Prawesh Lama covers crime, policing, and issues of security in Delhi. Raised in Darjeeling, educated in Mumbai, he also looks at special features on social welfare in the National Capital.
Articles by Prawesh Lama
When Tihar's imposing walls could not stop Phoolan Devi's killer
The dramatic escape bid by first-time prisoners Javed and Faizan may have shaken the Tihar administration, but it was not the first time an inmate had attempted to flee India’s largest prison.
Updated on Jul 01, 2015 10:42 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Prawesh Lama, New Delhi
Thieves dig 18m tunnel in Chanakyapuri to steal telephone cables
In a span of less than a month, thieves struck the embassy area in New Delhi on Sunday for the second time and stole telephone cables worth nearly Rs 4 lakh. While the incidents and their frequency are worrying, the Delhi Police is clueless about the possible identity of the thieves who dug an 18-metre-long tunnel outside the Ethiopian embassy on Shanti Path in Chanakyapuri causing communication outage in the high security area.
Updated on Jun 30, 2015 11:47 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Prawesh Lama, New Delhi
Tihar’s old and ailing inmates get helpers and doctors on call
In Delhi’s high-security Tihar jail, 270 inmates above the age of 60 — one of them is 82 — and serving time for robbery, murder and other such crimes not only have attendants cooking and washing for them but doctors on call as well.
Updated on Jun 17, 2015 09:18 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Prawesh Lama, New Delhi
Vashisht shootout investigation led by former special cell member, questions over impartial probe
The controversy over the encounter killing of conman Manoj Vashisht refuses to die down with the role of a member of the special investigation team leading to questions over the Delhi Police's claim of an impartial probe.
Updated on May 22, 2015 01:11 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Prawesh Lama, New Delhi
Shootout at Sagar Ratna: Police told court no case against criminal a week before gunning him down
A week before its men gunned down Manoj Vashisht in a restaurant filled with weekend diners, the Delhi Police's special cell told a city court he was not under investigation and that there was no case against him.
Updated on May 20, 2015 09:35 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Prawesh Lama, New Delhi
Two prisoners found dead in Tihar under mysterious circumstances
Two prisoners inside Tihar jail were found dead under mysterious circumstances on Thursday morning. The incident comes just four days after a prisoner was murdered by three other inmates inside the country's largest prison.
Updated on May 14, 2015 12:39 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Prawesh Lama, New Delhi
Drink driving or not, Delhi’s 'car-o-bars' always open
Drunken driving may be illegal but that hasn’t stopped Delhiites from turning their car into a bar on wheels. With the heat soaring and price of liquor in pubs skyrocketing, the car-o-bar of modifying vehicles with mini bars is brisk in Karol Bagh market — the city’s biggest car accessories hub.
Updated on May 10, 2015 05:12 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Prawesh Lama/Mohit Sharma, New Delhi
After Salman verdict, son of cop killed by drunk driver seeks justice
For 26-year-old Vipin, actor Salman Khan’s conviction on Wednesday in a drunk driving case after 13 years is a hint of what he has to go through in the years ahead. On December 14 last year, Vipin’s father was crushed to death by a drunk driver out on a late-night drive in his Maruti Eeco Car.
Updated on May 08, 2015 01:20 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Prawesh Lama, New Delhi
Auto thefts hot on crime charts: 70 cars stolen every day in Delhi
The latest Delhi Police initiative on car theft has racked up an average of 70 vehicles reported missing every day. The Capital’s first virtual police station set up exclusively for vehicle thefts has had a very busy first few weeks, registering 1,200 cases just 18 days into its launch.
Updated on May 06, 2015 08:33 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Prawesh Lama, New Delhi
Delhi govt's probe into farmer suicide at rally ends
The Delhi government has completed its inquiry into the death of Rajasthan farmer Gajendra Singh and the report is expected by the end of this week. The Delhi Police, which refused to join the magisterial inquiry of the government, are conducting a parallel investigation into Singh’s death.
Updated on Apr 28, 2015 01:15 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Prawesh Lama, New Delhi
Farmer suicide: After posing for cameras, he hanged himself
Minutes before Gajendra Singh, a farmer from Rajasthan, hanged himself from a tree in front of thousands of people at Jantar Mantar, people took his pictures and cheered as he hurled abuses at politicians.
Updated on Apr 23, 2015 08:22 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Prawesh Lama and Shradha Chettri, New Delhi
AIIMS doctor commits suicide; Facebook post blames ‘torture by gay husband’
A 31-year-old doctor at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) allegedly committed suicide by slashing her wrist at a hotel room in central Delhi’s Paharganj on Sunday.
Updated on Apr 20, 2015 02:02 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Prawesh Lama, New Delhi
Gangs of Najafgarh: An hour's drive from Delhi, fear rules this village that lives in gaze of CCTVs
A little more than an hour’s drive from the city’s bustling crowd and traffic takes you to a small village, bordering Haryana, with not more than 9,000 voters. Green fields, narrow kuccha roads, make Dichaon Kalan seem like just another village in north India.
Updated on Apr 02, 2015 09:20 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Prawesh Lama, New Delhi
Govt re-launches corruption helpline, ropes in volunteers
The AAP government in Delhi has re-started the anti-corruption helpline, a little more than a month after coming back to power in the Capital, sources told Hindustan Times.
Updated on Mar 24, 2015 12:56 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Prawesh Lama, New Delhi
After FIR rush in previous stint, AAP 2.0 goes soft on corruption
In the Aam Aadmi Party’s previous tenure of 49 days, the Delhi government’s Anti-Corruption Branch had booked government and police officials and prominent people, including Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani and former Delhi CM Sheila Dikshit.
Updated on Mar 18, 2015 11:46 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Prawesh Lama, New Delhi
Underground phone cables worth Rs 2 lakh stolen in Chanakyapuri
Underground telephone cables worth Rs 2 lakh were stolen from near the embassy of the Czech Republic in Chanakyapuri — one of the most heavily guarded areas of the Capital — leading to a partial disruption of phone lines in the diplomatic enclave last week.
Updated on Mar 17, 2015 12:21 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Prawesh Lama, New Delhi
English the only hitch as activist shows rape documentary at convicts’ slum
Sant Ravi Dass Camp that shot to notoriety when four of its residents raped a young physiotherapist in a moving bus on Thursday came face to face with the ugly truth. Some didn’t like what they saw and for many, the message was lost in translation.
Updated on Mar 13, 2015 09:07 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Prawesh Lama, New Delhi
Dec 16 gangrape: After Ram Singh suicide, his ghost haunts his colony
They don’t live there any more but the convicts of the December 16 gang rape still scare residents of Sant Ravi Dass Camp, home to four of the men involved in the dastardly crime.
Updated on Dec 11, 2015 03:02 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Prawesh Lama, New Delhi
Bulb thieves strike at bungalows of six MPs
Over the past two weeks, our members of Parliament have reported repeated episodes of bulb-thieving from their bungalows in Lutyens’ Delhi, which are believed to be the safest in the city.
Updated on Mar 09, 2015 12:02 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Prawesh Lama and Mohit Sharma, New Delhi
Corporate espionage: Shastri Bhawan guards armed and helpless
Six hours after the offices of Shastri Bhawan officially closed, the three CISF personnel standing guard outside stare curiously at the lights still on inside the building and the shadowy figures in the corridors.
Updated on Mar 01, 2015 11:46 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Prawesh Lama, New Delhi
Oil ministry leaks: Delhi Police trace keysmith
The Delhi Police have traced the keysmith who allegedly forged duplicate keys for the petroleum ministry employees arrested for stealing and selling confidential documents to private energy firms and consultancies.
Updated on Feb 23, 2015 01:00 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Prawesh Lama, New Delhi
Saturday sizzler: Song, dance, AAP cola and a blockbuster show
Delite Cinema, one of central Delhi’s oldest movie theatres, is usually a packed house every weekend. But this was not a usual Saturday.
Updated on Feb 15, 2015 01:53 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Prawesh Lama and Soumya Pillai, New Delhi
Delhi: Five attacks on churches in two months but only one case solved
The capital has witnessed five attacks on churches in the last two months but despite the home ministry’s intervention, little has been done to prevent or solve the cases.
Updated on Feb 04, 2015 08:00 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Prawesh Lama, New Delhi
Liyaqat Shah case: Pathan slipped through NIA fingers 10 months ago
National Investigation Agency (NIA) missed police informer Sabir Khan Pathan, accused of framing former Kashmiri militant Liyaqat Shah in a terror case, by a whisker almost 10 months ago near Bhopal, sources told Hindustan Times on Wednesday.
Updated on Jan 28, 2015 10:43 PM IST
None | Rajesh Ahuja and Prawesh Lama, New Delhi
Cops seek cyber wing help to retrieve Sunanda's SMSes, e-mails
The team set up to investigate the Sunanda Pushkar case has approached the Economic Offences Wing to help it retrieve messages from her mobile phone.
Updated on Jan 23, 2015 01:37 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Prawesh Lama, New Delhi
Bedi gets Y-plus security cover ahead of polls
Retired IPS officer Kiran Bedi who joined the BJP last week has been provided heavy police security ahead of the assembly elections. Bedi, named the BJP’s CM candidate, was on Wednesday provided Y-plus security.
Updated on Jan 22, 2015 11:30 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Prawesh Lama, New Delhi
Sunanda case: A mysterious death and endless theories
Police say Shashi Tharoor’s wife was poisoned but are yet to determine the exact nature of the substance and how it was administered.
Updated on Jan 17, 2015 11:33 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Prawesh Lama and Mohit Sharma, New Delhi
Tharoor admitted to police about tiff with Sunanda
The Congress MP’s statement, exclusively accessed by Hindustan Times, was recorded on January 19 last year, a day after Pushkar was found mysteriously dead in her suite at the Hotel Leela Palace in Delhi. Docs pull up cops over crime scene inventory
Updated on Jan 11, 2015 10:14 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Prawesh Lama, New Delhi
Delhi: Ferry homeless to night shelters, L-G tells cops
The Delhi Police have a new task on their hands — to shift homeless people sleeping on the roads to the nearest shelter homes. The onset of winter in the city has seen temperatures dropping to less than 5 degrees Celsius.
Updated on Dec 25, 2014 12:31 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Prawesh Lama and Mallica Joshi, New Delhi
Swachh prison: Spit-free zones come up in Tihar Jail
‘Spit-free zones’ have come up in the jail premises, with posters warning officials of not spitting over the walls. The prison headquarters said the exercise is part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Swachh Bharat Abhiyan.
Updated on Dec 22, 2014 12:46 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Prawesh Lama, New Delhi