Jalandhar, June 24
The police arrested former joint commissioner of Jalandhar municipal corporation Ved Vyas in connection with a cheating case here today.

Vibhor Kumar, station house officer of police division number 4, said Vyas had allegedly issued a fake house tax assessment form (TS-1) to Raman Negi of Jagdambay Jewellers during his tenure.

This was done to benefit Negi in a land dispute with Sudarshan Kainth of Jyoti Chowk area. Even though the police on Kainth’s complaint lodged an FIR against Ved Vyas and Raman Negi under Section 420 of the IPC on May 22 last year but no arrests were made.

During the course of investigation, it was found that allegations levelled by Kainth were correct, said the SHO. Even the MC established that TS-1 form was a fake one. Subsequently, Ved Vyas was held while Negi managed to get an anticipatory bail from a court.

Earlier, the former joint commissioner had also been arrested in connection with an insecticide scam. The vigilance bureau had filed a case against several persons including Vyas.

Nawanshahr, June 24
A Lakhpur village woman has accused Nawanshahr police of harassment. Addressing mediapersons, here on Sunday, the woman, Amarjit Kaur, said she along with her sister-in-law had assisted a private TV channel in exposing the alleged nexus between police officials and drug smugglers.

“We are being targetted by the cops now. They are issuing us threats and have already implicated my sister-in-law Sarabjit Kaur in a false case under NDPS Act. The same can happen to me,” claimed Amarjit.

Citing details, the woman said the sting operation had been carried in August last year, following repeated complaints against the officials. “After the operation was telecast, action was taken against four police officials, including the then SHO Banga,” added Kaur.

Apprehending harm due to vindictive attitude of the police, the woman further claimed that she along with her sister-in-law had filed a writ petition in the Punjab & Haryana High Court last year, following which directions were issued to SSP Nawanshahr to ensure that they get adequate protection.

“However, the orders have been thrown to the winds. To implicate my sister-in-law, a special constable was sent to her house to plant narcotics there on May 27. She was picked up from her residence on June 19 and taken to Banga police station where she was tortured.” When contacted, SP (HQ) Jagtar Singh Kainth termed the allegations as baseless.

Phagwara, June 24
Unhappy over police inaction against accused who had assaulted her, a woman here has knocked at the doors of the Punjab State Human Rights Commission for justice.

Talking to mediapersons, the woman, Balbir Kaur, resident of Dhumeli village, said she had submitted a written complaint against Buta Ram, his sons Lucky and Johny, his neighbourer Swarup Lal and his son Raja, for allegedly assaulting her, to the DGP and other top officials. However, no action was taken against the accused, she added.

She alleged that the accused and the village sarpanch Jatinder Mohan had threatened her of dire consequences if she did not withdraw her complaint. The sarpanch, however, denied the charges.

The victim said her brother-in-law Gulshan had eloped with a woman of the same village about five months ago, as a result Buta Ram started harassing her to know their whereabouts. She alleged that on June 13, Buta and the other accused thrashed her and even tore her clothes off.

The woman further said she had lodged a complaint at Rawalpindi police station. Also, a separate complaint was submitted to DSP Phagwara, but the cops did not take any action, added Kaur.

Hoshiarpur, June 24
The police has arrested Sukhwinder Singh, alias Toni, and Manpreet Singh, alias Pinka, both residents of Bachori village in Balachaur, for the murder of Bihari migrant labourer Raj Kumar, alias Raju, residing at Chaknoya village.

SSP Anita Punj claimed to have solved the blind murder case. She said an unidentified body of a male was found under a culvert on the Samundra-Dhamahi road on February 13 last. The body was later identified by Raj Kumar’s brother Kishan Kumar, she added. The police had registered a case under sections 302 and 201 of the IPC and a team headed by the DSP of Garhshankar was constituted to solve the case.

The duo confessed to have murdered Raj Kumar over some personal enmity during interrogation, claimed SSP Punj. They confessed to have strangled Raj Kumar with a metal strip. The duo took Raj Kumar on his scooter to Samundra village after making him consume alcohol. They beat him up on the way and threw him under the culvert and strangled him on February 10.

They drove the scooter of the deceased to Garhshankar and left it near the civil hospital before boarding a bus to their village in the morning, the SSP added.

Phagwara, June 24
The disruption of telecom services in the Model Town area for the past 24 hours has been causing a lot of inconvenience to the residents.

According to sources, the trouble is due to machines employed at the construction site of Satnampura railway overbridge. About 80 metres underground high frequency telecom cables have been damaged due to work near the local sugar mill.

Most of the residents of Model Town, Satnampura, Railway Road and Gaushala Road complained that whenever a number was being dialled, different message were being received like all lines in this route are busy, please dial after some time or this number does not exist. Apart from this sometimes there is no dial tone for 10 to 12 seconds or an engaged tone is played.

Rakesh Gupta, a resident of Model Town, complained that the numbers starting from digits 26 of the Model Town exchange were not available. Besides, the Internet and broadband services had also been interrupted since Saturday afternoon. He alleged that despite repeated complaints, no action had been taken by the department.

An official of the telecom department confirmed the snag and said it would take a few hours or a day to rectify the fault.