Delhi News Live Updates, December 27: The national capital has reported its first case of Covid-19 sub-variant JN.1. With nine fresh cases reported today, the tally of the active cases in Delhi is now 35. A 28-year-old man, having comorbidities, has also died, with Covid not being the primary reason, the officials told news agency PTI.
Meanwhil, about 25 trains scheduled for arrival at Delhi railway station are running late as dense-to-very dense fog conditions prevailed over Northwest and adjoining Central India. Owing to these conditions, which are likely to persist till 10:30 am, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) Wednesday urged Delhiites to avoid outing until emergency, and wear face masks, while directing travellers to stay in touch with airlines, railways and state transport to track the schedule of their journeys. The visibility at IGI Airport was recorded to be 125 m, while at Safdarjung, it was 50 m. The minimum temperature recorded this morning was 7.8 degrees Celsius, a degree above normal, whereas AQI stayed at 383, the upper end of the ‘very poor’ category.
In other news, a day after a low-intensity blast took place near the Embassy of Israel in New Delhi, and an “abusive” threat letter by a previously unknown group — Sir Allah Resistance — addressed “to Israel Embassy ambassador” was recovered by the police from the spot, the National Investigation Agency carried out an investigation outside the Embassy, news agency PTI reported. No one was injured in the explosion, which took place on the rear side of the embassy on Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Road, the police said.
A 25-year-old former cricketer has been arrested for allegedly cheating multiple luxury hotels, including the Taj Palace, of lakhs of rupees by staying in their suites and not paying bills.
Police said the accused, Mrinank Singh, was obsessed with leading a luxurious lifestyle which involved staying at five-star hotels, partying with models and clicking photos with them, and travelling abroad with his girlfriends. He was leaving for Hong Kong when he was caught at the Delhi Airport. Read more
With fog persisting all through the day, Delhi saw this winter’s longest fog episode on Wednesday.
Very dense fog early on Wednesday thinned and turned shallow later in the day, but thickened again to dense fog by night, according to officials in the India Meteorological Department (IMD). Fog persisted across several parts of northwest India, including parts of Punjab, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh. Read more
The national capital has reported its first case of Covid-19 sub-variant JN.1. With nine fresh cases reported today, the tally of the active cases in Delhi is now 35. A 28-year-old man, having comorbidities, has also died, with Covid not being the primary reason, the officials told news agency PTI.
Sukesh Chandrasekhar, accused in a Rs 200-crore money laundering and extortion case, stated on Wednesday that dozens of ‘leaked’ WhatsApp messages between him and actor Jacqueline Fernandez were doctored and sought a CBI investigation into the incident.
Chandrasekhar also mentioned that his voice was cloned through AI by the actor, he said in a statement on Wednesday. He also claimed that the international number allegedly used to send messages to Fernandez could easily be traced through the IP Address of the phone.
The conman demanded strict action in accordance with law against the persons involved in creating these fake messages. Read more
New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) continued with the trend of a surplus budget, with net surplus of Rs 240.27 crore projected in FY 2024-25.
The NDMC Budget for FY 2024-25 showed a total expenditure of Rs. 4,829.36 crore which is more than revised estimated figures of Rs 4,568.21 crore.
The Budget also shows receipts of Rs 5,069.63 crore which is higher than revised estimate of Rs 4,888.93 crore, resulting in the surplus Budget.
Samples of an epilepsy drug collected from a Delhi government facility have been found spurious in a test conducted at a government laboratory, sources said Wednesday.
The samples of sodium valproate, critical for managing epilepsy and seizures, were found spurious during the ongoing examination of drugs undertaken after Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena recommended a CBI inquiry into the alleged supply of non-standard drugs—including some live-saving medicines—to Delhi government hospitals and the AAP’s flagship Mohalla Clinics.
According to sources, the epilepsy drug samples were found to have failed the tests at the Regional Drug Testing Laboratory (RDTL), Chandigarh. Read the full story here.
A day after a low-intensity blast took place near the Embassy of Israel in New Delhi, and an “abusive” threat letter by a previously unknown group — Sir Allah Resistance — addressed “to Israel Embassy ambassador” was recovered by the police from the spot, the National Investigation Agency carried out an investigation outside the Embassy, news agency PTI reported.
(Express Photos and Video by Praveen Khanna)
As many as 12 vehicles collided with each other due to the dense fog and very low visibility on the Yamuna Expressway in Greater Noida early on Wednesday. According to the police, the incident occurred near Dayanatpur village under Jewar police station limits in Gautam Buddha Nagar.
Eyewitnesses told the police that a vehicle suddenly applied the brakes and those behind it collided one after the other. Read more.
Watch here:
#WATCH | Amid dense fog, a dozen vehicles collide on Yamuna Expressway in Greater Noida
Read more: https://t.co/NBDYY2gy8q pic.twitter.com/SNd1dpeEAj
A day after a low-intensity blast took place near the Embassy of Israel in New Delhi, and an “abusive” letter, addressed to Israel Ambassador, was recovered by the Police, the National Investigative Agency (NIA) carried out an investigation outside the location, news agency PTI reported.
VIDEO | NIA carries out investigation outside Israel Embassy in Delhi, day after explosion and recovery of an “abusive” letter addressed to the Israeli ambassador. pic.twitter.com/YgBh4UaWaS
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) Wednesday has urged Delhiites to avoid outing until emergency, and wear face masks owing to dense-to-very dense fog conditions over Northwest and adjoining central India.
The visibility at IGI Airport was recorded to be 125 m, while at Safdarjung, it was 50 m. The minimum temperature recorded this morning was 7.8 degrees Celsius, a degree above normal, whereas AQI stayed at 383, the upper end of the ‘very poor’ category.
#Watch | Dense fog engulfs Delhi, parts of North India
Express Video by @thepraveenkhann
Read more: https://t.co/13MUfDi1dI pic.twitter.com/KmzN0jlwil
The Delhi High Court has dismissed an application seeking interim relief against Yash Raj Films from broadcasting, and distributing the film Shamshera in theatres, television channels or on OTT platforms in a lawsuit by one Bikramjeet Singh Bhullar, claiming that the film infringes the copyright in his script titled ‘Kabu Na Chhadein Khet’ (KNCK).
A single judge bench of Justice Jyoti Singh in its December 20 order observed that the treatment meted out to the story of Shamshera is in many ways, “makes it different from the script” of Bhullar.
The court also agreed with Yashraj’s contention that there can be no copyright in a story on account of it being a “period drama”. Read more.
The Delhi High Court has directed the Delhi government’s health and family welfare secretary to constitute a committee to inform it about facilities in jail hospitals to deal with emergencies like cardiac arrest and haemorrhages while observing that “incarceration does not deprive individuals of their fundamental right to life and health care”.
A single-judge bench of Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma in its December 22 order was dealing with a plea moved by the director of Brindco Sales Private Limited, Amandeep Singh Dhall, seeking interim bail on medical grounds for 12 weeks in the probes by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) into the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy.
An orange alert was issued by the India Meteorological Department (IMD) across Delhi at 8 am as visibility in many parts remained around 50 metres.
Abotu 25 trains scheduled for arrival at Delhi railway stations are running late and there could be flight delays and cancellations, news agency PTI quoted an official. However, the situation may improve after 11 am, according to an official of private weather forecasting agency Skymet.
“Flight delay and flight cancellation is possible. Dense fog to impact rail, road, air traffic today across Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, UP & north Rajasthan,” Skymet official Mahesh Palawat said in a post on X.
#Palam #airport visibility at 08:00 am in zero. #Runway 27 and 29, 125 meters. #flightdelay and #Flight Cancellation is possible. Dense #fig to impact #rail, road, #air traffic today across #Punjab, #Haryana,#Delhi, #UP & north #Rajasthan. #DelhiFog @SkymetWeather @JATINSKYMET pic.twitter.com/oXSnjmbaIN
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) Wednesday has urged Delhiites to avoid outing until emergency, and wear face masks owing to dense-to-very dense fog conditions over Northwest and adjoining central India.
The weather agency has also directed travellers to stay in touch with airlines, railways and state transport to track the schedule of their journeys.
The visibility at IGI Airport was recorded to be 125 m, while at Safdarjung, it was 50 m. Dense fog conditions are very likely to persist till 10:30 am.
The minimum temperature recorded this morning was 7.8 degrees Celsius, a degree above normal, whereas AQI stayed at 383, the upper end of the ‘very poor’ category.
A 40-year-old labourer was killed while another suffered serious injuries after a lift malfunctioned and the duo fell from a height of around 20-30 feet. The incident took place inside a factory in Narela. Police suspect the cable allegedly broke. Police said the workers, Neela Mani (40) and Anil Kumar (36), were going towards the top portion of the factory which is around 40 feet above the ground. “Halfway, the lift malfunctioned as the cable broke and the men fell from a height of 20-30 feet. The two were severely injured and rushed to a hospital where Mani was declared dead on arrival. Kumar is undergoing treatment,” said an officer. Read here
A Delhi court has issued an open-ended non-bailable warrant (NBW) against UK national Sumit Chadha in a money laundering case related to fugitive arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari and others. Special Judge Neelofer Abida Perveen passed the order, noting that the presence of Chadha cannot be secured through the ordinary process. Unlike a regular non-bailable warrant, an open-ended NBW has no time limit for its execution. The court passed the order after taking cognisance of a supplementary charge sheet filed by the Enforcement Directorate(ED) against the accused, saying there was sufficient ground for summoning him. (PTI)
The Delhi Police received a call about a blast behind the Israel Embassy in New Delhi. Police said they sent a special team along with fire dept officials but nothing suspicious was found. Senior officers are yet to issue a statement on the incident.
The Delhi Jal Board on Tuesday started a ‘Jan-Sampark camp’ at more than 150 locations across the national capital, an official said on Tuesday. The camp will be conducted from December 26 to 30, the official said. According to the officials, the board will be reaching out to all its consumers at over 150 locations for information and grievances pertaining to billing, new connection, mutation, disconnection and metre-related issues. (PTI)
The Delhi High Court directed the police and the civic body here to ensure strict vigil and regular action against encroachment in the Chandni Chowk area. A bench headed by Justice Tushar Rao Gedela said the authorities must comply with the decision of a Special Task Force (STF) in this regard, and that Municipal Corporation of Delhi’s Assistant Commissioner concerned and the SHOs of Lahori Gate and Kotwali police stations shall be held personally responsible if the encroachment is not removed or it reoccurs.
The court’s order came on a petition by Chandni Chowk Sarv Vyapar Mandal seeking directions to ensure that no squatting and hawking activities are carried on in the “non-hawking/non-squatting areas” in Chandni Chowk. “Strict vigil and action on day-to-day basis must be taken and in case the encroachments are not removed or reoccurs, the Assistant Commissioner of MCD of the zone concerned and the Station House Officers (SHOs) of Lahori Gate and Kotwali shall be held personally responsible,” the bench ordered. (PTI)
A 19-year-old labourer suffered serious injuries allegedly after he was stabbed by four people over a minor issue in northeast Delhi’s Gokalpuri area, officials said on Tuesday.
Police said victim Rahul is out of danger and has been discharged from a hospital after treatment.
Rahul, a worker in a Ghaziabad mill, told police that he was eating momos in Gokalpuri around 7 pm on Monday when he was attacked, a senior officer said.
The victim has identified two of the accused as Kangla and Tota. According to the complainant, he had a verbal spat with Kangla over a petty issue. “No one has been arrested yet and efforts are being made to identify the other accused,” the police officer said. (PTI)
The new year is just around the corner. If you are looking to make travel plans or want to know when you can take a break, here’s a list of public holidays for the year of 2024 if you’re a resident of Delhi.
The list below is based on the gazetted holidays released by the Centre. The list will be updated once the Delhi government officially announces the list of holidays (Click here to see the full list of holidays)
A labourer was killed and another suffered injuries in outer Delhi’s Narela area after a lift of an under-construction building malfunctioned, police said on Tuesday.
The accident took place on Monday night and the victims are yet to be identified, they said.
A senior police officer said an FIR will be registered after receiving a formal complaint. “An investigation into the matter has been started,” the officer said.
The body was sent for autopsy while the injured was rushed to a nearby hospital, police said. (PTI)
Water supply in parts of Delhi has been affected once again on account of high ammonia levels in the Yamuna River.
Water supply was available at low pressure in parts of Civil Lines, Kamla Nagar, Shakti Nagar, Karol Bagh, Paharganj, Premnagar, Inderpuri, Old and New Rajinder Nagar, Kalkaji, Govindpuri, Sangam Vihar, Tughlaqabad, Delhi Gate, Model Town, Gulabi Bagh, South Extension, Punjabi Bagh, Jahangirpuri, Moolchand, Greater Kailash, Burari, and parts of South Delhi and the Delhi Cantonment areas. (Read More)
In a plea concerning over one lakh students studying in Delhi government schools in the NorthEast district, who are taught only for two hours a day or on alternate days, the Delhi High Court said it was an “alarming situation” as young children are being deprived of proper education due to lack of infrastructure and facilities.
A division bench of Acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Mini Pushkarna in its November 21 order said, “This Court cannot tolerate such a state of affairs where young children belonging to an underprivileged category, who are the future of our society, are prevented from having proper formal education”.
Observing that the Delhi government’s affidavit on the issue “hardly inspires confidence”, the bench directed the government to file a detailed affidavit specifying the number of students studying in the schools situated in North East-I District, with a class-wise breakup to show the strength of children in each class (Read More)
The Delhi government has sent COVID-19 positive samples to laboratories for genome sequencing, officials said on Tuesday.
Delhi Health Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj said on Monday that the national capital is recording three-four Covid cases on an average every day and asserted that the city is well equipped to fight the virus resurgence.
“We had a meeting with the Centre over the COVID-19 situation and were informed that the number of cases is increasing in southern states like Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu,” Bharadwaj told reporters on the sidelines of an event. “We have been conducting tests and receiving three to four cases per day on an average…. We have conducted mock drills and made all necessary arrangements,” he said. (PTI)
Two flights were diverted and nearly 30 flights were delayed at the Delhi airport on Tuesday morning due to dense fog. An official said that one flight of IndiGo and SpiceJet was diverted to Jaipur.
According to information on the Delhi airport website, around 30 flights have been delayed in the morning.
In a post on X, DIAL gave a fog alert at around 0730 hrs saying that while landing and takeoffs continue at the Delhi airport, flights that are not CAT III compliant may get affected. CAT III pertains to operating flights when the visibility is quite low.
A thick blanket of fog engulfed Delhi on Tuesday morning, while the mercury dipped to 7 degrees Celsius, nearly a notch below the season’s normal.
Here is a visual of the Akshardham area covered in dense fog at 8:50 am this morning:
#WATCH | Dense fog covers Delhi’s Akshardham area as cold wave continues.
(Visuals shot at 7:50 am) pic.twitter.com/4EYSbW4mQV
Delhi Chief Secretary has accused the office of Health Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj of being “politically compromised”, and has proposed the suspension of the minister’s personal secretary for allegedly passing official notes by the minister to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).
Chief Secretary Naresh Kumar made the remarks in the Action Taken Report (ATR) in the Burari Hospital sexual harassment case.
Kumar, in the report, attached a screenshot of a post by the AAP’s X (formerly Twitter) handle and said that it was made six hours before he received the directions to file a report in the matter on his email at 10.15 pm on Sunday. (Read More)
The Gautam Buddha Nagar police on Sunday arrested a person for allegedly selling and renting out properties attached by the police under Gangster Act proceedings, officials said on Monday.
The police identified the accused as Anees Khan, 32, a resident of Shahberi village under the jurisdiction of Bisrakh police station in Greater Noida West. Khan is facing at least eight criminal cases, under several charges, including attempt to murder, cheating, forgery and criminal intimidation under the Indian Penal Code, and under the Gangster Act. (Read More)
With a reading of 374, the Air Quality Index (AQI) of the national capital remained in the “very poor” category at 9:05 am on Tuesday morning.
A thick blanket of fog engulfed Delhi on Tuesday morning, while the mercury dipped to 7 degrees Celsius, nearly a notch below the season’s normal.
Due to dense fog, low visibility was reported from several city areas, such as Safdarjung, Anand Vihar and India Gate.
The visibility recorded at Delhi’s main weather station at Safdarjung was 200 metres at 5:30 am. It was 100 metres at Palam.
According to the airport authorities, about 30 flights, including international flights, were delayed at the Delhi airport due to the fog and low visibility. The arrival of 14 trains was also delayed due to the foggy conditions.
Hello Readers! Welcome to today’s Delhi Live Blog. Follow this space to get all the latest updates from the Delhi-NCR region.
In other news, a day earlier, Delhi Health Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj said that the capital’s positivity rate was around 1 percent, urging people to follow precautionary measures instead of panicking, news agency PTI reported. While assuring that the new covid sub-variant JN.1 is not life-threatening, Bharadwaj said that 400 tests are being conducted every day, with genome sequencing of samples testing positive for COVID-19 being ramped up. With six more samples testing positive for JN.1, the number of people infected with the new Covid sub-variant stands at 69.
In 2017, Lovely (24) and her husband moved to Narela from Uttar Pradesh in hopes of building a new life. The couple took a loan of Rs 16 lakh to buy a coveted DDA flat in the lower-income group category in Sector G8. Her husband found a job as an accountant in a factory in Bhorgarh and Lovely, heavily pregnant then, settled down thinking that she, a girl from a small village in Gorakhpur, had finally made it in the big city.
“When we moved here there was nothing — six years later there’s still nothing,” quipped Lovely, who goes by one name. “I used to find it so difficult to go out and buy provisions, so I set up a shop on my balcony,” she said, standing amidst rows of chips packets and sweet boxes in her ground floor house. Now Lovely’s small shop has become a staple for the community living in the DDA flats.
However, provisions are the least of the residents’ concerns — bus stops are far away, hospitals even further, and hardly anyone ventures outside their society complexes after dark owing to criminal elements.
A popular European folktale goes like this: On the eve of Christmas in 1870, while the Franco-Prussian war was raging, a French soldier jumped from the trenches and began singing “Cantique de Noel – O Holy Night”, a carol describing the birth of Jesus. Time stood still, and people on both sides of the trenches listened transfixed. Then, a Prussian soldier stood up and began singing the carol too, this time in German. An odd moment of solidarity and peace ensued and a ceasefire was called for 24 hours, for Christmas.
Seated behind his desk at his home in present-day Delhi, Professor Sydney R Rebeiro fondly recalls how his friend, Sister Dr Melba Rodrigues, sang the same carol at Rashtrapati Bhawan’s Darbar Hall many decades ago. “Her voice would ring out so beautifully,” Prof Rebeiro, who served as the Dean of Delhi University between 1985-2021, recalls.
Prof Rebeiro, 81, is a treasure trove of stories related to Christmas in Delhi. Afterall, his family has been a regular at Kashmere Gate’s St James’ Church, the oldest worshipping church of Delhi, for the last 114 years.