Around Town

According to police,one man was arrested and FIRs against three unregistered dental practitioners were lodged at the Sector 10 police station.

Drugs control officer Pooja Chowdhury said,“Vishal Dental Clinic,Deepak Dental Clinic and Nutan Dental Clinic were unauthorised clinics. We conducted surprise raids in these clinics and found that many practising as dentists without valid degrees. The clinics have been functioning for many years and had hundreds of patients. We had received a tip-off of about 10 such clinics,but the other clinics were found locked.”

Two held for cheating foreign nationals

New Delhi: Police on Tuesday arrested two men on the charge of cheating foreign nationals by inducing them to invest in a fake export business and then making off with the money. The accused were identified as Rishi Raj and Praveen Kumar. Police got a complaint from a foreigner on September 3 that she met one Surya alias Praveen Kumar in Dharamshala who befriended her and introduced her to one Rishi Raj. She said the men told her that if she sent her jewellery from India to Paris in a parcel,she being a foreign national,would not have to pay tax on the parcel. The men,however,prepared a parcel of fake jewellery and duped her of money. The police are investigating the matter.

2 DTC staff among 4 held for recruiting drivers,conductors with fake licences

New Delhi: Six persons,including two DTC employees,were arrested on the charge of recruiting drivers and conductors on the basis of fake licences and badges for cluster bus services.

Police also recovered laptops,desktops,fake driving licences and 25 forged certificates of the Institute of Driving and Research.

The accused were identified as Pradeep,Devender,Sanjay,Chander,Devi and Amarjeet. Pradeep and Devender are directors of a company named MBAS services,Sanjay an assistant manager at a firm called Prehari Protection Systems (P) Ltd,and Chander and Devi conductors with DTC.

Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime) Ravindra Yadav said,“We received information about a racket operating for the recruitment of drivers and conductors on the basis of fake driving licences,conductor’s badge and first-aid certificate. We constituted a team and an investigation was carried out.”

“It was learnt that Pradeep and Devender had set up a company,MBAS Services (P) Ltd,and were recruiting drivers and conductors with fake licences and documents after taking huge sums of money from them,” Yadav said.

“Decoys was deputed for being recruited as driver and conductors and one constable was deputed as a shadow witness. They were sent to finalise the deal on September 4. Pradeep and Devender demanded Rs 70,000 for the conductor’s post and Rs 40,000 for the driver’s post. The decoys paid Rs 20,000 to Devender and Rs15000 to Pradeep as advance,” Yadav said.

Devender then gave them a fake conductor’s licence and first-aid certificate. The two were caught on the spot.

During questioning,Devender told police that he got this racket going to earn quick money,police said.

“They contacted AB Grain Spirits (P) Ltd.,which has the contract to supply buses for the cluster service. As sub-contractors,they also supplied qualified drivers on a 7 per cent commission basis. However,they soon became greedy and began flouting rules,” Yadav said.

Till date,the they have supplied over 200 drivers for the cluster buses. Most of them do not have valid badges. Many even have fake driving licences,police said. They used to charge between Rs 15000 and Rs 40,000 per candidate for recruitment.

Pradeep also told police that they supplied about 85 conductors for the cluster buses through Prehari Protection Systems Pvt. Ltd,which is authorised to recruit conductors.

“Of these 85 conductors,around 40 have been fake conductor’s badges. Sanjay Dahiya,an assistant Manager of Prehari,was also part of the racket,” an officer said.

1984 riots case: High Court seeks report from CBI on witness protection plea

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court has directed the CBI to file a status report regarding the threat perception to witnesses in the 1984 anti-Sikh riot cases involving senior Congress leader Sajjan Kumar.

The court while hearing a PIL on the matter directed that necessary protection be provided to witnesses during the pendency of cases before the trial court.

Apart from the CBI,the court also issued notices to the Delhi and Punjab governments seeking their responses by September 18 on the PIL filed by ‘November 1984 Carnage Justice Committee’.

The PIL cited a list of witnesses in the two-anti Sikh riot cases and said ,“Despite various judgments and orders passed by various courts,including the High Court and the Supreme Court,to the effect that witnesses should not be allowed to come under pressure of the accused and that it is the duty of the government to provide adequate protection to witnesses,the respondents have failed to abide by the same.”

Senior counsel H S Phoolka appeared for the petitioner and said the witnesses were not just scared but also lived in constant fear of death and also felt that they would lose their jobs.

He referred to a recent judgment on witness protection issued in the Jessical Lal murder case and said the High Court had directed the government to frame a witness protection policy. But nothing was done in this regard,he said. CBI counsel D P Singh submitted that the agency would like to file a status report in the case.

According to the PIL,the Punjab government had earlier provided security to the witnesses on CBI’s request. The plea said the trial court had in July directed the IO to provide his phone number to witnesses but not asked the government to provide security to them.

Draft guidelines to prevent abuse of children in shelter homes,says HC

New Delhi: Commenting that there was a failure in the apparatus governing child welfare in the capital,the Delhi High Court on Wednesday gave directions for drafting guidelines for child welfare and appointing government officials as public information officers.

The court issued these directions while responding to two separate petitions. “The Child Welfare Committees (CWC) are failing… the Juvenile Justice Board is failing… Government hives off its function to social bodies… but they themselves show insensitivity,” Justice Pradeep Nandrajog said while hearing a petition filed by three mothers complaining that their children had been sexually assaulted at a special home in the city.

The children who were allegedly sodomised by other inmates were transferred from the home but,on the petition of the parents,were sent back to the same home.

The two-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Ramana and Justice Nandrajog condemned the insensitivity shown by CWC in sending the children back to the place of assault and remarked on the absence of child counselling facilities in the home to help the victims recover from the trauma.

The judges also expressed displeasure with the organisation which filed the petition. “You only highlight the problem….why don’t you give us a solution?” the judges said directing the organisation to draft guidelines into the issue.

In a separate petition,the judges directed the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) to appoint government officials to the post of associate public information officers (APIO) under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.

The petition was filed in response to a government order asking members of the CWC working with the JJB to fulfil the responsibilities of giving information under the RTI Act. The social workers,working on an honorarium of Rs 1,000 per month,were consequently also exposed to the penalty under RTI Act in case there were irregularities in the information given.

Responding to the plea that RTI-responsibility interfered with their other duties,the bench directed that government officials and not social workers be appointed as APIOs in the JJB.