Kapurthala, March 27
Harminder Singh of Mohabalipur village in Sultanpur Lodhi died in a judicial custody at an Amritsar hospital on Wednesday night.

His wife Bhupinder Kaur alleged that her husband had been tortured by the police after his arrest on March 22 which led to his death. The police refuted the charges saying that he was a kidney patient which was the cause of his death.

Harminder’s relatives and villagers staged a demonstration by keeping his body on road outside DSP Sukhdev Singh Chhina’s office at 7 pm which was on till the filing of the news report. They were demanding action against the erring policemen and against those persons who had lodged “false” complaints against him. They also blocked traffic on the Kapurthala-Sultanpur Lodhi road in support of their demands.

Bhupinder Kaur told mediapersons that her husband was a renal patient and was under medication after remaining admitted to a Kapurthala hospital from February 27 to March 6.

Harminder Singh was arrested despite being a kidney patient, due to which his treatment was adversely affected, she said, alleging that his condition became worse after his torture during his two-day police remand.

Bhupinder Kaur said he was then admitted to Civil Hospital, Kapurthala, from where a city judge remanded him in judicial custody and he was sent to an Amritsar hospital for treatment.

On the other hand, talking to The Tribune, Kapurthala SSP Rakesh Agarwal refuted her allegations terming them as baseless. The SSP said Harminder Singh was a kidney patient, which was the reason of his death. Question did not arise of torturing him as his condition was bad, he added.

A city court had remanded him in judicial custody and he was shifted to an Amritsar hospital because of his deteriorated condition, the SSP said, adding that his wife did not even visit the hospital and the policemen on duty kept on cleaning his excrement. The police had already moved an application in the court to grant him bail on the grounds of his deteriorated health condition but he died before the decision on the bail plea, he added.

The SSP said he was arrested four days back as two persons had submitted complaints to the police that he had cheated them of lakhs of rupees in the name of sending them abroad.

The economic offences wing of the anti-fraud cell had looked into the complaints which were found to be prima facie true. Following which two cases of cheating were registered against him under section 420 of the Indian Penal Code.

According to information, one of the complainants is Baldev Singh of Bhanu Langa village in Sultanpur Lodhi. He reportedly alleged in his complaint that Harminder Singh had taken Rs 10 lakh from him in the name of sending him abroad sometime back but neither he sent him abroad nor he returned the money. 

Sultanpur Lodhi, March 27
Several debt-ridden persons here heaved a sigh of relief with the arrest of one of the two loan sharks, Rakesh Kumar Neetu, wanted in connection with an abetment to suicide case registered against them on March 13.

A resident of Nasirpurian Mohalla here, Neetu, along with Rajinder Kumar, alias Bittu Bhalwan, of Tellian Mohalla, was booked on the charge of abetment to suicide.

Allegedly harassed by the two, debt-ridden Inderjeet Kali had committed suicide by consuming some poisonous substance here on the night of March 12.

SSP Rakesh Aggarwal said the police had come to know that they used to take promissory notes and blank cheques from needy persons while giving them loan at exorbitant rates of interest. Sultanpur Lodhi DSP Tarloachan Singh said the police had requested for Rakesh’s remand while producing him in a court on Thursday after his arrest on Wednesday but he was sent to judicial custody for 14 days. A class IV employee of the Sultanpur Lodhi municipal council, Kali (32) of Mohalla Darjian, had stated to the police in his dying statement that he had taken the extreme step due to harassment by the loan sharks.

He had also stated that he had borrowed just Rs 20,000 from Rajinder a few years ago and returned more than Rs 3.5 lakh to him in several instalments, but neither his (Kali’s) promissory note nor the signed blank papers had been returned to him. On the contrary, Rajinder had asked him to pay Rs 30,000 more which would become 40,000 if he failed to give it within a fortnight. Kali said Rajinder also threatened him that he would grab his house.

Harassed by the loan sharks, Kali had written his ordeal on a piece of paper before committing suicide and sent its copies to the Kapurthala SSP and the president of the MC Employees Union through courier. An FIR under section 306 of the IPC was registered on the basis of his dying statement.

Amritsar, March 27
Marshal of the Air Force Arjan Singh would formally dedicate the decommissioned MIG-23 BN aircraft to Guru Nanak Dev University here on March 28.

The Russian fighter bomber, which has been phased out from the Indian Air Force (IAF), was positioned at the sprawling varsity campus last year.

This was revealed by university registrar Dr R.S. Bawa. He said Air Force Marshal Arjan Singh would also address faculty and students at Guru Nanak Bhawan.

Dr Bawa said the ministry of defence had donated the aircraft to the university for creating awareness about the aircraft among students and public.

Besides, it would encourage students to join the IAF and other defence services.

Guru Nanak Dev University is the first university in India where decommissioned aircraft has been installed.

The bomber aircraft had participated in the Kargil war and was transported from Air Force Station, Halwara, under the leadership of Squadron Leader Harjinder Singh Marwaha.

The Mikoyan-Gurevich 23 (MIG-23) BN aircraft, which is one of the fastest aircraft at low levels, was inducted into the force in 1981 to meet the tactical air strike aircraft (TASA).

MIG-23 bomber is a single seater plane with variable geometry and is fitted with one 23mm GSh-23L twin barrel gun in the fuselage belly pack.

The fighter jet has capability to carry air-to-air missiles like the R-23, the R-27, etc; air-to-surface missiles, bombs, rocket pods and other ordinance.