New Delhi, January 20
Seventeen-year-old Naveen, who was eager to attend a Delhi University college festival today where he was to meet his childhood friend, instead met his own untimely death.

Naveen, who lived at Bhiroki village in Haryana, left his home early in the morning to reach Delhi. He was a Class XI student of HDM Public School in Palwal, Haryana.

He and his friend Prabhu Dayal had planned to meet at Acharya Narendra Dev College, where the latter is a first year student of maths (honours).

"At about 8.30 am, we spoke to each other over the phone before he left his house. I had told Naveen not to come on his own, but he didn't listen to me. He reached the Okhla railway station and called me again before he started walking towards my college in Govindpuri," recalled Naveen's friend Prabhu.

He telephoned Naveen to check on his whereabouts at 12 noon. But, he was surprised when a police official received his call.

"I first called out my friend's name, thinking that it was him. But the police official on the other line told me that Naveen was killed in an accident at the Modi Mill flyover. He directed me to arrive at the AIIMS Trauma Centre to identify Naveen's body. I also gave him Naveen's elder brother Lakhan's phone number," he added.

Naveen's family, which was unaware about the incident, asked Jasram, Navven's uncle, who works as a security official at Tughalaqabad Extension, to confirm the whereabouts of Naveen. He said, "Naveen's father, Koomarpal telephoned me and told me that Naveen met with an accident and wanted me to check him at the hospital. Lakhan gave me the police official's number. I asked him how severely Naveen was injured. But, he said that he was dead and his body had been preserved at the mortuary. I was shocked to hear the news."

But, Jasram was unable to identify Naveen's body, because he last met him when he was a child.

"Prabhu recognised him since they have been friends for a long time. They also meet regularly since they are from the same village," said Jasram.

Prabhu recalled, "We had been planning to meet at my college's fest. We grew up together in the same village and I knew him well. Naveen was a good-natured boy." 

New Delhi, January 20
Four agents have been arrested for being allegedly involved in trafficking of people from India to the United States via Guatemala.

The custom department of the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport found a baggage on February 2011.

On November 18, they found 105 passports in it. The baggage was thereafter handed over to the IGI police station on January 2.

Investigations revealed that 84 passports were issued by the Regional Passport Office (RPO) in Ahmedabad. While 16 were issued by the RPO in Jalandhar, two in Chandigarh and one in Surat. The police also found that two passports were issued from the Consulate General of India at Dubai and Brussels.

Preliminary investigations revealed that the baggage had arrived to Delhi from Guatemala via the Turkish Airlines on February 7, 2011. The baggage belonged to passenger Sawan Rajnikant Trivedi who arrived at Delhi on February 6. The baggage arrived the next day "unaccompanied".

The police procured the arrival and departure reports of all the passports. Most of the passengers left India from the Delhi Airport (100 from Delhi, three from Amritsar and two from Ahmedabad) to Guatemala where they obtained "on arrival visa".

Most of the passport holders travelled between August and December 2010 via Dubai and Istanbul to Guatemala.

The police examined passports and learnt that Praveen Bhai Mohandas Patel had arrived to India on a scanned copy of an original passport. He said that his original passport was taken by an agent at Guatemala. Patel, who is a resident of Gujarat, revealed the gang of agents operating in Gujarat, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Delhi and Punjab.

A case registered at the IGI airport police station in 2010 revealed that 32 passports were seized from an agent, Adil, who was operating from Maharashtra and Gujarat. Two more agents, Zakir operating in Mumbai and Gujarat and Gur Amrit Pal Singh Muthani were also involved. Their route to send people to the US was the similar to the present case.

The police received intelligence reports that Trivedi will arrive at Delhi to meet other important agents on January 13 or 14. The police arrested Trivedi, Muthani, Shashi Kiran Reddy and Surjeet Kumar on January 15. Trivedi arrived at India from the US via Hong Kong and Nepal the day before he was arrested.

Muthani was stationed at Guatemala and kept passengers at hotels. He then introduced them to Alex who is operating in Guatemala with his other Mexican agents.

More than thousand persons had crossed over to the US via Guatemala.

New Delhi, January 20
The Delhi High Court today issued notice to the Delhi police on a plea by Yahoo India Pvt Ltd challenging a trial court's order to prosecute the company for allegedly hosting objectionable content.

Justice Suresh Kait said: "Notice be issued to the Delhi police for February 10."

Yahoo India Pvt Ltd approached the high court challenging the summons issued to the company by a Delhi magistrate's court in a case of allegedly webcasting objectionable content.

"It is a case where summons were issued without application of mind by the magistrate's court as there was no material against Yahoo India," Yahoo India's counsel and senior advocate Arvind Nigam said.

The court also allowed Yahoo India's plea that its case be heard separately.

Petitioner Vinay Rai has requested the trial court to remove objectionable contents from 21 websites. Of these, 12 websites are of foreign-based companies.

Metropolitan Magistrate Sudesh Kumar had summoned the accused companies to face trial for allegedly committing the offence punishable under the Indian Penal Code Sections 292 (sale of obscene books and material) and 293 (sale of obscene objects to young person).

The trial court observed that the material submitted by the complainant contained obscene pictures and derogatory articles pertaining to various Hindu deities, Prophet Mohammad and Jesus Christ. -- IANS

New Delhi, January 20
The rescue of six bonded child labourers from a construction site of a central government building in the national capital today has raised doubts on the will of the government towards implementing the law in question and also uncovered the glaring insensitivity of people.

For almost a year, the children, said to be below 18 years of age, were allegedly engaged in hazardous works such as cutting iron rods and fixing electrical faults by Era Infra Engineering Ltd for a project of the information and broadcasting ministry at the CGO Complex here. Ironically, the ministry is the centre for relaying and circulating social messages across the country against child labour.

This morning, acting upon a complaint filed by child rights NGO Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA), sub-divisional magistrate of New Friends Colony Pravesh Ranjan Jha and men from the Lodhi Road police station conducted a raid on the premises of the Soochna Bhawan.

The children, all migrants from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh and allegedly trafficked to Delhi, were forced to work for over 12 hours a day.

"According to Section 26 of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act 2000, anybody below 18 years should not be employed in any hazardous occupation. The rescued children would qualify as bonded labourers and be provided with a release certificate as well as a compensation of Rs 20,000 each," said SDM Jha.

"The children used to cut iron rods and do electrical and plumbing works. During the raid, they were found to be working in poor physical conditions (in just pants and shirts) and some even had sore hands and feet. They stayed in temporary shelters close to the construction site. Some had also worked at some Commonwealth Games sites last year," said BBA activist Rakesh Senger.

"The common people remain indifferent to the pains of the poor and the apathy is visible almost everywhere. They should come forward and complain against child labour," BBA chairperson RS Chaurasia said. 

New Delhi, January 20
Delhi lawyers today observed a day-long strike as part of a nationwide protest of the Bar Council of India against two Bills, including one which they claim will take away the powers of the council to hear complaints against lawyers.

The strike paralysed legal proceedings of all six district courts.

A group of lawyers went inside the 2G scam special CBI court and requested prosecution and defence counsels to stop the proceedings. They asked counsels of the case to join their strike.

Judges held court as usual but in the absence of lawyers most cases were put off.

"The government intends to take over the powers of the Bar Council by establishing ombudsmen, consisting of judges, to hear complaints against lawyers and take over the authority of the council over legal education," said Rajiv Khosla, spokesperson of coordination committee of all the District Court Bar Associations of Delhi. 

-- IANS

New Delhi, January 20
Bravery award is a big achievement for these children who not only saved the precious lives of others by showing exemplary courage and strength, but also performed their duty towards humanity, said Lieutenant Governor (LG) Tejendra Khanna today at a function at Raj Niwas while meeting the recipient of the National Bravery Award 2011.

Twenty-four children - 16 boys and eight girls - have been conferred the National Bravery Award 2011, five of them have been given posthumously.

Congratulating these brave children for their courageous acts, the LG said that this was a very big achievement as they had not only saved the precious lives of others by showing exemplary courage and strength, but also performed their duty towards humanity.

The LG wished them success in life and prayed for their good health and a bright future, so that they could harness their positive energy in improving society and inspire more and more people to do selfless service. He also paid his tribute to the parents of these brave children.

The most-coveted Bharat Award has been conferred posthumously on 15-year-old late Kapil Negi of Uttarakhand who helped his classmates to cross a flooded stream. His parents will receive the award. Prestigious Geeta Chopra Award has been conferred to 13-year-old Kumari Mittal Mahendrabahi Patadiya of Gujrat who faced armed robbers and foiled a robbery attempt. The Sanjay Chopra Award has been given to 12-and-a-half-year-old Om Prakash Yadav of Uttar Pradesh who saved his schoolmates from a burning van.

The Bapu Gaidhani Awards have been conferred to late Adithya Gopal, late Uma Shankar and late Kumari Anjali Singh Gautam. Late Adithya Gopal, 14-years-old from Arunachal Pradesh, lost his life while trying to save his friend from drowning.

Late Uma Shankar, 14-years-old from Delhi, rescued people caught in a bus mishap and also provided medical help. Late Kumari Anjali Singh Gautam, 15-years-old from Chhattisgarh, saved her younger brother in a Naxalite attack.

The children will participate in the Republic Day parade. 

New Delhi, January 20
After students of Jawaharlal Nehru University started an indefinite hunger strike last night, demanding the university to hold the students' union election in this semester itself, the administration today assured that students' rights would be ensured.

Maintaining that it was in the favour of holding students' election at the earliest, the administration today announced its stand on the matter.

"The administration has initiated the process of holding the students' union election following the lifting of the ban by the Supreme Court and giving relaxation to the candidates on three counts: age, attendance and finance," said an official statement from the university.

"As per the Supreme Court guidelines, the election is to be held six to eight weeks from the commencement of the academic session, which for JNU is July 22. The administration is seeking clarification through its legal counsel from the Supreme Court if election can be held in this semester and once again after the commencement of the academic session when the university reopens," it said.

"The students have also written to the amicus curiae, seeking clarification on the issue and are awaiting a reply. The vice-chancellor has held a meeting of the deans and administrators and formed a committee to study the Lyngdoh report and advise on the modalities of holding the election. A grievance redress committee, as suggested by the Lyngdoh committee, is being set up," said the spokesperson of the university.

Reiterating the intension of the administration to avoid any furtherface off with the students, a senior official said, "Everyone is in the favour of the election. It becomes really easier for the administration to communicate with the students through a union. There has been no election in four years. And now, neither the administration nor the students would want to violate court orders because of a little haste. We just want to be sure of everything."

"We will continue with the strike till the elections dates are announced. Our university has not had election in the last three and a half years, and waiting till the next session means seven more months. We have already said that we will conduct elections according to the Supreme Court guidelines. Then, what is the delay about. We want the election dates as soon as possible," said a senior SFI leader.

New Delhi, January 20
Three days after a commuter's ankle got stuck in a door of a Metro train, forcing him to cling on to the door till the train reached the next station, the Delhi Metro today termed it a "freak accident" and said they had examined the train several times and found no possible reason for a technical failure.

A Delhi Metro Rail Corporation official said, "It must be a freak accident. We were not able to track what went wrong in the train and the reason for Tuesday's incident. We have examined the train several times."

According to the DMRC, the mishap took place at 10.53 pm on Tuesday, when the commuter, Sunny Kumar, was travelling on the Dwarka Sector 21-Noida City Centre line.

Kumar tried to get off the train at the Janakpuri (west) station just as the door was closing, but his ankle got stuck in the door. The door closed and got locked and the train moved.

"Kumar with his presence of mind latched onto the door (travelling almost three minutes clinging on to the door in a speeding train on an elevated track). He was rescued only at the next station, when the train stopped at Janakpuri (east). Since he clung tightly to the door the man was unhurt when he got off the train," a DMRC official said.

The DMRC claims that the train doors are fitted with sensors that can detect any object. But they have no answer to how the doors failed to open even after Kumar's ankle was stuck.

DMRC officials are likely to put the train back on operation.. --PTI

New Delhi, January 20
Semester results have yet again drawn criticism at Delhi University, this time from the students and not the teachers.

With the university declaring the results of the III semester for BSc life sciences and BSc physical sciences, several last minute changes in the results have brought immense confusion among students.

Results declared last Wednesday night on the university website indicated that in practical exams of paper-II (PHPT-303) and paper-IV (LSPT-101), a large number of students had scored below 5/50. Such low score in practical drew a lot of negative attention. However, soon the university uploaded another document and corrected the error.

Today morning, a final updated result was again uploaded on the university website that has completely changed results of many students. There are many students in the list who were passing according to the previous results, however, are now failed according to the new result. Similarly, marks of many students have completely changed overnight, leaving the students in confusion.

After the students failed to get a response from the examination branch today, the Delhi University Student Union (DUSU) staged a demonstration outside the examination branch.

More than 200 affected students from various colleges of BSc physical science and BSc life science participated in the demonstration and stated their grievances in front of the officials.

"The results of BSc life science and BSc physical science have been very poor, without any fault of the students. This hasn't happened for the first time. Last year, similar problems were reported in the results of both the courses and the administration had corrected their mistake afterwards. We were assured that steps will be taken in improving the state of these courses. There has been some moderation or some glitch that has led to such a disastrous result. Many students have essential repeats in more than four subjects. The whole issue is related to examinations, but the dean of examinations or the OSD examinations did not bother to meet the students and hear their problems," said DUSU president Ajay Chhikara.

Other DUSU office-bearers, including vice-president Vikas Chaudhree, secretary Vikas Yadav and joint secretary Deepak Bansal, also met the dean of student welfare and director of the South Campus on the issue.