Bathinda, April 11
Ahead of the general elections in Punjab, the counter intelligence wing of the Punjab police claim to have seized heroin worth nearly Rs 15 crore with arrest of three persons.

The IG Counter Intelligence, Jatinder Jain, accompanying AIG Ajay Maluja said that the accused in the case have been identified as Ranjodh Singh Jodha of Mehandipur village in Tarn Taran, Kuldeep Singh and Satpal Singh, both residents of Bhawra Ajamshah village in Ferozepur.

The IG stated that Satpal’s brother-in-law Gurbhej Singh, a native of Mamdot is residing in the UK for the last four years. During investigation, it was found that Gurbhej played a vital role to interact with drug smugglers, one of them identified as Haji, in Pakistan for ‘smooth’ flow of drugs through the international boundaries.

A quantity of three kg of heroin was recovered from their possession along with drug money of Rs 70,000 and two mobile phones.

The police said that the accused Ranjodh Singh being a resident of Mehandipur, which is situated quite close, half-a-kilometer from the Indo-Pak border, used to keep a close watch over the activities of the Border Security Force (BSF).

“Ranjodh’s house is situated so close to the barbed wires installed at the border that he used to climb up the rooftop and keep watch over BSF’s activities and remain in touch with his accomplices on the other side of the border using a cell phone,” claimed IG Jain.

He pointed out that the arrested accused admitted to have smuggled four consignments of heroin comprising 50 packets from Pakistan to India and had sold the same in various parts of Punjab and Delhi. They admitted to smuggle drugs from Tarn Taran, Amritsar, Ferozepur and Fazilka borders.

The IG also claimed that the Pakistani counterparts had thrown the drug packets towards Indian side and some of these got entangled in the barbed wires and the accused manage to take away three packets despite firing by the BSF.

The accused were arrested after receiving tip-off from the area falling under the Mamdot area of Ferozepur.

A case under various Sections of the NDPS Act has been registered against the accused in this connection. Further investigation is on.

Bathinda, April 11
A deputation of members of the Democratic Teachers Front today met the District Election Officer-cum-Deputy Commissioner of Bathinda Kamal Kishore Yadav and raised the issue of election duties given to the teachers of the constituency, here today.

Leader of the deputation Resham Singh and members Jaswinder Singh and Navcharanpreet Kaur stated that women teachers who have been assigned the election duties and asked to report at a centre which is far from the residence was creating a problem for them and requested the District Election Officer to look into the matter.

The teachers also supported the decision of the administration of marking only men as presiding officers. They demanded that transport facility be provided to the officers on duty after they submit the poll kit. They also demanded that the poll remuneration be paid to all those on duty at their respective booths on the same day.

Bathinda, April 11
‘Hand’ appeared prominently on the new flex poster outside the main election office of Congress-PPP joint candidate for the Bathinda Lok Sabha constituency Manpreet Singh Badal here today. In the changed poster, he has also conveyed a message to all his detractors that he would do anything to usurp the ‘corrupt’ Badal family from the Bathinda Lok Sabha seat.

The choice of ‘Hand’ as his election symbol by the PPP chief Manpreet had made him the centre of criticism by the Bathinda MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal who had called the former a cheater for ditching his own party’s election symbol ‘Kite’.

Meanwhile, the war of words between the two candidates continued on Friday as well. While Manpreet argued that the residents of Punjab would not be benefitted if Narendra Modi becomes the Prime Minister of the country, Harsimrat stated that the Badal family was ashamed of the fact that Manpreet had joint the corrupt Congress in an attempt to win the elections.

Addressing various gatherings in the constituency today, Manpreet said, “Looking at the way the state government was splurging money on advertising for Narendra Modi for the post of Prime Minister of India, it looked that only the Badal family was poised to be benefited by Modi rule while the residents of Punjab would be left high and dry once again.”

Attacking the expenditure being incurred by the government on promoting Modi as the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate, he said, “I wonder from where the SAD-BJP alliance is getting the funds to spend on such extensive promotion since it has no money to raise the salaries of its own government employees and has been forcing them to sit atop water tanks and protest.”

Meanwhile, during her election campaign programmes, Harsimrat stated that the Badal family was ‘ashamed of Manpreet’ as he had sided with the ‘corrupt Congress’ in a bid to win the elections.

“Manpreet, who upheld that his People’s Party of Punjab would fight corruption, has shown that he wants power, by hook or by crook. His greed for power has been made clear by the decision to shake hands with the Congress party which is known for masterminding several scams across the nation and embezzling the taxpayers’ money,” she said.

“It will be interesting to see that several Congress leaders who have criminal cases against them will not be able to able to save their skin or get bail. The residents of Bathinda have taken a note of the fact that Manpreet first ditched his own family, then his own views and then his own party’s poll symbol. It will not be long before he ditches the people of the constituency,” she added.

Bathinda, April 11
Taking serious note of raping a minor girl by a teenage boy in an alleged connivance with his mother, a couple and another young boy, a local court today awarded 10 years of rigorous imprisonment to the main accused along and slapped a fine of Rs 61,000 and seven years rigorous imprisonment to others with fine of Rs 63,000.

In case of default of payment, the main accused would undergo imprisonment for two more years and others would undergo one more year, if they fail to pay the fine.

The verdict was announced today by the court of Additional Sessions Judge Rajwinder Kaur.

The incident occurred on December 23, 2012 when the 14-year-old girl, a resident at Jandawalan village went missing and could not be traced despite efforts by her parents.

The poor parents with no major source of income took the help of the influential people of their village to locate their daughter.

A formal police complaint was lodged the next day. The girl was consequently recovered with the help of a religious leader of the area.

In a separate statement recorded by the missing girl’s father on March 21, 2013 the names of suspected accused were revealed. Main accused Gurwinder Singh of Dhaula Kingra village, Lakhdeep Singh of Sivia village, Binder Masih, his wife Soma Kaur and Gurwinder’s mother Rajvir were included in the First Information Report (FIR).

The girl’s family members decided to pursue the matter in the court and demanded stringent punishment for all the accused.

After hearing the claims, counter claims and arguments of both the parties and their counsels the court held the accused guilty in the offence.

The court ordered punishment despite pleas of the main accused Gurwinder that he is young and that nobody else was there to look after his younger sister who is blind and similar pleas of his mother.

Pleas of the other accused couple to take a lenient view as their two children, a boy and girl will be left without parents, too, failed to help them in the verdict.

The accused are awarded punishment under Sections 366, 366-A, 376, 342, 120-B of the IPC and 4 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offence and Ordinance Act-2012.

Bathinda, April 11
All they want from the candidates in the fray for the lok Sabha elections is ‘promise to social security’. The 1.10 lakh-strong Muslim community of the Bathinda Lok Sabha constituency says in unison that it will vote for a candidate who will talk about safeguarding their interests.

Dressed in a crisp white kurta pajama and his skull cap in place, stepping out of the mosque in Keekar Bazar of Bathinda after offering their Friday prayers, Abdul Khan, who has been staying in Bathinda for the past 19 years said, “Our needs are basic and so are our demands from the government. For the 15,000 Muslims staying the Bathinda city alone, there is only one kabristan (graveyard) and one madrasa (educational institution). All the leaders want our votes but are not keen on listening to us.”

Although 22-year-old Mohammad Sameer doesn’t have a voter ID card of Bathinda, as he belongs to Bihar and has been working in Bathinda for two years, he voiced one of the major concerns being faced by the community in the city-distrust.

“Although the city offers employment to all, finding a room to take on rent is still a problem. When we go looking for a room, we get a crude “no” for an answer because of our religion. This raises the need for having a separate residential colony for the Muslims,” he said.

Imam Jamil Ahmed, who also works at the National Fertilisers Limited (NFL), pointed at a bigger problem-encroachment on the land of Waqf Board. “All that we want is social security and this will come only when the government will recognise us as a minority group and think of safeguarding our interests. This will facilitate admission of our children in schools and colleges and also in getting employment. Release of the land of Waqf Board from encroachment is our biggest demand. Despite several notifications being released in the past for the effect, no action has been taken yet.”

Bathinda, April 11
A brief drama was witnessed on the premises of Guru Nanak Dev School here today over the issue of appointment of the vice-principal of the school. Teachers, who were already on a peaceful protest for a few days, today staged a dharna outside the school and also called in the Parents Welfare Association to support them.

Appreciating the work being done by the principal, Sarabjit Kaur Sra, the teachers said the school management appointed another teacher as the vice-principal, but there was no such provision in CBSE-affiliated schools.

They added the vice-principal was not even senior enough to be chosen for that post.

Head of the school management committee (SMC), Manohar Singh, said he convened a meeting with the agitating teachers and told them that the SMC had appointed the vice-principal to look after the school in the absence of the principal.

He added the teachers were assured that the principal would take over the charge as she had rejoined after a leave and the vice-principal would only be second in command.

Bathinda, April 11
An assistant engineer’s plan to make quick bucks by replacing costly fans with the cheap ones at PTU GZS Campus were dashed with the timely intervention of the authorities.

Apart from marking a departmental enquiry, the authorities did not rule out the possibility of taking up the issue with the police authorities.

The store where the electronics material is kept too has been sealed after a case of cheating by one of the regular employees has come to light.

Taking stringent action, college director Dr Jasbir Singh Hundal has placed an assistant engineer (AE), Jarnail Singh, under suspension.

As per information, some good quality fans were ordered by the college authorities with an aim to provide best facility to the faculty and the students. The fans were to be installed at the college, hostels, mess and residential areas. Dr Hundal said authorities swung into action after someone brought into his notice that the recently purchased new set of ceiling fans were being taken out of the campus premises.

He added it was found that the best quality costly fans were being replaced with cheap ones. The difference of price between both the fans is approximately Rs 500 per fan.

Sources said the issue would be brought to the notice of the police as nearly 25 fans were recovered. — TNS

Bathinda, April 11
A woman lodged a complaint with senior police officials accusing a Kotwali SHO and an ASI of taking away 2,900 from her house in Balraj Nagar when the duo came to arrest her son for possessing 5-kg poppy husk on February 25. She accused the policemen of not putting the amount on any record.

The woman, Hardeep Kaur, said the money was saved for paying her daughter’s education fees.

“The police said the money was incorporated in the recovery of drugs and it could not be refunded as it was a part of the investigation. But when I urged the cops to show the FIR or other papers where they could have mentioned the money, they refused,” the woman alleged.

She added the money was pocketed by the ASI and the SHO without including it as a part of the things which were recovered from her son’s possession.

The policemen, however, mentioned a watch and other material recovered but did not note down Rs 2,900 anywhere, she said.

“Since I was right, I decided to fight against the corrupt policemen and lodge a written complaint and met some senior policemen in the department,” she said.

She added when she raised a hue and cry, the policemen tried to pacify her by offering the entire money back.

Though they returned the money back, they threatened to teach me a lesson, she said.

“The policemen, who garner a grudge after returning the money, beat up my son and also registered a case against me,” she said.

The police lodged an FIR against the woman under Section 353 of the IPC for misbehaving and abusing the policemen.

The woman met DSP (city) Gurjeet Romana today and later shared her story with the scribes. She said the DSP had asked the SHO and the ASI to explain their role into the case and file a reply over the allegations.

The DSP admitted of receiving the complaint and said appropriate action would be initiated after only after enquiring the truth.

SHO Kotwali, Mahesh Saini, said “There is no truth in the allegations as the woman and her son are at fault and they are trying to exert pressure on the police by resorting to such false tactics. She used foul language and tried to malign the image of policemen at a public place.”

Bathinda, April 11
Police today arrested five persons, including three women, for allegedly indulging into prostitution. DSP (city) Gurjeet Romana said two women of 28-30 years and a 55-year-old woman along with two persons, Gaurav and Golu, residents of Amreek Singh Road and Labh Singh Chowk respectively, had been arrested in this connection.

The DSP said the 55-year-old woman used to take Rs 1,500 from the men involved and give 50 per cent to the young women. A case in this connection has been registered under the Immoral Trafficking Act at the Canal Colony police station.

Amritsar, April 11
Government hospitals have become an easy target for thieves. In the latest incident, some unidentified persons broke open the kitchen of ESI Hospital and decamped with four LPG cylinders, copper cauldron, four lids and other goods.

Mahadev Parsad, cook at the kitchen, said when he came in the morning, he came to know about the theft. Following his statement, the Civil Lines police have registered a case under Sections 457, 380 of the IPC.

Bathinda, April 11
St Xavier’s School, Bathinda, today hosted the first Soudeep Singh Memorial Tournament on its premises. Mithilesh Mittal was the chief guest on the occasion and the function was presided over by the principal of the school, Father Eulalio Fernandes.

Father Eulalio Fernandes, principal of St Xavier’s School, greets handball players during the Soudeep Singh Memorial Tournament in Bathinda on Friday. Tribune photo: Pawan Sharma

Father of late Soudeep Singh (a former student of the school), Jaspal Singh, was also present.

Around 200 students participated in the handball tournament. In the under-20 boys category, St Xaviers’ team beat Bajak team 7-5, Behman Diwana beat Jai Singh wala 7-3 and Ram Sra beat St Joseph 7-5.

In the under-20 girls category competitions, Ram Sra beat Bhokhra 5-2, St Joseph beat Behman Diwana 8-4 and St Xavier’s beat Ram Sra 6-4. — TNS