New Delhi, June 2
A 17-year-old girl was allegedly kidnapped by her three neighbours in a car, raped and then dumped near her house at Nangloi in west Delhi on Saturday night.

Additional Commissioner of Police (West District) V Renganathan said the three youths have been arrested.

The victim had recently passed her Class XII exams. She is living with her family at Nangloi.

The victim alleged that the youths kidnapped her when she was strolling outside her house after dinner.

They forcibly pulled her in their Santro car and gagged her with a cloth. They took her to an isolated area, where they allegedly took turns to rape her.

The accused then dropped her near her house in an unconscious state and fled. The girl managed to reach her house and informed her family about the incident.

They reported the matter to the police, who took the girl to the Sanjay Gandhi Memorial Hospital in Mangolpuri. A medical examination confirmed that she was gangraped.

The police registered a case of kidnapping and gangrape and also added the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, as the victim is still minor.

The police claimed that the car belonged to one of the accused. They were on a joyride last night. Finding the girl all alone at night, they decided to abduct her. 

New Delhi, June 2
The BJP will hold a dharna along with Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs) at PHD Chambers of Commerce where the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) has announced that it would hold a hearing for infusing another hike in power tariffs tomorrow.

The party members will also meet DERC members to discuss the issue.

"Even though the DERC gives a go-ahead for tariff hike, it may be implemented after the polls. So, the BJP will oppose this move of the DERC," said state party unit president Vijay Goel.

He said that the BJP is of the view that if the nexus among the discoms, Congress and the DERC can be broken, the tariff can be brought down by 30 per cent.

"If the DERC considers the regulatory assets of Rs 2,398 crore, the rates will go up by 45 per cent," Goel added.

He said that the loss on purchase of surplus power by these discoms shall be passed on to the consumers which works out to Rs 3.50 per unit.

Goel expressed surprise at the conduct of the DERC for holding the public hearing on the accounting rate of return when it has already written to the Central government to give a bailout package to the disocms amounting to Rs 20,000 crore.

New Delhi, June 2
Hardcore pickpockets are becoming a nuisance for security personnel at the Delhi Metro stations, especially so as victims hardly complain to the police. On most occasions, they just grin and bear the sufferings.

Hardened pickpockets have been falling regularly into the dragnet of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), which is deployed to man the Metro stations. The CISF finds to its dismay that proper punishment cannot be given as victims do not complain.

"Sometimes when we catch them red-handed inside the trains or at the stations, we ask the victims to lodge a complaint with the Delhi Metro Rail Police (DMRP). But most of them don't do so which is a major stumbling block. They say that since they have found their wallets or mobile phones, they would rather not waste their time going to a faraway police station. So we just hand over the pickpocket to the police, who let him go after a while. A couple of days later, we see the same pickpocket at a station," said a CISF officer while adding that only the DMRP is mandated to register complaints.

The CISF claims that it has apprehended 187 pickpockets till date this year. Although the CISF does not have a detailed database, it claims that a large number of pickpockets have been caught several times.

On the other hand, the DMRP says that it has caught just few habitual pickpockets. According to its statistics, 48 pickpockets were caught this year, including 38 males and 10 females. Out of the total figure, only 10 per cent are the habitual ones.

"A pickpocket who has been caught at a station would usually not visit it again. The habitual pickpockets are kept under surveillance. They know that they have been exposed and would not risk getting caught again," said a senior police officer.

The officer agrees that when the victims don't register complaints with them, they have to free the arrested culprits. "Action can't be taken against someone when there is no complaint, as a result the law is not set in motion," the officer explained.

However, the police take preventive action as per the law in the instances when victims are unwilling to lodge complaints. They can book pickpockets under Sections 107 and 151 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. Section 107 stands for security to keep peace and good behaviour, while Section 151 stands for arrest to prevent the commission of cognizable offences. Under both these sections, a pickpocket can be jailed for 14 days.

The CISF can also fine a pickpocket under the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation Act for "causing nuisance".

In order to ensure better coordination between the two agencies, the DMRP has held several meetings with the CISF. It has also provided the CISF with booklets containing the names, addresses and photographs of some 160-odd men and women pickpockets, who were caught between 2009 and 2012. The purpose of providing these booklets is to ensure that an identified pickpocket can be stopped at the entrance to the stations.

The CISF says that within its force, a department called the Crime and Intelligence Wing (CIW) tackles the incidents of pickpocketing.

"Among the CISF contingent posted at the Metro stations, only the CIW is aware of the identities of the habitual pickpockets. But it can't be deployed everywhere due to the shortage of manpower. The pickpockets are instead caught inside the stations and the trains," said the CISF officer.

The officer recounts an incident that took place on April 22, when a pickpocket had stolen seven wallets of women from different trains plying between the Rajiv Chowk and Huda City Centre stations. All the wallets were discarded after being stripped of cash. Despite losing important documents like credit cards, driver's licence and identity cards, only one of the seven women complained.

"If people are not willing to go to the police stations, there should be an online system of registering complaints. People should also be sensitised on the importance of lodging complaints," said the officer.

New Delhi, June 2
A memorial dedicated to the 1984 anti-Sikh carnage, proposed by the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC), was given a go-ahead by the Singh Sabhas of Delhi.

The memorial will be built at Lakhi Shah Vanjara hall in Gurdwara Rakabganj Sahib Complex adjacent to the Parliament House. DSGMC general secretary Manjinder Singh Sirsa and other office-bearers were also present in a meeting which took the decision today.

Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD)-Badal which took over in February this year had planned the memorial.

The DSGMC manage gurdwaras and a series of religious and educational institutes in the national Capital.

"There were members and representatives of about 700 Singh Sabhas in the meeting today and everyone was keen on building the memorial to pay homage to about 4,000 innocent people killed in Delhi and about 14,000 in the entire country, while justice is denied even 29 years after the incident," said Manjit Singh GK, Delhi unit president of the SAD-Badal.

A meeting was also held earlier with the intelligentsia, businessmen, and technocrats belonging to the Sikh community for taking their approval for the memorial.

New Delhi, June 2
The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) is to procure and install a centralised data management system for the data which will be generated by 34 tunnel boring machines (TBM) to be used in phase III of the Metro project.

The DMRC is being making 74 tunnels for its 53-km-long underground corridors of phase III.

The system will act as a tool for data acquisition, visualization, reporting and consequently as a tool for risk minimization as it will provide immediate information on physical progress of the tunnels and correctness of the tunnel alignment, ground settlement and status of buildings and structures along the underground alignment, said spokesperson for the DMRC.

"The system will be fully integrated with the general project information, ongoing process data, construction schedule, geological measurements along with 3D movement of the TBM and readings of instrumentation devices like inclinometer, extensometer, piezometer, etc.," he said.

It will consist of a map viewer showing the entire TBM position in planned view, which can highlight any individual TBM or settlement sensor array for a more detailed view. It will also be useful to monitor tunnelling induced ground settlement and its influence on existing buildings real time monitoring and comparison within expected and limiting values, said the official.