Hisar, July 5
In response to the bandh call given by the Opposition in protest against the hike in fuel prices, all shops and commercial establishments here remained closed till late this evening.

Even the Sabzi Mandi, where most of the business is conducted early morning, remained shut. Roadside eateries too suspended business for the day. Workers of the Indian National Lok Dal, CPM, BJP and the HJC were seen in the bazars throughout the day to ensure that the markets remained closed.

Traffic plied as usual but with the markets closed, the roads wore a deserted look. Schools and other educational institutions remained open. Banks too functioned normally albeit with fewer customers. In Karnal and surrounding areas, the bandh call evoked a lukewarm response as also in Fatehabad.

Kurukshetra: A complete strike was observed here in protest against the increased prices of petroleum products. In spite of heavy rain in the morning, Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) activists led by its state president Ashok Arora led a procession from Birla Mandir Chowk, which passing through the town’s main markets, terminated in front of the old bus stand. The BJP and CPI workers held several protest meetings and took out processions.

Sonepat: Most shops as well as grain and vegetable markets remained closed here. Most truckers remained off the road. Work in government offices, educational institutions and banks in the district worked as usual. Many shops were open by noon. Activists of the BJP led by former MP Kishan Singh Sangwan and state media in charge Rajiv Jain assembled at Geeta Bhawan Chowk and organised protest marches in the town on motor cycles and other vehicles. INLD district president Padam Singh Dahiya claimed the bandh was complete. The CPM, CPI, CITU, AITUC, Sarv Karamchari Sangh and All- India Kisan Sabha jointly held a protest march in the town. Senior communist leader SN Solanki said the recent hike in petrol products would break the backbone of the common man.

Bhiwani: Bhiwani and Dadri observe a complete bandh.Nature helped the Opposition in making the bandh a success with overnight showers waterlogging the main areas. Shopkeepers didn’t even attempt to open their shops. Those who did were forced to down their shutters by activists of the INLD and BJP. The BJP activists burnt the effigy of the Centre. District president Tara Chand Agarwal said the oil companies would again hike petro prices to meet their losses.

The bandh was almost complete. Only chemist shops and tea stalls were open. The towns of Bhiwani, Charkhi Dadri, Loharu and Badhra observed a complete bandh. Most schools, scheduled to open after summer vacations today, remained closed. Government offices and nationalised banks remained open. However, banks looked deserted with few clients. Roadways buses plied with few passengers.

FARIDABAD: All markets remaining closed till the afternoon. Supporters and activists of the BJP disrupted the movement of trains. Services of three trains, including Ujjaini Express, had to be suspended for about 20 minutes.

All major markets, including the biggest one in Old Faridabad wore a deserted look.

Chandigarh, July 5
Arrangements are in place for the smooth conduct of the first phase of the general elections of Panchayati Raj Institutions in 31 blocks of eight districts of the state that is Gurgaon, Hisar, Karnal, Panchkula, Panipat, Rohtak, Rewari and Yamunanagar tomorrow.

State Election Commissioner, Haryana, Dharamvir said necessary instructions had been issued to all Deputy Commissioners and the police authorities to ensure that the elections take place in a free, fair and peaceful manner. He said the district authorities had also been directed to provide protection to weaker sections of society. The voting shall start at 7 am and close at 4.30 pm.

He said in the first phase, elections were to take place for 15,532 seats of panches, sarpanches and members of panchayat samitis and zila parishads. There would be no elections on 5,165 seats as these had been filled unopposed. These included 17 member panchayat samitis, 49 sarpanches and 5,099 panches. Therefore, the elections will be held for 10,367 seats, which include 1,316 seats of sarpanches, 8,268 seats of panches, 653 seats of member of panchayat samiti and 130 seats of member of zila parishad.

He said the contesting candidates included 1,377 for members of zila parishad, 3,636 for member panchayat samitis, 7,673 for sarpanch and 20,904 for panch.

Dharamvir said 4,690 polling stations had been set up and 23,47,186 voters would franchise their right to vote. In each district, one senior IAS officer had been appointed as election observer.

For maintaining law and order, as many as 27,700 police personnel and 5,780 home guards would be deployed. Sensitive and hypersensitive villages had been identified and adequate police force would be deployed at such places. In addition, there would be police patrol parties to keep a close watch on the law and order situation.

The Election Commissioner said Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) would be used for voting for the election of sarpanches in all eight districts and members of zila parishad in Panchkula and Karnal districts.

The Election Commissioner also said the counting of votes for panches and sarpanches would be held immediately after the close of voting, whereas for panchayat samiti and zila parishad, the counting would take place on July 12 from 8 am. 

Gurgaon, July 5
Keeping their tradition of electing the panchayat members unanimously, voters of Rithoj village in the district elected Santosh as their sarpanch unopposed.

The residents of this village have been electing their panchayat members unanimously since 1975 - that is for the past 35 years.

Although 18 candidates had filed their nominations for the post of sarpanch this time, 17 withdrew their nominations in favour of Santosh after the villagers decided to support her candidature.

Thus, no election was required and Santosh was declared elected sarpanch unopposed in this Gurjar-dominated village in Sohna block of the district.

In panchayat samitis, 185 of the 622 candidates withdrew their nominations. Now, there are 437 candidates in the fray for the panchayat samitis of the district. A total of 629 candidates had filed their nominations, of which seven were rejected during scrutiny.

Meanwhile, as many as 117 candidates have remained in the fray for 10 seats of the local zila parishad after the withdrawal of nominations.

These candidates have been allotted election symbols and have been canvassing for the elections scheduled to be held on July 6.

According to an official statement, 168 candidates had filed their nominations for the 10 wards of Gurgaon zila parishad, of which one nomination was rejected during the scrutiny. Fifty candidates withdrew their nominations, leaving 117 candidates in the fray.

The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) is the only party contesting the panchayat elections on its symbol. It has fielded two candidates for the Gurgaon zila parishad, one from ward No. 1 and the other from ward No. 7. All other candidates are contesting as independents.

Chandigarh, July 5
Ruchika and her friend Aradhana’s silence for two days after the alleged molestation speaks volumes of Haryana’s former DGP SPS Rathore’s innocence, his wife-cum-counsel Abha Rathore told the Punjab and Haryana High Court this afternoon.

As the case came up for resumed hearing before Justice Jitendra Chauhan, Abha Rathore tried to use human psyche as a tool to dig holes in the prosecution story, emphasising that the alleged victim and her friend did not speak of the incident for two days. The assertion indicated Abha Rathore’s attempt to establish that the allegations of molestation against Rathore were a counterblast to the orders placing under suspension Ruchika’s tennis membership due to “indiscipline”. Rathore at that time was the tennis association chief. Referring to the statements of Ruchika’s father SC Girhotra, she said the alleged victim was not at all disturbed after the incident. In fact, Girhotra told the court that for two days they cooked food together. During the period there were no complaints of molestation made. Aradhana too did not utter a word, even though they had a “reaction time” of almost three days.

She argued that the natural reaction of any girl in such circumstances would have been to rush to her parents. Ruchika did not have a mother. But Aradhana had one. Nowhere had it been explained why she did not narrate the incident to her till the evening of August 14, 1990.

Abha said the only explanation for Ruchika’s initial silence was fear of her family being implicated. This, she said, was not plausible.

Finding fault with the observation of the court below, she said it had been observed that Ruchika’s convent education prevented her from voicing her grievance, though it should have been the other way round. “What a reasoning,” she remarked. “Convent education would, rather, have made her bold and smart enough to come out with her problems immediately”. Even Aradhana’s parents had nothing to fear. Placed high in society, they often visited an additional DGP at his home.

Abha went on to add the two went to the tennis courts even after the alleged incident and to justify the same had lied of changing the timing to 4.30 pm to avoid bumping into Rathore. Claiming Rathore has been “convicted on the statement of a girl who is a liar”, she said the cooking up of the “avoidance theory” was apparent from the fact they met the former top cop at 6.30 pm. “Why did they wait till 6.30 pm if they were so afraid of Rathore” she questioned. Abha said the prosecution’s explanation for the gap of two days was that they decided to open up only after a tennis association ball boy “Paltu” came to call them to the tennis association office. But the defence version was that the suspension of her membership on August 13, 1990, was the instigating factor.

She said her father’s reaction too was unnatural. He sent Ruchika to Aradhana’s parents, “complete strangers” till then.. The case will come up for further hearing on tomorrow. 

Fatehabad, July 5
The police today arrested the maternal uncles of Reena, 16, who was found dead along with Sham Mohammad in what seems like a case of honour killing at Samain village in this district yesterday.

The doctors at the PGIMS, Rohtak, sent Reena’s viscera to the forensic science laboratory as her body bore no injury marks.

The SP, Jagwant Singh Lamba, said the police had arrested Ram Mehar and Vijender, maternal uncles of Reena, in connection with the murder of the couple. The bodies of Reena and village lad Sham Mohammad were found at the village school grounds in the early of yesterday.

The two were in love and had eloped sometime back but were caught later. A panchayat of village elders had passed an edict, asking the boy to keep out of the village. The boy was since studying in a madrasa in Qadian and had come for summer vacations 15 days back.

The SP said Reena called on Sham’s mobile past midnight. It is not clear whether she called on her own or was forced to do so. Sham left the house after the call and the bodies of the couple were found the following morning. The SP said no incoming or outgoing call was found on the mobile phones of the two after Reena’s call to Sham, alias Gogi.

The police arrested Reena’s two uncles before her cremation today. The body of Sham (after post-mortem) was cremated this evening.

Karnal, July 5
A couple escaped a murderous attack by family members of a Brahmin girl who dared to marry a low-caste boy more than two years ago.

Mewa Ram of Dacher village, who tied the knot with Puja of Bibipurjatan on January 23, 2008, in court were provided police protection on February 14, 2008, on request.

By and by, the girl started meeting her family members through police intervention. A baby girl was born to the couple on January 20, 2009, and was named Milan.

The girl went to her parent house on the 24th of this June. When her husband went to bring her back, the couple was attacked by the girl’s family members.

They escaped. A case under Sections 147,149,323 and 307,IPC , and Sections of the SC and ST Act was registered against the accused. 

Sirsa, July 5
A Sub-Inspector of the Punjab police was allegedly thrashed and paraded to the police station by locals at Dabwali town here yesterday.

The incident took place after the cop along with two others allegedly forced entry in a car parked on the outskirts of the town and asked the occupants to accompany them at gunpoint.

The cops were in civil clothes and the locals, who gathered after the alarm was raised by the car owner, took them as robbers.

People caught Swaran Gandhi, who later identified himself as a Sub-Inspector in the Lambi police station near Dabwali town, while two others accompanying him fled away.

The local police called Harjinder Singh, SHO of the Lambi police station, who confirmed that Gandhi was a Sub-Inspector.

Gandhi claimed that he had a tip-off that an illicit deal was being done in a car parked at that place. Car owner Gurtej Singh, a jeweller from Muktsar, was waiting for his kin Kuldeep near Kalanwali Chowk of the town when the cops in forced entry into his car.

Gurtej told the police that he revealed his identity to the invaders, but they insisted him to accompany them at gunpoint. Gurtej, however, raised the alarm and called up his kin.

Two of the invaders slipped away after seeing the crowd, while Gandhi was captured by the people and given a beating.

Earlier, four persons in police uniform had robbed a jeweller of 950 gm of gold at Bathinda Chowk of Dabwali town on June 26. The police had later arrested a Punjab cop in connection with that robbery. 

Jind, July 5
Kin of a woman, who died soon after delivering a baby boy, held a protest at the Civil Hospital here alleging negligence on the part of doctors and staff attending the patient.

The kin refused to take the custody of the deceased and sat on dharna outside the main gate of the hospital. The protest came to an end after the police assured an inquiry against the doctors and the staff against whom the kin had levelled charges of negligence.

The incident took place last night when Mukesh (25), wife of Sandeep of Ugalan village of Hisar district, died after delivering a baby around noon. She was admitted to the gynaecology ward of the hospital on Friday and had given birth to a son through a cesarean. However, it is stated in the complaint that her condition started deteriorating by the evening and none of the doctors, who were on duty, attended her despite requests made by her attendants. They claimed that no doctor attended the patient for about five hours and this led to her death. Alleging criminal negligence, they sought arrest of the accused doctors. No case has been registered so far in this connection. — TNS

Rohtak, July 5
The police has failed to trace the missing engineering student of Lakhan Majra college, who was reportedly kidnapped by unidentified miscreants on Saturday. The incident took place when he was on the way to his college. The student identified as Mohit, son of Ved Prakash, a resident of Pradhana Mohalla in Rohtak, had gone to the college on Saturday. When he did not return by late night, the family members started a hunt.

Later, an anonymous caller called up his father and demanded a ransom of Rs 5 lakh stating that his son had been kidnapped.

While a complaint has been lodged with the police, the police is still looking for a clue in this regard.

The police has reportedly constituted three teams to trace the kidnapped youth and also put the mobile phone of the victim and that of the caller, who demanded ransom, under surveillance. 

Jind, July 5
At least 24 students of a private school at Bidtana village in the district fell ill after they drank water from the tank of the school. All victims have been admitted to the Civil Hospital where their condition is stated to be stable.

The school had opened today after the summer break. The water in the tank reportedly got contaminated after two students allegedly mixed a pesticide in it in a bid “to get the vacations extended”.

The accused students, who were not identified by the school authorities, however, admitted in private that they had done this to get the school closed for some more time, but there intention was not to harm anyone. The students who drank the water started vomiting and fell unconscious around noon during the interval.

No complaint has been lodged by the school authorities in this connection.

Chandigarh, July 5
Justice Alok Singh of the Punjab and Haryana High Court has directed the Kurukshetra Deputy Commissioner to personally appear before the court and file his personal affidavit explaining the reasons why a meeting had not been fixed for holding elections to the posts of president and vice-president of the Ladwa Municipal Committee.

The directions were issued on a petition filed by Vijay Dhingra and others, stating that elections to the Ladwa Municipal Committee were held on May 29.

The first meeting of the committee had been fixed for June 18, but it was adjourned “under some political pressure”.

The petitioners had sought directions from the high court to the authorities concerned for holding the elections to the posts.

Faridabad, July 5
Industrialists today met the commissioner of the Municipal Corporation, Faridabad, Mahatab Singh Sehrawat, regarding their demands, including non-functional streetlights and poor infrastructure in industrial areas.

A delegation of the Faridabad Industries Association, led by KC Lakhani, apprised the commissioner of the poor streetlight facilities in Sectors 4, 6, 24 and 25 and the DLF area having industrial units.

The industrialists lamented that bulbs had gone missing from many poles and the resulting darkness in the area had created a sense of insecurity among them.

The delegation also pointed out the waterlogging problem arising out of the closure of the main drain leading from the Badarpur flyover to Sector 37. The drain has been closed on account of construction work on the flyover.

A member of the delegation said the MCF authorities assured them that there problems would be addressed soon. — TNS