Amritsar, April 20
Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, who hails from Amritsar, would address an election rally in favour of Congress candidate O.P. Soni on May 11.

Besides, AICC chief Sonia Gandhi would also address one of the rallies in the Amritsar parliamentary constituency.

This was disclosed by Capt Amarinder Singh, former Chief Minister, while addressing an election rally here today.

The former Chief Minister called upon the voters of the Amritsar parliamentary constituency to vote for Soni if they wanted to see Dr Manmohan Singh become Prime Minister for another term of five years.

He said the entire development projects of the holy city were initiated during the Congress regime and the UPA government gave liberal funds to ensure overall development of Amritsar.

He said while the world was facing an economic meltdown, its impact was negligible in India due to the statesmanship and vision of Dr Manmohan Singh.

He said BJP member of Parliament Navjot Singh Sidhu had been claiming bringing development projects on flimsy grounds.

Coming heavily on the alleged “non-performance” of the SAD-BJP government, Capt Amarinder Singh predicted that its days were numbered since the Congress would sweep all the 13 Lok Sabha seats in the upcoming parliamentary elections.

In a harsh tone, Capt Amarinder Singh said since the municipal and panchayat elections as many as 42 Congress workers and leaders were killed at the behest of the ruling coalition.

He said he had prepared a “hit list” of those responsible for the killing of Congressmen in the state.

Jalandhar, April 20
Unscrupulous motorcyclists injured a girl by throwing acid on her on Laddewali Road, near Chugitti Chowk, here this morning.

Resident of Laddewali, Chandni was trudging towards her STD booth, where she was working, when two unidentified youths approached her and threw acid on her. The girl sustained serious burn injuries and was admitted to a private hospital.

In her statement to the police, the victim has held her friend, Suman, responsive for the act. She alleged that Suman had warned her with dire consequences after the tiff two days ago.

The police, however, ruled out Suman’s involvement in the case and registered an FIR on her complaint against unidentified persons at police station Division 8.

Jalandhar, April 20
Four armed persons snatched a Verna car from a Ravinder Nagar resident at gunpoint early this morning.

The incident occurred when the owner was heading towards Parkash Nagar in his brand new car after dropping his kids in their school at about 9 am.

As he was hardy some distance from his house, an Innova vehicle, following him, signalled Ajay Wahi and stopped the vehicle ahead of his car.

Two of the car occupants approached Wahi and asked him if he had made payment of the monthly instalment of his car loan.

They indulged in arguments over the issue and one of the Innova vehicle occupants took out a revolver, put it on Wahi’s temple and after throwing him on to the ground, sped away with the vehicle.

Police station division 7 Station House Officer Harvinder Bhalla said that a case of snatching had been registered against unidentified persons.

The police has also sounded an alert in the district and its neighbouring areas. The security was beefed up at entry and exit points soon after the incident, he claimed.

Hoshiarpur, April 20
Acting on a tip-off, the police last night arrested four members of a dacoits’ gang involved in various incidents of robbery.

The accused were identified as Vijay Kumar, son of Durga Dass, Bhupinder
Singh, alias Sonu, son of Mehnga Singh, both of Harvan, Baljinder Singh, alias
Jinder, son of Rakesh Bhola, and Charanjit Singh, alias Soni, son of Waryam
Singh, both of Nainwan.

SSP Parmod Ban stated here this afternoon that the police was tipped-off about the presence of the members of the gang who were hatching a plan to commit a dacoity at the shrine of Baba Balak Nath, Kot village.

After registering an FIR under sections 399 and 402 of the IPC at Garhshankar police station, SHO Manjit Singh, along with a police force, raided the place and arrested the accused. However, their accomplice Sanjiv Kumar, alias Seeba, of Binewal fled.

The police seized one .315-bore pistol from Bhupinder Singh for which a case under sections 25, 54 and 59 of the Arms Act had been registered against him. Besides, the police also seized two scythes and one air gun from the other members.

During preliminary interrogation they confessed that they stole Rs 60,000 from a garments showroom at Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar on March 11, 2007, snatched Rs 6,500 at pistol point from two petrol stations in the area of Nurpur Bedi (Ropar) on June 14, 2007, and stole clothes from a showroom at Garhshankar, on April 9, 2008, said Ban.

Batala, April 20
SSP Naresh Kumar said here today that the police had traced a looting incident which occurred on April 18 with the arrest of three members and recovered Rs 72,000 from them.

Arora said that on April 18, Dalip Singh of Phullran village, along with his grandson Major Singh, was going to deposit Rs 70,000 at Punjab National Bank, Harchowal.

When they neared Harchowal, two persons snatched the amount and fled. During investigation, accused Nishan Singh, Rajwant Singh, alias Jantu, both residents of Bhoma village, figured in the case.

During investigation they revealed that they had committed the crime with the connivance of Major Singh, grandson of complainant Dalip Singh.

All the three accused, Nishan Singh, Rajwant Singh and Major Singh, had been arrested. A motorcycle used in the crime had been recovered from their possession.

Nawanshahr, April 20
In an interesting case, a Mercedes car (DD03A2403) with blue light atop was impounded from a driver in the DC Complex here today.

Surprisingly, the owner and driver were let off within half an hour after imposing a fine of Rs 500.

The officials concerned released the person and the car without proper verification of the imposter’s identity as well as the registration of the vehicle.

The issue of the illegal use of blue light atop the said car was brought into the notice of the police by some mediapersons present in the DC complex.

Doubtful about the identity of the car, the journalists questioned the driver of
the car.

Ironically, the driver told them that he had been driving the car for the past one and half year, belonging to a person residing in Jalandhar but he could not tell about the designation of his master.

Even, he could not show the registration copy of the vehicle saying that he had forgotten to take the RC with him.

Besides, about the use of the blue light on the car, the driver said the blue light was affixed whenever he was told to do so by his master.

However, when the reporters informed the police about the incident, the driver managed to flee with the car.

When the police succeeded in getting hold of the imposter, he had already removed the blue light. But the blue light was recovered from the car.

The car was impounded and challaned but to the utter surprise of the mediapersons, the car was released just within half an hour.

When the mediapersons contacted District Transport Officer R.L. Jassal, he said in the challan issued to the offender, there was no mention of any particular offence including illegal use of blue light atop it.

In the column --- detail of the offences --- there is a merely mention of the section 207 of the MV Act, hence as per the rules and regulations, the said car was released by imposing a fine of Rs 500. Interestingly, the imposter introduced himself to the DTO as a senior officer in Punjab Civil Secretariat.

SP (HQ) Lakhwinder Pal Singh Khaira, when contacted, said he would inquire into the matter and the action would be taken against the guilty.

However, when the alleged owner was contacted on the mobile phone (number given by the car driver), he introduced himself to The Tribune as AP Singh Tiwana resident of Ludhiana. When asked about his profession, he said he was neither a retired nor a serving government official but an agriculturist.

When questioned about the use of blue light atop his car, he said he had just been using it to have convenience in passing through while driving on GT Roads.

“I am not alone in using blue light atop the car, there are so many persons who use do so to befool the police,” he claimed.

Earlier, the car owner had referred himself as a retired DRO. In all, the functioning of the officials concerned has come under serious doubt after they showed ‘undue haste’ in releasing the impounded car even ignoring the security concerns, for the reasons best known to them.