The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

	Now, Sheikhupur down with gastro; 86 ill Tribune Reporters Jalandhar/Phillaur, August 21 After Chack Dhotre and Shamshabad villages of Phillaur subdivision, now it is the turn of Sheikhupur village, near Phillaur, to face the epidemic of gastroenteritis. A total of 86 villagers, including 42 women and 21 children, fell ill after consuming contaminated water last night. Talking to The Tribune, Dr Harbhajan Singh, Senior Medical Officer, Bilga, said barring two patients with severe symptoms who were under direct observation, all the patients had mild symptoms and were sent back to their homes after giving the required treatment. He said as many as 1,000 chorine tablets had been distributed among the 465 villagers. Phillaur SDM Pritam Singh confirmed this and told The Tribune today that medical teams had been sent to the affected village and chlorine tablets distributed and sanitation arrangements were being made in the village. The SDM said as water supply was being provided to the villagers directly from submersible pumps and no reservoir was constructed in the village, chloronisation of water could be possible only by distributing tablets from house to house. Two village girls had died while more than a 100 villagers had fallen ill due to gastroenteritis in Chack Dhotre and Shamshabad villages in the middle of July. Use of contaminated water was said to be the cause of gastroenteritis which gripped some localities of the village. The SDM said three water samples had been taken from different houses of the village. Due to the non-existence of any government health centre in the village, a team of health personnel, which had been deployed in the village since last night, was running the outdoor patient services in the Panchayat Ghar where The Tribune team saw queues of patients and medical teams camping and treating them. ADC of Jalandhar Sarojini Sharda said the Public Health Department had been instructed to make arrangements to provide clean drinking water in villages. She said medical teams had been deputed to examine and treat patients.
	ISI agent nabbed in Jalandhar Tribune News Service Jalandhar, August 21 The Jalandhar police today claimed to have nabbed an ISI agent and recovered bits of sensitive information, including maps of important locations and secret documents, from his possession. The agent is said to have been putting up here under the name of Thakur Amar Dass and changing locations from time to time. The police found his real name was Mohammad Alam, resident of Okara district in Pakistan. ADCP crime Rajpal Sandhu and CIA Staff in charge Satish Malhotra found that the accused had entered the country through illegal means. In India, he had also procured a passport, driving licence and other documents. Officials found that the agent had been sending information regarding various defence locations and other prohibited areas through various persons. They found that he was a paid agent from Pakistan. A case was registered at Division 2 police station and he was picked from Workshop Chowk. Officials said in a press note that Alam had taken training in speaking Hindi, computers, main defence locations and movement of military force from Okara, Faisalabad and Lahore. They said he had entered India via Bangladesh and Nepal route. He worked in India as a vegetable vendor, golgappa wala and even an internet cafe owner. A case under sections 419, 465, 468, 471 and 120-B of the IPC and 3, 4 and 5 of the Official Secrecy Act and of the Passport Act.
	SI suspended after bribe allegations, Special Cell dissolved Dharmendra Joshi Tribune News Service Jalandhar, August 21 The city police suspended Sub-Inspector (SI) Vijay Kumar on the basis of a complaint by a stamp vendor in which he had alleged that the SI had taken a bribe of Rs 1.5 lakh from him. The ADCP (Headquarters), Satinder Singh, said SI Vijay Kumar, posted with the Special Cell of the police, had been put under suspension and sent to the Police Lines seeing the seriousness of allegations after recording the statement of complainant Gurbachan Singh today. Further, the Special Cell was also dissolved, he added. Satinder Singh said the statements of the witnesses would be recorded on Monday. Further action of registering an FIR under relevant sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act against the SI would be taken after the outcome of the inquiry being conducted by him, he added. While the ADCP is looking into the allegations levelled by Gurbachan Singh, CIA in charge Satish Malhotra is probing the matter pertaining to registration of a case against the complainant’s younger brother a few days ago. In his complaint, the stamp vendor, Gurbachan Singh, had alleged that the SI had allegedly taken Rs 1.5 lakh as bribe from him after threatening to implicate him in a false case. He alleged that a four-member Special Cell team raided his work place at New Courts complex on August 10 afternoon without any legal authority. The stamp vendor said his younger brother, owner of a gift centre, was arrested in a case some days back. “Nothing objectionable was recovered from my work place during the search but police officials told me that I was involved in the supply of fake certificates and anti-national activities. I was taken to the Special Cell office. Then SI Vijay Kumar threatened to frame me in a false case if I fail to arrange Rs 3 lakh as bribe. Later, the deal was settled at Rs 1.50 lakh,” he said. “I was released from illegal detention only after paying Rs 50,000 as advance to Vijay Kumar at 10 pm. He told me to pay Rs 1 lakh within next 12 hours. Desperate over delay in arranging funds, Vijay called up my son on his mobile phone number more than 50 times on August 11 to extort the money. I was forced to pay another Rs 1 lakh,” he alleged, adding that his signatures were obtained on blank papers.
	Minor girl recovered after more than 20 days of kidnapping P.K. Jaiswar Tribune News Service Amritsar, August 21 With the arrest of Abdul Khan, a resident of West Bengal, the Mohkampura police yesterday solved the kidnapping case of a minor girl (4) who was handed over to her parents after more than 20 days of the abduction. The girl was recovered from West Bengal. Abdul Khan, who used to work for the father of the victim, Chander Bhushan, had shifted to Himachal Pardesh and had come to meet him on August 29. Chander Bhushan was not at home at that time. He took the girl on the pretext of getting her some sweets from the market but did not return. The family, after searching for the girl, lodged a complaint with the police on August 9, which registered a case under sections 363 and 365 of the IPC at the A-division police station. SHO Vavinder Kumar, while confirming the development, said Abdul Khan lived in an area situated just 15 km from Nepal. During investigations, the police found that Abdul had not returned to Himachal Pradesh and instead had gone to his home in West Bengal. He left the girl there and came back to HP after a few days. Khan, who had been living in Amritsar for the last 10 years, garnered the skill of embroidery from Chander Bhushan who runs an embroidery shop in the Judge Nagar locality. However, he left his shop and shifted his base to Himachal Pradesh about two years back. During interrogation, Abdul revealed that he had left the girl with his mother as she lived alone there. The police got in touch with the police in West Bengal which took over the girl and shifted her to Nari Niketan at Kolkata, from where she was brought today afternoon and handed over to her family.
	3 contractual kidnappers held G.S. Paul Tribune News Service Amritsar, August 21 On a tip-off by two foreign nationals and a Ropar-based person, arrested by the Chandigarh police recently, the CIA staff of the Amritsar police today nabbed three local persons in connection with a case pertaining to hatching of a conspiracy to kidnap a Chandigarh youth. The three local arrested persons are Gurpreet Singh, alias Gopi, resident of Guru Nanakwara, Surjit Singh, alias Raju, resident of Nimla Avenue, Nariangarh Chheharta, and Manjit Singh, alias Changiara, resident of Kot Mahna Singh, Tarn Taran Road. The persons arrested from Amritsar were hired to kidnap a Chandigarh-based boy for Rs 10 lakh by Ropar-based Gursher Singh and Simon Ginty and Grant Alan Easton, both residents of Brisbane, Australia. The Chandigarh Police had arrested Gursher Singh, Simon Ginty and Grant Alan Easton on Thursday. They had allegedly hatched a conspiracy to kidnap a Chandigarh-based youth, Harsh Sinha. But before they could execute their plan, they were arrested by the police. The Chandigah police had recovered a knife, three air pistols, narcotics and a Gypsy from them. A case under sections 364-A, 511 and 120-B of the NDPS Act and sections 25, 54 and 59 of the Arms Act had been registered against them at Sector 26 police station, Chandigarh. During the questioning of the arrested persons, they revealed that they planned to kidnap Harsh Sinha to get a ransom of Rs 1 crore by hiring kidnappers from Amritsar. The Amritsar police was instantly informed about the whole matter and the remaining accused were arrested by a team of the CIA Staff, Amritsar, headed by Sub-Inspector Inderjit Singh.
	Heroin worth Rs 2.5 cr seized Our Correspondent Pathankot, August 21 The Gurdaspur police today seized 500 gm of heroin, worth Rs 2.5 crore in the international market, from two inter-state criminals engaged in the smuggling of drugs. Lok Nath Angra, SSP, said acting on a military intelligence tip-off that two persons were coming from Bhikharwal to Gurdaspur carrying 500 gm of heroin, which they had smuggled from Amritsar, on their scooter, a police party, led by DSP Dilbagh Singh and comprising SHO Sukhpal Singh and Sub-Inspector Ashok Kumar, in charge, CIA Staff, laid a naka at Bhikharwal. Satinder Singh, alias Gaggan, resident of Chakri Mohalla, Kalanaur, and Raman Kumar, alias Munna, resident of Mohalla Balmik, Kalanaur, who were riding a scooter, were stopped and on search the heroin was found. A case under sections 21, 61 and 85 of the NDPS Act was registered.