Greater Noida, March 17
The morale of the sand mafia in the area is sky-high. This became evident on Monday night when they opened fire on a team of administration officers and policemen that had gone to Mojabad village to arrest them.

According to the police, sub-divisional magistrate (SDM), Sadar, Vishal Singh and deputy superintendent of police (DSP) Shailender Lal were their targets, but the officers had a narrow escape.

The team had gone to Mojabad village to arrest Amit Kasna, an active member of Naresh Bhatti gang involved in illegal sand mining in the area, after it got reports that large-scale illegal mining was in progress near the village. Machinery worth Rs 1 crore and some cars were seized from the spot. Some persons were also arrested. Kasna, however, managed to escape.

While the team, which was accompanied by a small number of policemen, was returning, goons of the sand mafia opened fire on them. The team then retreated, but came back later with a large number of policemen and took control of the seized machinery once again.

Two persons from Gharbara village have been booked in connection with the firing.

Land mining mafia of Uttar Pradesh and Haryana are very active on the Yamuna bank. A month ago, the administration had destroyed Majhawali bridge which is used by the mafias to transport the mined sand to Harayana. But the morale of these mafias is so strong that they reconstructed the bridge. However, the authority has once again destroyed the bridge.

New Delhi, March 17
The third escape within 10 months of 17-year-old Santosh (name changed), head of a gang of burglars, from a juvenile home in the Kingsway Camp area of north-west Delhi has left the police fuming but helpless.

More than 150 boys managed to slip out of juvenile homes in the national Capital since May 15, 2009.

The social welfare department is the in-charge of juvenile homes.

Juveniles below 16 years are kept at Prayas, run by an NGO, while those at Kingsway Camp and Majnu ka Tila are homes to boys between 16 to 18 years of age.

A senior police official said that the government’s policy was more helpful to juveniles than them. “As per the policy, security guards of juvenile homes are not allowed to keep weapons. As a result, they often succumb to threats by inmates, many of them hardened criminals. Sometimes these guards have assisted the escape of juveniles for money given by the juveniles or their families,” said the officer.

He said the no-segregation policy in homes also helped the hardened among them. “Be it a pickpocket or a murderer, all boys are kept under the same roof— without any segregation,” he said, adding that the Delhi government should look into the affairs of juvenile homes more seriously.

The escape of Santosh has pinched the police most, especially the south district police where the gang is most active. The gang is the most active in areas like— Sarojini Nagar, Laxmi Bai Nagar and Malviya Nagar.

“He managed to flee in a week. It is better that we do not waste our efforts in arresting him till he turns an adult in December,” said a police official, who once apprehended the notorious gang leader.

On Sunday night, Santosh managed to slip out of Sewa Kutir Parishad, a juvenile home, with 26 other boys, after injuring three security guards who tried to stop them. This is his sixth escape in the last five years and the third since May 15, 2009, when he fled with 34 inmates.

However, DCP (south) HGS Dhaliwal maintains that the role of police ends with apprehending the minor and producing him in a juvenile court. “I will not comment on affairs outside my preview,” said Dhaliwal. “He has committed several burglaries in south Delhi. Night patrolling and security has been intensified. We are sure to apprehend him the fourth time as well,” said Dhaliwal. 

New Delhi, March 17
The sealing drive of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) has been postponed for a while for the walled city. The drive, however, is expected to continue in rest of the city.

The walled city has been declared protected in the Master Plan 2021 and sealing cannot be undertaken in the area unless its redevelopment plan is finalised.

"The area was given three years' exemption for its redevelopment which has already ended. The appeal for the extension of the exemption will be made again," said Deep Mathur, MCD spokesperson.

The MCD has sealed over 19,000 properties during its various phases of sealing since 2006. Till December 2009, it has collected Rs 499.35 crore as conversion charges, Rs 225.88 as parking charges and Rs 3.04 as registration charges from traders and shopkeepers running their business on notified roads. A total of 2,538 stretches were declared mixed land-use and commercial stretches under the MPD 2021.

"We have succeeded to a large extent, but are giving the traders a chance to clear their dues, as our focus is to collect conversion charges rather than sealing properties. The traders are paying the charges after getting notice from us," said a senior MCD official.

New Delhi, March 17
Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit announced in the Assembly today that the Delhi Jal Board has prepared a summer action plan to deal with water scarcity in the city.

The Chief Minister said that potable water is being supplied to 189 colonies through proper pipeline under the summer action plan and residents of these colonies have also been asked to get water connection.

Giving details of the plan, the Chief Minister said that a water recycling plant of 37 million gallon daily (MGD) has been started in Haiderpur, Wazirabad and Bhagirathi.

“About 348-km pipelines have been laid in these colonies and 135-km pipelines replaced. Besides, 16 underground water reservoirs have been constructed, 82 tubewells installed and 104 old tubewells restarted,” she said.

Dikshit admitted that pipeline had not been laid in all the colonies but the Delhi Jal Board supplied water through tankers.

Replying to a question of a BJP MLA, the Chief Minister assured that in the near future drinking water would be supplied to all the colonies. To end water shortage in Bijwasana and Kapashera villages, the government has a plan to re-bore five tubewells.

She said that at present drinking water was being supplied to Raj Nagar Part II by tubewells and tankers. 

New Delhi, March 17
A Delhi court today sentenced a former DU student to life imprisonment for killing the then president of Satyawati College Students’ Union in 1999.

Holding Jitender, alias Kalla, guilty of killing 26-year-old Anil Bhadana, a NSUI leader, additional sessions judge Kamini Lau also slapped on him a fine of Rs 5 lakh, out of which Rs 1 lakh would be given to Bhadana’s family and another Rs 1 lakh to one Madan Lal, who was injured by Jitender.

The counsel for Bhadana asked for capital punishment for Jitender, but the court turned down the plea, saying that the act does not lie in the category of ‘rarest of the rare’. The court though added that the case was certainly not an ordinary murder case.

The court, meanwhile, fixed March 18 as the date for pronouncing the quantum of sentence for Jitender for murdering K.L. Nayyar, the father of an eye-witness of the case, Sumit Nayyar.

Sumit and Bhadan were friends and Sumit was the cultural secretary of the college union.

On March 10, 1999, Jitender and Bhadana were invited to a marriage party at a community centre in Keshavpuram. There the two got involved in a heated argument that ended with Jitender pumping three bullets into Bhadana’s chest.

He also injured the father of the bridegroom, Madan Lal, while firing indiscriminately to stop people from trying to catch him.

Sumit, who had informed the police about the incident, had to pay a heavy price, as Jitender immediately went to his home at Mukherjee Nagar and shot dead his father. He threatened him with dire consequences if he stood his testimony against him.

The court, while holding Jitender guilty, also relied on the forensic report, stating that the bullets were fired from the licensed pistol of Jitender.

Jitender was arrested on January 24, 2000 after remaining elusive for over nine months.

The prosecution had contended that Jitender was a hardcore criminal and committed the second murder to silence the eye-witness. Jitender killed Bhadana because he had ill-will against him as he was going to depose against him in another criminal case, said the prosecution during the trial.

He is also facing trial for fleeing from police custody in August, 2000.

The court convicted Jitender on March 11, 2010.

New Delhi, March 17
With the arrest of Meena Sharma (38), a resident of Amar Colony, Lajpat Nagar, the south district police has solved cases of baglifting reported from various party halls of India Habitat Centre during the past few months.

With her arrest, three handbags containing credit/debit cards, cash, make-up articles, cell phone etc. have been recovered.   

According to police, the arrest came yesterday evening at the birthday party of Parth Makhija (4), resident of Safdarjang Enclave, in Eatopia (Party Zone).

“There was a little commotion and some handbags were found missing.  The police team and security staff deployed at India Habitat Centre were alerted and all exit gates covered. A mature lady with a confident gait was found boarding a TSR. The police team intercepted the lady for interrogation. She could not give any satisfactory reply regarding possession of three handbags,” said HGS Dhaliwal, DCP (South) adding that the owners of these bags rushed there and identified their bags which were later taken into police possession.

During interrogation, accused Meena Sharma disclosed that she graduated from a reputed college of Delhi University in 1991 and got married in 1992 to Mahesh Sharma, a businessman dealing in the sale-purchase of food articles. “She worked in Tamanna Real Estate Agency for three years at Nehru Place and later joined a TV channel in Okhla and worked there for three months. She has two children and her elder daughter is studying in class IX in a reputed school of South Delhi. She can fluently speak and write English and has worked as freelance translator,” said Dhaliwal.  

According to police, the accused first came to Habitat Centre in January 2010 for a casual visit and observed that rich persons visit this place and they normally carry large amount of money and jewellery in their handbags. 

“She could not resist the temptation and again reached India Habitat Centre and picked up a bag from Eatopia. She found some money and clothes for children in the stolen bag.  She succeeded in her first attempt which emboldened her further. She again visited Gul Mohar Party Hall just a week ago and picked up a bag which contained money and some jewellery,” said Dhaliwal. 

New Delhi, March 17
A 29-year-old businessman has been arrested in west Delhi for using pirated software for embroidery design.

According to the police, Sunny Batra was apprehended on March 11 from his office in Khyala following a raid at Batra Trading Company.

DCP (West) Sharad Aggarwal said the raid and arrest came following investigations into a complaint filed by Sumeet Grover, (Country Head of Wings CAD India Private Limited, Nehru Place). 

Grover claimed that pirated designing software of embroidery designing are sold and used at Batra Trading Company. “Batra was found using the pirated copy of Wing XP embroidery designing software. He was running big multi-head computerized embroidery machine for preparing the design from pirated software,” Aggarwal said. 

A case under the Copyright Act has been registered and efforts are on to identify the supplier of the pirated software.

Noida, March 17
Use common sense and correlate the different parameters and don’t be in a hurry to conduct the medico-legal postmortem report as the slightest mistake will be an obstacle in conviction and the criminal may go scot-free, cautions Dr Adarsh Kumar of AIIMS forensic department while addressing the workshop on postmortem examination for Noida police and doctors.

The workshop was organized by Indian Medical Association along with the district administration at I.G. Kala Kendra auditorium at Sector 6 last evening.

Noida police sub-inspectors, district hospital doctors who conduct the postmortem and assistant prosecution officers attended the workshop.

Inaugurating the workshop, district magistrate Deepak Aggarwal said, “The need of the workshop was felt as there was lack of knowledge about the postmortem and medical examination. With proper postmortem report, the conviction rate could go high. There should be a uniformity and standardization of postmortem reports.”

Dr Adarsh Kumar said, “It was seen that mostly sweepers note the injuries at postmortem houses and doctors merely write them in the report. They do not even see the body. This practice should be stopped if we really want to increase the conviction rate.”

He added, “Examination of clothes is very important. The number of holes, tears, stains, etc on clothes gives enough evidence. There is no limit to conducting the postmortem. Doctors should write all the details in proper tabulated form mentioning the minutest of information.”

New Delhi, March 17
A city court has awarded a compensation of around Rs 17 lakh to a 32-year-old man who suffered permanent disability after he was hit by a high speed truck in 2007.

Motor Accident Claim Tribunal Judge Swarana Kanta Sharma held truck driver Surinder Singh guilty under the under Motor Vehicle Act. The court has asked Singh to pay a compensation of Rs 17,08,758 to the victim, Kalipada Giri, within 30 days.

Besides, the court has directed the insurance company to pay the amount with 7.5 per cent interest.

“The victim is entitled to 7.5 per cent interest, per annum from the date of filing the petition which is July 4, 2007, till its realisation,” said the court.

However, the insurance company claimed that the victim did not posses a valid driving licence when the incident took place. Therefore, the insurance company is not liable to pay any compensation.

The accident had taken place on April 23, 2007, while Giri was returning home from New Karheda Colony in Ghaziabad on his motorcycle around 9:30 pm. A speeding truck hit his bike from behind. He fell on the road and the truck ran over the right side of his body. He suffered grievous injuries on his right hand and leg.

Giri runs paan business in the name of Madan Gopal Paan Bhandar at Khari Bawli in Delhi.