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Shruti Abduction Case: victim, main accused yet to be traced
Justice will be done, claims CM’s adviser
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21 held for illegal mining in Moga
Ranike Case
Woman delivers stillborn, kin allege staff
negligence
Omaxe investors cry foul
Now Inspectors to investigate Vigilance cases
66% homes in Doaba, Majha affected by drug menace
crisIs in Higher education
School staff clash with management, one hurt
Unpaid Power Corp staff strike work
Employees protesting in Patiala. Tribune photo: Rajesh Sachar
Punjab won’t construct Dhingra’s memorial
Infanticide: HC chides police for shoddy probe
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Shruti Abduction Case: victim, main accused yet to be traced
Faridkot, October 18 Heavy police force was deployed around the District Court Complex here as the accused, all aged between 19 and 22 years, were produced in the court. A police official said they feared disturbance by the parents and relatives of a few of the accused who have been claiming that their children were allegedly being framed in the case. The parents have been alleging that the arrests had been made only to show some advancement in the case in view of public outcry against the police's inability to trace the victim and arrested the main accused. The police, however, claimed that most of the accused arrested yesterday had criminal history and were involved in four to five cases. While seeking police remand of the accused in the court, the public prosecutor said argued that they were allegedly part of the conspiracy hatched to abduct the girl. So far, the police has arrested 13 accused, including a 19-year-girl, in the case. Barring three of them, all have criminal history, the police said. A few of them had several times been sent to observation home-cum-reformation centre for juvenile offenders in Faridkot. Rajwinder Singh Ghalli, one of the accused who is 20 years old, is a proclaimed offender in 10 criminal cases, including of murder and attempt to murder, registered in Faridkot, Bathinda and Ferozepur districts. Another accused, Amna Gill (21), is facing five criminal cases, including that of attempt to murder.
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Justice will be done, claims CM’s adviser
Chandigarh, October 18 Maheshinder, however, had no defence for the failure of the police in providing justice to the victim's family. He also admitted that justice had been delayed in the case. He was caught off guard when he said the police had registered a case 24 minutes after Shruti's abduction. When brought to his notice that the police took action after an hour, Maheshinder had no reply. He, however, said "justice would be delivered soon".
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21 held for illegal mining in Moga
Moga, October 18 Senior Superintendent of Police Surjit Singh Grewal said they had launched an operation against the sand mafia engaged in illegal mining on the Sutlej basin. "We have registered more than 50 FIRs in the past couple of weeks," he said. Grewal said illegal mining was going on in villages adjoining Ferozepur district. He said cases had been registered under section 379 of the Indian Penal Code and various sections of the Mines and Minerals (Regulation and Development) Act 1957 in various police stations. Preliminary investigations suggest that the seized trucks were loaded from villages under Zira sub-division of Ferozepur. These villages are located in the area bordering Ferozepur and Moga districts. The ban on mining had led to a spurt in sand prices, which had propelled smuggling of the commodity, the SSP said.
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Ranike Case
Amritsar, October 18 Opinder Singh Ghuman, Senior Superintendent of Police, Vigilance, said the arrested persons had provided their photographs to Sarbhdyal Singh, personal assistant to former minister Gulzar Singh Ranike, for opening fake bank accounts. He said grants had also been also embezzled by opening fake accounts in the name of sports clubs. Surjit Singh, sarpanch of Mianpur village, who was arrested yesterday, had taken Major Singh and Kulwant Singh to Mohit Sareen, an ICICI bank employee, for opening fake accounts. Through these accounts, a sum of about Rs 3 lakh was embezzled.“Darshan Singh, Harjit Singh and Narvail Singh got the funds released in the name of a sports clubs. A sum of Rs 9 lakh released under the Rural Area Development Funds was misappropriated through these clubs,” said Opinder Singh. He said Darshan Singh had told the Vigilance sleuths that of Rs 1 lakh released for his youth club, he had returned Rs 50,000 to Sarabhdyal. Harjit Singh had confessed that he opened a fake account in the name of Jagroop Singh, president, Baba Dola Sports and Cultural Club, by submitting fake documents. He said Narvail had told the sleuths that he had opened a fake account using the name and documents of one Jagjit Singh of Ghannupur village and had received Rs 5 lakh in the name of Baba Gurdev Raj Sports Club. He had returned the money to Sarabhdyal. So far, the VB has arrested 16 persons, 10 in the BADF scam and six in the RADF scam. Among those arrested are three bank employees, four sarpanches and a Block Development and Panchayat Officer. While the probe into the BADF scam is over, the VB is still investigating the RADF scam. Sarabhdyal is believed to have bungled about Rs 2.50 crore in the two scams.
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Woman delivers stillborn, kin allege staff
negligence
Moga, October 18 Protesting against the medical staff's alleged negligence, relatives of the victim, Poonam, have sought action against the health authorities concerned at the hospital. Poonam's husband Naresh Kumar alleged that the victim was left unattended for more than two hours and when a doctor finally came to see her, she was referred to the District Hospital in Moga. Her delivery took place in Moga. The condition of the woman is stated to be
critical. Chief Medical Officer Dr Gulshan Rai said he was not aware about the incident. “I will ask a senior medical officer to hold an inquiry,” he said.
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Omaxe investors cry foul
Ludhiana, October 18 The stakeholders alleged that the developer had failed to bring retail chains and ensure the payment of lease money to the investors. Under the banner of newly formed Omaxe Property Owners and Investors Association (OPOIA), the aggrieved stakeholders alleged the real estate developer indulged in unfair and arbitrary business practices, causing them mental agony and financial loss to the tune of several crore rupees. Sanjiv Sharma, Head, Leasing, Omaxe Limited, said, “We are in the process of sorting out the matter with the investors. I am not in a position to give details over the phone.” On the other hand, the aggrieved stakeholders alleged the company indulged in dubious dealings right from the beginning and did not pay heed to any of their requests. The company had developed the much-hyped Omaxe Plaza on Ferozepur Road, Ludhiana after its launch in 2005. “But this mall is yet to become operational. The company has failed to bring big brands to the mall and our investment of over Rs 50 crore has gone down the drain,” alleged Manpreet Sodhi, an investor from Moga. All the stakeholders claimed that they were given different deadlines for the completion of the construction of the mall. “As promised, the company is yet to bring in big retail brands and an anchor store to the mall. It seems the project was willfully delayed because the company failed to obtain necessary approvals from authorities concerned,” alleged Balwinder Singh Sagar from Chandigarh. In one case, the company started paying the promised assured return on the investment only after an FIR was lodged against it by an investor who happens to be a retired senior police official. However, in other cases it stopped paying the assured return as it was unable to lease the sold spaces to brands in 2010. “We feel cheated as the company got bogus letters of intent from brands for the purpose of leasing the shops in the mall. It imposed arbitrary terms and conditions just to get money from us,” alleged the OPOIA press secretary Ajit
Lakra.
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Business houses surrender
Rs 13 cr
Jalandhar, October 18 The development was a result of a series of surveys conducted yesterday on these medical and business houses, including Chawla Heart Care Centre, Khanna Bartan Bhandar (both in Jalandhar), Jain Ornaments, Jain Jewellers, Moti Jewellers, Munish Jewellers (all in Hoshiarpur), GB Nursing Home and Punjab Scanning and Diagnostic Centre (Phagwara). More than 70 officials were deployed by the Income Tax Commissioner (Jalandhar I and II) Rakesh Suri to conduct the survey on the basis of surveillance and information gathered by department sleuths. “It is perhaps the biggest amount surrendered in Punjab in a single day. The survey was conducted on the basis of long monitoring,” said Suri. An amount of Rs 5.31 crore was surrendered by renowned cardiac surgeon Dr Raman Chawla, owner of Chawla Heart Care Centre in Jalandhar and Max Hospital in Hoshiarpur. The second on the list was Jain Ornaments, with a surrendered amount of Rs 3.5 crore, followed by Moti Jewellers and Munish Jewellers (Rs 1.5 crore), Jain Jewellers (Rs 1 crore), GB Nursing Home (Rs 1 crore) and Punjab Scanning and Diagnostic Centre (Rs 60
lakh).
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Now Inspectors to investigate Vigilance cases
Chandigarh, October 18 Since the department has only 27 DSPs against the sanctioned strength of 37, the police had made a representation to the state government pleading that Inspectors be empowered to probe Vigilance cases. The Prevention of Corruption Act says: "Deputy Superintendent of Police or a police officer of equivalent rank shall investigate any offence punishable under this Act without the order of a Metropolitan Magistrate or a Magistrate (First Class) as the case may be, or make any arrest, without a warrant." It also reads that "if a police officer not below the rank of an Inspector is authorised by the state government by general or special order, he may also investigate any such offence without the order of a Metropolitan Magistrate." The department had been utilising the services of Inspectors for handling vigilance cases till 1988. Suresh Arora, Director-General of Police, Vigilance, said: “We have shortlisted 42 Inspectors from the Vigilance wing who will now be handling cases requiring a probe." This would help the department clear the backlog.The Inspectors will be awarded their new assignment after briefing tomorrow.
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66% homes in Doaba, Majha affected by drug menace
The directorate claims on its website that a household survey in various parts of Punjab saw 68.6 per cent households in the Doaba belt reporting a drug addict in the family. It said the number of households reporting drug addicts in the Majha region was 64.69 per cent. Pradesh Congress legal cell co-chairman Jaiveer Shergill, giving this information to TNS today, claimed that the website had also listed that the use of opium was most rampant in the Majha region. In Doaba, synthetic drugs and pills were favoured. The website said the youth, especially students, were becoming addicted to alcohol, smack, cocaine, opium and over-the-counter drugs like mandrax. The website said a household in Majha had the highest alcohol consumption of 58 per cent and that 30 voluntary organisations were working in the field of ‘drug de-addiction and prevention of alcoholism’. These NGOs were given grants-in-aid by the Social Security Department. Shergill said the government could not shy away from the statistics compiled by its own department. He said despite such alarming reports, the state had taken minuscule measures to address the problem. He said the state had only one 10-bed de-addiction centre per district, two anti-narcotic monitoring cells and only 12 anti-narcotics officers. He said he had suggested to AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi that each Pradesh Congress officer-bearer could be given a specific task for eradicating the menace.
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crisIs in Higher education
Chandigarh, October 18 SS Channy, Principal Secretary, Technical Education, said: “Most colleges have managed excellent infrastructure. However, they do not have good teachers for imparting quality education to students.” The Punjab Government is learnt to have written to the Centre asking it to spell out the qualifications that the teaching faculty must have. As of now, those with a BTech degree are taking classes. Most of them are pursuing MTech through correspondence. Channy said the state government would hold a Joint Entrance Test (JET) for admission to private engineering colleges from the next academic session. B Purushartha, Director, Technical Education and Industrial Training, said that land had been earmarked in Jalandhar for setting up a national teachers' training institute which would start functioning soon. More importantly, the state government had engaged at least 60 engineering colleges for conducting plus two classes for non-medical students.This was expected to help them prepare for admission in the engineering stream. Channy said a number of colleges that had came up more than 15 years ago were doing well in terms of input and output. Among these were DAV Engineering College, Jalandhar, and GNE, Jalandhar. The Chandigarh Group of Colleges had received a grant of Rs 4 crore for designing a programme for academic upgradation as a part of a World Bank project. Satnam Singh Sandhu, chairman, Chandigarh Group of Colleges, said: “Engineering colleges have mushroomed in the state in the past few years. But students are now looking for quality education because placements are to a large extent dependent on classroom teaching. Either deliver or be prepared to shut is clearly the message on the wall." — Concluded
n State govt to hold Joint Entrance Test for admission to private engg colleges from next academic session n For imparting quality education, land earmarked in Jalandhar for a national teachers' training institute n At least 60 colleges engaged for holding plus two classes for non-medical students n This is expected to help them prepare for admission in various engineering disciplines
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School staff clash with management, one hurt
Zira, October 18 The injured driver was taken to Civil Hospital, Zira. No case has been registered. Navkiran Kaur, a teacher in the school, alleged when District Education Officer (Secondary) Naresh Kumari came to the school for inspection, some members of the management tried to influence her. This was opposed by staff members, who along with hundreds of villagers, held a protest. Nachattar Singh, state president, Adarsh Schools Teachers’ Union, alleged that the school management threatened the staff members with arms and sticks. He claimed the management was charging money from students on the pretext of providing them uniform, books and stationery. Nachattar Singh alleged a multi-crore scam in government grants which, he said, needed to be thoroughly probed.
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Unpaid Power Corp staff strike work
Patiala, October 18 The strike call, which reportedly paralysed the functioning of the corporation, was given by the PSEB Employees Joint Forum and the Council of Junior Engineers PSEB. Barring a few, most employees did not go to work. However, the corporation’s management claimed that the strike had no effect on its functioning. Junior engineers also staged protests in Patiala, Sangrur, Barnala, Ropar, Mohali, Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Khanna, Nawanshahr, Hoshiarpur, Kapurthala, Amritsar, Gurdaspur, Tarn Taran, Muktsar, Faridkot, Ferozepur and Roopnagar today. A large number of employees staged a massive dharna near the state headquarters of the power corporation in the morning. Addressing the employees, the forum leaders including Surinder Pehalwan and Karam Chand Bhardwaj said the power corporation management had not disbursed the second installment of 30 per cent of their arrears, which is in the revised pay scale. “The management was deliberately delaying the increase in various allowances of the employees with effect from November 1, 2011,” said Pehalwan. The employees alleged the management was not recruiting despite the fact that workload had been increasing. General secretary of the Council of Junior Engineers, PSEB, Davinder Singh said the management had not taken any initiative to release their arrears, which had been due since May 2012. “Management also failed to revise the pay structure of junior engineers notwithstanding the fact that the state government had revised the pay scales for their counterparts in November 2011,” he said. “The outsourcing of meter reading project to Spanco failed badly and caused huge financial loss to PSPCL but even then the management continues to outsource projects to private contractors,” said Choudhary, president, Council of Junior Engineers PSEB. PSPCL management said the strike by PSEB Employees Joint Forum had been totally unjustified and it had decided to take strict disciplinary action against those who participated in the strike.
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Punjab won’t construct Dhingra’s memorial
Chandigarh, October 18 He stated in the affidavit that in the facts and circumstances of the case, Punjab Government has taken a conscious decision “not to raise memorial in the honour of Shaheed Madan Lal Dhingra at the site of his ancestral house”. The purchaser had demolished the old structure of Dhingra’s ancestral house. Only a vacant plot was available at the site. It was surrounded by double and triple storey houses. As such, it was not viable and feasible to construct a memorial at the site. — TNS
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Infanticide: HC chides police for shoddy probe
Chandigarh, October 18 The High Court also acquitted “father” Madan Lal and his brother Charanjit in the case. Residents of Dhira village in Gurdaspur district, the duo had challenged the Sessions Judge’s verdict dated September 11, 2007, convicting and sentencing them to life imprisonment for murder. The prosecution said that a daughter was born to Madan Lal and Sonia on the night intervening March 31 and April 1, 2006. Soonafter, a beldar in the Irrigation Department, Bal Krishan, told the police that he had seem the body of a newborn floating in stagnant water. Initially, a case was registered against unknown persons. But the mystery unfolded three months later when a “chance witness”, Surjit Pal, named the appellants as accused. Claiming to be in government service, Surjit Pal said on the fateful night he saw accused Madan Lal "throw something into the water" while he was returning home from his dairy farm.Taking up the appeal, Justice Hemant Gupta and Justice Rajiv Narain Raina asserted: “Before connecting the accused with the crime, the least that was expected from the prosecution was the identification of the body by exhuming it in case the child was buried, as is normally done among the Hindus”. The Bench added that other than the statements, there was no evidence that a child indeed was born to Madan Lal and Sonia in March 2006. “There is also no evidence for the court to know as to who cremated or buried the newborn. No DNA matching was done during the investigation. “If the child was buried, the body was not exhumed, nor any steps taken during the course of investigation to determine paternity…. The prosecution gathered no other independent evidence from neighbours or from members of the Gram Sabha to establish on record that in fact a child had been born to Sonia in March 2006”. Speaking for the Bench, Justice Raina asserted: “Unfortunately, no one identified the body of the infant. We can only despair on the shoddy and faulty investigation by the police or its lack of determination to unravel the truth by scientific methods”. Acquitting the two, the Bench added: “There appears to have been abject failure on the part of the investigating police to collect vital link evidence in the present case to establish commission of crime at the hands of the appellants”.
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Moga, October 18
Patiala, October 18
Chandigarh, October 18
Remedial Steps