Batala, December 14
Greed to grab a piece of agricultural land has landed two persons in jail. Harjit Singh, alias Kala, resident of Bhol village in Batala police district, enacted the drama of his own kidnapping with the motive to grab a piece of land which was to be transferred in the name of his brother Jasbir Singh as it stood in the name of his mother in the revenue record.

Harjit, who was legally adopted by his maternal uncle Kunan Singh, had been residing with him since his childhood along with one of his friends Sukhdev Singh, alias Maruti, a resident of Bal Saran village under Beas police station.

Harjit first moved an application to the police and claimed that he was also entitled to a share in the land which was in the name of his mother and was being transferred to Jasbir Singh.

On the other hand, Jasbir Singh had also moved an application to the police that as Harjit Singh had been adopted by his maternal uncle, he could not claim any share in the property which belonged to him (Jasbir Singh), though it was in the name of his mother.

The police summoned both the complainants to the police station for settlement of the dispute as per law.

However, police sources said after taking the land belonging to his adoptive father Kunan Singh, Harjit started trying to grab the land belonging to Jasbir Singh who was living with his mother after the death of his father in his own village.

Sources added that what the accused did was that he, along with one of his friends, enacted the drama of his own kidnapping on December 7, the day when he and his brother were called to the police station.

Harjit Singh made Sukhdev Singh call Kunan Singh and say that he (Harjit) had been kidnapped on the instructions of Jasbir Singh and that the kidnappers had held out a threat that Harjit could be released only if he gave his consent to the transfer of land in the name of Jasbir Singh and forfeited his claim of share.

SSP Naresh Kumar Arora, while talking to The Tribune today, said a special police team, which was constituted to trace Harjit Singh and his kidnappers, had solved the mystery behind the kidnapping.

He added that the kidnapping drama was enacted by Harjit Singh and his friend so that Jasbir Singh could be implicated in a false criminal case and a piece of land, which was to be transferred to the name of Jasbir Singh, could be transferred to his name.

He said though a case of kidnapping was registered against Jasbir Singh and others, the police was suspecting foul play because when Kunan Singh informed it about the kidnapping of Harjit Singh, allegedly by persons hired by Jasbir Singh, Jasbir was sitting at the police station.

The SSP added that Kunan Singh had also been told by the kidnappers that they had been given Rs 30,000 as advance money by Jasbir and Harjit would be killed if he did not give his consent to the transfer of a piece of land to the name of Jasbir Singh. He was told that Jasbir and the kidnappers had struck a deal of Rs 1 lakh for this task.

Arora said after thorough investigation it was found that Harjit Singh and Sukhdev Singh had enacted the drama of kidnapping.

He said a fresh case was registered against them at Ghuman police station while the process for cancellation of the case registered against Jasbir Singh for the kidnapping of Harjit Singh had been started.

Gurdaspur, December 14
Arrest of two employees has put a big question mark on the functioning of the local civil hospital as it is the fourth case of corruption which has come to light during the current year.

Medical officer Harbhajan Mandi and pharmacist Ashwani Kumar, working at the local civil hospital, were caught red-handed today by a vigilance bureau team while they were accepting bribe from Baljeet Singh in lieu of preparing a medico-legal report of his father-in-law Santokh Singh.

Earlier, the vigilance bureau had caught clerk Reeta Rani and peon Darshan for taking bribe from people.

Information gathered by The Tribune revealed that after Harbhajan Mandi and Ashwani Kumar were caught, currency notes worth Rs 1,500 and Rs 500 were recovered from their possession, respectively.

After taking Rs 2,000 as the bribe money from Baljeet Singh, the accused had distributed the same between themselves. Harbhajan Mandi kept Rs 1,500, while Ashwani was given Rs 500.

Information revealed that the accused had demanded Rs 4,000 as bribe to prepare a medico-legal report of Baljeet’s father-in-law who was admitted to the emergency ward of the civil hospital after he was allegedly attacked by some persons, leaving him injured in the head with wounds caused by sharp-edged weapons.

When Baljeet Singh expressed his inability to arrange Rs 4,000 for giving bribe, the accused reduced their demand and a deal was struck at Rs 3,000. The accused had taken Rs 1,000 as advance money from Baljeet Singh yesterday.

Fed up with the nuisance of extortion, Baljeet Singh lodged a complaint with the local vigilance bureau. The officials concerned laid a trap to arrest the accused.

When Baljeet handed over the bribe money to the accused, they were immediately caught by the vigilance bureau.

Accused medical officer Harbhajan Mandi had also been facing an enquiry in another complaint lodged against him in connection with the demand of bribe.

A section of the hospital staff alleged that he was running a private clinical laboratory, which was located near the civil hospital.

A case in this connection has been registered under the Prevention of Corruption Act at the vigilance bureau police station, Amritsar.

Amritsar, December 14
It is nearly after a decade since the inception of the Citizen Forum Vidya Mandir that the administration announced to provide various government schemes, including pension for the orphans and fatherless children of the school.

On the instructions of Jalandhar division commissioner S.R. Ladhar, teams of the district social security and child development programme visited the Citizen Forum Vidya Mandir, a charitable school running in Maqboolpura.

The school situated on the outskirts of the city is being run by government teacher Ajit Singh and his family and social activist Brij Bedi.

It provides education to the children of drug victims and those living a life of penury, with the active help of various NGOs.

The commissioner, who visited the school recently, was impressed by the selfless service of Bedi, Ajit Singh, his family and the whole team of the school. He interacted with children.

During his about two-hour stay, he motivated the children and awarded those who performed well, spending from his pocket.

He immediately deputed DSSO to visit the school along with his team to take details of the children and their family backgrounds.

The team included district social security officer Narinder Singh Pannu, district programme officer Surinder Kaur and child development project officer of Verka Kanwaljit Kaur and several anganwari workers.

The team got about 150 forms of orphan children studying in the school filled. Health officer Dr Nidhi Sharma also visited the school for the medical examination of the students. The details of the remaining children would be taken in the next couple of days.

Ajit Singh, while talking to The Tribune, said the children and their families were enthused to learn about various government-aided schemes to benefit the poor children and widows in the area.

Jalandhar, December 14
“Although, post-Abhinav Bindra’s gold medal in shooting at the Beijing Olympics, the sport has received wide recognition at the national and international levels, not much has changed at the grass-root level,” this was stated by Rajiv Bhatia, secretary of the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI).

Bhatia was here for the ongoing 18th GV Mavlankar shooting championship being held at the PAP shooting range.

Talking to The Tribune on the sidelines of the championship, Bhatia said, “Though people have started taking interest in the game, the tag of being an expensive sport still poses a grave problem for many budding shooters.

“An air rifle used in the game costs nearly Rs 1.5 lakh, whereas an air pistol costs to Rs 80,000. Even a single tin of 500 pellets costs somewhere near Rs 1,000. Apart from this, a shooter has to bear the recurring expenses as well. However, after reaching a particular stage in the game, the budding shooters can expect full support from their respective state associations and NRAI which is associated with the International Shooting Sports Federation (ISSF),” Bhatia said.

“At present we are importing the best firearms and bullets from the UK, Germany and Finland. Though the ordinance factories too produce ammunition and weapons, they lack quality,” added Bhatia.

The government of India has already liberated its policy on import of arms and ammunition. As per NRAI rules, a shooter, who has participated in the national championship, is allowed to import duty free weapons and ammunition. Even the .177 air weapon is duty free for the members of NRAI.

Bhatia maintained that over the years scores of youth have started taking interest in the game but it is Maharashtra which is ruling the roost.

“The maximum number of the shooters that we have with us are from Maharashtra. Punjab has also made a name in the sport in the past some time.”

On being asked about job security as a shooter, he said, “There is no issue of job security as a majority of our shooters are already working with some of the best companies in India. These include ONGC, Air-India, CRPF, ITBP and the armed forces.”

Jalandhar, December 14
The Sher-e-Punjab Maharaja Ranjit Singh pigeon flying and breed show club organised the 14th national pigeon breed show and championship here today.

Noted pigeon breeders from all over the state participated in the championship. Different nationally and internationally renowned breeds were the centre of attraction for the visitors on the occasion.

Club president Sarwan Singh, who is also a two-time world champion in the pigeon tripping events, said, “Though there are two streams of competition, one is tripping and the other is the best breed selection, winter season doesn’t allow us to organise tripping events. In this season pigeons can easily fall pray to hawks.”

Bhola from Amritsar, Jaspreet from Ferozepore and Kala from Nagra bagged the first, second and third positions, respectively, in Punjab singles event.

Mohan Singh from Talwandi Arayian, Daljeet Singh Uppal from Talwandi Arayian and Sonu from Rahon stood first, second and third, respectively, in national singles event.

A special prize for the four pairs (national) event was given to Varish Bhan Shankar. A special prize for four pairs (Punjab) was given to Jaskaran Singh, Jalandhar.

The judgement was given by Karm Singh from Amritsar, S.K. Gupta, Amrik Singh and Arun from Jalandhar and Binder from Ludhiana.

Jalandhar, December 14
The release function of literary magazine “Sahitya Silsila” was organised under the aegis of NGO Dastak here today.

Dr Harmahinder Singh Bedi, head of Hindi department, Guru Nanak Dev University, was chief guest, while Dr Gulshan Raj, joint income tax comissioner, Suresh Seth and Uma Maheshwar, were the guests of honour.

Shiromani Sahitkar awardee Dr Bedi said, “The publication of a Hindi magazine in a non-Hindi speaking state is really a courageous step literally.”

Noted Punjabi writer Jaswant Singh Virdi said, “Along with massive work on the Punjabi literature, we also need to promote Hindi writers as it provides us a great platform to enrich our national culture and literature.”

Dr Ajay Sharma, editor of the magazine, said, “In every bimonthly issue, we will focus on writings of one prominent writer, with both critical and appreciative approach. We will try to start debate on different literary issues. ‘Silsila’ is a joint effort by writers without any political association.”

Jalandhar, December 14
The decision of the SAD to oppose the creation of the Federal Investigating Agency (FIA) is unfortunate since such an outfit was the need of the hour for the security of the country.

PPCC secretary Ram Lal Jassi said the terror attacks in Mumbai had not only tormented the collective conscience of the nation but has also resulted in a huge loss in terms of lives and property.

But the Akalis had chosen to oppose the move of the government that was reprehensible, he added.

“We have seen that such attacks have been on the rise in the past many years and the aim of the Centre was to establish a central agency that would be in charge of the overall security of the country. The proposed bill seeks to enhance and fortify the prevailing intelligence apparatus to counter such attacks in future,” he said.

Jassi said the creation of four security hubs would mean that no time was lost in the deployment of crack commandos in such situations.

The alert sounded by the Punjab DGP to beef up security and intelligence only underlined the concern of the Centre.