A man who was declared a proclaimed offender by a city court eight years ago was found employed with Indian Railways since 2000 and has been arrested by New Delhi district police.
Police sources said the accused, identified as Vinod Asthana, was arrested by a special team of New Delhi district police from outer Delhi after a specific tip-off that he was hiding there. He was produced in a court on Thursday which granted him bail. Sources revealed that the accused was booked in a case of cheating reported from Tilak Marg area in 2000.
“The case was related to some misappropriation during his tenure as a clerk at Baroda House. After he repeatedly failed to appear before the court, a bailable warrant was issued against him. In 2002, the court declared him a proclaimed offender and the police across the NCR was alerted,” a senior police official said. “On Thursday, we received information that Asthana was staying at Sarai Rohilla railway quarters after which a police team conducted a raid and arrested him,” the official said.
Since Mr B.K. Gupta took over as its chief, the Delhi police has intensified drive against law-breakers who have been declared proclaimed offenders in order to clear the backlog of pending cases in city courts. The police has even declared rewards on offenders to motivate its force to hunt them down.
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Mercury climbs, fog delays flights
Age Correspondent
New Delhi, Dec. 29
The mercury rose by about two degrees Celsius on Thursday with the minimum temperature recorded at 6.8° Celsius, one degree below normal. The maximum was 22.3° Celsius. Dense fog at IGI airport delayed some flights. The fog started to become dense around 7. 30 am, an airport official said. General visibility dipped to less than 50 metres while runway visibility decreased to around 100 metres on main and new runways, he said, adding, since runway visibility dipped to below permissible take off limit of 125 and 150 metres for different types of aircraft, some flights were delayed.