Major fire in Himalaya House in Delhi

NEW DELHI: A major fire broke out in the 15-storey Himalaya House in Connaught Place on Monday morning, a fire service officer said.

The fire was reported around 6.20 am, and around 30 fire tenders were rushed to the spot. Nearly three hours later, however, the fire was still to be doused.

"The fire broke out in the third floor of the building and spread to the fourth and fifth floors too. No one has been injured in the incident. The cause of the fire is yet unknown," the fire service official said.

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Major fire at Himalaya House in Delhi

NEW DELHI: A major fire broke out in the 15-storey Himalaya House in Connaught Place on Monday morning, a fire service officer said.

The fire was reported around 6.20 am, and around 30 fire tenders were rushed to the spot. Nearly three hours later, however, the fire was still to be doused.

"The fire broke out in the third floor of the building and spread to the fourth and fifth floors too. No one has been injured in the incident. The cause of the fire is yet unknown," the fire service official said.

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Fire in multistoreyed building, guard charred to death

NEW DELHI: A security guard was charred to death when a major fire broke out in the multistoreyed Himalaya House, housing several commercial establishments, in the heart of the capital this morning.

The blaze was reported from the 15-storeyed building, which is around 50 metres high, on K G Marg near Connaught Place at around 6.20am and 32 fire tenders were rushed to the spot to douse the fire.

"The body of a security guard was recovered from the building. He was apparently sleeping when the fire broke out and could not get out of the building. Two guards were rescued," A K Sharma, director of Delhi Fire Services, told reporters.

The deceased has been identified as Jai Bhagwan (52), whose body was recovered from the eighth floor. Another guard Shiv Kumar was rescued from sixth floor while Raj Kumar was rescued from the 11th floor.

"There were 12 fire fighting systems in the building. We are not sure whether they were working," Sharma said.

The fire broke out in the third floor of the building and it spread to the fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth floor soon. The fire was doused a little after noon and the cooling process was on.

Thick plumes of smoke were billowing out of the building and rescue workers were working hard to douse the fire which broke out apparently due to an electrical fault.

Police and fire brigade officials said they were yet to ascertain the cause of the blaze though they suspected it to be due to a short circuit.

"There was a lot of smoke. The smoke blackened the sky," Kamal, an eyewitness, said.

Police has blocked traffic on K G Marg from Outer Circle of Connaught Place to Tolstoy Marg intersection on K G Marg.

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Fire at Himalaya House in Delhi, guard dies

NEW DELHI: A security guard was charred to death when a major fire broke out in the multistoreyed Himalaya House, housing several commercial establishments, in the heart of the capital this morning.

The blaze was reported from the 15-storeyed building, which is around 50 metres high, on K G Marg near Connaught Place at around 6.20am and 32 fire tenders were rushed to the spot to douse the fire.

"The body of a security guard was recovered from the building. He was apparently sleeping when the fire broke out and could not get out of the building. Two guards were rescued," A K Sharma, director of Delhi Fire Services, told reporters.

The deceased has been identified as Jai Bhagwan (52), whose body was recovered from the eighth floor. Another guard Shiv Kumar was rescued from sixth floor while Raj Kumar was rescued from the 11th floor.

"There were 12 fire fighting systems in the building. We are not sure whether they were working," Sharma said.

The fire broke out in the third floor of the building and it spread to the fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth floor soon. The fire was doused a little after noon and the cooling process was on.

Thick plumes of smoke were billowing out of the building and rescue workers were working hard to douse the fire which broke out apparently due to an electrical fault.

Police and fire brigade officials said they were yet to ascertain the cause of the blaze though they suspected it to be due to a short circuit.

"There was a lot of smoke. The smoke blackened the sky," Kamal, an eyewitness, said.

Police has blocked traffic on K G Marg from Outer Circle of Connaught Place to Tolstoy Marg intersection on K G Marg.

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Geetika suicide: Ex-Haryana minister Gopal Kanda denied bail by Delhi HC

NEW DELHI: Former Haryana minister Gopal Goyal Kanda, arrested for his alleged role in air hostess Geetika Sharma suicide case, was on Monday denied bail by the Delhi high court.

Justice Pratibha Rani dismissed Kanda's bail plea after hearing arguments from both the prosecution and defence counsel and said she would pass a detailed order later.

Appearing for Kanda, senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi argued that several months have passed since his client's arrest on August 18, while the police too has filed the chargesheet in the case and "now my client is entitled to bail."

He also argued that the circumstances of the case show "it is not a case of abetment of suicide but a case of infatuation."

He further argued that his client always encouraged the deceased, Geetika, to remain with him but he had no intention to "provoke her to commit suicide."

Opposing Kanda's bail plea, Additional Solicitor General Siddharth Luthra said "we are in the process of further investigation in the case and he, being a politician and an influential person, may influence witnesses in the case."

During the argument, Justice Pratibha Rani also pulled up Kanda's counsel for not approaching the sessions court against denial of bail to him by the trial court.

Kanda had moved the high court on November 1 against the September 20 order of the trial court which had dismissed his bail plea on the ground for need of further probe due to a medical report that the victim was pregnant in March this year.

23-year-old Geetika was found dead on August 5 at her Ashok Vihar residence in North West Delhi. In her August 4 suicide note, Geetika had said she was ending her life due to "harassment" by Kanda and his aide Aruna Chaddah, co-accused in the case. They, however, had denied the charge.

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No holiday, but Chhath is on

NEW DELHI: Upset with the government's decision not to declare public holiday on Chhath, BJP leaders said that the Congress is not considerate towards Poorvanchalis. Meanwhile, the three corporations have claimed that the preparations for Chhath Puja, which is on November 19, are in full swing.

"We got a letter from chief minister Sheila Dikshit saying that Chhath can't be declare a public holiday. The government is not thinking about lakhs of Poorvanchalis. It is their main festival," said Mahinder Nagpal, leader of the House, North corporation.

The BJP has been pushing for a holiday on Chhath as the Poorvanchali vote bank helped the party win the municipal elections in Congress bastion — the trans-Yamuna area.

Delhi BJP has decided to deploy 10,000 karsewaks at 160 ghats. The party will also deploy divers at all the important ghats for the safety of the people. On Saturday, Delhi BJP president Vijender Gupta inspected the ghats in the trans-Yamuna area. "There are no pucca ghats in the area. But the arrangements made by the corporations are satisfactory," said Gupta.

The civic agencies have constructed separate changing rooms for women and toilets at the ghats. Sanitation workers have been deployed to clean the ghats and the engineering department has been asked to level uneven surfaces at the ghats. Mayor of East and North corporations visited the ghats on Saturday and directed officials to finish the work by Sunday. Special arrangements are being made in municipal parks for the festival.

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Mob fury hits Metro services

NEW DELHI: It was chaos at Karkardooma on Saturday afternoon when a mob set fire to a banquet hall below the Metro station. The incident had a rippling effect on the rest of east Delhi as Metro operations between Yamuna Bank and Vaishali stations came to a complete standstill. This completely upset services on the Blue Line. Much later, locals clashed with the cops, and the latter had to resort to stern measures to quell the violence.

On Friday evening, driver Rakesh Dayal, a resident of Aya Nagar and father of two, was beaten to death, allegedly by employees of the banquet hall for popping balloons used for decoration. "There were four people, including the manager of the banquet hall. Their party was already over (and there was no use for the balloons)," said Amit Dayal, Rakesh's cousin.

He added, "The police refused to conduct a postmortem; they were even refusing to lodge an FIR until yesterday. Today they have said they have filed one, but we are yet to see a copy of it."

Around afternoon, a crowd had assembled outside the Metro station, blocking traffic. Sometime after 3.30pm and before 4pm, a fraction of the mob set the banquet hall ablaze. The hall was empty at the time and no one was hurt in the incident. Some 20 fire tenders were rushed to the spot and they took a while to douse the fire.

Trains stopped running between Yamuna Bank and Vaishali stations from 4.20pm to 6.20pm. A Delhi Metro spokesperson said, "Fire officials wanted to shut down the overhead electricity line so that they could use the fire tenders safely."

By 6pm, the blaze was brought under control, but trains were not stopping at the Karkardooma station. Outside the station, the mob was getting more and more agitated. "We'll stop traffic now. No one will be allowed to go," said Ramrati, Rakesh's neighbour.

Cops tried to defuse the crisis by talking the mob out of the situation; but the parleys broke down and soon, the mob was clashing with the cops. Cops resorted to a mild truncheon charge around 6.40pm and even lobbed teargas shells. They managed to drive the crowd into a lane that crosses under the Metro line, past the halls and forced the shops along the way to close down. The mob returned the aggression by pelting the police with bricks and stones.

Additional DCP (east) Ashish Muhammad said they had lodged a murder case and needed some time to probe: something that the crowd was not willing to give. "We will now file a case of rioting. This was the third incident of rioting at Karkardooma in the last two years," the DCP said.

A police source said they are planning to invoke the Railway Act, as railway property was damaged.

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Gurdwara Act row: Sheila Dikshit dares Parkash Singh Badal to ‘leash her’

LUDHIANA: The face-off between Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal and Delhi CM Sheila Dikshit over the management of Delhi gurdwara affairs escalated on Saturday, with the latter daring Badal to "try leashing her" for her government's decision to amend the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Act 1971 to allow direct election to the post of president.

A furious Badal had on Friday called up and shot off missives to PM Manmohan Singh and Delhi LG Tejendra Khanna, seeking a "leash on Dikshit-led Delhi government" and action against those who had attacked the SAD(B) leaders and workers at Gurdwara Rakabganj Sahib on Thursday.

Speaking exclusively to TOI on Saturday, Dikshit said, "Put me on leash if you want Mr Badal. The Cabinet has already cleared the amendment. It will be sent to the ministry of home affairs and I will personally make sure that the Act is ready by December. There shouldn't be any uncertainty and ambiguity on this".

Dikshit's visit to Ludhiana comes two days after clashes between two rival Sikh factions — Delhi unit of SAD (Badal) and Paramjit Sarna-led camp — at the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee meeting at the Rakabganj gurdwara.

The melee at the 229-year-old gurdwara near the Parliament, that ensued for 30 minutes, had left at least eight people critically injured as the groups used sticks, stones and kripans against each other. The clashes fuelled the tension simmering since October 9 when the Delhi cabinet proposed to raise the tenure of the governing council of Delhi's gurdwaras from two years to four years through the Gurdwara Act amendment (2012). The same amendment also provides for direct election to the post of DSGMC president.

In his letter, the Punjab CM had also urged the Centre "to stop Delhi government from going ahead with its dangerous move to interfere in the religious affairs of the Sikh community".

Dikshit said she had not been briefed on the contents of Badal's letter. " Mr Badal is free to write to whoever he wants. My suggestion to him is that he should not interfere in elections which are not taking place in his state," she added. She also hit out at the opposition, saying many amendments were made to the 1971 Act even by the BJP-led government.

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Smog delays Sheila Dikshit's flight to Punjab

LUDHIANA: A private Ludhiana trip by Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit in a chartered flight along with a leading telecom industrialist family became the flashpoint of the ongoing pollution slugfest between Delhi and Punjab when the plane was delayed by nearly three hours on Saturday.

The private Bombardier BD-700 Global Express, which was initially scheduled to arrive at 9.45am, landed at 12:24pm due to low visibility, said the ATC operator at Halwara airport managed by the Indian Air Force.

Dikshit, who was supposed to first visit a school for underprivileged kids at Mohi near Halwara, skipped the event and directly rushed to Nehru Sidhant Kender Trust, managed by the industrialist family.

At the end of her meeting, while addressing reporters, Dikshit reasoned her delay due to smog which is allegedly caused by paddy stubble burning in Punjab.

"Now, I completely believe what Nasa experts found out on burning of paddy straw in Punjab. In their own state, there is so much smoke and pollution that our flight was held up for so long before we got clearance from the Halwara airport," she remarked.

Dikshit, who holds the environment portfolio, also said her government had enough facts to present a case in the apex court that the smog crisis in Delhi was not because of vehicular pollution. On November 9, the Supreme Court had expressed concern over the rising pollution and smog in Delhi and asked the government to find ways to deal with it. However, Dikshit had blamed Punjab and UP for the pollution in Delhi.

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Graft charges against excise officials

NEW DELHI: A trial court on Saturday framed charges of corruption and criminal conspiracy against suspended central excise commissioner Anup Kumar Srivastava and four others for their alleged involvement in a corruption case.

Special CBI Judge Talwant Singh framed charges of criminal conspiracy, misuse of official position and receipt of bribe by Srivastava and four others under various provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act and the IPC.

The court put the five on trial and decided to begin recording statements of prosecution witnesses from December 5. Besides Srivastava, central excise superintendent Lallan Ojha and alleged middleman Hemant Gandhi stand accused of taking hefty bribe from two accused businessmen Dilip Agarwal and Anand Agarwal for not taking any action against them in an excise evasion case.

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