The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

	Old couple found murdered Tribune Reporters Amritsar, August 4 An old couple of Wadala Gohal village in Jandiala constituency was brutally murdered in sleep. The deceased have been identified as Mohan Singh (65) and his wife Nant Kaur. They were sleeping in the open courtyard of their house where the incident occurred. It was only in the morning that the murder came to light. The SHO, Jandiala police station, Sukhinder Singh, said their necks seemed to have been slit opened by the murderers. He ruled out the possibility of the killing of the couple by robbers as the family was very poor. They were survived by a son, who is said to be an addict. The police after registering a case sent the bodies for post-mortem examination. Husband, sister held for killing woman Hoshiarpur: A man’s illicit relations with his sister-in-law led him to kill his wife near Garhshankar on August 1. SSP Rakesh Aggarwal claimed this afternoon that the police had solved the murder mystery of Anu, wife of Sandip Kumar of Garhshankar, and had arrested the killers within three days of the crime. Anu’s father Gurmej Singh of Sakruli village told the police that his daughter was married to Sandip of Ward 11, Garhshankar, six years ago and had a six-month-old daughter. Gurmej alleged that his son-in-law Sandip was a drunkard and Anu often objected to his this habit. On account of this, their relationship was strained and Sandip used to beat up Anu. About a week ago, Sandip allegedly threatened Gurmej Singh that if his daughter did not stop quarrelling with him, he will eliminate her. Going by this statement of Sandip, the Garhshankar police booked him under sections 302 and 34 of the IPC. During investigations, it emerged that Sandip had developed illicit relations with his sister-in-law Harpreet Kaur, alias Nano (his wife’s younger sister) about six months ago. This had further strained the relationship between Anu and Sandip. To get rid of Anu, Sandip and Harpreet hatched a conspiracy to kill her. While returning from a religious place at Rampur Ganura village after paying obeisance there, Sandip stopped his Tata Sumo vehicle on the road at Nanglan (Garhshankar) village and repeatedly stabbed his wife in the abdomen with a knife. Anu jumped out of the vehicle and tried to escape, but Sandip hit her head with a stone due to which she fell down and died on the spot. To mislead the police, Sandip cooked up a story to establish that Anu was killed by unidentified assailants. He said his family was attacked by four persons who were in a Scorpio vehicle. Sandip and Harpreet Kaur had been arrested.
	Councillor, sons booked for shooting at shopkeeper Hoshiarpur, August 4 A dispute over the renovation of a shop between tenant (ration depot holder) Bhagwant Kishore, son of Nand Kishore, and municipal councillor Dr Mohan Lal Thaman, both of Garhdiwala town, led to firing in the shop complex today as a result the former got bullet wounds. He was admitted in the local Civil Hospital from where he was referred to the DMC, Ludhiana. According to police sources, Bhagwant Kishore had been running a ration depot in the shop at Garhdiwala town since long. Dr Mohan Lal Thaman, along with his sons Ajay and Rinku, went to the shop and told Bhagwant that they had purchased the shop and had now become the owner. They asked him to vacate the shop. After exchanging of hot words, one of them opened fire on Bhagwant Kishore with a licensed revolver as a result of which one bullet hit his abdomen. The Garhdiwala police has registered a case under relevant sections of the IPC and the Arms Act against the father and sons. — OC
	Abducted minor girl rescued, 4 held Our Correspondent Nawanshahr, August 4 The police has rescued an abducted minor girl and arrested four persons, Harmesh Lal, his parents Sohan Lal and Guraksh Kaur of Pandori Ganga Singh village in Hoshiarpur district and Darshan of Pandva village, near Phagwara, under sections 363, 366 A, 342, 376, 419 and 120 B of the IPC. The SSP, Narinder Bhargav, in a press note issued here today said a case was registered at Behram police station on the basis of a complaint lodged by Krishna, mother of the victim and resident of Bhaura village. A special investigation team, comprising DSP (HQ), Banga, Jagdip Singh Sidhu, Behram SHO Purshottam Lal and Mehli chowki in charge Raman Kumar, was constituted, which with the help of the complainant and the call details of the accused succeeded in tracing them. The police party, accompanied by Krishna, put up a naka near Beer Aranal village on Wednesday and when the police party intercepted a scooter coming from Munna-Pharala link road, a newlywed girl riding pillion on the scooter, recognised her mother Krishna and started crying. The police party nabbed Harmesh Lal. In her statement, the victim, Parvinder Kaur, stated that on June 26, she had gone to her aunt residing at Kultham Colony for paying obeisance at the Mandali shrine during a religious mela there. Harmesh Lal, alias Meshi, met her there and proposed her for marriage, but she clearly stated that she was a minor and he should talk to her parents if he wanted to marry her. On July 6, Harmesh came to Kultham Colony and on the pretext that his parents had been holding talks with her parents about the marriage and they wanted to know her mind about it, he took her on a scooter to his village, where he kept her in a room. He started threatening her as well as persuading her to marry him in connivance with his parents. Though she had repeatedly told them that she was a minor, but they did not relent and got the wedding cards printed and solemnised the marriage by showing her as the daughter of Darshan of Pandva village. Even, Harmesh repeatedly molested her against her wish. On the basis of the statement of the victim, the police included sections 342, 376, 419 and 120 B of the IPC in the case already registered at Behram police station and arrested the parents of Harmesh and the fake father of the victim, added the SSP.
	Lover couple consume poison Amritsar, August 4 A lover couple allegedly committed suicide by consuming poison at a hotel in the Rayya township here. The couple was rushed to a private hospital here, where the boy, identified as Simranjit Singh of the Tarn Taran area, was declared dead, while the condition of the girl, Pawan of Batala, is stated to be critical. The Beas police initiated the proceedings under section 174 of the CrPC and handed over the body to the boy’s family after post-mortem examination. According to details, the two rented a room in a hotel situated on the GT Road by identifying themselves as Amarjit Singh and Sukhjeet Kaur from Jalandhar. They declared themselves as husband and wife to the hotel manager before taking the room. However, in the evening when a waiter went to the room for serving dinner, he found them unconscious. He immediately raised an alarm and both were rushed to the hospital. — TNS
	Jalandhar, Amritsar MCs chosen for pilot project Deepkamal Kaur Tribune News Service Jalandhar, August 4 The Municipal Corporation, Jalandhar, will soon be able to measure the exact amount of water daily flowing out of each of its 359 tubewells installed across the city. The MC is in the process of attaching digital flowmeters with all its tubewells at a cost of Rs 1.84 crore. Till date the officials did not have any mechanism for measuring the exact amount of drinking water it was supplying per day in the city. In fact, the officials were simply relying on guess work using statistics such as power of the motor installed and duration for which it had been switched on in the day. This new project is a part of the Information System Improvement Planning Scheme sponsored by the Ministry of Urban Development. The MCs of Jalandhar and Amritsar, which have been chosen by the ministry for the pilot project, will get a total amount of Rs 3.5 crore each for the purpose. The ministry has also called for a door-to-door survey to count the total number of households covered for drinking water and sewage purposes. It will also assess the characteristic of the solid water in the city. An amount of Rs 42 lakh under the scheme has come for this purpose. Yet another amount of Rs 65 lakh will be spent on survey of the low-lying areas, drainage problems, water logging and their solutions in detail. The MCs will also select a colony for survey of leakage of waterpipes by installing metres in each house and assessing the water loss. A Rs 20 lakh in the grant is also meant to find reasons for inequitable pressure of water being supplied in some areas. The scheme has also called for sampling of water from different areas in three seasons including winter, summer and rainy for testing bacterial or chemical presence. The consultants would also specify the need to install any specific type of filters. An amount of Rs 15 lakh will be spent under this head which also includes upgradation of the MC’s water testing laboratory. SE (O&M) AS Dhariwal said that the pre-bid meeting in this regard would be held tomorrow.
	Garden Of Neglect Social workers launch ‘Save Baradari’ drive Parmod Bharti Nawanshahr, August 4 Fed up with the apathetic attitude of the district administration towards proper upkeep of Baradari Garden, social workers Lalit Mohan Pathak, Raman Kumar Ummat, Ram Parkash Jain and Vijay Kumar Abbi took the initiative to launch a “Save Baradari” drive. They are not only mobilising the like-minded people but also actively participating in the kar seva. The historical Baradari Garden was converted into a recreational park with the efforts of the former MLA Parkash Singh to fulfil the long-cherished dream of the residents. About five years ago, then Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh had laid the foundation stone of the project and then Deputy Commissioner Kishan Kumar had taken personal interest in developing Baradari Garden into a state-of-the-art recreational park. A number of facilities like a walking track equipped with musical lights for enabling people to have the pleasure of morning and evening walks, sprawling lawns having colourful fountains, children park equipped with sea-saws, merry-go-rounds, swings, a library, drinking water and lavatories were provided. Yoga and karate training camps were started in the garden. But afterwards the garden virtually became a picture of neglect. The deplorable condition of lawns, fountains, musical lights and sanitation have become a major concern for the regular visitors. They started making efforts to bring the problem to the notice of the district administration as well as the residents by launching a signature drive. Even some prominent traders have offered to bear the recurring maintenance expenses if permitted to put their advertisement hoardings there. Deputy Commissioner Shruti Singh visited the garden for taking stock of the problem, consequently raising the hope that some concrete steps would be taken but to no avail.