Jalandhar, February 1
Sleuths of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) of the Income Tax (I-T) Department raided over six business houses in Rama Mandi, Hoshiarpur Adda and Sarafa Bazar here today.

Teams of the ED comprising officers of Ludhiana, Amritsar and Chandiagarh raided the premises of the business houses to investigate financial irregularities by their proprietors.

The sleuths conducted searches on the premises of money exchangers, some traders on Tanda Road and jewellers in Sarafa bazaar.

A showroom of money exchanger Western Union located at Hoshiarpur Adda was said to be under scanner of the department for the past couple of years.

Though members of the ED team avoided media queries, sources said the money exchanger was also confronted with members of the raiding team.

Sources also revealed that the trading activities of the business houses, where raids were conducted, were under the scanner of the ED for filing the income tax returns and depositing income tax in advance much less than the financial transactions of their business.

The ED sleuths are also said to have seized some important documents from the concerned premises. The raids were on till the filing of the report.

Jalandhar, February 1
More complaints have popped up against a fake IAS officer impersonating as a director of the Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan, Delhi, who had duped a number of Doaba residents by promising them government jobs in the district.

Over six more victims today lodged their complaints at the Kartarpur police station, alleging that the “officer” had taken lakhs of rupees from them for providing them government jobs.

The victims who came forward with similar complaints included Gursharan Kaur, Anu, Harvinder Kaur, Manjinder Singh, Maneesh, Amandeep Singh and certain others. They complained that the impersonators duped them between Rs 25,000 and Rs 2 lakh, station house officer, Adampur, Malkiat Singh revealed.

The Adampur police had recently arrested Sikander Singh, a resident of Boor Majra near Morinda, for impersonating as director of the Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan and duped scores of youths of crores. The police had also recovered an Ambassador car, a red beacon and certain documents relating to the accused.

A case under Sections 420 and 120-B of the IPC was also registered against him.

The police had earlier received complaints from seven victims, Rajinder Singh of Bhogpur, Harjinder Singh of Kan Araiyan, Varinder Singh of Dasuya, Inderjit of Bhogpur, Jasvir Singh of Jalandhar and Harish of Lesdiwal village, against the fake IAS officer and his gang.

The impersonator had been attracting youths by publishing advertisements in newspapers. He had also set up his office at Mohali, where he used to finalise all deals.

Jalandhar, February 1
Three friends allegedly killed their fourth associate and dumped his body in a pond at Daroli Khurd village in Adampur. The murder, which occurred on January 5, came to light last night after the police arrested the trio on the suspicion of the victim’s mother. During questioning, they admitted to have committed the crime.

The police had rounded up Avtar Chand, alias Mattru, Gurjit Singh and Sandeep Singh on the complaint of Gurmit Kaur, mother of Ravi, the deceased.

In her complaint, Gurmit Kaur had alleged that her son, who used to accompany the trio for a long time, suddenly disappeared on January 5. The family launched a search for him but to no avail. She, in her complaint, named the three youths of the village for her son’s disappearance.

Acting on the complaint, the police rounded them up and during interrogation, the three confessed to have dumped Ravi’s body in the village well after killing him.

On their identification, the mutilated body was taken out of the well in the presence of the area tehsildar and was sent to the local Civil Hospital for post mortem.

Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Parminder Singh said the friends were addicted to drugs and their families had been accusing each other for this. To get rid of the daily fighting among the families, the trio plotted Ravi’s murder and dumped his body in the village pond in an effort to destroy the evidence, he added.

The body was handed over to the family this evening and a case of murder was registered against the three in this regard.

Fact file
The murder, which occurred on January 5, came to light last night after the police arrested the three youths on the suspicion of the victim’s mother. During questioning, they admitted to having committed the crime.

Jalandhar, February 1
Contrary to the tall claims of the government to provide speedy justice to NRIs, the NRI wing of the Punjab Police failed to file a charge-sheet in the court even after 15 months of registration of a fraud case.

An FIR was registered against a Ludhiana resident Neelam Sharma and two employees of UCO Bank, Ajit Kumar and DP Bansal, on the complaint of Shivji Kumar, a citizen of Holland, on August 1, 2011.

NRI Shivji Kumar, hailing from Ludhiana, submitted a complaint with the Ludhiana police in 2007 and the police took four years to register the FIR at the Dareshi police station. Later, the case was transferred to the NRI police station, Ludhiana, about a year ago.

Shivji Kumar said he had been coming from Holland every time and now for getting justice but to no avail so far.

Showing his passport, he said “Recently, I came to India for my case on August 28, 2012 and remained here for nearly two months before leaving for Holland on October 15. Again I had to come to India on December 18, but still the charge-sheet had not been presented in the court so far.”

He further said “I had booked a ticket for Holland on February 6 but probably I would have to cancel it due to dilly-dallying tactics of the departments concerned.”

When contacted, nodal officer of the NRI wing IG Gurpreet Deo said the delay in filing the charge-sheet was not deliberated and she attributed the same to the system.

Elaborating, she said “The case remained with the police for about six months after registration of the FIR. Subsequently, a specimen of Shivji’s handwriting was sent to calligraphists at the forensic science laboratory (FSL) in Mohali but they took three months to send a report demanding a specimen of his old handwriting and the same has now been sent again.”

It is stated in the FIR that NRI Shivji Kumar’s sister-in-law Neelam Sharma had withdrawn money from five FDs of his mother Leelawanti, after her death, by doing his fake signatures in connivance with the officials of UCO Bank. He alleged that she had also committed a fraud. She had transferred a plot at Haibowal in her name by giving a wrong affidavit to officials of the revenue department.

Jalandhar, February 1
Members of the Unemployed Linemen Union burnt an effigy of the Punjab Government outside the district administrative complex (DAC) here in support of their demands today.

Addressing the protesters, district president of the union Paramjit Gumtali said while the state government had made tall claims of providing various facilities to women and children, it had put behind bars a number of women along with small children as they had demanded jobs for their unemployed husbands.

Demanding the immediate release of the women and the children, Gumtali threatened to intensify their stir if they were not released soon. He said a strong protest would be held at PSPCL headquarters in Patiala on February 4 if they were not released by then.

The protesters also demanded that the unemployed linemen should be provided jobs at the earliest. They also raised slogans against the Parkash Singh Badal-led SAD-BJP government.

Jalandhar, February 1
Police DAV Public School organised a farewell party for its students of Class XII.

On the occasion, students presented a modelling show. The function was a potpourri of songs dances, band, poetry etc. Head girl of the school Somali Vij presented a speech and the vote of thanks was given by head boy Ekam. Students were also awarded for punctuality and regularity. A special award was given to Prabhjot Singh for honesty.

Principal of the school Dr Rashmi Vij exhorted the students to always follow the righteous path. She gave away various awards to the students.

Titles were: Mr Police DAV: Prajwa, Miss Police DAV: Somali Vij, 1st Runner Up : Guneet and Aanadita, 2nd Runner Up: Ekam and Rajandeep, 3rd Runner Up: Dhruv and Loveleen, Mr Smart: Rohit ,Miss Smart: Priya, Mr Well Dressed: Anit, Miss Well Dressed: Smedha, Mr Popular: Ekam, Miss Popular: Loveleen, Mr Stylish: Divyansh, Miss Stylish: Ashima, Apple of Principal's Eye: Anuj Vij.

Jalandhar, February 1
Punjab National Bank (PNB) reported a 13.5 per cent increase in net profit to Rs 1,306 crore as compare from Rs 1,150 crore a year ago. The cash deposits was Rs 1,40,000 crore in the quarter that ended in December, 2012.

In this period, the total business of the bank rose to Rs 6,83,098 crore against Rs 6,19,122 crores in December, 2011 witnessing a 10.3 per cent growth, claimed PNB deputy general manager (Jalandhar circle) Dr Rajesh Yaduvanshi.

Highlighting the performance of the bank during the quarter, Yaduvanshi said credit to the micro, small and medium enterprises sector witnessed a 6.94 per cent hike. The return on assets was above 1 per cent while CASA ratio in the domestic deposits witnessed a 38.44 per cent hike. He said the number of PNB branches in the country had increased to 5,788.

Amritsar, February 1
The Punjabi cinema is flourishing and that means there is a room for everybody who wants to be a part of its success story. With every Punjabi film introducing yet another new star in the already shining industry, singer- turned-actor KS Makhan hopes that he will find his space soon.

Already making an attempt in the direction, the star singer made a debut as a bad guy in the recently released ‘Pinky Moge Wali’ starring Neeru Bajwa and Gavie Chahal. Ready with another shot at impressing the audience with his upcoming film Sajjan, Makhan will be seen in a romantic avatar this time.

“I got appreciation for my villainous act in ‘Pinky Moge Wali’ and it encouraged me to take up a few more film projects. Sajjan will be my first lead role,” shared Makhan, who was in Amritsar on Friday.

Promoting and praying for his film’s success at box office, Makhan, along with actor Harry, paid obeisance at Golden Temple. Just one film old, ask him if he thinks himself to be another addition to the singer-turned-actor list in Pollywood and he says, “I am a singer who found the actor in myself and is trying to make it big. ‘Pinky Moge Wali’ was my diploma in acting field and it became easy for me to act in Sajjan. Now, I can act alongside any actor of the Punjabi film industry.”

The film, he says, is a romantic drama with Sanvi Dhiman as the female lead and Dalip Tahil, Simran Sachdeva, Mani Kapoor and others. The singer, who is a known name in the world Bhangra music has enjoyed being the bad boy, be it his songs, his debut film or real life scandals. But in Sajjan, Makhan is happy to turn a hero.

“I have been lucky to get a great production team, which made it easy for me to slip into my character and play a positive character. I hope the audiences will like it,” he says.

Ask him to choose between his villainous act from ‘Pinky Moge Wali’ or a romantic hero of Sajjan, Makhan says, “I think I’d like to be the hero.”

The film releases on February 8, 2013.

Jalandhar, February 1
The city police has found a complaint as false regarding the rape of a minor girl by her father at Dakoha village, falling under the Rama Mandi police station.

According to sources, some persons of Dakoha informed the Rama Mandi police that a man had raped a minor girl. Soon after getting the information, Rama Mandi SHO Bimal Kant reached to verify the facts.

However, the complaint was found to be false. Actually, the man had forbidden the girl from meeting her boyfriend. The police also talked to the girl separately. Later, the girl was sent to her maternal grandparents’ house as her mother had died. — TNS