The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Akali leader’s killer held
Says it was revenge for his father’s murder
Tribune News Service

Jagraon, May 12
Even as the repoll ordered at Sahauli village in this district, following the murder of an Akali leader on May 11, was postponed today, the alleged murderer arrested by the local police last night claimed that he had committed the crime to avenge the killing of his father six years ago.

“The fire of revenge was burning in my heart since May 28, 1998, when the Akali leader, Jagpal Singh Gorkha, and eight accomplices gunned down my father, Pritam Singh, and his friend Jaspal Singh over a land dispute,” the suspect, Darshan Singh, told mediapersons before the Jagraon SSP, Mr H. S. Bhullar, in his office today.

“The sight of my father’s bullet-ridden body haunted me all these years. I did not even marry, as I knew what my fate would be after the revenge,” he said, adding that though the other accused were serving the sentence for the murder of his father, the Akali leader had managed to go scot-free because of his influence.

Claiming that he had tried to take the revenge earlier too, he said he could find the opportunity only on May 10, when he found his “target” sitting not with many people in an election booth of the Shiromani Akali Dal.

“I always got very agitated at his sight and that morning he provoked me further by making indecent gestures. I went home, picked up my licensed .12 bore gun, paid obeisance at a local gurdwara and then shot him dead at close range,” he said, without batting an eyelid.

The SSP said the accused fired five rounds, out of which three hit the victim in the head, abdomen and stomach. He said Darshan Singh then threatened the others present in the booth with “dire consequences” if they tried to follow him.

Mr Bhullar praised DSP Raikot Harjit Singh Brar and SHO Bachhan Dass for nailing the suspect within two days. Several places were raided in the search. He was arrested near the Hissowal drain bridge last night.

The police claimed to have seized a .12 bore gun (pump action) and five cartridges from the suspect.

It was six acres of land in the village that led to all this bloodshed. With the killing of the Akali leader, the toll on account of this feud between two families of the village has gone up to three.

The Akali leader was with the SAD (Amritsar), led by Mr Simranjit Singh Mann, for several years before switching loyalties to the SAD (Badal) earlier this month.

Sahauli repoll today SAD leader cremated
Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, May 12
The re-polling at three booths of Sahauli village, scheduled to be held today, has been put off till tomorrow. This was done fearing a clash between Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and Congress workers during the cremation of SAD leader Jagpal Singh Gorkha, who was shot dead at an SAD polling booth on May 10, leading to poll boycott by the villagers.

Out of the six polling booths in Punjab where re-polling has been ordered, three are in this village. The decision to postpone the polling by a day was taken by the Returning Officer, Mr Anurag Verma, in consultation with assistant returning officers late last night.

The cremation of Mr Gorkha had been put off till today because the family was waiting for the arrival of his brother from overseas. He was cremated in the presence of many SAD leaders.

Mr Verma told Ludhiana Tribune that the re-polling at booth numbers 12, 13 and 14 in Sahauli, in the Kila Raipur assembly segment, would start at 7am and go on till 5pm. Residents of the area, though, expect the 2,300 odd votes to be cast early in the day.

The counting of votes at all nine locations where the electronic voting machines have been kept will start at 2pm as per a directive of the Election Commission received by Mr Verma. However, the result will not be declared till the votes polled at the three booths in Sahauli are added to the final count.

Meanwhile, Lok Bhalai Party candidate Balwant Singh Ramoowalia has written to the Returning Officer and the Chief Electoral Officer, Punjab, requesting that the counting of votes be delayed till all votes are cast and the polling process is completed. Otherwise, he apprehended, the outcome of the votes polled would be “gravely affected.”

In Ludhiana, the EVMS have been placed at Shastri Bhavan in Guru Nanak Stadium and at Rotary Bhavan in Sarabha Nagar. Counting of the votes from all the nine assembly segments in this parliamentary segment will take place at seven places in the city and three outside, Dakha, Jagraon and Payal.

The counting of votes for the Jagraon segment will be done at Lala Lajpat Rai College, Jagraon; for Dakha at BCM Arya Model College, Dakha; for Kila Raipur at Rotary Bhavan, Sarabha Nagar, Ludhiana; for Ludhiana North at SCD Government College, Ludhiana; for Ludhiana West at the Khalsa College for Women, Ludhiana; for Ludhiana East at Arya College for Boys, Ludhiana; and for Ludhiana Rural at Guru Nanak Stadium.

Akali spirits high over low urban turnout
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, May 12
The low voter turnout in the city and other urban segments in the district here on Monday has kindled hopes among the SAD-BJP alliance, which seems to be almost certain of the victory of its nominee, Mr Sharanjit Singh Dhillon.

Claims by the Congress camp and the Lok Bhalai Party (LBP) candidate and former Union Minister, Mr Balwant Singh Ramoowalia, notwithstanding, the polling percentage ranging between 44 and 52 in the three Assembly segments — East, West and North in the city and Ludhiana Rural, which again has a sizeable presence of urban population — clearly shows that the Congress workers have failed to mobilise urban electorate to cast their vote.

While an overall polling percentage of 55.8 per cent, which is 10 per cent more than the turnout in 1999 (45.8 per cent) and a shade better than in 1998 (53.3 per cent), is favourably comparable with the general voting pattern for the Lok Sabha poll in Ludhiana, the urban localities lagged far behind in the total number of votes polled for the 2004 election.

Among the Assembly segments, falling within the city, Ludhiana East stood out with the highest polling percentage of 52.8 per cent. In the constituency currently represented by the Congress legislator, Mr Surinder Dawar, 54,956 voters exercised their franchise out of a total 1,04,064. In Ludhiana North, represented by the Minister of State, Mr Rakesh Pandey, the turnout was 50.3 per cent, while Ludhiana West seat, represented by the Minister for Higher Education, Mr Harnam Das Johar, registered a poor polling percentage of just 44.5 per cent. Out of a total electorate of 1,49,063, only 66,316 voters made it to the polling stations.

Sources in the Congress were of the view that a better turnout of urban voters could have been a decisive factor with a tremendous impact on the prospects of the Congress candidate for the simple reason that the party nominee, Mr Manish Tiwari, had all along been focussing mainly on the issues concerning the urban population. The campaign managers of the Congress were banking on urban voters, who they were convinced, would overwhelmingly vote for the party and offset whatever shortfall was there in the victory margin from rural segments but their calculations appear to have gone haywire.

In comparison, the rural areas of the constituency recorded heavy polling i.e. 67.3 per cent in Payal and 67 per cent in Koom Kalan. In Kila Raipur Assembly segment, the voter turnout was 66.5 per cent, while Jagraon polled 63.6 per cent votes, with Dakha placed at the bottom among rural areas with a polling of 54.9 per cent.

Keeping their fingers crossed till May 13, when the electronic voting machines (EVMs) would deliver the final verdict, many senior Congress leaders, however, are putting up a bold face, hoping to still romp home due to expected division of rural votes between Mr Dhillon and Mr Ramoowalia.

It is advantage Dhillon in satta market
Crores at stake
Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, May 12
In the ever active satta market Mr Sharanjit Singh Dhillon the SAD-BJP alliance candidate is being considered a hot favourite as compared to his rival Mr Munish Tiwari of the Congress. Mr Ramoowalia is at number three. Significantly, Mr Tiwari was the top favourite of the satta operators initially.

However, the fortunes seemed to turn, according to the satta operators, against Mr Tiwari after Mr Vajpayee’s rally in Ludhiana in support of Mr Dhillon.

In Ludhiana, which is considered to be an important betting centre in the north, crores of rupees are learnt to have been put at stake.

Not only for the local constituency but the punters have placed bets on other constituencies in the state as well.

The rate offered for a bet on Mr Dhillon’s victory is 35 to 40 paise. That means if a person bets one rupee he will get 35 paise more (1.35).

At the same time if anyone bets for Mr Tiwari’s victory, he will get double the amount extra.

That means for every rupee the punter will get two rupees more. At one stage both Mr Dhillon and Mr Tiwari were evenly placed as the competition was considered to be a close one.

On the state level the bookies are reportedly offering anything between 30 to 40 paise for three seats to Congress, while the stakes are even for four seats.

That means if anyone bets Re one for three seats, he will get 30 or 40 paise more.

But if anyone takes more risk and bets for four Congress seats in the state will get double the amount, means one rupee for every rupee.

While a lot of bets were placed in the first week of May after the trends started coming in, massive betting took place only after the elections.

This is because the punters feel that after the casting of votes the picture becomes relatively clear and the bets are safe.

	Johar confident about Tiwari’s victory Tribune News Service Ludhiana, May 12 Senior Congress leader and Higher Education Minister, Mr Harnam Dass Johar today claimed that the party candidate from the Ludhiana parliamentary constituency, Mr Munish Tiwari, would win with a huge margin. He also expressed confidence that Mr Tiwari would take a significant lead from the Ludhaina West assembly segment, represented by him. Talking to reporters here today, Mr Johar said he was satisfied with the 45 per cent polling in his assembly segment. Mr Johar also contradicted the reports that the Chief Minister had announced that those ministers whose performance would not be up to the mark would be penalised. He said the performance of each and every minister and legislator had been commendable which would be proved tomorrow after the result was declared. At the same time, he made it clear that individual performance of any minister could not be viewed in isolation as it would only be part of general performance of the party. He asserted that no minister would be made to vacate his ministry at any cost. Hundreds of party workers had gathered at the residence of Mr Johar today to celebrate the party’s victory in Andhra Pradesh. Mr Johar declared that in a similar way the Congress and its alliance partners would emerge victorious at the centre also.
	Alcohol didn't sway voters, says study Our Correspondent Ludhiana, May 12 People have not voted for alcohol and other drugs, though the distribution of these were very much a part of the strategy to lure voters in the state. This was the general outcome of the exit poll on “Drugs in poll” conducted by the Social and Health Services Directorate of Guru Gobind Singh Study Circle in 10 parliamentary constituency of Punjab, Mr Inderpal Singh, spokesperson for the circle, said. Disclosing the results of the exit poll, Dr Deepinder Singh, Director, Social and Heath Services Directorate of Guru Gobind Singh Study Circle, said about 30 per cent voters believed that drugs were distributed to lure them, but at the same time about 80 per cent voters ruled out the possibility of voting in favour of those candidates who offered them alcohol and other drugs. Dr Charan Kamal Singh, chief secretary of the circle, stated that the organisation would continue to fight for the cause of drug-free democracy. He, however, expressed his concern that not many NGOs of the state were coming forward for this kind of effort. He called upon the academicians, NGOs and other organisations to come forward and join hands with the circle for mass public awareness against the use of alcohol and other drugs. He said Guru Gobind Singh Study Circle would take up the case with the Election Commissioner so that legal curbs be put on the use of drugs in poll. Exit poll was conduct at 10 constituencies, including Dhanola (Sangrur), Chamkaur Sahib (Ropar) Kila Raipur (Ludhiana), Nakodar (Jalandhar), Valtoha (Amritsar), and Mohali. Many candidates signed the pledge not to distribute drugs. These included Mr S.S. Dhindsa, Mr Simranjit Singh Mann, Mr Manish Tiwari, Mr Sharanjit Singh Dhillon and Mr B.S. Ramoowalia.
	Those who couldn’t vote Tribune News Service Ludhiana, May 12 The following names have been found missing in the voter’s list during the parliamentary elections: Joginder Paul, Kala Devi, Vineet and Rajeev, residents of 96-C Rajguru Nagar, Ludhiana; Surjit Kumar and Raj Rani, residents of LIG-136, Sector-32, Chandigarh road, Ludhiana; Gurcharan Singh and Surinder Pal Kaur, residents of 285-B, Rajguru Nagar, Ludhiana; Hari Singh, Charanjit Singh and Amrit Kaur, residents of 1754/1, Tehsil road near Government School, Jagraon; Kulwant Singh, Narinder Kaur, Ramandeep Singh, Harpreet Kaur, residents of 218, St. No. 2, Hargobind Pura, Jagraon; Inderjit Singh, Sarbjit Kaur, Mastan Singh Chana, Kulwant Kaur and Surjeet Kaur, residents of 4116/A, Guru Nanak St. No. 3 opposite ITI College, Gill Road, Ludhiana; Rajesh Kumar and Sonia, residents of 779-B Agar Nagar, Ludhiana; Gopal Keda, Sunita Keda and Richa Keda, residents of 35-A, Green Park near Dandi Swami, Civil Lines, Ludhiana. Ms Lakshmi Devi, Mr Bihari Lal Sharma, Ms Krishna Rani, Mr Narinder Kumar, Ms Chander Kanta, Mr Pawan Kumar, Ms Geeta Rani, Mr Varinder Kaumar, Mr Chander Shekhar and Ms Poonam Rani, residents of B-III-1270/G, St. No. 2, Bajwa Nagar, Ludhiana; Iqbal Singh, residents of 1125/4, Premjit road, Gurdev Nagar Ludhiana; Neha Desor, residents of 281, New Janak Puri, Salem Tabri, Ludhiana; Davinder Nath Sharma, Ranjanan Sharma, Sandeep Kumar Sharma, Anil Kumar Sharma, residents of 6634/19, B-XXIII, New Hargobind Nagar, St No. 1-1/2, Ludhiana; Romesh Verma of Booth No. 56, Guru Arjan Dev Nagar, Samrala Chowk, Ludhiana; Ms Sarita Arora, Ms Krishna Arora, Ms Godly Arora, Ms Suparna Arora and Ms Esha Arora, all residents of 171-I, Sarabha Nagar, Ludhiana; Kamal Kishore, Ms Kiran Gupta, Mr Parmod Kuamr, Ms Renu Gupta, all residents of Kundra street, Peerkhand road, Ludhiana. Hargobind Lal Bangia, Ritu Bangia, Rajiv Bangia, residents of 1126, Harnam Nagar, Model Town, Ludhiana; Murali N and Vanaja M. Nair, residents of 152/34, St No. 1, Partap Colony, 33ft road, Mundian Kalan, Ludhiana; Sher Singh, Preetpal Singh and Jaspal Kaur, residents of 3558, St. No. 7, New Janta Nagar, Gill Road, Ludhiana; Satvinder Singh, residents of HL-375, PHBC Colony, Jamalpur; Chander Prakash, Sushil Kumari, Ravi Arora, Madhu Arora, Rajeev Arora, Jayoti Arora, Rajesh Arora and Dolly Arora, residents of B-I-1355, Ram Nagar, Civil Lines, Ludhiana; Ashok Mundhra and Yogita Mundhra of B-I-521/I, Kundan Puri, Civil Lines Ludhiana; Devinder SIngh Grewal, Sanjeet Singh Grewal, Kulwant Kaur, Navdeep Singh Grewal, Harbir Kaur, Preet Inder Singh Grewal, Navpreet Kaur, Malkit Singh, residents of 2477, ward no. 39, Janta Nagar, Ludhiana. Puneet Takkar, Anjali Takkar, Ragini Takkar, Shweta Takkar, residents of 107, The Mall Road, Ludhiana; Sohan Lal Thapar, Ms Anju Thapar and Ms Mona Thapar, residents of 1-I, Sarabha Nagar, Ludhiana; Mr Kuldip Kumar and Mrs Khushwant Kaur, residents of St. No. 21, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar, PO, Gill, Dhandra road, Ludhiana.
	Murdered man’s body exhumed Tribune Reporters Mand Sherian (Machhiwara), May 12 Two persons of this village allegedly killed a 60-year- old retired Subedar late night on May 10 and then buried his body in the fields. The two owed Rs 4 lakh to the deceased. The gruesome murder came to light today morning when the police arrested one of the suspects and exhumed the badly mutilated body of the deceased. A total bandh was observed in Machhiwara and Samrala following the incident as angry shopkeepers downed their shutters. The victim, Harbhajan Singh, who worked as an arhtiya (commission agent) was missing since the evening of May 10. He had gone to visit his clients — Baljeet Singh and Harnek Singh — to ask them to return Rs 4 lakh that they had taken from him. But he never came back. The family of the deceased and the police groped in the dark for several hours and nabbed the accused when records of last calls on the deceased’s phone revealed that Baljeet Singh was the last person to whom he had spoken to. The police followed the trail and found the body in the fields. Baljeet Singh, who was arrested, however, kept on denying that he had anything to do with case till he was nailed by the police. His accomplice Harnek Singh is still absconding. The murder sent shock waves in the area and hundreds of people gathered at the site where the body was buried. The arhtiya community in Machhiwara and Samrala observed a bandh today in protest against the killing. According to Mr Pirthipaul Singh — a younger brother of the deceased and an employee of Punjab Roadways, Harbhajan Singh had called up Baljeet Singh on May 10 and had asked him to returning his money. After finishing his conversation with Baljeet Singh on the phone, Harbhajan Singh had left for Mand Sherian village on a scooter telling his family members that Baljeet Singh had called him to take the money. But when Harbhajan Singh didn’t return, his family members along with some arhtiyas went to Baljeet Singh’s residence at Mand Sherian. But Baljeet Singh denied that Harbhajan Singh had visited him the previous night. However, some other villagers confirmed that they had seen the deceased with Baljeet Singh. The telephone call record confirmed the suspicion that Baljeet and the deceased had talked that evening. However, in spite of all these proofs, Baljeet Singh denied that Harbhajan Singh had visited his village. A police team led by DSP Samrala, Jasvir Singh and SHO Machhiwara, Banarsi Dass, raided the village and recovered the scooter of the deceased from the house of Balbir Kaur wife of Jagdev Singh near the fields of Baljeet Singh. After recovering the scooter, the police immediately arrested Baljeet Singh. On being interrogated he told about the body of Harbhajan Singh buried in his fields. The body was badly mutilated. It seemed as if the culprits had sprinkled some acid after killing Harbhajan Singh to make identification of the body difficult. A huge crowd of shocked people from Machhiwara and Samrala witnessed the entire operation of the body being exhumed from the fields. The police had to deploy a large number of police personnel to control any untoward incident.

MC octroi income shoots up
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, May 12
Strict enforcement, streamlining of day-to-day working and effective measures against evasion taken by the Municipal Corporation in the octroi collection mechanism have led to a quantum jump in the collection during the past fortnight.

This despite the fact that both the trade and industry were complaining of recessionary trends with light engineering, bicycle and parts, auto parts and hosiery industry in the city facing a crisis- like situation.

Giving the details, the Municipal Council Commissioner, Mr S.K. Sharma, told this reporter that the octroi receipts during a single day on May 11 were Rs 37.21 lakh which was almost two- and- a -half time more in comparison to the corresponding period last year at Rs 15.93 lakh.

The cumulative receipts from April 1, 2004, to May 11, 2004, stood at Rs 1278.34 lakh against Rs 1100.25 lakh during the past year in the same period.

Mr Sharma said the significant rise in octroi income during the past couple of weeks was more due to an intensive campaign against evasion, toning up the entire collection and enforcement set -up and strict supervision rather than any significant increase in arrival of merchandise or raw material within the city.

The entire field and supervisory staff of the octroi wing had to submit a performance report on a daily basis, giving details of total and comparative collection, number of detected cases of octroi evasion and recovery of octroi and penalty.

During the past 10 days, the enforcement staff, according to Mr Sharma, had detected over 100 cases of octroi evasion and more than Rs 2 lakh had been recovered from the defaulters as due octroi and penalty.

While Mr Sharma refused to comment on the common allegation of official pilferage in the octroi income, knowledgeable sources in the corporation maintained that the sudden jump in the daily collection during the past about one month was a pointing evidence of a sizeable pilferage.

The reports were earlier doing rounds that a part of the total revenue collection was being pilfered to be passed on to the some of the political functionaries at different levels.

In this context, it would be worthwhile to mention that following the transfer of some of the departmental officers, holding charge of the octroi wing in the middle of last month, the Commissioner had assumed personal charge of the biggest source of revenue for the civic body and his 'no nonsense' attitude had yielded results within no time.

Roadside artists suffer pangs of poverty
Asha Ahuja

Ludhiana, May 12
Women in colourful dresses painting beautiful statues made of plaster of paris on the roadsides, especially Ferozepore Road, is a common site in the city these days. Most of these artists, however, live in extreme poverty and are members of families that had shifted to the city from Jodhpur due to drought. These families have also spread in different parts of the city and earn their living by selling these statues.

These families are given plaster of paris and moulds by the contractors. The designs of statues change according to the season and festivals. With Janamashtmi being the next big festival, they are busy these days making small as well as big statues of Radha and Krishna or only of Lord Krishna. Lord Ganesha is another all time favourite deity of these artists and the sale of Ganesha idols continues throughout the year.

The contractors also give them casts of sceneries and some unusual figurines.

Usually the whole family is involved in this work. The menfolk make a smooth paste of plaster of paris and put it into moulds and pull out the figures with great dexterity. After this the women take over and breathe life into the statues with colours from their pots.

Ganpat who has settled in Ludhiana, says "We came here three years ago from Jodhpur. Every thing was so different and new then- the people , atmosphere, food, and language. However, now we have more or less settled down here’’, he adds. ‘‘As you can see, we have a temporary hutment which does not provide enough shelter either in winters or summers. We have no toilets, no running water. We cannot educate our children neither can we return to Rajasthan, as there also we will not be able to find any employment."

His wife Parvati says," The people stop their cars and haggle with us when they are buying statues. They know we are poor and in dire need of money but still they bargain whereas in the big showrooms they pay exorbitant prices without a word of protest. Every night , we have to cover the statues with plastic cover lest they get spoilt. When the sale is sluggish then we even have to go to sleep empty stomach.

Their tale of woes seems to be unending as moneylenders too exploit them. Their poverty and helplessness forces them to fall in debt trap which is not easy to come out of.

One held for bogus voting, 4 booked for
intimidating voters
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, May 12
Rajpal Singh was arrested on Monday by Division No. 1 police on the statement of Mr Balwinder Kumar, Presiding Officer at booth number 53 in Ludhiana-II. Rajpal Singh, who lives behind the Lal Kothi in Model Town was booked under Section 171-F of the IPC.

The complainant had stated that the accused was trying to cast a bogus vote at the booth. He was, however, released on bail later.

On the statement of Sub Inspector Lakhvir Singh, in-charge of Prosecution Cell, Ludhiana, the Salem Tabri police on Monday registered a case under Sections 353, 186 and 34 of the IPC against Manjit Singh Dhillon, pardhan and three other unknown persons accompanying him.

The complainant had stated that while he was on election duty at booth number 216 located in Government Elementary School at Fabra village, the accused forcibly drove his car into the booth and started threatening him and the voters there of dire consequences if they did not vote in favour of the Akali Dal ( Badal) candidate. The accused also hurled abuses at the complainant. However, no arrest has been made so far.

Three killed: The Civil Lines police on Monday registered a case under Sections 279 and 304-A of the IPC on the statement of Mr Jai Singh, a resident of E -Block of Bhai Randhir Singh Nagar, against Ram Kishan, a resident of Shimla Puri.

The complainant had stated that the accused, who was driving a motor cycle, had rammed his vehicle into the motor cycle being driven by his son Inderpreet who was going with his friend Sunny, son of Mr Sudesh Kumar, near the Bharat Nagar chowk on Sunday afternoon.

Both of them were injured and admitted to the CMC Hospital where Sunny had succumbed to his injuries.No arrest has been made so far.

On the statement of Mr Charanjit Singh, a resident of Campa Cola Colony at Dhandari Kalan village, the Focal Point police on Monday registered a case under Sections 279, 337,427 and 304-A of the IPC against the unidentified driver of a truck (PB-10P-9696).

The complainant had stated that the accused had rammed his truck into the motor cycle being driven by his brother Ravinder Singh who was going with a relative Sohan Singh, a resident of Shimla Puri on Sunday. Both of them were injured and admitted to the Oswal Cancer Hospital where Sohan Singh breathed his last.

The Sahnewal police has registered a case under Sections 279 and 304-A of the IPC on the statement of Ganga Jhama, who lives in Major Singh Da Vehra at Jandiali village, against the driver of a Tata sumo vehicle.

The complainant had stated that the accused had hit his relative Raman Mishra at Jandiali chowk on Saturday and had fled from the spot. Raman Mishra had died on the spot. No arrest has been made so far.

Suicide bid: The Division Number 8 police on Monday registered a case under Section 309 of the IPC against Harjit Singh alias Bobby, a resident of Pawitter Nagar in Haibowal Kalan and Bikram Kumar, a resident of Joshi Nagar in the same locality.

According to Mr Rattan Singh Brar, SHO, the two had been arrested in connection with a case of snatching and theft registered under Sections 356 and 379 of the IPC vide FIR number 47 on May 8 and were still lodged at the police station.

The accused, had slashed their left wrists on Monday with pieces broken glass and had to be admitted to the DMC Hospital from where they were discharged, the SHO added.

Attempt to murder: The Sarabha Nagar police on Monday registered a case under Sections 307 and 34 of the IPC and various sections of the Arms Act on the statement of Mr Gursewak Singh, a resident of Sanet village, against Darshan Singh and Inderjit Singh, residents of the same village.

The complainant had stated that the accused had fired at him with the intention of killing him on Sunday. But he was fortunate to escape with an injury for which he has been admitted to the DMC Hospital. No arrest has been made so far.

Fraud alleged: The Sarabha Nagar police has registered a case under Sections 420, 465, 467, 468, 471, 120-B, 451, 506, 148 and 149 of the IPC on the statement of Mr Kulwant Singh, a resident of Sarabha Nagar, against Lachhman Singh, Sushil Kumar and Sham Raj Kumar, all residents of New Delhi, Kulwinder Singh and Harbans Singh, both residents of Budhladha in Bhatinda district and Sukhdev Singh, a resident of Dashmesh Nagar at Moga.

The complainant had stated that he owned a plot (number142-B) in Sarabha Nagar. But the accused had prepared forged papers and got the plot transferred in their names after which they took illegal possession of the plot. No arrest has been made so far in the case.

Cases of assault: The Jodhewal police has registered a case under Sections 452, 323, 506 and 34 of the IPC on the statement of Ms Kusum Lata, a resident of Complex bagh on Tibba Road, against Councillor Asha Garg, Sonia Suman, Bawa and Beena Rani, residents of the same locality.

The woman had stated that the accused had come to her house on Saturday and had assaulted and threatened her. No arrest has been made so far in this regard.

The Division Number 2 police on Monday registered a case under Sections 341, 323, 506, 148 and 149 of the IPC on the statement of Mr Ashwani Kumar, a resident of Lakkar Bazar, against Pappu Shahpuria and some other persons accompanying him.

The complainant had stated that the accused had stopped him on the road on Monday and had assaulted and threatened him.

Booked: The Shimla Puri police on Monday registered a case under Sections 295-A, 188, 506 and 149 of the IPC on the statement of Mr Swaran Singh, Councillor, against Paramjit Singh, Lovely, Sharanjit Singh and 100 other unknown persons.

The complainant had stated that the accused, who had confronted him at Ittan Wala chowk on Monday evening in front of a furniture showroom had cast aspersions on his caste and had also threatened him. No arrest has been made so far.