New Delhi, January 30
In a shocking case, a resident doctor of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences allegedly molested an eight-year-old child being treated at the hospital for a tumour in brain.

The matter, which came to light today after the victim's family went to the local police station, is learnt to have been referred to the sexual harassment committee of the hospital. The incident happened about a month ago when the child was in ICU, but he remained silent until he was shifted to the ward due to threats from the doctor.

Confirming the details, sources from the hospital said the family, after knowing about the matter from the child, filed a complaint with the medical superintendent of the hospital and later also went to the local police station for registering a case against the doctor.

However, the doctor got relief from the legal scanner as the police sent the family back, saying that a case would be registered only after the AIIMS committee came up with its report.

When approached, the medical superintendent of the hospital, Dr D.K. Sharma, said, "The case is being investigated and so it would not be appropriate to comment on it till the sexual harassment committee submits its report." 

New Delhi, January 30
As per the Delhi government's long-awaited plan to phase out Blueline buses from the city roads, the owners of the 'killer fleet' have been sent notices to surrender their permits by tomorrow.

The government had decided to phase out Blueline buses before the Commonwealth Games in order to streamline public transport system.

The buses, which earned bad popularity for its involvement in various mishaps, were decided to be taken off the city roads from February 1. Transport Minister Arvinder Singh Lovely had earlier said that January 31 would be the last day for the remaining 840 Blueline buses in the city.

With the deadline expiring tomorrow, the authorities have already sent notices to the owners of the buses. The Delhi government had shunted out 823 Blueline buses on December 14 and removed 389 more on December 31 out of a total of 2,052 such vehicles.

Lovely said the state-run DTC buses will be able to meet the transportation needs of the city. "We have a fleet of 6,200, including 3,575 low-floor buses. We are confident of being able to handle the situation. There will be no problem. At any given day, at least 5,000 DTC buses are there on the roads," the official said.

He said any Blueline bus plying on roads after January 31 would be impounded as permits have been suspended. Asked about some Bluelines running on roads after painting the vehicles white, he said all buses running without permit would be seized.

The government has been trying to modernise the public transport system in the city and has procured hundreds of swanky low-floor buses, including air-conditioned and non-air conditioned vehicles.

The government had last year announced an ambitious cluster bus service scheme under which corporate entities were proposed to be given certain routes in the city on the pattern of cities like Paris and London. The first cluster bus service is expected to begin its operation in February.

The Delhi High Court had on January 20 reserved its order on the city government's plea not to permit the Blueline buses to come back on roads. The bus operators had moved the court seeking to run their buses on the roads till the government implements the new cluster bus system.

The court has turned down operators' plea for extension of permits of one-third of the 2,000 Bluelines. Justifying its decision to phase out Blueline buses, the government had told the court that the private buses were six times more accident-prone than DTC buses.

New Delhi, January 30
With the first semester results finally out in Delhi University, students and faculty are relieved as the results are "satisfactory" in most of the courses.

However, many believe that the leniency by the moderation committee of this semester has a lot to do with the successful results. With the next date of the semester row case in the Delhi High Court, due on February 8, some teachers believe that these committees have helped hide the flaws in the system so that the administration has a strong foothold in the court justifying the successful implementation of the semester system.

"As far as BSC physics (H) and chemistry (H) are concerned, the results are satisfactory. The pass percentage was also indeed very good. However, there are some students who have an ER or an essential repeat in one or more papers. Any student with ER in all four papers will be asked to repeat the semester; although, with ER in maximum two papers, a student will be allowed to attend the next semester. But the student will have to clear the papers in the third semester," explained Abha Habib, physics faculty, Miranda House college.

"The results are good so far. But the better picture will emerge once the breakup of individual score in each subject comes. That is when we will be able to analyse that how did students perform in individual subjects. And teachers will be able to analyse the success rate in any subject with the preparation and the class hours put in last semester. Teachers will also have to improvise strategy for the next semester so that the performance in any subject is not even a little bit affected by the teaching problems," said Kirthi Nath, BSC life sciences faculty at Gargi College.

The bigger concern that mounts on the administration is the process of re-evaluation and re-checking of the papers that the students will apply for over the next month. The administration and the faculty together will have to try hard not to delay the results of the rechecking process. Also, the next hearing in the high court will now determine the fate of the semester exams and most probably give its decision on the PIL filed back in September that sought an interim relief in the matter.

Currently, the results of BSc, honours in biomedical sciences, microbiology, physics and biochemistry exams have been declared. 

New Delhi, January 30
The opposition BJP today demanded the state government to allocate Rs 10,000 crore in the budget for making provisions of basic amenities to people living in unauthorised colonies and other areas like Dwarka and Palam.

Addressing a public meeting in the Dwarka assembly constituency, Delhi BJP chief Vijender Gupta said at the time of assembly elections, the Congress had distributed provisional certificates to unauthorised colonies but not a single colony had been regularised till date. He said people of unauthorised colonies in the city were offended by the fraud of the Congress.

"More than 10 lakh people live in hellish condition in these areas. In entire Delhi more than 50 lakh people live in unauthorised colonies," he said.

He accused the state government of not providing sufficient supply of water to the people living in big colonies like Dwarka. "Due to this, they have been deprived of basic amenities. They have no option but to purchase bottled drinking water and are living in hardship. There is acute shortage of water in Dwarka, Palam, Mahavir Enclave, Nasir Pur, Dashrath Puri, etc. People of these areas suffer from various diseases because of lack of amenities," said Gupta.

Doing an art-house movie and attempting to market it like a mainstream movie is usually an impossible task. But when you are the clever Kiran Rao and have the charming Aamir Khan by your side, it becomes a plausible project. Throw in it the late Smita Patil's son Prateek Babbar in a stellar role and you have a combo that could work. Co-hosting the evening was the film producer Smita's sister Manya Patil, who was beaming with the pride of an aunt whose nephew has an outing with Aamir to start his career. But it's all hard work as Aamir Khan attempts to woo the audience.

A special screening in Delhi for "Aamir's Friends" was attended by the city's film loving jet set and some editors and politicos. Salman Khurshed, Rajdeep Sardesai and Sagrika Ghose and enough page3 celebrities were cosseted by Nakul and Timsy Anand who were also co-host for the film evening.

The show which began a little late was a social affair too. PVR Rivoli turned on the hospitality and guests enjoying the free popcorn and other goodies that make for typical "real" movie outing.

New Delhi, January 30
To make Delhi Metro friendlier, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) is installing interactive digital pods at its stations. These pods will give information to the commuters about Metro's network, stations, train timings, fare structure and much more.

The interactive pods, to be installed at 28 stations, will also have detail information about Delhi and its major tourist attractions.

Initially, 60 pods will be installed at selected stations, including Rajiv Chowk, Kashmere Gate, Dilshad Garden, Shahdara, Vishwavidyalaya, Barakhamba Road. Eight pods have already been installed at Barakhamba Road, Rajiv Chowk, Kashmere Gate and Vishwavidyalaya Metro stations. These pods are undergoing trial and will be operational within a month.

In future, the pods will provide accessibility to the portals of the Indian Railways, major airline companies and the Google earth map. These pods will have bluetooth facility to ensure that all the downloadable information in the pods can be easily transferred to mobile phones. 

New Delhi, January 30
Even after the passage of more than two weeks, the Saket police station sleuths of South Delhi are still groping in dark for any clue in a murder case of 27-year-old Sanjit who was strangled to death by unknown persons on January 14 in the Pushp Vihar area. The body of Sanjit was forcefully recovered and sent to postmortem by the police from cremation grounds after the priest sensing something amiss when he saw injury marks on the neck of the deceased and informed the police about it. When the police tried to take away the body, Sanjit's father and brother indulged in an argument with the police insisting that it was a natural death, but the police finally succeeded in taking the body for autopsy. It was later revealed in the autopsy report that Sanjit was strangled to death. The family's attitude in the matter made them prime suspect but the police is yet to lodge an FIR or arrest anyone in the case.

According to a police official from the district, they got the postmortem report only few days ago and the investigation has been taken up. "It was only couple of days back that we got hold of Sanjit's postmortem report which revealed that he was strangled to death. We are investigating the matter and will soon reach the conclusion," said the official without revealing any line of investigation. When asked whether the family members are under scanner, the official said they were, but refused to comment whether it was another case of honour killing. According to information, the police is working to find out whether Sanjit was having an affair with any girl and his family members have also been questioned in this regard. The police has also not ruled out enmity angle. "We are not sure either he was having enmity with anyone or not but are investigating the matter from all the possible angles," said the official.

Sanjit was an employee in a private firm and was living in F Block of Pushp Vihar in South Delhi. According to information, Sanjit was taken to Dakshinpuri cremation ground by his family members to perform his last rites but could not.

Deepak Sharma, the priest of the cremation ground, found something amiss and questioned his family members about the injuries on Sanjit's neck. But, when he did not get any satisfactory reply he called the PCR informing that the youth might not have died of natural causes which the family claimed. After a heated argument with his family, the police sent the body to the postmortem at AIIMS mortuary.

"Rakesh, Sanjit's brother, and his father Sher Singh were present at the cremation ground when the police forcefully took the body in its possession. In their statement to the police they claimed that Sanjit had returned home on January 13 and went inside his room where he was found dead," said the official expressing surprise about family not taking Sanjit to the hospital.

New Delhi, January 30
A 31-year-old man allegedly involved in more than 73 criminal cases, including murder, and liked being called "Badshah of snatchers and pickpokets" was yesterday arrested by the outer district police.

According to the police, Raju alias Hakla, a resident of Sultanpuri, was nabbed on a tip-off from Pilakhwa in UP.

"Raju is the undisputed leader of various gangs of snatchers and pickpockets operating in Delhi. All gang members pay a major amount of their earning to Raju. He knows almost all pickpockets and snatchers in Delhi. If any gang member is arrested, Raju provides him with all assistances such as hiring a lawyer, besides resolving disputes between the gangs," said Chhaya Sharma, DCP (Outer), adding that Raju was also wanted in a murder committed in Prem Vihar.

Raju and his accomplices had allegedly murdered

one Roomal Lal at his house in Prem Vihar on November 1 last year.

"One of Raju's accomplices, Rakesh, was in a relationship with Lal's daughter. When the girl got pregnant, Lal insisted Rakesh to marry her. On this, Raju and his men beat Lal who later succumbed to his injuries," said Sharma, adding that while five persons were arrested, Raju had been on the run.

Raju had also allegedly attempted to kill one Rajesh

Since Raju has more than 73 cases registered against him, five teams of the Delhi police and various teams of the UP police had been deployed to track him down. The police got an information that he along with his wife Parveen was residing in Pilakhwa in UP. He was arrested there.

Raju allegedly used to carry an identity card of the All-India Crime Reforms Organisation to avoid being caught by the police. 

New Delhi, January 30
The Delhi government has said "no" to a proposal for widening of Mehrauli-Mahipalpur road to give a better access to the airport on the grounds that the connectivity has improved now.

A proposal was send to the government last week but was turned down, as it would have led to demolition of about 15,000 houses on the stretch. The proposal stressed that the Mehrauli-Mahipalpur stretch is the shortest route to the airport and widening of the road would give better connectivity to the airport. It was said that the traffic at the airport is now at about 45,000 passengers a day which will soon go up to one lakh.

However, government officials noted that they would have to demolish about 10,000 to 15,000 houses on the stretch, which would not have been feasible and the government might had to face public backlash. "The connectivity to the airport has already improved now. The Metro line will become operational. Also, the government has ensured three flyovers on the IIT-Dhaula Kuan stretch to make it signal free. Therefore, widening of the Mehrouli-Mahipalpur is not worth pursuing ," said a senior official.

Last year, several flyovers, including Rao Tula Ram Marg, Munirka and Dwarka underpass was inaugurated to decongest the approach to the airport. The government had earlier studied a proposal for a tunnel underpass at Mahipalpur to decongest the stretch, but had dropped the proposal.