Karnal, May 13
A day after a mahapanchayat was organised at Balla village to discuss the honour killing, family members of Jasbir today alleged that they were under a constant threat from villagers to withdraw the murder case.

Talking to The Tribune here today, the poor family members alleged that they were receiving threats from certain villagers not to go against the wishes of the villagers.

Narrating their tale of woe, the shocked family alleged that “certain members of the girl’s family gotra” were behind the killings to satisfy their “false self-esteem”.

The couple was strangled by the girl’s family as it was against their love affair.

Disapproving of the mahapanchayat in the village, the family said it was not invited to it, but had received threats to kept silent on the issue.

Meanwhile, a 47-member committee of the mahapanchayat today decided to postpone the decision till the mourning period was over.

Supported by the Janwadi Mahila Samiti, a women’s organisation, and CPM state secretary Balbir Singh, the family has demanded a fair trial into the case and has sought security.

Neelam, sister of Jasbir, clarified that the murdered couple was not staying with her in Machhroli village in Panipat district.

“In fact, the couple came to my house only on the night of May 8 and in the wee hours the next day, scores of persons reached our house in four vehicles and took them away forcibly,” she said. They were beaten up mercilessly before being taken away, she said.

Fearing threat to her life as well as her two children, Neelam alleged that she had been directed by Machhroli police post officials not to leave the village without their permission.

She is also a complainant in the case and claimed to have identified several accused.

Sushil, brother of Jasbir, claimed that Sunita’s family was constantly in touch with her for the past several months and had even been assisting her financially. It was under pressure of her gotra leaders that the family murdered the couple.

“Instead of showing any sympathy to the family, villagers are pressuring us to end the matter. It is unfortunate that no one came to perform the last rites of my brother,” he said.

Saroj, mother of Jasbir, said neither the villagers nor Sunita’s family ever complained during the past two years about their affair. Now, when my young child has been murdered, they want us to forget it, she said.

Gurgaon, May 13
The police today claimed to have solved two murder cases committed her recently in which the state secretary of the Haryana Janhit Congress and a property dealer were gunned down in broad daylight with the arrest of four persons.

Deputy commissioner of police (east) B. Satheesh Balan said the two accused had been identified as Bharat, alias Tugli, and Anil, who had shot dead Vikram Pehlwan, secretary of the HJC, on April 19 at his native village, Wazirabad.

The deceased was in his timber shop when the accused posing as customers entered the shop and killed him. The accused also dealt in property business.

The accused were allegedly hired for Rs 3 lakh by Sudesh, a property dealer. Sudesh paid Rs 50,000 as advance payment to them for killing Pehlwan.

Sudesh and Pehlwan had a property dispute, involving a 4 kanal plot at Behrampur village. Pehlwan had reportedly told Sudesh to give the land to him but Sudesh did not relent and got Pehlwan eliminated, said Balan.

The accused were also produced before the court, which sent the duo to a day’s police custody.

In another case, in which a property dealer, Nahar Singh, was killed on May 1 outside the gate of Roseland Public School on the NH-8 when the deceased had come to drop his children to the school.

The police arrested Chaman and Vivek, alias Mikku, who had conspired to kill the deceased.

Balan said the murder was committed by Kaushal gang to eliminate the members of rival Challu gang to maintain the supremacy. Kaushal, who is presently lodged in Sonepat jail, had allegedly murdered Challu, his father and injured his mother a couple of years ago.

The investigations proved that Chaman, who acted on Kaushal’s direction, guided Sudhir, Ramphal and Johny, all residents of Gurgaon, to eliminate the deceased as he was considered close to their rival Challu gang.

The police today produced Chaman and Vivek before a local court, which sent them to a one-day police remand.

Kaushal would be taken on production warrant from Sonepat jail. Other three accused involved in the case would also be arrested soon, added Balan.

Chandigarh, May 13
The superintendent of Hisar Central Jail is in the dock for not releasing a convict on parole even after the acceptance of his bail bonds by the DM.

Taking a serious view of the matter, Justice Sham Sunder of the Punjab and Haryana High Court ruled: Superintendent, Central Jail, Hisar, is directed to be present in person on the next date of hearing to explain as to under what circumstances he has not released the petitioner on parole, despite the acceptance of bail bonds by the District Magistrate, Hisar. The judge also issued notice of motion to the Haryana Advocate-General and fixed May 9 as the next date of hearing in the matter on Narender Kumar’s petition.

Jail official in the dock

The superintendent of Hisar Central Jail is in the dock for not releasing a convict on parole even after the acceptance of his bail bonds by the DM.

Taking a serious view of the matter, Justice Sham Sunder ruled: Superintendent, Central Jail, Hisar, is directed to be present in person on the next date of hearing to explain as to under what circumstances he has not released the petitioner on parole, despite the acceptance of bail bonds by the District Magistrate, Hisar.

The judge also issued notice of motion to the Haryana Advocate-General and fixed May 9 as the next date of hearing in the matter on Narender Kumar’s petition.

He has been convicted under the provisions of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act.

Two cops sentenced

Nearly 12 years after the trial court gave a clean chit to two police personnel facing charge of cutting testicles of an accused in police custody, the high court today sentenced them to undergo two years rigorous imprisonment.

In a significant judgement, the Bench of Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel and Justice S.D. Anand held the reasons given by the trial court in acquitting the accused cops were “perverse” and unsustainable.

The ruling came on a petition by State of Haryana.

It had moved the high court against the December 7, 1995, decision of the trial court, giving benefit of doubt to accused sub-inspector Bhagwan Dass and assistant sub-inspector Magan Singh.

The prosecution had initially claimed, the accused police officials had kept victim Bishamber in illegal detention at Dharuhera police station for four days from October 7, 1992 and had brutally tortured him. The prosecution had alleged the cops had “cut the testicles of the victim in police custody.”

Rohtak, May 13
The Haryana government has authorised the Pt Bhagwat Dayal Sharma Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (PGIMS) here to conduct a re-test for entrance to MD, MS and PG diploma courses.

The entrance test, which was conducted by Maharshi Dayanand University (MDU) here on February 24, had been cancelled following serious allegations of irregularities.

In an official order faxed to the PGIMS authorities today, the state government has declared the PGIMS director as the competent authority for conducting the re-examination for admission to the said courses.

Meanwhile, as per a notification issued by the PGIMS director, Prof S.S.Sangwan, today, the fresh test will be held on May 25 from 12 noon to 2.30 p.m.

The results will be declared the next day. The entrance examination results will also be made available on the institute website, www.pgimsrohtak.nic.in.

Only those candidates who had appeared in the earlier test conducted by MDU on February 24 will be eligible to appear in the fresh test.

The roll numbers as well as examination centres will remain the same as in the previous test.

The counselling of the qualified candidates will be held on May 28 from 9 a.m. onwards at the PGIMS director’s office. While no separate intimation is being given in this regard, details regarding the examination schedule are also available on the PGIMS website.

Chandigarh, May 13
Every major political party’s proclamation is loud and clear---they are winning all three seats in the assembly byelections in Haryana on May 22. While this may be a tall order for any of them, including the Congress, the Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC) and the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), there is one man whose fortunes can change by winning just one of the three seats despite not being in the fray.

The leader of the largest party in the opposition, the INLD, Om Prakash Chautala, is keeping his fingers crossed as he and the party’s rank and file put all their weight behind “their candidates”.

The stakes are especially high for him since winning one seat could earn him the much-yearned-for tag of leader of the opposition in the 90-member Vidhan Sabha.

So far, he has been “deprived” of this status due to him though he is the leader of the single largest party in the opposition with eight MLAs to his credit from Ratia Tavru, Dabwali, Ellenabad, Rori, Baroda, Radaur and Sadhaura.

The mandatory requirement to earn the status is to have one-tenth of the MLAs, which comes to nine in the case of Haryana, making him short of just one MLA.

The status means all facilities a cabinet minister is entitled to, including a house and a car.

At present, Chautala, who ruled Haryana for six years, is making do with staying at the Punjab government guest house whenever he is in Chandigarh. The guest house in Sector 2, next to those of the Haryana Vidhan Sabha Speaker and ministers, has been made available to him courtesy Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal.

Unable to get the required strength of one-tenth of the MLAs in the house, Chautala has had to put up with ridicule and jibing by members of the treasury benches who make it a point to mention repeatedly at every session that he is only a leader of the INLD and not the opposition. His absence and minimal appearance at sessions in the first few years after the Congress government assumed power in Haryana was also seen by many as a way to dodge embarrassment.

However, this byelection has presented an opportunity to him to get back at the government and win a seat to realise his goal.

Though leaders of the INLD are campaigning aggressively in all three seats of Adampur, Gohana and Indri, insiders see a “good chance” of their winning in Indri where the INLD has fielded Dr Ashok Kashyap ,who faces stiff competition from sitting MLA and HJC’s Rakesh Kamboj and Congress candidate Bhim Sen Mehta. Unlikely to be a cakewalk, it nevertheless is an opportunity.

Similarly, Congressmen are considering Gohana a “safe seat” for the party which will reiterate that Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda continues to hold sway in the Jat belt while the HJC counts Adampur as its “bright spot”. 

Chandigarh, May 13
After keeping himself aloof from the campaigning in the three assembly byelections of Adampur, Gohana and Indri so far, Haryana finance minister Birender Singh has decided to campaign for the Congress from tomorrow.

Birender Singh is one of many senior leaders, including union ministers from the state, who have not campaigned for their party so far. Their absence from the election scene had given the impression that the Congress was a divided house, which, perhaps, is true also.

Birender Singh had reportedly told newsmen a few days ago that he would campaign only if the party asked him to do so.

According to sources, Haryana Congress president Phool Chand Mullana had written to all senior party leaders, including Birender Singh and union ministers Selja and Rao Inderjit Singh to campaign for the Congress candidates in the three constituencies. Earlier also, Mullana had written to all party leaders to campaign but that letter was “general in nature”.

While tomorrow Birender Singh will address a number of election meetings in various villages of the Adampur constituency, on May 16 he will campaign in the Indri constituency.

He will campaign in Haryana till May 20, when the campaigning will end.

After that Birender Singh will focus on Rajasthan, where he has been given an important assignment by the Congress high command.

He will address office-bearers of the Rajasthan unit of the Congress in Jaipur on May 21. The assembly elections are due in that state later this year. 

Fatehabad, May 13
A probe into the alleged swindling of funds of the Indira Awaas Yojna (IAY) has revealed large-scale irregularities in the distribution of funds in the five administrative blocks in the district.

Money meant for distribution amongst the poor has been siphoned off by rich and mighty in connivance with those who were responsible for the distribution of funds.

The authorities have begun a probe into the matter after a report was published in The Tribune on February 26 about the alleged scam in Ratia and Bhattu blocks.

The result of the probe has revealed that out of the total 442 cases in which grants were issued in 2007-08, irregularities have been detected in 243 cases.

Under the IAY, financial grant of Rs 25,000 per family is provided to poor families for construction of pucca houses.

The probe also revealed that in some cases people not under the below poverty line (BPL) category, a primary condition for eligibility under this scheme, had cornered funds under the scheme.

In some cases, money has been shown to have been given to a beneficiary more than once that is not permitted under the rules and in certain cases money has not reached the beneficiaries, while it has been shown in records. Some beneficiaries have taken the money and used it for purposes other than constructing houses.

Additional deputy commissioner-cum-chief executive officer, DRDA, C. G. Rajnikanthan, while confirming the irregularities said a report has been submitted to the state government for suitable action.

He stated that irregularities were founds in all the 37 cases in Bhattu Block.

In Ratia 109 out of 202 cases, in Bhuna 27 out of 56 cases, in Jakhal 32 out of 56 cases and in Fatehabad 38 out of 91 cases were found to have irregularities in the distribution of grants. The rules stipulate that in order to get benefit of the scheme, a beneficiary must have a BPL certificate and must not have a pucca house of his own.

Out of the total number of grants, 75 per cent grants are to be given to those belonging to the scheduled castes.

Nirmaljit Kaur, chairperson, Block Samiti, Ratia, had alleged large-scale bungling in the scheme in a complaint given to the authorities last year.

Karnal, May 13
Two days after the seven Congress leaders from Karnal district had joined the Haryana Janhit Congress (BL), party chief Kuldeep Bishnoi announced the inclusion of several office-bearers of the BSP in his party.

Addressing a press conference here today, Bishnoi announced that more political leaders would join his party but refused to reveal further.

He said these workers had joined his party after they were “depressed” in their respective political outfits, which did not give respect to dedicated workers. Dr Om Narayan said he had resigned from the BSP mainly due to the undemocratic working of the party’s state leadership.

According to UNI Dinesh Sharma, brother of Karnal Congress MP Dr Arvind Sharma, today joined the HJC. His wife Anuradha also joined the party.

Sonepat, May 13
The police has arrested five persons for their alleged involvement in attacking an assistant superintendent of jail, Prithvi Singh, near Shani Mandir here on April 6.

They have been identified as Bhupinder of Chamarian village, Jitender of Sunarian, Anil of Sunderpur, Ashish of Pakasma village and Paramjit of Ghevra village. According to SSP Navdeep Singh Virk, during interrogation, it was revealed that in 2006 Paramjit, Anil and Bhupinder were lodged in Rohtak jail in a case of murder and Prithvi Singh was serving as the assistant superintendent in Rohtak jail at that time.

They wanted Prithvi Singh to provide them with some illegal facilities, but he did not oblige them. Therefore, they allegedly attacked Prithvi Singh with wooden sticks to take revenge.