Bathinda, May 18
A brick kiln owner thrashed a pregnant woman working allegedly working as bonded labourer for him on Sunday, resulting in miscarriage and death of the twins she was carrying.

The case came to light this afternoon, when the husband of the woman took the bodies of the dead children to the office of the Superintendent of Police (Headquarters).

According to details available, Roorha Singh and his wife Karamjeet Kaur of village Janda Wala were working as labourers at a brick kiln located at Tungwali road in Bhucho Mandi for the past seven months.

Roorha Singh, while pleading before the senior police officer, alleged that his wife Karamjeet Kaur's pregnancy was in the last stage. They had been working at the brick kiln for the past seven months and whenever they had asked the employer for their wages, he had always dilly-dallied on the matter.

"I and my wife went to him to get our wages on Sunday morning. Irritated, the owner of the brick kiln, Happy, despite knowing that my was wife pregnant, thrashed her due to which she fell down. She immediately started crying with pain and we rushed her to a private hospital at Bhucho Mandi. Doctor referred the case to the city and we admitted her to a private hospital located here in Ganesha Basti," alleged Roorha Singh.

"In the morning, when the doctors operated upon her, they found twins, a baby boy and a girl, dead. The owner attempted to pacify us promising some allurement but we want a criminal case to be registered against him because he killed two lives and made us work as a a bonded labour," he said.

Kiranjeet Singh Gehari, state president of the Lok Janshakti Party, who took the victim Roorha Singh and his kin to the SP office said, "We are here not for compensation but to see this fellow behind the bars for his inhuman behaviour."

SP (H) Sukhdev Singh Bhatti marked an inquiry to the Nathana police station.

When contacted over the phone, the owner of the brick kiln, Happy, refuted the allegation, saying, "They are trying to blackmail me. They have already taken thousands in advance. I did not thrash her, it was in fact a nurse at Bhucho Mandi who mishandled her delivery and now they are attempting to derive some illegal benefit out of incident."

Nathana police has started investigations in the case. 

Moga, May 18
The minor Dalit girl of the nearby Ramuwala Kalan village, who was sexually abused by the wards of influential families and gave birth to a baby girl on April 19 has backtracked from her statement given to the police. She and her parents had failed to identify the culprits.

The police had first lodged an FIR against six persons on the secret information under sections 376 and 506 of the IPC. But, when the incident was reported in The Tribune on April 17, the police also added Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989, besides, reducing the number of the accused persons to two, giving benefit of doubt to the other four persons, mentioned in the first information report.

Gurmail Singh, an ASI responsible for adopting an insensitive attitude towards this incident was immediately suspended from the service and sent to the Police Lines. It was alleged the victim and her parents approached this ASI on April 14 to lodge an FIR but he did not take it seriously.

The Punjab State Scheduled Caste Commission also took a suo motu notice of the incident and summoned a report from the district administration. A magisterial inquest was ordered into the incident, which was conducted by Mahinder Singh Kainth, the Additional Deputy Commissioner of the district.

Kainth revealed to The Tribune that the victim and her parents had not identified any of the culprits and had stated to him that they did not know, who made her pregnant. Even the girl did not name anybody, he said.

Meanwhile, Dalip Singh Pandhi, member of the SC Commission, told The Tribune on telephone that the statement of the minor girl had no legal value. "It is the primary duty of the district administration particularly the police to find out the culprits as she had given birth to a child," he said.

Adding that the panel would despatch a team to Moga after this month to inquire into the case, he said the administration should conduct DNA tests of the baby and the alleged culprits named in the FIR and all other suspects to take this case to a logical conclusion.

"We will also record the statement of the girl separately after psychological counselling to bring out the actual culprits behind this incident," Pandhi added. 

Fazilka, May 18
The business class including educational institutions, academies and religious institutions have indulged in defacing every nook and corner of the town. Most of the beautiful roundabout and historical chowks raised to commemorate eminent personalities continue to be defaced by such elements. The historical clock tower of Fazilka, the photograph of which adorns the art gallery in Chandigarh, continues to be defaced from almost all the sides.

Shastri chowk defaced by ad material. Photo by writer

It is by and large crowded by huge flexi-board hoardings and other colourful advertisement material. Similarly, the busy Shastri Chowk of the town, where the burst of late Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri was laid in 1973, continues to be defaced constantly.

Realising this problem, members of NGO Citizen Club Fazilka built a mesh enclosure with a canopy atop to protect the burst. The enclosure was colourfully pasted in tricolour shade. Slogans of Jai Jawan and Jai Kisan profound by the late Prime Minister were displayed.

For this purpose, a meeting of its members led by its president Pardeep Jain was held. They have taken up the project of removing all the advertisement material, hoarding banners to restore the beauty of the historical clock-tower.

The members have also decided to take up the issue with MC president Anil Sethi and the executive officer Tilak Raj Verma.

Civic body chief Anil Sethi said the CM had released Rs 25 lakh for the beautification of the clock-tower before the elections. Now, the council is going to float tenders for this.

Abohar, May 18
Surinder Kumar Jakhar has been elected as the chairman of the Asia's biggest cooperative society, IFFCO, for the fourth term. There were jubilations in his native village Panjkosi, 14 km from here as well, as an official communication from New Delhi confirmed it.

An e-mail received from New Delhi indicates that Jakhar was elected by the newly elected Board of Directors representing different states unanimously during the 36th annual general meeting. IFFCO MD, U.S. Awasthi and former vice-chairman B.S. Nakai from Rampura Phul, joined the directors in garlanding the youngest ever chairman Jakhar on his election.

Speaking to the correspondent after his selection on the phone today, he said that IFFCO's mission is "to enable Indian farmers to prosper through timely supply of reliable, high quality agricultural inputs and services in an environmentally sustainable manner and to undertake other activities to improve their welfare". The thirst for ever improving the services to the farmers and member co-operatives is insatiable, commitment to quality is insurmountable and harnessing of mother earth’s bounty to drive hunger away from India in an ecologically sustainable manner is the prime mission, Jakhar said. — OC

Mansa, May 18
Justice Harbans Lal of the Punjab and Haryana High Court today conducted the inspection of the district courts, Mansa. He heard the suggestions of the Bar and te grievances of the general public and solved them on the spot.

Justice Bhupinder Singh, district and sessions judge, Mansa, JS Bhatia, additional district and sessions judge, Justice MP Singh Pahma, Justice HS Grewal, president of Bar Association Sarbjeet Singh Grewal and others were also present. — OC

Bathinda, May 18
A gynaecologist of Rampura Phul town in the district, who was awarded a jail term of two-and-a-half years and a fine of Rs 5,000 by a lower court in a case of female foeticide, committed suicide by consuming poison at the district courts complex here today.

Police recording the statement of the son of the lady doctor of Rampura Phul who allegedly committed suicide in Bathinda on Monday. Tribune photo: Kulbir Beera

The doctor, Lakshmi Garg, reportedly committed suicide, after the sessions court, considering her appeal against the decision of the lower court, reduced the jail term to one year along with the fine but did not set her free.

According to sources, when the sessions judge today cancelled her bail and awarded the new sentence, she was being taken to Bakshi Khana, a cell in the court complex. On the way, she vomited out and collapsed. The cops immediately rushed her to the Civil Hospital, where she was declared dead.

A lady constable Ranjeet Kaur said, "When she was being taken to the Civil Hospital, I checked her purse in which I found a green coloured bottle containing some poisonous substance."

SSP Ashish Chaudhary said, "Inquest proceeding would be carried out by an executive magistrate and a judicial inquiry would also be conducted. As of now, we have registered a case.”

Counsel for the petitioner Nand Lal Garg said, "She was depressed and today, after losing faith in the judicial system, she took this step."

The deceased is survived by her husband and two sons, all of whom are doctors. According to details procured from the PNDT cell, Bathinda, the doctor in question, Lakshmi Garg, was running a nursing home in Rampura. On February 7, 2004, she was accused of femicide when people in the locality found dogs lunging at a four-month-old foetus outside her nursing home. During the probe, it was found that she had aborted the foetus after determining the sex and her sweeper Champa Rani had disposed it of. A case was registered but later withdrawn.

The case was taken up by an NGO at a meeting of the PNDT cell. The then DC, Rahul Bhandari, had marked a magisterial inquiry which observed that the case was withdrawn with some malafide intention. On September 9, 2006, the lady doctor was booked by the Rampura police but again acquitted.

Later, the district attorney filed a case here. The then additional sessions judge, GK Dhir, quashing the orders of the lower court, sent the case to the Phul court again, where the accounts of the witnesses were recorded. Then, the court of Sanjeev Joshi, sub-divisional judicial magistrate, Phul, awarded her a two-and-a-half year jail term and a fine of Rs 5,000 but set her sweeper free.

Bathinda, May 18
An unidentified body was recovered from the lake at Goniana road on Monday. According to the information, a body was seen floating in the lake today in the morning and onlookers informed an NGO about the incident. The volunteers of the NGO reached the spot immediatly and informed the police.

Sources said the body appeared to be of an elderly Sikh. The body was sent to the civil hospital.

NGO president Sonu Maheshwari said that information for identifying the body was being sent to all the gurudwaras in the vicinity.

Bathinda: An Army Gypsy allegedly hit a motorcyclist at the Bharat Nagar Chowk on Monday. The motorcyclist has been identified as Naik George Prakash. The Gypsy fled from the spot after hitting the motorcyclist who sustained serious injuries. The injured was sent to the Military Hospital after giving first aid at civil hospital. — TNS

Mansa, May 18
Postmen in the Mansa district have been overburdened due to the staff crunch. There are nearly 85 branch offices in the villages of Mansa, with a total number of 165 employees working as branch postmasters and postmen within the pay scale of Rs 3500-4000.

Leader of the Post Employees Union, Pesh Chand said that all these employees have been working round-the-clock on a temporary basis.

Postman Harchand Singh, who is working in Mansa city as a regular employee said that the workload has increased in every branch office due to the setting up of new private banks, schools and business houses but new staff is not being appointed. There are only seven postmen in the city, he mentioned.

They demanded appointment of new staff and regularisation of the temporary employees at a reasonable pay-scale.

Hanumangarh/Abohar, May 18
The Union Ministry of Forests and Wildlife had sanctioned grants amounting Rs 25 lakh each for providing sheds in three Gaushalas of the district Hanumangarh, Dalip Verma, welfare officer in the Bhartiya Jeev Jantu Kalyan Board, informed during a visit to the beneficiary institutions.

Elaborating on the scheme, Verma said the helpless, injured and sick cattle are to be helped. The Central government had sanctioned the grants on the recommendation of the district administration. In the Gaushala at Nohar, the grant will be utilised for constructing a boundary wall, dispensary, shed and drains in addition to a water tank. In Nethrana and Padampura, similar facilities would be provided.