A man being tested for Covid-19 in Delhi. (PTI)Delhi Live News Updates: Delhi on Friday reported a huge spike in daily Covid-19 cases as it logged 1,797 new infections as the positivity rate further climbed to 8.18 per cent. One death was also reported. With the latest additions, the case tally has risen to 19,19,025, while the toll stood at 26,226. Delhi had reported 1,323 fresh cases reported on Thursday at a positivity rate of 6.69 per cent.
The Enforcement Directorate conducted raids at multiple locations in the national capital region in connection with a money laundering case against Delhi minister Satyendar Jain and his associates, officials said Friday morning. At least 10 residential and business locations are being covered by the officials of the federal probe agency under the searches, PTI reported. Jain was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on May 30 under the criminal sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and is in judicial custody at present.
Meanwhile, activists of several student groups, including the left-affiliated AISA, staged a protest in Delhi on Friday against the Agnipath defence recruitment scheme, and termed it “disastrous”. The All India Students’ Association said the scheme is nothing but a design to destroy permanent jobs in the armed forces. The protesters raised slogans — “Agnipath wapas lo, tanashahi nahi chalegi (take back Agnipath, dictatorship won’t work) and also held placards which read ‘Immediately fill all vacant posts in defence on a permanent basis’ and ‘Rollback Aginpath scheme. Both AISA and Students’ Federation of India (SFI) alleged that several of their members were “brutally detained” .
Congress leaders and members at the protest march near Raj Bhavan on Thursday. (Express photo by Amit Chakravarty)
Rainfall in Delhi on Friday brought the maximum temperature down to 36.7 degrees Celsius, three degrees below the long period average for this time of the year, and the lowest maximum temperature recorded in around 20 days.
The maximum temperature has remained above 40 degrees Celsius on 15 days of June this year at the Safdarjung weather observatory, which provides representative figures for the city. It was 40.2 degrees Celsius on Thursday. The maximum temperature at all weather stations in the city settled below 40 degrees Celsius on Friday, with the lowest being 34.3 degrees Celsius at Mayur Vihar.
Rainfall in the early hours of Friday also meant that the minimum temperature was five degrees below the normal, settling at 22.8 degrees Celsius. Read More
Supreme Court judge Justice M R Shah, who was airlifted to Delhi after he fell sick in Himachal Pradesh, underwent an angioplasty and is stable, the hospital said on Friday. Justice Shah is expected to be discharged in a couple of days, it said in a statement.
"Justice M R Shah, sitting judge of the Supreme Court of India, developed a chest discomfort on June 16 while travelling in Kangra, Himachal Pradesh," the hospital said.
He was immediately airlifted to New Delhi and admitted to the Fortis Escorts Heart Institute in Okhla under the care of Dr Atul Mathur, executive director (cardiology), it added. (PTI)
BJP leaders of the city on Friday met Delhi Chief Electoral Officer and demanded action against an AAP spokesperson for allegedly terming their party's candidate for the June 23 Rajinder Nagar Assembly bypoll, Rajesh Bhatia, a "Pakistani".
A delegation of Delhi BJP leaders headed by Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Ramvir Singh Bidhuri accused the AAP spokesperson of "insulting" Bhatia and also violating the model code of conduct.
In a news channel debate, the AAP spokesperson had purportedly said that Bhatia's ancestors "must have come to India from Pakistan so he was a Pakistani". He was replying to BJP's attack on AAP candidate Durgesh Pathak as an outsider in Rajinder Nagar. Pathak had contested the 2020 Assembly polls from the Karawal Nagar seat and lost to the BJP's Mohan Singh Bisht. (PTI)
With protests escalating against the Agnipath scheme, the Youth Congress Friday claimed the main gate of its office here has been barricaded by the Delhi Police without assigning any reasons, turning the premises into a "police contentment".
The police, however, said they have just made "adequate security arrangements” as the Indian Youth Congress has no permission to take out any protest march.
The youth wing of the Indian National Congress said several IYC members have been detained and the barricading has been placed by the police without giving any reasons. (PTI)
Light rain and strong winds hit parts of Delhi-NCR on Friday afternoon.
The weather observatory at Lodhi Road recorded the highest amount of rainfall in the city – 6 mm – between 11.30 am and 2.30 pm. This was followed by the weather station at Palam, which recorded 5.5 mm, and the observatory at the Ridge in North Delhi, which recorded 5 mm. The Safdarjung weather station, which serves as a marker for the city, recorded 1.6 mm of rainfall. Rainfall between 2.5 mm and 15.5 mm is categorised as ‘light’.
Western disturbances and moisture-laden easterly winds have been bringing rainfall to northwest India after a two-week long dry spell that had kept temperatures above normal over the region. Read More
Over 5,300 challans were issued across Delhi between June 10 and 15 and fines to the tune of over Rs 26 lakh were imposed on those flouting Covid norms amid a surge in cases here, officials said. However, the total fines collected was Rs 14,60,980, almost half of the amount of fines imposed by the districts.
Officials explained that while some people pay the fine amount on the spot, there are others who pay the fine later in the court.
On many occasions, violators do not have sufficient amount to pay the fine. In that case, we issue challans and send them to the violator's residence or email them, said an official. (PTI)
Criminal proceedings are not a shortcut for other remedies and criminal law cannot be set into motion in a usual manner, the Delhi High Court has said. The high court stated that summoning an accused in a criminal case is a serious matter and the complainant has to bring on record material to support the allegations to have criminal law set into motion.
The observations were made by the high court while quashing the complaint and summoning order against a practicing lawyer for the alleged offence of criminal breach of trust on account of the absence of material to prima facie establish the commission of the offence as alleged in the complaint.
The complainant real estate company, in the present matter, claimed that the petitioner lawyer illegally released to its opponents' certain documents kept in an escrow account created in his name. (PTI)
Admissions to the Delhi Skill and Entrepreneurship University (DSEU) for the academic year 2022-2023 opened on Friday. This is the second batch of admissions at the Delhi government University.
This time, the number of seats across programmes has increased to 7,571 from 6,000. Some new undergraduate degree courses have been introduced, including BSc Optometry, Bachelor in Library Sciences, a three-year programme in automotive retail management and a BBA in Hospital Management.
Vice-Chancellor Neharika Vora also stated that two new campuses of the university will become functional – one in Mayur Vihar and the other in Dhirpur – taking the total number of campuses to 17. “Last year, we had given more than 500 scholarships. This year, we plan on giving more than 700 with special focus on girls who join our university. We want to encourage girls to join technical courses and join the workforce,” said Vora. Read more.
A Congress delegation will meet President Ram Nath Kovind at Rashtrapati Bhawan at 5 PM on Monday to discuss the alleged manhandling of Congress MPs by the Delhi Police, the party said.
Section 144 CrPC has been issued in Gurgaon to prevent gatherings of over four people amid the ongoing Agnipath protests.
The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) on Friday announced that it was closing Gates 1 at ITO and 1 and 2 at the Dhansa Bus Stand Metro stations over unspecified 'security concerns'.
"All other gates are operational," the DMRC said.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi is recovering at Ganga Ram Hospital in New Delhi after a fungal infection was detected in her lower respiratory tract earlier this week, the party confirmed on Friday.
“She was immediately put under treatment and underwent a related follow-up procedure yesterday morning,” a statement released by the party read. The Congress leader was rushed to the emergency room of the New Delhi hospital last week, about 10 days after testing positive for Covid-19.
At the time, the party had said she was in a stable condition and would remain at the hospital under observation. Read more.
The Enforcement Directorate is conducting raids at multiple locations in the national capital region in connection with a money laundering case against Delhi minister Satyendar Jain and his associates, officials said Friday morning.
At least 10 residential and business locations are being covered by the officials of the federal probe agency under the searches. Jain, 57, was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on May 30 under the criminal sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and is in judicial custody at present.
The agency had claimed to have seized "unexplained" cash worth Rs 2.85 crore and 133 gold coins after similar raids were conducted against Jain's family and others after his arrest. (PTI)
There is no rush to complete the syllabus, focus on conceptual understanding, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia told the heads of 800 Delhi government schools in a meeting Thursday.
The meeting was conducted to set targets and strategies for the 2022-2023 academic session. Currently, summer vacations are ongoing and schools will reopen in July.
“Mission Buniyaad classes recently got over and schools have performed very well. But we need to think about our future strategies now, to bridge the learning gap which has widened due to the pandemic in the past two years. We need to start from the point where we left two years ago and strategise accordingly. There is no rush to complete the syllabus. The focus of schools should be on building conceptual understanding,” he said. Read more.
Protests against the Agnipath scheme turned violent in Palwal on Thursday as hundreds of youths demanding a withdrawal of the new recruitment policy took to streets and gheraoed the residence of deputy commissioner of the town. The police said that the protesters blocked the roads and started pelting stones and torched vehicles.
In purported videos, policemen could be seen firing gunshots in the air to disperse the crowd. A statement issued by the Palwal police said that 15 police personnel were injured and five government vehicles were set on fire by the protesters. It added that the police resorted to lathicharge and used tear gas shells to control the crowd.
Section 144 was also imposed in the area. Read more.