NEIGHBOURHOOD

Avtar Singh Murder Case
All accused arrested
Tribune News Service

Patiala, July 11
Within four days of murder of Avtar Singh (17), the Patiala police claimed to have cracked the case and arrested 11 persons allegedly involved in the crime.

The accused have been identified as Tejinder Singh, Sukhbir Kaur, Sukhwinder Singh, Gurdeep Singh, Amardeep Singh, Gurmeet Singh, Paramjeet Singh, Sukhjinder Singh, Gurpreet Singh and Amardev Singh Bhupi.

One of the accused is yet to be identified. A case under Sections 34, 148, 149 and 302 has been registered against all accused at Tripuri police station. Notably, Avtar, a student of Class 10+2 of Guru Teg Bahadur Public School and a resident of Bhari Panaichan, Bhadson, near Patiala, was stabbed to death by the accused on July 6.

According to the police, Sukhbir and Tejinder were friends and Avtar also used to travel in the same bus. “Few days back Tejinder got apprehensive that Avtar was flirting with Sukhbir, which provoked him to kill Avtar,” the police added.

Ambala, July 11
Two cases of theft, involving Rs 4.75 lakh, were reported here during the past 24 hours. Jagir Singh, a resident of Brahman Majra, allegedly lost Rs 2.72 lakh, which he had withdrawn from the Oriental Bank of Commerce and Punjab National Bank at Naraingarh. He had reportedly tied the bag containing the money with the handle of his two-wheeler. He stopped the vehicle at a vegetable shop and within minutes, he found the bag missing from the vehicle.

In another case, Prakash Bindal, working as manager of a rubber factory at Dukheri near Ambala Cantonment, was returning home after withdrawing Rs 1.90 lakh from HDFC Bank Ambala Cantonment. He parked his scooter in Saudagar Bazar for some time. When he returned after a few minutes, he found the bag containing the money missing.

A case has been registered.

Ambala, July 11
Deputy Commissioner Samir Pal Saro has ordered to close the schools till July 14. According to the order, the government schools, aided schools, public schools and private schools will remain closed till July 14.

He has directed the district education officer to take strict action against those schools, which did not implement the order.

Zirakpur, July 11
The police today arrested a resident of Kolkata from Mohali who was running a fake general insurance racket. The police team recovered three computers, stamps, a printer-cum-scanner, covering letter of public sector insurance companies and lots of old records of vehicle insurances from his possession.

The investigating officer stated that they received a complaint from Keshavjeet, a resident of Panchkula, who was working as a commission agent for Sudershan Burman, a resident of Kolkata, currently residing in Phase V, Mohali.

The complainant told the police that Burman was asking people to do the business on commission basis and after receiving the money the policy was issued on the same day. The complainant alleged that he, along with other agents, got suspicious in the policy cover note and, hence, informed the police about the forgery.

A raid was conducted at the office of Sudershan Burman located in Sector 70. “We have recovered fake covering letters of a public sector insurance company. Burman used to give the scanned policies with fake stamps and for last four months he was active in Mohali district,” said the investigating officer.

According to the police, Burman had bought a plot in Zirakpur and was also active in share trading. SHO Yogi Raj stated that a case under Sections 420, 467, 468 and 120-B of the IPC has been registered against the accused and further investigations were on to check how vast his network was and how many persons he has duped so far.

Chandigarh, July 11
Senior soccer team of the city is all set to prove their mettle in the upcoming Santosh Trophy to be held in Kolkata. City-based former Inter-national player Sanjeev Maria would lead the 20-member squad. The team would play their first match on July 15 against Maharastra. After the performance of junior team in Kolkata the senior team has to toil hard for victory.

The team was selected after a one-month long coaching camp and all the players are said to fit for giving their best in the tournament. On the other hand, Gurpreet Singh Bedi coach at the Sector-17 Football Stadium and Amrik Singh would accompany the team as coach and manager, respectively. Chandigarh team would face Tripura and Andhra Pradesh to clear the league stage. Team-Sanjeev Maria, Raj Kumar, Ishann Dogra, Sumeer Singh, Kartik, Hanish, Nikhil Prashar, Mukul, Mohak, Supinder, Salludin, Harminder, Akhil, Vinnet, Pavitar, Harkirat, Pawandeep, Mohit and Preet.

Groups Cluster I: Karnataka, Meghalaya and Jharkhand. Cluster II: Maharashtra, Chandigarh, Tripura and Andhra Pradesh. Cluster III: Punjab, Pondicherry, Gujarat and Nagaland. Cluster IV: Manipur, J&K and Rajasthan. Cluster V: Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Arunachal Pradesh. Cluster VI: Haryana, Chhattisgarh and Sikkim. Cluster VII: Kerala, Uttarakhand, Assam and Himachal Pradesh. Cluster VIII: Mizoram, Orissa and Railways.

Chandigarh, July 11
A CHART trainee, Rahul Verma booked his place in the main draw of the AITA Talent Series Tennis Tournament held at the CLTA Courts and Lake Club here today. Due to heavy rain in the morning, the matches were delayed by three hours. Rahul Verma defeated Naman Singla in straight set by 8-2 in the boys’ under-12 category. Another CHART trainee, Angrej Singh defeated Samir Vats by 8-6, whereas Jagdeep Singh defeated Leonardo Pamei by 8-3.

Chandigarh, July 11
It was a mixed day for Chandigarh players at the HTA-AITA Men’s and Women’s Tournament-2010, which is underway at the Harvest Tennis Academy, Jassowal, Ludhiana, today.

While a strong contender, Digvijay Singh Mehta from Chandigarh lost to Jajbir Singh, another local player Mandeep Kumar beat his opponent Tushar Jaitly (Punjab) in the final round of the men’s single qualifiers.

Mandeep Kumar got the better of Tushar Jaitly 9-8 (7-3), but Digvijay lost his touch after winning the first set 6-2 against Jajbir and gave up the next two sets 3-6, 4-6.

In another match, Rithvik Anand of Tamil Nadu shocked third seeded Veera Vasanth Venkatesh 6-2, 6-3 to qualify for the main draw, while Punjab’s Harpreet Singh Saran beat 16th seeded Harry Jindal, also from Punjab by 6-4, 6-2.

In the women’s section, Prabhamrit Kaur, Jaspreet Kaur, Bhavika Wadhwan, Manjunath Shalaka, Charvi Saxena, Komalpreet Kaur, Ambika Pandey and Shilpa Naruka qualified for the main draw.

Chandigarh, July 11
With a view to tapping the burgeoning golf talent in the country, the Professional Golf Tour of India (PGTI) has joined hands with the IMG Reliance to select young golfers for the IMG Reliance scholarships in Florida.

The IMG scholarships are a unique initiative of the PGTI to identify the talented Indian golfers, who will be provided with full sporting and academic scholarships to train and coach at the IMG Academies in Bradenton, Florida.

To select the best golf talent in the age group of 11 to 15 years, the PGTI picked up top 50 youngsters of the country through its network and in consultation with coaches for the first selection trials held at the DLF Golf and Country Club in Gurgaon on July 9 and 10.

The top 15 selected from this talent pool will fly to Brandenton for the final selection trials to be held at the IMG Academies in August.

The top four of the junior Indian talent will become full-time scholars of the IMG Academies from September.

These youngsters will continue at the academy based on their performance till their education is completed.

Their performance will be reviewed every year.

The selected golfers will get specialised training to enhance their skills at the David Leadbetter Golf Academy, a state-of-the-art golfers’ paradise located within the confines of the IMG Academies in Bradenton.

The golfers will receive performance training that not only focuses on the mechanics of the golf swing, but prepares each individual to be successful in the areas of course management, tournament preparation and practice technique.

The aim of the David Leadbetter Golf Academy is to produce golf athletes that have been armed with the tools necessary to excel technically, tactically, physically and mentally in the competitive world of the sports and life.

Commenting on the initiative, PGTI director Padamjit Sandhu said, “The IMG Reliance scholarships for India is an unheralded grassroots development initiative for the sporting talent in the country. The PGTI is proud of being able to anchor the efforts to identify the right talent and work with the team at IMG Reliance.”

Chandigarh, July 11
A meeting of district secretaries was held at the PCA Stadium, Mohali, to look into the reasons of Punjab cricket team’s poor show at the senior level, despite an excellent performance in the junior level (under-19), sub-junior level (under-16) and in under-22 category here yesterday.

PCA honorary secretary MP Pandove headed the meeting, which included secretaries of Amritsar, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Patiala, Mohali, Ropar, Kapurthala, Bathinda, Faridkot, Muktsar, Sangrur, Moga, Barnala, Fatehgarh Sahib and technical and support staff of the PCA.

After condoling the death of Satish Gupta, a member of the executive committee, PCA, Pandove exhorted the members to review the entire coaching and training system and to come up with a feedback.

According to him, “Punjab will make a serious effort to win the Ranji Trophy.” It was also decided to open the regional coaching centres for women under-19 and senior level at Amritsar, Chandigarh, Ludhiana, Patiala, Mohali and Jalandhar and only NCA accredited coaches and trainers with level 1, 2 and 3 will be appointed in future.

On the other hand, the quality of umpiring was also discussed and it was decided to fix the retirement age of PCA umpires at 55. However, three years’ extension could be given based on the performance on medical concerning eyesight and hearing.

The selection committee would also be divided into different categories i.e. senior, under-22, under-16 and under-19.