NEIGHBOURHOOD

Drunken man beaten up by son, dies
Tribune News Service

Ambala, May 27
In another case, a report from the Madhuban Forensic Laboratory shows that no narcotic substance was found in the samples of “cocaine”, which was recovered from three college students.

The police had arrested three students of a Lalru-based polytechnic college with 675-gm “cocaine” from Indira Chowk of Ambala Cantt on February 27.

They were identified as Pankaj Kumar of Saharanpur, Jitender and Amit Kumar, both from Naraingarh. One person was also arrested in this case on March 8.

They were booked under the Narcotics and Psychotropic Substances Act. Later, one of the accused, Amit Kumar (21) committed suicide by hanging himself with the grill of the bathroom of Ambala City’s Central jail.

According to information, the Ambala police today filed an application before Additional District and Sessions Judge Aradhana Sawhney seeking permission to retest the samples of “cocaine” from Chandigarh as the substance, which was allegedly recovered from the accused, does not fall under the NDPS Act as per the report of Madhuban Forensic Laboratory.

This was the second case within 10 days when the police had to face such type of embarrassment as the court of ADJ Aradhana Sawhney had on May 18 acquitted seven persons, including engineering students, who were arrested on May 3 and booked under the NDPS Act in another case. On the basis of forensic report, the substance which was allegedly recovered from the accused did not fall under the NDPS Act.

Ambala, May 27
Union Minister of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation Kumari Shelja here today visited the relatives of dropsy victims at Samlehri village, which claimed the lives of two girls.

She assured the villagers of all help by way of health care. If need be, she said, medical help would be made available from Delhi also.

The villagers pointed out to the minister that no Congress leader from Haryana, including Haryana minister, had visited them during that time of trouble.

They also alleged that the patients who were rushed to the nearby health centre and then the civil hospital, Ambala, were not attended well.

They said opposition leader Om Parkash Chautala had shared their grief. The villagers impressed upon the union minister to take up the matter of providing succour to the affected villagers with the state government.

Incidentally, the union minister did not announce any financial help to the families of two girls who died with dropsy. Later in the evening, the minister visited dropsy patients in the Civil Hospital, Ambala City. The disease has taken over 70 persons in its grip from Samlehri village.

A team of district administration, including Additional Deputy Commissioner Renu Phulia, along with health and other officers, also visited the house of the deceased -- Diksha and Priyanka -- and expressed sympathy with their family members.

Earlier, Deputy Commissioner Sameer Pal Srow visited the village and said for the convenience of the people a team of doctors, lab technicians and five ambulances had been deputed in the village and the situation was being constantly monitored. He also appealed to the villagers to exercise restraint, ignore rumours and extend cooperation to the district administration.

Chandigarh, May 27
Justice TPS Mann of the Punjab and Haryana High Court today directed judicial probe by Mohali Additional District and Sessions Judge in an illegal detention case.

With this, it is clear that the functioning of inspector Yogi Raj, posted at Zirakpur police station, has come under the judicial scanner for keeping a Baltana resident in alleged illegal custody.

Acting on a habeas corpus petition, a warrant officer appointed by the Punjab and Haryana High Court had recovered the victim on May 26. It was reportedly found that Gurjeet Singh was kept in police station for a day without entry in the daily dairy register.

In his defence, Yogi Raj asserted that Gurjeet Singh was called to the police station for questioning following a complaint filed on May 19. The complainant had alleged that Gurjeet Singh and another had been bringing some girls to a house in a locality.

After hearing the arguments, Justice Mann asserted prima facie the complaint was fabricated subsequent to visit of the warrant officer and Gurjeet Singh’s recovery.

Apparently, Yogi Raj had not complied with the provision of the Punjab police rules, evident from the fact that carbon copies of the DDR were not being sent to higher authorities on a regular basis. Justice Mann also fixed August 23 as the next date of hearing.

Chandigarh, May 27
A woman was injured after an auto-rickshaw collided with her scooter near the Sectors 29, 30 traffic lights point.

Patiala, May 27
The Agra Cricket Association (ACA) defeated Indian Power Cricket Academy (IPCA), Yamunanagar, by 14 runs, which concluded at the YPS ground today.

Winning the toss and electing to bat first, ACA scored 147 for seven in 30 overs. Due to a delay in the beginning of the match, five overs were reduced concentrating the match to 30 overs.

Saif (27), Pyush (21) and Bhupinder (19 not out) were the main scorers for the ACA team, while Sidharth Chawla, who took three wickets for 16 runs, was the successful bowler for Yamunanagar.

Yamunanagar boys started their innings on a sound note and gathered 40 runs in eight overs without losing any wicket. But Agra’s spin bowlers performed brilliantly and Yamunanagar lads started losing wickets and were all out at 133 runs.

In another match, which was held at the BECC Ground, the hosts Black Elephant Cricket Club (BECC) defeated Delhi Blue, Delhi, by eight wickets. Ashish Karki, captain of BECC, won the toss and elected to field first. In the first 18 overs, the Delhi team managed to score only 40 runs after losing five wickets due to a fine medium pace bowling by Harmeek Singh (three for 22) and left arm leg spin bowling by Gurtek Singh (three for 24).

The hosts team achieved the target easily in just 13.3 overs after losing two wickets.

Brief score I:

Agra Cricket Association: 147 for 7 in 30 overs (Saif 27, Pyush 21, Sidhrath 21, Bhupinder 19 not out, Sidharth Chawla took 3 wickets for 16 runs).

IPCA, Yamunanagar: 133 all out in 27 overs (Akash 28, Sagar 16, S Chawla 21, Rahul took 4 wickets for 22 runs, Saif 2 for 16).

Brief score II:

Delhi Blue: 90 all out in 27.5 overs (Akash 27, Amanraj 18, Abhishek 11 not out, Harmeek Singh 3 for 22, Gurtek Singh 3 for 24, Ashish Karki 2 for 3, Anish Bansal 1 for 16).

BECC: 93 for 2 in 13.3 overs (Naman 36 not out, Atul Sharma 17, Navkaran 21 not out, Abhishek 1 for 24, Shubham 1 for 28).

Chandigarh, May 27
The city will be hosting the Olympian Sardar Dharam Singh Memorial Hockey Tournament at the Hockey Stadium, Sector 18, from May 30 to June 5.

The organisers claimed that various renowned outfits across the country, BPCL Bangalore, ONGC Delhi, RCF Kapurthala, IAF, Namdhari Eleven, CISF, Rock Rovers and Chandigarh Hockey Academy would participate.

The tournament is being organised in memory of Sardar Dharam Singh, the only Indian, who had won gold medals in the Olympics as a player and as a coach. Dharam Singh was instrumental in nurturing hockey in the City Beautiful. The matches will be played under floodlights.

Chandigarh, May 27
KDS Nagra, chief coach of Sports Authority of India (SAI), currently posted in the city, has been appointed as the technical official in the forthcoming Commonwealth Games-2010 to be held at New Delhi in October.

Nagra will attend the third phase of the three-day seminar for technical officials, which is scheduled to begin from June 4 at New Delhi.

Nagra was the coach of Indian weightlifting team in the Commonwealth Games at Victoria in Canada in 1994.

Chandigarh, May 27
Relying on their in-form players, including skipper Simrat Bawa, opener Manan Vohra, Gurinder Singh and Anshul Tripathy, the Chandigarh team is all set to take on their traditional rival Patiala in the first semifinal of the Under-22 Inter-District Cricket Tournament, starting tomorrow at Dhruv Pandove Cricket Stadium, Patiala.

The second semifinal would witness a tie between Ludhiana and Jalandhar at the Burlton Park, Jalandhar.

The Chandigarh team, which has lifted the Katoch Shield recently after beating Patiala, has an edge in the match. The Patiala team too has some good players, including Kunwar Raina, Amitoze Singh, Himanshu Chawla and Jeevanjot Singh, who have put up a good show in the league matches.

To reach in the top-four bracket, Chandigarh registered an exciting win over Mohali on the last ball and was declared winner on the basis of the first innings lead, whereas Patiala lost to Jalandhar, conceding lead in the first innings.

Bharti Vij and Harminder Singh would supervise the match, whereas Dr MS Mahal would be the match referee during the first semifinal match. Members of the senior selection committee would supervise the four-day semifinals scheduled to start at 7 am tomorrow.

Mohali, May 27
The Punjab Cricket Association (PCA) is all set to promote cricket among women in the state. During a meeting of the women cricket sub-committee of the association, it was decided that the women cricket should be promoted in Punjab on the pattern of men’s cricket.

PCA secretary MP Pandove said the first step would be taken with the identification of grounds for regular regional coaching centres, exclusively for women in at least six districts.

“The PCA will provide all assistance to these regional centres which includes dispensing of cricket balls, provision of cricket nets, roller and other required equipment. Apart from that, women coaches should also be identified for these districts and the association would use them as part time coaches and their remuneration will be given by the PCA,” said Pandove.

The meeting was attended by secretaries of five district cricket associations affiliated to the PCA, along with women representatives of the respective associations. The districts included Amritsar, Patiala, Ludhiana, Mohali and Chandigarh.

The secretaries were asked to give tentative dates and places to start the regional coaching centres by selecting 20-25 girls in the under-19 and the same number of girls in the senior category by experts in each district.

The PCA has decided to hold a tournament for the under-19 and senior category with prize money.

The selected players will also be given training at the PCA state academy by the expert coaches.

Chandigarh, May 27
Two local grapplers, Jagmeet Singh Lucky and Vijay Pal, would be felicitated at a function by the Chandigarh Alysh Wrestling Association (CAWA) on June 13 at the Wrestling Coaching Centre, Sector 30, here.

Both wrestlers were a part of the Indian squad at the recently held World Alysh Wrestling Championship in Kazan (Russia). They were accorded a warm welcome on their return yesterday.

CAWA’s secretary NS Bhardwaj said Jagmeet, who finished at number four at Russia, would be given a cash prize of Rs 21,000, while Vijay Pal would be honoured with a cash prize of Rs 11,000.

Jagmeet was declared the best wrestler in the National Alysh Wrestling Championship in New Delhi.