M A I N   N E W S

Institute suspends minister’s son
Tribune news Service

Amritsar, April 24
The SGPC-run Guru Ram Dass Institute of Medical Sciences today suspended four MBBS students, including Amarpal Singh, son of Dr Rattan Singh, Animal Husbandry Minister, for allegedly creating a ruckus in the boys hostel on Thursday night.

Dr U. S. Dhaliwal, Principal of the institute, said the other three students placed under suspension were Puneet Sethi, Hitesh Gupta and Navdeep Brar. Dr Dhaliwal said a high-level inquiry had been instituted to probe into the matter.

Students, however, boycotted classes in protest against the suspension of Amarpal Singh and three others without an inquiry.

Though the minister’s son admitted that he and the other students had consumed liquor on the hostel premises, he denied that they had indulged in ragging.

The minister’s son alleged that he was being targeted by the ‘Tohra group’ in the wake of the forthcoming General Election. He also accused a senior journalist for taking up the case with the higher authorities which led to his suspension.

Interestingly, the SGPC, which recently decided to launch a movement against drug addiction and liquor, failed to stop the flow of liquor in to own institute. Students alleged that the Principal, Dr Dhaliwal, had failed to control the influx of liquor bottles in to the hostel premises.

They said the students after consuming liquor were dancing last night when the suspended students allegedly misbehaved with Charanpreet Singh Grewal, nephew of Mr Maheshinder Singh Grewal, a former minister and a confidant of Mr Gurcharan Singh Tohra, Karan Sandhu, Jasneet Singh and Anup Singh Grewal.

The agitating students said they were ready to face any inquiry as they had not done “anything wrong”.

5 killed, 29 hurt in truck-tanker collision
Tribune News Service

Chaugitti (Jalandhar), April 24
Five Radha Soami followers were killed and 29 others’ including 26 women, injured in a head-on collision between a mini-truck and a tanker at the Chaugitti railway overbridge here this morning.

The ill-fated truck, which was taking the Ludhiana-based devotees to the Radha Soami dera in Beas, turned turtle after it rammed into the Ludhiana-bound tanker. Most of the injured were admitted to the dera’s hospital in Beas. The condition of three was stated to be serious. Some of the injured were brought to the Jalandhar Civil Hospital, and after being administered first aid, they were shifted to the dera hospital.

Drivers of the two vehicles, which got badly damaged in the accident, escaped unhurt and were reportedly absconding.

The impact of the collision was so powerful that people of nearby localities mistook it as a blast and ran out of their houses. After realising that it was a road accident, they began the rescue work. They extricated the bodies from beneath the overturned truck.

They then provided first aid to the injured and helped the police in shifting the bodies to the Civil Hospital. After a post-mortem was conducted in the afternoon at the Civil Hospital, the bodies were handed over to relatives and family members, who had reached the hospital from Ludhiana by 11 a.m.

Those who died have been identified as Mohan Singh (60), the in charge of the jatha from Inderpuri locality in Ludhiana, Tarlok Singh (70), Jeet Kaur (55), Ram Piari (60) and Pritam Kaur.

Senior police and civil officials reached the spot immediately after the accident. A case has been registered at the Sadar police station.