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Whistle-blower alleges harassment, police probe on
Rich tributes paid to Lala Lajpat Rai
Hearing in murder case of ex-DGP’s father adjourned to Feb 11
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Doc’s wife sets herself ablaze in Hanumangarh
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Whistle-blower alleges harassment, police probe on
Faridkot, January 28 He faced a fake complaint of rape as he did not stop using the right to information (RTI) to expose the malpractices in some private educational institutions in Kotkapura town of Faridkot district. After Vipan Kaushal exposed how these educational institutions were preparing fake salary statements and submitting bogus records to government departments to avoid their financial liabilities, the education department cancelled the affiliation of some of these institutions. But in retaliation, a fake rape complaint was made against the whistleblower. "With the help of RTI, I had exposed a huge scandal wherein some private educational institutions were preparing fake salary statements and violating rules and regulations in payment of salaries to the teachers. After this, a high-level inquiry was started some time back," said Vipan Kaushal. Following the inquiry, an institution was slapped with fine and penalties and its affiliation was cancelled and it was closed. "But after some days, I started getting threats of being bumped off or framed in long-winding cases," recounted Kaushal. Some time later, the Kotkapura police received a complaint of rape against Kaushal. Police investigations found the allegation to be false. But the woman filed a complaint in the court of the chief judicial magistrate, Faridkot. After Kaushal went through one year of ordeal, the woman vanished and never appeared before the court. The complaint was dismissed. But his problems did not end. Kaushal was now booked for forgery, defamation and even possessing illegal weapons. The complainant was the institution that was closed after Kaushal exposed its wrong doings. In the original complaint to the police, the owner of the educational institution had demanded legal action against him for defamation but after the alleged tampering of the complaint, the police booked him for forgery, defamation and possessing illegal weapons. Now, after Kaushal approached the Punjab and Haryana High Court, demanding an inquiry into the tampering of the official record, the High Court has asked the Faridkot police to investigate the matter.
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Rich tributes paid to Lala Lajpat Rai
Abohar, January 28 Sikka recalled that Lala Lajpat Rai had addressed a rally in the grain market here near the Imperial Bank to nominate young Congress worker Chandi Ram Verma as the state organiser for the freedom struggle. President, Punjabi Sabhyachar Manch, Gurcharan Singh Gill regretted that the local Municipal Council had not been able to ensure the maintenance of the park that has a bronze statue of Lala Lajpat Rai. The gathering hoped that the civic body would take note of the great freedom fighter’s statue and maintain the park properly. |
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Hearing in murder case of ex-DGP’s father adjourned to Feb 11
Moga, January 28 Defence counsel Ramesh Grover said the evidences of the prosecution and the defence were completed in 2011 and the final arguments were being awaited. The Moga police had reopened the case when Gill was the DGP of the state and arrested an Indian-born Canadian citizen, Jagdev Singh, in the case. However, the high court gave him a blanket bail after a few months of judicial custody because many fresh criminal cases were also registered against him. The DGP's father was murdered in 1991 and an FIR under sections 302, 307, 120 B, 34 of the IPC, sections 25, 54, 59 of the Arms Act and sections 5, 6 of the TADA Act was registered against Jagdev's family members including his mother Pritam Kaur, brother Hardev Singh, sister Paramjit Kaur and three others. Jagdev's name was included in the list of the accused during the course of investigations. However, the Supreme Court had acquitted all his family members from the charge of murder. After the controversial murder, Jagdev left the country and went to the US and then finally settled in Canada where he was given the Canadian citizenship. After coming back to his home country in 2009, he surrendered before a local court. |
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Border farmers allege flow of contaminated water from Pak
Fazilka, January 28 The Pakistani territory begins on the other side of the lake. But the land under water falls into the Indian side. “The inflow of polluted water from Pakistan has started damaging the crops on the Indian side. Our land has started turning barren,” said Dr Jeet Singh and Babir Singh, local farmers. There was a wetland in shape of a lake adjacent to the JCP. Due to persistent inflow of polluted water, sub-soil water in the Indian side has become brackish, rendering it unfit for irrigation. Local farmers, including Balwant Singh, Sukhdev Singh, Jeet Singh, Baljeet Singh, Manjeet Singh, Balbir Singh and others whose land is situated near the Sadiqi JCP, recently raised the issue with officials of the BSF. They urged the Central Government to work out a solution to save their land. Officiating Deputy Inspector General (DIG), BSF, Ram Sewak said: “The natural flow of water cannot be plugged. But we have written to the higher authorities to find out some solution”. He, however, suggested the farmers to raise a bundh to stop the contaminated water from entering into their fields. |
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Doc’s wife sets herself ablaze in Hanumangarh
Abohar, January 28 As per the available information, she reportedly went to the servant’s quarter in her bungalow today in the afternoon, poured kerosene on her body and set herself ablaze. The doctor and his staff rushed from the main hospital block located on the Rawatsar road but had little time to control the fire that had gutted some trees in the lawn. Circle police officer Sanjay Bothra who reached the hospital, said the postmortem has been conducted by a medical board at the Civil Hospital. The police has initiated inquest proceedings under section 174 of the CrPC. The incident has sent shock waves in the medical fraternity and also among the residents here. Meanwhile, two youths, who were to get married this week, were found dead at different locations in neighbouring Sriganganagar. Manoj Jat (25) of Meghna village was found dead near Rajasthan canal. The police spotted an empty bottle of insecticide near the body. The body of another youth, identified as Gurpreet Singh of village Mattdadu (Dabwali) has been recovered from the same canal. His marriage had been fixed for February 1. |
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Another honour for state’s ‘Kinnow Queen’
Abohar, January 28 In 2002, she had created the national record with 132.25 tonnes of yield per hectare. On an average, a tree in her orchard yields 4,000 kinnows. Karamjit was honoured as the ‘Best kinnow grower of Punjab’ during the silver jubilee function of the National Research Centre for Citrus at Nagpur in February last year. She was earlier honoured for growing the best citrus fruit and excellent maintenance of her orchard at the annual citrus show organised by the Punjab Horticulture Department. Coming from an agriculturist family, she has been into horticulture since she was young. In November last, she received the Champion Women Farmers award during a national conference at the Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana. Karamjit and the second recipient of the same award, Krishna Yadav from Delhi, have become success stories for their exemplary work as farmers. Even at the age of 55, Karamjit works for about 10 hours in the fields. The reason behind her success has been that she has been attaining agricultural knowledge through conferences at universities. For instance, she learnt that appropriate amount of water is essential for maximum yield of kinnow, as excess or less water affects the yield. Farming for the last 34 years, she says experience and knowledge have helped her. “I treat trees and plants like my children and raise them lovingly. I use seeds and saplings from my own nursery,” she says.
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