NEIGHBOURHOOD

Rs 1.85 lakh looted from bank
Tribune News Service

Patiala, July 10
In a daylight robbery, approximately Rs 1.85 lakh was today looted from the Punjab National Bank at Baran on the Sirhind road, about eight km from here.Around 11 am, six unidentified motorcycle-borne persons, with their faces covered, barged into the bank. They were armed with weapons, including a revolver, a pistol and a .12-bore rifle.

According to the complaint lodged at the Tripuri police station by branch manager Vinod Kumar, two of them went to the cash counter and took away all the cash on gunpoint.

Panchkula, July 10
A 19-year-old youth, Dilpreet Singh, a resident of Baltana village near Zirakpur, was awarded seven-year imprisonment on the charges of kidnapping and raping a 14-year-old girl of Panchkula.

Additional District and Session Judge Ritu Garg in her order also slapped a fine of Rs 7,000 on the accused.

The court awarded him punishment under Sections 363 (punishment for kidnapping), 366 (kidnapping, abducting or inducing woman to compel her marriage) and 376 (punishment for rape) of the IPC.

The victim’s father had lodged a complaint with the Sector-14 police in December 2009 that the accused had allegedly kidnapped his 14-year-old daughter. He had alleged that his daughter was taking computer classes and had not returned home on December 5, 2009, after attending the classes. He had alleged that the accused had kidnapped his daughter.

Later the police recovered the boy and girl from Hoshiarpur. The counsel of the accused during arguments informed the court that the boy knew the girl for the past many years and the girl had gone with the boy on her consent. He further informed that the accused never kidnapped the girl.

However, the prosecution presented medical report of the girl, which confirmed rape.

After hearing arguments from both parties, the court had convicted Dilpreet yesterday and awarded punishment today.

Mohali, July 10
The Mohali police busted an inter-state gang of thieves, who targeted luxury cars. SSP Mohali, Gurpreet Singh Bhullar said seven luxury cars had been recovered so far from two members of the gang, namely Jovanjeet and Maneel Dhuria. The stolen cars are worth Rs 33 lakh.

The police is hopeful of recovering more cars from the thieves, who used to lift cars from different cities, including Amritsar, and sell them off 
on the basis of fake registration numbers.

A case under Sections 379, 411, 420, 467, 468, 471 and 120 B of the IPC has been registered at the Kharar police station. SP (D) Varinder Pal said more recoveries were expected from the thieves. The network of the thieves ran beyond Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh.

The accused have been remanded to two-day police custody.

The vehicles recovered included one Innova car, three Indico cars, two Zen cars and one Bolero jeep.

Zirakpur, July 10
A private company’s security guard posted at the Baltana BSNL telephone exchange and other three unidentified persons were booked on charges of criminal breach of trust here late this evening. The case has been registered on the complaint of Mukul Chaudhary, a senior official posted at the Baltana BSNL exchange.

Investigating official said the complainant in his complaint stated that the incident came to light when he reached the office where Labh Singh, a security guard, told him that three unidentified persons took 24 cells’ battery around 5.30 am.

The security guard told three unidentified persons stopped their Indica car in front of the office around 5.30 am and told the contractor had asked them to change the generator battery for which they required a new battery.

Chandigarh, July 10
City girl Abhilasha Modgil defeated Ishmeet Kaur of Maharashtra in the singles qualifying first round of the AITA Talent Series Tennis Tournament held at the CLTA Courts here today.

Abhilasha defeated Ishmeet by 8-2 in the girls’ under-16 category.

The qualifying matches of the day were delayed by an hour due to drizzling in the morning.

“The response of the players in this tournament is better than the last tournament due to increase in the AITA ranking points for the Talent Series starting later this month,” said Gajendera Singh, chief operating officer.

On the other hand, all second and final qualifying rounds for the boys’ under-12 and under-16 categories are scheduled to be held tomorrow.

Results:

Singles qualifying first round: Girls U-16: Shreya Kalia (HP) given walk over; Abhilasha Mudgil (CHD) defeated Ishmeet Kaur (MAH) by 8-2; Simran Kapur (CHD) defeated Sukriti Thakur by 8-2 and Gulmehar defeated Shefali Sharma by 8-1.

Boys U-12: Yuvraj Singh defeated Manoneet Singh by 8-7 (7); Rahul Verma defeated Shreyas Chopra by 8-1; Gaurav Seth and Angrej Singh given walk over; Mahip Uppal defeated Ritik Abrol by 8-0; Neeraj Yashpaul defeated Jagjit Singh by 8-2;Saurabh Parashar defeated Chiraz Singh by 8-2;Kemp O’ Brien defeated Saurabh Bhatia by 8-0; Dhruv Sabharwal defeated Anmol Goel by 8-0;Kabir Singh defeated Daksh Marwah by 8-1;Aniket Khosa defeated Asav Kumar by 8-3 andShivam defeated Amitesh Juneja by 8-3.

Boys U-16: Kawalpreet Singh defeated Rishab Khanna 8-4; Barun Singh Gill defeated Parichay 8-7 (4); Mohit Bhardwaj defeated Chandan Agnihotri 8-2; Ikshvanku Sharma defeated Parasdeep Virk 8-3;
Ajay Singh Thakur defeated Jaiman Sharma 8-1; Ranjeet Singh defeated Daksh Verma 8-4; Ankur Rawat defeated Harsimran Punia 8-0; Mayank Sharma defeated Mohit Kumar Nvtia 8-0; Utsav Jain defeated Ankush Thakur 8-1; Allen Johnson defeated Digvijay Pratap Singh 8-1; Santbir Singh defeated Amitoj Singh 8-0; Anirudh Patel defeated Abhinav Bansal 8-4; Ranjot Singh Minhas defeated Arnav Goel 8-7 (5); Abhinav Jindal defeated Sahil Dhingra 8-5; Karandeep Singh defeated Yugul Bansal 8-0; Hariom Sabarwal and Gaurav Dev Sharma given walk over; Tegbir Singh Hara defeated Nikhil Kaswan 8-5; Akhil Bansal defeated Nimrat Singh 8-1; Manjot Singh defeated Pallav Jindal 8-3; Anupam Lamba defeated Rupesh Khokharr 8-6; Yashvardhan Singh defeated Divansh Pandey 8-3; Sanchit Sethiya defeated Archit Dhingra 8-0 and Shivesh Tripathi defeated Sanam Singh 8-2.

Singles qualifying second round: Boys U-12: Rahul Verma defeated Ramanjot Singh by 8-3; Kabir Manrai defeated Anmol Kamboj by 8-1; Neeraj Yashpaul, Sohrab Kalia and Leonardo Pamei given walk over.

Chandigarh, July 10
Incessant rain in this part of the region has brought sports activity, particularly outdoor games, to a grinding halt in the city.Almost all grounds in the city have been affected, making it difficult for sportsperson to even continue with their practice sessions.

“The grounds are wet and we are not allowing anyone to play on these, as it will damage the ground,” says Bhupinder Singh, coach on the Panjab University campus.

“No one can prevent rain, so there is no use crying over it. All we can do is wait,” says Bhupinder.

Even city’s soccer teams, both senior men and junior girls, which had so far been sweating it out for the upcoming nationals, have been stopped in their tracks due to soggy outfields.

“We are on the verge of playing the competition in Kolkata but a sudden break due to wet outfield may prove costly for the team. So whenever it rains, I prefer road running so that players remain fit,” quips coach Gurpreet Bedi at the Football Stadium, Sector 17.

Persistent rain has not only affected playgrounds of the city but also tracks used by athletes as these have been waterlogged.

Recent rains have converted the Sports Complex, Sector 7, into a pool.

“We came here for practice, as our inter-school tournaments are about to begin, but due to heavy rain we have been forced to wait till the water drains off the track,” says Ajay, an athlete.

With sportspersons continuing to face the problem of wet grounds, at least till the monsoon lasts, most have taken to indoor endurance activities.