Chandigarh, December 30
The Punjab and Haryana High Court has cast off as “fallacious” 15-year-old decision of its own sub-committee on re-designating judicial officers facing adverse remarks in their annual confidential reports.

The subcommittee in its report dated December 2, 1998, had recommended that an officer posted as Civil Judge (Senior Division), was liable to be re-designated as Civil Judge (Junior Division) in case he earned adverse remarks relating to his integrity. The recommendations were accepted by the Full Court on December 21, 1998.

Examining on the judicial side the decision taken by the High Court on the administrative side, a Division Bench ruled: “Under the guise of re-designation, an officer of the rank of Civil Judge (Senior Division), which includes an officer of the rank of Additional Civil Judge (Senior Division), cannot be re-designated as Civil Judge (Junior Division), without conducting a regular departmental inquiry as it amounts to a reduction in rank, a major penalty”.

Justice Hemant Gupta and Justice Fateh Deep Singh added: “The decision of the subcommittee that an officer of the cadre of Civil Judge (Junior Division) posted as Civil Judge (Senior Division), would be liable to be posted back as Civil Judge (Junior Division), is fallacious….”

The ruling came on a petition by Haryana judicial officer Sanjeev Arya. He had challenged the order dated August 8, 2012, whereby he was designated as Civil Judge (Junior Division) from the post of Additional Civil Judge (Senior Division) due to adverse remarks.

Allowing the petition, the Bench ruled Civil Judge (Junior Division) was a lower post than Civil Judge (Senior Division). Though the order was of re-designation, it amounted to a reduction in rank and was not preceded by an inquiry. “Such an order of reduction in rank in perpetuity is a major penalty and could not have been awarded except after following the procedure prescribed under the rules…. Thus, we find that under the guise of re-designation, an officer, who has been graded integrity doubtful, cannot be reverted to a lower rank without following the procedure contemplated for inflicting a major penalty…. The impugned order is set aside”.

The Bench also gave a clear message to the subordinate judiciary that it could perform its duties without fear or favour, asserting that adverse remarks could not be entered into the annual confidential reports of judicial officers for orders passed during the discharge of judicial functions.

Chandigarh, December 30
The state government had enhanced from January 1 the rate of honorarium of the anganwadi workers by Rs 2,500 per month, mini anganwadi workers by Rs 750 per month and anganwadi helpers by Rs 1,000 per month.

The maximum honorarium of the anganwadi workers would be Rs 7,563 per month after enhancement.

The non-matriculate workers would get Rs 7,438, the non-matriculate workers with five-year experience would get Rs 7,469 per month and the non-matriculate workers with 10-year experience would get Rs 7,500 per month.

Chandigarh, December 30
The Haryana Government today appointed 1977-batch IAS officer SC Choudhary as the new Chief Secretary. He will succeed PK Choudhary, who retires on December 31.

Currently working as Additional Chief Secretary, Home, Jails and Criminal Justice and Administration of Justice, SC Choudhary will look after the departments of General Administration, Personnel, Training, Vigilance, Parliamentary Affairs and Administrative Reforms Departments and will be Secretary in charge of Plan Coordination. He is scheduled to retire on April 30, 2014.

The government shifted 11 IAS officers. Shakuntla Jakhu, Additional Chief Secretary, Cooperation Department, will be Additional Chief Secretary, Revenue and Disaster Management and Consolidation Departments, vice Krishna Mohan. PK Gupta, Additional Chief Secretary, Labour and Employment Department, has been posted as Additional Chief Secretary, Home, vice SC Choudhary.

RP Chander, principal secretary, Industrial Training Department, will also look after the work of principal secretary, Labour and Employment Department. Alok Nigam has been posted as principal secretary, Cooperation Department.

Dheera Khandelwal, principal secretary, Science and Technology Department, has been posted as principal secretary, Forests and Wild Life Department, vice Ramendra Jakhu retiring on December 31.

Arun Kumar, principal secretary, Fisheries Department and Managing Director, Haryana Vidyut Prasaran Nigam Limited, has been given the additional charge of principal secretary, Science and Technology Department.

Sumita Misra, Managing Director, Haryana Tourism, has been given the additional charge of Transport Commissioner and secretary, transport department, relieving Ashima Brar.

Vineet Garg has been posted as Director General, State Transport, and secretary, Transport Department, vice Abhe Singh Yadav, who has been posted as special secretary, Public Health Engineering Department, vice HS Malik, who is retiring on December 31.

SK Goyal, secretary, Irrigation Department, has been posted as Director General and secretary, Industrial Training, vice Vijay Singh, who is retiring on December 31. Goyal will also hold the additional charge of Director General and Secretary, Sports and Youth Affairs, relieving Sudhir Rajpal.

Dhakla (Jhajjar), December 30
Formally launching the much-hyped ‘iron and soil collection drive’ for the statue of unity project from this village, Purushottam Rupala, national vice-president of the BJP, said around 6.5 lakh villages across the nation would be covered under the drive to collect iron and soil for the statue.

Rupala said it was a matter of pride for the people of Haryana that the historic drive was being launched from the state. During the programme, Om Prakash Dhankhar, national coordinator of the drive, along with farmers of this village presented a cheque for Rs 1 lakh along with used iron tools and soil in a kit to Rupala for the statue of unity.

“People are enthused about the drive across the nation as they wish to ensure their contribution for the statue of iron man Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. The drive has been divided in various phases to collect iron and social at the village, tehsil and district levels,” said the BJP leader, adding that the collections would later be sent to Gujarat for the statue of unity.

Later, charging the UPA government with not taking firm steps to check corruption, inflation, etc, the BJP leader said the public were fed up with ‘anti-development’ and ‘anti-people’ approach of the government and wished to see Narendra Modi as the next PM. 

Bhiwani, December 30
The family of the Dalit schoolgirl who was reportedly raped by a schoolteacher of Nigana in the district about a month ago was being offered Rs 10 lakh to withdraw the case. This was revealed by the girl's father to the National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) during a hearing of the case in Delhi today.

Shocked at the revelations by the victim's father and the attempt of the police to close the case, the commission pulled up the Bhiwani Superintendent of Police (SP) during the hearing and directed him to review the case and report back to the commission on February 10.

The victim's father and Dalit activist lawyer Ramdhan, who were present during the hearing at the National Commission for Scheduled Castes headquarters, said the SP informed the commission that nothing had come out of the allegations on the basis of the inquiry and they wanted to close the case.

Commission Secretary JS Chamber slammed the Superintendent of Police and termed the probe as a botched-up one which had failed to do justice to the minor Dalit girl.

"Is this the probe you have come up with? If you are unable to bring out the truth, I will refer the case to the CBI. You must review the investigation and bring out the truth so that justice is delivered. It is shocking that so many rape cases are being reported in Haryana," the NCSC Secretary reportedly told the SP.

The girl's father confirmed that money was offered to him to withdraw the case. "Some persons approached me on two occasions. They told me to accept Rs 8 lakh and then offered Rs 10 lakh to withdraw the case," he said.

"Certain persons spread the rumour in the village that I had accepted the money to malign me and my family. Political pressure is being exerted on us not to pursue the case," he alleged. He added that certain government officials had paid him a visit, urging him to 'forget' the incident.

The victim's father said the SP brought the attendance register of his daughter's class to the commission office, showing 'P' (present) marked in the register twice between November 6 and November 16.

"This is wrong as she did not attend school after the incident. Her condition was deteriorating every day as she seemed to have lost mental balance. We admitted her to a private hospital at Hisar, where doctors told me to shift her to Delhi," the girl's father said.

Ramdhan confirmed that the SP intimated the commission about the closure report, which irked the NCSC. "The SP agreed to review the case and submit a fresh report at the next hearing," he said. The police could not close the case as the medical examination had reported vaginal rupture and the victim was a minor, he added.

The minor, a student of class X at the government school in the village, was raped by her teacher on November 6. When she did not attend school for nearly 10 days, the family suspected that something wrong.

They prodded her to reveal the reason for her continuous absence from school.

On November 16, the girl disclosed the rape, after which a number of villagers closed the school and thrashed the teacher, who then managed to escape.

The police had booked the accused teacher who was yet to be arrested.

The Education Department had suspended the teacher and transferred the entire school staff. 

Chandigarh, December 30
Riding on the anti-incumbency wave against the Hooda government , the debutant Aam Aadmi Party(AAP) is spreading its wings in Haryana, which goes to the parliamentary and assembly polls next year.

The announcement by senior AAP leader Kumar Viswas that the party would project party ideologue Yogendra Yadav as its chief ministerial candidate seems to have given a boost to the party’s mass contact programme.

Party spokeman Rajiv Godara claimed that the party’s splendid performance in the Delhi Assembly elections had evoked tremendous interest among Haryana’s population, giving rise to hopes that Delhi’s success could be replicated in Haryana. Yadav has been touring the state to strengthen the party organisation.

In fact, party sources claimed that corruption and nepotism, specially in government jobs in Haryana provided perfect opportunity to the AAP to mobilise the electorate in the run-up to the elections. This, coupled with both Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Yogendra Yadav tracing their roots to Haryana, would provide an alternative to the electorate to the Congress, INLD and the BJP-HJC alliance.

Besides having a clean image, Yadav is a well-known face on TV being a noted psephologist and political scientist, his projection as the chief ministerial candidate can stand the AAP in good stead . Earlier, the AAP had urged whistleblower IAS officer Ashok Khemka to lead the party in Haryana. However, he is yet to respond to the AAP offer.

Kejriwal was the first to flag the issue of alleged favours by the Hooda Government to AICC president Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law Robert Vadra in change of land use cases.

Observers said strong anti-incumbency against the Hooda Government and failure of the Opposition to forge a ‘grand alliance’ could work out in favour of the AAP in multi-cornered contests. However, much will depend on the performance of the Kejriwal government in Delhi in the run-up to the Lok Sabha and assembly elections in Haryana.

Rohtak, December 30
Corruption in Haryana has assumed gigantic proportions. The persons holding the reins of power are plundering the state’s resources through CLUs, gift and sale of government jobs and other corrupt practices.

This was stated by noted social scientist Yogendra Yadav, who is also associated with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), during a seminar-cum-interactive session organised under the aegis of the Haryana Insaaf Society on “Significance of Delhi Assembly elections in Indian democracy” here today.

The event was organised by society general secretary DR Chaudhary and attended, among others, by college and university dons, journalists, research scholars,

Stating that rampant corruption - or government loot - prevalent in Haryana was a big challenge for the state’s youth, Yadav offered that their party could become a vehicle of change if the youth wanted to launch a mass movement to stem the rot.

In response to a query, the AAP leader maintained that they wanted to provide a meaningful and viable political alternative to the people of Haryana for which the party leaders were touring the state and meeting people to receive their feedback and suggestions.

“We can promise to provide clean, honest and transparent governance to the people based upon their own aspirations and expectations,” he asserted.

Yadav, a senior fellow at Centre for Studies of Developing Societies (CSDS), Delhi, remarked that the AAP victory in the Delhi Assembly elections had busted several myths like a Muslim girl Shazia Ilmi almost winning the RK Puram seat, where the Muslim community was in a minority.

He said the said instance was a befitting reply to the poll strategies of political parties which fielded candidates on the basis of their region and religion.

Replying to a question on the “shady” land deals involving Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law Robert Vadra in Haryana, Yadav maintained that their party would initiate a thorough probe into all such shady land deals if voted to power in the state.

Karnal, December 30
Inclusion in the Karnal Municipal Corporation has proved a ‘curse’ for residents of 15 villages located in the peripheral area of the town as development in these villages has come to a grinding halt for the past four years.

The residents of these villages are a harried lot as there is no one to listen to their grievances and even basic civic amenities are not available in the villages.

These villages have become a ‘no man’s land’ as neither the civic amenities, availed by residents of the city, are available to them nor they can assert their rights as villagers as their panchayats no longer exist. The villages were included in the MC but the elections to the MC were held after more than three years in June this year.

The village of Uchana, which was a model for its pace of steady development, is in a state of utter neglect and villagers rue that even the village lake has not been cleaned for the past many years.

“Earlier, the village used to get grants and the panchayat took care of all needs, but now, everything had been left to God,” said Rajbir, a resident of the village.

“During INLD government headed by Om Prakash Chautala, Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) had carved the first rural sector for the rural population merged with the municipal corporation, but the villagers have encroached upon the land, sown crops, dug roads, damaged water connections and illegal construction galore on the village common land,” said former Uchana sarpanch Satpal Rana. He said the public toilets constructed during his tenure were non-functional and villagers had even removed the walls of a toilet.

Due to acute shortage of sweepers in the municipal corporation, the sanitation has been badly hit while the roads are full of potholes and no attention is being paid to maintenance as the MC can only construct roads falling under the “Lal Dora”, while other roads that need attention are being neglected.

Anita, a resident of Bhagpati village, said, “There is no drainage system and residents have to flush out water from toilets themselves as the MC authorities maintain that they have no record of the BPL card holders of these villages and the villagers are unable to avail the benefits of government policies, programmes and schemes.”

The story is no different in other villages that included Sayeedpura, Dholgarh, Uchani, Jhanghari, Baldi, Mangalpur, Budhakhera, Phusgarh, Katabagh, Kambopura, Daha, Madanpur and Sirsigamri as all the villages are facing one problem or the other.

However, newly elected Mayor Renu Bala Gupta said the elected body was installed only four months ago and councillors from all wards had been asked to submit their reports along with demands and works to be executed.

Faridabad, December 30
The state-level drive against quacks operating in both the rural and urban areas seems to be yielding results. The authorities concerned have been able to detect and book around 120 ‘fake’ doctors operating in the state during the past about six months. These included 30 in Mewat and 23 such doctors in Faridabad alone, of which four accused have been arrested already.

Revealing this, a spokesperson for the department concerned said the drive, which was intensified this year, had yielded good results as about 120 quacks had been booked so far. This was perhaps for the first time that such an intensive campaign had been launched, though the menace of quacks had been a common problem in the rural areas due to the absence of an adequate health infrastructure and availability of health facilities. “We have been able to detect a large number of ‘fake’ doctors in nearly all the districts across the state where the campaign had been taken up,” claimed Dr G L Singhal, Joint Commissioner, Drug Control Department of Haryana.

The operation so far has been able to detect a large number of accused against whom more than 100 FIRs have been registered during the past about six months, he claimed.

Faridabad and Mewat are among the districts where the largest number of quacks have been found to be operating without any authorised degree of qualification. A majority of quacks have been found to be operating in rural areas though many of the accused had also set up their clinics in semi-urban and urban pockets of various towns and cities. The other districts where the quacks have been found include Gurgoan-11, Rohtak- 9, Bhiwani- 4, Rewari-21, Jhajjar-21.

The department conducted raids on several private clinics in the past couple of days and found at least four doctors practicing without a valid degree or certificate here, while more than a dozen cases were registered in various parts of the state in the past couple of days, claimed an official.

One quack each was detected at Smalkha in Panipat, Mohammadpur in Gurgaon, Sunodha of Jhajjar, Chang of Bhiwani and Lakhanmajra village of Rohtak district on Friday. Admitting that the menace of quacks was primarily due to poor and inadequate health infrastructure, an official, on condition of anonymity, claimed that the non-availibility of doctors and paramedical staff in villages had prompted the growth of self-styled doctors and nurses. He said several ANM’s and health workers had been found to be running parallel clinics in an unauthorised manner. 

Karnal, December 30
Members of the Gharonda sarpanch association today submitted their resignation to Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda over the registration of a case against Rajinder Kumar, the Chora village sarpanch.

The police had booked a case against Rajinder on the charges of abetment to suicide after Shivam, a native of Chora village, committed suicide on December 17. The sarpanch was arrested after the incident.

A delegation of 11 sarpanches today sat on a hunger strike outside the BDPO office, demanding withdrawal of the case against the sarpanch and transfer of the Karnal SP.

Ajay Kumar, president of the association, said they had submitted their resignation to the Chief Minister through fax.

He said they would continue with their agitation till their demands were met.

Ashok Mittal, chairman of the zila parisad, while extending support to the association, said it was an unfortunate development and corrective measures should be taken.

The association claimed that the sarpanch had been falsely implicated in the case.

SP Shasank Anand today went to the village and spoke to both the sides. He later met the association members.

"An audio CD was provided by the family of the deceased, which contained evidence against the accused. We will check the authenticity of the CD. I will investigate the case further," said the SP.

Gurgaon, December 30
Gurgaon witnessed many developments, a major one being the registration of criminal cases against Haryana Sports Minister Sukhbir Kataria, who is the local MLA, for his alleged involvement in getting voter cards prepared on the basis of fake documents.

Om Prakash, head of an NGO, lodged 36 complaints in local courts against Kataria, who had won as an Independent in the last Assembly elections. The police had to register two FIRs against the minister on directions of the courts.

A police officer of the rank of ACP had also been charged in the case. Political circles had their fingers crossed as the matter was under a court-monitored investigation. The complainant’s cudgel against the minister had been the topic of much discussion, especially the alleged dilly-dallying of the authorities to act against him.

Although action against the public representative was a foregone conclusion after the complainant moved the courts, the alleged apathy on the part of law-enforcing agencies allowed a delay in the process of the justice delivery system.

The allegedly dilatory tactics adopted by the local police in registering a case against the judge in a local court for allegedly murdering his wife Geetajali left a bitter memory among the people. The case was handed over to the CBI on the demand of the victim’s relatives. A long tug-of-war among zila parishad members cast a shadow over development works in villages. A majority of members passed a no-confidence motion against zila parishad president Kavita Yadav for allegedly being partisan in disbursement of funds for wards. She challenged the proceedings of the meeting regarding the no-confidence motion against her in the Punjab and Haryana HC. She lost the case, following which Aasha Chauhan was elected new zila parishad president.

Much to the relief of the industry, Gurgaon did not witness major labour unrest. Last year’s violent agitation at the Maruti plant in Manesar, resulting in the long spell of unrest at all its plants in the district, haunted industrial circles this year.

The start of service of the Rapid Metro came as big relief to residents. The Rapid Metro, undertaken by the DLF management for the benefit of residents, links it with the Delhi Metro and provides intra-township connectivity. 

Chandigarh, December 30
The Haryana Government has expanded the scope of health services for the children in Haryana by implementing the Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram (RBSK). Initially, the programme was launched in July in three districts — Ambala, Karnal and Panchkula. Now, the programme has been extended to the entire state.

Health Minister Narender Singh today said a similar programme by the name of Indira Bal Swasthya Yojna (IBSY) was being run in the state since 2010. It would now be renamed to the Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram and would be implemented in Haryana on the guidelines of the RBSK. The RBSK is a child health screening and early intervention services programme to provide comprehensive care, including free of cost treatment (surgical and medical) to all children from birth to 18 years of age registered in the anganwadi centres, government and government-aided schools for birth defects, diseases, deficiencies and developmental delays, including disability.

He said mobile teams, each comprising male and female doctors of Ayush, one pharmacist and one ANM were functional to screen the children in aganwadi centres and schools. They cover the children in the age groups of six-week to six-year and six to 18 years.

The programme also provided the facility-based newborn screening at public health centres by existing health functionaries. Also, it aims at providing community-based newborn screening at home through Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) for newborns up to six weeks of age during home visits.

He said identified children were referred to the government health facilities. He said since inception of the programme in 2013-14, as many as 190 children were given financial aid of Rs 2.3 crore for treatment of various health problems in the approved government institutes of the PGIMS, Rohtak, and the PGIMER, Chandigarh, GMCH, Sector 32, Chandigarh, and AIIMS, New Delhi. 

Jind, December 30
Despite tall claims of the government to strengthen the education system of the state, the ground reality appears to be different. As many as 4,000 laboratory attendants working at various government schools of the state have been without salary for 20 months while 3,000 computer teachers have not been paid for five months.

Getting no relief from their acute financial crisis, computer teachers and laboratory attendants started a series of protests here today. They announced that they would continue their protest till February 2014 to awaken the government from its deep slumber.

They burnt effigies of Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Education Minister Geeta Bhukkal, raised slogans against the government authorities and organised a protest march.

They announced that they would organise a similar protest at Karnal on January 3, at Yamunanagar on January 7, at Ambala on January 15, at Sirsa on January 23, at Fatehabad on January 27, at Panipat on on January 31, at Rohtak on February 4, at Bhiwani on February 8, at Faridabad on February 12 and at Palwal on February 16.

"All government claims to improve computer education at state schools are only on paper. Anyone can guess the level of education from the fact that 3,000 computer teachers and 4,000 laboratory attendants have been without salary for months," said Surender Peont, state president of the Haryana State Computer Teacher and Laboratory Attendant Sangh.

"We have held numerous meetings with the Chief Minister and others, but have got only assurances and nothing else. We have decided to intensify our agitation," he said. The government spent lakhs to set up computer laboratories at all schools. When it came to pay the technical staff, the government appeared to have forgotten them.

The government had decided to pay Rs 12,000 per month to a computer teacher and Rs 120 per working day to a laboratory attendant. Since laboratory attendants had not got salary for the last 20 months, there was no work at any computer laboratory of any school and equipment worth lakhs were gathering dust.

"Not a single computer class has been held at any school for the last more than 18 months. No one is willing to teach students without salary. We have been running our homes by borrowing money," said Rakesh Kumar, laboratory attendant posted at Shahpur in the district.

The protesters said the Education Minister and senior officials held a closed door meeting with them on October 1 and assured them that their grievances would be redressed at the earliest, but no action had been taken till date. When efforts were made to contact Bhukkal, the person attending her mobile phone said she was out of the country and would return after January 2.

Panipat, December 30
An RTI activist has filed a complaint with the Lokayukta against Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, alleging that Hooda had cheated the people of the state by wasting government funds worth crores in the 'Haryana Sabse Aage' publicity blitz and gaving wrong information about achievements of the government.

In his complaint, RTI activist PP Kapoor said the Haryana Government has earmarked a staggering budget of about Rs 114 crore during 2013-14 for publicity and Rs 345.66 lakh had already been spent till June 3, 2013.

Kapoor alleged that the money was wasted on false propaganda to derive political mileage in the Lok Sabha poll and the Director-General, Public Relations, was equally responsible for it.

Kapoor demanded that an FIR should be registered against Hooda and the Director-General, Public Relations, for committing a criminal offence.

Kapoor said the government had claimed setting up of 101 special economic zones, investment of Rs 2 lakh crore and employment generation for 20 lakh people, but only four special economic zones came up and only 35,859 persons got employment while the total investment was only Rs 3,179 crore.

The advertisements claimed construction of 2 lakh houses under the “Roof for all” programme, but when information was sought about the actual number of houses constructed by the government, no information was supplied, Kapoor said.

He urged the Lokayukta to order a time-bound inquiry into the allegations made in the complaint and take action against the guilty.

Hisar, December 30
Over 1,000 ancient coins, including two gold, from the Mughal era were recovered from a field in Siwani Bholan village of the district today.

The kiln workers were shaping the bricks when one of them stumbled upon an earthen pot filled with coins. Om Prakash, the kiln owner, informed the district administration about the coins.

The archaeological museum in charge at Hisar said 975 copper coins and two gold coins were found from the site.

“The coins seems to belong to the early Mughals era when gold and copper coins were in circulation,” he said.

Yamunanagar, December 30
The police have booked a municipal councillor under relevant sections of the Information Technology Act and the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe Act on charges of molesting a Dalit girl, sending her MMSes and making casteist remarks.

A delegation of women led by the victim held a demonstration on the premises of the Mini-Secretariat here today, demanding the immediate arrest of Navneet Sharma, alias Neelu Pandit, councillor from ward 13.

The woman met Deputy Superintendent of Police (Headquarters) Vijender Kumar Vij and handed over a memorandum for the Yamunanagar Superintendent of Police, seeking the arrest of the councillor and termination from the corporation.

In a complaint to the Yamunanagar Sadar police, the victim alleged that she was stalked and molested by the accused. She said the accused sent her an MMS on her mobile phone. She alleged when she objected, the accused not only passed casteist remarks about her, but also threatened her of dire consequences.

“The councillor keeps sitting outside an office situated near the bank of the western Yamuna canal. Whenever I go that way from home to the market, he stalks, stops and molests me. He has been torturing me for two or three months,” alleged the victim in her complaint to the Yamunanagar Superintendent of Police.

She said he also made casteist remarks and threatened her that she would face dire consequences if she did not respond to his demand. “The councillor has been sending me MMSes on my mobile phone from his mobile phone continuously since December 26,” she said.

The victim also alleged that the Station House Officer of the Sadar police was supporting the accused and pressuring her to arrive at a compromise in the case. On the other hand, councillor Navneet Sharma said he had been made victim of political vendetta and was implicated in a false case.

“A murder was committed here last month. I have been supporting the family of the victim. The opposite party which is involved in the murder wants to settle the case. In order to exert pressure on me, they got a false case registered against me. The complainant belongs to the family involved in the murder,” said Navneet Sharma.

The councillor, Navneet Sharma was elected as an independent councillor from ward 13 in the elections held this year. Yamunanagar Superintendent of Police Sibas Kaviraj said the Deputy Superintendent of Police (Headquarters) had been directed to conduct a thorough investigation into the case.

Ambala, December 30
The jail authorities recovered two mobile phones from a barrack of the Ambala Central Jail during an inspection last night. On the complaint of Rajinder Singh, Deputy Superintendent of Jail, a case was registered at the Baldevnagar police station.

The mobile phones (without SIM) were recovered from the barrack number 6. The police are making efforts to identify the owner of the mobile phones.