Jalandhar, November 22
The anti-fraud wing of the district police has arrested three travel agents, including a brother-sister duo, on cheating charges in the last 24 hours.

Kewal Singh, a resident of Kala Bakra here complained to the police that eight ‘travel agents’ two of them NRIs, duped him of Rs 10 lakh on the pretext of settling him down in the UK.

Kewal Singh claimed that in 2006 he made a payment of Rs 4 lakh to Sukhdev Singh and his five associates- Sukhdev Billa, Kamaljit Singh, Surinder Singh, Harbhajan Singh and Charan Singh, all residents of Adampur, while Rs 6 lakh were paid to their two accomplice in England.

He alleged that the agents did not provide him permanent visa following which he was rounded up by the England police.

Subsequently, he was deported to India. When the complainant approached the accused, they blatantly refused to return his money.

The investigating officer ASI Surjit Singh said Sukhdev Singh has been arrested and a case under sections 406, 420, 465, 468 and 120-B of the IPC has been registered against him. The other accused are still at large.

In another case, a brother and a sister, who were wanted in half-a-dozen cheating cases, were arrested by the police.

The duo, residents of Gurunanakpura, were running a fake finance company in Urban Estate Phase-I.

Sub-inspector Gurdial Singh said the accused, identified as Dimple and Rickey, had went underground after closing their establishment in March this year.

The ‘financiers’ were arrested on the complaint of Rajkumar and four others. The duo duped them of Rs 2.50 lakh.

Jalandhar, November 22
The two suspects Dharminder Singh alias Rinku and his friend Harvinder Singh alias Harry, who were arrested by the police in the Raj Rani murder case, have been remanded in three-day police custody today.

The duo were produced in the court of judicial magistrate Manohar Kumar.

Residents of Sikanderpur area, the accused had hacked Raj Rani (65) to death and critically injured her daughter Bindu, a school lecturer, after entering their house.

Rinku, Bindu’s cousin, had gone to Rani’s house in Sant Nagar along with Harry to
demand money.

However, when his demand was turned down, he, in a fit of rage, attacked Raj Rani with a flowerpot, leaving her dead on the spot.

The accused fled from the spot after hitting Bindu with a vase.

Jalandhar, November 22
All of 28, this Jalandhar lad has already started climbing up the ladders to success in Bollywood. Popularly known as Master Saleem, he had earlier made waves by singing his popular chart buster ‘Mast Kalandar’ for the film ‘Hey Baby’, his new song ‘Maa da ladla bigar gaya’ of ‘Dostana’ has again been a hit, especially with young brigade.

A small time singer who had always been popular with his performances in jagrans, Salim and his father Sufi singer Puran Shah Koti had been living in penury all these years till fortune struck recently.

Now the family owns a couple of properties, drives through the city in SUVs, flaunts expensive watches, jewellery and hi-tech music gadgets and dines out in the best of restaurants.

Saleem has converted his old house (at Preet Nagar near Nakodar Road) into his studio that now bears the words ‘Sur Sangam’ on the name plate.

The family has shifted to a new house in Deol Nagar. The singer’s music den, where he spends hours doing riyaaz, is equipped with the latest sound system, advanced keyboards, computer systems with the latest music-composing software, laptop, net facility and of course his precious, old harmonium which he had been gifted by Ustad Ghulam Ali Khan. Salim tells that he wants to get it done up even more nicely.

Salim recalls his old days, “As a child, I had always yearned for luxuries that people around me enjoyed. But luxuries were far-fetched dreams, we found it difficult to meet even our basic needs.

“Circumstances did not permit me to study beyond matriculation. I was just eight when my first song ‘Charkhe di ghook’ became a hit. I began singing by compulsion.

“As I grew up, I started realising the market demands. I tried convincing my father that I would not be able to sustain by simply singing Sufiana numbers. I needed to diversify,” he tried putting up his point.

He beamed as he disclosed, “I have some great offers in hand. I have sung songs for yet-to-be-released movies of Subhash Ghai, Ram Gopal Verma, Sanjay Dutt and Dharmendra. I have sung with Adnan Sami, Shankar and Vishal Shekhar.

“I am getting so much work that I have hardly got time to watch the movies that I have sung for. You will be surprised to know that I have not yet seen Dostana.”

Saleem clearly is a God-fearing guy for he reveals, “I will never discontinue performing at jagrans. It was during the telecast of one of these programmes on a TV channel that top music directors in Mumbai noticed me and offered me a chance.

“I cannot leave a platform that gave me such a good break. I believe that I need to continue to seek the blessings of the almighty to succeed.”

Regarding continuation of the music legacy in his family, Saleem said, “My elder son Shahdil has also begun singing. But I do not want him to enter this music world now. I want him to concentrate on his studies.”

Nawanshahr, November 22
Deputy commissioner, Nilkanth Avhad, accompanied by the district education officer Prem Chand Gupta, district science supervisor Kuldip Singh, district SSA coordinator Ashok Kumar, and district ICT Coordinator Amrik Singh, conducted surprised checking of a number of schools in the district on Saturday.

Avhad virtually donned the cap of a teacher while taking stock of the progress of the 'Paroh Punjab' programme in different primary schools.

He asked questions relating to different subjects to the students.

He also took stock of the sanitation in schools and checked the quality of the mid-day-meal being prepared in the common kitchen of the district by tasting the 'daliya' himself.

The deputy commissioner also took action against the teachers who were showing dereliction in duty.

At Sloh village, the DC asked questions relating to the basic concepts of science from the children but could not get sufficient response from them.

He asked the DEO to take action against the science mistress.

At Karimpur village, the DC was irked by the prevailing insanitary conditions in the school and issued instructions to charge-sheet the school head.

At Kot Ranjha village, he asked the DEO to transfer two teachers as he was not satisfied with work.

While issuing instructions to the DEO and district SSA coordinator to ensure daily inspection of the school in the morning and evening, DC asked the block primary education officers and block master trainers to ensure proper implementation of the ‘Paroh Punjab’ programme, aimed at ensuring that the children be made aware about the basic concepts in languages, science, mathematics etc. so that the education system should be strengthened at the grass-roots level.

Hoshiarpur, November 22
A bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, consisting Chief Justice T.S. Thakur and Justice Jasbir Singh, yesterday ordered to the chairman of the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) to probe within 14 day whether the project M/s Kings Food Incorporation, Hardo Khanpur village, Tanda Road, Hoshiarpur, was sanctioned by the environmental officer, Hoshiarpur, Kulwant Singh, on reasonable grounds.

Advocate Naveen Jairath in a press conference here this afternoon said on account of pollution due to the functioning of the unit, devotees of the adjacent Virakat Kutir Ashram Ved Parkash Dadwal and others filed a public interest litigation against the state government and others for getting closed the industry causing severe pollution in the area. They had earlier approached the PPCB in this connection, but it failed to take any action.

The counsel for the PPCB, A.R. Takkar, in a written reply to the bench stated that keeping in view the seriousness of the issue, the board authorities had ordered for immediate closure of the industry and the copy of the order had also been sent to the deputy commissioner for necessary action.

The board authorities had also issued instructions to the authorities of the Punjab State Electricity Board, Hoshiarpur, to disconnect the power supply of the industry.

A.R. Takkar stated that the industry had previously obtained green category licence and later sought to convert it to red category, due to which the PPCB had issued the order.

In the order of the PPCB, it was mentioned that the failure to comply with the directions are liable for action under section 37 of the Air (Prevention & Control of Pollution) Act, 1981, as amended in 1987.

Advocate Naveen Jairath alleged that according to his information, the PSEB authorities had received the copy of the instructions on November 20, but even then it had not taken any action till date.