Delhi News Highlights: NewsClick founder moves Supreme Court against HC order allowing arrest in UAPA case

VIDEO | "We set a goal to plant 52 lakh trees in Delhi. Up to this point, we have successfully planted 40 lakh trees during the summer action. The second phase of planting, aiming to plant 12 lakh more trees, is starting today to ensure we achieve our target within the specified… pic.twitter.com/3ocUd29OAE

— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) October 16, 2023

This afternoon, with fellow army officers and colleagues, at the New Delhi Cantonment HQ. pic.twitter.com/qahmeavH7O

— Sachin Pilot (@SachinPilot) October 16, 2023

A dedicated 'Lost and Found' centre has been established at the Ghaziabad Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS) station to expedite the retrieval of misplaced belongings, a statement by the National Capital Region Transport Corporation (NCRTC) said.

The 17-kilometer-long priority section of the Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut RRTS corridor is set to become operational "very soon," the statement said. The statement further said

• If any passenger misplaces their belongings on the station premises or inadvertently leaves any baggage or belongings on RAPIDX trains, they can contact the station staff for assistance.
• Inquiries and support regarding lost and found items can be obtained by calling the RAPIDX Customer Service Centre at 08069651515.
• If any RAPIDX staff locates or receives lost or forgotten items in the station premises or on the train, passengers will have 24 hours to retrieve their belongings from the same station where they were misplaced or left.
• After the 24-hour window, any unclaimed belongings will be transferred to the dedicated 'Lost and Found' centre located at the Ghaziabad station, which will operate from 8 am to 8 pm daily, according to the statement. 

(PTI)

Police detain a person at a protest organised by different student and left-wing organisations in support of Palestinians in Gaza, as the conflict between Israel and Hamas continues, near Jantar Mantar in New Delhi, India, October 16, 2023. 

(PTI Photos)

#WATCH | Delhi | On his visit to the Palestine Embassy, CPI (ML) general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya says, 'We came here to express our solidarity on behalf of Indian people. Right now, we all know whatever happened on the 7th of October but it has not stopped there. Right… pic.twitter.com/gyN3sY3SmG

— ANI (@ANI) October 16, 2023

VIDEO | "We met the Ambassador and expressed our solidarity (with Palestine)," says JD(U) leader KC Tyagi on opposition leaders visiting the Palestine Embassy in Delhi.#IsraelGazaWar pic.twitter.com/KIuLqULDh4

— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) October 16, 2023

The Delhi High Court on Monday directed the All India Institute of Medical Sciences to immediately constitute a medical board to examine a woman who sought the medical termination of her 22-week pregnancy after she decided to separate from and divorce her husband.

A single-judge bench of Justice Subramonium Prasad observed that a medical board’s opinion would be necessary for considering whether it would be safe for the woman to undergo the pregnancy termination procedure by a registered medical practitioner and to ascertain the conditions of the foetus.

Read more.

The Allahabad High Court Monday acquitted the prime suspect in the Nithari killings, Surinder Koli, in 12 cases and co-accused Maninder Singh Pandher in two cases. The High Court acquitted Surinder Koli and Moninder Singh Pandher, who were awarded death sentences on the charges of rape and murder, for lack of evidence.

The CBI had registered 16 cases against Surinder Koli for the alleged murder, abduction, and rape of women along with the destruction of evidence. Koli’s employee Maninder Singh Pandher was also booked in a case of trafficking.

Read on.

Accusing the AAP Delhi government of ‘criminal negligence’ for the condition of the Yamuna, the BJP Monday said it would apprise “the highest authorities” and seek penal action against Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

Terming it “hazardous” and the water in it “poisonous”, a BJP delegation, including Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva and Northeast Delhi BJP MP Manoj Tiwari, visited the riverbank at Kalindi Kunj, which is among the most significant locations where the Chhath Puja is observed, following which they accused the chief minister of “murdering Mother Yamuna”.

Read more.

Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai launched phase two of a sapling plantation drive in the city on Monday as part of efforts to reduce pollution during the winters and said the increase in green cover has improved the national capital's air quality over the last eight years.

The second phase of the plantation drive began at Garhi Mandu in northeast Delhi.

"We had set a target of planting 52 lakh saplings, including shrubs, this fiscal. We have already planted 40 lakh as part of our action plan to reduce pollution during the summer season. Now, we are commencing phase two of the plantation drive, during which the remaining 12 lakh saplings will be planted in the winter season," Rai told reporters.

He expressed happiness over the New Delhi Municipal Council's campaign to plant 50 lakh saplings, saying it will help increase green cover in the city.

The minister highlighted that Delhi's green cover has increased from 20 per cent to 23 per cent during the AAP government's tenure, leading to an improvement in air quality.

Delhi has recorded 200 days of "good to moderate" air quality this year so far, a first since 2015 excluding 2020 which saw a strict lockdown due to Covid-19, he said.

According to the Centre's Commission for Air Quality Management, the number of "good to moderate" air quality days during the corresponding period in 2022, 2021 and 2019 stood at 154, 183 and 174 respectively. (PTI)

A 28-year-old street vendor was stabbed by an angry customer who was asked to wait for his turn in Noida’s Sector 49 on Saturday. According to the police, the accused is still on the run and they are trying to nab him.

The victim has been identified as Ravindra Kumar, who lives in Barola village and is originally from the Badaun district of Uttar Pradesh. Kumar is being treated at a hospital.

Read full report

The Delhi government has observed that despite the upgradation of Anganwadi services and department efforts to the beneficiaries, the enrolment of children at Anganwadi centres has come down.

The Woman and Child Development (WCD) Department plans to digitally survey children aged 1-6 in the districts to understand the underlying challenges and reasons behind the slow increase.

NewsClick founder Prabir Purkayastha and its HR head Amit Chakravarty on Monday moved the Supreme Court against the Delhi High Court's dismissal of their plea challengeing their arrest and police remand in a case lodged under the anti-terror law UAPA.

A bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra took note of the submissions of senior lawyer Kapil Sibal, appearing for the accused, and said that the matter needed urgent hearing and asked him to circulate the case papers.

"This is the NewsClick matter. The journalists are in police custody. Here one of the accused is a 75-year old man,” Sibal said.

The CJI said he will take a call on the listing. (PTI)

NewsClick founder Prabir Purkayastha and HR head Amit Chakraborty has moved the Supreme Court challenging the Delhi High Court’s verdict dismissing his plea against arrest by Delhi police in a case lodged under anti-terror law the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

The High Court had rejected their contention they should have been provided the grounds of arrest when apprehended by police and said the UAPA does not mandate furnishing written grounds and only speaks of the accused being “informed” about the reasons for arrest.

Showing an improvement, the 24-hour average AQI at 8 am on Monday dropped to 197 in the ‘moderate’ category on Sunday. As per the IMD, the national capital is expected to see light rainfall, thundershowers on Monday and Tuesday, with rest of the week likely to remain dry. The AQI was at 260 earlier on the weekend while the temperature was two degrees above the seasonal average.

Former chief election commissioner Manohar Singh Gill died at a south Delhi hospital on Sunday after a brief illness, according to people close to him. He was 86.

Gill will be cremated here on Monday, they said.

A former bureaucrat, Gill served under Parkash Singh Badal as a young officer when the Shiromani Akali Dal patriarch was the Punjab chief minister.

He served as the chief election commissioner (CEC) between December 1996 and June 2001.

Gill and GVG Krishnamurty were made members of the Election Commission when TN Seshan was heading the poll panel. It was then that the poll panel became a multi-member body, a former government functionary said. (PTI)

Some people surrounded the vehicle of Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot outside Jodhpur House in Lutyens' Delhi over distribution of tickets for the upcoming state polls, police said on Sunday.

Some party workers raised slogans against Gehlot over the issue, police said.

"It was not any protest, some people were talking to the chief minister over the issue of ticket distribution. However, heavy police force deployment was made there to maintain law and order," a senior police official said.

Polling in all the 200 Assembly constituencies in Rajasthan will be held on November 25 and counting of votes will take place on December 3. (PTI)

The Delhi Congress on Sunday started the first phase of its "Jawab Do-Hisab Do" campaign for the Lok Sabha polls with public meetings and a "Pratigya rally" in Bawana here.

The aim of the rally was to take a pledge to defeat all the seven BJP MPs in Delhi in the 2024 general elections, said Delhi Congress president Arvinder Singh Lovely, who led the rally.

There are seven parliamentary seats in the national capital and all were won by the BJP in the 2019 polls.

Scores of Congress workers gathered at Bawana's Jhanda Chowk in southwest Delhi waving the party flag and raising slogans against the Centre, where the BJP is in power. (PTI)

A 3.1 magnitude earthquake shook Faridabad on Sunday afternoon.

A 22-year-old student of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in New Delhi died and three others were injured in an accident involving a two-wheeler inside the campus early Sunday.

According to the police, two of the students, including the deceased, were on a bike when they hit two others near the Godavari bus stop in the morning.

Read more.

England's Sam Curran with Jos Buttler during the match.

Rahmanullah Gurbaz plays a shot.

(PTI Photos)

LG VK Saxena approves appointment of Justice Poonam A Bamba, a retired judge of the Delhi High Court, as the Chairperson of Police Complaints Authority (PCA)
 
PCA has been set up to deal with the complaints of public regarding acts of serious misconduct against Police Personnel
 
The name of Justice Bamba, who retired on August 31, was forwarded as Chairperson of the PCA on the direction of the Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court
 
Her tenure of as Chairperson is three years

In the wake of the festive season, the Gautam Buddha Nagar police commissionerate Saturday imposed prohibitory orders in the city under section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) from Sunday, the beginning of Navaratri, to October 31 in a bid to maintain law and order.

The commissionerate has issued a list of 14 restrictions that will be enforced during the period which will see several important days including Maharaja Agrasen Jayanti (October 15), Mahanavmi (October 23), Vijayadashmi (October 24), Maharshi Valmiki Jayanti (October 28), Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Jayanti and Acharya Narendra Dev Jayanti (October 31).

Workers of the Delhi BJP's OBC wing on Sunday held a protest march here against the BRS government in Telangana over several issues concerning the state.

The Delhi BJP's OBC Morcha president Sunil Yadav claimed that they were detained by police and taken to different police stations.

"We marched from Ashoka Road to Telangana Bhawan. There was heavy barricading outside Telangana Bhawan and we were detained," he told PTI over phone.

"We were protesting against the K. Chandrashekar Rao government and unemployment in the state," Yadav said.

The minimum temperature in Delhi settled at 21.6 degrees Celsius on Sunday morning, two notches above the season's average, while the air quality index (AQI) was in the poor category.

According to the IMD, the relative humidity on Sunday morning was 75 per cent.

The India Meteorological Department has forecast a partly cloudy sky with the possibility of very light rain or drizzle in the evening. The maximum temperature is expected to settle around 35 degrees Celsius.

For a month now, 46-year-old Anuj Sharma, who works for an MNC, has been house hunting for his family of four. His search, so far unsuccessful, has taken on a note of urgency as he must vacate his current 3BHK in Tower H at Chintels in less than 15 days.

Anuj is a resident of Chintels Paradiso in Gurgaon’s Sector 109, where a portion of a sixth-floor apartment in Tower D collapsed all the way to the first floor, killing two women, in February 2022. The incident prompted a CBI probe and a structural audit of the nine-tower society. Five towers — D, E, F, G and H (the latest) — were ordered to be vacated as they were declared unfit for habitation due to structural deficiencies.

Visuals from Noida as the Air Quality Index dips to 'Poor' category

#WATCH | Uttar Pradesh: Visuals from Noida as the Air Quality Index dips to 'Poor' category pic.twitter.com/AkAHDLtDfD

— ANI UP/Uttarakhand (@ANINewsUP) October 15, 2023

Get the umbrellas out for your Sunday plans as the national capital is set to experience light rains for the next three days. 

According to IMD officials, light rain is expected on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. A slight improvement in AQI can be expected if it rains

Welcome to the live blog. Stay tuned as we bring you latest updates from Delhi-NCR!