Hoshiarpur, June 5
A husband and wife who robbed an old woman of Mehngorwal village (Mahilpur) were nabbed by the police while they were trying to escape last evening.

According to police sources, Gurdesh Kaur, wife of Hari Devi Singh of Mehngrowal, who was waiting for a bus at Adda Tuto Mazara, was offered a lift by a Maruti car (CH-1-8372)-borne occupants (man and woman) to her village. On seeing the woman inside the car, Gurdesh Kaur boarded it. On the way, the woman occupant of the car snatched the gold chain (1.5 tolas), a pair of gold earrings (6 gm) and a gold ring (3 gm) from Gurdesh Kaur and threw her out of the car near Meghowal village. Later they fled towards the Meghowal-Gondwal kutcha road.

Meanwhile, Gurdesh Kaur sounded an alarming bell and her sons Surjit Singh and Ajmer Singh rushed in their Tata Sumo (HR-21A-1457) towards the Meghowal-Gondwal road. On the way they found the Maruit car trammelled in a choe (seasonal rivulet) bed. When Surjit Singh tried to catch them, the man assaulted him with a wedge due to which Surjit Singh got injured in his arms and both the brothers ran for their safety. Later, the man and woman robbers fled towards Garhshankar in their Tata Sumo after leaving their trammelled car there.

Meanwhile, some villagers also reached there and chased them on a motorcycle. On the way, the man and the woman first hit a scooterist and later rammed into a tractor-trailer. The man occupant of the car got some minor injuries in the collision and both man and woman dashed towards Garhshankar after leaving the Tata Sumo. The police also reached there and after a brief chase caught both the man and the woman.

Both were identified as Poonam and her husband Sukhjinder Singh, son of Mohan Singh of Herhian village (Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar).

A case under sections 394 and 34 of the IPC has been registered in Mahilpur police station in this connection.

Today the police produced the couple in the judicial court here which remanded them in police custody for two days. 

Nawanshahr, June 5
Two years after the PSEB Adarsh Senior Secondary School at Khatkar Kalan here was revamped and re-christened as Shaheed-e-Azam S. Bhagat Singh Adarsh Senior Secondary School, the efforts gone in the process have slowly started showing some progress.

Unlike a dismal outcome last year when none of the board classes had got a cent per cent result, there seems to be some improvement.

All 42 students of plus two have passed, with 39 of them getting the first division. While last year as many as seven students had failed in class X and five had got a reappear, all 27 students have passed this year with just one of them getting reappear.

In class V too, all the 25 students have passed with 22 of them having scored more than 60 per cent. The class VIII, however, has got 94 per cent result. But this is much up against the 66 per cent result of the class last year.

Principal Renu Bhatti gives the credit to the relentless efforts of the teachers in helping the students come up to the level. “After the examination of the last session, the staff strength has improved.

We got staff from the lecturer cadre in all subjects including science, commerce, mathematics, Punjabi and English. These teachers have worked hard in improving the caliber of the students.

“The kind of students which we have been getting has not improved much especially because our school does not fall on the main road and is 2 km inwards. We have only been getting children from eight to 10 villages around the area. Our teachers have worked overtime. They have taken extra classes in the morning and even during the recess hours,” the principal boasted.

The school has also got a new block for science and commerce students.

While earlier there was just one humanities stream for senior secondary level, two new streams got added up last year as a result of which the first batch has now stepped into plus two.

New laboratories for physics, chemistry and biology have been constructed and these are likely to get fully equipped by July first week, said the principal.

The school also runs a bus for picking and dropping the students of far off places. “Since the conveyance charges levied from the students are minimal and public donations for the school are not as good, the school sometimes even finds it difficult to bear the fuel cost. Also since there is just one bus, it has to take more rounds and run for two hours in the morning and two hours after the school to provide the facility to all the desirous students,” the principal expressed helplessness. 

Jalandhar, June 5
Though a sudden windstorm in the afternoon brought the mercury a bit down to 41.7 degrees Celsius. However, this did not lead to a decrease in the scorching heat across the region. The region enjoyed a slightly pleasant weather condition later in the day.

The highest temperature in the region was recorded at 43.4 degrees Celsius in Halwara followed by Amritsar 40.4 degrees. Pathankot recorded a temperature of 39.2 degrees and brought a slight respite from the ongoing heat wave.

Sources in the Met Department said coming days would witness similar windstorm due to the prevailing western disturbances over Jammu and Kashmir.

The coming two days in the region would witness light rain showers which would help in bringing the mercury down. Adampur recorded a sweltering temperature of 43.2 degrees Celsius yesterday.

Meanwhile, the region witnessed uninterrupted electricity cuts throughout the day. Residents were found complaining against the unscheduled power cuts.

As soon as the windstorm started in the afternoon, the residents, especially the commuters, had a tough time as traffic was held up for some time. 

Amritsar, June 5
Defrauded by travel agents, Gurmeet Singh (21) of Dharpai village in Amritsar rural police district committed suicide by consuming poison about one month ago.

However, the family only came to know about the cause of death while going through his books and papers after few days of his death and found that he had been duped by travel agents to whom he had given Rs 4.66 lakh borrowed from commission agents and banks.

Backed by this evidence, the family members filed a complaint with the police and sought the arrest of the persons responsible for the death of Gurmeet Singh.

The police lodged a case under Sections 306, 420 and 120-B of the IPC at Majitha police station against five persons - Daljit Singh, Gurjit Singh, Daljit Kaur, Satwant Kaur and Amar Singh of the Hussainpura area here.

According to information, the accused promised Gurmeet Singh of sending him to the USA and demanded Rs 10 lakh for it. According to details given in the diary, Gurmeet borrowed Rs 4.66 lakh from commission agents and banks.

Arun Sharma, SHO, Majitha police station, said as the family did not know about the reason behind his suicide, they cremated Gurmeet without giving any information to police. Gurmeet, who was doing IELTS, had written all details in his dairy, which was corroborated by the commission agents and banks during investigations.

However, the accused, originally hailing from New Delhi, left the area after closing down their office when the incident took place. He said the investigations were on and police parties were being sent to nab the accused responsible for the death of Gurmeet. 

Batala, June 5
A woman of Pracha village committed suicide by consuming some poisonous substance. Ranjit Kaur, according to her brother Chan Singh, was living separately with her four children at Amritsar for the past four years due to some quarrel with her husband Sukhwinder Singh, resident of Fatehgarh Churian. Chan Singh in his statement to the police said her mental condition was not up to the mark. — OC