New Delhi, June 19
In an unprecedented move which will go a long way in curbing the menace of power theft in the Capital city, the electricity court at Rohini today sent four power thieves to jail and also denied them bail till 100 per cent penalty levied on them is paid.

Two separate FIRs were registered against the accused Yashpal and Nanhe Lal at the Maurya Enclave police station and Pale and Ravi at the Adarsh Nagar police station. They were booked for theft by NDPL.

The accused were sent to judicial custody and subsequently produced before the court where the judge observed that the theft of electricity is a serious offence and merely paying half the penalty does not mitigate the nature of the offence and denied them bail.

"The court has directed all the four accused to pay 100 per cent amount levied on them for the theft and only then bail will be granted to them. While Pale and Ravi can deposit 40 per cent of the total amount of Rs 32,318 by June 20 and the remaining in next 20 days, in case of Yashpal and Nanhe Lal, the court has directed them to pay the full amount of Rs 1,51,110 to secure bail," said a senior NDPL official.

"We welcome the order by the electricity court and hope that such stringent judicial and police action against power thieves will act as a deterrent," added the official.

New Delhi, June 19
The humidity level continued to rise today with spells of rain lashing the city. But, the morning rain in many parts of the Capital brought much-wanted relief to the people from the scorching heat.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has forecast more rain in the course of the day.

According to the IMD, the city received 12 mm of rainfall over the past 24 hours. As a result, the minimum temperature recorded early Sunday was three degrees below the average, at 24.5° C.

The skies remained partly cloudy with the possibility of rain and thundershowers.

The maximum temperature is expected to hover around 35° C.

Yesterday, the maximum and minimum temperatures were both two notches below average at 37.3° and 25.6° C, respectively.

Noida, June 19
Two technicians were badly charred while filling gas in an air conditioner in a software company in sector 16 last night. Both were rushed to a private hospital in sector 27 where the condition of one of them was described as critical by doctors while the second man was stable.

The technicians were identified as Salman and Manjar of Khanpur in south Delhi. They had come to fill gas in the air conditioner of a software company in A block of sector 16 in Noida.

As they were filling the gas, there was a blast in the compressor of the AC.

It was followed by a fire in the room.

As a result of the blast, the glass panes in the building and some adjoining buildings cracked.

Dozens of people in panic came out on the roads.

The police from sector 20 soon reached the spot and rushed the charred technicians to a hospital.

As Salman was nearer the AC, his face was badly charred.

Doctors said his condition was serious while Manjar was in stable condition.

Noida, June 19
The house of a businessman has been allegedly burgled and valuables worth Rs 34 lakh, including jewellery and Rs 2.5 lakh in cash, have been stolen while the family was away in Mussouri on holiday.

Since the domestic help, Anjali, who was left behind to look after the house in Sector 26, was found missing, she is suspected to have absconded with the valuables.

Kamal Bansal, along with his family, returned home on Friday night and found the lock on the main door intact. But the doors and cupboards inside the house had their locks broken opened with things strewn around. Around Rs 2.5 lakh, jewellery and other valuables were found missing.

Anjali was reportedly engaged by the Bansals on May 7 only. Being the sister of another maid who had served in their house for four years, the Bansals did not go in for police verification.

The security guards in the area said they did not notice any stranger going towards their house during their absence.

New Delhi, June 19
A man, who had killed his wife after she came to know of his extra-marital affair, has been sentenced to life imprisonment by a Delhi court.

Additional Sessions Judge Sunita Gupta held Pawan Singh guilty of killing his wife and also rapped the city police for not taking action in the case, in which FIR was filed only after the court's intervention.

"The accused has failed to furnish any proper explanation. Cumulative effect of all the proved facts unerringly point towards the guilt of the accused and the circumstances taken together are completely inconsistent with the plea of innocence," the court said.

The court has also directed the DCP (north-east district) for necessary action against the officials of Harsh Vihar police station who did not take any action on the complaint of Dimple's father Dharampal Singh in October 2009.

New Delhi, June 19
A eunuch, sent to a detention home for two years after being caught begging, has been set free by a Delhi court on the ground that it is hard for transgender to get even menial jobs to earn a living.

"Appellant undisputedly is a transgender and it is a hard fact that in our society, transgender are being shunned even today. It is difficult for them to get even menial jobs," district Judge AK Chawla said, while setting aside lower court's order for its failure to take into account the eunuch's living condition and the person's antecedents.

Rani was found begging at a red light at Moolchand flyover here in November 2010, and pleaded guilty before the court of special metropolitan magistrate, who remanded Rani in a detention home for two years under the Bombay Prevention of Begging Act.

Rani filed an appeal against the detention.

The district court noted that while passing the order, the magistrate should have had regard to the age and character of the beggar, the circumstances and conditions in which the person was living and the report made by the probation officer.

It noted the report of the probation officer in the case was silent on the eunuch's character, living conditions or antecedents like family background and circumstances, which forced Rani to beg.

Criticising the special metropolitan magistrate's order of conviction, the court said, "It is totally silent on the circumstances in which the appellant was living and now is there any material on record about his antecedents."

Rani was released with a warning on a personal bond of Rs 1,000.

New Delhi, June 19
Religious conversion of a woman cannot be a reason for disqualifying her custodial rights over a child from a previous marriage, a Delhi court has ruled.

The court gave the ruling while denying the custodial rights claim of a child's grandfather who took the plea that since his widowed daughter-in-law had embraced Islam, she was not entitled to the child's custody.

"The mere fact that she has married a Muslim is not by itself a reason to take away the child from the mother," Guardian Judge Gautam Manan said.

"In the facts of the case where the child is getting congenial, comfortable and a happy home, the conversion of woman to the Muslim religion cannot be a disqualification to be a guardian," the court said.

Ram Kumar Maurya, a resident of Sangam Vihar, had filed a petition in the court, seeking custody of his 14-year-old grandson from the child's mother, who after the death of his son had married a Muslim.

Savitri Devi, a resident of south Delhi, had married Maurya's son Santram in 1993 and after when he allegedly committed suicide, she married Moinu Haque in 2001.

Since then the child is residing with her mother and stepfather.

Maurya, 50, said Savitri converted to Islam for marrying Haque, hence the child born to a Hindu father cannot be permitted to live in a Muslim home, apprehending that child too would be converted to Islam.

"The court is of the view that the respondents (Savitri and Haque) are taking good care of the child and is giving him good education," said the court.

"Keeping in mind the paramount interest and welfare of the child, the prayer of petitioner (grandfather) for grant of permanent custody cannot be allowed," the Guardian Judge said.

The court added that law also recognises guardianship of the mother in the absence of the father and when the mother is there she has to be appointed as the guardian. It also denied visitation rights to Maurya to meet the child and said even the boy had refused to recognise his grandfather.

The judge noted that Maurya had failed to prove that the child was not getting proper care and education while residing with his mother.

New Delhi, June 19
An increasing number of adolescents, irrespective of the economic strata of society they belong to, are reporting to hospitals with conduct disorders. Such children, experts say, could be at risk of indulging in sexual misbehaviour and unlawful activities, landing themselves in juvenile homes. Hence, they warrant greater attention from parents.

Psychiatrists attribute this to growing awareness and the Internet exposure apart from stress of studies, performance, peer influence and substance-abuse.

"Crumbling social structure and families, with the incidence reported more from nuclear rather than joint families, is another major worry," observed associate professor at psychiatric department of All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Dr Nand Kumar.

In the absence of any indigenous general population study, though there is no specific data to back it, 12.8 per cent of the adolescents were found to be suffering from psychiatric problems, as per the latest clinical study on the subject by the Indian Council of Medical Research.

"Such children have a tendency to steal, lie and get involved in crimes. They become defiant and run the risk of turning psychopaths in future. If not handled well, conduct disorder in adolescents may result in their becoming anti-social," Dr Rajesh Sagar, additional professor at the AIIMS' psychiatry department, told The Tribune.

The fact that the number of suicidal attempts, especially reported during the exam time, has been more, the ICMR data is just the tip of the iceberg, he added.

"Due to multiple factors, children face decreased performance and the resultant stress. Over the last decade, the number of such adolescents has gone up," said Dr Smair Parikh, chief psychiatrist of Max Healthcare.

Adolescents as young as 4-17, are seen to have anxiety, depression and it may be manifested through symptoms, such as more irritability, anger outburst, poor concentration and getting abusive.

If left unattended, the problem tends to outgrow pushing the patient to the higher edge of the range, cautioned Dr Kumar.

Due to awareness going up, more children have started reporting to hospital. Initially, we go for the non-pharmalogical therapy, having components of conflict resolution and behavioural therapy. The medicines come at last, he added.

Those children with family history of bipolar disorder- a spectrum mental disorder, having low and high extremes-require careful assessment as in such cases, the degree of vulnerability increases.

"On the high phase of mental illness, the child may show signs like aggressiveness, mood fluctuations and sexual behaviour. On the lower end, the child may have a tendency to withdraw from the outside world, crying every now and then," Dr Kumar explained.

Lavish even by Bollywood's standards was the wedding of industrialist G.V.K. Reddy's granddaughter to Indu Group's scion last week. It was more like a Bollywood's awards function where right from Shah Rukh Khan to Hema Malini performed on stage starting from the sangeet to the rest of the wedding. There were chartered flights free for the guests from Delhi and all over. And there were personal notes for each of the 6,000 guests who attended the wedding with their boarding passes.

Now when the sangeet was hosted by Karan Johar himself, you will obviously see the likes of Shah Rukh Khan, Priyanka Chopra and Mallika Sherawat performed on stage. Not many politicians were present from the Capital or the state as one would have expected in the wedding of showman M.P.Subbarami Reddy's granddaughter. But the stars like Amitabh Bachchan and family, Anil Ambani with Tina, Boney Kapoor and Sri Devi were all there in their finery. The wedding was outstanding as almost everything was designed by Mumbai designers Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla. They also designed the outfits of the family along with the mandap. The air was filled with the fragrance of Jasmine flowers. The reception in Delhi was also a grand affair. The gate of the venue was a car lover's delight.