New Delhi, January 24
The Delhi Metro services will be curtailed partially on three lines on January 26, on the Republic Day and January 29, Saturday, when the Beating Retreating Ceremony will be held in view of strict security measures.

The lines, which will be affected due to restrictions imposed by the Delhi traffic police, are - Line 2 (HUDA City Centre - Jahangirpuri), Line 3 (Dwarka Sector 21 - Noida City Centre/Anand Vihar) and Line 6 (Central Secretariat - Badarpur).

On the Republic Day, the Metro services will not be available at Metro stations, including Rajiv Chowk, Central Secretariat, Udyog Bhawan and Race Course and Patel Chowk Metro stations of Line 2 and Mandi House, Barakhamba Road and Pragati Maidan Metro stations on Line 3 till 12.30 pm. The Khan Market station on Line 6 will also be closed during this period of curtailment.

However, passengers will be able to avail the interchange facility at Rajiv Chowk and Central Secretariat Metro stations, said spokesperson for the DMRC Anuj Dayal.

New Delhi, January 24
The Commonwealth Games and rains may be long over but the roads in the Capital built at huge cost continue to give in, much to the scare of the commuters.

A patch on the Ring Road-- over six feet long and a few feet wide-- collapsed today. The traffic police encircled the area, barring it for traffic.

A police official said his department had informed the government and it was up to it to construct the collapsed portion.

During the run-up to the Commonwealth Games and even after it, roads had given in at many places across the city and hasty construction work by different agencies was blamed for it. Officials, in turn, had blamed long spell of heavy rains for it.

New Delhi, January 24
The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) has devised a new strategy to impose property tax on the residents and commercial establishments of the walled city.

Municipal standing committee chairman Yogender Chandolia today said the owners of the residential properties in the special areas will have to pay the property tax calculated by the old method of retail value (RV) only till 2004 and the tax due after 2004 computed as per the unit area method (UAM) will have to submitted by the tenants.

Strict action would be taken against the owners not following the orders. This can include the sealing of the place as well. "We will seal the property if the owner or the tenant does not pay the tax," said Chandolia.

He said that the owners of the houses located in special areas have given their places on rent at very nominal rates with most of them fighting in court over the dispute of the property.

"The owners in special areas are getting very few amount as rent so they cannot pay property tax as per the new method. We have decided to ask such owners to pay property tax on the basis of old method for the period prior to 2004.

However, the tax calculated after the 2004 as per the new method of unit area will have to be borne by the tenant," said Chandolia.

He said the owners of properties in the special areas have not paying their taxes for a long time as they claim that they are not earning anything from the property.

"People in old Delhi do not pay taxes because they say that the property is not contributing to any earnings," he said.

New Delhi, January 24
Errant drivers ran amok on the city roads in the last 24 hours killing four persons, including a traffic police official and a girl, in three separate accidents.

A school bus driver first crushed a cyclist to death and when a policeman tried to stop him, the driver ran the bus over him. The accident occurred at the Burary bypass in north Delhi. Only the driver and the conductor were in the bus at the time of incident.

Investigating officials said the driver of New Jeewan Adarsh Public School bus hit a cyclist, Rahul (20), near a red light signal. And a traffic official, Vakiluddin (34) on his official motorbike tried to stop the bus from speeding away but came under it.

In an attempt to flee the driver again hit a car, seriously injuring one Pawan, who was driving it. The driver and the conductor managed to escape from the spot.

New Delhi, January 24
Tension soared at the annual North Eastern Students Festival at Delhi University today as north-east students came face to face with the Delhi police officials in an interactive session. This year, the festival focused on the problems of the north-east students community in the national Capital, hence organised this meeting, however, what began as a question-answer session soon turned into students questioning the Delhi police's efficiency and commitment referring to about pending FIRs and its laid-back response.As a safety measure, the police officials asked, especially the north-eastern girls, not to roam alone in the city after 10 pm.

To this, an agitated student of political science, Mnusung, questioned, "How does it help when we get groped at even 7.30 pm or at times even earlier in broad daylight? Even the landlords don't let us rest in peace. Time and again there have been cases where PG owners have placed hidden cameras in girls' rooms. We really don't know who to trust except our own."

"The problem is not the way we dress, we eat or we speak. The problem is the attitude of the city towards us. We are called "Chinkis", a derogatory racist term for anyone from the northeast. Girls suffer eve-teasing, guys get into occasional brawls but most of the times we are threatened not to go ahead with the cases," said Ruhi, a student of Bhagat Singh College.

Some students raised the concern of lesser patrolling in South Campus where colleges are located at considerable distances from each other.

ADCP (North) RK Singh and other police officials advised the students to dial 100 or 1090 (a special helpline for north-east students) in case of any instance of discrimination, eve-teasing or emergency.

"The only way we can help you is when students come forward with the complaints. One need not be afraid of anyone. In case you need help, the Delhi police is always here but the initiative has to come from the students' side. Proactive attitude is essentially required in dealing with this menace," said Singh.

The North Campus police officials also invited the students on the first Wednesday of every month to state their grievances. The north-east students were also asked to participate in the Delhi police meetings with the Resident Welfare Associations and the Market Associations in their respective areas.

The university administration has also written to all the colleges to appoint one north-east teacher who would be the focal contact person for any of the north-east student in trouble. "Apart from this, one of the deputy dean student welfare is also appointed, especially to look into the interests of the students," said Professor SJ Vij, Dean Student Welfare.

Also present on the occasion of the festival were Minister of State for Rural Development Agatha Sangma and her elder brother and Meghaylaya MP and an ex-DU alumni who assured that soon something specific would be chalked out for the safety of the north-east girls in the city.

New Delhi, January 24
Students of Delhi University today came together to protest against the arrest of right activist Dr Binayak Sen in Chattisgarh today.

A large group of students studying social work at the university initiated a march in the North Campus. They were joined by students from many colleges like including Ramjas, Sri Ram College, Hindu, Daulat Ram, Miranda House, Stepehn's, Hansraj.

The two-hour march took place under heavy police patrolling because of the sensitive nature of the issue. The students said their motive was to tell the government that the students of the country were unhappy with Sen's arrest.

"The sedition law was picked up from the British constitution which itself has discarded it now. So, why are we dragging this pre-historic law. Sen must be released. We as students will do as much we can to support him," said Rajiv, a MA political science student at the university.

Raising slogans, the protestors in the front row were blindfolded, with their mouths taped and their hands tied and banners hanging in their necks, saying "Democracy Muted."

Though the march was taken out in tight security, students still managed to gather attention on the campus. Some of the students in the rally had painted their faces black and white and were inviting the maximum attention.

Stuti Kohli, a MA student, said, "We want our voices to be heard by the Chattisgarh government and the Union government. We also want the students to know about the gravity of the issue as some of them are still unaware of the issue. 

New Delhi, January 24
"This is an astounding book replete with miracles, meetings with masters, description of higher levels of consciousness and spiritual attainment, it is a rather strange tale," says Dr Karan Singh after releasing the book, Apprenticed to a Himalayan Master: A Yogi's autobiography, authored by Sri M or Mumtaz Ali.

Dr Karan Singh further adds that, "You need a willing suspension of disbelief to read this book and it is a first hand example of the guru shishya parampara. The book has a listing of the most extraordinary experiences and the author involves stories from the lives of different spiritual masters in this book. Reading this book is an educational experience and this will prove to be a very valuable book for spiritual seekers.

" The book is an unfolding of an unusual story and the autobiography tells the story of the metamorphosis of Mumtaz Ali Khan into an accomplished yogi with profound knowledge of the Upanishads and has had first hand experiences of higher levels of consciousness.

Chief Minister Shiela Dikshit commented on the book saying that, "Shri M's book brings out the truth of a really and truly extraordinary personality. I really recommend that each one of us should read the book." Sri M's story begins when as a youth he felt deeply drawn to the Himalayas and left home and travelled there. In the Himalayas, at the Vyasa cave beyond Badrinath he met his master Babaji Maheshwarnathji and with him he travelled the length and breadth of the Himalayas experiencing higher states of consciousness, witnessing miracles and he had many unique experiences.

Former HRD Minister Murli Manohar Joshi comments, "This book is about the sheer miracle and dynamism of cosmic consciousness, a medium which is the sphere of yogis. This book gives you many personal experiences that confirm cosmic consciousness."

The author commented at the release that, "Until now I have held most of the experiences written in this book close to my heart, never giving more than close to a hint even to my closest friends.

However, I felt that I had no right to deny what I had experienced to people, so after deliberating a great deal I reluctantly began to write this book." Sri M further adds that, "I wrote it because it occurred to me that I should write what I experienced and leave it to the reader to reject or accept. Another fact that persuaded me to write is that after an "Autobiography of a Yogi" was written by Shri Yogananda I felt there were very few other spiritual autobiographies and I felt impelled to write this book."

Sri M said, "This book is about spirituality which has to be differentiated from religion and I wrote it keeping in mind the spiritual seeker. It reveals many spiritual truths for the discerning spiritual seeker." Sri M is a social activist, an educationist and a crusader of inter-religious harmony with a deep knowledge of world religions. He recently founded the Sarva Dharam Kendra in Bangalore as a center for promoting inter-religious harmony.

New Delhi, January 24
The chief executive officer (CEO) of a mid-sized clothes manufacturing unit has been convicted of power theft under the Indian Electricity Act 2003 by the Special Court of Electricity, Saket.

Mukesh Jain has been sentenced to a two-year jail term. A fine of Rs 23.29 lakh and a penalty of Rs 15.53 lakh have also been imposed on him.

The court granted bail to the convict for 30 days for enabling him to present an appeal before the appellate court by furnishing a personal bond of Rs 1 lakh and surety of the like amount.

The convict has been ordered to pay the fine within one month and in the event of default, he will further undergo simple imprisonment for six months.

A BSES Rajdhani Power Limited (BRPL) during an inspection at Jawahar Park, Khanpur, in October 2005 had unearthed power theft of over 50 KW. The said premises being used by the CEO of Bahubali Marketing Pvt Ltd was found to be stealing electricity by hooking from the nearby BSES LV Mains. The stolen electricity was being used for manufacturing and stitching clothes in the unit employing 40-50 people without meter. A penalty of Rs 19.4 lakh was imposed on him.

"During the past one year, the special courts of electricity at Dwarka and Saket have convicted more than 100 people for theft of electricity" said a BSES senior official.

New Delhi, January 24
The Delhi police has arrested three persons and has claimed to have solved the gruesome murder of a youth in the ridge of Rangpuri, New Delhi.

The accused have been identified as Shyam Sunder (28), Mohammed Islam (22) and Mohammed Kasim (23).

The police has recovered a knife, country-made pistol along with cartridge, mobile phone and the car used in the commission of the crime from the accused. The blood-stained clothes of the accused have also been seized.

On January 21, a policeman had found a dead body in the ridge of Rangpuri Pahari.

"The body had multiple stab injuries. On examination of the body, it was learnt that the victim, Sanjay Yadav, was injured with a sharp-edged weapon in the stomach, heart, arms and his neck was slit," said a senior police official.

During investigation, the police learnt that Yadav was an electrician and worked in Pacific Mall, Subhash Nagar. He resided in Uttam Nagar.

His colleagues disclosed that on the day of the murder, Yadav had left the mall at 5 pm for Mahipalpur as his brother-in-law Shyam Sunder had arranged a better job for him.

The police tried to locate Sunder, but he tried to escape. Finally, he was nabbed in Mahipalpur and was interrogated.

On interrogation, he broke down and confessed to his involvement in the murder.

"Sunder had illicit relationship with his sister-in-law. His in-laws were very poor and so he used to take care of Yadav. He was the one who had got Yadav educated and trained as an electrician. However, since last year, when Yadav started earning and looking after his family, Sunder felt ignored and so decided to eliminate Yadav," added officials.

According to Sunder, initially, he had thought of getting Yadav beaten up, but could not succeed. So he thought of eliminating Yadav so that his family would once again value him.

He even purchased a country-made pistol to kill Yadav, but could not gather courage to shoot him. He finally came in contact with Islam and offered him Rs 1 lakh to eliminate Yadav.

On January 21, Sunder called Yadav to Mahipalpur on the pretext of getting him a better job. At Mahipalpur, he along with Islam and Kasim waited for Yadav in his car.

When Yadav reached Mahipalpur, the three took him to the ridge area in Rangpuri and stopped the car for relieving themselves. When Yadav also got down from the car, they overpowered him and killed him with a knife.

New Delhi, January 24
The Delhi police has arrested a person for allegedly duping youths on the pretext of arranging jobs for them in reputed companies.

The accused has been identified as Shan Mohammed (22), a resident of Bulandshahar in UP.

The arrest came after one Manoj Bishnoi reported to the police that he had been cheated of Rs 55,000 by Mohammed, who assured him of arranging a job for him with software firm HCL.

He further stated that Mohammed had also cheated his friend of Rs 65,000 in a similar manner.

A case of cheating was registered at the Karol Bagh police station and investigation was taken up.

The police sent a decoy customer, a girl, to contact Mohammed for a job for her. He was called to Karol Bagh on January 23 and apprehended.

On interrogation, Mahammed disclosed that he had come to Delhi in 2006 and joined a private company in Noida as a recruitment assistant. During his tenure, he learnt the skills of recruitment in private companies. Meanwhile, he also completed his graduation (bachelor in business administration) from Jamia Hamdard University.

In 2008, he left his job and started posing as the representative of a recruitment company, ADDECCO in Karol Bagh.

He started taking money from educated youths, especially B.Techs and MBAs, for providing jobs to them in blue chip companies. To impress the candidates, he had also enrolled himself for MBA through correspondence in Jamia Hamdard University, said a senior police official.

"He gave advertisements on networking sites such as Qicker and sansar.com. Initially, he used to take Rs 5,000-10,000 from his victims as registration fee. After this, he gave them fake appointment letters of blue chip companies such as HCL, BSES, Videocon, D2H Services etc and take Rs 50,000-70,000," added officials.

"His main targets were educated youths from outside Delhi staying in the city for job. He used to get information about such youths from the internet and the HRD department of companies where these youths had sent their bio-datas," said a senior official.

New Deli, January 24
The police has arrested seven members of a gang, including a youth who is pursuing diploma in engineering, for allegedly killing two businessmen brothers here last month.

The arrested have been identified as Naveen Khati (35), his cousin Naresh (32), Arvind (34), Vijay (22), Vikash (22), Sandeep (24), all residents of Mitraon village in Delhi, and Vikas (21) of Najafgarh and Naresh (32) of Dinpur village. he gang was headed by Naveen Khati.

Suresh and Satender, who were involved in copperwinding business, were killed on December 20 and their mother died of shock a day later when their bodies were brought home.They were arrested after several places in cities like Agra, Shikohabad, Morena, Dholpur, Shivpuri and Bhopal, were raided by a team of 50 policemen.

Khati allegedly held a grudge against Suresh and Satender as Suresh had filed a case against him which he had not withdrawn despite repeated threats.

"In 2007, Khati came out on interim bail and took Rs 1.75 lakh loan from Suresh and as security, he gave a cheque by his uncle Om Parkash. As Khati could not repay, Suresh filed a case against Parkash," said a senior police official.

This infuriated Khati and he sent a threatening letter from jail through his cousin Naresh but Suresh declined to withdraw the case and demanded his money back when he came out from jail.

On this, Khati along with his associates hatched a conspiracy and murdered the brothers, said DCPAshok Chand.

New Delhi, January 24
The Delhi police has arrested two persons for being allegedly involved in several cases of kidnapping.

The accused have been identified as Ramesh (28) and Rahul (20).

With their arrest, the police claims to have solved a sensational kidnapping of a housewife.

"Using a unique modus operandi, the accused had kidnapped the woman from the premises of the LNJP Hospital. The woman has been rescued and send to her family," said a senior police official.

The accused were arrested investigation was taken up on the complaint of a person who had reported that his wife, aged 18 years, had been kidnapped from the LNJP Hospital on January 9.

The complainant stated that he along with his wife had come to Delhi for her treatment.

After getting off the train at the railway station, the couple asked a person about the LNJP Hospital and the man readily accompanied them to the hospital.

After reaching the hospital, the man told the complainant that they would require an accommodation and offered to show him some houses. He then took the complainant to an unknown place and asked the woman to wait for them at the hospital, said a senior police official.

The accused took the complainant to a house. There he asked the complainant to wait and left the place on the pretext of meeting the owner of the house.

The complainant waited there for an hour and came back to the hospital, where he found his wife missing.

Other patients informed him that his wife was taken away by the same man who had taken him, added officials.

On investigation, the kidnappers were traced to Haryana. At their instance, the victim was recovered from Karnal where she was sold to a handicapped person, Karan Singh.

On interrogation, both the accused revealed that there are six members in their gang, including two women. All the members, except Ramesh, are residents of Haryana. They used to target young girls at railway stations, ISBTs and hospitals and get familiar with them on the pretext of helping them. Then they used to kidnap and sell them at heavy prices, said senior officials. 

Noida, January 24
The Noida police has arrested the manager of End Mark Forex Services for allegedly duping investors of crores of rupees.

Deputy superintendent of police V.C. Tripathi, said, "The manager, Ravinder Singh, was arrested by the Sector 58 police last night. One laptop has been seized from him. The police is interrogating him and scanning the data in his laptop. However, the main accused in the case, Mayank Gupta, is still at large."

"Singh's father, Kadam Singh, is a resident of Ranipur in Haridwar. Singh has been named in the FIR lodged in the case. He was instrumental in brainwashing the investors into investing in the company's schemes," said Tripathi.

The scam was detected on January 10 when some of the investors had filed a report with the Sector 58 police station.

They claimed that the company had offered to give them returns at the rate of 1 percent per day.

Initially, they got due returns and so they invested more money. In January, the company raised the rate of return to 1.5 per cent per day. This attracted more investors. But on January 9, the company closed operations and duped the investors.