New Delhi, December 18
A senior Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer was arrested from Lucknow (UP) for allegedly duping several women by marrying them for dowry and then mistreating, beating and divorcing them.

The arrest came after a Delhi girl, who was married to the officer, registered a case against him at the Bharat Nagar police station in north-west Delhi.

According to the police, Pramod Kumar Bajaj, additional director, Regional Training Institute of Direct Taxes, Gomti Nagar, Lucknow, was arrested yesterday afternoon and was today sent to judicial custody.

The case was registered on the compliant of Rakhi Gupta, a resident of Ashok Vihar, who alleged that Bajaj approached her through a matrimonial website, and after their marriage in December last year, constantly tortured her and kept her under house arrest till she agreed to divorce him. She further alleged that Bajaj had married her for dowry and gifts and wanted her to let him go so that he could marry someone else.

“Pramod Bajaj has ruined lives of many innocent girls by marrying them and forcing them to leave him. He has also misused his official position in order to achieve his objectives,” said deputy commissioner of police (north-west Delhi) N.S. Bundela.

“He used to keep all gifts and jewellery brought by the brides. When the girls’ families tried to seek justice, he using his position would lodge false cases against them and would get income tax raids conducted at their houses,” Bundela added.

According to information, Bajaj contacted Rakhi after seeing her profile on matrimonial site Jeevansathi.com.

“He misrepresented his date of birth and marital status. He kept on calling the complainant on her mobile phone and finally succeeded in getting her consent for marriage,” said Bundela.

After marriage, Bajaj took Gupta to his government accommodation in Malabar Hills at Mumbai and started harassing her for more dowry.

“Bajaj also locked her up in the house. Subsequently, Gupta came to know that Bajaj had wives and children from previous marriages. When she questioned Bajaj, he manhandled her and threw her out of his house,” the officer said.

The police is trying to ascertain the number of women he has cheated. At least two such cases has come to police’s notice as of now. 

New Delhi, December 18
Good news for all animal lovers as the Delhi High Court on Friday ordered setting up of separate zones in the Capital where people can go and feed stray dogs.

Justice V.K. Jain passed the order for the Animal Welfare Board while hearing the petitions of people who sought protection from their neighbours who allegedly abused and assaulted them for feeding stray dogs in their localities.

The court also directed the Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs) and the Delhi police to cooperate for creating special zones for stray animals.

Meera Bhatia, standing counsel for the Delhi police, informed the court that the police station in charge of the area concerned would help the animal welfare board to find a suitable place for stray dogs in the area.

The court also directed the board to take care of the dogs and give them proper vaccination on regular basis and asked it to file a compliance report by February 4, the next date of hearing.

One of the petitioners, Namrata Chanda, earlier this year had sought a direction for security to her as some of her neighbours had allegedly assaulted her for feeding dogs. She claimed that being an animal rights activist, she also regularly insured vaccination and sterilization of stray dogs as per the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act.

Jasmine Damkewala, a lawyer, who was also one of the victims of neighbours’ assault, also moved the court seeking protection. She said, “Many dog-loving citizens have come forward to file their complaints as they face resentment from every quarter for feeding dogs. Even the NGO Frendicoes has filed a petition before the court. We don’t want people with such mentality to hamper our task.” — IANS

New Delhi, December 18
Minorities should stress on modern education for their children, as this was the only way for the uplift of a community in the modern times, said Chief Minister of Delhi, Sheila Dikshit, at a function held to mark the United Nations Minorities Day today.

Dikshit said there was no lack of schools in Delhi and other states and that the standard of government schools in Delhi had improved. So, those who could not afford public schools should send their wards to government schools.

The Chief Minister said while deciding the future of their children, the minorities should act on their own and not follow the suggestions of politically motivated people.

Another speaker, Sant Iqbal Singh, who came from Baru Sahib in Himachal Pradesh, said education should include spiritualism. Bishop Franco, who represented the Christian community, said Christians had been serving the society by working in the field of education.

He further said that Christians were accused of converting people into Christianity, but this was not true. “If anyone has any information about forced conversions, he or she should inform the bishop,” he added.

Fakruddin, a Muslim representative, said it was the duty of the majorities to protect the minorities.

New Delhi, December 18
In a move that will add to the pool of merely nine qualified interpreters of sign language in the country, Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) has introduced B.A. in sign language and is set to produce 25 graduates in the next two years.

The programme has been introduced by IGNOU in collaboration with University of Central Lancashire.

The course, which will break barriers between the deaf community and the mainstream, has been introduced in India for the first time.

“An elite group of professionally qualified academicians, who would not need outside help, would be created in IGNOU for the course,” said P. R. Ramanujam, director, Staff Training and Research Institute of Distance Education (STRIDE), IGNOU.

Out of 30 million deaf children in India, only 2 per cent are enrolled for education.

“The methods of educating deaf children are not correct in India. Even after spending around 15 years in education, my father and mother, both deaf, could hardly pass the fifth standard,” said Sunil, a deaf scholar, using sign language.

According to S. P. K. Randhawa, one of the oldest teachers working with deaf students in India, in the earlier system of teaching, deaf students were expected to pick up the normal language and teachers were not allowed to communicate in sign language.

“But we observed that the students were not getting the hang of normal language. Only after we were exposed to international teaching methods, we realised that there was problem with our way of teaching and we shifted to sign language,” said Randhawa.

Some experts feel that the issues of the deaf were not being taken seriously. “There are 400 universities in the country, but none of them have any academic course in sign language,” said Shivaji Panda from IGNOU’s sign language department.

He also complained that the government did not bother to ask the deaf community before deciding that deaf people could not drive and stopped giving them license.

To push the aim of creating a pool of deaf academicians, IGNOU organised SIGN 4 Conference, a gathering of international deaf scholars, to debate on the issues related to educating the deaf.

There were heated exchanges of arguments between the deaf panelists in absolute silence.

The international experts said there were three major issues related to the deaf community. They were empowerment, employment and self respect.

“Empowerment would only come through education. We don’t want people to pity the deaf community,” said Ulrike Zeshan, an expert of sign language.

New Delhi, December 18
With the arrest of six accused, including an advocate, the south district police has claimed to have busted a gang of extortionists who acting as suppliers of maid servants tried to extort money from a bank manager on the pretext of settling the false allegations of rape levelled by the maid send by them.

The police conducted a raid at the office of the said advocate and caught the accused red-handed while taking Rs 5 lakh from the complainant.

The arrest came after a Malviya Nagar resident Madhu Sood complained that one Shweta, who worked as maid at her residence, and her accomplices were demanding money by threatening to file rape complaint against her husband Manoj.

As part of the plan, the police asked the complainant to negotiate with the accused persons and the deal was struck at Rs 3.7 lakh.

“The complainant was asked to visit the accused to give money to them. Manoj Sood visited the office of advocate Hemant Dabral at Wazir Nagar, K.M. Pur, and handed over the money to him. After receiving a signal from Manoj, the police team immediately raided Hemant’s office and recovered Rs 3,50,000 from his possession,” said the police.

Further, Rs 20,000 were recovered from the possession of his accountant Hari Kishan, alias Vijay, while Shweta and her aunt Momuni were also apprehended from the spot.

Dabral has been working as patron of more than 25 such placement agencies providing services of maid/domestic helps. 

Noida, December 18
Motor cycles and cell phones have become great assets for criminals in western UP and Delhi.

In the last fortnight (December 1 to 15), bike-borne criminals have managed to steal 56 vehicles from different areas of Noida alone. As a matter of fact, these biker goons have been committing all kinds of crimes, including bank robberies, snatchings, murders and robberies at shops and houses.

On an average, hijacking four vehicles daily, the morale of these bikers’ appears to be sky-high.

Among their targets are sectors and colonies which have car parking lots where they face no difficulty in driving away with stolen cars and scooters.

The police, under pressure of public opinion, registers cases about these crimes, but when it comes to tracing the culprits or retrieving stolen vehicles, it has precious little to show.

According to the police data, between December 1 and 15, 56 vehicles were stolen by bikers from various parts of Noida. These include 26 cars, 23 bikes, four scooters, one auto and two tractors.

The favourite areas of car thieves include areas under police stations in Sectors 20, 24 and 58.

Eighteen vehicles were stolen from the Sector 20 police station area alone in the past 15 days, while 13 vehicles were reportedly stolen from the areas under the Sector 58 police station.

From Spice Cinema, Noida Stadium and Chaura village falling under Sector 24 police station, 12 vehicles were stolen in the past 15 days.

However, criminals have stayed away from the areas falling under Sector-39 police station which is under encounter specialist SHO Anil Somanya and Phase-II police station areas under SHO S.K.S. Pratap.

In Sector-39, only five vehicles have been stolen between December 1 and December 15, while only 3 vehicles were stolen in this period from the Phase-II area.

Three vehicles were stolen from the Sector 49 police station area during the same period.

New Delhi, December 18
A Delhi court today allowed the Enforcement Directorate (ED), probing the money trail of alleged hawala kingpin Naresh Kumar Jain, to quiz him for four more days.

Saying that the investigation was still incomplete, the probe agency asked for some more time while producing Jain before district and sessions judge P.S. Teji.

Special prosecutor of ED Naveen Kumar Matta submitted before the court, “The accused is required to be confronted with the seized documents and the probe agency should be given four more days to interrogate him.”

Allowing ED’s plea, the court remanded Jain to police custody till December 21.

Earlier, the ED had alleged that Jain was involved in laundering proceeds of narcotics to India and other parts of the world.

The agency has lodged a case against Jain under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), following his arrest by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on December 6 for allegedly financing and transporting narcotics. Besides Jain, his other family members are under the ED scanner.

Earlier, Jain was arrested in Dubai, after it was learnt that sale proceeds of drugs, running into crores, were credited in his firm M/s Kumar Trading Company’s account

New Delhi, December 18
“Don’t think deaf here don’t have cars,” said a member of the deaf community today criticising the government for denying them the right to drive.

Earlier this week the government had informed the Delhi High Court that the hearing impaired cannot be given driving license.

“I read about the government decision few days ago and was laughing on it. There are some people who have certain ideas that does not match reality. I want to know how many deaf people are accused of accidents in India,” questioned Sibaji Panda, a lecturer in deaf studies in Delhi.

“Don’t think, deaf people don’t have cars. Instead of improving traffic situation, they are not allowing us to drive,” Panda said on the sideline of a conference at Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU).

“This is a disturbing news. If we get license we can do our work fast and more efficiently,” said Rajesh Ketkar, a deaf language trainer from Indore.

“I applied for a license in Indore and they told me repeatedly to go to Delhi. Why should I tour Delhi for a license. These policies are not helping the community at all. I had been to countries like ,” Ketkar added.

Sujit Sahasrabudhe, a masters’ degree student from Mumbai echoed the sentiment. “The traffic situation here is too bad. Why the government is so poor in managing it,” he asked.

Clark Denmark, a lecturer in deaf studies from the UK, said: “I have been driving for last 40 years but have not faced any problem. The situation seems different here. The traffic so bad here, I would not like to drive in Delhi roads,” the lecturer laughed.

IGNOU has recently launched a graduation programme for deaf students, a first of its kind course accross the country. At least 30 students, including five foreign students, are pursuing the course that expects to produce quality teachers for the community. — IANS

Ghaziabad, December 18
A separate railway corporation is proposed to be set up for the national capital region (NCR). The corporation would address the transport problems of residents of the area.

The governments of Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Rajasthan have reportedly given their consent to fund the railway corporation. The principal secretaries from the four states who had met recently under the aegis of Constituted Task Force are likely to meet again in Delhi soon.

They had underlined that a better transport system should be in place for NCR so that trade and commerce could flourish in the area and employees who have to commute daily are not dependent on private vehicles. Commuters should be able to reach Delhi in minimum time from any town in NCR, they had realised.

Meanwhile, the NCR planning board has proposed a Rapid Rail Transport System for Delhi NCR. It feels that a separate Common Rail Transport System needs to be set up for NCR.

Quite a few areas in NCR are well-connected with railway network. But this network has its own limitations. In some areas the network is just not there. If the facilities of network are present, the speed of trains is not fast enough.

Therefore, a separate railway network needs to be developed for speedier movement of men and material in NCR area.

After this proposal is approved by the governments of all four states, it will be sent for the Central government’s approval. Governments in all four states are serious about the proposal, though the proposed railway corporation appears to involve large funds.

Gurgaon, December 18
The Referral Transport Scheme (RTS) recently launched in Haryana was appreciated by a delegation from Vietnam which visited Gurgaon today to assess the healthcare facilities in the state.

The delegation members were so impressed by the scheme that they said on returning to their country, they would recommend a similar programme there.

The 13-member Vietnamese delegation, led by Truong Thi Mai, chairperson of the Parliamentary Committee on Social Health and Labour of Republic of Vietnam, visited rural as well as urban areas to have a first-hand feel of the health services being provided by the state government.

The delegation, which comprised nine MPs, three officials and a student, visited a delivery hut at Jharsa village, the Primary Health Centre at Badshahpur the Civil Hospital in Gurgaon.

The Gurgaon civil surgeon, Dr S.S.Dalal, told the delegation members about the RTS that a person in need could just dial phone number 102 and an ambulance stationed nearby would reach his/her place immediately.

Appreciating the scheme, the head of the delegation, Ms Truong Thi Mai, observed that it was a boon for the persons belonging to the poor strata of society. She said they would like such scheme to be implemented in their country as well.

At Jharsa, the village sarpanch, Sube Singh, and other villagers welcomed the delegation members by garlanding them. Some members of the delegation also enjoyed “hookah” with the villagers.

The members of the delegation were accorded a traditional welcome at Badshahpur by putting “tilaks” on their foreheads.

There, Dr Shashi and Dr Neeti told the delegation about various welfare schemes of the state government being run for the villagers, especially the underprivileged ones.

The delegation members included Truong Thi Mai, Nguyen Thi Hong Ha, Nguyen Thi Kim Thuy, Nguyen Thi Sang, Nguyen Van Tien, Nguyen Minh Hong, Nguyen Dinh Lieu, Nguyen Tan Tuan and Pham Van Kiem (all MPs); and Nguyen Thi Kyi, Duong Ngoc Bich and Nguyen Van Tien, officials.