New Delhi, April 15: The Ministry of Home Affairs has provided security cover to Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Rajya Sabha member Raghav Chadha. He will receive ‘Z+ category’ security in both Delhi and Punjab, sources said on Wednesday.

This followed the Punjab government’s decision to withdraw Chadha’s security detail earlier in the day. This action also occurred amid a growing rift between Chadha and the AAP in recent weeks.

According to sources, paramilitary forces will be deployed to provide security to the AAP leader.

This security cover has been granted based on a threat perception report submitted by the Intelligence Bureau (IB) and following an assessment conducted by the Ministry of Home Affairs.

The developments follow recent changes within the party. On April 2, AAP appointed Ashok Mittal as its new Deputy Leader in the Rajya Sabha, replacing Chadha in the role. The move was seen as a significant organisational shift, bringing in a new face from Punjab.

Earlier on April 3, Chadha broke his silence on the development, stating that he had been “silenced, not defeated”.

Meanwhile, speculation is mounting about Chadha’s position within AAP. On April 8, a separate Instagram post shared by him drew attention after it featured a purported supporter suggesting that he should form a new youth-led political party instead of joining any existing organisation.

On April 10, amid an internal rift within the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the Rajya Sabha member shared a message on Instagram asserting that his parliamentary work would speak for itself.

Taking to the social media platform Instagram, Chadha posted a video and wrote, “With respect to those questioning my parliamentary performance, I’ll let my work do the talking.”

The video featured a compilation of his interventions and questions raised in the Rajya Sabha, highlighting a wide range of public policy issues he has addressed.

New Delhi, April 15: A massive fire broke out in the early hours of Wednesday in Delhi’s Rohini area, engulfing nearly half a dozen slums and leaving three members of a family dead, fire services officials said.

According to the Delhi Fire Services (DFS), the deceased include a husband, wife and their two-year-old daughter.

Officials said the fire erupted around 1:30 a.m. in a cluster of slums located near a 400-yard plot filled with plastic waste.

The presence of combustible material in the vicinity is believed to have contributed to the rapid spread of the flames, DFS officials stated.

Upon receiving information about the incident, teams from the fire services rushed to the scene and launched efforts to douse the blaze.

The blaze was reported to be extremely intense, making firefighting operations challenging for emergency responders.

After prolonged firefighting operations, the fire was eventually brought under control, officials said.

During the rescue operation, firefighters recovered three bodies from the site, which were later sent for postmortem examination.

Personnel from multiple agencies, including the fire department, local police, the Centralised Accident and Trauma Service (CATS), and the electricity department, were present at the scene.

Relief and rescue efforts continued for several hours following the incident.

In a separate incident earlier on April 12, a fire had broken out in bushes near the Rajghat bus depot in the national capital, prompting a swift response from the Delhi Fire Service.

The blaze, reported in a vegetated area adjacent to the depot, saw six fire tenders being deployed to the site to contain the flames.

The dense vegetation in the area posed challenges for firefighting teams in accessing certain pockets.

Police said that the fire was eventually brought under control and no injuries were reported in that incident.

New Delhi, April 14: Indian agencies have reported a sharp rise in counterfeit currency seizures, pointing to a renewed push by organised networks to expand operations.

Investigators say the syndicate linked to Dawood Ibrahim, operating from Pakistan, is increasingly directing operatives in India to print fake notes locally instead of relying on cross-border smuggling routes through Pakistan and Bangladesh.

The trend points to a deliberate attempt to scale up production, with signs of a coordinated effort to undermine the Indian economy. Recent months have seen multiple seizures in border regions due to tighter security. At the same time, attempts to drop counterfeit currency using drones are being detected and intercepted with increasing frequency.

An Intelligence Bureau official said that the syndicate is now directing its operatives in India to print fake notes locally and circulate them within the market. They have been advised to keep operations small but frequent to maintain overall volume while avoiding attention.

“To reduce the risk of detection, members are also shifting bases regularly, making it difficult for agencies to track and pin down a single location,” the official added.

The route through the Bangladesh border has also become increasingly difficult for smugglers to use. Enhanced security measures have tightened surveillance, making it harder for operatives to push counterfeit currency into India.

Another official said the strategy now is to expand printing across multiple states, including Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Punjab. In the past, the syndicate had set up a localised unit in Malda, West Bengal, where high-quality counterfeit notes were produced and were difficult to detect.

“However, after the unit was uncovered, intensified action by agencies led to a sharp decline in operations,” the official said.

Another official said printing capacity in Malda has dropped by more than half after agencies, including the National Investigation Agency (NIA), intensified investigations and enforcement.

Officials added that efforts are underway to push in raw materials needed to set up fresh units to expand local production. If these consignments reach operatives in India, output could increase again. Even as the focus shifts to domestic printing, attempts to move counterfeit currency across the border using drones are expected to continue.

Last month, the Border Security Force (BSF) and Amritsar Police seized counterfeit currency worth Rs 2.5 lakh, which officials believe may have been a trial run. While drones have been intercepted carrying drugs, arms, and ammunition on several occasions, their use for moving fake currency has emerged as a growing concern.

Agencies said the syndicate is now relying on smaller consignments that are harder to detect on radar and surveillance systems. An official noted that operatives are adopting varied methods to increase the circulation of counterfeit notes.

Even as local production gathers pace, the use of drones is expected to continue. The broader objective, officials said, is to generate funds for terror activities and to inflict economic damage through the sustained circulation of fake currency.