Three of family drown in Cauvery

New Delhi, May 26: A massive fire broke out on the intervening night of Monday and Tuesday in the slums of the Tughlaqabad area in south east Delhi in which over 250 shanties were gutted, however, no one was injured, fire officials said.

Atul Garg, Chief Fire Officer, told IANS, "We came to know about the fire in the slums around 12.15 a.m. following which 28 fire tenders were rushed to the spot. And the fire was brought under control by 4 a.m."

He said, the Tughalaqbad slums have over 500 shanties, out of which over 250 have been destroyed in the fire.

He said, it took time for the fire tenders to reach the spot as it was on the hills, but the fire was doused within four hours and by 8 a.m. cooling off procedure has also been completed.

When asked if there is any casualty in the incident, he said, "No injury or casualty has been reported."

He also said that as of now the actual reason for the fire is not known. "But we are trying to find out the reason of the fire," Garg added.

South East Deputy Commissioner of Police R.P. Meena said, "In the night it seemed that almost 500 shanties were gutted. However, in the morning it became clear that only 250 shanties have been gutted in fire."

He said, the South East district police after receiving the call also rushed the ambulances and the local police team in the area for rescue operation. Meena further said that very few people were residing in the shanties, and the people came out of their shanties after the fire broke out in one of them.

A man posed as Superintendent of Police (SP), called up a subordinate police official and asked him to get his mobile phone repaired or face the consequences. But, his bluff was later called and the man landed in lockup.

Azamgarh SP Triveni Singh said the 23-year-old youth, Shubham Upadhyay, is the son of a farmer. He was preparing for competitive exams when his phone developed a snag on Saturday. He tried to reach out to local mechanics, but they were unavailable to fix it due to the lockdown.

Upadhyay used a free caller identification app to call up the in-charge of the Kotwali police station, K. K. Gupta, and threatened to shunt him out, if he failed to swiftly get the work done. Gupta grew suspicious and eventually caught the youth.

n his statement to the police, Shubham Upadhyay said, "On Sunday noon, I tried to breach the district borders to reach Lucknow to repair my phone, but since there was heavy police presence and barricading, I returned home. Later, I installed a free caller identification app in my handset and mentioned the name as SP Azamgarh and even uploaded a photo of the cop to appear genuine."

He first called SHO, Kotwali to get the phone repaired and was told the handset would be picked up from the SP office in an hour. Then, he called a businessman to bring his SUV and hand over his mobile to the SHO.

But when Upadhyay called the police again to suggest a separate meeting point, he raised suspicion. When the SHO tried to confirm the venue, Upadhyay got hesitant and said he would send a peon.

"I suddenly realised something was fishy and rang up the public relation officer of SP Azamgarh, who denied any such order from the SP. When the caller's number was scanned, it displayed the name of SP Azamgarh," said SHO Gupta.

A trap was laid and when the SHO reached the venue, he found one Praveen Shukla sitting in the vehicle. Police got the address of the accused from Shukla and reached Upadhyay's home in Bilariya locality and arrested him.

Upadhyay has been booked under IT Act and for threatening a public servant.

Kochi, Feb 6: A 46-year-old Thailand national was allegedly raped by two men here, following which they were arrested, police said on Thursday.

The accused hailing from a north Kerala district have been arrested on the basis of a complaint lodged by the woman.

Police said the accused-- Mohammed Insaf and his friend Ansaruddin from Kondotty in Malappuram district were arrested after recording the statement of the victim.

The woman from Thailand had been a Facebook friend of Insaf for the last seven months after she enrolled her child in a school in Malappuram district.

The woman who came from Bangkok recently to visit her child and was staying in a hotel here.

When Insaf came to meet the woman, he was accompanied by his friend Ansaruddin and both allegedly raped the woman at the hotel room, police said.

All formalities including medical examination of the woman were completed, police said.

The accused will be produced before the court on Thursday, they added.