Jalandhar, December 22
Congress leader Tarlok Singh Chackwalia surrendered before a Patti court on Tuesday.His surrender coincided with the one-day closure of over 150 convent schools in Punjab and Himachal Pradesh connected with the Diocese of Jalandhar in protest against the alleged thrashing of the director of Sacred Heart Convent School at Takarpura in Patti of Tarn Taran district, Father Lawrence, by the Congress leader and his two private gunmen after forcibly entering the school on Saturday.

Confirming this, Tarn Taran SSP Sukhdev Singh Brar told The Tribune over the phone that the court handed over Chackwalia to the police which would again produce him before the court on Wednesday.

To a query, he denied that the police was trying to shield the accused. However, answering a question, he said the entire matter was being investigated by the Patti SHO and it would be decided after the report of the investigation whether sections 307 and 452 of the IPC would be removed from the FIR or not.

Both private gunmen Rashpal Singh and Bachittar Singh had already been rounded up by the police, he added.

Earlier in the day, the chairman of Catholic Education Board Father Josh Putanpura alleged that the Tarn Taran police was trying to remove serious sections from the FIR registered against Chackwalia and his two gunmen.

The FIR under sections 307, 452, 323, 324 and 506, IPC, and sections 25, 27, 54 and 59 of the Arms Act was registered against Chackwalia and his gunmen on Saturday after a protest by Christians.

Father Putanpura said they were surprised to read a news item published in a section of the media in which the Patti SHO had given a statement regarding removal sections 307 and 452 of the IPC from the FIR. The managements of all the convent schools of the region were panic stricken with the behaviour of the police, he added.

In the meantime, over 150 schools in Punjab and Himachal Pradesh connected with the Diocese of Jalandhar remain closed on Tuesday in protest against the alleged misconduct of the Congress leader. 

Jalandhar, December 22
Suspecting involvement of Army personnel in the Rama Mandi firing incident in which two motorcyclists gunned down a man and his son on Monday evening, the district police has taken up the issue with the Army authorities.

A team, led by SP (Traffic), Satish Agnihotri, today took up the issue with the authorities at Army headquarters. ‘

In the preliminary investigation, the police found that the victims had been having a dispute with some Army personnel for the past couple of days.

The SP (Traffic) Satish Agnihotriclaimed that two empty shells of .9mm cartridge were found from the scene of crime. The .9mm cartridges were used either in pistols or in carbines, he 
claimed. This clearly showed that the assailants were armed either with a pistol or a carbine.

SP (Traffic), Satish Agnihotri revealed that the empty shells were today sent to the forensic laboratory in Chandigarh.

The police was also working on various other theories, besides getting details of mobile phones recharged by the victims just before the incident. 

Jalandhar, December 22
A dentist, who had been missing from Bhogpur last night, was found brutally murdered this morning.The badly defaced body of the dentist, Surinder Singh, was found along a road at Kalhwan village, near Kartarpur, early this morning.

The SHO, Kartarpur, Surinder Kumar, said the dentist went missing from his clinic on Monday evening and his family members had lodged a complaint in this regard at Bhogpur police station. He claimed that the police got information of finding the body at Kalhwan village at about 7 am.

A police team took the body in its possession and took it to the Jalandhar Civil Hospital for post-mortem examination, where relatives of Surinder Singh identified it. The relatives found the purse of the dentist missing from his pocket.

The DSP, Adampur, Manjit Singh, revealed that Surinder Singh was accompanying some shopkeepers last night. He claimed that the assailants had badly defaced the body in an attempt to destroy evidences.

There was possibility that he was murdered somewhere else by the assailants, before dumping the body along the roadside near Kartarpur.

The DSP said four suspects had been rounded up for questioning. A case of murder was registered against unidentified persons at Bhogpur police station. 

Phagwara, December 22
More than 10,000 shopkeepers were becoming victims of the 13-B act meant for the protection of properties of the NRIs who were misusing and taking undue advantage of the act only to capture their properties.

This was expressed at a state-level meeting of the Punjabi Kirayadar Welfare Association held here today. Association president T.S. Pahwa presided over the meeting. Former minister Joginder Singh Maan and Congress councillor Ram Paul Uppal specially attended the meeting and supported their demands.

The meeting expressed its concern that these shopkeepers running their business for the past 40 years were now being harassed by NRIs under the cover of this act. The meeting threatened to launch a statewide agitation, including demonstrations, dharnas and relay fast if their interests were not protected by the government.

It may be mentioned here that though the government was taking several steps to attract NRIs to return to their motherland and facilitating them by making different laws in their favour, some NRIs were taking undue advantages of these laws and had started to act to get their rental properties vacated from respective tenants under the cover of these laws.

Giving details of the meeting, executive member Vijay Kumar told newsmen that the meeting expressed its concern over the indifferent attitude of the government and alleged that despite assurance made by Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal in the presence of former Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker Charanjit Singh Atwal, Technical Education Minister Swarana Ram, Transport Minister Master Mohan Lal and Markfed Chairman Jarnail Singh Wahid to initiate some constructive steps to help the shopkeepers, nothing had been done even after two years of the assurances. The next meeting would be held on December 28, said Vijay Kumar.