Artistes perfom a play, Canada Ke Nazare, during the Classic Theatre Festivel in Amritsar on Thursday. Tribune Photo

6 booked in dowry cases
Amritsar, February 21
Six persons have been booked in two separate dowry cases registered in the city in past 24 hours. Monika, a resident of Kartar Nagar, Chheharta, lodged a complaint with the police that she was harassed by her in-laws for bringing insufficient dowry. She alleged that they took her daughter from her and thrown her out of the house.

5 yrs on, cheaters roaming free
Amritsar, February 21
For the last five years Harjit Singh, a resident of Mohan Avenue, Fatehgarh Churian Road, has been running from pillar to post to seek action against three accused, who had fraudulently withdrawn money to the tune of Rs 3.50 lakh from his account.

Imposter arrested
Phagwara, February 21
After four days, the Phagwara police arrested a cheater, identified as Pyara Lal of Kalas Kalan village under Section 376/ 420/ 406/ 120B of IPC. The accused had posed as Pinder Singh Sodhi alias Gurpreet Randhawa of Bodal village, District Hoshiarpur.

Amritsar, February 21
A 13-year-old boy from Bihar, allegedly working as a bonded labour at Bandala village, near Jandiala, was rescued by the police yesterday after the boy managed to make a call to his parents around four days ago.

With former Health Minister Laxmi Kanta Chawla taking up the matter with the senior police officials a case against three persons was registered today.

Krishan Lal Sharma, general secretary of the Transport Cell of the BJP said the boy, Sunil Kumar, had contacted his family in Partapgarh, Bihar, four days ago. After which Sunil's uncle Shakal Dev contacted him and supplied the number to police officials, who helped in tracing Sunil, who was missing from his home for the past four months.

Krishan Lal Sharma said the boy was sold to a local farmer Manjinder Singh for Rs 20,000, by a middleman. He said the police had recovered another child from the farmer's house.

He alleged that policemen at the Jandiala police station, though recovered the child, but failed to take any action against the culprits.

In a press conference here today, Laxmi Kanta Chawla said the elements involved in supplying children for bonded labour should be unidentified. She said more such children were expected to be working as bonded labour in state and as such it became even more necessary to pull a stop to the practice.

Meanwhile, SSP (Rural) Preet Paul Singh Virk said a case under Sections 363 and 374 of the IPC was registered against two persons. He said while family members of Sunil have taken him along, the police would recover the other child.

Amritsar, February 21
The police has booked Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) Sukhchain Singh on the charges of dereliction in duty in the incident of escaping of an undertrial from court premises yesterday.

He was leading the police party, which was deputed to take the escaped undertrial, Gurnam Singh, a resident of Patti Baba Jiwan Singh, Sultanwind village, to the court of Additional Sessions Judge KK Goyal. After producing the undertrial in the court for hearing, head constable Jaspal Singh, though handcuffed him, but did not hold the second end. Taking advantage of the rush, Gurnam Singh dodged the policeman and slipped out of the court premises.

The police has registered a case under Sections 223 and 224 of the IPC against ASI Sukhchain Singh and head constable Jaspal Singh at the Civil Lines police station. They were later released on bail. They have been suspended with immediate effect.

Gurnam Singh was arrested by the Lopoke police in 2010 in connection with a robbery. He was wanted in a couple of similar cases.

Earlier, too, three prisoners had escaped while they were being brought back after a hearing in Hoshiarpur. They had dodged the police party and fled away near Jandiala. Two of them were yet to be arrested.

Preet Paul Singh Virk, SSP, Amritsar (Rural), said though the police teams taking the prisoners to courts for hearing were briefed in the morning telling them about what precautions to be taken, but the incident occurred when they became negligent and this could not be tolerated.

Amritsar, February 21
With a view to spread the message of Sikh ethics and address the issues pertaining to the community, a coordination committee of various Sikh organisations held a meeting at Guru Nanak Bhawan today.

The committee, named as Panthak Talmel Sangathan (PTS), has also announced to launch its webside p.t.s.chandigarh.org, on which the masses would be able to upload their views.

A conference, "Awaaz-e-Panth", was also organised on the occasion. Former Jathedar of Akal Takh Giani Kewal Singh, while delivering keynote address, highlighted the various challenges faced by the Sikh community.

Another Sikh intellectual Harsimran Singh, while giving the historic significance of Akal Takht, said the Sikh community should come under one banner to spread the Sikh ethics and philosophy among the community.

Karamjit Singh stressed that various Sikh organisations should shun their differences and come forward for strengthening the community.

Others who spoke on the occasion included former secretary, SGPC, Gurbachan Singh Bachan, former SGPC member Amarinder Singh, US-based doctor Swaraj Singh and Hardeep Singh.

Amritsar, February 21
The Health Department has sanctioned a project costing Rs 31 lakh for the renovation of the building of the Jallianwala Bagh Martyrs Memorial (JBMM) Civil Hospital here.

Senior Medical Officer Dr Balbir Singh Dhillon said the renovation would include whitewash and installing sanitary fittings in the washrooms, besides other necessary things.

Dhillon said that renovation process would be started in the next few days. He said the renovation would help in the restoration of building, besides better services for the general public.

The hospital building was constructed in 2001. With time the fittings in the washrooms had gone missing thus creating problems to the visitors. Dr Dhillon said the work would be completed at the earliest.

Amritsar, February 21
The crisis for the general public deepened on the second day of the nationwide strike by trade unions as most of the ATMs ran out of cash. With the banking sector employees participating in the strike, there was no one to supply cash to these machines.

Most of the banks had notices, explaining the reasons and motives behind the strike, pasted on their entrance gates and remained closed.

The rail and road transportation had already been hit with employees of these sectors actively participating in the protest.

However, no wider impact on the life and business of the general public was witnessed. Satpal Singh, a shopkeeper said, "The banking transactions have been halted and people are finding it difficult to take out money from ATMs." He said he had a hard time looking for a machine, which could dispense cash.

But still the people had the option of availing themselves of the Internet banking services to meet their emergency needs. Residents complained that most of the machines had run out of cash late last night and those left with cash, exhausted today.

The employees at the telephone exchange and post offices, too, observed strike. Though the departments tried to continue with the basic and emergency services, but general public complained of lesser keenness on the part of employees to do the job. The employees also held gate rallies at their respective offices.

Even at the bus stand, government-owned buses were seen parked on a side. As a result the private transporters had a good business day. "The rush in buses increased. Even people have to wait for a while before they get a vehicle for their destination," said Rajeev Bhalla, a commuter.

Amritsar, February 21
For the last five years Harjit Singh, a resident of Mohan Avenue, Fatehgarh Churian Road, has been running from pillar to post to seek action against three accused, who had fraudulently withdrawn money to the tune of Rs 3.50 lakh from his account.

A case under Sections 380, 420, 467, 468, 471 and 120-B were registered in January 2009. But the police department has failed to nab the culprits, who have been roaming free in the city. This has raised questions on the functioning of the police officials.

The FIR clearly mentioned that the three accused, identified as Sandeep Mahajan, Anil Kumar and Sanjay, had stolen cheques belonging to complainant Singh and forged his signatures to withdraw the amount on different dates.

The District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum had also directed the concerned bank to refund the amount, along with the nine per cent interest, besides paying Rs 2,000 as litigation fee. It pointed out that it was the first and the foremost duty of the bank officials to correctly compare the signatures available with the bank. The forum found that the forged signatures on all the 13 cheques did not match the complainant’s specimen signatures.

While detailing, it said the CCTV footage of the bank revealed that the amount was withdrawn through the said cheques by the accused. The footage also disclosed that Sanjay’s brother Sahil had accompanied Anil Kumar who withdrew money through 12 cheques from Singh’s account.

“First I made rounds of the police station for registration of the case, which was registered in June 2009, six months after the incident. Then the accused managed to secure bail from Punjab and Haryana High Court. Now they are not arresting the accused due to reasons best known to them,” said a dejected Singh. He alleged his repeated requests to police officials fell on deaf ears.

Ram Singh, Police Commissioner, said as it was an old case, he did not remember the exact details. But he added he would check the file and do the needful for providing justice to the complainant. 

Phagwara, February 21
After four days, the Phagwara police arrested a cheater, identified as Pyara Lal of Kalas Kalan village under Section 376/ 420/ 406/ 120B of IPC. The accused had posed as Pinder Singh Sodhi alias Gurpreet Randhawa of Bodal village, District Hoshiarpur.

The accused and his three accomplices, including Manjit Singh, Kuldip Kaur and Ajay Kumar, were booked by the police on February 15, on the charges of bigamy and sexual exploitation of a woman Baljinder Kaur of Bham (Mahalpur) village, whom the accused married on December 16, 2011.

The victim had alleged in her written complaint that the accused, who had also posed as an enquiry officer of the State Bank of India, was already married but hid the truth and married the victim. She alleged she was sexually abused by the accused and his friends for a long period.

The victim disclosed that the accused asked her to accompany him to Ludhiana on a motor cycle on February 9 and abandoned her near the Phillaur bus stand, saying that he had to withdraw money from a bank ATM, but never returned back. She had said the accused took away her purse containing her ATM card, having more than Rs 40,000, gold ornaments weighing 25 gm and her passport.

She alleged the accused had also duped her relatives of lakhs of rupees on the pretext of sending them abroad.

SP Phagwara, HPS Khakh said the police, after detailed investigations, solved the case and arrested the accused.

Amritsar, February 21
Guru Nanak Dev University won the All-India Inter-University Kho-Kho (Women) Championship here today, by defeating Calicut University with 9-7 points. Mumbai University defeated Kerala University with 9-8 points and finished third.

Prof Rajinderjit Kaur Pawar, Dean, Academic Affairs, presided over and gave away the certificates and trophies to the winners. Dr UN Kendre, observer from the Association of Indian Universities (AIU), New Delhi, Dr Sakeer Hussain, Director of Sports from Calicut University and Dr HS Randhawa, Deputy Director of Sports, was also present. — TNS

Phagwara, February 21
Three migrant labourers belonging to Dhanbad of Jharkhand, identified as Devi Narayan, Surjit and Mani Ram, were killed on the spot while two others, Vishnu and Anil, sustained serious injuries when a tractor-trolley, on which they were transporting electric polls of Powercom Department, turned turtle.

The driver reportedly lost control due to overloading near a canal bridge at Zandiala-Manjki, yesterday. The injured were admitted to a nearby hospital. Some other labourers also sustained minor injuries. —OC

The NSS Unit I of the Law Department and NSS Unit II of Guru Nanak Dev University, in association with blood bank of Guru Nanak Dev Hospital, organised a blood donation camp at the student’s centre of the university today. During the camp, nearly 150 students donated the blood and 350 students registered themselves for Blood Donors' Directory.

Dr Rajinderjit Pawar, Dean, Academic Affairs, inaugurated the camp and appreciated the services of the students, carried out throughout the year under the guidance of Prof Jaspal Singh and Dr Bimal Deep Singh. Programme officers Dr PK Sehajpal, Dean, Students Welfare, encouraged the students to take part in such voluntary activities in the future also.

Dr Rattan Singh, Head, Law Department, Dr Neeraj Sharma Ravi Kant from Guru Nanak Dev Hospital blood bank, Dr Ravinder Pal Singh and other faculty members, staff and research scholars of various departments were also present at the bank.

Dr Jaspal Singh, professor and programme officer, NSS, Department of Laws said the objective of the camp was to prepare a Blood Donors' Directory of the campus students and employees. By doing so, precious lives of needy patients could be saved, he added.