Amritsar, October 23
The health department teams today raided city’s two famous sweet shops - Bansal and Novelty - and discovered that sweets were being prepared in filthy, unhygienic conditions in gross violation of rules. A pickle shop in Rambagh area was also raided. Issuing notices to the owners, the health officials warned them of legal action if they fail to get their act right and improve the hygiene levels.

The teams were led by sanitary health inspector Govind Mehta who said the area where the eatables were being prepared was full of insects, with many of them sitting on heaps of sweets.

Also, the personal hygiene of workers was questionable and there was no provision to cover the sweets which were stored in dirty containers, he added.

“Hot milk and pinnis were kept in plastic drums which could be a serious health hazard,” further said Mehta.

“The owners of two shops have sought three days time to clean-up their act and meet the health standards set by the department. We will keep tabs on them,” said the officer, adding that the public health was a priority and no one would be allowed to play with it.

Notably, the department has already issued notices to eight sweetshops, hotels and restaurants to maintain proper cleanliness in wake of the festival season. Civil surgeon Dr Lehmbar Singh said the department is conducting repeated raids to check the adulteration of food, especially sweets, in the city.

Jalandhar, October 23
Close on the heels of detection of the biggest-ever power pilferage in the Doaba region, the enforcement wing of the Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB), north zone, detected another case of power pilferage by a resort owner here today.

Located on the Phagwara-Hoshiarpur road, City Heart Resort has been found pilfering power by the enforcement wing after tampering with its electricity meter having a capacity of 98.4 KW. Talking to The Tribune, officiating director (enforcement) of the board G.S. Khehra revealed that the resort owner was causing a loss worth Rs 24.92 lakh by pilfering electricity. He said after suspecting a foul play, a team of the board removed the electricity meter and found its seals tampered with at the meter-testing laboratory in Jalandhar. He claimed that the power meter was tested in the presence of two executive engineers, three subdivisional engineers of the board and a representative of the resort owner. The team also found the body of the meter opened and circuit transformers tampered with.

Earlier, the enforcement wing had detected power losses worth Rs 1,90,66,893 being caused to the board by Narmada Board and Paper Mills located in the Basti Danishmanda area.

Kapurthala, October 23
It’s raining troubles for TV reporter Narinder Gupta. The man, who was booked by Jalandhar police for allegedly blackmailing a local girl with an obscene MMS, is also involved in a cheating case.

An FIR under section 420 of IPC was registered against him by Kapurthala police in September this year on the complaint of Ankur Tiwari of Nechebanda locality.

In his affidavit submitted to SSP Rakesh Agarwal on May 22, a former scribe Tiwari, who runs a shop at Sadar Bazar, had alleged that Gupta told him that he had close links with the then ADC (development) and could get any person with BEd a teaching job if he was paid Rs 50,000 in advance. Later, Gupta managed to trap a trader Bharat Bhushan Sharma of Chopra Mohalla and took Rs 50,000 from him to get his brother Rishi Kumar a job. The complainant claimed that Sharma gave the amount to Narinder in 2007 in his presence.

However, Rishi never got the job. When Sharma asked Gupta to return the money, the latter handed over Rs 10,000 in cash to him. He also gave two cheques of Rs 10,000 each which were later dishonoured.

After receiving the complaint, the SSP marked the inquiry to in charge economic offences wing Gurpartap Singh who prime facie found the allegations true. Subsequently, an FIR was registered against the TV reporter at Sadar police station on SSP’s order.

Pathankot, October 23
The police achieved a major success today when it arrested Gurpreet Singh, alias Preet, who was involved in crimes, including kidnapping of a local trader and indulging in firing on a police party about three years ago.

Information gathered by The Tribune revealed that the police was expecting that Gurpreet would make startling disclosures about the kidnapping of local trader Raman Mahajan, which took place on October 21, 2005, from the outskirts of the town. Mahajan was rescued by a police party the same night. Two out of the total six accused, identified as Rajinder Singh and Arun Masih, residents of Kathua (Jammu and Kashmir), who were involved in the kidnapping, were killed in an encounter that took place between the police and the accused on the outskirts of the town.

The other accused were identified as Sonu, Bodh Raj and Avinash Kohli. Kohli was arrested from the spot when the police rescued Mahajan. Three accused, Gurpreet Singh, Sonu and Bodh Raj, had escaped the police net at that time. The accused were demanding Rs 30 lakh as ransom for releasing Mahajan. Sulakhan Singh, in charge, CIA police station, when contacted, said that Bodh Raj was arrested by the Jammu police a few months ago and was later handed over to the Punjab police. He added that today fifth accused Gurpreet was also held. He said sixth accused Sonu was still at large.

He added that all the six accused were facing two separate criminal cases, one for the kidnapping of Raman Mahajan and second for firing shots at the police. He said the judicial magistrate remanded Gurpreet in police custody when he was presented in the court today.

Batala, October 23
Sarpanch Ravail Kaur, wife of Balwinder Singh of Sakhowal village in Batala tehsil, was booked under sections 419 and 120-B, IPC, on Wednesday.

Jaspal Singh, son of Santokh Singh of Sakhowal, had made a complaint against Sarpanch Ravail, her husband and ex-sarpanch Balwinder Singh along with the panchayat secretary stating that Ravail Kaur had got herself registered as Kanso, wife of Balwinder Singh, in 2003 and now she had been elected sarpanch of Sakhowal under the name of Ravail Kaur. She had also obtained old-age pension as Ravail Kaur in connivance with her husband and panchayat secretary Lakhwinder Singh.

After an enquiry, the police has registered a case under sections 419 and 120-B, IPC, at Ghuman police station. No arrest has been made so far in the case.