Nawanshahr, April 15
The police has arrested Pirthi Singh of Sarhal Mundi village in Jalandhar district allegedly for swindling UK-based NRI Manmohan Kaur by implicating her in a fake bank forgery case and then providing her a fake police clearance report purportedly issued by Punjab DGP N.P.S. Aulakh.

Giving details at a press conference here on Tuesday, DSP Satpal Singh Bhangu and SHO (city) Rakesh Kumar said Pirthi Singh was a taxi driver and he had allegedly duped old lady Manmohan Kaur of Dyalpur village (Jalandhar) of Rs 4.62 lakh. The matter was reported to the police by Sarabjit Singh, a building contractor and resident of Banga town. Sarabjit Singh had been building a house for Manmohan Kaur and she had paid some instalments to Pirthi Singh through him. Sarabjit Singh brought the matter to the notice of the police as Pirthi Singh had started blackmailing him on the pretext that he had given him some fake currency notes.

On the basis of the complaint by Sarabjit Singh, the police registered a case under sections 419, 420, 406, 465, 467, 468, 471 and 474, IPC.

Narrating the modus operandi, Bhangu said the trickster had got the thumb impression of Manmohan Kaur on a bank voucher on the pretext that he needed a witness for opening an account. Later, he started blackmailing her by narrating her a story that he had committed a mistake by making her to “impersonate” as Tirath Kaur to fraudulently withdraw money from her account. The matter had been reported to the police and a case registered and she might be implicated in a bank fraud case. However, he consoled her saying that he would save her in the case and started demanding money from her. The last instalment of Rs 1.50 lakh was paid to him in Nawanshahr on April 3 this year. When she demanded a proof of the clearance of her name from the case, Pirthi Singh gave her “police clearance report issued by the DGP, Punjab”. He had also prepared a fake report by the Phagwara PNB branch manager. The DSP said during investigation, it was revealed that no such case was reported to the police. Moreover, the police clearance report was never issued by the DGP.

It was revealed that a case under sections 419, 171, 420, 384, 506 and 120-B, IPC, was also registered against Pirthi Singh at Mahilpur police station in Hoshiarpur district on March 27 this year for allegedly threatening his in-laws under the guise of a CBI official in a bid to grab their land.

Amritsar, April 15
Communist leader Satya Pal Dang today urged Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal to intervene in alleged grabbing of land belonging to the family of Tarlok Singh, former sarpanch of Attari village, by a land mafia, which was being supported by the district administration and police.

In a communique to the Chief Minister, Dang said Tarlok Singh had been in possession of 7.5 acres since 1973 in the border village of Attari and there were girdawaries and jamabandi to that effect on record. The former sarpanch had filed a civil suit in the court for permanent injunction of land in January, 2006, which was still pending in the court and being pursued by the daughter and son of Tarlok, who had died, he said.

However, during the suit a land mafia in connivance with a tehsildar got the girdawari changed clandestinely without any information to Tarlok Singh, who was alive at that time. Now the case of sedh girdawari, filed by his son and daughter, was being delayed by the tehsildar, he alleged. He alleged that having little regard for the civil suit, the local police was helping the land mafia to dispossess the daughter and son of the former sarpanch, who had sowed wheat crop and planted a garden on the land. He said the police was trying to illegally help the land mafia in harvesting the crop. — OC

Amritsar, April 15
Minister of health and family welfare Laxmi Kanta Chawla, accompanied by the civil surgeon and other specialist doctors, visited Amritsar Central Jail and organised a special check-up camp for the inmates here on Tuesday.

Addressing the gathering, Chawla said basic facilities like water and health were the fundamental right of every citizen and it was the duty of the government to provide better health facilities to them whether living in posh locality, slum area or jail of a city. She assured the inmates that the government would try its best to solve the health-related problems in the jails.

Chawla said the state government was trying to create awareness among the general masses to take preventive measures in order to keep themselves away from diseases, besides upgrading the health infrastructure at various primary and major hospitals in the state.

The minister said the government was determined to provide state-of-the-art facilities at hospitals, besides providing the latest technical knowhow to the students of the medical college to keep themselves abreast with the latest techniques in medical field. 

Nawanshahr, April 15
ITI students raised slogans against the alleged move of the government to privatise the ITIs under the guise of public-private partnership during the visit of technical education minister Chaudhary Swarna Ram here on Tuesday. The minister was reportedly on his way to Chandigarh and halted at the ITI here at about 11 a.m. When the students got to know about the minister’s visit, they started raising slogans against the policy of privatisation.

Later, the minister, in a bid to allay the apprehension of the students, asked the principal to invite a delegation of the students in the office for talks. But the students refused and the minister went to the protesting students. Swarna Ram stated that no move to privatise the ITIs was under consideration of the government. However, he said that some unions had been creating apprehensions among the students. Private companies had been involved in the management for revamping the ITIs to impart better training as well as placement of the youth, he added. “He would be the first to quit, if there would be such a move,” he assured the students.

However, PSU leader Karam Singh Sekha, in a press release issued here, said the Union government had made a provision in the Budget to hand over the ITIs to private companies under the guise of public-private partnership (PPP) policy.

Hoshiarpur, April 15
District and sessions judge S.K. Goyal sentenced Jagjit Singh to three years imprisonment and fined him Rs 1,000 for abetting his wife to commit suicide. In case the accused fails to pay the fine, he would further undergo one-month imprisonment.

A case was registered against the accused on August 10, 2005, on the complaint of his mother-in-law Jasvir Kaur. Jasvir said her daughter Navneet Kaur was married to Jagjit in 1999 and alleged that her son-in-law and his mother Swarn Kaur used to torture her daughter for dowry. She alleged that they compelled her daughter to commit suicide by consuming some poisonous substance. However, Jagjit’s mother Swarn was acquitted for lack of evidence. — OC