Jalandhar, August 12
Yet to come out of the shock suffered due to the “merciless” beating by some of his seniors on the campus of Sainik School, Kapurthala, last week, Lovepreet Singh today said he would never return to school if those involved in the violence against him were not thrown out from the school forever.

“I am so scared that I could not face them any more,” he said.

His father Kabul Singh said he had already reported the case to the police and urged the police authorities to take action as per the law against the students who were involved in thrashing his son. “I have urged the doctor who conducted the medical examination of my son to forward the report to the police immediately,” said Kabul Singh.

“I am not prepared to show any sympathy towards those students who have ruined the future of my son,” he said.

Meanwhile, talking to The Tribune on the phone, Lovepreet Singh said he was beaten up twice - first with a small stick in a room and later in the open with a hockey stick - which led to one of his arms getting fractured.

He said he had gone to the room of his seniors to hand over some clothes to a senior boy. “But in the room I was beaten up with a small baton on the pretext that I had complained against some students to the house teacher,” said Lovepreet.

“They continued to rain stick blows on me in the room for about one and a half hours,” he revealed.

Later, they cornered me in the open and beat me up with a hockey stick. “I informed a teacher about the incident, who got my X-ray done because I was suffering from severe pain,” he said, “but the teacher did not inform my parents about the incident though I had requested him to do so.”

There were a lot of questions that the Army authorities, which control the school, required to answer.

Whether the school as well as the Army authorities were aware of the fact that senior boys used junior boys as bonded labourers and forced them to do work as servants to bring their clothes, etc.? Whether any system of gathering feedback from students, especially those who live in the hostel, has been put in place in the school? If yes, what was the feedback and what action was taken to protect junior boys from seniors?

What sort of discipline is maintained in the Army school where senior students broke the arm of a junior boy? If the Army authorities are unable to maintain the minimum level of discipline in their own Sainik School, how would people be encouraged to send their wards to such institutions? As the incident had occurred in the school in the absence of the parents of the victim, was it not the responsibility of the school authorities to report the case to the police themselves?

Jalandhar, August 12
The medical services at the local Civil Hospital remained paralysed today owing to a protest of paramedical staff against the manhandling of a staff nurse on duty by a patient’s attendant here yesterday. The staff resumed duty after 1 pm.

As the services at the hospital remained disrupted, the patients suffered as no OPD, emergency and specialised services were held. The issue was resolved only after Medical Superintendent (MS) Dr Ashok Nayyar intervened in the matter.

Raj Bedi, state secretary of the nurses’ union, Punjab, said a patient came for getting himself admitted to the orthopaedic ward of the hospital and asked for a private room from paramedical staff. Narinder Kaur, staff nurse on duty, who was attending on patients, told him that no separate room was available. A woman attendant of the patient held the staff nurse by her wrist and abused her publicly. “We decided to hold a protest against the embarrassment caused to our fellow colleague,” a union member said.

The hospital staff also got an FIR registered against the patient. “The issue was resolved after the patient submitted a written apology to the MS,” said another union member.

Jalandhar, August 12
Even as Punjab reeled under long electricity cuts, the local Civil Lines area enjoyed a privileged status today, courtesy the day-long stay of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal. The other areas witnessed an eight-hour cut today.

Badal was here to attend the bhog ceremony of the wife of senior Akali leader Kuldeep Singh Wadala. He reached the city at around 9 am and remained here till late evening. “It was for the first time in the summer that there was no power cut. Initially, we took it as a move by the PSEB but later found it to be the result of the visit of Badal,” said Harinder Singh, a resident.

The first power cut in other parts of the city today was from 6 am to 7 am, followed by a two-and-a-half-hour cut from 8 am. The next cut was from 1.30 pm to 5 pm.

Hoshiarpur, August 12
The Hoshiarpur police named Ricky Malhotra, younger brother of Vicky Malhotra the main accused in the much publicised stamp paper scam here, as the second accused in the scam. Ricky is still at large.

SSP Parmod Ban told this correspondent here this afternoon that during investigation, it was found out that Vicky Malhotra, along with his brother Ricky Malhotra, had embezzled Rs 75 lakh of the revenue department, while getting the registration of 47 land sale deeds done, from January 1, 2008 till date.

They used to overwrite bank challans after depositing less money in the local SBI bank branch for acquiring the stamp papers of appropriate value of the land from the treasury. He was not an authorised stamp paper vendor, but had been working for sale-deed writer Vikram Mehta.

Though, the involvement of Vikram Mehta has not been established in the scam, but negligence on his part in not making any checks of the acts of Vicky Malhotra, certainly accounted for the trouble.

Ban said on account of this negligence, he would recommend the cancellation Vikram Mehta's sale deed writing licence, to the concerned authorities.

The role of employees of the local SBI bank branch, District Treasury Office and Hoshiarpur Tehsil had yet to be investigated, further said Parmod Ban.

It is worth mentioning here that duplicate copies of the challan, through which the money is deposited in the SBI bank branch, are being sent to the tehsil and District Treasury offices for verification.

The modus operandi of the accused was to change the figures of money in the challan copy by overwriting on it. It’s a complete mystery as to how the figures of the treasury and tehsil offices had been tallied.