NEIGHBOURHOOD

Sural Khurd, a hunting ground for moneymen
Even as the land is yet to be acquired for the thermal power plant in Sural Khurd village, bankers and car dealers have already starting wooing the villagers with freebies
Gurdeep Singh Mann
Tribune News Service

Sural Khurd (Rajpura), November 7
A large number of villagers today opposed construction of the Rajpura thermal power plant demanding a revision of rates fixed for land acquired by the government.

Demanding Rs 51 lakh per acre, villagers alleged that the government is yet to fix the price of their land to be acquired for the proposed thermal plant, but has announced the date for inauguration.

The land of seven villages, including Sural Khurd, Sural Kalan, Rangian, Nalas Kalan, Nalas Khurd, Sadhraur and Raimajra, is being acquired by the government for the construction of 1200 MW thermal plant on the agricultural land.

Despite repeated requests nothing has been done to fix the price of their land, the villagers alleged.

The villagers said the government was not acquiring the entire land holdings and instead had decided to take just a few portions.

"Once the farmers are dislocated, they would never be able to settle down again. I would not be able to buy the consolidated land at any other place, while the leftover land small portions of the land will be of no use,” said Balwant Singh.

"The tube well in fields will be included in the acquisitioned land and I will not be able to water rest of my fields. We have requested the government to solve this problem by, including the entire land of such farmers,” he said.

The farmers said the land was so fertile that they have got eight quintals yield of wheat per acre. The rivulet would be closed with the construction of a boundary wall of the power plant. Senior officials on the condition of anonymity said the government would give Rs 34 lakh per acre and many farmers were eager for inclusion of their land under the acquired area.

SDM Gurmeet Singh when contacted said he had recently joined and was yet to study the case in detail.

Kalka, November 7
Traffic on the National Highway-22 near the Kalka-Pinjore railway crossing was badly disrupted today for more than one hour.

According to railway sources, some maintenance work of height gauge on the railway crossing was being carried out, which caused the disruption of the traffic.

The long queues of the vehicles could be seen on both sides of the railway crossing, subsequently, daily commuters as well as passengers had to face the inconvenience especially students and patients.

It must be mentioned here that recently an overloaded and recklessly driven truck had damaged the height gauge installed at the railway crossing.

Ropar, November 7
The Ropar police have solved a blind murder case wherein a woman was found killed near the canal in Chamkaur Sahib on November 3.

The deceased woman's lover, his mother and friend had strangulated her to death. The deceased, Ranjit Kaur alias Rita, was married five years ago and has two sons.

She was estranged from her husband and had been staying with her father Joginder Singh at Chamkaur Sahib for sometime. Rita had a relationship with one Jagjeet Singh, alias Happy, a resident of Khamano.

As per police records, both wanted to marry but Jagjeet's family objected to the relationship. Later on, Jagjeet too started dilly-dallying over the issue of marriage.

Jagjeet's parents pressurised him to get married to someone else but he said that this wont be possible till Ranjit Kaur was alive.

Jagjeet, his mother Amarjeet Kaur and his friend Himanshu, alias Ashu, decided to kill Ranjit Kaur. On October 31, she left her parents home on the pretext that she was going to meet her aunt at Fatehgarh Sahib.

Instead, she went to Jagjeet at Khamano. There she stayed with his family overnight and next day on November 1, Jagjeet and Amarjeet Kaur strangulated her to death.

Jagjeet and Himanshu took her body to Chamkaur Sahib and dumped it near the canal. They also stole her gold ornaments and mobile phone.

A police team, comprising SHO Chamkaur Sahib Raminder Singh, CIA in charge Gurcharan Singh under DSP (D) Satinderpal Singh solved the case and arrested all the three accused.

Kharar, November 7
The police has arrested four more accused in the Bhago Majra gang rape case. Accused Fateh Singh alias Titu and Kamaljit Singh, who were arrested on Thursday, had disclosed the names of the four accused.

Those arrested today have been identified as Mandeep Singh alias Rosy, Mohan Singh, Kulbir Singh and Sukhwinder Singh, all residents of Bhago Majra village. The accused were also paraded before the victim for identification.

Fateh Singh and Kamaljit Singh were sent in police remand by a local court till November 10.

Meanwhile, the vaginal swabs of the victim have been sent for lab test. The age determination test of the victim was to be conducted at Kharar civil hospital. However, as there is no radiologist at the hospital, doctors have referred her to the Mohali civil hospital.

The minor girl was raped on Diwali night when she was washing utensils at her house with her maternal aunt. At around 8 pm, Kamaljit scaled the wall and opened the main gate of the house.

Around 12 youths entered her house and allegedly raped her while her maternal aunt fled from the scene. The incident came to light when her mother and sisters returned home at around 11 pm.

Following a complaint on November 4, a case was registered against all accused today after verification by DSP Kharar Raj Balwinder Singh.

Patiala, November 7
Barjinder Singh, alias Makhan, an accused in Moga sex scandal-cum-corruption case, surrendered in the CBI court of H.S. Madaan here today.

It is pertinent to mention here that a case RC 30/2007 US 7,13(2) PC Act 1988 and 384,211,120B IPC had been registered by the CBI at Chandigarh against eight persons — AIG Davinder Singh Garcha, SP Paramdeep Singh, SHO Raman Kumar, Amarjit Singh, Sukhraj Singh, Bhupinder Singh, Manpreet Kaur and Manjit Kaur.

The eight accused were arrested by the CBI and now are out on bail after being remanded in custody. It was there when Barjinder Singh’s name had surfaced.

Barjinder’s lawyer Satnam Singh Kler urged the court that his client should be provided with a lawyer from Chandigarh. The judge granted him permission, although he added that Barjinder Singh could meet his counsel just for 10 minutes in the evening.

Barjinder’s counsel also said if his client was remanded in police custody, he should first be taken to GMCH, Sector 32, or the PGI for medical tests. The judge ordered the CBI to provide immediate treatment to Barjinder since he was a patient of asthma and also had acute back ache.

The Chandigarh-based CBI team, under the leadership of DSP Karnail Singh, later took Barjinder to Chandigarh The judge also ordered that Barjinder be produced in court before 1 pm on November 10.

Patiala, November 7
On a call given by a state sector bank employees association, a day-long dharna was held by members of the All-India State Bank of Patiala Employees Federation here today.

They protested in front of the head office of the State Bank of Patiala on The Mall. Union leader S K Gaur said if their demands were not met they would resort to agitation.

More than 200 members were staged a dharna against discriminatory attitude of the State Bank of India management for not holding the negotiations with the elected representatives despite provisions of the Trade Union Act 1926.

Ambala, November 7
Students of the local ITI boycotted the classrooms and demonstrated in front of the main gate of the institution today morning to press upon their demands. The principal of the institution was on leave today.

The students alleged that the principal had not been taking care of their demands. SHO, city police station, reached there, along with police force. After his persuasion and assurance, the students called off their demonstration.

The students said if their demands were not fulfilled, they would start their agitation again. They did not attend the classes today.

Bassi Pathana, November 7
Students of Pine Grove Public School won five medals in the Punjab Open Table Soccer Championship held at Pathankot.

Vijay Kaushal, chairman of the school, in a press release issued today said five students of the school Hardilpreet, Karandeep, Simran, Inderpreet and Harshpreet won silver and bronze medals in their respective categories.

He said the table soccer team of the school earlier also had won various competitions. He said these students were duly honoured by the school on their achievement.

Veena Kaushal, principal of the school, has also highlighted the achievements of the school in the field of sports, cultural activities and studies.

Chandigarh, November 7
His tried to cling to the past, and everything that came his way. As the eight-year-old boy’s NRI mother took him and his two-year-old younger sister out of the Punjab and Haryana High Court under police escort, he struggled hard to stall the progress by grabbing whatever he could lay his tender hands on - hard metal railing cordoning of the parking area, even shirts of the passersby and the cops.

Eyes red and anger writ large on his visage, he blubbered “daddy-daddy” as reluctant feet carried him out of the court premises.

The heart-rending scene was witnessed by the lawyers, the litigants and the visitors to the high court this afternoon after the mother took custody of the children with the culmination of the contempt of court proceedings against the father.

The father, also an NRI, had lost the case of custody to the mother in July this year. Allowing the mother’s petition, Justice Vinod Kumar Sharma of the high court had directed the handing over of the children’s custody to her. She was also granted the liberty of taking them to Canada.

Justice Sharma, in his detailed order, had observed: “The order of the court, though of a foreign country, deserves to be respected. There is an order passed by the Ontario Superior Court of Justice giving custody of the minors to the petitioner. Furthermore, the minor children being citizens of Canada would be looked after well by the mother in Canada”.

Apparently, the high court orders were not complied with as the mother filed a petition seeking the initiation of contempt of court. The mother contended the interest of justice required the issuance of directions to the respondents to hand over the custody of the minor children to her as ordered by the high court.

In response, the father asserted sincere efforts were made to comply with the high court orders, but the whereabouts of the petitioner were not known. As such, the custody of the children could not be handed over to the mother.

The father added he had brought the children to the court so that the custody could be handed over. As the petition came up for hearing before Justice Ajay Kumar Mittal, the orders were complied with and the children were sent with the mother in police custody. Soon after, the high drama prevailed.

Chandigarh, November 7
It seems that the case of the inter-faith marriage is heading towards a happy ending, with the girl striking a perfect balance to save both the families-that of her husband and parents- from legal wrangles.

Razia, who had married her boyfriend Manoj in Tirunamallai on October 10, after eloping last month, today made a statement before the magistrate (U/S 164 CrPC) that she had not been kidnapped by Manoj but had gone with him of her own volition.

She also claimed that she was not a minor, as her kin had claimed in the FIR against her husband, registered at the Sector 26 police station on October 13.

In an effort to save her parents, she also refuted Manoj’s charges in the FIR, in which he had alleged that her kin took her away forcibly from outside the Punjab and Haryana High Court yesterday. Eight persons, including Razia’s father and two brothers, Imran and Sikandar, had been named in the FIR, registered yesterday at Sector 3 police station.

“I went to meet my mother yesterday without informing anyone, which led to confusion. None of my relatives had kidnapped me”, said Razia while talking to the TNS at the district and sessions court here today.

Razia came to the Sector 26 police station with her parents around 1.30 pm, from where she was taken to district courts by the police to record her statement.

Contrary to her parents’ claims about her being a minor, Razia categorically said, “I am 19 years old but I have no proof to support my claim”.

Her parents also could not furnish any document regarding her age. “She was born at Shahnpur village in 1993. At the moment we have not any document with us to corroborate the fact”, said Mohammad Ashraf, her father.

To ascertain her exact age, the police took her to GMSH, Sector 16 to conduct
ossification tests.

“Tomorrow, her ossification test would be conducted to ascertain her exact age”, said Kiran, Manoj’s sister.

Earlier, Manoj was sent to judicial remand by the duty magistrate. In the court, Razia also decided to go with her husband’s family at their place.

“If she wanted to live with them, what could we do?”, said her father while giving up. On the development, DSP (East) PK Dhawan said, “Only after the outcome of the report of ossification test, we will decide the further course of action”.

Panchkula, November 7
A youth living in Sector 12 has filed a petition in a local court for an anticipatory bail in the gangrape case here yesterday.

The youth identified as Kushal is accused of taking the victim to Chandigarh in his car before she was allegedly taken to a village in Punjab and raped on September 16.

The victim, however, stated that the accused driving the car had returned after dropping her along with other accused at the Tribune chowk.

Kushal, on the other hand, seeking anticipatory bail claimed that neither his name was mentioned in the FIR and statements of the victim nor his location was found to be the spot of crime at the time and day the victim stated in her complaints to the police.

The petitioner has claimed that the police has got the details of his mobile phone location on the day of crime and it was not found to be at the Tribune chowk.

Meanwhile, the police reportedly got a picture of Chhavi in the prospectus of school. The picture being very small and with side pose of the girl could not be identified by the staff of the school. Now, the police will go to the printing press where prospectus was printed.

Chandigarh, November 7
Rajat, a plus two student, allegedly committed suicide by consuming some poisonous substance on last night. Son of a Chandigarh Police officer, Rajat was rushed to the Sector 16 Government Multi-Specialty Hospital from where he was referred to the PGI where he died in the wee hours.

Though no suicide note was recovered, the police termed the incident as suicide saying that medical reports confirmed that Rajat had consumed pesticide.

On the other hand, the deceased’s father Pardeep Kumar, an officer at the police headquarters, claimed that he his son died due to food poisoning.

Pardeep Kumar he, a student of Shishu Niketan School in Sector 22, had come home at around 9 pm and said he had taken dinner outside. After sometime, he began vomiting and his condition deteriorated and was rushed to the hospital.

Sources in the police said the post-mortem was not conducted today. The family did not express doubts on anyone. Pardeep Kumar said he was a brilliant student and had always got good marks.

Jaspal Singh, in charge of the Sector 22 police post, said doctors had confirmed that Rajat had consumed some pesticide and the exact cause of death would be known only after the post-mortem.

“We kept on trying the number but nobody replied and ultimately one of the persons had to go to the police post to inform about the incident,” they said.

Mohali, November 7
The local police today registered a case of snatching on a complaint of Kamaljit Kaur, a resident of Phase IV.

She alleged that when she was returning home with her father, two motor cycle-borne unidentified youngsters asked them to hand over the valuable possessions.

She alleged one of the youths brandished a knife, while another was carrying an iron rod. She further alleged the motor cyclists snatched her purse containing Rs 2,200 and also some important documents.

Chandigarh, November 7
As many as 1,000
students participated
in various track and
field events in the Annual Athletics Meet of Sri Guru Harkrishan Model School, Sector 38, which concluded here today at the sports complex, Sector 46.

Dr Vandana Disodia, HCS, secretary, the State Transport Authority, Chandigarh, presided over the function.

The programme commenced with lighting of the lamp by the chief guest, followed by a march past by all four houses and an oath taking ceremony. The meet was declared open amidst a release of colourful balloons and cheers.

Results Category- I

100 m (Boys) I-Vishal, II-Sandeep, III-Sumit

(Girls) I-Ashneek, II-Harshani, III-Komal

100 m (Girls) I-Sahiba, II-Mannanya (Red House), III-Arshia (Yellow House)

200 m (Boys) I-Shubham, II-Harpreet, III-Arun

100 m (Boys) I-Abhishek, II-Gurtej, III-Karanveer

Category- II

200 m (Boys) I-Naveen, II-Navdeep, III-Lovepreet

100 m (Girls) I-Shilpa, II-Harmit, III-Jaspreet

200 m (Boys) I-Anmol, II-Jatinder, III-Dharminder

100 m (Boys) I-Jagjit, II-Naveen, III-Lovepreet

Category- III

100 m (Boys) I-Sharvan, II-Shantanu, III-Bhuvnesh, Amandeep

(Girls) I-Shruti, II-Tripjot, III-Arpita.

100 m (Boys) I-Raman, II-Robin, III-Simarpreet.

Panchkula, November 7
Defending champions New Public School (NPS), Sector 18, boys and girls teams were dethroned in the fifth Emily Gosain Memorial Inter-School Basketball Tournament, which was organised by St Xavier's School in Sector 21 here today.

Playing an inspired game, St Xavier's School, Sector 44, Chandigarh, wrested the boys’ title while St Kabir School, Sector 26, Chandigarh, stunned them in the girls’ section.

St Xavier's-44 carved out a thrilling 64-52 verdict over NPS in the boys’ final while St Kabir School proved too good for NPS by routing them with an authentic margin of 55-16 in the one-sided girls’ final.

Sartaj of NPS and Rupandeep Kaur of St Kabir School were declared the best players of the tournament.

Results (all finals):

Boys: St Xavier's School-44, Chandigarh, (Vishawadeep 16, Anmol 12, Stanzin 9, Gurjot 18, Sanchit 7) bt New Public School-18, Chandigarh, (Deepak 2, Gurpinder 2, Dilbag 1, Sartaj 30, Sunraj 2, Gurlovleen 6) by 64-52 (quarter-wise scores 7-18, 13-6, 17-12, 27-16).

Girls: St Kabir School-27 (Naina 23, Rupandeep 22, Kriti 6, Prakriti 4) bt New Public School, Sector 18, Chandigarh, (Manisha 2, Neha 14) by 55-16 (14-7, 14-4, 14-2, 13-3).

Chandigarh, November 7
Uttam Singh Mundy of Chandigarh fired a hole in one as Anirban Lahiri and C. Muniyappa surged ahead to tie for the top slot on the penultimate day of the Rs 20 lakh PGTI Toyoto Atlis Open on the par 72 Eagleton greens near Bangalore today.

Mundy fired the first hole in one of the tournaments when his five iron tee shot on the par three 12th hole pitched 4 ft short of the pin and then trickled in. This was the ninth hole in one of Mundy's professional career. Mundy's round included four birdies and two double bogeys, besides his hole in one. He was tied 13th after round three at four under 212 (71-71-70).

Lahiri and Muniyappa had an identical tournament total of 13 under 203 after three rounds. While Lahiri turned in a four under 68 on Friday, Muniyappa joined him at the top after firing a two under 70.

The chasing trio of a 15-year-old Bangalore amateur S. Chikkarangappa, Kunal Bhasin and veteran Mukesh Kumar was placed tied third at 11 under 205.

Amateur golfer S. Chikkarangappa (71, 68, 66), the 15-year-old sensation from Eagleton, recorded the best score of round three when he came up with a six under 66. He is currently tied third at 11 under 205.

Harmeet Kahlon of Chandigarh, who equalled the course record yesterday, played a par game to be tied sixth at nine under 207 (71, 64, 72) while the Delhi duo of Manav Jaini (72, 67, 69) and Himmat Singh Rai (72, 66, 70) were a further stroke behind in tied seventh.

Chandigarh's Sujjan Singh fired five birdies in a blemish free five under 67 to be tied 12th at six under 210 (73-70-67). A.S. Lehal, who was the other city golfer to equal the course record yesterday, carded a one over 73 today to be tied 13th at four under 212 (75-64-73).

Kapurthala's Gaganjeet Bhullar totalled two under 214 (70-74-70) to be tied 24th. Harendra Gupta occupied the 28th slot with an overall score of one under 215 (69-73-73).

The other city golfers in the fray were Ranjit Singh (70-71-75), Randhir Singh Ghotra (73-72-71) and Ajeetesh Sandhu (68-72-76), who were all tied 34th at 216.

Roop Singh was tied 41 at three over 219 and Gurbaaz Mann occupied the tied 44th slot at four over 220.