New Delhi, February 4
A 20-year-old student of Satyawati College in east Delhi allegedly committed suicide by hanging himself in the classroom this afternoon. According to the police, the deceased has been identified as Mohammad Aamir Malik, student of BA II year.

"We got a call from the college around 3.15 pm when the staff found Aamir hanging from a ceiling fan in one of the classrooms. He was taken to LBS Hospital where doctors declared him brought dead," said a police official, adding that a preliminary investigation has revealed that a love affair is behind Aamir's extreme step.

According to information, Aamir was having an affair with a girl, who belonged to different religion.

"The relationship was opposed by the girl's family and sometime ago the girl had even eloped with the boy. The girl's family had then lodged a complaint at Bharat Nagar police station," said the official, adding that Aamir's father alleges that he was beaten and hanged by the girl's brothers, but it does not seem true.

"Nothing can be said as of now. The matter is being investigated," said the official, adding that the girl's family is being questioned.

New Delhi, February 4
Angry with his mother's refusal to sell the house and give him money, a 40-year-old drunkard son beat his mother to death in the Mangolpuri area of outer Delhi yesterday evening.

According to the police, Amar Devi was admitted to hospital after the beatings around 4 pm yesterday and she succumbed to her injuries later in the evening. The accused, Somnath, who has admitted to the crime, has been arrested.

The incident was reported from house number C-838, Mangolpuri, where Somnath stayed with his 80-year-old mother Amar Devi.

Somnath's sister Surjeet Kaur in her statement to the police, said her brother was an alcoholic and his wife had left him for the same reason. Somnath's six-year-old son is staying with Kaur. According to Chhaya Sharma, DCP (outer), Somnath has disclosed that since he had no work, he wanted to sell the old house, but his mother was objecting to it.

"He further disclosed that yesterday morning he had asked his mother to sell the house, but she refused. As a result, he got furious and after pressing her throat with his hands, he struck her head against the floor. Neighbours informed the victim's daughter and took Amar Devi to Sanjay Gandhi Memorial Hospital where she succumbed to her injuries," said Sharma.

According to information, Somnath is illiterate and part-time driver.

Fed up of constant fights, even his elder brother Kishan Lal left the house around two years ago. "Amar Devi had already transferred the ownership of property in the name of her grandson Gautam (Somnath's son)," revealed Sharma.

New Delhi, February 4
With the arrest of six persons, the Crime Branch of the Delhi police has unearthed a manufacturing unit used for making fake premium scotch whisky brands like Johnny Walker Black Label, Chivas Regal, etc. In a raid at a flat in Sarita Vihar.

The police seized the printing press which is being used to print counterfeit stickers and labels of various premium brands of scotch whisky, machines used for making fake caps of the bottles, fake Chivas Regal and Johnny Walker Black Label Scotch whisky, a large number of empty bottles of premium Scotch whisky and other equipment.

According to DCP (Crime) Ashok Chand, the raid was the result of an investigation after one Vinod Dua (45), a resident of Lajpat Nagar-1, was arrested with 60 bottles of fake scotches in the Rohini area on January 31.

"Dua said he had purchased the fake scotch whisky from his associate Sudhir Yadav who was then apprehended from Sarita Vihar and 36 bottles of fake Johnny Walker Black Label whisky were also recovered from his Hyundai Accent Car. Yadav is a resident of DDA Flats, Sarita Vihar, and raids at his duplex flat resulted in unearthing of a manufacturing unit for making fake premium scotch whisky," said DSP. As amny as 24 bottles of fake Johnny Walker Black Level whisky, a large number of empty bottles of premium brand of scotch whisky and vodka, liquor in three plastic cans, stickers and caps of various brands, besides other equipment used for bottling were recovered.

Subsequently, Mohd Nazim (28) and Raju (30), the scrap dealers who provided empty bottles of Scotch whisky, along with cartons, were apprehended. Narender Chopra (60), who provided fake caps of various premium brands and fake stickers and labels of premium brands of scotch whisky, was apprehended from Geeta Colony a day later. Another associate, Sushil Mittal (40), responsible for further disposing off fake scotch whisky, has also been apprehended.

According to the DSP, the scrap dealers charged Rs 150 for each bottle from Yadav while he paid Rs 100 for the fake bottle caps and stickers to Chopra. "Yadav spent about Rs 7,200 to prepare 12 bottles of scotch whisky. He then sold these to Dua and Mittal for double the price," said Chand. These whiskies were sold for parties at farmhouses at Rs 30,000 a carton.

New Delhi, February 4
Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit is the first applicant who has got renewed her driving licence after launching new "smart card-based driving licence system".

She said that the transport department with the help of Delhi Integrated Multimodel Transit System (DIMTS) has successfully implemented and operationalized the online learner licence test in all the 13 zonal offices.

Under the new system, the applicant's identity is re-verified through fingerprint matching before he is allowed to sit for the learner licence test. DIMTS is also operating and managing the issue and dispatch of the smart card-based driving licence to the applicant's address. It has also centralized all the driving licence data.

Now with the implementation of new system, the applicants can get new licences or renew their old licences from any zonal office in Delhi. This system also allows applicants to fix an appointment in advance to visit any of the zonal offices and avoid waiting in the queue.

Apart from the on-driving licences, DIMTS is assisting transport department, in the design, development, installation, operation, maintenance and management of the issue of smart card-based PSV badges.

These smart cards are embedded with a tamperproof electronic chip and provide modern technological solution for issuing a whole range of driving licences as well as driver badges.

New Delhi, February 4
Delhi University (DU) students who missed out on their college auditions for different extracurricular societies during the beginning of the session now have good news to look forward to. The DU student's union promises to form eight new societies under the DUSU banner that would enable students from all colleges to give their talent and hobbies a second chance. By getting associated with these societies, college students can still be actively involved in extra-curricular activities.

"These societies are being formed for the very first time in the history of DUSU for the academic advancement of the student community. These societies include DUSU parliamentary debating society, film, wildlife, Newtonian science, sustainability club, Dr Hari singh Gour public lecture series and the Raphel Lemkin humanitarian law society. We will also focus on reviving the already established Foreign Students' Association," said DUSU president Jitendera Choudhary.

To begin with, the DUSU has already working on the successful launch of its first society, the DUSU film society.

"The film society will focus on teaching the students the technicalities of film making art and also hosting various film festivals from time to time. We are, as of now, focusing on kicking of a couple of film festivals," he added.

However, it promised to start different types of film festival very soon in DU.

"With different organisations like National School of Drama (NSD), Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune and Prithvi Theatre, Mumbai, we'll organise free-of-cost workshop, related areas like art and techniques of film photography, film journalism, reporting, editing, pre-production and post-production management, direction, dress designing technique, shooting set designing, make up art, acting and anchoring," explained Choudhary.

An official letter has already been sent to DU Vice Chancellor Prof Dinesh Singh regarding the establishment of this new society.

Currently, each and every college of DU has its own choreography society, fashion, photography, drama (both in Hindi and English separately) as well as a film society. However, these societies have a tough screening process and give preference to students with an extra-curricular activities background.

"With limited number of vacancies and cut-throat competition, a lot of students are not able to be a part of these societies. Through these societies, we aim to integrate students from different colleges and work in groups. We hope that all the societies should be functional by March-end," said DUSU vice-president Priya Dabbas.

New Delhi, February 4
The transport department today launched a new operations control centre (OCC) at the ISBT Building, Kashmere Gate, which houses a very sophisticated monitoring and control system for efficient management of traffic flow.

Inaugurating the OCC, Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit said it was an intricately structured facility to enhance the reliability, efficiency, overall service-quality and attractiveness of the road-based, eco-friendly bus network which accounts for the largest chunk of the city's commuter trips across all transportation modes.

It will be useful for real-time monitoring of stage carriage buses to ensure their adherence to performance benchmarks speed limits, routes, bus stops, punctuality, etc. As a hub, it receives real-time video feeds from on-site CCTV cameras to enable monitoring of traffic-flow on the BRT corridor.

The Chief Minister said the ISS being carried out at OCC would help in the efficient and smooth dispersal of vehicles by optimising signal timings based on radar-captured vehicle-volume data.

New Delhi, February 4
Exploring options for luring people to pay their property tax, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) is ready to adopt corporate culture to fulfil its target of earning a profit of Rs 300 crore in the next financial year.

The civic agency has mulled upon a proposal whereby the tax inspectors would be given incentives for bringing in more and more people under the tax net. The tax officers would be given Rs 100 per property or 10 per cent of the tax, which ever is lower, if they persuade people to pay their taxes. In case of arrears due on properties, the municipal tax officers would be given 1 per cent of the tax paid by the defaulters, if they motivate them for a settlement.

"We have devised this incentive scheme for tax officers wherein they will be given special benefits for identifying and collecting taxes from the properties which are not paying the taxes since long. For collecting arrears from the defaulters, they would get one per cent of the tax and for introducing new properties, Rs 100 or 10 per cent of the tax, whichever is lower would be given," said Shahid A khan, assessor and collector, MCD.

"The scheme has been proposed to increase the revenue for the property tax collection. We hope that the scheme would yield good results," said Khan. He said the work was completely based on teamwork and the money would be distributed among the officers in accordance to the efforts put by them. "Out of the total money earned, 50 per cent would be given to the tax inspector, 20 per cent to assistant assessor and collector and the remaining 30 per cent would go to the deputy and joint assessor and collector.

An upper limit of Rs 2 lakh has also been set for earning the incentives. "Any officer can not get more than Rs two lakh as incentive per annum," he added. The civic agency has set a target of Rs 300 crore as revenue from the property tax, of which Rs 150 crore has been assessed to be collected from the arrears due on several properties which are not paying their taxes and 150 from new properties.

New Delhi, February 4
A Delhi court today issued a notice to the CBI Director, directing him to file a report explaining circumstances under which the confessional statement of Swami Aseemanand, prime accused in the 2007 Ajmer blast case, was made public.

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Sanjay Bansal, however, deferred the applications filed by complainant Devendra Gupta which sought registration of FIR against the accused and an inquiry into the leakage of the statement.

"Before I decide the applications, I am of the view that it is most appropriate that a report be called from the CBI as to how the said confessional statement has been leaked to the media," said Bansal while pronouncing the order.

Meanwhile, the court denied an application filed by the Malegaon blasts accused seeking to obtain the certified copy of the confessional statement.

Gupta, an RSS activist, had filed an application seeking initiation of criminal proceedings against CBI Additional Superintendent of Police TR Balaji and owner, publisher and editor of Tehelka magazine.

In his application, Gupta alleged that Aseemanand's confessional statement that was recorded by a Metropolitan Magistrate under Section 164 of the CrPC (in camera) was leaked by the CBI to Tehelka magazine, thereby violating the law and insulting the judiciary.

"The coverage of the statement in the media very well indicates that the information has been leaked, hence insulting the judicial process..... The leakage of court proceedings opened an additional forum of media trial to prejudice the mind of the court in violation of the rights of the accused in custody," Gupta's counsel Anupam S Sharma and Sanjeev Nassiar had said.

The deliberate leakage was tantamount to commission of offence under various provisions of the IPC and Prevention of Corruption Act, they added.

New Delhi, February 4
The resident doctors of the Guru Tegh Bahadur Hospital (GTB) may have given in to the assurances of the hospital administration on their demands by calling off the two-day strike this evening, but the authorities do not want to take any chance.

The administration is contemplating to evoke ESMA (Essential Services Maintenance Act) to avoid any disruption of hospital services in future and in which case, they could face suspension or termination with immediate effect.

"We were thinking of bringing in ESMA, but the strike has been called off at 5 pm. Strikes have been very frequent and residents every now and then just announce it. Last year there have been similar situations. To see that the doctors do not resort to

illegal activities, we may evoke ESMA tomorrow and then anybody who violates it in the next six months would be sacked immediately. We are in talk with the health officials," said the GTB's medical superintendent Dr Rajpal, while talking to The Tribune.

However, the Resident Doctors' Association (RDA) of GTB maintains that the administration has never tried to address the basic issues pertaining to deficiency in nursing orderlies and inadequate hospital infrastructure, non-functional alert systems in the emergencies, poor public address system, unavailibility of drinking water in the emergencies, to name a few.

In their list of demands, said the RDA president Dr Kundan, "Security is the main issue and we had asked for one-patient-one-attendant norm to be enforced with immediate effect. The present security is ineffective."

On January 29, a scuffle between the resident doctors and deceased's relatives took place, following which nearly 500 resident doctors, including postgraduates, junior and senior residents, went on strike.

Interestingly, it was the very first day of RDA's existence, when the strike started after the patient's

relatives barged into the emegency and hit the doctor concerned, claimed doctors.

The strike was called off then, said RDA president, "But yesterday when our demands were still not met, we resumed the strike. But the emergency service was functioning."

After long parleys between the administration and the resident doctors, the resident doctors called off the strike, and in view of the security lapse, the guards who were present on the incident day would be removed, assured the administration.

New Delhi, February 4
The Delhi government has awarded a study project to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to find out the feasibility of open market in the Capital. The government has planned to abolish the control rate system of food items in ration shops, sources said.

It's a pilot project in which 5,000 families will be contacted by the surveyors at five places of the city, including Raghubir Nagar in northeast Delhi. If the project is successful, the open market system will be implemented in the entire city.

Admitting the corruption in the food and supply department, Haroon Yusuf, the minister who looks after the department said that making available all the food items in the open market is the only solution to corruption.

This idea came after the government started selling pulses and atta at cheap rates through kendriya bhandar. Atta is still being sold at the rate of Rs 139 for 10 kg bag. People prefer to purchase Delhi government's atta as it is cheap and of better quality in comparison to the atta of private companies, he said.

This issue has been discussed with the Planning Commission chairman. Now the city government will have a meeting with the Union food and supplies minister to discuss the issue. There are 3,700 fair price shops (control rate shops) that are supplied with five lakh tons of wheat every month. Normally the wheat is not of good quality. The same is the condition of sugar and rice.

Only the poor purchase ration from these shops which are not open most of the times. When they are opened, buyers do not get complete ration items. If the food items are made available at cheap rates in the open market, the monopoly of ration shop owners will be over and the poor will get quality food items at cheap rates, Yusuf said.

Faridabad, February 4
The police has again failed to arrest an accused who has been denied anticipatory bail by an additional district and sessions court here in connection with the alleged beating up of a person in Sainik Colony on January 1.

The main accused, Dani, is alleged to be a relative of a minister of Haryana. The complainant, R.M.S.Kundu, has alleged that the accused beat him, thereby causing physical injuries.

The court in its hearing for the anticipatory bail of the accused rejected it going by the argument of the public prosecutor and the complainant that custodial interrogation of the accused was important.

The sequence of the alleged event that occurred on January 1 had become the talking point in the wide-ranging parts of the city.

As per the version of the complainant, who resides in Sainik Colony, Dani gave him a call on his mobile and called him to the site where construction of a villa in the colony was taking place. The accused had allegedly told Kundu that a son of the minister of Haryana wanted to meet him. When he reached the place, he was alleged to have been mercilessly beaten up by Dani and his associates.

When he went to the Civil Hospital for medical attention, a doctor on duty turned him away as the incident was allegedly related to a relative of a powerful politician. The victim lodged a complaint against the doctor to the CMO of the hospital on the same day.

Kundu's complaint against the accused was not entertained by the then in-charge of SGM Nagar police station. Rather he was humiliated. The police officer allegedly threatened to register an FIR against him. He then went to the police commissioner, Faridabad, P.K.Aggarwal to press for registration of the case. In spite of the intervention of the police commissioner, the case was not registered. Rather he was again humiliated by the police officer in the police station. The case was registered in the evening of January 3, the third day of the incident, after the complainant took up the matter with a senior police officer of the state, stationed at Chandigarh.

The complainant has written a letter to the Chief Minister of Haryana, Bhupinder Singh Hooda and the Director-General of Police, Haryana, R.S.Dalal, alleging the role of the then in-charge of the police station.

There were many eyebrows raised as the police not only delayed in registering the case, it did not arrest the accused.

The anticipatory bail of the accused was rejected on February 1. The SHO of SGM Nagar police station, Ravinder Singh says that the police was not able to trace the accused.