New Delhi, April 19
The rebel candidates of the BJP who were suspended for five years from the party for indiscipline will be taken back after they won as independents defeating the official candidates of the party.

The party has won a little less of the majority in the South Delhi Municipal Corporation, for which it is deciding to call back its former members. It has won 44 out of total 104 in South MCD and hence needs at least nine to 10 more seats to prove majority.

"The majority is not going to be a problem at all for the party in the South MCD. We have called back our party members who have won as independents. Three councillors of the Indian National Lok Dal and one from the Janata Dal are also joining the party. This will be enough to prove our majority," said a source in the party.

The major BJP rebel candidates of the party who came out to be victorious against the party's official candidates are Praveen Rajput from Sagarpur, Suresh Garg from Tri Nagar, Seema Pandit from Palam, Pramod Tanwar from Naraina and Krishan Sehrawat from Mahipalpur.

Party insiders said that it was not only the Congress that was affected by the rebels, but the BJP also faced much damage because of such contenders who adversely affected the party's possibility in about 20 other seats.

However, the party senior leadership had said that these candidates would not be taken back at any cost just after winning the elections. Delhi BJP president Vijender Gupta had said that there was no room for these people in the party. "They were expelled for indiscipline as they have lost their credibility and we are not going to review our decision. The BJP is going to frame a policy to curb indiscipline within the party," Gupta had said after winning the elections.

The BJP had the maximum number of rebel candidates before the elections with a total of 85 party workers either fighting as independent or supporting others.

The party had also expelled 14 dissidents, including 11 sitting councillors, during the campaign period and issued show-cause notices to 70 other councillors.

New Delhi, April 19
A 21-year-old man was arrested for allegedly killing his friend whose body he had disposed of in a sealed nursery near Khan Market.

The police arrested Neeraj (21), alias Lukka, who was the friend of the deceased, Atul (15), also known as Bunty. Till yesterday, the police was trying to link a kidnapping case of a 15-year-old boy and the discovery of the decomposed body in Kamal Nursery.

After arresting Neeraj, the police confirmed that both the incidents are part of a single case.

On April 11, Suresh, a sweeper at the India Habitat Centre had lodged a complaint about his missing son at the Tughlak Road police station.

Suresh claimed that on April 9, he had an argument with his son. He assumed that Atul was falling into bad company.

On April 10, Atul was missing and could not be found anywhere. "He went out of the house at 7.30 pm, but didn't come back. At 8.30 pm, my husband started searching for him in the vicinity of our residence. We telephoned our relatives in Delhi and spoke to Atul's friends, but no one knew about his whereabouts. He had last met one of his friends named Neeraj at 9 pm. But, Neeraj said that he was not aware about where my son had gone," said Atul's mother, Asha.

The next morning Suresh lodged a complaint at the police station. Atul's friends, Ashish and Neeraj were questioned by the police.

Neeraj later confessed to them that he had killed Atul. Joint Commissioner of Police (Central Range) Taj Hassan said, "We examined the CCTV footage of Khan Market which was taken on April 10 at 10 pm and we saw Atul with Neeraj. He disclosed to us that on the same day, he took Atul inside the sealed Kamal Nursery, where he strangled him with a plastic cord. Neeraj then disposed of his body there. The accused would stroll outside the nursery every day. He noticed that the nursery was emitting a foul smell. To avoid suspicion, he decided to burn Atul's body."

On the night of April 17, Neeraj brought a canister of petrol to set the body on fire. Sources claimed that some drivers at a nearby taxistand saw smoke billowing from the nursery. They immediately informed a beat constable, who went inside and saw the burning body. He doused it and recovered it for identification.

"Atul's parents identified his body after noticing his slippers and the blue jeans that he was wearing," said Hassan.

New Delhi, April 19
After an altercation over watching an Indian Premier League (IPL) match, a 48-year-old shopkeeper was attacked with a sharp-edged weapon by his neighbour at Sunlight Colony on Wednesday.

The victim, Govind Lal (48), runs a shop near his house at Kilokri village in Sun Light Colony. He was about to close his shop at 10.30 pm on Wednesday, when one of his neighbours, Valu Gandhi (25) approached him. Gandhi disclosed to Lal that he wanted to watch an IPL match on the television inside his shop.

Lal told Gandhi that he was not feeling well and was going home. Gandhi barged into the shop and started an argument.

Lal's wife, Shanti, ran to the shop after she heard a commotion. They both pushed Gandhi out of the shop.

The accused later returned with a sharp-edged weapon and attacked Lal, who sustained an injury on the left side of his face.

After being informed about the incident, the police reached the shop and rushed Lal to the AIIMS Trauma Centre.

A case was registered under Indian Penal Code Section 324.

New Delhi, April 19
Panic crept in amongst Delhi University students late last night, after a university website link displayed "scaled down results" of the Ist and IIIrd semester exams.

Students who are now preparing for their IInd and IVth semester exams respectively were left baffled when they saw that their marks from the previous semester have been reduced without reason.

Agitated students today met the university officials, who regretted the inconvenience and accepted their mistake, terming the entire incident a "technical error".

"The misunderstanding took place due to a technical error. The website link has been removed now. The results that were declared earlier in December remain the final scores for the students. They need not worry," said a senior official at the VC office today.

These are the same batches which saw students short of attendance being prevented from sitting in the exams last semester just a week before the exams.

In January, the teaching community raised concerns on the quality of results declared for the semester and alleged that the university was masking a "marks scam".

Some teachers are also alleging that this goof on the university website is not actually scaling down, but the marks that the students originally scored.

"Teachers raised this concern back in January as well, that the students have been given unusually high marks. Arts students also scored well and we were sure that some moderation has been done with the marks. It might have been that accidentally the original marks were uploaded on the website. Whatever the reason, such a "technical error" is just not acceptable," said a St Stephen's faculty member.

"Every course had a scaling down. When we entered our roll number on the given link to view our results, we saw the reduced marks. Our marksheets were also visible on the website which spotted the reduced marks," said Shrishti Gupta, Khalsa College, BA English (hons) student.

New Delhi, April 19
Twelve children, engaged in hazardous work of cutting and disposing plastic items, were rescued today.

These children, all minors from Uttar Pradesh's Hardoi district and Sitamarhi district of Bihar, had a similar tale of abuse to share as all those recent victims of human trafficking rescued from several households in the city.

The majority of such children and their impoverished families, mainly from the poverty-struck parts of the country, fall into the trap of touts who sell these children to several dubious placement agencies.

NGOs raise concern that most of such innocent children are from the tribal areas of West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha apart from states of Bihar and UP.

With no specific mechanism in place for keeping a vigil on these placement agencies, the city has seen placement agencies mushrooming with just 275 of an estimated nearly 2000 of them registered under the Delhi Shops and Establishments Act, 1954.

"There is lack of monitoring on these fictitious placement agencies with just a handful of them registered. What makes it difficult to track is that they change names and shift locations and a proper coordination among the anti-human trafficking units is necessary," said Rishi Kant, director of Shakti Vahini.

"Children in large numbers are working in organised industrial sectors as well as in the domestic sector. People as well as the authorities need to be sensitised about this hidden form of exploitation," said R.S. Chaurasia, chairperson of Bachpan Bachao Andolan which carried the rescue operation in Narela with the city's labour department and Delhi police.