Hubby Holds up Virgin Flight to Stop Wife Leaving
NEW DELHI: A man in his desperate attempt to stop his wife leaving for London made a hoax call to the police and grounded the Virgin Airways flight to London from here recently. The police traced the call to the man, Suraj Prakash Duggal, a US-based businessman currently in India. Duggal's wife, Sashi, 50, who has a garment business in London, was on board. The flight finally left after a delay of two hours, and without Sashi, who told the police of their strained relations.

Fake Ticket-checkers Go to top
NEW DELHI: The Railway authorities are receiving more and more complaints of cheats masquerading as ticket-checkers in prestigious trains like Rajdhani and Shatabdi. Their modus operandi is to come in safari suit, ask for the ticket, take it away on the pretext of checking, and vanish. At the next station they get down and claim refund on the tickets.

Pedestrian Sucked into Drain in Rain, Dies Go to top
NEW DELHI: When it rains, Delhi roads are knee-deep in water. The real danger comes when one moves over places where manhole covers are missing - a frequent, callous sight in Delhi. Especially when the roads are under water, the danger is real. One can go down the tunnel and be swept away. This is what has happened to an unfortunate Ms Anjali Malhotra, 22, of Lajpat Nagar. She was sucked into a nullah and her body was recovered three hours later and two km away. Her own brother who had come to pick her up was a helpless witness watching her slip and disappear.

Fake Soft Drink Bottles Seized Go to top
NEW DELHI: Four persons have been arrested from a place called Ghazipur and 10,000 spurious soft drink bottles have been seized by the police. They have been charged for violation of Copyright Act, cheating and adulteration. They were using the labels of Pepsi, Coke, Mirinda and such other popular brands.

The IITians Had It Go to top
About 70 of the students of the world famous Indian Institutes of Technology located at various places in the country, who came over to Delhi IIT for their summer training session or examinations, contracted cholera. Twenty-one of them had to be admitted to the Infectious Diseases Hospital, located at Kingsway Camp. The summer of May-June usually takes its toll almost all over India. Jaundice, gastro-enteritis, dysentry, cholera etc are the most common infections here which spread through contaminated food and water.

The Jwalamukhi Hostel, one of the two hostels of the Delhi IIT that remain open during the vacation, was the scene of the calamity. About 500 students from various places like Hubli, Gwalior, Mumbai, Chennai, Shivalik etc were staying in the hostel for the vacation. Some students who did not take food but only water from the mess also were among the victims. The source of contamination was found to be a blocked sewer. The reservoir water was not contaminated, but the mess was full of dirt and flies and the water coming through the cooler had a bad taste.

The Dean of Students, Mr GV Rao, said most of the affected students had travelled long distances on trains and might have had all kinds of foodstuff on the way. Besides, they were also not used to the summer heat in Delhi.

Milk Goes Synthetic Go to top
LUCKNOW: Unmindful of the consequences to human life, unscrupulous people take to unhealthy means to make a living, or even to rake in wealth. The latest in the series is the discovery that at many places, especially the state of Uttar Pradesh, people are resorting to manufacture and sale of synthetic milk. Big dairy owners and milk suppliers are involved in this organised business. At each centre, quintals and quintals of the stuff is produced every day. Aligarh, Saharanpur etc are the leading centres of this racket. The method of production is simple: Mix detergent, refined oil, urea etc in water and add some quantity of pure milk also. The synthetic milk is made for less than half the cost and trouble. What is the consequence? It costs the unsuspecting and helpless townsfolk their kidney. Beware!

Getting Into It, Getting Out of It, Poor Japanese! Go to top
NEW DELHI: A new type of racket has come to light. Four Japanese women have been duped and molested. How? They were befriended by the men, promised marriage and robbed of money. Two of the tourists returned to Delhi to make a complaint. And six young men have been arrested.

One of these cases worked like this: The man sees a Japanese woman being harassed by an autorickshawallah over fare. A very common scene! The young man intervenes and `rescues' the woman. The woman is impressed, as is the case always. He befriends her. She promises they will meet again. The rest of the series is a repeat act.

by A Correspondent