Amritsar, March 25
In a major success, the district police today nabbed three hardcore robbers after an encounter and seized lethal weapons from them. One of the accused, who was injured in a firing incident in Jalandhar, was also apprehended and admitted to the local Civil Hospital for treatment under a strict police watch.

The accused were on the run after a robbery attempt in Jalandhar during which one of their accomplices, identified as Jaggi, was badly injured when he was hit by a gunshot.

Those arrested are Aman, alias Dhotia, and Satinder Singh of Sarhali in Tarn Taran district. Jaggi has been admitted to Jallianwala Bagh Memorial Civil Hospital here.

SSP Kunwar Vijay Partap Singh said the gang was responsible for committing a number of robberies in Amritsar, Tarn Taran, Hoshiarpur and Jalandhar.

Last evening, Aman, along with his gang members Gopi, Jaggi and others, attempted to rob a trader on the Nakodar road in Jalandhar. They fired from a pistol, which incidentally hit their own accomplice Jaggi. They came to Amritsar for his treatment. However, the district police had a prior tip-off after which a team of police officers surrounded the accused in front of Amandeep Hospital.

However, they fired on the police party which forced the police to retaliate. After a brief encounter, the police team nabbed the accused.

The police has seized a .12-bore double-barrel gun, one single-barrel gun, 14 live cartridges of .12-bore gun, three of .315-bore gun, two .315-bore country-made pistols, 12 mobile phone sets, one Indigo car, two datars, one sword, besides 90 gm of smack from them.

According to investigation, the accused had snatched the double-barrel gun (.12 bore) from a security guard of an ATM centre of HDFC Bank at BMC Chowk in Jalandhar on March 21, while the car had also been snatched from Jalandhar some time back. The SSP said the accused used two pistols during firing in Jalandhar.

Jalandhar, March 25
Strict action would be taken against printing press owners who do not comply with the election code rules besides those inserting dummy advertisements in the media.

Deputy Commissioner-cum-District Election Officer Ajit Singh Pannu, who presided over a meeting of printing press owners here today, said it had been seen that many candidates were placing orders for election material without complying with the rules which stated that the name and address of printing press should be clearly printed on the material.

Before printing the material the printing press owner should take an undertaking, signed by two witnesses, from the customer.

Four copies of the printed material and the number of copies printed must be sent to his office within three days of the printing date.

He said the Election Commission of India had laid down strict guidelines in this context so that the actual expenditure incurred by the candidates or the parties could be taken into account.

This had also been done to counter the practice of getting dummy election material printed by the candidates, he pointed out.

Similarly, those found inserting dummy advertisements in the media, too, would face action under the Peoples Representation Act, 1951.

The amount spent on inserting the ad would be added to the expense of the candidate concerned, he added.

If convicted, the defaulters could face imprisonment up to six months, a fine of Rs 2,000 or both, he warned.

Jalandhar, March 25
The delay by the SAD to name its candidate for the Bathinda parliamentary seat is the result of infighting within the Badal family on who would be the nominee from between the saas-bahu duo.

PPCC General Secretary and former MLA from Nurmahal, Gurbinder Singh Atwal, today said although SAD chief Sukhbir Badal had been saying that a woman from the family would be contesting the election, a decision is yet to be taken. But both father and son have been passing the buck on the issue, Atwal remarked.

He alleged that the Badals had been unnerved by the prospect of facing Raninder Singh and were now trying to find an alternative candidate to wriggle out of a sticky situation. He said the state of affairs could be gauged from the fact that a survey conducted for the ruling SAD-BJP alliance by a private agency had painted a bleak picture for the government.

The Congress has ignited enthusiasm among the youth by fielding four young candidates. Youngsters and other sections of society were eagerly waiting to cast their vote for us, Atwal pointed out.

Hoshiarpur, March 25
In her first conference after becoming the Congress nominee from the Hoshiarpur (reserved) parliamentary constituency for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, Santosh Chaudhary welcomed the party election manifesto here today and said her party had assured to protect interests of all the communities after coming to power.

About her constituency, she was surprised with the lack of facilities for passengers at the railway station. She even emphasised on the expansion of railway track to link Hoshiarpur with Tanda and Phagwara stations to connect the constituency with the main line.

“I would also make sure that there are some special packages for setting up of some industrial units and opening of professional educational institutions in the district,” the Congress candidate further said.

Later, she convened a meeting of the local Congress leaders and workers at her residence in which former Punjab ministers Ramesh Chander Dogra and Naresh Thakur, former Chairman of Hoshiarpur Improvement Trust Pawan Kumar Adia, PPCC general secretary Kuldip Kumar Nanda, DCC vice-president Ranjit Singh, Mahila wing president of the DCC Taranjit Sethi were present.

The Congress in charge of Chabewal (Mahilpur) and Garhdiwala segments, Dilbag Rai and Jasbir Singh Pal, respectively, believed to be in the camp of former PPCC president Shamsher Singh Dullo, were not present in the meeting. However, when contacted, they said they would fully support Santosh Chaudhary and would present a united face during her campaign.

Kartarpur, March 25
The police busted a gang of cheaters with the arrest of its three of the five members, Kuldip Singh of Patiala, Kamaljit Singh and Ravnit Singh of Delhi, from a rented accommodation in Basti Bawa Khel after a tip-off.

Talking to mediapersons at Kartarpur police station, SSP R.K. Jaiwal said the gang had cheated some private banks to the tune of over Rs 1 crore by getting financed as many as 18 cars and other valuable items on forged documents.

Jaiswal said four members were residing in different rented accommodations in Delhi under fake identities. They succeeded in getting 18 credit cards from some banks on fake documents

They purchased 18 cars and other valuable items by paying the sellers 10 per cent cash of the total values from the credit cards and got financed the remaining amount.

They prepared forged RCs of these vehicles and reached Jalandhar after fleeing from there. While they were planning to sell these cars, the police got some information and nabbed three of them.

DSP (Rural-II) Balkar Singh and Maqsoodan SHO Harjinder Singh were present on the occasion.

Hoshiarpur, March 25
In a case of relations gone haywire, a son strangulated his father, Radhey Sham, at Khaira Kotli village and even tried to cremate his body without informing the police.

It was when the villagers reported the incident to the cops, the latter suspended the cremation and took the body in custody and sent it to civil hospital, Dasuya, for postmortem.

Sham, who was a migrant labourer from Jammu and Kashmir, was residing at the village for the past 14 years. According to the SHO of Dasuya police station, Radhey Sham was a habitual drunkard. Last night, Sham under the influence of liquor behaved rudely with the family members which infuriated his son Ranjit Kumar, who strangulated Sham’s neck with the kerchief.

In the morning, Ranjit tried to cremate his father’s body in the village cremation ground after which some villagers informed the police following which the cremation was suspended and Ranjit Singh was arrested under section 302 of the IPC.