New Delhi, December 17
An inspector of Central Excise and Customs and his associate have been arrested for allegedly impersonating service tax officials and cheating the owners of wedding venues, said V Renganathan Additional Commissioner of police (West).

The accused have been identified as Parmod Kumar Gupta (40), an inspector with Meerut Division and a resident of Lucknow, UP, and his associate Abhishek Rai (40), a resident of Mohan Nagar, UP. The police has seized Rs 94,000 from their possession.

A senior police official said that on Friday, Gupta and Rai went to IP Motel on Rohtak Road and introduced themselves as superintendent and inspector, service tax, respectively, to the manager of the motel. They asked him to show the bill books and catering details.

"The manager got suspicious and contacted some known service tax official who told the manager that there were no such officials working with them. The manager Ashok Kumar brought this to the notice of the police also," he said.

The suspects were interrogated and it was revealed that Gupta was an inspector with Central Excise and Customs. He cheated as many as 12 owners of the wedding venues posing as service tax officers, said the police.

Neeraj Mahana, deputy manager of Cosmic Palms, also identified the accused and stated that on Friday both had cheated him out of Rs 10,000 by impersonating service tax officers. On his statement, a case was registered at the Mundka police station.

The owner of Dashmesh wedding venue, Bhajanpura, also identified them and said that he had been cheated out of Rs 54,000 on Wednesday in the same manner by the accused.

New Delhi, December 17
Justifying its stand on Annshree Yojana, senior officials in the Food and Supply department said that the scheme will eliminate black market and check diversion of food.

The officials said that it is because of the cap provided by the Central government on the number of people to be identified under the categories of Below Poverty Line (BPL) and Antyodya Anna Yojana (AAY), that Annshree Yojana has been launched.

"At present there are around 4.09 lakh people availing the benefits of subsidized ration under BPL and AAY. We cannot bring more people under these benefits as the government of India has notified a limit to issue BPL and AAY cards. However, there are still many people who have the same economic conditions but they are left out," said Amit Kumar, a senior official of the Food and Supply department.

"Given the population of Delhi, we have already reached the limit with 4.09 lakh enrolled under the categories," he said.

The Annshree scheme has been launched in addition to the benefits given to the beneficiaries of BPL and AAY.

"The Annshree scheme is an answer to this limitation. For the people who are under the same economic conditions, this scheme will prove to be of great importance," he said.

The Delhi government has registered 2.40 lakh people under BPL and 1.69 persons under AAY scheme. BPL card holders are provided with 25 kgs of wheat and 10 kgs of rice at a subsidized rate of Rs 4.65 and Rs 6.15 kgs respectively, whereas the rates for AAY for the same quantity of wheat and rice are Rs 2 and 3 respectively.

The official said that the scheme was launched after analyzing the success of a similar model tried by a non-government organization (NGO) for one year in the city.

"An NGO called Seva had adopted this model and provided cash to the poor for almost a year instead of subsidized ration. Its findings suggested that people were able to spend more money on vegetables, fruit and other nutrients," said the official.

New Delhi, December 17
Taking action for the murder of a taxation advocate, who was killed over some personal dispute in his office at Vikas Marg on Thursday night, the east district police has arrested three persons for allegedly being involved in the crime.

The deceased, Subhash Gupta (57), who was also engaged in public and social activities, was found murdered in his office located at Surana building, Vikas Marg, by his relatives after he did not reach home that night and his mobile phone was found switched off, said Prabhakar, Deputy Commissioner of Police (East).

The accused, Mohd Wasim (22), a resident of Muzaffarnagar district, UP, Dharmender (21), a resident of Mewat district, Haryana, and Vijay Singh (21), a resident of Rajender Park, Gurgaon, have confessed to their crime, said a senior police official. Interrogation revealed that Wasim had a dispute with Gupta over some matter, he added.

The official said that his hands, feet and ankles were found tied up with cellophane, and he was also found gagged with the same material.

Some valuables like his gold ring, mobile phone, wallet, gold chain, etc were found missing.

The place of occurrence indicated that the killers were known to Gupta since there were no signs of a forced entry, the official added.

An examination of the complex housing Gupta's office, it was revealed that one person was in contact with Gupta on the day of crime. He was further in contact with two more persons.

These persons were then tracked down and apprehended from Kapashera. They confessed to have committed the robbery-cum-murder.

New Delhi, December 17
Delhi University today started its six-day international conference on "the legacy of Ramanujan" as a tribute to the mathematical genius. This conference also marks his 125th birth anniversary.

Union Minister of Human Resource and Development Pallam Raju today inaugurated the conference. The conference will bring together eminent mathematicians from across the world. Varied areas of studies in mathematics will be covered in the plenary speeches, sectional talks and public lectures.

Raju said, "Ramanujan was an iconic figure. The young generation today can learn from every aspect of his life and work." — TNS