Youth gets 10-year jail for rape, assault

NEW DELHI: Stating that exemplary punishment must be given to convicts in cases of crime against women to curb such incidents, a trial court has awarded ten years' imprisonment to a youth who raped and assaulted a girl with an iron wrench after stalking her for a week.

The judge refused any leniency to 27-year-old-Sandeep, saying his young age and poor family background does not persuade the court to take a lenient view in his favour.

Besides convicting Sandeep for raping and abducting the girl, a college student, additional sessions judge Virender Bhat also convicted Sandeep under various sections of IPC for causing hurt and criminally intimidating her. Holding that the crime committed by the convict was "intensely grave and serious" in nature, the judge also imposed a fine of Rs 60,000 on him.

"Every offence, which relates to women and in particular, offence of rape, requires exemplary treatment and court should not show any liberal attitude towards the offender," the judge said.

The court said Sandeep had been stalking the girl for about one week and when she did not show any inclination towards him, he abducted her and raped her inside the car in a violent and gruesome manner. "The convict beat the girl severally with the wrench and when she lost strength and was not able to resist, he raped her. It appears that the convict had made an elaborate plan with the intention of satisfying his lust upon the prosecutrix," the court said. The incident had taken place on May 22, 2013., when the girl along with her classmates was returning from her college.

and Sandeep, who was waiting for her in his car, stopped her near village Kair here. He called her but the victim did not stop while the other girls ran from there. He then came out of his car and slapped and abused the girl and beat her with a wrench, which was kept in his car, it said.

After being beaten up, she lost strength to resist and Sandeep pulled her in his car and raped her, it said. Police said Sandeep threatened the girl not to disclose the incident to anyone and dumped her in a village field. The girl disclosed the incident to her mother the next morning after which a police complaint was lodged and Sandeep was arrested.

During the trial, Sandeep had claimed that he knew the girl from the past seven-eight years and they were in love with each other and when her family members came to know about it, they pressurised her to lodge a false case against him. He, however, could not prove his claim. The court also rejected his contention that the girl had received injuries on her body as she was beaten up by her mother and said the victim had clearly stated that she suffered injuries all over her body on account of being beaten up by the accused.

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Plan to decongest traffic at Akshardham cleared

NEW DELHI: The frequent traffic jams that one encounters on National Highway 24, en route Ghazipur, will hopefully end soon. The public works department has finally cleared a traffic decongestion plan that includes widening of a slip road and construction of a footbridge, and work is expected to start shortly.

Officials said long traffic jams are witnessed in the area, especially during peak hours, due to a zebra crossing less than 100m from the Akshardham bridge on the Ghazipur side. A loop on the left, that connects NH-24 to the Akshardham flyover in the direction of Noida, slows down traffic even further.

"The six-lane road from the Nizamuddin Bridge narrows down to three lanes as NH-24 enters east Delhi, slowing down traffic. There is also significant pedestrian movement in this area and a zebra crossing has been made here. However, the traffic flow on this road is massive and a stop of even 90 seconds leads to a long pile up. To ease this, a footbridge has been planned. In fact, construction has already started," a source said.

Making matters worse at this point, a slip road coming from the ITO side opens barely a few metres before the traffic signal. "This road will also have to be widened since there is significant traffic movement from the Akshardham temple side towards Ghazipur. This road is presently extremely narrow and leads to a bottleneck," said an official.

To make way for this road, the Samaspur Jagir bus stop and a toilet block near it will have to be relocated. The three-lane carriageway will subsequently be expanded to a five-lane road. Work on it has already started and permission from the forest department to clear some trees on this stretch has been sought.

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Youth gets 10-year jail for rape, assault

NEW DELHI: Stating that exemplary punishment must be given to convicts in cases of crime against women to curb such incidents, a trial court has awarded ten years' imprisonment to a youth who raped and assaulted a girl with an iron wrench after stalking her for a week.

The judge refused any leniency to 27-year-old-Sandeep, saying his young age and poor family background does not persuade the court to take a lenient view in his favour.

Besides convicting Sandeep for raping and abducting the girl, a college student, additional sessions judge Virender Bhat also convicted Sandeep under various sections of IPC for causing hurt and criminally intimidating her. Holding that the crime committed by the convict was "intensely grave and serious" in nature, the judge also imposed a fine of Rs 60,000 on him.

"Every offence, which relates to women and in particular, offence of rape, requires exemplary treatment and court should not show any liberal attitude towards the offender," the judge said.

The court said Sandeep had been stalking the girl for about one week and when she did not show any inclination towards him, he abducted her and raped her inside the car in a violent and gruesome manner. "The convict beat the girl severally with the wrench and when she lost strength and was not able to resist, he raped her. It appears that the convict had made an elaborate plan with the intention of satisfying his lust upon the prosecutrix," the court said. The incident had taken place on May 22, 2013., when the girl along with her classmates was returning from her college.

and Sandeep, who was waiting for her in his car, stopped her near village Kair here. He called her but the victim did not stop while the other girls ran from there. He then came out of his car and slapped and abused the girl and beat her with a wrench, which was kept in his car, it said.

After being beaten up, she lost strength to resist and Sandeep pulled her in his car and raped her, it said. Police said Sandeep threatened the girl not to disclose the incident to anyone and dumped her in a village field. The girl disclosed the incident to her mother the next morning after which a police complaint was lodged and Sandeep was arrested.

During the trial, Sandeep had claimed that he knew the girl from the past seven-eight years and they were in love with each other and when her family members came to know about it, they pressurised her to lodge a false case against him. He, however, could not prove his claim. The court also rejected his contention that the girl had received injuries on her body as she was beaten up by her mother and said the victim had clearly stated that she suffered injuries all over her body on account of being beaten up by the accused.

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Man who tried to kill ex-ASG for 5 years

NEW DELHI: A trial court has sentenced a man to nearly five years' imprisonment for firing at cops and conspiring to eliminate senior counsel Siddharth Luthra, a former Additional Solicitor General. The court sentenced Nafisul Hassan to imprisonment for four years and 10 months, the period he has already spent in jail during the trial, after he pleaded guilty. Additional sessions judge Daya Prakash did not impose any fine on Hassan considering that he was in judicial custody since July 3, 2009, and on account of his poor economical condition.

The prosecution said that from the middle of June to July 5, 2009, the convict, along with other accused, had conspired to eliminate Luthra, who was then representing BJP MP Varun Gandhi in an alleged hate speech case.

Hassan was convicted by the court under sections 307 (attempt to murder), 471 (using forged document as genuine), 186 (obstructing a public servant from discharging duties), 353 (assault or criminal force to deter a public servant from discharging his duty) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC and under the Arms Act. The accused had procured a weapon and specified the target through a recce.

They gathered in a park in Defence Colony. The accused also obstructed the raiding team of special cell, comprising 18-20 cops, and used criminal force, police said. It said the accused tried to murder the cops by firing at them. Hassan was also held guilty of procuring a cellphone and SIM card on fake documents. He was convicted under the Arms Act for possessing a loaded pistol along with six live cartridges.

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MTNL Commonwealth Games graft case closed

NEW DELHI: A special CBI court has accepted CBI's closure report in a 2010 Commonwealth Games graft case related to alleged cost inflation of nearly Rs 400 crore by MTNL and a private firm in setting up broadcast network for the Games. The court accepted CBI's closure report saying no evidence could be found against the accused persons and no loss was caused to the state exchequer.

"The investigation conducted by the CBI does not reveal any incriminating evidence against any of the accused persons, therefore, the closure report filed by the CBI is accepted," Special CBI Judge Madhu Jain said.

The case was registered by the CBI in 2011 against former chairman and managing director (CMD) of Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) RSP Sinha, its other officials and some officials of HCL Infosystems Ltd. The CBI, in its closure report, had said it could not be established that MTNL had awarded the project work to M/s HCL in an arbitrary manner and the tender was tailored in a manner that only suited one bidder—M/s HCL and Cisco consortium was not sustainable.

"No loss to the government exchequer and corresponding wrongful gain to M/s HCL Infosystems Ltd have been found during investigation," the CBI had said in its closure report. It had also said no mens rea (guilty mind) has been found against any official of MTNL, Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports (MYAS) and Department of Telecommunications.

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Band Faridkot launched their second album in Delhi

Blues guitars and melodies: It was a musical evening at Blue Frog in the capital, when the band Faridkot launched their second album. While the band treated the guests to their music, the latter were happy to sing along with them.

Mahesh Mathai, founding partner, Blue Frog, said, "Last week saw three international DJs taking the stage, with a mix of our regulars and new customers attending the dos. Over the next few weeks, we've got electronic and live acts from India and around the world. In July, we'll be back to our regular week-long programming. Tonight, we're happy to host the launch of Faridkot's second album!"

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Glitches limit web applications

NEW DELHI: Online registration for DU opened at Sunday midnight but, like previous years, aspirants had problems applying for admission to the university as the website was unable to cope with the sudden load. This is the third year of online application for Delhi University and the initial hiccups have now become an annual feature of the process.

For nearly 18 hours, the website did not work smoothly, with pages expiring halfway through the registration. This could even be the reason forbehind why there are fewer logins, registrations and payments being made this year compared to the first two years.

In 2012, the year when online registration was introduced in DU, over 18,000 candidates registered on the first day of applications. This number fell to 7,385 in 2013. Of the 7,385, only 2,700 completed the registration process by making payment last year. However, according to the dean of students welfare, the number of logins has been 17,062 and 2,345 candidates completed the registration process by making payment of fees on the first day of applications.

Although it wasn't as serious as last year, DU's pre-admission online registration continues to bug students on the first day of the season.

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Policeman moves court against Sanskriti School

NEW DELHI: An additional deputy commissioner of Delhi Police on Monday approached Delhi high court against Sanskriti School after the admission of his son was cancelled on the grounds that his father was in Class B and not Class A service.

Additional DCP-II Harish H B, filed a petition on behalf of his son, before Justice V K Shali, who issued notice to the Centre and Sanskriti School on the plea. The court has sought the response of DoPT, Ministry of Human Resource and Development and the school and fixed the matter for next hearing on July 2.

In the petition, it was claimed that the boy was denied admission in nursery as his father was a DANIPS officer and was considered to be a Class B service. Even as the boy was shortlisted by the school, he was not admitted because the school said his father was in Class B service, it said.

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Barakhamba Road police station Asia's best: Survey

NEW DELHI: The Delhi police may occasionally draw flak but its police stations have fared well across the continent. According to Asian standards, Barakhamba Road police station in New Delhi has been rated the best police station after it scored the maximum points in a global survey carried out across 1,340 police stations in 22 countries.

Delhi Police had participated in a Global Police Station Visitors Week organized by Altus Global Alliance. Forty-five police stations were randomly thrown open for assessment and around 5,000 Delhiites took part in the inspection between November 4 and 9 last year. They were asked to fill a survey form which included a questionnaire with five parameters—community orientation, physical conditions, equal treatment, transparency and accountability, and detention conditions.

"We asked people if the station had a welcoming ambience, helped citizens to use police services with allocated space for reception, if there were displays explaining citizen rights, how to report a crime, etc," said an officer.

The average score of Delhi's stations was 83.38. The then SHO of Barakhamba Road police station, inspector Satish Sharma, and addl DCP (New Delhi) Madhur Verma will be felicitated at International Conference on Police Reforms on June 6 at Antigua, Guatemala.

Police stations like Kamla Market (Pramod Joshi) and CR Park (SHO Rajender Pathania) were also among the top scoring stations.Police stations like Najafgarh (SHO Atul Kumar) in southeast Delhi were ranked eight, while Vasant Vihar (SHO Anil Sharma) was number 10 and Kalkaji 15. Rajender Nagar (rank 11), Timarpur (12), Keshavpuram (16) also figure in the list.

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Sound barrier sheets go missing from flyovers

NEW DELHI: Delhiites living along six flyovers are being protected from the noise of traffic. However, the expensive sound barriers, which could cost anything between Rs 48 lakh and over a crore to be installed along both sides of the flyovers, are often found missing or damaged. And instead of taking measures to prevent theft, the public works department of Delhi government simply replaces the missing ones every couple of years.

At the Munirka and Rao Tula Ram flyovers in south Delhi, several of the polycarbonate sheets are missing. Some of the damage, of course, was a result of Friday's storm, but PWD officials accept that theft is the most common reason for replacing the sheets. On both flyovers, empty frames greet motorists while some loose sheets, flapping precariously in the face of the traffic, pose an imminent danger. Moreover, the gaping holes look ugly.

During Friday's storm, around 100 metres of the sound barrier at RTR flyover came loose, prompting traffic police to close the carriageway till the sheets were removed. PWD officials say they have asked the maintenance wing to take corrective action immediately though the flyover still resembles a denture with missing teeth.

Meanwhile, since only six flyovers have been made sound-proof and the sheets are being stolen frequently, sources question why these flyovers cannot be patrolled or why the sheets cannot be fixed in such a way that they may not be easily dislodged. "Flyovers at Britannia Chowk, Naraina, RTR, Munirka and Aruna Asif Ali Marg have been sound-proofed using Indian-made sheets that cost Rs 4,000 per sq m. Presuming that each flyover is 300-400 m long and that each sheet is 2 m high, it would have cost Rs 48 lakh to sound-proof them. The Commonwealth Games Village flyover was sound-proofed by DDA in 2010 using German-made material. This cost Rs 10,000 per sq m," revealed a PWD official.

At such a cost, is it practical to keep replacing missing sheets? Sound-proofing the CWG Village flyover was a pointless exercise since the residential complex is some distance away from the road and only a few flats are occupied at present. Despite this, money is being spent from the public exchequer to replace these sheets when they are stolen or damaged. PWD claims that replacement is done every two years and temporary measures are taken to hide the gaps in the interim.

PWD officials say they have filed several FIRs but it is impossible to keep a check on such thefts. "We lose lakhs each year in stolen pipe railings, manhole covers, metal holdings etc and have filed several FIRs with the police. However, no case has ever been solved. The material is either sold off or used in temporary shelters. Other than replacing the missing parts, there is nothing we can do," said the official.

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