Nawanshahr, May 29
Gold-capped teeth were allegedly removed from the body of an old woman lying in the mortuary situated at the cremation ground here.

The incident has exposed the alleged misdeeds of a baba who acts as in charge at the cremation ground. Prominent citizens of the town have started raising the demand of bringing the mortuary and the mortuary van facility under the direct control of the district administration.

Bharat Bhushan Jatwani and Anil Kotwal, alias Bittu, neighbour and family friend of the deceased, respectively, told The Tribune that the woman, residing on Arya Samaj Road here died on May 25 due to cardiac arrest. All her family members are staying abroad.

Her body was taken to a nearby cremation ground to be kept in the mortuary until her relatives arrived.

The baba in charge of the cremation ground got the requisite fee deposited and formalities completed. He kept the body in box No 5.

Next evening, some relatives of the woman, who reached there, went to have a last glimpse of the deceased and found everything to be normal.

“Everything was alright by that time, but when they went to receive the body on May 27 to take it for funeral, they were stunned to notice that the body was shifted from box No 5 to box No 2 of the mortuary. Moreover, the mouth of the woman was soaked with blood,” said Jatwani and Bittu, while adding that the baba could not give any satisfactory answer to the mysterious shifting of the body from one box to another and the blood stains in the mouth.

The family members and relatives did not consider it appropriate to indulge in an altercation with the baba at the cremation ground, said Jatwani and Bittu. But the mystery behind the shifting of the body and blood on the mouth continued to haunt them.

But when they came to know from family members that the woman had four gold-capped teeth, they got a clue.

They raised the issue with the office-bearers of the Shamshan Ghat Sudhar Committee as well as prominent citizens of the town with a view to exposing the “misdeed” of the Baba.

The committee has started discussions on the issue. Meanwhile, some prominent citizens have mooted the idea of taking a deputation to the Deputy Commissioner, urging her to bring the functioning of the mortuary and mortuary van being run by the baba under the direct control of the district administration.

Jalandhar, May 29
To start traffic and security surveillance in the city, the Municipal Corporation in association with the district police will install hidden CCTV cameras at 32 undisclosed junctions within six months.

Starting a pilot project in this regard, Local Bodies Minister Manoranjan Kalia today handed over a cheque for Rs 1.66 crore to the officials concerned at a press conference here today.

He said the traffic because of increasing population and vehicles had become difficult to manage. He said it was practically not possible to deploy police personnel for monitoring and controlling every violator.

“We need a system for surveillance of crucial spots which can be monitored live and recorded live on screen while sitting at one place.

The camera footage will keep an eye on rioters who damage private and public property during agitations, which will be useful during the investigation of cases.

CCTV surveillance will also help in keeping a watch on other crimes like snatching, robbery, kidnapping and road rage,” said Police Commissioner Gaurav Yadav.

Junctions would be equipped with public address systems through wireless signals so that public could be issued instructions in case of traffic jams or eventualities related to road users, he said, adding that other useful applications like video-conferencing would be explored later on.

Nawanshahr, May 29
The recent incident of missing of paddy worth Rs 2 crore stored at a rice mill by Punsup for milling at nearby Majhoor village is yet to be cracked, another incident of mysterious missing of about 800 boxes of liquor worth more than Rs 15 lakh from a store sealed by the Excise Department came to light here yesterday.

Assistant Excise and Taxation Commissioner Saroj Garg said that acting on a tip-off regarding lying of unsold stock of liquor with a local wine contractor, a team of the Excise Department conducted a raid on April 8 at the store and found unsold stock of about 1,600 boxes of liquor, bear, etc., there. The stock was sealed and kept in the store in the custody of the contractor concerned, Garg said, adding that the sealed store had two locks of the contractor and the Excise Department had put its own lock also.

The contractor had filed an appeal with the District Excise and Taxation Commissioner, Jalandhar, who, while disposing of the appeal, had imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 on the contractor and ordered release of the stock. But before the execution of the orders, a case of alleged burglary at the sealed store had come to light. During investigation, it was found that about 800 boxes of liquor had mysteriously been missing from the sealed stock, said the AETC. The police has also started investigation into the case.

Tarn Taran, May 29
Tributes were paid to Punjab Police constable Balwinder Singh (27), who was shot dead on Lawrence Road, Amritsar, about 10 days back by armed miscreants, at his native village Jallewal, 28 km from here, on his bhog ceremony.

Manjinderjit Singh Bitta, president of the All-India Anti-Terrorists Front, consoled the widow of Balwinder and the other family members.

The bhog ceremony was attended among others by Parneet Kaur, wife of Adesh Partap Singh Kairon, Punjab Minister for Food and Civil Supplies, and Harminder Singh Gill of the Congress.

Balwinder, who was the gunman of the local SP (Detective) Malwinder Singh Sidhu, was shot dead by some miscreants when he tried to stop them from molesting girls at a local restaurant.

Sukhwinder Kaur, mother of the Balwinder, demanded renaming of the village Government Elementary School after the name of his son.

Pathankot, May 29
The police yesterday arrested Rajesh Kumar, alias Surinder Kumar, alias Shinda, father of Vijay Topi, an accused in an Amritsar shootout incident in which a gunman of Taran Tarn SP (D) Malwinder Singh was killed.

Bhupinderjit Singh Virk, SP, said here that Rajesh Kumar was wanted by the local police in a case registered against him under sections 307, 326 and 34 of the IPC for attempt to murder Inderjit at Galla Mandi here on December 4, 1986.

The SP said on a tip-off a police party, jointly led by CIA staff ASI Rajinder Prasad and SHO Manoj Kumar of Division-1 police station, raided some venue near Mata Asha Purni temple in the Androon Bazaar locality and nabbed him.

Virk said the family of Rajesh Kumar had a criminal background.

He said the accused had been residing at Chottepur village in Gurdaspur district.