B A T H I N D A    E D I T I O N

Murder case of ex-DGP Gill’s father
Canadian citizen pleads not guilty, next hearing on May 2
Moga, April 26
India-born Canadian citizen Jagdev Singh Gill, who is accused of killing a former Congress MLA Nachattar Singh Gill, the father of former DGP Paramdip Singh Gill, has submitted 14-page arguments in his defence through his counsel Ramesh Grover before the District and Sessions' Judge Karamjit Singh Kang in Moga on Thursday.

Repairs of Gang Canal likely to miss target
Abohar, April 26
The Irrigation Department may not be able to meet the target for cleaning and repair of Gang (Bikaner) Canal by the scheduled date of April 28, chairman of the Project Committee Shameer Singh regretted.

Villagers block road
Bathinda, April 26
A large number of residents of Atla Kalan village blocked the Mansa -Patiala road for a couple of hours today. They were seeking an FIR against a suspect in the death case of a shopkeeper. The shopkeeper was found hanging from a ceiling fan of his house in the village earlier in the day.

Five held with fake currency of Rs 1.25 lakh
Muktsar, April 26
The district police claimed to have busted a fake currency racket with the arrest of five persons today. The police has also seized counterfeit currency of Rs 1.25 lakh. Currency notes in the denominations of Rs 100 and 500 were recovered from them.

More stolen mobile phones recovered
Muktsar, April 26
The district police today claimed to have arrested a kingpin of a gang dealing in stolen mobile phones and laptops. Gurinderjit Singh, SP (D), Muktsar, said Bhushan Kumar Jolly had been arrested and was produced before a local court, which remanded him in one-day police custody.

Guruharsahai MC limits extended
Ferozepur, April 26
The state government has approved the proposal to expand the limits of the Guruharsahai Municipal Council and include three more villages under its jurisdiction. While giving the details about the decision, senior SAD leader Vardev Singh Mann said earlier, the MC had passed the Resolution No 360 (dated 25/09/2012) to exhort the state government for the expansion of its limits.

Murder case of ex-DGP Gill’s father
Canadian citizen pleads not guilty,
next hearing on May 2
Kulwinder Sandhu
Tribune News Service

Moga, April 26
India-born Canadian citizen Jagdev Singh Gill, who is accused of killing a former Congress MLA Nachattar Singh Gill, the father of former DGP Paramdip Singh Gill, has submitted 14-page arguments in his defence through his counsel Ramesh Grover before the District and Sessions' Judge Karamjit Singh Kang in Moga on Thursday.

While pleading innocence, Jagdev alleged that he was implicated in the case by the former DGP who also influenced his power to produce fresh evidences against him.

The defence counsel, Ramesh Grover, argued that the police had submitted the challan against his client on the same set of evidences as produced in the Apex Court, which has already acquitted all other persons including his family members.

Grover stated that the fresh evidences produced in the supplementary challans were not reliable to be considered by the court while pronouncing the orders because the former DGP allegedly influenced his power in the investigation process. "Unfortunately, the police in the present case acted like a private force," he argued.

He told the court that his client was repeatedly harassed by the local police at the behest of the ex-DGP by registering three separate cases of fraud and theft. Jagdev has been acquitted in two cases while one case was pending in a local court.

Grover alleged that the key witness, Balkar Singh, son of Jeon Singh and resident of Moga, was a known criminal of the area and his name figured in the list of 'bad characters' in the police records.

Grover argued that Balkar was influenced upon by the then DGP to give a statement against Jagdev, which was quite evident from the fact that he visited his office 17 times after he took over the office.

Grover said five weeks after Balkar recorded his statement in the court, on June 21, 2010, the then SHO of the police station (South) Ram Singh recommended to the SP (D) to remove his name from the list of 'bad characters'. The next day, the SP (D) ordered to delete Balkar's name.

The District and Sessions' Judge has fixed May 2 as the next date of hearing in this case.

Case History Congress MLA Nachattar Singh Gill was murdered on September 29, 1991. FIR under Sections 302, 307, 120 B, 34 of the IPC, Sections 25, 54 and 59 of the Arms Act and Sections 5 and 6 of the TADA Act was registered against two unknown persons. During investigations, names of Gurjit Singh and Chamkaur Singh were included in the list of accused persons. Later, Gurjit was killed in a police encounter while Chamkaur is still a proclaimed offender. Names of Jagdev Singh Gill, his mother Pritam Kaur, brother Hardev Singh, sister Paramjit Kaur and one Gurtej Singh were booked on the charge of conspiracy. Meanwhile, Jagdev went to Canada and settled there. On December 10, 1998, the Supreme Court acquitted all the family members of Jagdev. Jagdev returned to India in December 2008 and after learning that the case was pending against him, he surrendered before a local court on February 6, 2009. Nachattar Gill's son Paramdip Gill became the DGP of Punjab on July 1, 2009, after which the local police registered three more cases against Jagdev.

Repairs of Gang Canal likely to miss target
Raj Sadosh

Abohar, April 26
The Irrigation Department may not be able to meet the target for cleaning and repair of Gang (Bikaner) Canal by the scheduled date of April 28, chairman of the Project Committee Shameer Singh regretted.

He along with farmers, including Harwinder Singh, Parminder Singh, Rajinder Brar, Darshan Singh, Ram Murthy and Madan Lal Tayal, spoke to The Tribune after inspecting the work from RD 45-86 in Abohar-Fazilka-Ferozepur portion of the canal.

Members of the farmers' monitoring committee said they were not satisfied with the pace and quality of the work carried under the supervision of irrigation authorities in Punjab.

The work is going to cost Rs 4.14 crore to Rajasthan. The work was taken up after suspending water supply on April 9 and is expected to be completed across the inter-state border in Sriganganagar within 40 days.

The cleaning of distributaries originating from the Abohar branch canal is in its final stage now.

Kisan Sangharsh Samiti spokesman Subhash Sehgal said Rajasthan irrigation officials had been asked to camp in Punjab area during the period of cleaning and repairs but they were seen nowhere.

Members of the monitoring committee claimed that owing to acute shortage of gravel and sand, hundreds of tractor-trolleys were found transporting silt that had been removed during the cleaning of the Abohar branch of the canal and the Malukpura distributary. The same is being sold for construction work.

Experts warned that the lintels that were laid using the silt might fall within a year; the shelf life of the plastered walls might not exceed six months even.

Villagers block road
Tribune News Service

Bathinda, April 26
A large number of residents of Atla Kalan village blocked the Mansa -Patiala road for a couple of hours today. They were seeking an FIR against a suspect in the death case of a shopkeeper. The shopkeeper was found hanging from a ceiling fan of his house in the village earlier in the day.

The villagers alleged that he was murdered. They alleged that a woman relative of the deceased was the prime suspect.

The dharna was lifted after the senior police officials assured that proper investigation was being carried into the incident.

Five held with fake currency of Rs 1.25 lakh
Tribune News Service

Muktsar, April 26
The district police claimed to have busted a fake currency racket with the arrest of five persons today. The police has also seized counterfeit currency of Rs 1.25 lakh. Currency notes in the denominations of Rs 100 and 500 were recovered from them.

According to Muktsar SSP Surjeet Singh, the police had received an information about the racket and a raid was conducted at Inakhera village and five persons, including the kingpin of the racket, Gurjant Singh, alias Janta, of Badian village, were arrested.

The other accused have been identified as Balkaran Singh, alias Chhina, of Fatuhikhera village, Tek Singh of Sangria in Rajasthan, Gurdev Singh of Karaiwala village, and Raj Kumar, alias Kala, of Saunke village.

The SSP added, “Gurjant Singh had installed a computer and printer to make the fake currency notes.” The accused were produced before a local court, which sent them to a four-day police custody.

A case under Sections 498-A, 489-B and 489-C of the IPC has been registered against the accused at the Sadar Malout police station.

Meanwhile, the investigation is on and the police is trying to find out the modus operandi of the gang.

The police is trying to crack the network through which they were circulating the fake currency.

More stolen mobile phones recovered
Tribune News Service

Muktsar, April 26
The district police today claimed to have arrested a kingpin of a gang dealing in stolen mobile phones and laptops. Gurinderjit Singh, SP (D), Muktsar, said Bhushan Kumar Jolly had been arrested and was produced before a local court, which remanded him in one-day police custody.

He added that with Jolly’s arrest, three members of the gang had been arrested and 164 stolen mobile phones and eight laptops were recovered from their possession. The total worth of the recovered material is nearly Rs 11.50 lakh.

On April 23, the police had received an information that Bhushan Kumar Jolly, Rishu Kumar and Aman Kumar were involved in the purchase of stolen mobile phones and laptops from Delhi at cheaper rates and sell these at market rates after changing their IMEI numbers.

Thereafter, a raid was carried out on their shop at Rambara Bazar and Rishu Kumar was arrested.

The next day, Aman Kumar was also caught.

Guruharsahai MC limits extended

Ferozepur, April 26
The state government has approved the proposal to expand the limits of the Guruharsahai Municipal Council and include three more villages under its jurisdiction. While giving the details about the decision, senior SAD leader Vardev Singh Mann said earlier, the MC had passed the Resolution No 360 (dated 25/09/2012) to exhort the state government for the expansion of its limits.

Guruharsahai was also accorded the status of a sub-division last year following the creation of Fazilka district.

Mann said as per the proposal approved by the local government department, three villages Guruharsahai, Ariayan Wali and Tibianwalai would be included within the MC limits, which would benefit almost 10,500 people belonging to the area. He said the residents would be able to avail of the basic amenities like water supply and underground sewerage system. — OC