New Delhi, November 25
The draw of lots for the Housing Scheme 2014 of the Delhi Development Authority concluded today successfully.

There was a huge rush of applicants at the DDA headquarters, Vikas Sadan, where the draw was held. Some of the applicants who were unhappy apparently with the delay, protested at the site. They tried to force their way into the conference room where the lottery was being held, but were controlled by the police.

The draw was made for 25,040 flats in various categories under the new housing scheme. The flats are located in various areas of the national Capital.

The DDA had received a whopping of 10,08,985 applications, which is the highest in the history of the agency. The draw of lots was wrapped up in a record time of 40 days, said DDA Vice-Chairman Balvinder Kumar.

It was held under the supervision of retired Delhi High Court judge Manju Goel, National Informatics Centre DG Mahesh Chandra and IIT-Delhi professor Anshul Kumar.

"The DDA will be holding a camp at its headquarters after 15 days where the verification of the documents of successful applicants will be done. General applicants may be handed over the demand-cum-allotment letter thereafter and the reserved category applicants will be handed over the same after authentication of their documents," said Balvinder Kumar.

The DDA Vice-Chairman added, "Each allottee will be provided with an ID and password through which he will be able to track the status of the allotment process. Allottees will also be notified through an SMS and email alerts."

A DDA spokesperson said, "The protesters were not happy as the whole format for the draw was computerised. They wanted it done in the conventional style of pulling chits out of a box."

New Delhi, November 25
The Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal) is likely to lose the Hari Nagar constituency in seat-sharing alliance with the BJP in the ensuing assembly elections in Delhi as Harsharan Singh Balli joined the saffron party.

Balli had won the Hari Nagar assembly seat three times on the BJP ticket and was Minister of Industries when Madan Lal Khuarna was Chief Minister in 1993. In 2013 elections, he had resigned from the BJP and joined the Congress when the saffron party had denied him ticket.

When asked that Akali Dal could protest if it was not given the Hari Nagar constituency where more than 35 per cent electorates are Sikhs, the Delhi BJP president said his party would not work under pressure.

In the previous election the Akali Dal had asked 14 seats but it was given only four in which Sikh electorates were in decision-making position. Hari Nagar was one of them. The other three seats are Rajouri garden, Kalkaji and Shahdra.

The Akali Dal had contested Rajouri Garden and Hari Nagar on its party symbol and it lost Hari Nagar. Kalkji and Shahadra had contested on the BJP's election symbol and had won both the seats with heavy margin.

When asked, Akali Dal Delhi in charge B.S. Ramuwalia said he was not aware of the development. But Hari Nagar is Akali's seat and its candidate would contest the election.

Besides Balli, three AAP leaders Ashwini Upadhyay, Rajesh Gupta, Col. Subhash Talwar and Salil Kumar joined the BJP today. Apart from them, Congress worker Deepak and singer Shankar Sahni joined the BJP.

Ashwini, a founder member of the AAP, said, "We all were non-political people. We had formed the AAP to change political scene of the country. But the AAP leadership failed to do that. Former Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had stopped receiving our calls after he had become the Chief Minister. His attitude had forced us to leave the party," he said.

New Delhi, November 25
Two men have been arrested for allegedly kidnapping a 13-year-old boy from Gandhi Nagar and then murdering him after making two ransom calls of Rs 1 crore to his family, the police said today.

The victim is named Utkarsh. The main accused has been identified as Pratap Singh Sisodiya (22). Sisodiya was an old neighbour of the boy's family and his father had constructed the victim's new house. Sisodiya wanted to be an actor.

"Sisodiya had started losing hope in his acting and wanted to invest his share of the ransom in a call centre he wished to start," said Ajay Kumar, Deputy Commissioner of Police (East District).

His alleged associate, Siddharth Sharma (22), was trained in mobile repairs and allegedly wanted to open a repair centre with his share of the ransom money.

According to the police, the accused initially had allegedly planned to kidnap Sisodiya's eight-year-old cousin, Vibhu, whose father was a property dealer. They later changed their plans because Utkarsh was an easier target.

They had been tracking Utkarsh. On November 18, Sisodiya met Utkarsh after he deboarded from his school van. He lied to Utkarsh that his grandmother had died so nobody was at home and convinced the boy to come with him to his home instead. Sharma followed Sisodiya.

They offered Utkarsh a soft drink mixed with sedatives. After Utkarsh fell asleep, the accused made the first ransom call from Geeta Colony at 7.22 pm. When they returned to the apartment, they found Utkarsh was awake. He found them suspicious. The accused allegedly forced him to take another sedative, then went outside and made the second call from near the V3V mall in Nirman Vihar at 8.43 pm.

The accused allegedly used five SIM cards which made it difficult for the police to track them.

Sharma decided to go near the victim's house and take a look at the situation there. He noticed a gathering of about 150 people with police officials. He informed Sisodiya about it and then they believed that they could not get away with the money.

"At 2 am, they allegedly strangled the boy and threw his body in a drain at Geeta Colony," said Sanjay Beniwal, Joint Commissioner of Police. (Eastern Range).

New Delhi, November 25
An unguarded ATM machine was lifted and stolen outside a village in Narela on the intervening night of Monday and Tuesday.

The thieves also stole the CCTV cameras at the ATM cabin, which has left the police clueless about the identity of the culprits.

The cabin installed outside Sanautha village in Narela belongs to the Union Bank of India, which gave an estimate of the stolen cash to the police this evening. "About Rs 6.94 lakh was in the ATM machine when the theft took place," said a police officer.

The officer said that there are no eyewitnesses in the incident. The theft was discovered by a sweeper who cleans the cabin every morning. When he reached the cabin this morning, he saw only the wires of CCTV cameras and the machine uprooted from the floor.

The thieves also allegedly broke the streetlights near the cabin. The police suspect that the thieves wanted to ensure that there is enough darkness while they carry out the theft.

The police said there was no one guarding the cabin. "That must have drawn the attention of the thieves," said the officer.