Karnal, April 10
A murder case has been registered against DSP (Jail) Som Nath Bazigar, three constables, three jail constables and one numberdar, Rajesh, at Sadar police satation, Karnal, in a mysterious death of a prisoner, Gurnam Singh, in a local jail yesterday.

Earlier, today the issue snowballed into a major with hundreds of fuming residents from Dachar village in Nissing area converging here and demanding registration of murder case against the Deputy Superintendent under Section 302 of the IPC.

The villagers, including about 300 women, were agitated over the death of Gurnam Singh and alleged that he was beaten to death by the jail officials and alleged that the official’s version that he was sick and being taken to hospital was concocted.

The villagers said Gurnam, who was booked in a petty offence under the Excise Act, was arrested on April 6 and he was asked by the jail staff to do menial works. However, he refused to do the work and agreed to pay them Rs 500, but they wanted it immediately.

When he could not pay the amount he was allegedly beaten up and forced to clean the toilets and his body bore marks of injury, they alleged. Wazir singh, younger brother of Gurnam alleged that he was not allowed to meet his brother when he reached the jail around 7.30 am yesterday. He said he suspected that his brother died in the night but the jail staff did not disclose it to the relatives.

Judicial Magistrate Nishant Sharma accompanied by five villagers - Hari Singh Sandhu, Iqbal Singh, Hardyal Singh, Gulal Singh and Sher Singh Balu - recorded the statement of prisoners in the Jail.

The prisoners of barrack No. 7 reportedly confirmed that Gurnam was beaten in the jail but there was no official confirmation, as the SSP could not be contacted.

Sukhchain Singh, district president of Kisan Sabha demanded a judicial inquiry into the death, while state BSP general secretary Raj Singh Chauhan asked for a CBI inquiry.

Medical officer Dr Rajbeer Singh, who conducted the postmortem, said Gurnam was brought dead to the hospital and he had marks of injury on his hands, legs and chest. He said the postmortem was video graphed and reports had been sent to Forensic Science Laboratory at Madhuban and pathology at Rohtak.

New Delhi, April 10
Minister for Urban Local Bodies in Haryana AC Chaudhary, who had yesterday resigned from the Cabinet and also from the post of state vice-president of the party, today made it clear that he would not “politicise” the issue and would remain a loyal worker of the Congress.

Talking to The Tribune here, he said he would continue as the MLA and ordinary party worker and “there is no opposition from my side for the Congress”. He had quit to protest what is being seen as “ignoring” the claims of the Punjabi community in the state.

To a query if he would quit the party, he said there was no question of joining hands with anybody, including Bhajan Lal, as was being claimed by his detractors. Rather, he said, his critics should recollect that he had publicly disassociated himself from Bhajan Lal when the latter parted ways with the Congress. He said he had stuck with the party during all crisis and would continue to do so.

Later, sources in the party said Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda had also asked Chaudhary to reconsider his decision, but Chaudhary had told him that he also owed loyalty to his community of Punjabi migrants, people who came from West Pakistan in 1947. There has been “no response” to his resignation from the party. Chaudhary had given his resignation at Sonia Gandhi’s residence, 10 Janpath, yesterday.

Congress leaders say that Chaudhary’s argument was that about 35 per cent of the state population comprised Punjabis, who had been ignored in the ticket allocation. The logic of Chaudhary was the population figurers. According to the census, 16 per cent population is of Khatri/Arora, a caste among Punjabis. Another 8 per cent is of Sikhs and the census does not count Punjabi Banias, Brahmins and the SC and BC separately. The estimate is that these groups comprise 9 to 10 per cent of the population.

The Punjabi community was eyeing the ticket for the Karnal seat where the name of Venod Sharma was floated but was struck down by the party high command as it did not want the media to rake up the Jessica Lal murder case and make it another poll issue even though Venod Sharma is already a sitting MLA. The second ticket being sought was Faridabad and Chaudhary himself was in the race. In case of Karnal, the ticket went to sitting MP Arvind Sharma while Avtar Singh Bhadana was retained in Faridabad.

Chandigarh, April 10
Sink your differences and work for the party - that’s the message Congress leaders conveyed at the general house of the party at the Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee office in Sector 9 here today.

This assumes special significance since the ticket distribution this election season left many a long face and the party, hardly worried about any anti-incumbency, is trying to fight resentment among the aspirants and infighting among its rank and file.

Leaders right from the AICC general secretary Prithviraj Chavan, Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda to Power Minister Randeep Singh Surjewala harped on presenting a united front to ensure a Congress sweep in the state. However, this held little meaning since those sore over the the ticket distribution had chosen to stay away from the meeting. A few candidates, especially those who had managed the ticket from seats of their choice despite opposition from the “powers-that-be”, chose to stay away in the name of campaigning.

If Youth Congress president Ashok Tanwar was hailed by the party as the “fresh face” in the fray, sitting MP from Sirsa Atma Singh Gill, who has been denied the ticket this election, too, emerged as a “hot favourite”. Senior Congress leaders, in an effort to placate him after his “threat” to fight as Independent from Sirsa, mollycoddled him in an obvious attempt to woo him.

While Avtar Bhadana, Selja, Rao Indrajeet Singh, Shruti Choudhry chose to skip the meeting on account of prior engagements, ministers Birender Singh, AC Chaudhary and Kiran Choudhry, too, were absent. Ticket aspirant from Faridabad, Karan Dalal, too, didn’t show up for the meeting among many other MLAs, making the message of unity redundant.

Chavan urged the workers to improve upon the feat of 2004 where the party got nine of the 10 seats and win all seats this election season. Hooda said that the Congress was a democratic party where everybody was given an opportunity to speak their mind.

Surjewala went to the extent of saying that differences over ticket distribution were fine till the time they were announced. “However, from today, all that should be forgotten and we must work towards ensuring a Congress win,” he said.

Chandigarh, April 10
She’s no greenhorn in politics even though this is her first election. For once, she is also not a behind-the-scene campaign manager. A third-generation politician, Shruti Choudhry is the Congress nominee from the Bhiwani-Mahendragarh seat in Haryana.

On her young shoulders rests the responsibility of carrying forward a legacy passed down from her grandfather Bansi Lal to her father Surender Singh and down to her. For one of the youngest candidates in the fray from Haryana, politics comes naturally to Choudhry. “It’s in my blood. I’ve been in the field since I was 15 years old, canvassing for my grandfather, campaigning for my father and my mother in every election. This time the only difference is that I am contesting,” she says.

On the job of “reaching out to the people” since the General Election was announced when rivals were busy seeking the ticket from their respective parties, Shruti, daughter of Haryana minister Kiran Choudhry, connects with her voters effortlessly. Her urbane upbringing and her Oxford degree in law are no limitations when she is in the constituency and among “her” people.

“They are my people. They have backed my father and they have rallied behind my grandfather. They have stood by my mother also. I have worked among them and with them in every election,” she remarks.

Having learnt the ropes of campaigning from her father, she says with pride, “He was my hero. He was the king of hearts. I haven’t joined politics for the glamour or name or money but for him alone. In fact, if I can just accomplish the work begun by my grandfather and furthered by my father, my mission would stand achieved.”

While she has been going from village to village meeting people and seeking votes in the name of development, her mother and husband, too, have pitched in for her. It may be a complete departure from her moot courts at Oxford and her law practice in the Supreme Court where she argued her cases but Shruti believes her true calling lies in the fields of Bhiwani and Mahendragarh, the kuchha village roads and in the hearts of the people. After all, she is her father’s daughter.

Chandigarh, April 10
The unexpected showers across Haryana during most of this week may have spelt doom for farmers, but it has helped the state power utilities rake in crores by selling its surplus power. The Haryana power utilities has reportedly earned Rs 30 crore in the past six days by selling its power.

The rain had brought down the temperature drastically and also eased the demand for power in the agriculture sector. This meant that the power demand during this week fell down by almost 100 lakh units (LUs). From a demand of 720 LUs, the demand during this week remained static at 600-650 LUs, leaving the state power utilities with surplus power.

This surplus power is now being traded on the national power exchange, Indian Energy Exchange Ltd. Officials in the power utilities told The Tribune that they had been selling an average of 50 LUs per day through the power exchange and earning Rs 5 crore a day, by selling power at an average rate of Rs 10 per unit.

This is for the first time that the state power utilities have earned profit by selling its power through the exchange. Earlier, the power-deficit state had been making only day-ahead purchases on the exchange to meet its peak load demand.

Officials in the Haryana Power Generation Corporation said as against 348 LUs of power that the state was expected to generate through its own generation, they were providing almost 430 LUs per day.

Chandigarh, April 10
The Punjab and Haryana High Court wants a team of experts to prevent from going down the drain the sewerage and drinking water system in Bhiwani.

The Bench of Chief Justice Tirath Singh Thakur and Justice Hemant Gupta has also entrusted the task of constituting the team to the director of Kurukshetra-based National Institute of Technology (NIT).

The directions follow a petition filed by an elected municipal councilor from Bhiwani. Describing the problem as serious, petitioner Puneet Masta had asserted water was contaminated and sewers choked.

Taking up the matter, the Bench asserted: “Constitution of a team of experts appears to be the only viable method by which the extent and the nature of the problem referred to in the writ petition can be evaluated and appropriate steps taken to mitigate the hardships being faced by the residents of Bhiwani”.

The Bench added: “In our opinion, while the respondents, state of Haryana and others, may be justified in undertaking the repair works that are of urgent nature to keep the existing system running, it would be useful for all concerned to have a study conducted by a team of experts, which would give an overview of the sewerage and drinking water system to be provided to the residents of Bhiwani and suggest remedial measures to make the same work more efficiently”.

In the detailed three-page order, the Bench asserted: We hope and trust that the director, National Institute of Technology, will, while constituting the team of experts, keep in mind the nature of the problem and suitably nominate the experts, who can give credible opinion about the same.

Panipat, April 10
Even as the model code of conduct is in force and it is unlikely for the government to resolve the issue of separate SGPC for Haryana till the Lok Sabha elections are over, the state Sikhs seem to be in no mood to show any laxity in pursuing their demand.

In yet another effort to keep the issue alive, SGPC member and working president of the HSGPC (ad hoc) Didar Singh Nalvi has written a letter to UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi seeking an early resolution on the issue.

Nalvi said it was important to keep up the pressure so that demand was met with. He said in case the matter was allowed to die down, than it might not be possible for the Sikhs to regenerate so much of enthusiasm, which at present engulfs the whole community in the state.

In his letter, which he claimed to have written on behalf of the 19 lakh Sikhs of the state, Nalvi stated that the issue of formation of separate committee for the management of Gurdwaras in the state had been hanging fire for the past several years, despite repeated assurances given by the top Congress leadership.

He said the Sikhs were asking for complete implementation of Section-72 of the Punjab Reorganisation Act of 1966 that was passed by Parliament. Nalvi said keeping in view the legal provision of Section-72, the Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee had included this issue in its election manifesto of 2005. But, till date the promise remained unfulfilled.

He said though the issue was debated by the state legislative Assembly during the Budget session of 2007 for over 3 hours, no concrete decision was taken.

A delegation of the state Sikhs accompanied by Kurukshetra MP Navin Jindal, met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who had declare that he was in favour of complete implementation of the said Act.

But even after two years of the declaration, the promise made to the Sikhs of the state had not been implemented, Nalvi said.

He said the Congress could face stiff opposition from the Sikhs of the state in the times to come in case the issue of separate SGPC was not resolved soon.

Meanwhile, the HSGPC, which had threatened not to support the Congress in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections in case their demand of separate body was not meet, is still undecided over the issue. The recently convened congregation of the Sikhs at Karnal had ended with any decision, as a majority of its members had not turned up for the discussions.

Sirsa, April 10
Spurned and thrashed by husband, who wants to sell her minor daughter, Seeta has been running from pillar to post to seek justice at Rania town in this district, but to no avails.

Even, SHO Dharamvir of the Rania police station, whom she approached for taking action against her husband, Pawan Kumar, after he allegedly injured her and her younger sister with a sharp edged weapon, allegedly accused her of easy moral virtues and asked her to go away.

SHO has, however, denied allegations and maintained that a case has already been registered against Seeta’s husband.

Seeta, in her early thirties and a resident of Gobind Pura locality of the Rania town, appeared before mediapersons today with her head bandaged, while her younger sister Veena had her arm in plasters.

The woman alleged that her husband, who has been living separately from her for the past three years, had entered an agreement to sell their 15-year-old daughter to an aged person.

“Though he lives separately, he has been often visiting her house and beat her up to leave claim over her house, which she made from her earnings by working in a number of households as domestic help,” she maintained.

“Some days back my daughter overheard him speaking to someone on phone regarding the agreement to sell her and she informed me,” she added that when he came to her residence the next day, she warned him of looking towards her daughter.

Upon this, Pawan Kumar allegedly took out a sharp edged weapon “Kapa” and hit her.

Gurgaon, April 10
Arvind and Anand, security guards working in a private firm in Sector 29, were brutally murdered on Thursday night. According to eyewitness, three persons had tried to enter the office building of Reliance Life Insurance and Bajaj Alliance, where they were working, for robbery. When both of them tried to oppose, the criminals killed them by slitting their throat with some sharp weapon.

The police had been investigating the case since then but was not able to trace the assailant till evening.

The family members of the deceased feel that if the police would have reached the spot both could have been saved. Jyoti, Arvind’s sister-in-law said, “Just after the incident Arvind tried to talk to us but we were not able to understand what he was trying to say as his voice was not clear. Earlier, We thought that he was kidding, but when the voice was not understandable even after few minutes we felt something suspicious and immediately rushed to his office. When we reached there he was lying in a serious condition, but Anand had already died.”

Arvind’s brother Narinder claimed that they had informed the police but they did not turned up and even asked them to take him to the hospital by our own. Arvind died before reaching the hospital, he added.

DCP Jagdish Nagar said they had registered the case against unidentified people and started the investigation. He mentioned that it could be the case of robbery as well as enmity but nothing has come in front till now.