NEIGHBOURHOOD

Four dead in accidents
Tribune News Service

Biker killed
Our Correspondent

Bassi Pathana, June 4
Bhupinder Singh, a resident of Khuda Ali Sher, was killed on the spot in an accident when a motorcycle collided with a scooter at Veero Majri village.

According to information, Bhupinder was on his way from Naraina village to Veero Majri on his bike when a speeding scooter coming from the opposite direction hit his motorcycle. The accused fled from spot leaving his scooter behind.

Bhupinder died on the spot. A case has been registered and the body was handed over to the family after postmortem.

Bassi Pathana, June 4
Giving in to the demand of Bassi Pathana residents and following reports in The Tribune, the Northern Railway authorities has extended the stopover of 4553, 4554 Himachal Express at Bassi Pathana Railway station for three more months from today.

It is to be mentioned that the railway authorities had threatened to withdraw the stopover of Himachal Express at Bassi Pathana railway station from June 3, following which various social religious and political organisations had threatened to launch an agitation.

Kharar, June 4
The body of 78-year-old NRI Balwant Singh, who was found dead under mysterious circumstances at his residence in Sunny Enclave, Mundi Kharar, was handed over to his friends after postmortem.

The postmortem was conducted today at the civil hospital. The viscera of the body have been sent for chemical examination. Meanwhile, the deceased's friends ruled out any foul play, following which police is continuing with its inquest proceedings.

Ambala, June 4
Four persons fell unconscious under the influence of ammonia gas in the sewer disposal well being constructed for laying the sewerage line near Baldev Nagar at Ambala city today.

According to information, labourers Yogesh and Pradeep climbed down the sewerage line to check its level. The toxic gas affected them and they fell unconscious. Two local residents Deepak and Sohan Lal also climbed down in the sewerage when they noticed that Yogesh and Pradeep had not returned. However, they also fell unconscious.

Residents of the area pulled them out of the sewerage line and rushed them to the local civil hospital. Their condition was stated to be stable.

Local MLA Venod Sharma and senior Congress leaders, including Dilip Chawla Bittu, Harish Sasan, Arun Garg and Parminder Bala went to the hospital to meet the injured.

Chandigarh, June 4
Thirty-year-old Shamim Khan from Delhi set the Gokama Forest Golf Resort greens ablaze as he fired a 10-under par 62 to erase the nine-under 63 record of compatriot Vinod Kumar set on the same Kathmandu course a couple of years back. This record-breaking feat saw him grab the lead on the opening day of the Surya Nepal Masters in Kathmandu today.

Chandigarh big-hitter Gurbaaz Pratap Singh Mann trailed the leader by three strokes as he also shot an impressive seven under par 65 on the opening day of the Nepalese Rs 20 lakh prize money event.

Tashi Lobsang, who is a local amateur, and local pro Ram Thapa fired an ace on the par-3 13th each to make it a unique record of two hole-in-ones on the same day and on the same hole.

Chandigarh caddie turned pro Harinder Gupta returned a two under par 70 to be in the ninth position with two more Chandigarh golfers Ranjit Singh and Sujjan Singh tying for the 10th slot with an identical one under par 71 card.

In the International Amateur Team event, Bangladesh took the pole position at 147 as Shahid and Shekhawat Hussein returned cards of 75 and 72 respectively. Nepal ‘A’ kept in touch with Rupak Acharya and Tashi Ghale combining together for a total of 149. The Indian pair of Tarun Ghogale and Karan Vasudev had a disappointing outing and was third at 156. Nepal `B’ were fourth at 159 while Sri Lanka were lying last at 161.

The pint-sized dynamo Shamim is no stranger to low scores and has returned a similar number during an international event in India. After sinking birdies on first, third, fifth and seventh on his front nine, the 30-year-old continued the momentum in the back nine with birdies on 10th, 13th, 15th and 18th and capping it with an eagle on the par-5 12th.

The best part of his game was his iron-play where he peppered the flag every time and hit 17 greens-in-regulation and made 26 putts for the day. “I felt very comfortable out there today with the green speeds to my liking and I hope to continue the god form over the week,” said Shamim. “The weather was also conducive and I really enjoyed it out there,” he added.

Shreshta who has been making waves on the Surya Nepal Tour matched Gurbaaz shot for shot for the first 10 holes of his round before Gurbaaz had a purple patch and birdied five of the last eight holes to record a 65. Gurbaaz’’s birdies came on 11th, 16th and 18th on his front nine while making a solitary bogey on the 12th to take the turn at 1-under. On the back nine, he saved strokes on 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 7th and 9th.

Top Scores after 18 holes: 62 Shamim Khan; 65 Gurbaaz Pratap Singh Mann; 68 Vinod Kumar, Anura Rohana (Sri Lanka); 69 Kunal Balhara, Ram Thapa (Nepal), Vijay Kumar, Chirag Kumar; 70 Harinder Gupta; 71 Shiv Ram Shrestha (Nepal), Siddikur Rahman (Bangledesh), Ranjit Singh, Sujjan Singh.

Chandigarh, June 4
City girl Anuradha Bansal (26) has created history of the sort today by qualifying the international umpiring examination for table tennis. She is the youngest Indian female to have qualified this test.

She is one of the first female players in the northern region to have cleared this examination in the last twenty years.

The test was conducted by the International Table Tennis Federation and is held once every two years worldwide. Bansal can now be nominated as a referee for all the international table tennis tournaments.

Talking about her success she said, “This is the fruit of the hard work and encouragement that I received from my family and mentors.”

Bansal has been coaching table tennis for the last eight years in the city and has umpired national table tennis tournaments. Many of her trainees have brought glory to the city in various national tournaments.

Chandigarh, June 4
“The sports funds should be increased and more facilities and infrastructure should be provided to the volleyball players,” opined Sanjay Kumar, member of Indian volleyball team that clinched gold medal for the first time in the history during Youth Asian Championship held at Vishakhapatnam in 2003.

This Panchkula-based player was honoured with a cash prize of Rs 51,000 during the prestigious Bhim Award function held at Haryana Raj Bhawan, here today.

His journey started from a small village of Makrana, watching his elder brothers playing volleyball. He managed to get selected in Sai Sports Hostel in Bhivani and is now leading the national team.

This 6’-6” tall player started playing volleyball at the age of 17. In 2000, he was picked up for national camp held in Chennai. “Volleyball lies in my blood,” says Sanjay adding that, “My elder brothers were good volleyball players and I grew up watching them play.”

His first international debut was in 2001 during the Senior Asian Championship held at South Korea. Two years later he was part of the team, which participated in World Championship held in Thailand.

In 2006, his team participated in South Asian Federation Games held in Colombo, during which the team again received a gold medal. Now, Sanjay is keeping his fingers crossed for the upcoming Beijing Olympics. “At present, I am looking forward to the forthcoming Olympics and I am working hard for it,” said Sanjay.

Chandigarh, June 4
The crime branch of the Chandigarh police today arrested two persons on the charges of fraud and forgery. The duo was caught for possessing fake passport, which were found missing from the passport office, Sector 34, in 2006.

The accused have been identified as Sukhwant Singh, a resident of Kapurthala, and Raj Kumar, a resident of Patiala. The crime branch took the two into their custody from the Punjab police who had arrested them earlier.

According to the officials of the crime branch, the two were deported from Singapore last year, following an investigation that revealed that the passports held by them were fake. Both were in the Punjab police custody since then.

According to the sources, in 2006 as many as 49 passports were found missing from the passport office, including 49 important files. A day later, one passport and 44 files were recovered from the fourth floor of the building, while 48 passports and five files were still missing.

During the interrogation the duo revealed that they got the passports made from an Amritsar-based agent Vicky. The agent took Rs 8 lakh and sent the two to Singapore.

According to the sources, the crime branch, along with the accused, would raid a couple of places in Haryana in order to collect other details and carry out some more arrests who could be involved in the racket.

The duo is booked under Sections 419, 420, 467, 468, and 471, and is sent to five days in police remand.

Chandigarh, June 4
The Chandigarh police today arrested a proclaimed offender, involved in several cases of theft.

According to Kulwant Singh Pannu, SHO, Sector 17 police station, Rajinder Singh, a resident of Rajpura, was arrested from his home on receiving a tip-off. He was wanted in several cases of theft in the city in 1994. The 42-year- old was declared a proclaimed offender in August 2005, when he fled from the court.

The accused was today produced before the local court, which remanded him to 14 days’ judicial custody.