Bathinda, February 26
The case of abducting a girl filed against a dismissed DSP and his family members took a new turn with the police finding evidence against them of being involved in preparing obscene MMS (video clips) of women coming to their beauty parlour located at Dhobi Bazaar in Bathinda.

The news came as a shock for the city as the beauty parlour in question is known to have well-heeled clientele.

The mystery started unfolding after a professor from Patiala accused ex-DSP Gurjeet Singh, who was convicted for murder and then declared a proclaimed offender (PO) in 2007 after he jumped parole, his wife and two sons, Vajinder Singh and Maninder Singh, and a relative of abducting his 22-year-old daughter.

Acting upon the complaint, Passiana police (Patiala) registered an FIR against them on February 20 and conducted a raid at the quarter allotted to the family in the Police Lines Bathinda.

After the reports appeared in the media, one Palwinder Kaur alias Sweety from Ludhiana appeared before the police and claimed to be the wife of Vajinder Singh, who was the prime accused in the case related to the abduction of the professor’s girl. Giving a statement in the court, she produced some evidence of her marriage, informed the Passisan SHO Aman Pal Singh Virk.

Accusing Vajinder and his brother Maninder of possessing illegal weapons, smuggling drugs from UP and running a sex racket, the woman led the police to locate Maninder, who during the interrogation, admitted that he and his brother used to prepare obscene MMSs of women visiting their beauty parlour with the help of their manager Sarabjeet Kaur.

Acting upon the statement, police nabbed Sarabjeet Kaur and recovered about 40 obscene video clips.

“In some of these video clips, Vajinder and Maninder are seen talking to each other to give sedative to some girls and then developing physical relations with them,” informed the SHO Passiana.

The police produced Maninder and Sarabjeet Kaur in a Patiala court and got their remand till March 1 to ascertain facts and take their help in nabbing their accomplices. Meanwhile, sources in the police informed that Vajinder and the professor’s girl had got married and even sought police protection from the High Court.

However, the Passiana SHO denied the information saying that before the police got legal evidence, the case of abduction would not be closed. He, however, said after the fresh revelation, the police had added some more sections of the IPC (313 and 376) to the case. “We are conducting raids to nab the other accused, who were absconding since the case was registered,” said the SHO, adding: “On the basis of some clues, I can say that some of them will be nabbed in a day or two.”

Bathinda SSP Sukhchain Singh Gill said since the ex-DSP and his family were involved in heinous crime, he had issued orders to get the police quarter allotted to them on mercy, vacated at the earliest.

Moga, February 26
Former Chief Minister and President of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) Captain Amarinder Singh will request the authorities of the social networking site Facebook to deactivate all the accounts in his name that had appeared on it without his permission.

Hoping to come back to power in the next Assembly elections due in less than a year’s time, the Captain is disturbed over the new accounts in his name appearing on the Facebook, which according to his close associates, could be misused to defame him.

The latest account ‘CaptainForCM’ has appeared on the Facebook for nearly four weeks. Several online attempts have been made to contact the person who opened this account, but to no avail.

The new account projecting Captain Amarinder Singh as the next CM of the state seems to have been made to garner support from young fans in the state and NRIs settled across the globe.

The account might have been created by the well-wishers or fans of Amarinder but 'there is a possibility of misuse of this social networking campaign’, feels a close associate of the Congress leader.

Besides latest addition on the Facebook, there were at least six other ‘fake’ accounts of Captain Amarinder Singh appearing on this social networking site, besides his personal account, which has attracted 1,045 members as friends. Another ‘fake’ account ‘SupportCaptainAmarinderSingh’ has 425 members in friends list. Similarly, other ‘fake’ accounts have 169, 165, 41, 15, 5 and 2 members in the friends list.

Interestingly, four out of these eight ‘fake’ accounts were being updated on a daily basis. In the ‘CaptainForCM’ account, the creators had also posted photographs of the recent rallies of Amarinder, all picked up from the online editions of various newspapers.

"The creators of these online supports are neither members of the Congress party nor they have any political/personal relations with Captain Amarinder Singh,” said an official of the Congress party attached with the former CM handling his media work.

Meanwhile, it was learnt that the close associates of Captain Singh have recently approached the authorities of the Facebook to deactivate all such ‘fake’ accounts but they are believed to have demanded a written request from Captain Amarinder Singh personally.

The former CM is abroad for the last few weeks and is expected back on Sunday night after which a formal request or complaint would be made to the Facebook authorities to deactivate all the ‘fake’ accounts bearing his name, sources close to him said.

Ferozepur, February 26
In an unprecedented move, two sprawling resorts were razed to the ground after the Defence Estate authorities launched a demolition drive in the local cantonment area with the help of military and the Cantonment Board authorities.

Hundreds of Army personnel and Punjab Police personnel sealed the entire area before the demolition drive was started. Even the media persons and civilians were not allowed to enter the area where the demolition drive was going on. The media persons were allowed to click the photographs only after the demolition exercise was over. The two resorts, namely, Rajan Resort and Star Resort, were pulled down by the authorities concerned.

Ashok Kumar, owner of Rajan Resort, who along with his family members was present while the demolition was going on, alleged that he was never informed by the authorities concerned about the demolition of his resort today. He said he was never served any notice in this connection.

“Though he made repeated pleas to the authorities concerned to stop the demolition, he could not succeed,” claimed Ashok. The Defence Estate authorities alleged that resorts had been demolished as it had come up on the land belonging to the Defence department. The resorts had also been constructed illegally by violating the cantonment norms, they charged.

Amit Kumar, CEO, Cantonment Board, Ferozepur, said the resort owner had been served the notice under section 247,248 of the Cantonment Act 2006 to prevent him from raising the structure, which was followed by a contempt petition in the local court.

The Defence Estate office had also initiated Public Premises Eviction Act proceedings against the alleged illegal construction and subsequently the matter went to the local sessions court also where the court decided the case against the owner by rejecting his plea. The demolition was started after the decision of the court was announced.

Bathinda, February 26
To create a congenial traffic system in the city, Deputy Commissioner Dr S. Karuna Raju along with Senior Superintendent of Police Dr Sukhchain Singh Gill and Commissioner of the Bathinda Municipal Corporation Uma Shanker Gupta today visited various points that witness traffic bottlenecks during the day.

The trio visited various road crossings that remain highly congested throughout the day like the Hanuman chowk, the Fauji chowk, the bus stand chowk and the one near Thermal Colony.

The DC said they had found some dysfunctional poles near the chowks which add to the traffic snarls due to parking of rehris or vehicles there. He said suitable measures would be taken soon to address the problem of traffic congestion in the city so that people don’t have to face inconvenience while walking or driving on roads.

The DC also took a round of the local PRTC bus stand today. He would also meet the general manager of the bus stand to solve the problems that passengers were facing at the bus stand.

Bathinda: Deepak Singhal has taken additional charge as the Chairman and Managing Director of the National Fertilizers Limited (NFL). He has been on the Board of NFL since May 2010. Singhal is a senior IAS officer of the 1982 batch. He is presently Joint Secretary in the Department of Fertilizer, Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers.

He has worked as chairman of the UP Power Corporation and in the departments of industry, taxation and trade. He is also on the Board of several PSUs in fertilizer industry. — TNS

Ferozepur, February 26
On the fourth day of the ongoing Western Command Football Championship, being held here by the Golden Arrow Division, Pine Division crushed Delhi Area team 4 -0. Dil Kumar of the Pine Division scored two goals in the 22nd and 50th minute of the match while the remaining two goals were scored by Dipen Chhetri and Vishal Subu in the third and 40th minutes of the match.

The second match was played between Panther Division and Gurj Division, which remained a draw as both the teams scored two goals against each other. The third match was played between Ram Division and Tiger Division, which also was a drawn affair as each team scored one goal against the other. — TNS