logo
Laxmi Narain Temple decked up for Janmashtami celebrations

Laxmi Narain Temple decked up for Janmashtami celebrations

Hans India4 days ago
New Delhi: The Delhi Police announced elaborate arrangements on Friday for devotees visiting the Laxmi Narain temple (Birla temple) for Janmashtami celebrations on August 16, with strict security protocols, regulated entry and exit points and traffic restrictions in the area. All visitors to the main temple will be allowed entry exclusively from Mandir Marg, which can be accessed via Kali Bari Marg or Peshwa Road, police said. Entry will be facilitated through the door frame metal detectors (DFMDs) installed at the main gates.
The devotees have been urged to fully cooperate with the security personnel for the safety of all. The police advisory stated that handbags, briefcases, parcels, food packets, cameras, mobile phones and other battery-operated equipment will not be permitted inside the temple complex.
'As per tradition, visitors will need to remove their footwear before entering the Mandir. Convenient and secure footwear deposit facilities have been arranged by the temple authorities near Kali Bari Marg and beside the Hindu Maha Sabha office on Peshwa Road,' the advisory read.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Cop jailed for wasting Delhi court's time
Cop jailed for wasting Delhi court's time

Hindustan Times

time3 hours ago

  • Hindustan Times

Cop jailed for wasting Delhi court's time

A Delhi court on Tuesday sent a Delhi Police sub inspector to jail for wasting the court's time and not paying an amount of ₹10,000 for cancelling a bailable warrant issued against him. A Delhi court on Tuesday sent a Delhi Police sub inspector to jail for wasting the court's time Special judge (Pocso) Ramesh Kumar passed the order while presiding over an application moved by sub inspector Sandeep Rawal of Kalyanpuri police station, requesting cancelling of a bailable warrant issued against him earlier in the day after he failed to appear before the court during the prosecution examination stage of a Pocso trial. In his defence, the officer later appeared in person and told the court that he had gone to the Saket court to file a supplementary chargesheet in connection with another case lodged at Govindpuri police station. Therefore, he could not attend the proceedings. The court said, 'Despite service of warrant, IO (investigating officer) did not appear before this court, rather he had gone to other court to file supplementary chargesheet'. The judge said that the conduct of the IO showed that he has no regard for the process of the court and that there was no sufficient ground to cancel the warrant. However, the court said the warrant may be cancelled subject to payment of an amount of ₹10,000. The IO then told the court that he will have to go to an ATM to get the money. At around 3pm, the court noted that despite giving time to the IO to fetch the money, he didn't get the amount. The court noted, 'Despite taking time from the court to pay the amount of bailable warrant, IO has not paid the amount of bailable warrant. He has wasted the time of the court.'

With rifles and imported arms, criminals outgun Delhi-NCR cops
With rifles and imported arms, criminals outgun Delhi-NCR cops

Hindustan Times

time3 hours ago

  • Hindustan Times

With rifles and imported arms, criminals outgun Delhi-NCR cops

If over a dozen murders of policemen in the last two years is an indication, police personnel across the National Capital Region (NCR) are being increasingly outgunned by criminals wielding assault rifles and imported handguns, often acquired through illicit markets. While gangsters brandish high-end international handguns and assault rifles, police forces are often equipped with little more than aging 9mm pistols, outdated rifles, and often even just batons. The vast majority of India's 1.7 million police personnel operate in conditions that compromise both their safety and efficacy. (AP) Criminals, increasingly resourceful and mobile, benefit from a burgeoning black market in arms. In a recent case, Delhi Police seized an improvised AK-47 rifle with 30 live cartridges. The weapon, assembled in the underground gun-making workshops of Bihar's Munger district, was meant to be sold for just ₹2.4 lakh. The accused, a man named Kapil Kumar, told police that he acquired the gun from a property dealer and was allegedly supplying it to gangs operating in Uttar Pradesh and Haryana. The illegal arms industry has long flourished in India's hinterlands. Delhi Police's special commissioner of police (crime) Devesh Chandra Srivastava said that after Bihar's Munger district, Western UP's Bulandshahr and Madhya Pradesh's Mhou area, Rajasthan's Deeg area has now become a hub for manufacturing knock-offs of sophisticated weapons. 'The process is astonishingly informal. Crude lathes and welding equipment in tiny backyard workshops churn out imitations of AK-47s and other semi-automatic firearms with alarming efficiency. Despite frequent raids, the ecosystem has proved resilient. Intelligence inputs suggest that weapons produced in Munger and similar areas are increasingly ending up in urban centres like Delhi, feeding a growing appetite among organised crime syndicates,' he said. In a major crackdown in May this year, Delhi Police busted an illegal arms manufacturing and supply syndicate operating from Deeg, arresting five people over a three-day operation. The gang allegedly supplied weapons to criminals in Delhi-NCR, including the Vikas Lagarpuria gang. Joint CP (Crime) Surender Kumar said that the accused—Harvinder Singh, Sonu Singh, Mohammad Mubin, Sher Mohmad alias Sheru, and Mohammad Juber—were held after raids in four Deeg villages. 'Police recovered 11 illegal firearms, including a rifle and 10 pistols, along with 17 live cartridges and weapon-making equipment. The probe began after the March 4 arrest of gangster Rohit Gahlot, who named Juber's Deeg-based network. The gang operated from forested areas and was ready to open fire on police during the raids. Mubin, trained in arms-making since 2013, sold pistols for up to ₹12,000. Harvinder and his cousin Sonu resold weapons to Delhi gangs, with the former building direct links with criminals,' he said. Against this backdrop, the state of police preparedness in NCR appears dangerously anachronistic. According to data compiled by senior police officials, only a handful of police stations in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, and Haryana can even claim to possess AK-47 rifles, let alone officers trained to use them. A retired special commissioner of Delhi Police said that while both weapons are lethal, their real-life impact is very different. 'A 9mm pistol is a short-range sidearm, typically used for personal defence or in close encounters, firing smaller cartridges with limited stopping power beyond a few dozen metres. In contrast, an assault rifle such as the AK-47 is a high-calibre automatic weapon designed for battlefield conditions. It can fire rapidly over several hundred metres, penetrate walls or vehicles, and cause mass casualties in crowded places. This stark difference in range, firepower and destructive potential is why the recovery of an assault rifle is treated by law enforcement as far more alarming than the seizure of handguns,' he said, asking not to be named. Former joint commissioner of Delhi Police BK Singh said that the standard firearm for most policemen remains the 9mm pistol. 'The contrast is stark when these officers face adversaries with more powerful and accurate automatic weapons. This structural imbalance has grave implications for on-ground law enforcement. In theory, the Quick Response Teams (QRTs) are supposed to offer a muscular reply in crisis situations. But in practice, the reality is bleaker. The drivers of QRT vehicles are often private hires with no formal police training, and many vehicles lack basic bullet-proofing. In sensitive zones, delays in deployment can be fatal. If we have a Mumbai-style terrorist attack situation in Delhi, it will be interesting to see who drives into the fire first—the civilian driver or the policeman in the back,' he said. The Union ministry of home affairs has repeatedly called for modernisation of the police force, with annual allocations for arms procurement, training, and equipment upgrades. Yet implementation is patchy. According to the Bureau of Police Research and Development, India has one of the lowest police-to-population ratios among G20 nations—just 152 officers per 100,000 people, far below the United Nations' recommended 222. More worryingly, there is a lopsided focus on ceremonial or riot control gear rather than actual combat-readiness. A large share of equipment funds are funnelled into shields, batons, and surveillance cameras, while frontline weapons remain outdated. 'The discrepancy between criminal sophistication and police preparedness is not limited to weapons. It extends to communication, mobility, and tactical response. Gangs often use encrypted messaging platforms, GPS trackers, and drones for surveillance and planning. Police departments, still reliant on wireless sets and handwritten logs, lag behind. The result is a force that reacts rather than anticipates—a serious handicap in the cat-and-mouse game of modern crime-fighting,' added Singh. There are, of course, exceptions. A few elite units, such as Delhi's Special Cell or Uttar Pradesh's Anti-Terrorist Squad, are better trained and better equipped. But these units are small, centrally based, and not deployed for routine crime control. The vast majority of India's 1.7 million police personnel operate in conditions that compromise both their safety and efficacy. The wider issue is not merely operational -- it is political. Police reforms in India have been stalled for decades, caught in the crosshairs of bureaucratic inertia and political interference. The Supreme Court's directives from the Prakash Singh judgment in 2006, which called for greater autonomy and depoliticisation of police forces, remain largely unimplemented across states. The continued use of colonial-era laws and the over-centralisation of police command structures only deepen the inefficiencies. In an era of urban terror threats, interstate crime networks, and sophisticated trafficking rings, India's frontline police are dangerously ill-equipped. Without meaningful reforms—both in hardware and institutional culture—the imbalance between police batons and criminal AK-47s will persist. And in that unequal fight, it is not only officers who pay the price. Society does too.

Mute vagabond murdered in southeast Delhi park, 2 minors among 4 held
Mute vagabond murdered in southeast Delhi park, 2 minors among 4 held

Hindustan Times

time5 hours ago

  • Hindustan Times

Mute vagabond murdered in southeast Delhi park, 2 minors among 4 held

The Delhi Police arrested an 18-year-old man, a woman, and apprehended two minors in connection with the murder of a mute vagabond at the Astha Kunj Park in southeast Delhi, officials said on Tuesday. Police said the victim stared at the group for a long time, after which the accused assaulted him with fists, kicks and a stick.(Hindustan Times/Representative Image) The body of the victim, identified as Dharam alias Gunga, a mute vagabond who lived near the ISKCON temple, was found on the morning of August 13, the police said. The three accused, identified as Dinesh alias Lalla (18) and two minors, had come to the park for food and drinks. The victim stared at the group for a long time, after which the accused assaulted him with fists, kicks and a stick, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Southeast) Hemant Tiwari said. In a related development, the police also arrested a woman identified as Rahana (44), a resident of Shriniwaspuri, who allegedly supplied cannabis to the accused. A case was registered under Section 103 (1) (murder) of the BNS at the Amar Colony Police Station. Since there was no CCTV coverage inside the park, the team analysed footage from the cameras along Raja Dhir Singh Marg near the temple. "A recording from around 12.40 am on August 13 showed three youths alighting from an auto and heading towards the park. Based on surveillance and inputs from informers, police laid a trap and apprehended the accused," the DCP stated. The police recovered blood-stained clothes, two mobile phones and a stick used in the crime. Dinesh, a resident of Banda in Uttar Pradesh, was previously involved in an attempt to murder case as a minor, the DCP added. During interrogation, the accused revealed that the victim allegedly kept staring at them, which provoked them. "When the victim failed to respond to repeated questioning, the accused and his associates assaulted him, leaving him fatally injured," the officer said. Additionally, cannabis weighing 175 grams was recovered from Rahana, leading to a separate case being registered under the NDPS Act at the Amar Colony Police Station.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store