Kapurthala, July 25
Agitating residents of Dayalpur today blocked vehicular traffic on the Jalandhar-Amritsar National Highway near the village for several hours to protest against the alleged kidnapping of Congress panch Parmod Kumar and villager Ranjit Singh by the rival faction.

The villagers staged a dharna in the middle of the road and jammed the vehicular traffic.

The agitating villagers burnt two motorcycles and damaged a jeep parked outside Government Senior Seconday School at Dayalpur village, the venue of the sarpanch election. According to villagers, Parmod Kumar and Neeta Rani, both Congress panches, were going to the venue of the election this afternoon to cast their votes for the election of sarpanch when the former was kidnapped by unidentified persons who had come in a car. When they tried to abduct Neeta Rani, villagers intervened and saved her from the clutches of the abductors.

The abductors also severally beat up village resident Ranjit Singh, who tried to obstruct them, and kidnapped him also.

The villagers alleged that District Youth Akali Dal senior vice-president Paramjit Singh Padda, a panch of the SAD and aspirant for the post of sarpanch, was behind the kidnapping.

The Congress has six panches while the SAD has two and the BSP has one.

According to the police, the kidnappers threw Parmod Kumar and Ranjit Singh near Sarawan village. Ranjit Singh who was seriously injured by the kidnappers had been admitted in the local civil hospital, while Parmod Kumar went to the house of a relative at Kartarpur.

The villagers are demanding registration of a kidnapping case against the accused.

SDM G.S. Khaira and SP (Detective) Sukhwinder Singh also reached the spot and persuaded the villagers to lift the dharna.

Meanwhile, the election to the post of sarpanch was postponed by the returning officer. — UNI

Hoshiarpur, July 25
The elections for the municipal council (MC) president and vice-president could not be held here this afternoon following an attack by some hooligans at the venue, Town Hall. The attack forced presiding officer Rahul Chabha, Dasuya SDM, to postpone the elections.

In the 31-member house, the BJP has 13 councillors, while the SAD and the Congress have nine and six councillors, respectively. Besides, three independents too hold seats in the house. The MLAs of Hoshiarpur and Shamchaurasi are its ex-officio members.

According to information, the BJP proposed Shiv Sud for the post of MC president, whereas five BJP rebels along with six Congress members, five SAD members and two independents nominated another BJP councillor Gopi Chand Kapur for the post.

As soon as Kapur was proposed, some hooligans armed with sharp-edged weapons went berserk and broke barricades erected around Town Hall in the presence of the police. They entered the election venue by breaking doors.

Interestingly, this all happened in the presence of Punjab parliamentary affairs minister Tikshan Sud and chief parliamentary secretary Mohinder Kaur Josh.

Seeing hooligans with weapons, all councillors rushed to the adjoining rooms while the former remained inside the election venue for more than half an hour in the presence of Sud and Josh.

Talking to The Tribune, Rahul said he could not even sign the proceeding book and had to take shelter in the office of MC executive officer. He said he had postponed the election and the next date would be announced shortly. However, it would be early in the next week, he added.

Meanwhile, all the rebel municipal councillors of the BJP, along with the councillors of the SAD, the Congress and independents, condemned the incident. They alleged that the attack was at the behest of a local BJP minister and the police and administration officials remained mute spectators to the incident.

“When the minister and his supporters saw that their candidate Shiv Sud could not win they disrupted the election proceedings,” the councillors alleged. They said they would take up the issue with the higher authorities of the BJP and would even knock at the doors of the Punjab and Haryana High Court to get justice.

Despite repeated attempts Tikshan Sud and Mohinder Josh could not be contacted.

Amritsar, July 25
The police has cracked the sensational Rs 37-lakh bank heist case with the arrest of three members of the 15-man gang who had masterminded the robbery.

SSP Kunwar Vijay Partap Singh told newsmen that the police had been able to get some vital clues from those arrested and had launched a major manhunt to nab the remaining culprits who had decamped with one of the biggest bank robberies in the recent years.

He said the police had been on the look out for the gang for the past one and half months and finally managed to nail three of them who had been under sustained interrogation to disclose the whereabouts of the others accomplices. He said the police had been able to lay hands on one of the kingpins Anil Kumar who was arrested in Amritsar, while Dalbir Singh and Jasbir Singh, who had been lodged in Amritsar Central Jail, had also been detained for questioning.

Interestingly, both the jail inmates were involved in a big robbery at Khandwala in Chheharta and the police had suspected their involvement in the SBI heist wherein the accused had decamped with the cash van while injuring the security guard on June 20. SSP today hauled up an unguarded cash van of a security agency carrying Rs 4 lakh which was parked outside the bank on Mall Road without proper security.

Hoshiarpur, July 25
The district consumers forum, headed by president P.D. Goel, has ordered PACL India Limited to pay Rs 50,000 to Amarjit Kaur, wife of late Kamaljit Singh, and her sons, all of Khera village, along with interest at the rate of 9 per cent per annum from the date of filing the complaint along with litigation expenses worth Rs 1,000 within a month.

Amarjit Kaur, along with her sons, filed a complaint against PACL India Limited and its customer care centre (CCC) alleging that the latter had wrongly repudiated the claim of an insurance policy taken by her late husband Kamaljit Singh.

PACL India Limited took the plea that the claim was repudiated as the insured person was murdered as per the report of the CCC in charge.

The consumers forum held that the report was made by the CCC after holding an enquiry.

It was reported that Kamaljit had died in an accident. Kamaljit’s father had suspicion that there was some foul play in the death of his son but this could not be used as a proof, as such PACL India Limited could not draw any advantage from the said statement.

Further, the affidavit of the police official concerned or investigating officer had also not been produced on record in support of the said investigation report, as such making it lose its evidentiary value.

Jalandhar, July 25
A group of class XII students along with their parents today demanded that CBSE should declare their re-appear exam results before August 10 so that they can attend the Punjab Technical University (PTU) joint counselling session for admission into various engineering disciplines. The students appeared for the compartment exam on July 19.

The parents and their children were here in the city to meet dean academics, chief coordinator, CET counselling, Dr VK Arora for procuring official documents pertaining to the selection of their children. “We have been asked by the CBSE officials to get the CET result copy approved by the PTU dean so that they can consider their case”, maintained the parents.

The first phase of joint counseling is over while the second round of counselling, including categories like backward class, backward area, sports person, military person, SC, ST, is scheduled for 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 August.

The parents maintained that if the CBSE declares the results after the counselling date it will put their wards in a major disadvantage. As many as 900 students have appeared in supplementary exam in Punjab. A majority of them have also given the Punjab CET exam.

Talking to The Tribune, Baldev Singh, resident of Mansa district, said, “ The fate of my daughter is hanging in balance. If CBSE fails to declare the result before the scheduled counseling date, she would be utterly dejected as she has got a decent rank (1029) in the CET,” he said.

“It’s so frustrating. I have secured 8819 rank in the Punjab CET. I don’t want to waste another precious year and money spent on me by my parents,” said another student who appeared for compartment exam in chemistry, pleading anonymity.

Though the parents visited the PTU office today but the official concerned was not available. When asked, Arora said parents would be assisted in every possible way.