Delhi-NCR news live: Delhi govt reduces circle rates by up to 20%

A 35-year-old woman has alleged that she was raped by a man on the pretext of marriage over a period of two years, the police said on Friday.The victim, a native of Kerala, was currently residing at the Sohna Road area in Gurugram.

The Delhi Police have arrested a 23-year-old man for allegedly sexually assaulting and stalking a 22-year-old girl in west Delhi's Rajouri Garden area on Thursday, the police said.

Delhi Jal Board (DJB) has approved several key projects, including reutilisation of 5,500 defunct tubewells, additional water for Dwarka and rejuvenation of drains, in its board meeting on Thursday. Water minister Satyendar Jain said, “Groundwater levels in Delhi are depleting at an alarming rate. To address this, DJB has been instructed to use all defunct tubewells for groundwater recharge. Groundwater experts will also be hired.” DJB has 10,000 tubewells, out of which 4,500 are functional. Instructions have been given to restart tubewells that are feasible while the rest will be used for groundwater recharging.

Like the ‘fast’ locals in Mumbai and ‘galloping’ suburban trains in Kolkata, Noida will start running ‘fast trains’ on the Aqua Line, starting Monday. The need for a faster service hasn’t, however, come from a glut of passengers but an acute dearth of them two years into the metro service, refocusing questions on Aqua Line’s route alignment.

An online petition started by People for Animals (PFA) and Humane Society International (HSI) has garnered over 7.5 lakh signatures making the call for an amendment to the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1970, louder. Through this petition, citizens are urging Prime Minister Narendra Modi to raise the penalty for cruelty against animals, which is currently just Rs 50.

The central government on Thursday kicked off the redevelopment of Rajpath and its surrounding area, which is also known as Central Vista Avenue, after getting all statutory approvals, including from the Heritage Conservation Committee and Delhi Urban Arts Commission.

Delhi Police have busted a fake call centre found engaged in making fraud calls to allure and trap innocent people on the pretext of providing jobs in airlines and giving bumper gifts in online shopping in south Delhi’s Malviya Nagar. The supervisor of the call centre, who has been identified as Akash Prasad, has been arrested. The role of 16 women call executives is also being scrutinised. During interrogation, it was revealed that initially, Harsh and Vinod, the co-partners, had given advertisements for job through ‘Apna App’ for sales executives.

A 35-year-old Mewat-based criminal was arrested on Thursday in an area near southeast Delhi's Sarita Vihar after a brief exchange of fire, police said. The accused has been identified as Shahid alias Rafiq alias Abdul, a resident of Nuh district in Haryana, they said.

A fake call centre at Tughlaqabad Extension has been busted when four men were arrested for allegedly duping people in the US by hacking their systems to make them believe that the security of their e-wallets had been breached. The accused then charged them on the pretext of fixing the “breach”. The mastermind has been identified as 36-year-old Aneesh Ahmad, who had worked at a BPO in Gurgaon. His associates are Shivendra Mani Tripathi (34), a BTech graduate who had worked with MNCs in Gurgaon; Ankit Pradeep (22), a BCom student; and Ashish Thapliyal (26), who had worked at a high-end hotel in Manesar after studying hotel management. None of the men has any previous criminal involvement. Eight laptops and six mobile phones have been seized.