees. At present, the sales tax department generates Rs 1,000 crore per annum.

According to sources, the hiked tax would be levied on items like tea, stationery, hardware items, tyres, handpumps, spare parts, vegetable oils, ayurvedic products and allopathic medicines, medical instruments, IT equipment, agricultural equipment, cycle rickshaws, bricks, syringes, fried and roasted gram, hosiery goods, computers, kerosene, PVC pipes, plastic sleepers, dairy products, calendars, readymade garments and matchsticks.

New Delhi, December 8
On international Girl Child Day of South Asian countries today, top census officer revealed that proper conclusions could not be derived out of trends of sex ratio as families do not reveal correct information about girls.

“As per the figures, most states have sex ratio of fewer than 800 girls on 1,000 boys between the age group of 15 and 19,” said C.Chandramoili, registrar general and consensus commissioner of India.

He said the trend could be seen because families do not give information about girls in that age group and women over the age of 60 years.

The registrar general was part of the panel discussing “Status of girl child in India”, organised by Women’s Coalition Trust at the India International Centre.

Chandramoili appealed to people not to hide information about girls in the 2011 census.

The panel took note of the worst sex ratio maintained by Haryana and Punjab in consequent census.

“Though Haryana tops the list with worst sex ratio, Punjab is not far behind,” said Sandhya Bajaj, member National Commission for Protection of Child Rights.

She added certain traditions in the state were anti-women and people still believed that birth of a girl was not to be celebrated. Mothers are pressurised to give birth to sons and this pushes them towards the sex determination clinics.

Acknowledging government’s efforts to formulate policies to support girls like Laadli scheme, she said more packages should be formulated making sure that they were accessible to the people.

One problem that Bajaj highlighted was the three commissions—National Women’s Commission, National Human Rights Commission and NCPR had to play proactive role in addressing cases of violation of rights of girl child.

“As there is no specific commission for girl children, there is confusion between the three commissions on registering cases,” she said.

Convener of Women’s Coalition Trust Razia Ismail Abbasi said the government had decided to declare January 24 as the National Day for Girl Children.

Explaining that the future of female population in India rested on ensuring the rights of girl child, Razia said “Four of every 10 Indian are children. It follows that about four of every 10 females could also be these four girl children whom we are recognising today.”

In calls recorded by Childline in 83 cities, boys outnumber girl callers by almost double and of these girls seeking help, 37 per cent ask for emotional guidance.

Razia said it needed more than starting helplines to save girls.

New Delhi, December 8
A Delhi court today came to the rescue of a woman, who accused her husband of cruelty, by ordering him to pay her maintenance under the Domestic Violence Act.

The woman tried to prove her charge by showing the photographs of her husband with different women, including those in Russia. Metropolitan magistrate (MM) Twinkle Wadhwa said, “Complainant has been able to prove that her husband had treated her with cruelty. She has further proved that her husband had relations with other women outside wedlock.”

“Moreover, the fact that her husband had neglected to maintain her despite the fact that he earns lakhs of rupees is also proved correct,” the magistrate added.

Presuming the income of husband, who runs an engineering works factory, at Rs 1 lakh per month, the court awarded maintenance of Rs 20,000 to the woman who has two sons of 18 and 16 years of age following their marriage in 1988.

Meanwhile, the husband denied the charges relating to his relations with other women, claiming that the photographs produced by his wife were quite old and had been taken when he visited Russia which has a very open society, he said.

In her complaint under the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, the woman alleged he had refused to maintain her for the last one and a half years and instead demanded Rs 50 lakh from her for staying at the matrimonial home.

The woman claimed her husband maintained a fleet of luxury cars, including Tata Safari and Maruti SX4. The husband, on the other hand, claimed he was giving Rs 2,000 and Rs 500 weekly to his elder and younger son respectively. He also said his business was not doing well due to recession.

The court, while ordering maintenance to the woman, also directed the husband not to evict her from the house.

Noida, December 8
A gang of carjackers has been busted by the Noida police after an encounter yesterday in Sector-63.

According to SP City, four cars, Maruti Zen, Santro, Indica and Maruti-800 and three bikes, three mobile phones and three countrymade pistols were recovered from the accused.

“Once their car entered our district around 2.25 am, we started tracking it. After a brief shootout, we managed to catch the four of them,” said A.K. Tripathi, SP Noida (City).

According to police, the gang was involved in 21 incidents of attempt to murder, loot and car thefts in Noida, Delhi, Ghaziabad and Aligarh.

The accused have been identified as Ankit, the gang leader and resident of Bulandshahr, Mahesh of Khurja, Akhilesh of Aligarh and Ashok Kumar of Delhi.

“The gang had a unique modus operandi as they stole cars only when they had confirmed a buyer and taken the advance. This also means they were very particular about the type and model of car that they planned to steal. The gang was so organised that it had two agents who used to look for clients in states like West Bengal, Assam, Rajasthan and Punjab,” said Tripathi.

“Ankit, son of a senior CISF officer posted in West Bengal, has cases under sections 307, 379 and 394 registered against him in Khurja. Earlier, he was booked under the Gangster Act in Sector-58,” said SSP AK Singh.

The police said the fifth accused, sharpshooter Harendra who was Ankit’s aide, managed to flee.

“The gang mostly snatched cars after hiring them from a transport firm or after taking lift from unsuspecting drivers. Sometimes they also used to intercept vehicles by putting a bike in the middle of the road,” the SSP added.