Hoshiarpur, January 4
The main accused of the sensational double murder case of Purnima Devi (45) and her daughter Dr Rohni Puri (24) was produced before mediapersons along with another accused Rahul Yadav here today.

Rahul Malhan of Guru Teg Bahadur Nagar, Ludhiana, presently residing at Swarg Ashram, Kingsway Parmanand, New Delhi, along with his two accomplices Rahul Yadav of Bhagat Colony, New Delhi, and Mohan Singh Chinka of Sant Nagar, New Delhi, had murdered his aunt Purnima Devi, wife of brick kiln owner Rakesh Mohan Puri, and her daughter Dr Rohni Puri, both of the local Mall Road on September 21, 2010, and later decamped with Rs 20 lakh and gold jewellery.

Malhan was arrested by the Ludhiana police on December 23, 2010, when he, along with his accomplices Raju Pandit and Raman, both of New Delhi, attempted to commit a dacoity and shot dead housewife Darshan Devi at the residence of Raj Kumar Aggarwal of Guru Teg Bahadur Nagar, Ludhiana. Yadav was arrested by the city police on December 25. SSP Rakesh Aggarwal said Malhan was brought here on a production warrant from Ludhiana and both the arrested accused were produced in court, which remanded them in police custody till January 6.

Malhan revealed he used to come to the house of his aunt Purnima Devi at Hoshiarpur and was aware that her husband Rakesh Mohan Puri was financially well-off. About a month before Purnima Devi’s murder, he demanded a loan of Rs 10 lakh from her, but she did not oblige. He later came in contact with Rahul Yadav and Mohan Singh Chinka, with whom he hatched a plot to commit a dacoity at his aunt’s house at Hoshiarpur. The trio purchased two swords from New Delhi on September 20 and reached Hoshiarpur in the morning whre they murdered Purnima Devi and her daughter and decamped withcash and gold jewellery. Later, they went to Chandigarh, where they distributed the loot.

Amritsar, January 4
The Punjab police has envisaged the launch of an e-beat tracking and management system, in order to check crime in four major cities of the state.

Under the system, the beat in charges are being trained and made familiar with the equipment and system, which would be launched in Amritsar, Jalandhar, Ludhiana and Mohali. It would help keep track of the movements of designated beat in charges of particular areas and would facilitate the implementation of law and order in a more efficient manner. The time between the occurrence of a crime and the launch of investigations would also be reduced.

Investigations would now be more high tech with the beat in charges being trained to capture photographs and videos through their mobile sets fitted with high resolution cameras, PS/GPRS systems and internet facility. The pictures, thus captured, would directly be transferred to range control rooms.

Now a beat officer would be able to perform the duty of a hired photographer.

Initially, the system would be launched in four city police stations, including A-division, D-division, Kotwali and Amritsar Cantonment and mobile sets would be given to 20 beat officers, said Deputy Commissioner of Police Amar Singh Chahal. After seeing the results, the system would be implemented in other police stations, he added.

With the system, we can monitor the movements of beat officers - whether they have reached the place of crime on time, how much time they have taken to reach the spot, how much time they have spent at a particular place and all other relevant details. This would get make them more accountable and would make policing more transparent, said the DCP.

Every beat officer would be handed over a Nokia E5 smart phone having QWERTY keypad and a five mega pixel camera to collect photographic evidence.

This would automatically be encrypted, uploaded and tagged to its location. The in-built tracking software in the mobile phone would send its current location to the central server and range control room after every 30 seconds.

Pathankot, January 4
Mohal Lal (40), an employee of the Hindu Cooperative Bank, was crushed to death when a truck hit his motorcycle near Malikpur, about 5 km from here, on the Jammu-Pathankot road today.

According to the police, Mohan Lal was coming to his residence on his motorcycle in the evening.

As he reached near the Malikpur Chowk, a speeding truck reportedly hit his motorcycle from the back, resulting in his death on the spot.

His body was handed over to his family members following a post-mortem examination at the Civil Hospital.

The police has registered a case.