New Delhi, May 1
Coaches of two trains at Old Delhi Railway Station today caught fire under mysterious circumstances. No casualty was reported in the incident.

Three coaches of the Faizabad Express and two coaches of the Satyagraha Express, parked in the yard of the station, caught fire one after another between 10.45 am and 12.25 pm.

According to railway staff, the control room received information about a fire in the luggage van of the Faizabad Express parked in the yard around 10.45 am. It took 15 to 20 minutes to extinguish the fire. Soon after, around 12.10 pm, another fire was reported in two sleeper coaches of the Satyagaraha Express.

"While staff members and firemen tried to bring the fire under control, the rest of the coaches of the train were cut off and towed away to another track. It took 40 minutes to extinguish the fire," said YS Rajput, senior PRO, Railways, Delhi division.

The sequence of events had raised several questions about the possible reasons behind the incident, said Rajput.

While Railway officials refused to comment on the possible reason behind the fire, they have not ruled out foul play at this stage.

"We are not in a position to comment on the incident at this stage. The divisional railway manager has constituted a four-member committee to probe the incident. Things would get clear only after the committee submits its report by Wednesday evening," a railway official said.

The four members of the committee are senior station manager of the Old Delhi station, divisional electrical engineer, assistant security commandant and chief depot officer.

New Delhi, May 1
Annapurna Mishra, a two-time BJP councillor, was today elected as the Mayor of the East Delhi Municipal Corporation and Usha Shastri was appointed the deputy Mayor of the civic body.

The elections took place during a special meeting held at the new headquarters of the corporation in Udyog Sadan, Patparganj.

The first meeting of East Delhi Municipal Corporation, one of the three civic bodies, also saw the election of the members of the standing committee. Four BJP and two Congress councillors were elected unopposed as the members to the committee.

The BJP councillors who were elected to the standing committee are Mahak Singh, the councillor from Brahmpuri, Lata Gupta from Pandav Nagar, Sanjay Kaushik from Jiwanpur and Raj Kumar Dillan from Kalyanpuri. The Congress councilors elected to the committee are Savita Sharma from Subhash Mohalla and Varyam Kaur Raghubirpura. Asma Begum of Congress had also filed her nomination, but she later withdrew it.

The BJP has nominated Mehak Singh as the chairperson of the standing committee while Lata Gupta will be the deputy chairperson.

Another councillor BB Tyagi will be the Leader of the House while Harsh Malhotra will be the chairman of the education committee.

The civic agency, meanwhile, also passed its first Budget of Rs 1,524 crore.

According to the new Budget, a councillor will get Rs 51 lakh for carrying out development works in his ward, whereas the undivided MCD had proposed Rs 2.5 crore for each councillor.

Before the elections today, all 64 councillors of the civic body took oath.

The election for the Mayor of the South Delhi Municipal Corporation will be held tomorrow. Yesterday, Meera Aggrawal was elected the Mayor of the North Delhi Municipal Corporation.

Mishra has been elected from the Sonia Vihar ward while Shastri from Karawal Nagar.

According to BJP leaders, members of the party belonging to Bihar and eastern UP had pressurised the party leadership that someone from the region should hold the post of Mayor.

New Delhi, May 1
The BJP is all set to face resistance from the opposition parties in the election for the post of the Mayor of the 104-seated South Delhi Municipal Corporation which will be held tomorrow as the party failed to gain the majority in the municipal elections here.

The party has successfully and unanimously appointed its newly elected councillors Meera Aggarwal and Annapurna Mishra as the Mayors of the North and East Corporations, respectively.

The BJP needs 58 votes for a victory in the South MCD. However, as per the municipal laws, besides councillors, five MPs and five MLAs from the area can cast their votes in the election. The Congress has five MPs and three MLAs with voting rights in the corporation while the BJP has two MLAs.

It is going to be three-cornered fight for the post of the Mayor with the Congress-supported NCP trying its luck while the BJP ally INLD councillor is also in the fray. The BJP has 44 members in the 104-member MCD House.

The BJP has fielded its veteran councillor Savita Gupta while the NCP has fielded Phoolkali.

Sources in the BJP said that the party is trying to convince Seema Pandit, a third Mayoral candidate, and her husband Kishan Pehelwan, who has criminal cases against him and is contesting for the Deputy Mayor post, to withdraw from the race.

The couple has not taken any decision to withdraw from the race so far.

If Pehelwan decides to withdraw from the race, Bir Singh of the BSP will be elected as the Deputy Mayor unopposed. The BJP had decided not to contest the post. After the Congress decided not to contest the elections saying the mandate was not for them, its ally NCP decided to field a candidate with the support from the Congress and other smaller parties.

For the post of six seats in the Standing Committee, 10 councillors have filed nominations. The BJP has fielded four candidates - Rajesh Gehlot, Anil Sharma, M Nagarajan and Simmi Jain - while the Congress fielded three - Farhad Suri, Nutan Kochar and Tilotma Choudhary - candidates.

The INLD has two candidates and the BSP one.

Gehlot is the BJP nominee for the chairman of the Standing Committee while Subhash Arya will be the Leader of the House.

The NCP with six votes is banking on the Congress' 29, five of the BSP and one each of the SP and the RLD. It also hopes to win over most of the 14 independents. The NCP's calculation is that the votes of the MPs and the MLAs, most of them from the Congress, will swing the tide in their favour and could put the BJP in trouble.

New Delhi, May 1
In sync with International Labour Day, while the anti-government slogans of labour unions marked the day in the national Capital, residents of slum settlements located around West Delhi's Anand Parbat Industrial Area gave a call for a sustained campaign against the city government's indifference towards the basic rehabilitation needs of the poor migrant population.

They came up with complaints regarding the government's said unwillingness to implement a comprehensive housing plan for the city's poor while alleging a nexus between the public land agencies and building lo bbies.

For thousands of urban poor families of slum settlements around Anand Parbat Industrial Area, the demolition dagger has been hanging ever since March 22 last year when the Delhi Development Authority started its spree of demolishing houses at Gayatri Colony.

Most of these families comprise people moved out from their places as a result of distressed migration from UP, Bihar, Rajasthan and tribal belts of Odisha and West Bengal and are engaged in the informal sector.

Recently, many houses near Gulshan Chowk were demolished and many people such as Alok Kumar, coordinator of Mazdoor Ekta Sangh, alleged that no door-to-door survey was carried out before the demolition.

"DDA came up with its arbitrary action, breaching the basic right to shelter of the poor. Slums and houses of the poor have always been the target of political games. With no proper rehabilitation, hundreds of poor workers and their families were rendered homeless," said Kumar.

"It was only after we protested last month, the Delhi Chief Minister took a note of it and has stopped it for the time. But our future is still in the hands of corrupt people," said Shahnawaz, a resident of Gulshan Chowk.

As for funds, they have never been a constraint for land agencies such as the DDA that comes up with frequent housing schemes for the low-and middle-income group. But it is only the poor who are ignored and not provided alternative housing facilities, pointed out Alok, terming it an outright violation of labour rights. 

New Delhi, May 1
The South-East district police has arrested two persons for allegedly being involved in an extortion case, the police said today.

The accused, Ram Swaroop (28), a driver, and his cousin Vijender (23), have been arrested for allegedly threatening a singer with extortion calls and demanding of Rs 50 lakh from him in the Amar Colony area of South-East Delhi.

Both Ram and Vijender are residents of Garhi village and were held after a complaint by Mahesh Lakheda, a resident of B-Block, Amritpuri.

On April 29, Mahesh lodged a complaint that he had received several extortion calls from landline and mobile phones over the past three days. The accused demanded Rs 50 lakh and threatened that they would kill his three children if he denied paying the money.

Subsequently, a case under Section 387 (putting person in fear of death or of grievous hurt, in order to commit extortion) of the Indian Penal Code was registered and three teams were formed to track down the accused.

Mahesh and his family members told the police that they suspected their driver Ram's involvement in this case. "The callers also knew the daily routine of the Lakheda family which made it sure that the accused were known to them," said a police official.

Suspicion over Ram also became strong as the callers demanded that the money should be handed over to the driver who should deliver it to them at a location in Badarpur.

"Ram was later detained for questioning. He initially tried to dodge us, but on sustained interrogation, confessed to be involved with his cousin," the official said. Vijender was held from his residence over Ram's statement.

They said that they had acquired several SIM cards on fake IDs to threaten the singer and had also made calls from public call office (PCO) booths in the NCR.

New Delhi, May 1
Sanjay, leader of the infamous "burgle and burn”gang, which was active in Sarojini Nagar, and his two accomplices have been arrested.

Sanjay (20) is the alleged leader of the gang and was arrested from Central Delhi. With his arrest, the police has claimed to have solved five cases of burglary. His two accomplices, who had escaped from juvenile homes after being caught in burglary cases, Suraj (22) and Nazim (20) were nabbed from GB Road on Sunday, said Ashok Chand, ACP (crime). Sanjay is allegedly involved in 25 cases of burglary.

"The gang used to target government flats around Sarojini Nagar and RK Puram. The gang scaled walls using drainpipes. Then they broke open the locks of the doors and would decamp with cash, jewellery and electronic items. After committing burglary, the gang would set the houses on fire, just for fun," Chand said.

Sanjay allegedly blew up his money on liquor and prostitutes. After his release from jail in March, he, along with Suraj and Nazim, allegedly again committed five burglaries in Sarojini Nagar.

"He has tattoos all over his body. Some of them read 'danger', 'darinda' and 'mahakaal'," added Chand.

New Delhi, May 1
With the arrest of two persons, the Central district police has claimed to have busted an interstate gang of vehicle thieves who were allegedly involved in, at least, 13 such cases, the police said today.

The accused, Aftab (20) and Shehzad (25), both are residents of Meerut, UP, have been apprehended from the area of Patel Nagar last week.

The police seized a country-made pistol and recovered two stolen cars and three two-wheelers, besides a bag containing 45 keys of cars.

"With their arrest, we have solved 13 cases of vehicle thefts. The accused, along with their brothers and cousins, used to operate a gang," said Devesh Srivastava, ACP (Central).

The gang consisted of six people, including an auto mechanic. They used to come to Delhi in a car in the evening. And in the midnight, they used to break open the lock of the targeted vehicle.

Further, they used to make a duplicate key on the spot with the help of a key cutter and other tools and then switch on the engine by connecting the ignition wires using their own expertise developed over the years.

"They used to steal two to three vehicles in one night and after changing number plates, park them at parking lots. Then the next day, one person used to pick the vehicle and handover the same to Akram in Meerut," Srivastava said.