HC raps agencies over loo near transformer

The Delhi high court has rapped the city government and North Delhi Municipal Corporation for constructing a public urinal under a power transformer and putting the life of users under “extreme danger”.

A bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice Anu Malhotra said, “This is incredible... How can you do this? Don’t you have experts, who can assist you? Is there any building byelaw or not for the city”.

The court asked the authorities to produce before it their proposed plan on the next date of hearing on May 18.

“You are directly putting the life of users under extreme danger,” it said, and added that the project should be put on hold for some time. “Safety and security of people is under question. Mere digging has started. It would be better to stop the project for some time,” the court said.

The bench also issued notice to the government and North Delhi Municipal Corporation and sought their replies.

A resident welfare association (RWA) of Sultanpuri had moved the court seeking direction to the authorities to restrain them from constructing the urinal under the power transformer.

A 34-year-old Afghan national has been accused of raping a US citizen after befriending her on Facebook and threatening her with an acid attack on being exposed, Delhi police has alleged in a court here.

The legal woes of accused Hameedullah Akbar, presently lodged in a jail here, are bound to compound as many women from other countries have now come out in the open alleging that they were also victimised by him.

The allegations were made in a chargesheet filed before the chief metropolitan magistrate, Sumit Dass, who took cognisance after finding that prima facie a case was made out against Akbar for various offences. PTI