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2 ICICI Bank staff among 5 held for Rs 20-lakh fraud
Promised job, Bengal girl held captive for 15 days
MIRROR, MIRROR...AIN’T I BEAUTIFUL? Tribune photo: Manas Ranjan Bhui |
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Delhi’s ‘despicable’ neglect of schools for the deaf
Fog to stay; temp dips to 7.7°
People cross railway tracks amidst heavy fog at Shivaji Bridge Railway Station in New Delhi
on Sunday. Tribune photo: Manas Ranjan Bhui
Student refuses drink offer, beaten; three held
Govt freezes land deal between local mafia and Dubai firm
Games: Police reorganises Delhi traffic
Labourer killed as mud caves in
Palam village to host Doppler radar
Loan scamster in police net
Gurgaon Metro stations to have parking space
Akalis protest Oz attacks
Activists of the National Akali Dal burn pictures of Australian Prime Minister
Kevin Rudd as they protest against racial attacks on Indians in Australia, near Parliament House in New Delhi on Sunday. Tribune photo: Manas Ranjan Bhui
IGNOU plans meet on digital labs
Allotment of locked houses to be cancelled
Robbers decamp with ATM machine
Train to display grandeur
of Kerala
2 gangsters arrested
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2 ICICI Bank staff among 5 held for Rs 20-lakh fraud
New Delhi, January 17 The accused identified as Amit Chauhan (29), Sunil Grover (21), Raman Preet Singh (26), Ashish Tiwari (24) and Deepak Malik (33) allegedly used phone banking facility, fake identity or signature to withdraw the amount. While Ashish is a business banking executive with ICICI Bank, Malik is a sales manager at the Preet Vihar branch of the bank. One swift car, one Karisma motorcycle that they had purchased with the money withdrawn fraudulently, nine mobile phones used for committing the crime, duplicate identity cards, voter I-cards, driving licenses and printing material has been seized from them. The police said that investigation in the matter was taken up on January 14 when ICICI Bank lodged a complaint at Lodhi Colony police station about someone withdrawing Rs 2.95 lakh from the account of one of its customer fraudulently. “Mansi Kapoor, branch manager, ICICI Bank, NBCC Lodhi Road, reported that Rs 2.95 lakh had been debited fraudulently from the account of a customer, Siddharth Bhardwaj,” said HGS Dhaliwal, DCP (south). It was found that the amount was withdrawn through self cheque on December 15, 2009. Bhardwaj informed the bank that he had never received the cheque leaf through which the amount was withdrawn from his account. “It appeared that someone impersonating as the victim managed to get a cheque book issued in his name and further encashed Rs 2,95,000 from his account,” said Dhaliwal. Later, it was learnt that more than Rs 20 lakh had been withdrawn fraudulently by the gang from five branches of the bank in Delhi and Noida. Amit Chauhan and Sunil Grover disclosed that they managed to contact Ashish Tiwari and Deepak Malik through Raj Kumar. Kumar runs an office in Krishna Nagar. With the help of Tiwari and Malik, they used to procure details of targeted customers. After obtaining the details of a customer, they would go to Raman Preet Singh, the printer who prepared duplicate documents like driving licence, PAN card and voter I-card incorporating details of the customer. The police said Ashish Tiwari would allegedly take the photograph of the customer’s signature from the bank computer record and gave it to Amit Chauhan. “Using duplicate documents and other details of the customers, Chauhan and Grover allegedly impersonated as genuine customers and managed to get cheque books issued in the names of the customers. Chauhan, an expert in forging signatures, would allegedly sign on the cheque leaf and withdraw most of the amount from the targeted customer’s account from any branch of the bank,” said Dhaliwal. Using this modus operandi, they have allegedly withdrawn more than Rs 20 lakh from the account of five customers having accounts with the bank in NBCC, Lodhi Road, University (Shakti Nagar), Darya Ganj, Saket and Noida. The details of these customers are being collected from the concerned branches of ICICI Bank in Delhi and Noida. |
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Promised job, Bengal girl held captive for 15 days
Ghaziabad, January 17 Some apartment guards noticed her weeping outside Laxmi Apartment opposite Vaishali Sector-1. She was carrying a bag and could not speak or understand Hindi. The guards called some residents who talked to her. It was found that she hailed from West Bengal. A Bengali guard from a nearby apartment was called to interact with her. The girl said that her name was Kashmira Khatoon. She alleged that a man had brought her from West Bengal on pretext of getting her job. He had paid Rs 2,000 to her father. He then handed her to another man here. That man held her captive for over a fortnight in a room. He forced her to drink alcohol at night and dance before men. The gang was planning to sell her off in Andhra Pradesh. They allegedly shifted her to different places. The guards have handed her to the police. “We are trying to send her back to West Bengal to her parents. A manhunt has been launched to trace the gang members. But in absence of proper clues the accused were not traceable till late evening today. On the basis of the description provided by the girl, we are preparing computerised sketches of the gangsters. Her father is being contacted to know who had brought her to Ghaziabad,” said a police official. |
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When silence gave way to guffaws
During the hearing of a case in the Tis Hazari courts recently, a court was tightly packed with family members of the victim and the accused. It was the day of judgement. Everyone was seated. As the magistrate entered, everybody stood up in her honour. There was complete silence in the court which was soon shattered with a loud sound. A family member of the accused who had jumped to his feet, had his kurta caught in a nail of his chair. The result? The ripping sound of the cloth caused commotion and even the magistrate stood up to see what had happened. Tension soon gave way to a loud guffaw when the source of the unusual sound was found. A court reporter was later heard, consoling the embarrassed wearer of the just-torn outfit, “Don’t worry, such incidents keep occurring in court…you will soon learn to enjoy them.” Jinxed police station!The Nangloi police station in West Delhi is not proving to be a pleasant assignment for a number of officials who have been posted there recently. Two SHOs Samay Singh and S.M.Khan from this thana were transferred to Police Lines, not considered a glamour posting. Besides, enquiries have been initiated against several officers posted at the Nangloi police station. This has made the cops believe that somebody has cast an evil eye on the place which is the reason for the recent series of misfortunes. Acting on a suggestion, a special yagna was performed at the police station last Sunday. While the officials maintain it was a regular prayer meeting, insiders admit privately that the yagna was performed after a sub-inspector was mobbed when he went to arrest a culprit a day earlier. An apology for an explanation!
The MCD came up with a lame excuse recently to explain the absence of over 22,000 employees, who have been withdrawing salaries for the past two years without reporting for work. According to some officers, the fingerprints of some 6,000 employees on the biometric system could not be registered because they suffered from diabetic conditions. They believe those who are diabetic develop cracks and wrinkles on the fingers and, therefore, their fingerprints do not get registered on the electronic system. Doctors, however, have rubbished this explanation. MCD officials are now desperately hunting for another excuse to explain the absence of such a large number of employees. Tharoor plays it safe this time
Minister of state for external affairs Shashi Tharoor who has been in the eye of a storm for his remarks on social networking site Twitter, decided to play it safe when he was invited for a book launch in the city recently. Having been pulled up for his transgressions, Tharoor told the audience tongue in cheek, “I recently discovered that among the various things I ought to be doing while serving this office, is launching books. I think I may have launched more books by now than I have written myself.” As the audiences broke into feeble smiles, the author Shrabani Basu, whose book “Victoria and Abdul”, was being launched, answered diplomatically, “I thank Mr Tharoor for his supporting words. But, I must say, we love him to speak, chat and, yes of course, Twitter.” Tharoor merely responded with a wry smile. Doctors sought
The Delhi health department is planning to seek help from neighbouring states to meet the huge demand for doctors and paramedics during the upcoming Commonwealth Games (CWG). The army and railways may also be approached if need be. Massive arrangements are being made during the Games to cater to the medical needs of the participants. Around 1,000 doctors and paramedics are slated to man all the competition venues and the Commonwealth Games Village. Four government hospitals—Lok Nayak Hospital, G B Pant Hospital, and Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital and AIIMS –have been identified to take care of all exigencies during the Games. (Contributed by Rashi Agarwal, Sandeep Yadav, Himani Chandel, Jyoti Rai and Ananya Panda) |
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Delhi’s ‘despicable’ neglect of schools for the deaf
New Delhi, January 16 The CIC has also fined an official of Delhi’s social welfare department of Rs 25,000 for violating the provisions of the Right To Information (RTI) Act by failing to provide information on such teachers. “It is obvious that the department was neglecting its duty of appointing teachers for hearing-impaired children since 2000. This is really despicable,” information commissioner Shailesh Gandhi noted in his order. The decision came on an application filed by Amarkesh Mahendru, a south Delhi resident, who sought details regarding the “filling of vacant posts of teachers for children with hearing-impairment” in schools under the Delhi government. “Even when a citizen using RTI was trying to get the public authority to admit its gross neglect of duties towards hearing-impaired children, the department was refusing to even acknowledge this by providing the correct information,” said Gandhi in his order on January 12. Mahendru said: “At present, the Delhi government has four schools for the hearing-impaired where nearly 800 children are studying. But 27 posts for teachers have been vacant for years.” “Since 1996, the government has not appointed anyone as principal in the Government Lady Noyce Secondary School near Delhi Gate area and that post is still vacant,” said Mahendru, who has written three books on how to teach hearing-impaired children and how to develop their language. Mahendru had sought information in February 2009 but public information officer (PIO) B.R. Singh, joint director (administration), did not provide a satisfactory reply. He filed an appeal with the First Appellate Authority (FAA) that in May 2009 observed “The reply given to the appellant was not appropriate” and ordered the PIO to give information within 15 days. However, the appellant got some of the information only in October, nearly five months after the first appellate authority ordered him to do so. On this, the commission said: “He (the PIO) refused to obey the orders of his superior officer, which raised a reasonable doubt that the denial of information may also be mala fide. “The commission cannot absolve B.R. Singh of the responsibility of having failed to provide appropriate information to the appellant. Initially, he signed a letter providing completely irrelevant information and his subsequent claim that he marked the letter of the FAA to dealing assistants shows a complete lack of responsibility on the part of the PIO,” Gandhi pointed out. “Singh is responsible for the fact that the (complete) information reached the appellant only on November 27 last year,” it added. The CIC ruled that this was a fit case for penalising the official “since no reasonable cause has been offered by the PIO for the delay of over 100 days in providing the information”. “Hence the commission levies the maximum penalty of Rs 25,000 on B.R. Singh,” the order noted. The commission directed the Delhi government’s chief secretary to recover the amount from his salary in five months, beginning in February, by deducting Rs 5,000 every month. As the hearings proceeded, B.R. Singh informed the CIC on Jan 12 that 24 posts had been filled up by a walk-in interview in December 2009. Noting this, information commissioner Gandhi said: “It appears that the department of social welfare needs the prodding of Right to Information to fill the positions of teachers for the hearing- impaired
children.” — IANS |
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Fog to stay; temp dips to 7.7°
New Delhi, January 17 The fog which had started covering the city around midnight grew denser in the morning. However, the chill subsided marginally as the daytime temperature hovered around 20 degrees Celsius today, one degree below normal. The minimum temperature was recorded at 7.7 degrees Celsius. The weatherman has forecast that the maximum temperature is expected to hover around 15 degrees Celsius tomorrow, while the minimum can plummet to 6 degrees Celsius. For anyone who stepped out of home today, the day turned out to be struggle — be it the cold in general or its fallouts such as traffic jams and low visibility. “The weather has become unpredictable. Yesterday it was so sunny and bright. And today, the fog is just not leaving. Daily life definitely takes a jolt with such weather. One has to think twice before making plans to go out. Our weekend plans stood ruined, as children did not wish to step in such cold out today,” said Barkha, a south Delhi resident. “Visibility was less than 50 metres till 9 am. The heavy fog cover did not subside even by 11 am. Similar conditions are likely to prevail even tomorrow and the day after,” an official at the India Meteorological Department said. Road traffic remained chaotic as roads were jammed with snail-paced vehicles that struggled to steer their way through the fog and traffic. The situation got worse during peak office hours. “It was difficult to drive till 12 pm today. I cannot believe that we saw the sun just yesterday. The roads are jammed at most points, including ITO and outer and the inner Ring Road,” said Manik, an autorickshaw driver. Around 48 international and domestic flights, as well as 60 trains were affected because of poor visibility, leaving scores stranded at Indira Gandhi International Airport and three main railway stations respectively in the Capital. |
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Student refuses drink offer, beaten; three held
New Delhi, January 17 According to police, the incident took place on Thursday night when Amit Kumar, staying as a paying guest in the Hauz Khas area, was accosted by his colleagues Jeet, Sunil and Ghanshyam at Central Park in Hauz
Khas. “Amit was rescued by the police personnel while he was being beaten by his friends at Central Park. We have arrested the trio of Jeet, Sunil and Ghanshyam and booked them for attempt to commit culpable homicide since they were under the influence of alcohol at the time,” said a police official from Hauz Khas police station. According to police, the three culprits were angry with Amit for changing his room and not having drinks with them. “He is presently recuperating at AIIMS trauma centre,” said the official. According to information, Amit used to live with the accused Jeet as a paying guest in the same area. In his statement to the police, Amit said that he was forced to move out as Jeet would drink every night and force him to do the same. “Jeet would not let him study and called friends for party almost every night. Amit’s studies were being hampered and he decided to move out. His moving out did not go well with Jeet and he decided to teach Amit a lesson,” the police official said. Amit rented another room in the same street on Wednesday. The next day, Jeet called his friends and after having drinks, they decided to corner Amit. So as to not create commotion at the paying guest, Jeet cajoled Amit to come out for a walk and took him to the park where they assaulted him. A passer-by informed the police whereupon cops reached the spot and saved him. All the arrested accused are pursuing some medical course from a Russian university, said the police. |
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Govt freezes land deal between local mafia and Dubai firm
New Delhi, January 17 The deal, some part of which was done in Pakistan, was frozen on the orders of Lieutenant-Governor of Delhi Tejendra Khanna as the land in question ‘is an enemy property’ which belongs to the central government,” said Delhi revenue minister Raj Kumar Chauhan. An enemy property is the one that was vacated by a person who moved to Pakistan during the Partition and is now under the government’s hold. “We froze the entire deal after it was found that some parts of the required transactions were done by an attorney in Pakistan which cannot be valid in India,” he said. Top officials said the government was also apprehensive of the ‘questionable antecedents’ of the hotel-chain and was in the process of ordering a probe in the entire issue. “A thorough investigation will be carried out into the issue and even the possible role of government officials in trying to hand over the property to the Dubai-based hotel chain would be ordered. We are looking at all possible links in the deal,” Chauhan said. Asked whether the government would go in for a CBI inquiry, Chauhan did not rule out the possibility. “We have got permission to order a thorough probe into the deal, but we have not decided yet which agency will carry it out. It may be a probe by the vigilance department or a departmental probe,” Chauhan said. Officials alleged that the LJP MLA from Matia Mahal constituency is the one who has been pushing for the 100-room hotel. Iqbal, however, strongly denied the allegations and said he would file a defamation suit against the government. “This is totally baseless. There is a police post at the land in question. How can I evict a police post. I will file a defamation case against the government,” Iqbal said.
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Games: Police reorganises Delhi traffic
New Delhi, January 17 With the addition of two ranges, two districts now come under one range. The police believes that it would help in better planning and implementation of traffic regulations. According to a senior police official, the biggest challenge before the traffic police ahead of the Games is to reduce public inconvenience as a number of infrastructure projects are underway in the city. "We need to plan things keeping in mind the limitations of road infrastructure, extensive construction work for Metro and flyovers, upgradation of NH-1 and the ever increasing vehicular population," the official said. On the other hand, the Commonwealth Games (CWG) organising committee has made an intensive plan to deal with traffic snarls. The plan which ensures a smooth ride for athletes during the mega-sports event is likely to be implemented during the Games. The plan includes a network of lanes similar to the BRT corridor on specified routes. The corridor would be built on roads that are as wide as three lanes or have three lanes on one side. "Roads having three lanes on one side have been identified. One lane would be for vehicles of athletes and delegates on temporary basis and the other two would be for the general public," he said. "Special lanes would be constructed for vehicles of athletes, CWG officials, delegates and technicians. These lanes would connect to stadiums," said a senior official of the organising committee. |
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Labourer killed as mud caves in
New Delhi, January 17 The contractor responsible for the construction has been arrested. Police said that the incident took place at around 9.45 am during a construction in Mohan Cooperative Industrial Estate in the Badarpur area. “The construction work for the basement of the factory was going on and labourers were digging the mud when it caved in and four labourers were trapped inside. Two of them were seriously injured while one of them later succumbed to injuries at the hospital,” said the police. Police further stated that the two labourers who were identified as Ahmed Ullah (20), a native of Malda in West Bengal and Ashraful Saif (20), were rushed to AIIMS where Ahmed was declared brought dead while Ashraful is undergoing treatment and his condition is stated to be stable. Meanwhile, the other two escaped unhurt. Police added that the factory owner had got sanction for constructing the basement from the MCD and they have arrested the contractor, Sanjay Singh. A case of causing death due to negligence has been registered at the local police station and investigations in the matter are on.
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Palam village to host Doppler radar
New Delhi, January 17 The radar, which has been procured from Beijing Metstar Radar company, will be installed at a height of 16 metres on the top of a building in Shahabad Mohammadpur village in the Palam area of Indira Gandhi International Airport. “The radar which is at a height of 16 metres will provide short-range accurate weather prediction in a nearly 500 km radius,” Fred Brenner, deputy general manager of Beijing Metstar said here. “This will provide short-range prediction. We can predict weather conditions even two hours before it happens. The prediction will be focused,” he said. There are at least six foreign engineers, including two from China, who will help the installation. “The data accumulation and prediction from this radar will start reaching people by the third week of February,” said an engineer involved in the
process. — IANS |
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Loan scamster in police net
New Delhi, January 17 Based on secret information, Anil Verma (34) was apprehended from near Metro station, Chawri Bazaar. “On verification, it was found that the accused was declared a proclaimed offender in a case registered at P.S. Saraswati Vihar, Delhi and commissioner of police even declared a reward of Rs 10,000 on his arrest,” said the police. In 2005, a complainant Narendra Singh Rathore gave Rs 62,000 to the accused Anil Verma having his office in the name of M/s Shri Jai U/B Thrift Credit Co-Operative Society at Pitampura, as a 2.5% commission for procuring the loan of Rs 25 lakh. The accused Anil Verma gave a cheque to the complainant as loan amount which was dishonored. A case was registered in Saraswati Vihar police station and it was found that Anil Verma also cheated a number of other people with the same modus operandi. The case was taken up by Economic Offence wing of Delhi police, but the accused was absconding since then. According to the police, the accused is a bad character of Hauz Qazi police station and involved in eight cases of cheating and theft. Presently, he is operating a placement agency in the name of Akshara” in Nabi
Karim.
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Gurgaon Metro stations to have parking space
New Delhi, January 17 Of the five, the largest parking space of 6,500 square metres will be at the HUDA City Centre station. Parking lots will also be available at IFFCO
Chowk, M.G. Road, Sikanderpur and Guru Dronacharya Metro stations. “At present, 59 of the 83 operational Metro stations have parking lots. The total parking lots in Delhi Metro will go up to 64 after the Gurgaon section is opened for the public,” the official added. An official said while the Gurgaon section of the corridor would be opened to the public by March, the remaining section of the corridor would be operational by May. Trial runs on the 7-km-long elevated Gurgaon section will begin from January 29. With the new parking spaces in Gurgaon, the total parking space provided by the DMRC will be nearly 1,70,000 square metres in which approximately 15,000 four-wheelers and 20,000 two-wheelers can be accommodated.
— IANS
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Akalis protest Oz attacks
New Delhi, January 17 Conveying “displeasure and concern” over the unabated attacks on Indians especially Sikhs in Australia, the members asked the Australian government to bring the culprits to book. The members warned if steps were not taken, the National Akali Dal would protest all Australian delegation in India whether it is a cricket team or a government leader. Marching towards the Australian Embassy, the protesters raised slogans against the Australian government. However they were stopped by the police near the Parliament. “It is sad that the attacks are now taking place on gurdwaras in Australia. The Australian government is not taking proper action to stop the attacks,” said National Akali Dal president Paramjit Singh
Pamma. The members demanded a reassurance from the Australian and the Indian government so that the insecurity and fear with which Indians live there could be assuaged. The demonstrators asked the Indian government to take a note of attacks and advised it to break relations on all levels with
Austraslia. |
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IGNOU plans meet on digital labs
New Delhi, January 16 Indira Gandhi National Open University and The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) are jointly organising the three-day conference, ICDL 2010 here on February 23. The theme of the conference is ‘Digital Libraries: Shaping the Information Paradigm’. The focus is on strengths and potential of digital libraries and their role in education, cultural, social and economic development. ICDL 2010 is the third conference in TERI’s ‘International Conference on Digital Libraries’ series. This conference will focus on web-based methodologies. IGNOU’s participation in the event would help it strengthen its arena of ICT, web-based methodologies and digitization for promoting seamless access to all. The speakers in the conference include Prof. Michael Seadle, director, Berlin School of Library and Information Science; Dr Erich J Neuhold, professor, Computer Science, University of Vienna, Austria; and Edie Rasmussen, professor and director, School of Library, Archival and Information Studies, the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
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Allotment of locked houses to be cancelled
Ghaziabad, January 17 ADM Sunil Kumar Srivastava said, “Two months ago at Pratap
Vihar, 340 poor people were given houses under Kanshi Ram Garib Awas
Yojna. Recent site visit by district officials found that only 70 families were living while the rest of the houses were found locked.” “Notices have been issued to such allottees whose houses were found locked. They were given one month to start living in the house otherwise their allotments will be cancelled and these will be allotted to other applicants,” said
Srivastava. “Further it was revealed that several allottees had put the houses for sale and others were planning to rent it out. During next inspection, if a person other than allottee was found to be living at the houses, their allotments would also be cancelled,” said
Srivastava.
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Robbers decamp with ATM machine
Greater
Noida, January 17 According to S.P. (Greater Noida)
S.K. Verma, “At Alpha sector, commercial belt robbers overpowered the guard and robbed the ATM machine having Rs 30 lakh.” “CCTV in the cabin was not working. The incident took place on Saturday night. Three armed persons entered the ATM and overpowered the guard Onkar Singh. They tried to break the machine and get cash. Having failed to do so, they unbolted the machine from the ground and loaded it on a vehicle and decamped with it. Till late Sunday evening, robbers were not traceable,” said
Verma. A fortnight ago also, robbers struck at this ATM. The attempt was foiled then due to guard’s resistance. The guard was, however, injured who was still in hospital. Had the police and bank taken security measures, the robbery could have been averted, residents felt. |
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Train to display grandeur
of Kerala
New Delhi, January 17 Union tourism minister Kumari Selja and Kerala tourism minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan witnessed the inaugural run of the 2431 Nizamuddin-Thiruvananthapuram Express, with all its 17 coaches swathed in myriad hues and encapsulating the best that Kerala has to offer. The train, having a new tag line, ‘Chalo Kerala’ in Hindi and ‘Go Kerala’ in English in white colour, will journey through the heart of India for six months and is to continue until June 2010. The travelling showcase is expected to reach out to more than 3 crore people across 10 states, including NCR Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Goa, Karnataka as well as
Kerala. |
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2 gangsters arrested
New Delhi, January 17 Police has recovered Rs 15,000, one countrymade pistol along with a button-activated knife from them. The gang leader Mohd Israel has been involved in more than 16 cases of robbery, murder, attempt to murder, snatching, etc. The duo were arrested yesterday from near the Kalindi Kunj area of southeast Delhi. |
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DELHI DIARY
New Delhi, January 17
New Delhi, January 17
