New Delhi, April 14
The crucial elections to the three Delhi Municipal Corporations of Delhi which will come to shape after tomorrow's voting, saw 167 FIRs, 22 cases of violence, 183 arrests, one death and 18 people getting injured.

According to the State Election Commission, the number of vehicles seized for violation of code of conduct was 78 and the number of unlicensed arms seized 70. The elections are considered historic as this is the first time that the polls are being held to the three corporations of East, North and South, carved out of the MCD.

The polls to the 272 wards in the three civic bodies will begin at 8 am and ends at 5:30 pm. The counting of votes will take place on Tuesday. As part of electoral arrangements which has 2,423 candidates in fray for 272 seats in all the three corporations, the EC has set up 11,543 polling stations located in 2,597 buildings for over 1.10 crore voters comprising 64,42,168 males and 50,750,01 females.

The commission has involved 77,000 election personnel in making arrangements for the elections with 83,000 policemen looking after the law and order. The BJP talks of issues like the alleged corruption by the Dikshit government in CWG, privatization of water, power tariff hike and price rise on its agenda, while the Congress highlights incompetence of the BJP in carrying out developmental works in the corporation in the past five years. The BJP currently has 164 councillors in the undivided MCD, Congress 67 and BSP 17.

Special security arrangements have been made in the areas like Jamia Nagar, Chandni Chowk and Seelampur. While the main contenders are from the two major parties BJP and Congress, there are large chunk of independents and smaller parties who are expected to give a tough fight to the main parties.

However, the election campaigning was marred by the murder of a BJP worker in a clash between partymen. The party had to face embarrassment after the accused who is also the sitting councillor was arrested. Both the BJP and the Congress are confident about making a clean sweep, the contenders of smaller parties say that the prediction is difficult this time as the political equations are totally different.

The EC has also removed 2,400 posters and 1,400 hoardings due to enforcement of Delhi Prevention of Defacement of Property Act.

New Delhi, April 14
Two youths have been arrested in connection with two separate instances of submission of fake documents to obtain visas from the German embassy. Germany and the United States of America (USA) are emerging as big employment hubs, and so several such instances of people trying to get visas for the two nations on forged documents have come to forth in the recent past.

According to the police, about 10 to 15 cases of people using forged documents to obtain visas have been reported from the US embassy this year.

"There have been three cases of people using fake documents to obtain visas from the German embassy this year," said a police officer.

In the most recent case, Jaswinder Singh (23), who hails from Kapurthala in Punjab, allegedly tried obtain a Schengen Business Visa on April 12 to visit Berlin in Germany. The Schengen Visa allows a person to travel to 25 countries (22 European Union states and three non-EU nations) on a single visa.

According to the officer, Jaswinder is a school dropout and is unemployed. He had informed the embassy that he wanted to attend a trade show-- Digital Signage Expo 2012-- in Berlin. However, his actual intention was to work and earn money there.

"With the visa application, he had submitted a forged receipt of a flight ticket to Germany and a fake certificate of sponsor for the trade show. Jaswinder had told the embassy that he was the director of a private company. He had also submitted a fake letterhead of the company," said the officer.

Based on a complaint of Karl-Heinrich Adam, the head of the visa section at the German embassy, the police has registered a case against Jaswinder at the Chanakyapuri police station. The latter was arrested and booked under IPC Sections 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) and 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating). In addition, IPC Sections 471 (using as genuine a forged document or electronic record) and 511 (punishment for attempting to commit offences punishable with imprisonment for life or other imprisonment) were also added to his case.

Similarly, Harjinder Singh (28), who hails from Amritsar in Punjab, had allegedly tried to submit forged documents to obtain a Schengen Business Visa from the German embassy on April 11. According to the police officer, he had also applied for the visa to attend a trade show at Essen in Germany.

"The embassy officials told us that Harjinder had confessed to using forged documents. The forged documents were prepared by a travel agent named Gurpreet Singh. Harjinder had submitted a forged letter of Murrad Trading Company and a fake bank statement of Punjab and Sind Bank in Jalandhar," added the officer.

This complainant was also made by Adam. The police arrested Harjinder and booked him under IPC Sections 420, 468, 471 and 120-B (punishment of criminal conspiracy).

In addition to the two cases, on February 17, Navdeep Singh (24) was arrested on the charge of trying to obtain a student visa from the German embassy by submitting fake bank statements. He also hails from Amritsar.

The US embassy has also faced similar cases of people using forged documents to obtain visas.

According to the Delhi police, on Friday, Pavinder Singh, who hails from Karnal district in Haryana, was deported from the US for holding a fake passport. The police thereafter arrested two agents, Amarjeet Singh Multani and Vishal Marwah. They had allegedly taken Rs 22 lakh from Pavinder to send him to the US.

New Delhi, April 14
Ahead of the crucial polls of the trifurcated Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), the Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs) today exhorted Delhiites in a last-minute appeal to vote for clean candidates.

"Most of the elections in the country are fought on party lines, but residents should come out and vote for clean candidates irrespective of the party so that they can show that they have the last word. They should refrain from voting on party lines and should support people who can deliver and keep their promises," said Anil Bajpai, president of Delhi Resident's forum and RWA Federation, Delhi East.

According to RWAs, in the ensuing polls, among the total nearly 11,00 faces standing from 272 wards, roughly 59 candidates are those who have criminal cases registered against them and 43 alone belong to the two leading contenders, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress.

"We have voted for candidates of BJP and Congress for years but our expectations have not been met. This time we have been encouraging RWA members to vote on the basis of a candidate's personal profile and work. Independents are welcome too," said Rajiv Kakria of Greater Kailash I RWA.

"There is a lot of anger against political parties as tall promises made before elections are never met. We should not vote on party lines," said Ritu Bhatia of Vivek Vihar.

New Delhi, April 14
Two people died in two railway accidents in Delhi today. In the first incident a motorcycle borne youth was killed, when a train rammed into him. He was trying to cross the railway tracks. The second accident was reported from Tilak Bridge in Central Delhi, where a man was killed on the tracks.

In the first accident, 24-year-old youth Pramod was killed at Bijwasan. The incident occurred at 12 pm. Pramod was coming from his home at Nayak Mohalla in Bijwasan. He was heading towards Chhawla when the Gareeb Rath Express rammed into his motorcycle. Pramod was thrown off his motorcycle and he died on the spot.

After the accident, his relatives damaged the ticket counter at Bijwasan railway station, according to the police. They also manhandled the station master, Ganga Ram and booking clerk. Ram sustained critical injuries and was admitted to hospital.

The second incident was reported from Tilak Bridge railway station. According to the police, the incident was reported to them at 2.30 pm today. Nihal Singh, was killed when the Guwahati Rajdhani train rammed into him. He was crossing the railway track near the Tilak Bridge railway station. Singh was going to meet his relatives when the accident occurred.