B A T H I N D A    E D I T I O N

6,000 wheat bags go missing, 3 Markfed officials suspended
Faridkot, September 11
After over 6,000 wheat bags, containing about 3 lakh kg of wheat, went missing from a godown of Markfed in Kotkapura town, three officials of the food procurement agency were placed under suspension for dereliction of duty and pilferage of food grain.

4 cops, pharmacist held for allowing prisoners to visit home
Sangrur, September 11
The local police has arrested a Sangrur jail pharmacist and four head constables for arranging home visits for three undertrials on the pretext of taking them to a hospital outside the jail premises. The undertrials would pay Rs 1,000 each to the accused to arrange these home visits.

Harsimrat demands capital punishment for Delhi gang rape accused
Bathinda, September 11
Bathinda MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal today demanded capital punishment for the perpetrators of Delhi gang-rape in order to check the occurrence of such heinous crimes. She said such exemplary punishment was imperative to make the country safe for women.

Three get 10-yr jail for gang rape
Abohar, September 11
Three accused in a gang rape case have been sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment by a court of additional District and Session's judge. The accused include a former village sarpanch's son. The victim, who is a nurse in a private hospital, had lodged her complaint in the Wahabwala police station in the sub-division. She had stated that Rajinder Kumar of Ramsara village had sought her help on July 5, 2011, in the evening saying that his wife was expecting. He allegedly took her to an orchard located on the Bhagu road, where she was raped by Rajinder Kumar, Bansi Lal and Raghubir, son of a former sarpanch. She was allowed to leave the orchard next morning. She approached the police through Pradeep Neol, the present sarpanch of Ramsara village. Neol got her admitted to the Civil Hospital at Abohar. The accused were booked under Sections 376, 506 and 34 of the IPC.

10-yr jail for 5 drug peddlers
Fazilka, September 11
The Additional District and Sessions courts have sentenced five drug peddlers to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment and fined them Rs 1 lakh each in separate cases. Additional District and Sessions Judge HS Dhaliwal fined and sentenced Bhajan Singh, Malkeet Singh and Binder Singh of Fazilka. Meanwhile, the court of JPS Khurmi, Additional District and Sessions Judge, Fazilka, awarded the punishment to Raj Kumar and his son Sunny for drug peddling. They were nabbed carrying intoxicants two years ago.

Red Cross Society donates items to hospital
Fazilka, September 11
The District Red Cross Society provided some necessary items to the local District Hospital during a programme organised in the Civil Surgeon’s office here today. Venus Garg, chairperson, Hospital Welfare Section, handed over a patients' trolley, a wheel chair, 25 bed sheets, 25 sheets for use in operation theatre, four dustbins, four washing wipers and 20 liters of phenyl to hospital staff. — OC

6,000 wheat bags go missing, 3 Markfed officials suspended
Balwant Garg/TNS

Faridkot, September 11
After over 6,000 wheat bags, containing about 3 lakh kg of wheat, went missing from a godown of Markfed in Kotkapura town, three officials of the food procurement agency were placed under suspension for dereliction of duty and pilferage of food grain.

The officials placed under suspension are an inspector rank official, a salesman and a branch in-charge. The stock of wheat was found missing during a physical verification of the stacked bags of the food grain.

While the physical verification of Markfed godown, that has about 70,000 wheat bags, is underway, 6,000 wheat bags have already been found missing from seven of the total 25 inspected stacks of wheat. “Misappropriation of more wheat bags can not be ruled out as the physical verification of the remaining stock will be completed in the next one week,” said Vinod Kumar, district manager, Markfed, Faridkot.

These suspended officials were on duty to supervise the godown from where the wheat went missing.

"The real culprits behind the misappropriation of wheat would be pinpointed after a detailed investigation in the scandal,” said the district manager.

During the physical verification of the wheat stock, the staff came across a new modus operandi to mislead the inspecting staff.

“The empty place in the store was covered with stacks of wheat so that suspicion did not arise over the empty space within the rectangular pile of wheat bags,” said Vinod Kumar.

The physical inspection of every stack is being done to check the total loss.

4 cops, pharmacist held for allowing prisoners to visit home
Sushil Goyal/TNS

Sangrur, September 11
The local police has arrested a Sangrur jail pharmacist and four head constables for arranging home visits for three undertrials on the pretext of taking them to a hospital outside the jail premises. The undertrials would pay Rs 1,000 each to the accused to arrange these home visits.

The undertrials, one of whom is accused of murder, have been identified as Sukhwinder Singh, Attar Singh, both from Sangrur; and Sultan Singh of Ramgarh Sardara village in Ludhiana.

The accused head constables are Sukhwinder Singh, Sukhwinder Singh, Gobind Singh and Harbans Singh while the jail pharmacist is Harish Gupta. Mandeep Singh Sidhu, SSP, Sangrur, said the undertrials would be arrested after getting permission from the court. A case had been registered. Sidhu said the undertrials had gone on over a dozen home visits in few months.

Sidhu revealed the pharmacist would refer these undertrials to hospitals, situated outside the jail, such as Government Rajindra Hospital, Patiala, while the head constables took them to their homes and brought them back to the jail in the evening.

The SSP also said the accused undertrials had access to mobile phones inside the jail and would often threaten complainants and witnesses over the phone. "We will investigate as to how they had access to mobile phones inside the jail even though jammers had been installed on the premises," he said.

Modus operandi

• The jail pharmacist would refer undertrials to hospitals, situated outside the jail
• The four head constables would then take them to their homes and bring them back in the evening
• The undertrials would pay the head constables and the pharmacist Rs 1,000 each

Harsimrat demands capital punishment for Delhi gang rape accused
Tribune News Service

Bathinda, September 11
Bathinda MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal today demanded capital punishment for the perpetrators of Delhi gang-rape in order to check the occurrence of such heinous crimes. She said such exemplary punishment was imperative to make the country safe for women.

She said capital punishment would also create a sense of fear among the anti-social elements.

Making these comments while addressing media persons at a sangat darshan programme in the district, Harsmirat Kaur Badal expressed deep concern over the slow pace of prosecution and demanded that such cases of heinous crime should be tried by fast track courts to bring the culprits to book and to provide timely justice to the aggrieved.

During her visit to her constituency, Harsimrat also distributed cheques for development activities.

She also listened to the problems of the people and resolved them on the spot.

While addressing public meetings in the villages, Harsimrat said the union government had been denying BPL cards to the poor and now with Lok Sabha elections round the corner, the UPA government was announcing populist schemes for the poor such as providing free ration just to pocket votes.