Ferozepur, June 7
The special investigation team (SIT) set up on the orders of the Punjab and Haryana High court, which has been probing the Pre-Medical Entrance Test (PMET) scandal of Punjab in 2008, has been coming across startling revelations ever since it has been launched making it difficult for the SIT to complete its job within a reasonable time-frame

Though 71 accused involved in the scam have been arrested by the SIT so far, it could complete only 50 per cent of its job in the past one and a half years as new mysteries in connection with the racket have been cropping up.

Official sources said junk dealers, class IV employees, pharmacists, doctors and girls were found involved in the scam. Most of the racketeers were found deliberately delaying the passing of MBBS degrees from the colleges of Bihar and UP to extend their stay in their respective colleges to be in constant touch with the junior students to find out prospective customers.

The racketeers had compartmentalised their jobs. One group was assigned the job to arrange for imposters, the other was tasked to arrange for the real candidates, interested in passing the PMET through impersonation, and a third group was supposed to transport the imposters to the venue of the examination.

The fourth was assigned the responsibility for a comfortable stay and smooth entry of imposters into the examination centre after changing the photographs of the real candidates on the admit card with their photographs.

Sources said the racketeers had also succeeded in getting the question paper of the PMET leaked before it was held to help their customers pass the same with ease. They swapped the answer sheets of real candidates with the answer sheets prepared by them to ensure that the real candidates could pass the same with high scores and good ranking in the merit list. 

Most of the racketeers had changed their places of residence or places of education to hide their identities after the scam came to light.  In certain cases, it was found that these racketeers learnt about their arrest whenever the SIT tried to find out their new places and hence they managed to escape its net.

“The PMET scam is so mysterious that everyday, we have been coming across a new modus operandi adopted by the accused. The racket operated from Nalanda district of Bihar, has its roots in every nook and corner of the country,” pointed out LK Yadav, SSP, Ropar and head, SIT.

“When the first layer of the group of racketeers is arrested by the police, the second layer jumps into the scene to continue the money spinning task.  The racketeers are more focused on Punjab due to the availability of rich customers and had been charging Rs 15 lakh to Rs 20 lakh from the customers,” he added.

Even two sisters of Patna and a girl from Lucknow, identified as Sonal, were found involved in the racket.  Sonal, who was assisted by her father in the illegal business, had appeared in PMET four times through impersonation.

“We have been sharing information with the Baba Farid University of Health Sciences (BFUHS) and various observation made in the investigation was taken care of by it while conducting the PMET on June 6, 2010,” said Yadav.

Bathinda, June 7
Day-long drizzle experienced in Bathinda and its adjoining areas on Monday made the weather pleasant as mercury made a nosedive settling at 26.8 degrees Celsius at the maximum level.

The day’s low was 25 degrees Celsius, as per the Agro-met Advisory Services, PAU regional station, Bathinda.

The weather sprung a surprise on Monday morning as residents witnessed overcast sky at dawn and soon clouds converted into a drizzle. The intermittent drizzle that remained a feature throughout the day gave the residents ample feeling of a February weather in June.

Most importantly, normal life was not disrupted, rather citizens relished the mood swing of the weather as temperature hovered around 25 degrees Celsius during the entire day.

Abohar, June 7
By not initiating the works even after two months of receiving funds, the state government has made its intentions clear about implementing the MNREGA projects, former parliamentary secretary Sunil Jakhar said in his report to the Prime Minster office today.

While confirming it, he said the MNREGA was sculpted with the basic idea of providing job opportunities to skilled and none-skilled workers in the rural areas but the administration in the Ferozepur district alone had relieved 45 gram sewaks who were to coordinate with the job cardholders.

As per the information gathered under the RTI Act, the state government officials had during the year 2009-10 been keen to utilise the NREGA funds on purchasing material than making payments to the job cardholders. In the Ferozepur district, 242.24 lakh making 34 per cent of the total funds was exhausted on the purchasing material whereas only 7.96 lakh was spent on employing the administrative staff. Expenses on purchasing material were 37.58 per cent in Moga, 37 per cent in Tarn Taran, 35.69 per cent in Gurdaspur, 35.61 per cent in and 34.31 per cent in Hoshiarpur district.

He urged the Prime Minster to direct the state government to constitute monitoring committees for each district to ensure transparent and fair use of the Central government funds.

Bathinda, June 7
Irked over the alleged extra-marital affair of his wife, a shepherd of village Jeond killed her by severing her neck with a sharp-edged weapon, this morning.

However, the Rampura (Sadar) police termed it a case of domestic dispute that occurred due to the alleged infertility of the woman.

Sources in the village informed that Malkit Singh (the accused) had married Veerpal Kaur of village Pakho Kalan near Tapa about three years back. For the past few months, the couple had some domestic dispute. Many a time, people intervened and rescued Veerpal from the assault of Malkit Singh.

Narrating the incident, villagers stated that the incident took place in the morning, when Malkit returned home after tending the herd of sheep and found Veerpal talking over mobile phone with her “paramour”.

Malkit asked his wife to call her paramour to the house, pretending to be alone. But she warned her paramour not to come and call her, disclosing that her husband had been planning to kill him.

Irked, Malkit assaulted her with a sharp-edged country-made weapon hitting her in the head. Escaping a major injury, she threw her mobile phone and attempted to flee but a furious Malkit foiled her attempt and severed her neck.

Receiving information, police rushed to the spot and found the woman lying in a pool of blood. Collecting evidence from the spot, police took the dismantled mobile phone of the woman in possession and assembled it with the hope of receiving the call of her alleged paramour but till evening, nobody called up.

Later, the father of the deceased, Santa Singh, reached the spot and police made him the complainant and allegedly fabricated the scene of the crime to strengthen the evidence in the court.

In his “formal” complaint, Santa Singh said that Malkit used to beat up his daughter as the couple had no issue even three years after their marriage. He alleged that Malkit had doubt that she was suffering from infertility and wanted to get rid of her. He added that many a time, Veerpal was thrown out of the house.

“After reaching a settlement between the couple, we had sent her to her in-laws house just two days back. Worried about her well being, I had just reached there this morning and found Malkit had killed my daughter,” Santa Singh alleged in the police complaint.

Acting upon her statement, police booked Malkit Singh under section 302 of the IPC but failed to arrest him.

When contacted, the SHO Rampura (Sadar), Harwinder Pal Singh refuted the allegation of manipulating the facts of the crime, stating, “Everything has been done by following the due legal procedure.”

He denied the fact that the woman was talking over the mobile phone before she was killed.

Abohar/Sriganganagar, June 7
The Rajasthan government has agreed to get hundreds of pressure valves repaired that had been damaged by vested interests in the area of the Gang canal falling under the Ferozepur district, well-placed sources in the irrigation department as well as Rajasthan Kisan Sangharsh Samiti confirmed today.

A sum of Rs 239 lakh is likely to be released soon by the state government for the task. The canal founded long back by the then Bikaner state ruler Maharaja Ganga Singh was named after him. He had purchased the land for creating the canal by making payments to the affected farmers as well as the Punjab government.

The Rajasthan government led by the Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot had got Rs 446 crore sanctioned for remodelling the canal, known as lifeline for farmers of Sriganganagar and Hanumangarh districts, with financial assistance from the Central government a few years back in the Ferozepur district territory and about 2,500 valves were fixed in its floor bed to save the neighboring areas including village Khuikhera, located on the Abohar-Fazilka road, from waterlogging. Samiti spokesman Captain Subhash Sehgal informed that more than 500 valves, made of brass material, were found damaged during the preliminary survey conducted by the NGOs and the state government agencies during the past one year. These elements had reportedly sold out the brass plates as junk to dealers. This had caused a loss of 250 cusecs of water in between the Ferozepur headworks and Sriganganagar.

The Samiti office-bearers and irrigation officials in Sriganganagar had lodged a strong protest with the Punjab government over installation of tubewells on the both sides of the Gang canal in this district as well as the neighbouring areas but action against the offenders was stalled under political pressure.

It was suspected that the owners of the tubewells were also partially involved in damaging the valves to fetch more water through seepage. Recently, Sriganganagar Zila Parishad chairperson Shanti Devi Poonia had also led a group of progressive farmers and officials to examine the situation during the two-day visit.

She was informed by Khuikhera sarpanch and Ferozepur Zila Parishad member Prem Kumar that the village was again becoming a victim of waterlogging due to the damaged valves.

Sriganganagar district Congress president Prithvipal Singh Sandhu, legislators Gangajal Meel from Suratgarh, Santosh Saharan from Sadulshehar, Daulat Raj and former minister Jagtar Singh Sandhu had recently met the Rajasthan CM to get funds sanctioned for repairing the valves.

They were informed by Gehlot that the state government had already forwarded revised estimate worth Rs 614 crore to the Central Water Resources Commission for getting 52 km length of the Gang canal remodeled in Rajasthan area besides giving financial approval to the budgeted cost of Rs 2.39 crore for repairing the valves in the Ferozepur district.

Irrigation officials indicated that the Gang canal may soon be closed to take up repair of the valves on war footings.

Moga, June 7
The DSP of the Vigilance Bureau Amarjit Singh Matwani, who caught the local drug inspector Balram Luthra, red-handed last week, for accepting Rs 5,000 as bribe has been placed under suspension by the department on charges of administrative lapses in handling the case.

Confirming this to The Tribune, HS Dhillon, Director of the Bureau, revealed that he had been suspended on the basis of a report submitted by RL Bhagat, DIG Jalandhar zone of Bureau, who was sent to investigate whether the laid down procedures were followed by the DSP in the case or not and the DIG found in his inquiry that the DSP did not follow the rules and regulations.

When asked whether any inquiry has found the drug inspector to have been falsely implicated by the DSP, the Director said, “The inquiry is still on and it is a separate issue. The suspension has been ordered for administrative lapses and it has nothing to do with the arrest of drug inspector.”

He said within a day or two, the Bureau would appoint another investigating officer to carry on the investigation under the supervision of Bhagat.

He refuted the allegations of thrashing and beating by the complainant on the basis of an inquiry held in this regard.

Moga, June 7
The SSP of Moga Sneh Deep Sharma has suspended SHO of Nihal Singh Wala police station Gurmail Singh on charges of using a car for personal purpose, which was taken into custody in a criminal case, and also got registered a case under section 409 of the IPC against him. However, he was yet to be arrested at the time of writing this news report.

As per the details, a Swift car was taken into custody in November 2009 as 2.8 kg opium was recovered from it and some people travelling in it were also arrested under the NDPS Act.

The local DSP Surjit Singh Khosa, in a sudden checking found that a car was missing from the ‘Malkhana’. Since, it was a ‘case property’ in the case, it was supposed to be kept safe till the final disposal of the trial or release orders of the court. The DSP, submitted a report to the SSP. The SHO has been suspended and an FIR has been registered against him. — TNS

Bathinda, June 7
To provide better services to customers, the SME branch of the State Bank of Patiala (SBoP), Bathinda, has been shifted to new premises at Mansa Road, Industrial Area, Bathinda, on Monday.

General manager (operations) Pukhraj Kanther and the deputy general manager Rajesh Gupta inaugurated the new building of the bank. The branch provides all services related to core banking, including ATM, Internet banking, mobile banking and locker.

Several guests and customers of the bank were present on the occasion.

Bathinda, June 7
Three persons were killed while several others sustained severe injuries, when a truck hit a car on the Bathinda-Barnala road, early this morning.

As per information, a truck bearing number RJ31GA1339 (loaded with mangoes) was plying on the road, when all of a sudden, its front axle got dislocated and the driver lost control over the vehicle.

The truck rammed into a car bearing number CH01S8338, which was on its way to Tapa from Bathinda. Sources said people in the car were returning after attending a marriage at Bathinda on Sunday night.

Receiving the information, cops from the Cantonment police station and volunteers of the Sahara Jan Seva reached the spot.

The car was so badly mangled that the rescue workers had to cut through it to pull the injured out of it.

Sahara volunteers rushed the injured to Civil Hospital, Bathinda, where doctors declared Lakhi (40) and Bablu (25) brought dead. Of the others, three were referred to Ludhiana but one Lalu Parsad (30) also succumbed to his injuries on the way.

Police registered a case under section 304-A along with other sections of the IPC against the truck driver and launched further investigation. — TNS

Abohar, June 7
Vijay Kumar died on the spot and more than one dozen persons suffered multiple injuries when the mini-bus by which they were travelling overturned after it was hit by a truck loaded with fertiliser bags near bus stand of village Sappanwali located on the Abohar-Sriganganagar highway, today.

Police sources said the bus overturned when its driver lost control over the vehicle after it was hit by a speeding truck.

The bus was hit by the truck when it was about to reach the main road from the side road and its driver could not see the truck which was coming on the same road.

Sources added that all the injured including some students had been admitted to the nearby hospitals. Those, who suffered multiple injuries and were serious, had been referred to big hospitals of the nearby towns. A case in this connection had been registered by the police.

Abohar/S’nagar, June 7
Three residents of Patiala have been nabbed by the Rajasthan police while smuggling 110 kg of poppy husk, official sources said. As per details, the staff of the Bhirani police station intercepted the Maruti Esteem and recovered the contraband that had been packed in three bags.

The culprits arrested under the NDPS Act were identified as Amrinder Singh, Jasbir Singh andParamjit Singh.

Meanwhile, during a raid conducted at a tailor’s shop in Ramsinghpur segment, two persons were arrested under the NDPS Act, SP Rupinder Singh said today. — OC