Two held for murder
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Sept 14 — The local police has arrested two persons for allegedly stabbing and killing a resident of Ram Darbar here last night over some minor issue.

According to the police, Rajesh Kumar, a driver, was killed when he was stabbed after being beaten up near his residence in Ram Darbar by Shiv Kumar and Rishi Nanda, both residents of Ram Darbar.

Rajesh, a driver of a Tata 407 vehicle, was allegedly killed by the accused with some sharp-edged weapon after being called out from his house. According to a complaint lodged by the brother of the deceased, Rajesh was having his food when Shiv Kumar called him out and took him along with him to a nearby CTU bus stop where the latter and his accomplice, Rishi, attacked him with knives.

As people gathered there, both gave an impression that the victim had only been thrashed. Later, both of them took Rajesh to the Sector 32 Hospital where he was declared dead.

A case has been registered under Sections 302 and 304 against the accused who have been arrested.

Assault alleged: Sudama Prasad, a resident of Sector 19, has complained that he was assaulted and threatened by Ram Kumar and Shiv Kumar, residents of Sector 18. A case under Sections 323, 506 and 34 of the IPC has been registered.

Two arrested: Dilbagh Singh, a resident of Kumhar Colony, and Jagtar Singh, a resident of Mullanpur, were arrested for trying to encash a cheque misplaced by one Vijay Singla of Sector 7. A case under Sections 420, 467, 468, 471, 379 and 511 of the IPC has been registered.

Trousers stolen: In an unusual case, Sarabjit Singh, a resident of Sector 41, complained that his two pairs of trousers were stolen by Sanjiv Sharma, also a resident of Sector 41.

Accordingly, the police has arrested the accused and registered a case under Section 379 and 411 of the IPC at the Sector 39 police station. Further investigations are on, the police said. In a similar incident of theft, Mr Dev Raj a resident of Sector 30 complained to the police that his three hot tiffins and Rs 3,400 were stolen. A case has been registered.

Bootlegger held: Swaran Singh, a resident of Maloya Colony, was arrested on the charges of possessing 44 pouches of whisky. A case under the Excise Act has been registered. Investigations are also on in this case.

Woman attacked: Mr Bansi Ram, a resident of Sector 55, has complained that his wife Sharda was assaulted and threatened by Banku, Santosh, Mohinder and his wife after entering into his house. A case has been registered.

16 held: As many as 16 persons have been arrested by the police for roaming around under suspicious circumstances in different parts of the city. Another person was booked after he was found creating nuisance at a public place under the influence of liquor. Also, Raghbir Singh, a resident of Burail, was arrested on charges of stealing a bicycle.

Cylinders seized: The Department of Food and Supplies has seized 15 domestic LPG cylinders from three eating joints in Sectors 21 and 22.

According to official sources, the 'dhabas' and restaurants were raided by a party comprising officials like the SDM (east), the Deputy Director of the Department of Food and Supplies, the District Food and Supply Officer and a representative of the Indian Oil Corporation after a tip-off that owners of these places were using domestic cylinders for commercial purposes.

The owners have booked under the Essential Commodities Act.

PANCHKULA

Smack seized: Acting on the basis of a tip-off, the local police caught Saya Fernasis, a Keneyan, with 23 packs of smack in his pocket. These weighed 48 gm. He was caught at a checkpost on a bridge in Sector 12-A while driving a moped without a registration number. A case under Sections 21 and 22-61-85 of the NDPS Act has been registered and Fernasis has been arrested.

Keeping in view the rising cases of narcotics trafficking, the Superintendent of Police, Mr Alok Mittal, said most landlords rented out accommodation to foreign nationals without informing nearest police stations. "In future, action will also be taken against landlords whose tenant is caught with drugs,'' he added.

Man dies: Gauri Shankar, a native of Bihar and a resident of Mansa Devi Complex, died after he fell from his flat, number three, in the complex. An inquiry under Section 174 of the CrPC will be conducted.

Knocked down: Salvinder Kaur, a resident of Shimla, died on-the-spot at a petrol pump in Chandi Mandir after being knocked down by a bus. In his complaint, her husband, Baljit Singh, said that the driver of the school bus number HR-03-6847, Gurnam Singh, hit his Maruti car number HIS-85 causing his wife's death. A case under Section 279, 304-A of the IPC has been registered, but the driver fled from the scene.

Liquor seized: The police seized 45 packets of country-made liquor from Pawan Kumar, a resident of Batod. He was arrested and a case under the Excise Act was registered against him.

Cycle recovered: The police has recovered a stolen bicycle from the possession of Hari, a resident of Rally. During interrogation, he revealed that he had stolen the bicycle from the house of his landlord. The bicycle cost Rs 1,000.

SAS NAGAR

Thief nabbed: An auto thief was arrested by the local police near Yadvindra Public School (YPS) late last evening. According to police sources, the thief, Rajan Walia, a resident of Phase 3B2 was unable to produce the registration documents of the moped being driven by him.

On being questioned by the police, he reportedly confessed that he had stolen the moped from Chandigarh. He has been booked under Section 411 of the IPC.

Two injured: Two scooter-borne persons were seriously injured after being hit by a speeding truck near the road dividing Sectors 70 and 71. According to an information available, the injured persons were coming from Chandigarh when the accident took place.

A case under Sections 279, 337 and 338 of the IPC has been registered against the truck driver.

Geeta wins essay contest
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Sept 14 — Essay, poetry and slogan writing contests on value of Hindi language were organised by Dev Samaj College of Education, Sector 36, here today.

Geeta stood first in the eassy writing contest. Natalya Sood and Sangeeta Mahipal stood second and third, respectively. Anjali, Babita and Yogita Sharma were the winners in the self-composed poetry contests.

Counselling: Counselling for vacant seats in first semesters of ancient history, economics, geography, history and philosophy will be held in the Arts Block IV of Panjab University on September 24, an official press release said here on Tuesday. The admissions will be offered in the afternoon session in order of merit.

Action plan: The DAV College Teachers Union in a press release issued here said that a decision to start an action plan for the formation of a statutory governing body of various colleges of Punjab and Chandigarh as per university rules was taken at a meeting here on Tuesday.

The meeting disapproved special grades being given to any category of college employees. The issue of suitable employment for wards of employees who expire during service was also taken up.

Badminton hall needs repairs
By Arvind Katyal

CHANDIGARH, Sept 14 — Sector 42 Indoor Badminton hall which is now more than a decade old, needs overhauling. Badminton will suffer if immediate steps are not taken to solve its genuine problems.

In the past few months, several problems have come across such as potholes in the wooden courts surface and a leaking roof.

The worst happened on September 13 when while the work of fixing bitumen layers over the roof was on, a heavy downpour stalled all activities and the hall turned into a water pool. The repair work had begun only a few days ago.

The badminton season was in full swing these days and players needed to practice regularly for various tournaments when this problem arose.

The wooden surface laid more than twelve years back is in a critical condition. Unless it was changed completely, things would worsen further, said some players.

Sources said at one of the courts in this three-court hall, due to a negligence on part of those who laid the surface, ventilation points were not provided. This led to an extensive damage to the surface.

A visit to the hall on Tuesday revealed that even minor repair work had not been done. An official of the Sports Department said the Maintenance Department had been told of the problem. In one of the courts, the repair work was done by the morning club members at their own expenses.

This hall was built in 1988 but formal opening was delayed by one year due to faulty lighting system installed then.

It was only after this that the then President of the Badminton Associattion of India visited the place along with other experts and okayed the the multihalogen lighting system. The then Advisor to the Chandigarh Administration, Mr Ashok Pradhan, had inaugurated this hall on April 20, 1989.

This modern hall was then opened for players who earlier used to play at the Sector 7 Sports Complex. Though this centre is meant for playing badminton only, at times due to its huge structure and facilities, it has been used for organising matches of other games like judo also.

The Joint Director for Sports of the UT, Mr J.P.S. Sidhu said by next week, the hall would be ready for playing and had the rain not come, the roof would have been repaired by now.

He said there was no danger to the lighting system as it had already been covered to protect it from water. He said sanction had been given for completely changing the wooden surface.

However, a Sub-Divisional Officer of the Engineering Department working in the maintenance section, said in 1996, the budget for nearly Rs 25 lakh was passed for changing the structure which now might touch more than Rs 30 lakh. He said the present surface had lived its life.

A senior badminton player said the spring action, required to sustain the pressure, would no longer be borne by the present surface.

He said crisscross hollow planks took longer to become fully operational. The project required to be done on a war scale as the active season for players was on.

This long overdue repair should have been done in the lean season of March and April. Now, players will have to practice at other centres and no tournaments can be organised at present.

Badminton trials venue shifted
By Our Sports Reporter

CHANDIGARH, Sept 14 — Selection trials and ranking tournament in badminton will now be held at the Panjab University Indoor hall, due to the ongoing repair work at then Sector 42 Indoor Badminton Hall, the previous venue.

The meet will be organised from September 16. In this four-day meet, apart from the under-10, under-13, under-16, under-19, senior men's and women's sections, events in veteran's singles and doubles sections (above 35, above 45 and above 55 age groups) will also be conducted.

School cricket: The annual Chandigarh School Boys Cricket Tournament for the Shivalik Trophy which was scheduled to be held from September 18 will now be held from September 21 at the Sector 16 Cricket Stadium, according to a press note of the UT Cricket Association, the organiser of this meet. Entries close on September 18 with the Secretary of the UTCA or at the Sector 16 stadium.

Bhanot skipper: Girish Bhanot will be the captain of the Panchkula district cricket team which will participate in the Haryana Inter-district Cricket Tournament for the Pataudi Trophy. The team will play its first match against Chandigarh tomorrow at the Gursagar Grounds near Sukhna Lake in Chandigarh at 8.30 am.

According to Mr Sandeep Moudgil, Secretary of the Panchkula District Cricket Association, the team was selected after the selection trials held today at Hansraj Public School in Sector 6 of Panchkula.

The team is as follows: Girish Bhanot (captain), Anil Kapoor, Munish Joshi, Amit Bhardwaj, Narender Walia, Harinder Singh, Vinod Binta, Umesh, Sarpreet, Amit Puri (wicketkeeper), Gaurav Sood, Rajeev, Rajesh Jain, Jaswinder Singh, Vishal Gupta and Ranjeet Rana.