R E G I O N A L   B R I E F S

PUNJAB

Amritsar
MORE RECOVERIES: The Vigilance Bureau on Saturday made more recoveries from the Batala residence of Naurang Singh, SHO, Tarn Taran city police station, who was nabbed for possessing huge quantity of illegal arms and ammunition. SSP R.P.S. Bajwa said the police recovered a .9 mm pistol, Rs 80,000 and 25 bottles of English liquor from the house.

SEMINAR: A seminar was organised on the eve of international anti-drug addiction day at Central Jail here on Saturday. The inmates were informed about the ill effects of the drug menace, said Capt S.P. Singh, Jail Superintendent. Dr Sant Parkash Singh Dhillon, District Health Officer, addressed the 300 jail inmates on the occasion.

Batala
DC’s ORDERS: Deputy Commissioner Vivek Partap Singh has directed all residents of nearby villages and towns to keep vigil around Dhusi bandh and the banks of the canals in the catchment areas of the Ravi and Beas in view of the threat of floods during the monsoon season. SDM Parneet Bhardwaj said on Friday that the DC had also banned any movement within the 500 metres of the international border and 100 metres where fencing did not exist between 9 pm to 5 am.

Hoshiarpur
ARRESTED: The Sadar police arrested Raja, son of Joginder Singh Saini of Bhungarni, under Sections 21, 61 and 85 of the NDPS Act and seized 13.9 gm of smack from his possession here on Friday.

BODY FOUND: A body of an unidentified person was found under a bridge at Chack Kasim village, under Dasuya police station of the district, on Friday, according to police sources.

IMPOSTER HELD: The police has arrested Romesh Kumar, son of Joginder Pal of Aslamabad Mohalla at Nangal Shahidan and seized one fake identity card of the Police Department and Rs 5,000 from his possession. A case under Sections 420, 465, 467, 471, 171 and 489 of the IPC has been registered.

CASE REGISTERED: Additional Administrator, PUDA, Jalandhar, has got registered a case against three property dealers of Khawaspur (Piplanwala) here under Section 36 of the Punjab Apartment and Property Rehabilitation Act on Friday allegedly for making illegal residential colony. The accused Harbhajan Lal, Roshan Lal and Lekh Raj had developed a residential colony without getting it passed from PUDA.

Kapurthala
PATWARI HELD: The Vigilance Bureau has arrested Puran Singh, a patwari of the Revenue Department, under Sections 420 and 120-B of the IPC and Sections 13-A and 13-B of the Prevention of Corruption Act here. The patwari had allegedly favoured some persons involved in a land grab case by manipulating documents.

DIED: Two junk dealers of Boolpur village near here have died allegedly after consuming liquor. According to the information, Balvinder and Pardeep Kumar returned home on Friday evening under the influence of liquor when their condition deteriorated. They later died at a hospital in Tibba village. A case has been registered under Section 174 of the IPC.

Phagwara
INJURED: Two persons were injured when their Indica car was hit by a speeding truck on the G.T. Road here on Friday. Dr Rajat Beri of Gandhi Hospital here, and Dr Rupesh Ghai of Guru Nanak Mission Hospital, Jalandhar, were returning home from Jalandhar bypass when the truck hit their car. They were admitted to a private hospital here. The truck driver managed to escape.

HARYANA

Kurukshetra
APPOINTED: Mr Maha Singh, Vice-Chancellor of Kurukshetra University, has appointed Dr Raghuvendra Tanwar, Professor of History, as Dean, Students’ Welfare, in addition to his duties in the History Department.

Rewari
ROAD BLOCKED: Irked over the erratic power supply, residents of Nathera village, 35 km from here, blocked the traffic on the Kosli-Jhajjar road near the area office of the Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN) on Thursday. The protesters, mainly women, lifted the blockade only after the intervention of SDM Rajiv Ahlawat and DSP Sukhbir Singh.

ARRESTED: The Sadar police has arrested three of the five accused allegedly involved in the gang-rape of a young girl of Vikas Nagar Colony at a farm house in the vicinity of Dhamlaka village near here. The accused — Mukesh, Lala and Hari Singh — were produced in a local court on Friday which remanded them to judicial custody.

Sonepat
PROCESSION: Workers affiliated to the Socialist Unity Centre of India (SUCI) took out a procession here on Saturday in protest against the hike in petrol and diesel prices by the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government at the Centre. They staged a dharna in front of the Deputy Commissioner’s office.

PO CLOSED: The Postal Department has closed the sub-post office in Sujan Singh Park of this city with immediate effect. According to a report, this sub-post office had been functioning at a loss of about Rs 1 lakh every year since 2002. INJURED: Two municipal councillors, namely Mr Manoj Luthra and Mr Laxmi Narain, were injured when their car in which they were travelling was hit by another car coming from the opposite direction on the Sonepat-Murthal road near Shubham Garden, about 3 km from here, on Saturday.

LOOTED: Momin (27) was looted by four unidentified co-passengers in the train near the Panipat railway station on Friday. According to a report, Momin boarded a train at Ambala for going to Delhi. He was offered biscuits and a cupt of tea near the Panipat railway station by four co-passengers. After having biscuits and tea, he became unconscious. He regained consciousness at the Ganaur railway station in Sonepat district on Saturday. The miscreants had taken away Rs 4,000 in cash and some other goods he was carrying.

HIMACHAL PRADESH

Kangra
SENTENCED: Mr CB Barowalia, Additional District and Sessions Judge, Dharamsala, on Friday sentenced Ajay, alias Ajju, to life imprisonment and fined him Rs 4,000 for his involvement in the murder of a woman, Veena Devi, in the Patiala Khad area in September 2003. The court further ordered that in default of the payment of the fine, the convict should further undergo simple imprisonment for six months.

Nahan
FOUNDATION STONE: Speaker of the state Vidhan Sabha GR Musafir on Friday laid the foundation stone of a health sub-centre at Batol and inaugurated a primary school at Rajgarh subdivision of Sirmaur district. Mr Musafir disclosed that regular classes would start functioning at Rajgarh college from next month.

Shimla
ACQUITTED: The Himachal Pradesh High Court has set aside the four-year imprisonment awarded by the Additional Session Judge, Chamba, Ramesh Kumar, an accused in a charas recovery case. Mr Justice MR Verma observed that the prosecution had failed to prove the charge against the accused.