New Delhi, February 11
The prime accused in the two-year-old battered baby case, Rajkumar, alias Babloo, alias Dilshad, was arrested from New Delhi Railway Station early this morning, said Deputy Commissioner of Police (south Delhi) Chhaya Sharma.

Rajkumar, a resident of Dwarka, is a taxi driver. He brought the baby from his friend Manoj and his wife Pratima on October 13, 2011, after taking consent of his wife Tabbasum and his in-laws.

He kept the baby in his house at Sector 8, Dwarka, till November 15.

His taxis were used by Arti and Rana, residents of Munirka, where he met the teenaged girl. When Tabbasum left for Mumbai on November 15 to see her ailing son he brought his girlfriend to his home whom he allegedly sexually abused. They stayed there till December 28, 2011. During this period the baby was with them and they named her "Falak".

On the return of his wife, he shifted his girlfriend to one of his acquaintances house at Sangam Vihar. On January 12, he shifted her to a rented accommodation in Mahipalpur.

On January 13, he left for Mumbai to see his ailing son, leaving the baby in the custody of his girlfriend.

Being a minor herself and inexperienced, she could not take care of the baby perfectly.

She was in continuous contact with Rajkumar on his mobile and once he came to know that the baby was hurt he also advised her to take her to the hospital, the DCP said.

She got admitted the baby to AIIMS Trauma Centre on January 18, claiming that she was her mother. The baby was in a critical condition as her head was fractured and she had marks of human bite all over her tiny frame.

Another accused in the case Pratima has also been arrested which exposed a human trafficking racket in the capital, said the DCP.

New Delhi, February 11
The two-year-old battered baby was again put back on ventilator due to breathing problems today.

Doctors at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Trauma Centre said that after battling for survival for over three weeks, Falak was put back on ventilator as she started having breathing problems last night.

While yesterday, baby's condition improved "marginally".

As uncertainty looms over her survival, doctors at AIIMS say that they will be conducting a crucial surgery on the baby soon.

"Once the brain infection subsides, we will conduct a surgery. It is called 'shunt' surgery, where we will be inserting a plastic tube from the stomach to the brain and drain out the brain fluid," said Dr Deepak Agrawal, neurosurgeon at the AIIMS Trauma Centre.

The plastic tube, say doctors, would be the only permanent solution, but if the tube leads to any infection, the procedure will be managed with surgery in future.

New Delhi, February 11
Four persons, including a woman, were arrested in a case of murder of a man who was shot dead at the Mayur Vihar Metro station on February 4, the police said.

The accused have been identified as Sanjeev and Rahul, both contract killers, Anju and her paramour Deepak. Anju and Deepak have been arrested on charges of conspiracy of murder while others on charges of murder.

According to the police, Shiv Prasad, alias Shibu (45), who was gun down by hired killers, had a shady past. His murder was planned by his wife Anju and Deepak. Shibu was a criminal himself and had married Anju forcibly when she was just 14-year old.

Not just this, he had forced her into flesh trade. Shibu ran an organised gang of pick-pockets.

The police said that Anju and Deepak had paid Rs 2 lakh to the contract killers to attack Shibu. Anju had taken the money from his father in the name of starting a new business. Deepak had laid a trap to call Shibu to Mayur Vihar on February 4. He told him that he should come to Mayur Vihar Phase-I, if he wanted to meet his wife and son. Shibu came there and was shot by Sanjeev, who had wrapped himself in a shawl to escape being caught in the CCTV cameras.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (east) Prabhakar said, "Shibu was shot outside the Mayur Vihar Phase-I Metro station on February 4. His statement was recorded while he was conscious. In his statement, he said that Deepak had called him to Mayur Vihar Phase-I. On the basis of his statement, a case was registered against Deepak at the Pandav Nagar police station."

According to Shibu's statement, he had been shot at the instance of his estranged wife.

During interrogation, Anju said that Shibu married her forcibly in 1996, when she was 14-year old. Shibu had kidnapped her brother Vinod and beat him up badly. He kept a condition in front of her family that he would leave Vinod only after they agree to marry Anju to him. To save Vinod's life, her family agreed to Shibu's demand. Vinod, however, died a day after their marriage. At that time, the family did not lodge a complaint against him as Anju was already married to him.

After marriage, Shibu started inflicting torture on Anju. He used to beat her up under the influence of alcohol. Their son Mukul lives with Anju's parents while Shibu had electrocuted his elder son to death under the influence of alcohol.

Meanwhile, Shibu forced his wife into flesh trade to make money out of it. She had been forced into the flash trade for the past seven years. This is where she met Deepak and they decided to start a new life. Anju and escaped to Dichau village, Nazafgarh, in December 2011 and stated living with him where the plan to eliminate Shibu was hatched.

New Delhi, February 11
It was yet another chilly day in the capital today as cold winds blew through the day and the temperatures settled below average. The Met Office has forecast light rains in the city on Sunday.

The day's minimum temperature was three notches below average at 6.6 degrees Celsius while the maximum was 21.8 degrees, a notch above average.

The humidity levels wavered between a high of 83 and a low of 29 per cent.

According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), light rains are expected on Sunday in some parts of the city and the skies will remain partly cloudy.

A light cover of mist will envelope the city early morning.

"The maximum and minimum temperatures are expected to hover around 23 and 9 degrees Celsius, respectively," said the official.

Fridays' minimum temperature dipped four notches below average to 6.4 degrees Celsius while the maximum temperature was three notches below average at 20.6 degrees Celsius. — IANS

Noida, February 11
Former Meerut commissioner and BSP leader Sharvan Kumar Sharma today joined the BJP and supported Dr Mahesh Sharma BJP candidate from the Noida assembly seat.

An IAS officer, Sharvan Kumar Sharma had retired as commissioner of Meerut two years ago. He also served as district magistrate.

Last year BSP chief Mayawati had inducted him into the party and made him in charge of the Noida assembly seat and was promised candidature during the assembly elections. He worked for the cause of BSP for over six.

However, two months ago, just before the announcement of the assembly election, the BSP Chief replaced him and announced Om Dutt Sharma as its nominee from the Noida seat.

Ever since, Sharvan Kumar has been upset with the BSP leadership and today, at Sector 61 park, he joined the BJP and extended support to its candidate Dr Mahesh Sharma. He said under the BSP he was feeling suffocated after the humiliation.

Noida, February 11
The district supply officer (DSO) is in a fix over RTI applications as documents asked for by an applicant run into over 92,000 pages and the same applicant earlier had not taken the 2,266 photocopied documents which are lying at the office.

The department has asked the RTI applicant to deposit Rs 2 lakh for the copy of documents asked by him. Only after receiving the amount would the photocopies be made.

Department officials claimed frivolous applications were filed just for harassment.

"Pawan Nagar from Badalpur had filed an RTI application on December 30 last year, seeking details from April 1, 2007 to November 30, 2011. On January 21, the reply mentioning the basic details and figures was dispatched to him. To get the copies of documents, he was informed that 2,266 pages of documents were lying with the department which he could collect after paying a fee of Rs 2 per page," said DSO, Santosh Niranjan.

The bundle of copies of documents lying at the department, he sad.

"The registered letter was returned by the postal department, stating that the postman went to the address four times, but the premises were found locked," said Niranjan.

"The same applicant Pawan Nagar filed another application on January 26. This time he asked for documents from April 1, 2006 to November 30, 2011 and asked for certified copies of the mastercard register, daily sale register, daily stock register, monthly stock register, inspection book, cash memos of all the ration shops and kerosene sale depots operating in the Dadri area,"said Niranjan.

"The copies of documents asked by him are over 92,000 pages. On February 6, I have sent him another letter mentioning the basic figures and requesting him to deposit Rs 2 per page for document copies," said Niranjan.

"Now, two similar applications have been received from Gaurav Dwievdi of Madhya Pradesh and Sushil Kaushik of Faridabad, Haryana. The postal orders and dispatch location on envelops are, however, from the same area as that of Nagar. In all these applications, the only difference was that in each case beside six similar queries, details of one different shop of a different location was asked for," said Niranjan.

When asked they cannot give the data on CD in a digital form as such a provision is available in the RTI Act, Niranjan said, "We can give the digital data only of documents which have been computerized. Copies of registers, sale invoices and other registers maintained by ration shops can only be given in photo copies."

"If he does not want to pay the huge amount, he can deposit the required fee and look into our files for prescribed hours and can have copies made of only selected documents which he requires," said Niranjan.

Ghaziabad, February 11
A 6-year-old boy died after he was allegedly administered spurious anti-rabies vaccine by a government hospital, his family alleged.

In a written complaint to district administration, Bhushan Kumar Tyagi yesterday alleged that his son Harsh died from rabies despite being administered the injections four times, on different dates at the Employees State Insurance (ESI) hospital in Sahibabad and alleged that the vaccine was either spurious or had expired.

The victim, a resident of Nand Nagri, was bitten by a stray dog on January 16 and was admitted to Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital in Delhi when his condition worsened on February 5, he said.

The rabies virus was detected in his son's body, he said, while alleging that the injections at the ESI were either expired or adulterated as the boy died.

Meanwhile, officials from the ESI hospital were not available for comment. — PTI

New Delhi, February 11
The Chief Minister, Sheila Dikshit, said that the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) would ensure equitable drinking water distribution and adequate availability of water in the capital.

Inaugurating the newly constructed underground reservoir (UGR) and booster pumping station at Pitampura in north-west Delhi, the Chief Minister said that she felt "immense happiness at the commissioning of the UGR which would benefit over 2.50 lakh residents in the Pitampura area. In order to rationalise distribution of water 33 new UGRs have already been built in different parts of Delhi and operationalised. Today, the 34th UGR is being inaugurated and many more are proposed to be built to ensure equitable water supply for all citizens of Delhi".

She also congratulated the DJB for the completion of the UGR and booster pumping station.

She said that the government was fully committed to provide water supply in rural areas of the capital.

A comprehensive plan had been chalked out for the purpose.

With the commissioning of this UGR, it would overcome scarcity of drinking water in number of villages apart from enhancement of pressure of supply.

Dikshit appealed to the people to conserve water as it was precious and limited source.

New Delhi, February 11
The Blind Workers' Union today organised a convention on "The Problems and Prospects of the Movement of the Blind Community" in the capital.

The meeting was a part of the ongoing struggle of visually impaired workers against violation of their labour rights as well as failure of the government to curb such violation and exploitation.

"Since November 24, these workers have been on dharna at Jantar Mantar against violation of labour rights at the production units of the National Federation of the Blind (NFB). These workers have made their representation to the Prime Minister's Office, labour ministry and ministry of social justice and empowerment on several occasions. However, there has been no action from the government till date," said a member of the union.

It was with the purpose of highlighting such violation of labour rights by private enterprises as well as the NFB that the workers decided to call an all-India convention, he added.

The activists from different corners of the country as well as members from a number of trade unions attended the convention.

Later, the house resolved that the government should guarantee labour rights to visually impaired workers whether they are employed by NGOs or any private enterprise. Further, if NGOs continue to violate labour rights, then the government must take over them.

A child shakes hands with Chhota Bheem during a function at Indus World School in Gurgaon on Saturday. Tribune photo: Sayeed Ahmed

With the municipal elections just two months away, the ruling BJP party in the civic agency has been christening roads and parks after its senior leaders. Freedom fighters and other people who are rated 'very high' locally, including social workers, top the MCD's list of road names. Many proposals on renaming, which had been pending for years, were completed last month. More than 100 new names have been given recently to several roads in the city.

Rush for MCD poll ticket

Rush of ticket seekers can be seen in the Delhi BJP office from morning to evening as the municipal election is getting closer.

The election is to be held in April. Young BJP activists visit the office premises to present their credentials to senior leaders involved in the distribution of tickets. Some of them carry the biodata of their wives as the seats have been reserved for women. A senior leader at a meeting held recently has advised the party to give importance to the performance and image of the ticket-seekers.

Blame game over DSGMC poll

The Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee election was due in March but it had been stayed by the Delhi High Court for a further period. Now the blame game has begun, with each group accusing others of being responsible for the stay. At some of their press meets, their leaders outnumber media persons. In one such meet, the hall was packed with party activists, providing a tough time to journalists in finding seats.

The recent uproar by the Delhi University teachers over the "marks scam" has invited a lot of attention from the student community. What began as a teachers' initiative, now has a huge student base as well. They wish to understand the dynamics of every aspect of the functioning of the university. Earlier, a majority of the university colleges spread across the capital largely remained untouched by the north campus politics, but now teachers and students from south campus and other DU colleges are making an effort to understand the concerns that surround the university.

"While on the one hand, teachers are making sure that none of the protests disrupts their teaching schedules, students on the other hand insist on time off for participation in these protests. Even in the classroom, discussions are not devoid of queries on how the university administration works. Such sensitivity to the university is a welcome attitude," said a senior psychology Professor of Lady Shri Ram College.

(Contributed by Himani Chandel, Syed Ali Ahmed and Jyoti Rai)

Ghaziabad, February 11
A man who raped an eight-year-old girl last week and left her on a railway track in Ghaziabad to die was arrested yesterday, the police said.

Feroz, 21, a resident of Kaila Bhatta, was arrested from Hapur.

The minor victim had a narrow escape on the track after the February 4 rape as she remained unhurt despite several trains passing over her. Feroz told the police that he dragged the girl to his house and raped her there. Later, he dumped her on the track.

"We have collected all forensic evidence. The girl would be able to give her statement," said the Circle Officer-I Rajesh Bharti. — IANS

New Delhi, February 11
With the arrest of a youth and his juvenile associate, the south-west district police has worked out a sensational attempt to murder case.

The weapon of offence, a country-made pistol, has been seized.

The incident came to light when 55-year-old Krishan Kumar from Mitraon village reported that last morning while he was sitting along with his neighbour Sunder in front of Vishan Dayal's shop near bus stand, two youths came on a black Pulsor motor-cycle and opened fire upon him.

Meanwhile, a white Maruti car with four people inside it came on the spot.

One of them, named Manish (27), native of the same village, came towards him and fired upon him twice. The bullets pierced through his jaw and shoulder. Thereafter, the assailants allegedly sped away from the spot.

Kumar was admitted to RTRM Hospital.

A case was registered after Kumar's statement.

Sensing the gravity of the case, raids were conducted at possible hideouts in the area of Najafgarh, Badli, Jhajjar, Bhiwadi and Gurgaon. On a tip-off that Manish would enter Delhi via Jharoda border, the police arrested him. He confessed to his crime.

At his instance, a juvenile associate was arrested from the Ghumanhera area in Jafarpur Kalan.

Interrogation revealed that back in 2010, he had murdered Kumar's son Pardeep on the issue of area domination.

Manish was in jail for more than six months. After his release, he terrorised the witnesses of the case.

Kumar was an eyewitness of his son's murder.

He was threatened, but he remained adamant about deposing before the court.

Thus, Manish made a plan along with his associates to kill him.

As per plan, he arranged a katta and was searching an opportune moment to strike Kumar.

Finally on February 9, he found him alone at the bus stop and shot him.

Manish is a school dropout and unemployed. His elder brother Naveen, a juvenile, is also accused in two murder cases in Najafgarh and Jaffarpur.

The family is infamous in the village for their quarrelsome behaviour.